The Most Difficult Person in the World
Leehyun had prepared several alternative itineraries for our date, just in case the weather suddenly turned sour or I ended up disliking her choices. At the same time, she seemed worried that her meticulous planning might make me feel burdened. Leaning too far toward any extreme could easily become exhausting, after all.
"I felt like I messed up last time, so I really wanted to make up for it today," she said, mentioning that she was naturally the type who liked to plan everything out in advance.
I already knew that about her. In my eyes, Leehyun was someone driven by a strong desire to achieve, constantly challenging herself to accomplish new things.
"It's completely fine. Please don't worry about it."
"Yeah... Still, I was afraid it might feel like too much pressure."
"You only did it because you wanted things to go well. If anything, I'm grateful you put so much thought into it."
I reassured her in a calm, steady tone, adding that I hoped she could keep a lighter heart whenever she met up with me. She seemed to find me intimidating—or at least difficult to deal with.
"Look over there. That cafe has parking."
Spotting a cafe along the roadside, our conversation paused for a moment. While she maneuvered into a parking spot, I pulled a small box out of my bag.
"All done," she murmured, shifting into park.
"This is a gift for you."
"Huh? A gift? Out of nowhere?"
I held out the gift box I had wrapped myself. Leehyun stared at it, eyes wide with utter shock, looking at the little red ribbon as if it were tied around a live explosive.
"I got my paycheck," I explained. "And my channel payout came in too. So..."
"Ah... you even got something for me?"
"Yes. It's nothing grand. Go ahead, open it."
Her expression brimming with emotion, she carefully peeled away the wrapping. Inside was a car air freshener. I couldn't be entirely sure if she'd like the scent, but I'd picked a design that I felt matched her car—at least by my standards.
"Jeongseo..."
She looked at me with an expression eerily similar to the one my mother had made.
"How's the scent? Do you like it? If you don't, I can exchange it."
"I love it. I hadn't gotten around to buying an air freshener yet anyway... How did you even think of this?"
"There's one more thing. It's an odor eliminator spray. It's made with natural ingredients, so it's completely safe to spray around."
I retrieved a spray bottle from my bag. I hadn't bothered wrapping this one.
"I'm... I'm so deeply touched..."
Leehyun tilted her head back, her eyes wide, before waving a hand in front of her face to fan away the moisture gathering in the corners of her reddening eyes.
"Noona?"
It really wasn't grand enough to warrant tears. Following my mother and the Boss, having Leehyun react like this too left me feeling slightly bewildered.
"Ah, what is wrong with me? I'm not usually like this..."
I supposed she was just that happy.
Once Leehyun calmed down, we stepped inside the cafe, bought our drinks, took care of what we needed to, and returned to the car. As the vehicle rolled back into motion, I brought up what she had said earlier.
"Noona."
"Yeah?"
"What did you mean earlier when you said you made a mistake last time?"
"Well... when we went to that Multi-Room..."
"Yes?"
"Thinking back on it afterward, I felt like it was in poor taste."
It wasn't as if we had gone somewhere forbidden. Leehyun had chosen the Multi-Room because of the anime I had mentioned wanting to watch. Yet places like Multi-Rooms and DVD rooms had a reputation for being spots where women made shameless advances on men. It seemed especially common among younger students.
Leehyun admitted as much with total candor, confessing that she, too, had harbored ulterior motives.
"Ah, it's fine. I told you back then that I didn't mind."
"You did. But I'm an adult. It didn't sit right with me."
She insisted that she should have handled herself with more maturity and sophistication. Displaying only her unvarnished desires had left her feeling thoroughly embarrassed.
"I laid everything bare to you right from the start, didn't I, Jeongseo?"
"You did."
"When I put myself in your shoes, though, I realized how wrong that was."
"I prefer people who are honest, though."
"Ah, that's not what I mean. Um... from your perspective, it could easily seem like I was only after your body."
In a sense, I was the one who had lured her in with my body. I had leveraged women's sexual desires to satisfy my own urges. Not that I had put in extraordinary effort or done anything particularly dramatic, but the reactions of the cafe's patrons, the posts I saw online, and above all, the auto-filtered messages during my livestreams had made me acutely aware of the value my appearance held.
One viewer had even typed, Just looking at your face gets me wet. It certainly wasn't because there was something medically wrong with her.
So I had never once thought it was wrong for Leehyun to express her desires so openly. If anything, watching women grow desperate over me was something I found genuinely amusing.
"It's completely natural for a woman to be physically drawn to a man," she said.
"Yes."
"But I don't believe that should be everything."
Though my question had flustered her at first, all hesitation vanished as she spoke with earnest conviction.
"We texted back and forth, went on dates, and I watched your streams, Jeongseo."
"Right."
"And the more I learned about you, the deeper I fell. I wanted our relationship to be something much more serious."
A woman's libido and Leehyun's peculiar inclinations—she had confessed before that those alone left her with no choice but to cling to me. But right now, she wasn't talking about raw instinct.
"Ah, I don't mean that I ever took you lightly at first," she clarified.
"I know. I never took it that way."
