Chapter 6 – Episode 6 – The Protagonist In Training
@Episode 6 – The Protagonist in Training (6)
“Mmm. It’s good.”
My sister smiled after taking a bite of the shaved ice.
“That’s a relief.”
I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
It seemed she didn’t find anything strange about the shaved ice, thankfully. Well, I had worked so hard yesterday making the syrup and powder. I naturally continued the conversation with my sister.
To get the candy’s effect, there was a condition that she had to look at me the most while eating it, so I kept talking to my sister, telling her various stories.
“So, I…”
“Ahahaha.”
I made eye contact with my sister as we talked, and her shaved ice quickly disappeared.
And when she finished the shaved ice and finally put down her spoon, I felt that the way she looked at me had changed a little.
“Whew. I’m full.”
“You ate a lot.”
“F-Full~? Did I eat that much…?”
“Haha. No. I’m talking about me.”
I said that and checked my sister’s shaved ice.
‘She left a little, but she must have eaten more than two servings.’
My sister had definitely consumed the powder and syrup sprinkled on the shaved ice.
‘That’s it.’
My sister’s tone was similar to usual, but her face was slightly flushed, and more than anything, I felt like she was subtly avoiding my gaze.
A slightly different attitude than before.
It seemed the candy’s effect had been successfully applied.
‘But I still need to confirm it.’
During a brief pause in the conversation, I stared at my sister.
“…Why, why are you staring at me like that?”
As I kept looking at her, my sister, who had been trying to avoid my gaze, spoke with a slightly flushed face.
“No, I just thought you were pretty.”
“W-What?”
My sister, not expecting my answer, asked back in surprise.
‘It’s definitely working.’
If it were my sister’s usual personality, she would have naturally brushed it off, saying, ‘You know what’s up.’ But her reaction now was definitely different from usual.
I got up from my seat.
“Well, it seems like you’re done, shall we have a cup of tea before we go?”
“Huh? Oh. Let’s do that…”
“There are several kinds, which one would you like?”
“Hmm. I’ll have herbal tea.”
I made two cups of tea and placed them at our respective spots.
We sipped our tea, and there was a brief silence.
‘It starts now…’
I looked at my sister.
She seemed to be thinking about something while drinking her tea. She also looked a little restless.
‘She’ll definitely feel sad about parting like this.’
The power of two candies was incredibly strong. Because it creates a strong sense of liking and attraction towards the other person, she would feel sad that the time we were spending together was coming to an end.
I could bring up the topic first, but I decided to be a little mischievous. She would probably try to hold me back first.
‘If not, I can just say something.’
I quickly finished my tea and put down my cup. If I had succeeded in getting her to eat two candies, I could say that the plan was already somewhat complete.
Finally, my sister also put down her teacup.
When I glanced at her, she looked as if she had made up her mind about something.
“Hey, Jinhyun…”
“Yes, Sister.”
“We…”
“Ah. Shall we go now?”
“Ah, no. That’s not it…”
Yujeong, my sister, was uncharacteristically flustered.
“Um, shall we… take a walk somewhere?”
“Pardon?”
“We just met, it’s a shame to part right away. Also, to digest…”
My sister said in a slightly less confident voice. I smiled inwardly as I listened to her.
It was so strange.
My sister, whom I had always thought of as an unapproachable tree and only exchanged shifts with in a business-like manner, was now having this kind of conversation with me. It was a truly strange fate.
‘Well, it’s a bit sad that this is all thanks to the power of a mysterious candy I got from an app.’
An opportunity was an opportunity. I nodded.
“Okay. Then, shall we walk for a bit and then maybe watch a movie?”
“A movie? Yes! That’s great.”
My sister showed a very positive reaction.
“Shall we get up then?”
“Let’s. Thank you, Jinhyun. It was delicious.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
We got up from our seats.
I took out my card and paid for the meal. It came out to a little over 40,000 won, but I didn’t mind at all.
“Thank you. Please come again.”
We left the building, leaving the store clerk’s greeting behind.
As the powerful air conditioning from inside the store disappeared, the hot air enveloped us.
“Hmm. Shall we walk to the nearby movie theater as a stroll? There’s a way to get to the park.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
I subtly took out my phone and checked the time. It was a little past 12 o’clock.
Since my sister had eaten the shaved ice around 11:50, she would feel attracted to me until at least 2:50 PM.
We strolled through the park.
There were families chatting, people jogging, and couples.
While walking and enjoying the scenery, I suddenly held out a candy.
“Huh? It’s the candy you gave me last time.”
“Yes. Would you like one?”
“Hehe. Thank you.”
I could see the effect of about two candies from the syrup and crumbs, but I thought I needed about one more candy’s worth of effect to kiss her, so I gave my sister a candy.
