Chapter 100:Why This? (4)

“Oh, right.”  

Yuri noona spoke as if she had just remembered something.  

She was probably talking to Ayun noona nearby, but since the store was quiet, I could hear it too. There was music playing, but it wasn’t loud pop it was soft jazz.  

“I…”  

Yuri noona muttered as she rummaged through her bag.  

“Ah, here it is.”  

What she pulled out was a stiff paper envelope. It didn’t look like it contained a letter. It was a bit thicker, made of dark-colored paper, and had a long horizontal opening, like an invitation envelope.  

“I got two free movie tickets. Want to use them?”  

“Movie tickets? Out of nowhere?”  

Ayun noona asked as she took the tickets.  

“They were a gift from last time, but I’ve been too lazy to go out lately. Just the thought of going all the way to the theater near my place feels exhausting.”  

They did look like gift tickets. Regular movie tickets usually looked more like receipts.  

But there should be a movie theater really close to where Yuri noona lived—it was an expensive neighborhood that had pretty much everything.  

And distance-wise, no matter how you looked at it, coming all the way here was definitely farther.  

Which meant she had probably planned to give them to Ayun noona from the start.  

“If you have someone to go with, you two should go together.”  

Yuri noona grinned as she said that. It was the kind of smile that made it seem like she already knew exactly what we were thinking. Like the smile of a certain cat from an old classic novel I once read.  

How she knew… wasn’t all that important. Yuri noona had always been sharp.  

Still, it was impressive that she had figured it out without even looking at us.  

Or maybe she just happened to find the tickets in her bag by chance?  

Ayun noona fiddled with the tickets for a moment before glancing over at me.  

If she looked at me like that, it would be obvious… But, well, it wouldn’t matter to Yuri noona.  

“Thanks.”  

After a brief moment of hesitation, Ayun noona slipped the tickets into her apron pocket.  

Yuri noona looked up at her with a peculiar expression, and for some reason, that bothered me a little.

*

“There’s nothing to worry about.”  

Before I even realized it, those words slipped out as I watched Yuri leave the store.  

“Huh?”  

She stopped right in front of the door and turned back, looking at me questioningly. I closed the store door and stepped outside to answer.  

“I told him properly. Shihyun knows, too.”  

“Oh, that.”  

Yuri furrowed her brows slightly and gazed up at the sky for a moment, lost in thought. Then, lowering her gaze back to me, she spoke.  

“I had a feeling. No matter what, it didn’t seem like you’d keep quiet about it while being in a relationship.”  

“I see…”  

Hearing her say that made me feel somewhat relieved.  

“Ah.”  

—Until I suddenly froze on the spot.  

“Ah, ah, ah—w-we’re not actually dating yet!”  

With my voice slightly off-pitch, I hurriedly corrected myself.  

“…Yet?”  

Yuri echoed the word back at me, her tone laced with suspicion.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I mean, I’m still kind of figuring things out with Shihyun… So, I guess I haven’t fully seen him as just Shihyun yet…”  

“……”  

At my words, Yuri ran a hand down her face.  

She opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but then—  

“…Never mind. Saying more at this point wouldn’t really change anything. You two will figure it out yourselves.”  

She let out a deep sigh.  

“But at least you told him, right? And even after that, Shihyun still wants to stay by your side. That’s what matters. Anything beyond that would just be unnecessary meddling.”  

Yuri lifted her gaze and looked at me for a moment before letting out a small chuckle.  

“Still, you look good. I’m glad. I hope it stays that way.”  

“Uh…”  

Hearing that, I glanced around, hesitating for a moment before deciding to ask something that had been bothering me.  

“You don’t… think it’s weird, right?”  

At this hour, there weren’t many people around. Even if someone had passed by, it wouldn’t have been easy to guess what we were talking about. Not that random strangers would have any reason to care in the first place.  

“Weird?”  

“You know what I mean.”  

Yuri seemed like she was pretending not to understand, so I asked again. This time, she just stared at me blankly for a moment before letting out another sigh.  

“Hmm, well…”  

She closed her eyes, furrowed her brows slightly, and thought for a bit before speaking.  

“There are definitely people who would see it as weird.”  

