An Outing (2)
"Welcome!"
The place they headed for was the Gukbap Restaurant Hyunsoo frequented. With the proprietress's greeting, they settled into a corner seat by the window.
"Have you ever had gukbap?"
Unaware of Yukino's secret, Hyunsoo asked out of concern for her as a Japanese woman. He'd suggested his favorite restaurant and she'd come along, but still...
Yukino sat down and answered with a bright smile.
"You take that piping-hot broth, fold the rice into it, park a crunchy cube of kkakdugi on top, and eat it all together. Ahhh...!"
He stared at her, floored. Never mind being able to eat it — isn't she better at this than the locals? Absurd as her reaction was, a weight still lifted from his shoulders.
He pressed the call bell, and the owner came over. Recognizing Hyunsoo as a fairly regular customer, she soon blinked at the pretty young woman sitting across from him.
"My goodness. You had a girlfriend this pretty?"
"...What? No. No, I don't!"
"Ahh."
When the owner simply nodded, Hyunsoo let out a sigh of relief — but what came next was almost too much to take.
"Look at me~. You said you had a daughter, too. The new wife's so pretty~!"
"Eh. Thank you?"
Watching Yukino offer her thanks with that vacant expression, he didn't even have the energy left to protest.
"Two bowls of gukbap, then?"
"...Yes."
"Just a moment~"
He had no idea why the auntie was in such high spirits. And he didn't particularly want to know.
Watching the owner hum her way back into the kitchen, Yukino turned to Hyunsoo with a question.
"That lady thought watashi was Master's kanojo, didn't she?"
Even without knowing much Japanese, it wasn't hard to guess what kanojo meant from context. Then again, Yukino wasn't a fool, and her Korean was fluent — there was no way she hadn't understood.
"I'm sorry. Dragging you into something with a guy like me..."
"No. It's fine."
What? What did she mean, it's fine?
Did she just mean she didn't particularly care, so they should let it go? And if that wasn't it...
"And the age gap between us isn't that big, is it? Or is it?"
"That's true. I'm still in my twenties. ...Though not for much longer."
"See! It's not like we're more than ten years apart. Couples have this kind of age difference all the time!"
She kept casually catching him like this.
Of course she was only saying it simply, without any particular meaning behind it — so why did it keep snagging, little by little, on his heart?
Is it because I have feelings for her that I'm taking it that way?
"Two bowls of gukbap. It's hot, so take your time~ You eat plenty too, miss~!"
"Hehe. Thank you!"
"Aigoo, how can she be this sweet and lovely. She's too good for you!"
Well, of course Yukino is too good for me.
He was a single dad staring down his thirties.
She gazed at the steaming bowl of gukbap with sparkling eyes.
Even that looked so beautiful it couldn't just be rose-tinted glasses. Surely any man would feel the same?
"Itadakimasu!"
Watching her blow on a spoonful to cool it before eating, Hyunsoo started on his own gukbap.
"Mmm, oishii~ There's a reason Master's a regular!"
"Well, the biggest reason is the bang for your buck, but yeah, it is good."
"Can you make gukbap, Master?"
"Gukbap is hard to make at home. Unless you buy the broth, maybe."
"I was just thinking while eating this — it wouldn't be so bad to try gukbap for the next lesson...!"
The next lesson.
Come to think of it, as her way of addressing him made perfectly clear, the two of them were bound in that peculiar relationship of teacher and student.
A chance meeting, and a dinner he had treated her to. That day, at her suggestion, he had started teaching her to cook whenever he had time.
Thinking about it that way, it finally hit him.
A friendly next-door neighbor. A home-cooking teacher. The dad of the cute girl next door.
That was all the feeling she held for him. That was the extent of it.
And what about Hyunsoo?
Even if he really had developed romantic feelings for Yukino, the odds were high it was only because of her beautiful face.
Could a love born of nothing more than that ever run its proper course?
Hyunsoo's thoughts were pessimistic.
He had a family he was responsible for. A daughter more precious than anything in the world, someone he would not trade for anything.
He didn't have the leisure to be dating right now. He was working so hard he couldn't even go pick his daughter up — how was he supposed to carve out still more time?
"Master?"
"...Yes?"
"Is something wrong? You suddenly zoned out."
"Ah, it's nothing. Let's eat."
Hyunsoo buried his head in the earthenware bowl and focused only on eating his gukbap.