"Um... to put it simply, I'm trying to appeal to you. To show you what a good woman I can be. To ask you to choose me."
"Pardon?"
"Our society inevitably revolves around competition. In so many ways. Especially when it comes to women competing to win over a man—it's brutally fierce. To the point where women who give up on dating altogether make up... what percent was it again? Anyway, a lot."
Relationship dynamics in this world were completely different from my past life. That was what she was driving at.
"So naturally, I should have consistently shown you my best side, but instead I threw a tantrum like an unsightly brat, only caring about my own desires."
"I never thought of you that way, though."
"That's because you're... how should I put this... a bit more lenient than other men? Yeah. You're unusually forgiving toward women."
Leehyun hit the nail on the head. Retaining memories of my past life, I was distinctly different from the ordinary men raised in this world.
"Still, that doesn't mean I should take advantage of that kindness."
"So what you're saying is that you just want things to go well between us, right?"
"In the end, that's what it boils down to... Yeah, exactly. I want to make a good impression. I want to build a deeper bond with you."
I understood what she meant. Everything she said next laid out her intention to forge a genuine, lasting relationship with me. She spoke of wanting to prove her virtues, showing just how dedicated she was willing to be, and how prepared she was to change herself for my sake.
She truly had a way with words.
"Earlier, you told me to just relax and take it easy when we're on dates, right?"
"Yes."
"I was so grateful for those words. But I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because to me, Jeongseo, you're the most difficult person in the entire world."
Thump.
My heart pounded against my ribs.
Leehyun kept stoking my primal urges. A possessive obsession surged within me, screaming at me to claim her right here and now.
"I haven't lived an exceptionally long life, but there's one thing I've learned along the way."
"..."
I listened in silence, reining in the dark impulse rearing its head inside me.
"When someone treats you well, you have to treat them even better. Whether it's a friend, family, or a lover."
"Whew... I see."
"You aren't prickly or difficult like typical men... no, that's poor phrasing. You probably don't realize just how well you treat me, Jeongseo. But I do, don't I?"
I drew a quiet breath.
The thought I'd had before crossed my mind once more: even if I showed a woman the slightest sliver of kindness, she would act as if she'd pluck out her own heart and liver for me.
A massive portion of that was undoubtedly due to my appearance. My face must have heavily influenced Leehyun's feelings as well.
Yet there was another reason.
A point of comparison existed.
Compared to the men native to this world, I possessed an abundance of charm and appeal that went far beyond mere physical beauty.
"That's why you're the most difficult person in the world to me."
Like a deer willingly offering its throat to the tiger's jaws.
Like a bar of pure gold abandoned on the road.
Leehyun was tempting me in that very manner. If this was her calculated strategy, I would have commended her on a brilliant play.
"Mm... I guess I rambled a bit off track."
"Not at all."
"Anyway, the point is: that's why I prepared so hard for today's date! But then you went and moved me to tears instead... Now I don't even know what more I can do."
As we chatted, our car had wound its way into a mountain path. It was a narrow, two-lane road. As the vehicle climbed the incline, my body leaned back naturally against the seat.
"Noona."
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for being honest with me."
"No, I should be sorry. Talk like this must still feel burdensome to you. I feel like I might've accelerated way too fast."
Ahead of us, the road stretched through a canopy of trees, the crest meeting the open sky. The uphill climb seemed to be nearing its summit.
"It really isn't burdensome at all. And like you said, I do have parts of me that are different from other men."
"Yeah? You know that?"
"I do. And like you said, when someone treats you well, you should treat them even better. That goes for me too."
After a deep breath, I managed to quell the turbulent urge swelling within me. Just as Leehyun had laid her heart bare, I offered her a glimpse of my honest feelings.
"Noona, thank you for feeling that way, and thank you for telling me so honestly. I... really enjoy being with you."
"Really?"
"Yes. I don't feel burdened at all. So please, don't ever think you did something wrong."
At my words, a brilliant, radiant smile bloomed across her face. We reached the crest of the hill.
"Thank you for saying that. It makes me so happy... and so fulfilled."
Waiting for us at the top was a long, sweeping road. Because it dipped into a gentle downward slope, the scenery stretched out into the distance, visible in a single glance.
"I'll treat you even better from now on!" she vowed, her voice full of spirited resolve.
"Me too. I'll treat you well too."
I echoed her sentiment. Hearing my answer, Leehyun couldn't hold back her laughter.
"No, stop! Don't treat me any better than this! If you do, my heart's going to burst!"
I watched her laugh joyfully for a moment before turning my gaze back to the windshield. Stretching all the way to a distant vanishing point, trees lined both sides of the road, arching over to form a tunnel.
"Whoa... this is gorgeous. Should we roll down the windows?"
"Yes. It's really beautiful."
Cherry blossoms.
Breathing in the crisp, refreshing air, we glided beneath a tunnel of cherry blossom trees woven from white and soft pink petals.
"Mmm~ I'm so glad we came here!"
Leehyun hummed a cheerful little tune. Watching her, I took another slow breath.
Still, now isn't the right time, I told myself.
Little did I know that my resolve would be completely overturned within a single day.