Chapter 392 – 70. Back Alley (6)
.
“Did you see? It was raining outside.”
“It’s probably going to be a shower. It was reasonably clear until now.”
In fact, most of the pedestrians outside had disappeared and were nowhere to be seen.
They’re probably taking shelter from the rain somewhere for a while like we are.
Since it is lunchtime, I am enjoying my meal as well as my own.
Now that I think about it, it seems like one or two people were carrying umbrellas while walking around the streets.
There were very few people, so I guess they are just people who pay close attention to the weather forecast.
Or maybe it’s because it’s the rainy season soon. ‘There might be a 5% chance of showers today?’ Because there were frequent forecasts of feelings,
It’s possible that everyone is insensitive to safety and forgot their umbrella.
… Of course, since I don’t read the weather forecast, I only take an umbrella when my mom tells me.
Anyway.
Entrance to the arcade.
I stared at the raindrops bouncing on the floor and returned to the table with a sour reaction.
“Just keep doing what you were doing. As I said before, don’t expect anyone to look at you.”
Anyway, a shower is just a shower.
If you wait, it will stop soon.
392
First of all, we barely achieved victory.
It took about 30 minutes to get there…
“…”
Outside, clear raindrops were still falling non-stop.
Looking at the dark clouds hanging over the building, I think it will probably rain a little more in the future.
… Maybe it’s because I used so much concentration earlier, but I’m starting to feel hungry.
No luck.
“What should I do?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
Earlier, when Seo Woo Jin asked about the arcade, the ‘I don’t know’ was full of negative sentiments, but this time, he means that he really doesn’t know.
Still, if you think about it, it would be normal to follow the trend.
Not only us, but also other people who don’t have an umbrella are just playing with game consoles, so it might be a good idea for us to kill some time too.
I checked the umbrella stand just in case, but there wasn’t a single umbrella without an owner…
When I looked out of her window, I caught sight of Seo Woo-jin, who was also in trouble.
Usually, he just has a gentle smile on his face.
It’s an expression you don’t see often.
“Should we wait like this until the rain stops?”
“If you have to do it, you have to do it. There is no other way.”
Walking in the rain is something you only see in movies.
If he was sane, he would wait quietly until the rain stops, and then when the rain gradually dies down, he would start moving.
So, it was a time when I was trying to spend a boring time sitting on a chair in front of a game console that no one was using.
Seo Woo Jin, who sat right next to me, offered another suggestion.
“I saw a convenience store right in front. I’ll just go and get two umbrellas. How about that? It’s not really raining.”
Right in front?
Why didn’t I see it?
Once again, I hesitantly got up from my seat and looked out the window, but as expected, I didn’t see anything that looked like a convenience store…
… No, after looking a little more closely, there was a convenience store.
I wouldn’t say it was right in front, but it seemed a bit far away.
“Are you talking about there? At the corner?”
“Yes.”
“… I think it’s a bit far.”
30 seconds if you walk quickly… I guess it will take about 20 seconds.
You may have to get wet in the rain for a while on the way, but it’s not a distance you can’t go.
If I were here alone, I probably would have made the decision without much hesitation.
What about wet clothes? All I have to do is go home and nag my mom for a bit.
But it’s not me who wants to buy the umbrella now, it’s Seo Woojin.
I looked at him and the convenience store outside the window, and eventually handed the cell phone I was holding to Seo Woo Jin and said.
Rather than passing the discomfort on to others and waiting comfortably, it was better for me to embrace it all and complain to myself.
“I’ll just get it. It’s waiting here.”
“It’s difficult if your clothes get wet. Especially for women than for men.”
“…”
“Plus, my hair is long, so it would be difficult to dry it.”
It wasn’t wrong.
Efficiency. If we are only looking at efficiency, it would be better for Seo Woo Jin to go out alone rather than me.
It was uncomfortable to be wet from the rain, and the woman felt even more uncomfortable because her underwear was double.
Hair sticks because of the rain, and it’s much worse than men’s.
But this is something you owe to others.
… I really hate it.
“Are you saying that because you don’t like being indebted to others?”
