Chapter 28: Overflowing Heart(10)

A clumsy slapstick.

An expression that somehow seemed tense.

Something felt a little different from the usual Yu-ah, and I felt strange.

“Let’s go out? Where?”

Why do you say let’s go out so solemnly?

Just say something like, “Let’s meet next week.”

Like when we made plans to drink.

If we just called on the day, I would go.

That’s how we usually made plans.

Don’t normal friends make plans like that?

Just like when you text, “Hey, PC room, okay?” and she’ll say, “Okay.”

“Uh… That… I haven’t thought about it yet…”

When I asked her, Yu-ah seemed flustered and answered.

Let’s just go out without even knowing where we’re going?

I was flustered because it was my first time seeing her.

Yu-ah usually didn’t say things like that.

Even if she made a suggestion, she had somewhere she wanted to go first, so it felt like she was taking me with her.

It was like … she just wanted to be with me, so she wanted to go out.

The place doesn’t matter, and she just wants to spend time with me…

That’s impossible…

That was the first thought that came to my mind.

Is she really lonely these days?

It was the same when we were at the gym last time, and it’s the same now.

I noticed her movements as if she was trying to make contact with me.

When I thought about it, it made sense.

Yu-ah didn’t have a wide circle of friends, but she took a leave of absence from school and focused on broadcasting.

I thought her already small circle of relationships might have been severed.

If it weren’t for me, there wouldn’t be many people she would meet now.

Of course, she would have colleagues in the same class, but that’s more or less a business relationship.

If she were stuck in the corner of her house every day, broadcasting and working, it would be lonely.

That’s right.

That’s when you need to embrace her warmly.

“Yes, yes, Yu-ah. That’s possible. These days, young people are dying alone. Isn’t it a lonely time for everyone? Right?”

I told her in a voice like a pastor, as if I understood everything.

I thought my broad understanding was my strong point.

But her reaction was a little different from what I expected.

“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Even if you’re starving from loneliness, you shouldn’t follow someone you don’t know just because they’re nice to you, right? You get it?”

“So why have I become a lonely, starving young man since a while ago?”

“Huh? I wasn’t?”

“No… It’s not like I don’t feel lonely at all… But I wasn’t starving that much, was I?”

What the.

If not, then what on earth did you just say?

“Then why are you talking about meeting up and hanging out so eloquently? It’s awkward between us. We don’t have a destination.”

“As if it doesn’t really matter where we go as long as we’re together?”

“… Ahem.”

Yu-ah coughs in embarrassment as if something has hurt her.

I open my mouth and joke with her like I usually do.

“Or are you asking me out on a date? That’s not going to happen, is it?”

I asked, anticipating her reaction.

She’d be annoyed at me for saying no and being overly self-conscious, right?

While waiting for that, I looked at her for a moment…

“…..”

Why aren’t you saying anything?

If this were normal, I would have denied it by screaming until my eardrums were about to burst?

It’s strange.

No matter how I look at it, it’s strange.

Did I miss the timing to speak because I was distracted?

“…What is it? Why aren’t you talking?”

Yu-ah couldn’t raise her head.

Her gaze was still directed at the floor.

She didn’t look up, as if she had found a 50,000 won bill that had fallen on the floor.

There was a moment of silence, and a single word came out of Yu-ah’s lips in a very small voice.

“……Yeah. That’s right. It’s a date request. What do you want?”

???????

Question marks filled my head.

If it was a chat window, I might have just spammed it with question marks.

… What on earth did I just hear?

I closed my eyes because it didn’t feel real, and then opened them again.

However, I was still in reality, not in a virtual space.

I thought I was having a flirtation with Yu-ah in my dream.

It seemed like even I, a country girl, wouldn’t have such fantasized fantasies.

“What, why are you looking at me like that? Do you find it hard for me to ask her out?”

Her eyes were shut coldly, as if she was embarrassed.

Her fingers were twitching.

Her feet were trembling with anxiety.

Her tone was fierce, but unlike Yu-ah’s usual self, she was full of anger.