So he wouldn't look at Yukino's face across from him and start thinking strange thoughts.
Man, this is gukbap!
After so long, one hearty bowl of gukbap and my insides felt properly full!
I patted my happily stuffed belly and offered Master my thanks.
"Thank you for treating me to lunch!"
"Haha, I should be the one thanking you. You came along even though I asked out of nowhere."
"Oh, please~ A favor that small is nothing between us."
We're partners, aren't we! I recited the recently trendy catchphrase to myself and beamed.
But then I saw Master suddenly look away the moment he saw my face.
Why?
I was puzzled by the inexplicable reaction — and then it hit me.
Oh my god...!
If I weren't even a little bit perceptive, I never would have noticed!
There was chili powder stuck in my teeth!!
I hurriedly set about getting the chili powder out.
I'd shown Master something embarrassing...
How hard must it have been for him, turning his head and trying not to laugh. And I, not knowing a thing, had just been grinning like an idiot. I was mortified.
"Ahem. Shall we get going, then."
To the very end, Master coughed once and spoke as if he hadn't noticed a thing.
What time is it? I checked the clock — 12:30. Still about thirty minutes left.
"Um... would you like to go to a cafe? Coffee's on watashi!"
To be precise, I was buying it with the hundred thousand won I'd just gotten from Master, but I was the one paying, so it wasn't a lie, right?
"Ah, coffee...?"
Trailing off as if it were inconvenient, Master checked his wristwatch, hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"Sure. Though I can't stay long — I have to prep for a meeting."
"Then let's hurry! ...But which cafe should we go to? Watashi doesn't know this area at all."
"Let's go to the one across the street."
When we went in, the cafe was packed even though it was a weekday. Judging by their clothes, they all looked like office workers who'd slipped out on their lunch break for coffee.
...I'm the only unemployed one here. Hmph.
"What would you like?"
"I'll have an iced americano."
"Oh..."
An adult's palate, I guess. I can't drink americano — it's too bitter.
Especially since the TS, I don't even want to touch a drink unless it's sweet.
Which is why I picked a chocolate smoothie.
"That'll be 9,500 won~"
"N-nine thousand five hundred won... Yes..."
Expensive. Way more expensive than I thought!
Of course the americano was 3,500 and my chocolate smoothie was 6,000, so I couldn't really complain.
What kind of drink costs the same as a bowl of gukbap. Something is seriously wrong here.
After paying with trembling hands, we sat by the window and drank our orders.
"Hmmmm~"
I was lost in the sweetness spreading through my mouth after a sip through the straw when I heard a snort of laughter from across the table and looked over.
Master, who'd been watching me quietly, had laughed at me!
"N-nani...?"
"Sorry. You were enjoying it so much I couldn't help myself..."
"I just can't resist anything sweet. ...So don't laugh at me. It's embarrassing..."
When I tacked that last part on out of embarrassment, Master stared at me blankly for a while, then suddenly called my name.
"Yukino."
"Yes?"
"Do you have a boyfriend, by any chance?"
"...What?"
What? Why this completely out-of-nowhere question?
I couldn't follow the thread of the conversation. We'd clearly just been talking about how the chocolate smoothie tasted — why had the topic suddenly jumped to dating?
But well, maybe he'd just gotten curious, and it wasn't particularly uncomfortable, so I answered honestly.
"No. I don't?"
As if that was all he'd wanted to know, Master said nothing after that.
Having the conversation cut off so awkwardly felt like getting interrupted in the middle of taking a dump.
I couldn't find anything to say either, so I just quietly sucked on my straw.
Ah, delicious.
I was staring blankly out the window at the people bustling along the street when I suddenly shot up from my seat in shock.
"Ah!"
"...What's wrong?"
"N-no. It's nothing."
My eyes kept chasing one person outside the window.
"Yukino?"
"...Master, I think I have to go first! Thank you for today. See you next time!!"
I hurriedly said goodbye so I wouldn't lose her and slipped out of the cafe. The time was almost up anyway, so Master would have had to get up soon himself — it should be fine.
This was more important right now.
I came out onto the street and looked around for a long time before I finally found her.
At the end of my gaze, a woman was walking somewhere in a hurry.
What do I do now...?
The hesitation didn't last long. I immediately started following her, careful not to be seen.
I couldn't understand it.
Why on earth was Mother here.