Chapter 48
Clothes visible inside the box. There’s a gray suit in it.
I had no idea what it was supposed to be, though.
“I’m not doing it.”
I flatly refused. I had no desire to cosplay.
“Aw, whyyy~”
Clutch.
Lee Seungah grabbed the hem of my pants and flopped face-down onto the floor. She sprawled there like a drowned ghost.
“Just do it this once, pleeease~ Huh?”
“No, I’m not.”
I grabbed my waistband and trudged forward one step at a time.
Lee Seungah was dragged along, inch by inch.
She absolutely refused to let go.
There was no sign of her letting go.
She was stubborn as a mule, too—wonder who she took after.
“All you have to do is carry one pad and wear the suit. You don’t even need a wig.”
Lee Seungah raised her head and pleaded again, saying it would only be once.
“I said I’m not doing it.”
“Mmm···.”
Lee Seungah groaned and sank into thought.
“Fine. If you do it, I’ll raise your part-time pay, too.”
She made that offer. I was about to put more force into prying her off, but stopped.
Hmm.
Part-time pay··· part-time pay, huh···
“···How much?”
At her confident attitude,
I figured I might as well hear her out.
“···Wait.”
Lee Seungah took out her phone.
—“If the profits come out to around this much···.”
Minimi moved her arms back and forth, tapping away at a calculator.
“This much?”
She turned the screen toward me.
I took one good look at the amount written there.
“Okay.”
An amount more than generous for a part-time job.
Any reason to refuse had just vanished. I accepted Lee Seungah’s offer on the spot.
If all I had to do was change clothes once for that kind of pay, it was well worth it.
“Then, shall we practice once?”
Lee Seungah dragged a box out of her room. It turned out to be merchandise she had made herself.
“Practice? Practice what?”
“You’ll have to watch the booth, Oppa, so you need to know how it works.”
Lee Seungah clicked her tongue.
Come to think of it, she was right. I quietly nodded.
“Sit here. I’ll show you what it’ll be like tomorrow.”
Lee Seungah patted the sofa.
“···.”
I obediently sat down where she told me to.
Lee Seungah turned and disappeared toward the entrance.
Soon.
“······.”
She rounded the wall and began walking toward the sofa with firm, measured steps.
With a bag slung over one shoulder. Her pace was a little quick.
Her movements were strangely realistic.
Was that what they called acting out everyday life?
Abruptly—
She stopped a step away.
“···Excuse me?”
Lee Seungah bent slightly at the waist.
“Uh······could I get one Kasha tapestry and one Arorong key ring?”
“···.”
So when she said she’d show me, she meant she’d show me how a customer would act?
Even as I wondered if she really had to go this far···.
Thinking of the amount that had appeared on the screen just now,
it seemed best to play along, at least for now.
“···Uh···just a moment?”
I rummaged through the box. Thoroughly.
I tried to recall the names she had mentioned. Kasha and··· what was it?
No.
Before that, what even were those things?
“······.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Lee Seungah’s expression gradually darkened. Unable to wait any longer, she tapped her foot against the floor.
“Enough, enough.”
She stopped me, saying it was fine now. As if she didn’t need anything else, she rubbed the back of her neck.
She merely fell silent, lost in thought.
— “···This is bad··· I didn’t think you’d know so little···.”
Minimi folded her arms. Her eyes narrowed into a sulky look.
— “You should watch some anime once in a while. You have no cultural life.”
A grumbling tone.
“···.”
I kept my mouth shut.
Put that way, I had nothing to say.
“Now—watch carefully.”
She squatted on the floor and lifted the items in the box one by one.
With a soft, proud smile at her handmade merchandise, she explained in a gentle voice.
“The sharp-looking one with cat ears is Kasha. And this tiny, cute one is Arorong.”
Lee Seungah continued introducing the characters one by one.
“You memorized them all, right? That’s everything.”
There were a little over ten characters.
It wasn’t an overwhelming number, but it wasn’t as if I had memorized them all right away. I needed time.
Fortunately, they all looked different, so telling them apart was easy enough.
“Here.”
Lee Seungah scribbled each character’s name and traits on a piece of paper and handed it to me.
I took it and shoved it into my pocket without much thought. I could memorize them before the event, surely.
“···.”
Well, now that practice was over······.
“Let’s head out soon.”
I stood up.
I picked up a mini bag and gestured for Lee Seungah to follow.
“? Where are we going?”
“The gym.”
“?”
Lee Seungah’s head shot up. She looked at me anxiously.
She pointed at herself, as if asking whether she was included too.
“Yeah.”
Seeing that, I gave a small nod.
“Mom said to make you exercise a bit. She says you’re nothing but bones these days.”
“···Am not?”
Lee Seungah’s voice rose.