Her attraction was already up, and now it seemed okay to just give her the candy without hiding it like the syrup or powder.
“We’re here.”
“Huh? There was a movie theater here?”
“Yes. It’s small and underground, so it’s not that famous.”
After walking through the park for about 20 minutes, I stood in front of a building and guided my sister.
“There’s a movie theater in the big department store nearby, so there aren’t many customers here. The facilities aren’t bad though.”
“Hee. That’s good. How did you find out about this place?”
“Haha. A friend told me.”
I could never tell her that I had looked for unpopular movie theaters to watch movies alone without feeling too embarrassed because I didn’t have many friends.
“It’s true, there aren’t that many people even though it’s the weekend.”
“Yeah. But you should be able to get seats for a movie that’s starting soon.”
“Great. What should we watch?”
My sister looked at each movie poster.
There were quite a few movies showing at the theater. Two or three major movies that everyone had heard of, and some other movies.
My sister looked at a few posters and pointed to an action movie.
“Don’t you like this kind of thing?”
“‘Steel Man.’ I do like it. But it’s the fourth movie… Have you seen all the previous ones, Sister?”
“No… Actually, I’ve only seen the first one.”
“Haha. Then let’s choose something else.”
My sister pointed to the next poster.
“Then how about this one? My picky younger sister said it was fun.”
“Oh, you have a younger sister, Sister?”
Yujeong’s younger sister. She must be pretty too.
“Yeah. She’s a senior in high school. Do you want to watch this?”
It was ‘Parasite,’ a major movie that had been very popular recently.
“But I’ve already seen that.”
“Ugh…”
My sister groaned. I lied without batting an eye.
I’m sorry, Sister.
Actually, I haven’t seen it yet.
There was no way I, whose life revolved around the internet and games, would have seen a movie that had only been released a week ago.
But it was an unavoidable lie.
There were rumors that it was a great masterpiece, and it was a movie I was planning to watch soon, but it didn’t seem like the right movie to watch when I was finally alone with my sister.
I pretended to be thinking hard and looked at the posters, then pointed to one poster.
“How about this one?”
“Let’s see… Hee~ ‘Autumn of That Day’? I like it, are you okay with it?”
“Yes. I like this kind of thing too.”
The movie I chose was a romance movie.
When I was thinking about what kind of date to have yesterday, I had marked some movies that I thought would be good, and this was one of them.
I had heard that the atmosphere was important for a kiss, and a romance movie seemed like the best way to create that kind of atmosphere.
And this romance movie, ‘Autumn of That Day,’ was the one that had the most positive reviews among the romance movies currently showing. It seemed to have some emotional impact in the latter half.
“Then let’s watch this. The timing is perfect, it starts in 20 minutes.”
“Okay. Then I’ll go buy the tickets.”
“Ah! No, no. I’ll pay for the movie.”
My sister waved her hand. I tilted my head and said.
“Hey. If you pay for the movie, then the meal I bought as an apology loses its meaning.”
“Apology, is it an apology…”
My sister mumbled quietly. I noticed a slightly disappointed look on her face. Seeing that, I opened my mouth.
“Then I’ll buy the popcorn. You buy the movie tickets.”
“Ah! That’s good.”
My sister nodded.
“Then I’ll go get the popcorn. Please buy the tickets. For the seats, um… any seats that are connected are fine.”
“Okay!”
I immediately stood in line at the popcorn stand, and my sister stood in line at the ticket counter.
“Couple Set A, here you go!”
After receiving the popcorn, I glanced at my sister. She was talking to the female employee, probably choosing the seats.
‘Now’s the time.’
I quickly opened my sister’s drink lid and emptied some of the contents.
Then, I took out a water bottle from my bag.
‘About half should be enough.’
The contents of the water bottle were a mixture of carbonation and sugar in the Desire Water I had obtained as an item.
Of course, it was one of the ones I had experimented with yesterday, and I had confirmed that the Desire Water’s effect worked properly even when mixed with something.
When I added carbonation and sugar to the Desire Water, the taste became very similar to cider. So, I had deliberately ordered cider for my sister’s drink as well.
Unless someone had a sense of taste so great that they could distinguish between Coca-Cola and Pepsi with their eyes closed, they wouldn’t notice much of a difference even if it was mixed.
“Okay, this much is…”
Thinking that I had added just the right amount, I stood the water bottle upright, intending to stop.
– Thud
That’s when it happened.
“Ah! I’m sorry.”
Someone was walking by while looking at their phone and bumped into my shoulder.
If it was just a bump, it wouldn’t have mattered, but the impact caused me to spill all the water from the bottle into my sister’s cider.
‘Crap.’
And so, I stared at my sister’s cider, now soaked with Desire Water, with a dizzying gaze.
lmao the end