Chapter 91

Chapter 91
Chapter 91
“So… what’s all this about?”
She wanted Hanna to explain what was going on . It was nice that they came to a nearby fruit juice shop . The kiwi juice she got was pretty good, so that was fine, too . But… The question she wanted to ask the most was still unanswered .
“Well… how do I explain it . ”
“Explain it?”
“A date?”
“What?”
“Between you and him! Haha . Hahaha . Heh… Don’t look at me like that . I’m your senior, you know . ”
She glared at Hanna for a few more seconds before turning to look at Maru, the boy was drinking his mango juice with the most serene expression in the world . He grinned when their eyes met, which only managed to annoy her further .
“Did you ask for this?”
“No, Hanna started it first . ”
“Sis! You didn’t tell me anything about this?!”
Hanna twiddled her thumb nervously .
“Well… If I told you, you wouldn’t have come . ”
“Of course . ”
“So I kept it a secret . Surprise!”
She rolled up her fingers into a tight fist, which made Hanna look away again . To think she used to look up to this person in the past…
‘I’m the one at fault for having expectations from her after seeing that CD . ’
In her school’s club room, there was a CD with some of Hanna’s performance . It was a recording of Hanna’s exceptional act of Faust making a deal with the devil incredibly well . She’s looked at the video countless times at this point, but her admiration of Hanna didn’t last long . It stopped the moment they first met, actually .
“I feel sorry for big brother Suchan . ”
“Hey, come on . ”
Hanna put a hand over her mouth and grinned . She could only feel sorry for Suchan, who would probably get whisked around by Hanna after marriage .
“In any case, you two should have fun . ”
Hanna took out two tickets as she spoke . They were tickets to a pretty popular theater near Hyehwa station .
“Wow . ”
She snatched the tickets immediately, she wanted to watch this particular play for quite some time . Did Hanna remember when she offhandedly mentioned it once? Hanna winked at her with a smile .
“You gave me a cake for my birthday, remember? It’s for that . ”
“Ah . ”
“And so!”
Hanna stood up from her seat .
“I’m leaving!”
The woman walked off to the exit after shouting bye . She tried to grab Hanna with her arms, but the woman evaded her with ease .
“Big sis!”
She was too late . Hanna was already gone from the cafe, and when she ran outside, Hanna was nowhere to be seen . The woman was too damn fast at running . She gave up and looked back into the cafe with a deep sigh .
“And he’s… well, him . ”
Maru was drinking his juice as if all of this wasn’t related to him at all . When their eyes met, he smiled again . Does he usually smile this much? He looks better when he’s not smiling . When she walked back inside and sat down, Maru stared at her from his seat . His blatant stare kind of made her feel embarrassed .
“What are you going to do now?” she asked .
“You got the tickets . ”
“Yeah . ”
“We should watch it then, right?”
“ . . . People say you’re shameless pretty often, don’t they?”
“Who knows . ”
“Hah . . . ”
Looking at the ticket, it was scheduled for today . As a matter of fact, they would have to make a run for it to watch it .
“We should probably be able to squeeze lunch in beforehand . ”
Before she knew it, Maru was right next to her looking down at the ticket himself . She flinched in surprise and stared at his face for a few seconds .
“Let’s go, we’ll be late . ”
Saying that, Maru reached out to grab her wrist .
W-what the!
The boy pulled her up gently . His hand was moving so naturally that she almost thought he’s done this multiple times in the past . She looked at Maru’s back in a daze .
‘Why… does this feel familiar?’
The boy’s slightly large back looked oddly familiar, as if she’s seen it many times in the past . She stretched out her hand, feeling a strange sense of sadness inside her, and gently put it on top of his shoulder . That was when she came back to her senses .
Goodness, what did she just do? She put her hand back down and stuck it right into her pocket . She was confused . What just happened?
“Did I have something on me?”