She rolled her eyes, seemingly plotting a way out.
So she really hated exercising.
But it was no use.
I’d already received a hefty allowance from Mom.
“Let’s go. I’ll go easy on you today.”
I grabbed the flustered Lee Seungah and strode outside.
"Ah, wait a second···!"
* * *
— Crunch.
Jinuri propped her phone up with a book and crunched on a potato chip.
The salty flavor was exquisite.
“So, what did you want to say?”
Jinuri asked Lee Sol on the other side of the screen.
The video call had come out of nowhere, with Lee Sol saying she had something to ask.
It was Friday evening, so Jinuri was shooting the breeze with her.
[“It’s just that······.”]
Lee Sol hesitated.
As she waited, Jinuri munched on chips.
They were delicious.
She could afford to wait a reasonable amount of time.
······Then, at last, Lee Sol opened her mouth.
[“Teach me how to put on makeup.”]
The mouth chewing chips stopped.
Jinuri let out a small ahem—. She nearly choked on a crumb.
That one sentence was astonishing.
“······.”
Jinuri brought her face close to the screen. She examined Lee Sol from side to side.
Up, down, expression, condition. Nothing seemed particularly wrong.
She didn’t look sick, either.
If so, was there some other problem? What had happened recently?
Ah, right.
“Are your studies getting stressful these days?”
[···All of a sudden?]
“No.”
At Lee Sol’s questioning look, Jinuri quickly shook her head.
Guess not.
She had wondered if academic stress had driven her to try some minor rebellion, but her expression made it clear that wasn’t it.
“Why the sudden interest in makeup?”
Jinuri decided to ask her outright.
She felt more comfortable that way.
[“······.”]
Lee Sol was silent for a moment, then.
[“······It’s a basic skill for a model, and I thought I’d been neglecting it?”]
That was her answer.
Lee Sol’s round eyes blinked repeatedly.
“Oh.”
Jinuri nodded. It made sense. She could certainly see that being the reason.
What a wonderful change.
She was almost proud enough for it to be her own achievement.
“But I think Minji unni would know more about makeup···. If you were too shy to ask her, should I bring it up?”
[“No, no.”]
An urgent denial came from the speaker.
“Huh? Why?”
[“She’s good at it··· but Minji unni just has really dexterous hands, you know.”]
“Hmm···.”
[“I saw her doing it last time···. I don’t think I could imitate that.”]
“Fair point···”
Jinuri accepted that.
Minji unni’s makeup technique was hard to imitate in practice.
Her technique relied heavily on a practiced hand.
‘She could probably make a living as a makeup artist, too.’
It was indeed difficult for a beginner to follow her technique.
And even more so for Lee Sol.
She never even touched cosmetics. It was a long way from there to acquiring those skills.
She might be better off asking people around her.
Thinking that,
“Then what about Ayoung?”
She brought up that name, thinking Shin Ayoung might know, but···.
Lee Sol shook her head from side to side.
[“···Ayoung probably doesn’t know better than you, Nuri. You’re good at making it look like you’re not wearing makeup.”]
“Is that sooo···?”
Ahem, ahem. She gave a fake cough.
Jinuri tensed the corners of her mouth, which were unconsciously trying to curl upward.
It was a skill honed over years of cosplay.
She wasn’t hugely confident, but she did have some.
“All right, I’ll teach you.”
Jinuri readily agreed.
[“···!”]
Lee Sol’s expression brightened on the other side of the screen.
She looked like her opinion had finally gotten through.
‘Hmm···.’
Of course.
She had said that, but.
‘The truth is, the only way is to practice often···.’
Practice was everything if you wanted to get good at makeup.
Becoming good at makeup overnight was unrealistic.
Still, she could teach her plenty of methods.
Wasn’t wanting to become prettier every woman’s wish?
‘But··· so Sol feels that way, too.’
Lee Sol was naturally so beautiful that Jinuri had assumed she didn’t care about her appearance. Apparently that wasn’t the case.
A woman was still a woman.
*
“Hwaaah······.”
After teaching her how to apply makeup and ending the call, Jinuri stretched her back.
She threw herself onto the mattress.
The soft sensation supported her, and soon she felt drowsy enough to fall asleep.
“Hmm···.”
Jinuri stared blankly up at the ceiling.
The event was finally tomorrow.
‘I’ve finished all the preparations···.’
She had properly laid out the traffic flow for the merchandise. She had carefully prepared the cosplay outfit, too.
Thinking of everything she would use tomorrow, including that.
‘It’ll cost me a bit, but···.’
It was her first event in a long time. It was an expense she could easily accept.
More than the money she had spent right away,
she was more excited about tomorrow. Maybe because she had a performance booked, too, but she was a little nervous.
‘This is going to be fun···!’
She was looking forward to tomorrow.