… Is this Yu-ah?

Is this in front of me?

For a moment, her embarrassed appearance didn’t match her usual self at all.

And more than that, the sudden expression of interest made me dizzy.

No.

Calm down, Ji-bin.

There’s only one thing I can think of here.

When I used my excellent brain to run various simulations and inferences.

The reason yu-ah was acting like this was narrowed down to one.

“Hey. yu-ah.”

“What.”

Yes.

That strange reaction.

As expected, it was certain.

There was no way my inference was wrong.

Because there was no way that Yu-ah would like me.

She’s never shown any signs of it.

“…Are you after my body?”

If you ask someone you don’t even like out on a date,

there’s no other way than going after their body, right?

As I said that, I wrapped my arms around my body as if protecting it.

I needed to protect my virginity from the pervert who was after my body.

No, I’d already lost my virginity.

Damn it.

Yu-ah shouted with a look of bewilderment.

“What the hell are you talking about! Don’t ruin the mood when someone is talking seriously!”

“What? Wasn’t I? You’re using a date as an excuse to go after my body?”

“No way! Oh…what are you talking about to a brat like that? The hell…Ahhh.”

Yu-ah sat down on the floor with a desperate face.

Her legs really seemed to have lost their strength because of my nonsense.

What the.

This isn’t right…?

Then, my clear mind could only think of one thing.

“…Then did you have s*x with me? Is that why you suddenly liked me?”

“You crazy bastard! What do you think of me as?”

“A pervert who’s crazy about men’s bodies?”

No, right?

No, that’s not true.

***

In the end, I said something and got out.

I was walking fast, and when I turned the corner, I ran away from her in a hurry.

I pretended to be calm, but I wasn’t calm at all.

There was no way I, who was already a bird, would be okay in this situation.

“…I said I knew.”

I said we’d talk about the real deal over the phone and ran away.

It would have been better to talk non-face-to-face.

I asked her, “So where do you want to go on a date?” right then and there.

I wasn’t a man who was easygoing.

To be honest, I was curious about the reason.

But asking, “Why are you doing this?” right then and there was something more annoying than asking, “Can I kiss you?” before kissing.

“Why are you asking me out on a date?”

Rani.

It was worse than asking, “Why do you like me?”

She’s not a character from an anime.

Unlike 2D, I realized that in reality, you don’t need a big reason to like someone.

Just like there are many women who like me just by looking at my face.

“… Whew. I thought my heart was going to die from the pounding.”

Eventually, I couldn’t walk any longer and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

I could feel my pulse vividly, as if I had just finished a marathon.

I had promised myself not to be attached to women in real life…

I had thought I would never date another girlfriend…

I had decided to live thinking of Rikyuel as my girlfriend…

I don’t know why this happened.

“Yu-ah is a little different, though…”

While writing something like a cheap entertainment article in my head,

I tried to suppress my excitement.

And even in the midst of that, anxious thoughts came to mind.

Memories of the scars left by my previous girlfriends.

“No… Yu-ah is different from them.”

Even though Yu-ah might be a pervert, I knew that her heart was pure.

And how loyal she was.

In middle school, there was a girl I liked more than Yu-ah.

So I pushed her away.

But if she had feelings for me now, no matter what the reason was,

there was no reason for me to push her away.

Until that day, I might have known.

After spending the night, I honestly admitted that I was aware of Yu-ah as the opposite s*x.

Her personality was like my ideal type, Rikyuel.

… Rather, I was a little interested.

What would it be like to have Yu-ah as my girlfriend, not as my friend?

The anticipation created a subtle thrill and trembling in my chest.

“But then, isn’t that just asking me out on a date and then dragging me to a motel?Yu-ah. You scary b*tch.”

Having confirmed the theory that Yu-ah was a pervert,

I wrapped my body again in fear and trembled.

Thinking that my precious body might be violated by her at any moment…

But the fact that the Yu-ah romance manga theory was true.

At that time, I couldn’t even think about it.