“…”
“He did the same thing at the health room a few days ago. Even when he gave me laundry money in the past, he forced me to give it to him even though I said it was okay.”
“…”
Seo Woo-jin finally gets the point across.
I glanced at his face and looked away without answering.
I know very well that I have a frustrating personality because I heard it from my boyfriend all the time.
Last time in the health room, I heard a rich man say, “What does 10,000 won mean?”
Besides that, they bicker for various reasons, so it’s impossible not to know.
… You think I’m doing this because I want to live like this.
I know well that I am losing money, and I know that it is annoying to others.
It’s just that I’ve been like this since I was born, so it can’t be helped.
So, just like I always did with Baek Ji-ho, I was habitually ignoring him.
“It’s okay if you don’t worry too much in front of me. I don’t like being in debt either, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
“…”
“There’s nothing we can do about people with similar personalities, right?”
I glanced at his face again.
Earlier, he looked troubled, perhaps because of the rain.
What was so fun about it now? The gentle smile that I usually see was on my lips.
And it’s not a smile you put on like a mask to treat others,
A smile that seems sincere.
Next, Seo Woo Jin spoke.
“Uhm… Then let’s do it like this. Let’s do it.”
“… How?”
“I’ll buy an umbrella when it rains, so you can buy me lunch.”
“…”
“I won’t choose something that’s too expensive. Or I’ll just add a little more.”
It was indeed a very reasonable offer.
One person pays the price of a plastic umbrella at a convenience store and takes the trouble of briefly getting out in the rain.
One person instead pays for the lunch alone.
How much value one puts on the effort of getting out in the rain varies from person to person.
At least I was able to nod my head without hesitation.
“That’s right. … Oh, except for the store we decided to go to tomorrow.”
“It’s good. If you try it and think it’s good, you can stop by again tomorrow for lunch or dinner.”
As I nodded, thinking the same thing I had, Seo Woo-jin stood up and handed me his cell phone.
It’s the same cell phone I saw when Hayun called me to tell me about her favorite stores.
She remembered trying to install a dating app to track her location in case Hayoon was secretly seeing another woman, but she didn’t want to be too suspicious anymore.
If you’re dating Hayoon and Jiyoon, how can you possibly have time to covet other women?
He even said last time that he was hanging out with Hayun all weekend…
… It’s pretty obvious what the three of you will be doing all weekend.
“…”
But that’s what you mean when you say all weekend, right?
Being together is a killer, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been doing strange things for two days, right?
Rest in between breaks.
I want to… When you do, do it.
The three of us even took a shower together. I guess that’s it.
Maybe it’s because I’m thinking deeper.
The first night of the festival. For a moment, I think of the explicit groans I heard in the health room.
When she shook off her sense of daze, Seo Woo Jin had already walked out of the arcade and was gone.
When I looked out the window, he had already arrived in front of the convenience store.
Even from here you can see that the top of the T-shirt is wet, but it’s a good thing that it’s not too wet.
Finally, as if he had finished paying, he walked outside, opened a plastic umbrella, and walked towards me.
“…?”
But why one?
You said you were buying two?
“Whew… It’s raining more than I thought. I didn’t expect it to get this wet.”
“Well, thank you for your hard work. Why do you only have one umbrella?”
It wasn’t until after I spoke that I wondered what I was saying to someone who got hit by the rain, but luckily Seo Woo Jin didn’t seem to care much.
He closed his umbrella for a moment and answered, roughly stroking his rain-soaked hair.
“They said they only had this one because they had run out of stock due to the rain showers. I guess I’ll have to go to another convenience store too… But I think other places might be in a similar situation.”
Well, it wasn’t like it had just started raining, and I went to buy an umbrella late after fighting over air hockey, so it wasn’t possible.
“…”
… So,
Because it can’t be helped.
“We’ll have to share it together until the rain stops.”
I stood up with a light sigh and handed back the cell phone I had just received from Seo Woo Jin.
“Let’s go. Have lunch.”
For some reason, I can feel the glances of other people inside the arcade.
It is left as a question.
*****
“What kind of food do you like, Seo Woo Jin? I’m not a big picky eater.”
