Daily Life (1)
Before we knew it, July had arrived, and a few small changes had crept into our daily lives. First, Yeonhee and I had come to an agreement about our commute to school.
Back then, Yeonhee used to get up even earlier than I did, just so she could come all the way to my apartment and match my early schedule. These days, I was the one getting up even earlier so I could go to her place instead.
Looking back on it now, we'd been heading out unnecessarily early. When I told her I'd come pick her up so she could sleep in a little, she insisted on coming to my apartment instead, and we went back and forth about it for quite a while.
"I'll wait for you out in front of your place."
"Nnh, I'll come to the apartment like I used to."
"You've come all this way plenty of times already. Starting tomorrow, I'll go to you."
"Then I'll just get there first and wait."
I won that long, drawn-out standoff in the end. Call it old-fashioned if you want, but this is the kind of thing the guy should be doing. Besides, getting up early was already a habit of mine. Yeonhee, on the other hand, might not even be a morning person, and I'd have felt bad making her get up that early every single day.
So today I got up later than I used to, and stood waiting against the wall beside her front gate for her to come out.
Every so often her mother would step outside, and we'd exchange a few greetings. Each time, she'd tell me to come inside and wait, but her father would still be home in the mornings, and I was terrified of walking into something I shouldn't, so I firmly declined every time.
And it wasn't as if I waited long anyway — never more than ten minutes. I'd told her she could take her time coming out, but the moment I started waiting, the door would swing open and she'd come bursting through.
Just like right now.
"I'm heading out~"
"Morning."
When I offered my usual morning greeting, she spotted me standing by the wall, hurried over in little quick steps, and threw her arms around me — looking for all the world like a puppy welcoming its owner home from work.
She buried her face in my chest, still holding on tight, and started sniffing me over and over.
"What are you doing...?"
"Restocking."
Restocking what, exactly, by smelling me? She had me laughing first thing in the morning.
"We're going to be together at school all day anyway. Do you really need to do this right now?"
"Can't do it at school. There's a smell you only have in the morning."
Is there really?
"There is."
Apparently so.
I lowered my head and took a whiff of the crown of Yeonhee's head, which was right there in front of me. I drew in a long, deep breath, and felt her shoulders give a little jolt in my arms.
She does smell nice.
She must have just washed her hair; a lavender scent rose up. When I glanced slightly to the side, I could see her ears had gone red.
"Pervert..."
Hey, you were the one sniffing me and saying I smelled good. When I do it, I'm a pervert...? And she was still sniffing even after saying that. There was even a little cowlick sticking up from the top of her head, swaying.
"Anyway, why'd you come out so early?"
We still had a few minutes before the time we'd agreed on. What if I hadn't been here yet?
"I just had a feeling you'd be here, so I came out to check. And you were."
"......"
What kind of feeling is that, exactly. At this rate, she'll be able to pinpoint my location with nothing at all.
That's a little creepy when I think about it.
I shoved the useless thought aside. Time had passed, and we needed to get going, so I peeled Yeonhee off me — she'd been nuzzling her face against mine.
"That's enough. Let's go before we're late."
"So what if we're a little late~"
Even if our homeroom teacher is lazy, you're not supposed to be like that... Watching a girl who used to be so diligent and well-liked by the teachers, so trusted, acting like this just because she had a boyfriend — I felt a little conflicted.
Did I ruin her?
Probably not. Judging by how she acts, she'd be like this no matter who her boyfriend was. Why would a girl this smitten go looking for a fake boyfriend in the first place.
"If you like me this much, how did you even break up with your ex?"
"Huh? I don't have an ex."
She's even lying to spare my feelings. What a kind girlfriend. I wouldn't have been upset even if she had one.
"Don't lie."
"I'm not lying...?"
......Is she serious.
"You really never had even one?"
"That's what I'm saying. You're my first, Juyeong."
That's surprising.
As I was thinking that, Yeonhee narrowed her eyes and stared right at me.
"What? What's with that look like you find it weird? Did you think I was going around dating every guy I met?"
"......"
I can't think anything in front of this girl. Even if people's thoughts show on their faces, how does she read me this accurately.
"It's not like that... Objectively speaking, you're pretty, and you said you've gotten a lot of confessions, so I figured there's no way you'd never dated anyone..."