“Yeah, yeah? Yeah! Y-you had some dust on your shoulder . ”
“You brushed it off? Thanks . ”
“No… problem . ”
She looked down, as her cheeks puffed up like a little frog . Why did she just do that? She shook her head before raising her head again with a shocked look .
“Hold on, why are you holding my hand like it’s the most natural thing to do?!”
She completely forgot in her shock that she was still holding hands with him . The boy’s hand was rough . She pulled her hand out of it and looked at Maru with a pout .
“I can’t?”
“Do you think it’s really normal to hold a stranger’s hand just like that?”
“This is our third time meeting, though . ”
“ . . . That’s true, but still . ”
“Alright . I won’t do it . Just watch that play with me . I’m giving up one thing here, so you should too . ”
“What?”
“Or we could just hold hands again . ”
Maru stretched out his hand again . What the heck?
“Fine! Fine, we can watch it! Darn it, you’re ridiculous!”
“We should hurry, then . If we miss the train, we won’t have time to eat . ”
“Oh? You’re right . ”
She flipped her hand to look at her watch . Right then, Maru grabbed her hand again . What was strange was that for a brief moment, she didn’t think this to be unnatural . As a matter of fact, she probably would’ve walked forward right there with him if she didn’t become consciously aware of it .
“Ah, sorry . I said I wouldn’t grab your hand . ”
This time, Maru let go first and apologized surprisingly politely . Despite doing several odd things, he was a gentleman when it came to these things . She looked down at her right wrist, she could still feel Maru’s warmth on it .
‘ . . . What the . ’
That was the only thing she could think of when she realized that she didn’t actually hate that warmth .
* * *
After coming out of the second exit of Hyehwa station, she flinched as she got hit by the sudden wind . Cold winds like these were the ones that reminded her that it was December .
“It’s co . . . ”
A shadow rose up right in front of her as soon as she opened her mouth, it was Maru . Before she realized what was going on, he stretched his arms out towards her . She tried to step backwards, but realized there was something warm getting wrapped around her neck right then .
“It’s cold, wear this . ”
“ . . . Yeah . ”
It was Maru’s scarf . A soft scarf that had a lot of fluff on it, the type that she liked . She sniffed her nose a little bit . The scarf smelled pretty good . Did it get washed recently?
“Want to try going there?”
Maru pointed to a pasta restaurant on the other side of the road .
“Over there?”
The outside of the restaurant was decorated with logs and a fancy-looking signboard . The customers inside all looked like they were either college students or older . That is, the restaurant looked really expensive .
“Let’s go . You like cream pasta and pizza with not many toppings, don’t you?”
Maru walked forward after speaking . She silently agreed with him inside, before realizing what the boy just said .
“Wait, how did you know that? That I like cream pasta?”
“ . . . I heard it from Hanna . ”
She easily caught that hint of surprise from the boy’s face . He was lying, she was sure of it .
“Really?”
Plus, she never told Hanna her favorite food . After all, Hanna was only ever interested in her own favorite food: army stew .
“ . . . Just a feeling . Don’t girls like stuff like cream pasta?”
“Well, you’re not wrong, but… That doesn’t make this any less suspicious . ”
“I just guessed . ”
He regained his composure . Did he really guess? Or did he have someone telling him information about her? She could easily think of a few candidates on the spot, they probably worked with Hanna for this .
“Anyway, it’s cold . Let’s go inside first . ”
Maru casually grabbed her hand again . She let out a short laugh, but didn’t pull away this time . At least it was obvious that he cared for her .
* * *
She finished her food almost as soon as it came out . Maru smiled internally . Be it in the future or right now, her appetite was unchanging . She always ate well, and she used all of that energy for when she was on stage .
‘That reminds me . . . ’
Memories were giving birth to more memories . One by one, Maru started remembering events that he shared with her, each one making him want to smile more and more . Most of his memories were gone, but the times he shared with her were still deeply rooted in his heart .