“I eat everything well. Be it Western food, Chinese food, or Korean food.”
“Then is it okay if I just choose what I want to eat?”
“It’s okay. Besides, you’re the one paying the money.”
“You’re roughly satisfied with 15,000 won per meal, right?”
“Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want.”
Well, some kind of pasta would be good today.
Recently, I mainly ate Korean food like jeyuk and other foods to cater to Baek Ji-ho.
After making a decision in an instant, I looked straight ahead with the thought that there were a lot of good pasta places nearby.
“…”
“…”
Between me and Seo Woo Jin.
Because you can’t look in the direction where the umbrella handle is.
Front only.
“Everyone is using plastic umbrellas. Is this why they are out of stock?”
“… I guess so.”
Between the sound of rain pouring down on an umbrella.
As I answered Seo Woo Jin’s quiet voice, I forced myself to swallow the silence that kept trying to escape.
I thought that being under the same umbrella would mean I would be close to Seo Woo Jin, but I was much closer than I expected.
She seems to reach out to him when she walks naturally.
If I don’t walk consciously, I think I’ll bump into him.
For some reason, I feel like I can feel his body temperature lightly wet with rainwater.
… In my opinion, it would be nice to be a little further away.
If you both want to avoid getting caught in the rain, this would be best.
I’ve never done anything like this with a white tiger before.
Ha…
“Have you decided on the menu?”
“… Green onions, pasta. I’m craving that today.”
“Pasta… It would be nice to have a spicy menu as well.”
“I’m sure there is. I haven’t tried it to see if it’s delicious, but… It looks like you like spicy food.”
“If I had to share my likes and dislikes, it would be like that. Rather than being simple…”
It’s a spicy menu.
It’s harder to find a place that doesn’t have that menu these days, so it’s probably okay.
Anyway, to resolve this awkwardness, we continued walking while talking, and before we knew it, we were in front of a crosswalk with a red light.
I was thinking that there was a good store around the block in front of me the other day, and then I glanced down at my feet.
Perhaps because the umbrella is narrow, it cannot prevent your shoes from getting wet, which is why you start to feel an unpleasant discomfort.
But thanks to that action, I happened to know something else.
“…”
Seo Woo Jin’s feet were closer to the side than expected.
So, since the umbrella handle is around here, his feet should also be symmetrical with respect to the handle.
No matter how I look at that location, it feels farther away than I thought…
“…”
… Ah.
“Over there.”
“Yes?”
“It’s okay if you don’t pay too much attention, so come inside.”
Seo Woojin.
You’ve been sticking your shoulder out of the umbrella all this time.
“It’s already wet. It’s okay.”
“You can stop me from now on. Are you going to keep going like that?”
It turns out I wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable sharing an umbrella like this.
Seo Woo Jin was also considerate in his own way.
That’s why one of his arms is completely soaked in rainwater.
At best, my shoes got wet.
In fact, I wish it would be further away.
I was thinking about it.
“I feel more uncomfortable if I stay like that. It gets worse quickly.”
“Where is the store?”
“I told you to hurry up and catch up?”
If it were Baek Ji-ho, I would have just wrapped my arm around his waist and pulled him this way, but the opponent is not Baek Ji-ho.
So what I chose was to pinch the T-shirt with my fingers and pull it this way.
This is something you can do normally even if you are not that close.
At first, Seo Woo Jin didn’t show any reaction, but as I kept pulling, he started to react little by little.
The hand holding the umbrella and Seo Woo Jin’s waist.
We were far away just a moment ago, but now we have narrowed the distance to a fairly natural place.
Likewise, the foot that was in a strange place also moved to its original position.
However, it can’t be helped.
“…”
“…”
The fact that he keeps coming into contact with Seo Woo Jin.
Rather than continuing, keep going.
The fact that his muscular forearm and my arm are constantly touching.
It is.
“… Did I ask where the store was? It’s just a short walk across the crosswalk.”
“… Aha.”
“Go. Quickly.”
Force majeure.
I, who had just thought of that word, hurried the steps of Seo Woo-jin, who seemed equally awkward.
This is why the green light on the traffic light was blinking at some point while they were bickering under the umbrella.