With her hands shoved into her pockets, she lightly kicked at the ground with one foot as she continued.  

“If you had confessed to me… I would have turned you down. I don’t like women that way. And things between us would have gotten awkward.”  

As my gaze dropped slightly, Yuri let out a small laugh.  

“But then again, wouldn’t that be the same if a guy confessed to me? I’m married now, after all. If a close guy friend confessed, things would get just as awkward. Actually, even back in college, it wasn’t much different. I was never really into guys who confessed to me.”  

She chuckled to herself.  

“I mean, isn’t it natural for things to get awkward after rejecting someone’s confession?”  

When I looked back up at her, she gave me a playful look and said,  

“So if you two feel that way about each other, then that’s not wrong. If you both are happy, then… does it really matter what anyone else thinks?”  

“What, were you worried I’d run off the moment my friend came out to me or something?”  

When I didn’t say anything, Yuri just shrugged.  

“I was the one who told you to be honest about it in the first place. It’d be a bit late for me to freak out now, don’t you think?”  

That finally made me let out a small laugh.  

“…Thanks.”  

“No need to thank me. And no need to feel sorry, either. If you feel like you owe someone an apology, it should be Shihyun. He’s the only one you really have anything to feel sorry about.”  

“…Yeah, you’re right.”  

As I nodded, Yuri lightly smacked my shoulder.  

“Alright, I’m heading out. Gotta study cooking.”  

“Cooking?”  

“I’m terrible at it. And I can’t make my husband cook dinner every day. Ordering takeout all the time isn’t great for the atmosphere either.”

“Is that so……………”

Now that I think about it, Yuri once said she had never even cooked instant ramen before. When we first went to eat budae jjigae, she looked completely shocked when she saw that we had to stir it ourselves.  

…It wouldn’t be strange if she didn’t know how to cook at all. Not that I had any intention of pointing that out to her.  

“You never know, I might come to learn how to bake someday. When that happens, I’ll be counting on you.”  

I thought to myself that buying bread would be more economical than making it at home… but then I remembered that Yuri didn’t have to worry about money. That made me chuckle a little.  

“Sure, I’ll do my best to teach you when the time comes.”  

“Why does that sound like you’re saying, ‘Even if you try, you won’t be able to do it’?”  

Yuri said that while waving at me before turning around and walking away.  

Her steps seemed a little lighter.  

I waited until she disappeared around the street corner, then opened the door and stepped into the shop.  

Shihyun was sitting at a table, waiting for me.  

I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a pair of movie tickets. I opened the envelope and saw that there were two inside.  

“Want to watch this today?”  

When I said that, Shihyun’s eyes went wide.  

“Today? Not after we go to the amusement park?”  

“If we go after the amusement park, it’ll be evening.”  

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to watch a movie with Shihyun.  

Rather, if I were to watch a movie, I’d prefer it to be just the two of us.  

But……………  

“We can’t talk during a movie.”  

I said, feeling a little shy.  

That was the truth. Chatting with someone while watching a movie wasn’t exactly polite.  

That day was a special day for just the two of us, so I wanted to talk more.

Whether it was while wandering around a shopping mall, strolling down the street, or having a meal together whatever the conversation was about, I wanted to spend time facing each other.  

That wouldn’t be possible in a movie theater.  

“Ah……..”  

Shihyun’s expression went blank, as if he finally understood what I meant.  

Then, slowly, his face turned red.  

That made me happy.  

It meant Shihyun was thinking about me just as much.  

Honestly, saying that made me feel a little embarrassed too. It wouldn’t be fair if I were the only one feeling that way.  

“Do you have time? If not, we can watch it another day……………”  

“Oh, no! I have time!”  

Shihyun shot up from his seat as he answered.  

So, he didn’t have other plans with friends.  

That made me a little happy that he was making time for me.  

“Really? Then what should we watch? Anything interesting that just came out?”  

“Ah, actually… I don’t watch movies that often, so…”  

Even as he said that, Shihyun was already pulling out his phone from his pocket.  

Hmm.  

It would be nice if there was a romance movie.  

…Not that I was trying to continue what happened last time or anything.  

There was always next Wednesday for that, anyway. Yeah.