Temptation Failed
The movie was superb. When Little Magician Rumi finally crushed the villains with magic at the very end, a fierce rush of pleasure climbed up from low in my body. Now that was Rumi.
"Bora, the movie was fun, wasn't it?"
"Ugh... y-yeah. It was fun."
Bora sounded, somehow, like someone who hadn't watched it at all. Every time I brought up an important scene, she answered that she couldn't quite remember. She didn't seem able to focus on the movie. Then again, every time I glanced her way, our eyes did meet.
Wondering if I had something on my face, I checked the restroom mirror on the way out of the theater, but nothing was smeared there. There was, however, a bit of popcorn hull stuck in my teeth—probably from eating too much of it.
Once the movie was over, I was starving. The street food earlier had filled me up, but I was still growing, and it only took a little time for my stomach to empty out again.
"Bora, I'm hungry!"
"Yeah? Then I guess it'll have to be just the two of us, going out to eat."
"Yeah!"
Bora took my hand, and we wandered among the restaurants inside the cinema.
"How about this place, Hana?"
"Mehhh..."
She seemed to be trying to get me whatever I wanted. But none of the restaurants were what I wanted. Every one of them sold nothing but things I didn't like. At this rate, I would have been better off going back to the research institute and eating at the cafeteria there.
Then a restaurant caught my eye.
"Bora, over there! Let's go there!"
It was a place with delicious tonkatsu. Tonkatsu was always the right answer—a cheat code that handed you the best possible choice in moments when you just couldn't decide.
"Okay, okay."
I took Bora's hand and went inside. Once we sat down, I picked up the menu and sank into deep thought, because every single dish on it looked worth eating. I could feel decision paralysis coming on.
The menu had dozens of kinds of tonkatsu. If there had only been a few, choosing would have been easy, but with so many the dilemma only got worse.
"Urghhh..."
Leaving even one of them uneaten felt like a terrible waste. Cheese tonkatsu was good, and spicy tonkatsu was good too... And, as they say, the end of all tuning is stock—plain tonkatsu was just as good.
Eating the exact same tonkatsu every single day would have been disrespectful to tonkatsu itself, so I fell into the enormous dilemma of having to choose between the cheese and the spicy.
"Hmm..."
I frowned, deep in the throes of decision paralysis. If it was going to be like this, what if Bora got the spicy tonkatsu and I got the cheese? To taste both, there was no other choice.
"Bora! Which tonkatsu are you getting?"
Still, the proper way was to hear her out before ordering. Just because I wanted something didn't mean I had any obligation to force a different cutlet on her. Bora listened, then answered.
"I'll have the spicy tonkatsu. You can get the cheese, right?"
Bora really was the best. She neatly untangled the exact knot I'd been struggling with. I smiled and nodded. If she ate the spicy and I ate the cheese, every problem was simply solved.
"Yeah!!!"
And so Bora ordered both kinds from the server. I set out the utensils with virtuous care, and poured the water too. Surely there was no one in the world more polite and well-behaved than me. Bora must have been moved by my sincerity, because she took out her phone and photographed me arranging the utensils and the water.
"Ahem!"
Swept up in my own triumph, I raised both hands and flashed a V. Bora seemed so impressed by the sight that she covered her mouth with one hand and devoted the other to earnestly snapping pictures of me.
I didn't know why, but raising both hands in a V always got a good reaction. This body wasn't merely a little cute. It was overwhelmingly cute. If more children like me came along, wouldn't Korea's birth rate shoot straight up?
Anyway, Bora kept photographing me, and before long the tonkatsu arrived. I picked up my knife and fork and started cutting at tremendous speed, desperate to see the luscious insides of the cheese tonkatsu.
"Hyah! Hyah!"
Putting some fighting spirit into it made the cutlet feel like it sliced better. Bora seemed to smile a little at the sight of me, but I carved on with a grim, solemn heart.
"Whoa!"
The moment the knife split it open, the hidden heart of the cheese tonkatsu was revealed. Watching that cheese stretch and stretch, my mouth watered from the sight alone. Faced with a cutlet that seemed to be tempting me—eat me—I couldn't hold back.
I stabbed the tonkatsu with my fork and popped a piece into my mouth. It was a little hot, but bearable. As I munched away, the fantastic taste of tonkatsu swirled through my mouth, and my eyes flew wide open. It was that delicious.
Bora watched me, broke into a pleased smile, and started cutting the tonkatsu in front of her. Unlike me, she sliced with elegance.
Should I have cut it like that too...
I had the nagging sense that I'd lost my dignity to appetite. Didn't I look exactly like a kid getting worked up because delicious food had arrived? Grinning from ear to ear as I hacked into cheese tonkatsu, I might as well have been an elementary schooler. And I was a proper adult man.
Pride duly cracked, I refused to repeat the mistake and ate with the most dignified posture I could manage. I didn't forget to sneak bites of Bora's tonkatsu now and then, either. It was spicy, but it had a flavor all its own. Eating only one menu would have left me regretting it; eating two put me in a wonderful mood.
Never even noticing that the people around us were watching, I vacuumed up the tonkatsu.
Stomach nicely full, I set off down the street in high spirits. I had the feeling I'd forgotten something, but it was probably fine—because I felt this good right now!
Along the way, a machine snagged my eye. I took Bora's hand and went over to it. It was a prize machine packed with delicious candy and every kind of snack: you grabbed the snacks with a claw, then a pusher shoved them out for you to claim.
So many people had already tried that the platform was piled high with snacks. I studied it, eyes shining. One good grab, and I could walk away with a whole fistful.
"Bora, I want to do this!"
"It doesn't look easy. You sure you'll be okay?"
"Obviously!"
At that, Bora drew a bill from her wallet and fed it into the machine. A cheerful song started up, and the claw began to move. The machine was on.
I steered the claw this way and that, hunting for the spot with the most snacks. With a pusher machine like this, what mattered was grabbing the bulky ones—the ones there were lots of.
The moment I decided I was close enough, I hit the button.
"Yah!"
To a bright little tune, the claw dropped. It spread wide, then snapped shut and scooped up a heap of snacks. I let out a cheer. The feeling was good.
Back in its original spot, the claw dumped everything it had grabbed.
"Whoa!"
A huge mass of snacks shoved forward and down. I stuck my hand into the chute where they came out. One grab of the claw, and I had a whole handful. To think a machine this efficient existed in the world... The world was still a beautiful place.
Bora produced a bag from somewhere, and I stuffed the snacks inside. Holding that bulging bag, my mood lifted all on its own. Thinking about eating them once I got home, I felt like I could fly.
For just a moment, though, I had the sense that there was something I was supposed to do.
Why did we come downtown again?
"Hana, over there! Let's go over there!"
Just as the thought was about to surface, Bora pointed somewhere and spoke. I followed her gaze, and there was a magnificent sight.
"Wow!"
A dinosaur was alive and moving. A dinosaur that looked terrifying just to behold was lumbering along the street, a flyer clutched in its stubby hands. It was probably trying to advertise how terrifying it was.
Like someone under a spell, I walked toward the moving dinosaur. It wasn't as good as the dinosaur plush back home, but a dinosaur that big, and of that quality, was a rare sight. I played with it to my heart's content.
"What a fun day!"
Bora walked me back to my room, then returned to the office. But the moment she was gone, a thought flashed through my head.
Oh no! I never talked about Rumi!
"Waaah!"
The Rumi poster that had slipped away shimmered before my eyes.