“You smile really often,” she said curiously .
Of course, I would . You’re right there with me .
Maru swallowed those words and brushed himself off to be the type that smiled a lot .
‘Well, it’s going well so far, at least . ’
Her favorite perfume, favorite scarf, and favorite food . Maru made use of his memories as much as possible to prepare for this day . He was confident that today was going to be a success . After all, he did have quite a bit of experience with women before he married .
“Hm, hm hm, hm hm . ”
She started humming in happiness . Ah, he hadn’t heard this sound in a very long time . Just watching her hum to herself made him happy . For a few seconds, he stopped doing everything else other than listening to her sing . That melody… It’s the one she sang when they first met . The one that she liked to sing whenever she was happy or sad .
[This is a happy and a sad song . ]
He remembered now . When she told him that line, her face was colored with tears .
“Ah!”
She opened her eyes and immediately looked down in embarrassment .
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What?”
“People are watching . ”
Indeed, some people were watching the two of them with a smile on their faces . A loud hum like this in the middle of a quiet store was more than enough to garner some attention .
“I didn’t want to interrupt good music . ”
“No… Ugh, whatever . ”
“Thanks for the music . It was very good . ”
“ . . . You’re not going to get anything out of that praise, you know . ”
“Doesn’t matter, I already listened to your music . ”
Maru stood up first and pulled her chair back a little .
“Do you come to places like this often?”
“Mm, no . ”
It wasn’t a lie . It was his first time coming to a pasta place in this life . Of course, before that, he used to come here with her often . As a matter of fact, their dates always involved a pasta place in them .
Right then, Maru was assaulted with so many memories that he started getting dizzy . When he grabbed his head and stumbled a little, she grabbed his arm with a surprised expression .
“W-what the . Are you okay? Are you sick?”
“It’s nothing . I just tripped a bit . ”
“What, you surprised me . ”
She calmed down pretty fast, Maru’s head went blank again . It looked like he could only remember fragments of his memories, not full ones . He grabbed the bill and walked over to the counter . The waiter asked them if the meal was good .
“It was delicious . We’ll come again,” she answered for him .
Maru handed his card over . He finished paying and turned around after grabbing the receipt . She immediately snatched the receipt out of his hand .
“ . . . 80 thousand?”
“Why?”
“Just pasta, pizza, and a drink?“
“Well, it’s good as long as it’s tasty . ”
“No, but . . . ”
Then again, at this time, for people of their age 80 thousand won was a lot of money . She stopped at the entrance for a second before taking out a little wallet from her bag . She swallowed nervously before fishing 40 thousand won from it .
“Here, here!”
She was handing it over with nervousness on her face . That was probably a massive chunk of her allowance . Maru refused for now, but she kept pushing the money onto his face . In the end, he took it .
“I wouldn’t have come here if I knew it was going to be this expensive . ”
She was shaking her head dejectedly . Maru watched her walk outside for a second, before walking back to the counter .
“Can I borrow some pen and paper, please?”
* * *
The line into the theater was pretty long . It was a popular theater, so all of the seats were filled . She recalled that lots of people gathered here since the theater didn’t even have online ticketing to begin with .
“What did you do in the restaurant just now?”
“I asked for some tissues . ”
“Ah . ”
She nodded .
“It’s dark inside, so please walk slowly . Thank you . ”
They entered the theater, following one of the actors . For a small theater, the distance between each seat was surprisingly large . The seats were very comfy, too . The stage only had a few pieces of furniture on it, lit up by an orange light as the setting for a romantic comedy . A lot of her friends said it was really good, so she had a huge expectation for it .
“You must like plays . ”
“Of course!”
“That’s good . ”
Again with that smile of his . She avoided Maru’s eyes and focused on the stage . Just now… she felt something flutter up in her chest .
‘No no, I’m just excited for the play!’
Right! She should just focus on the play . She looked at the stage intensely .