"What? If that were the case, I wouldn't have gone looking for a fake boyfriend. I would've just found a real one and gone out with him."
She had a point. I felt like an idiot for thinking otherwise. Another thing learned about her today.
"So you'd better treat me well. Got it?"
As if I haven't been. I've been trying to treat her well as it is, but hearing her say it out loud was so funny I laughed internally.
"You just laughed at me in your head."
"Wh-what? No I didn't?"
She knows that too? I stammered in panic. That must have been answer enough, because her eyes grew sharper by the second. I got the feeling that if I didn't run, I was in danger.
I tried to sidestep, taking a small step to the side, but I couldn't go any farther. She already had a hold of my right arm. And then, all of a sudden, she opened her mouth wide—
"Aaang!"
"Aagh! That really hurts! I'm sorry!!!"
She bit down on my arm with everything she had.
"You admit you were wrong?"
"......Yes."
I rolled up my sleeve, looked down at my arm, and answered. She'd bitten so hard that even through the fabric, the teeth marks were clearly visible.
The guys we passed on the way to school would normally have been glaring daggers at me, but one look at my face and my arm and they averted their eyes instead.
Hey, you there — why are you looking at me with those pitying eyes? This is a reward not just anyone gets, you know?
If I didn't think of it that way, I was going to feel genuinely pathetic.
"......Did you have to bite that hard?"
"You should count yourself lucky I went that easy on you."
This is going easy, apparently. The marks on my arm were clear enough that you could take a dental impression from them. If she hadn't gone easy, I might've actually bled. The thought sent a chill through me.
I kept rubbing my arm, and she must have felt a little bad about biting me, because she started glancing over. Then she carefully opened her mouth.
"Um... does it hurt a lot?"
This is clearly my own fault, so why is she worrying about me. Plenty of time had passed since the bite, and it didn't even hurt that much. All I had to do was say "I'm fine" and that'd be the end of it.
They say people in love start to resemble each other. I think a lot of Yeonhee's mischievous streak has rubbed off on me.
"No... I'm fine..."
So I put on an extremely dejected face and said it in a small, quiet voice. Saying I was fine with my words while looking like a rain-soaked puppy — Operation Sympathy.
It worked perfectly. Yeonhee started fidgeting, wringing her fingers, looking restless. This teasing was so satisfying I started thinking about what to pull next, when something seemed to occur to her and she looked at me.
I pretended not to notice and kept staring down at my arm. A moment later her lips parted, and she spoke in a tiny voice.
"......?!"
What on earth did she just say......!
"Cough! Cough!"
The sudden remark hit my ears, I startled so hard I swallowed wrong, and I started choking.
"Cough! Cough!"
I had a lot of questions, but I was so shocked the coughing wouldn't stop, and I couldn't get a word out. With me coughing away beside her, a flustered Yeonhee hurriedly came over and started patting my back.
"A-are you okay......?"
"Cough! No, cough! I'm not, cough! ah...!"
By the time the coughing stopped, beads of sweat had formed on my forehead. The coughing had stopped, but the aftereffects still left my nasal passages stinging.
"Haa... what even was that......"
"I heard guys like it when you say that to them when they're in a bad mood......"
She's not wrong, but for me it's too much for my heart. Hear it twice and I'd die of a heart attack.
If a guy could hear something like that and hold back, he'd either be a eunuch or too much of a pathetic loser to take what's offered. But I'm neither a eunuch nor a loser. I have no idea if every girl actually says things like that to soothe their boyfriends, but if a guy heard it and still didn't put his hands on her, that just means his self-control is superhuman.
Like me, for instance.
I interrogated her with a piercing look, wanting to know who had taught my girlfriend a line that reckless.
"Where did you get that information."
She kept her mouth shut under my questioning, but before long she couldn't take the pressure and spilled it in a small voice.
"Naeun......"
I need to bump Kim Naeun's threat level in my mental rankings.
Maybe because I'd just heard those words, my eyes kept drifting toward that particular area. Men really are pitiful creatures. And Yeonhee, who'd always been sensitive about being stared at, of course noticed. Her face flushed red as she fixed her gaze on the ground.
I shook my head vigorously, trying to snap myself out of it.
Haa... at times like this I wish my brain were detachable so I could just take the thoughts out.
Laden with an awkwardness I hadn't felt in a long time, we headed straight to school.