Chapter 53
* * *
Click—!
“Thank you!”
The cosplayer bowed her head and walked away.
That was the last photo I took.
After that, I returned to my usual spot.
“···.”
I waited by myself for the others to return, scrolling through short-form videos.
“There are so many people···.”
Jinuri trudged over, looking exhausted.
I looked at what she was wearing.
It was a slightly different outfit from the one she had worn before. Yesterday, she had been wearing a pink tracksuit, but now she had on a black T-shirt and a school uniform skirt. The guitar slung over her shoulder was the only other thing.
But.
Somehow, it looked like she had only changed her clothes.
It wasn’t a wig. She had her natural hair.
She had the same brown bob she usually wore.
“···Where’s your wig?”
“I was going to put it on later. It’s still a while before we start.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’ll be hot if I put it on already.”
Jinuri needlessly smoothed the ends of her hair.
— “···I should do it where he isn’t around. It’s embarrassing.”
Jinuri’s Minimi blushed and avoided my gaze.
That was how she truly felt.
She still seemed embarrassed to show me her cosplay.
That was understandable.
“Where’s Seungah?”
Jinuri looked around.
“She went to change clothes with the others. Didn’t you see her on the way here?”
“No. I didn’t see her.”
Then their paths must have crossed. There were plenty of places to change clothes around here.
Or maybe Jinuri had missed her because of the crowd.
“···.”
Clunk—
While waiting for the others, I bought a can of cola from a vending machine.
Let’s eat something while we wait.
I had originally intended to eat only mine, but it felt awkward to eat alone, so I bought one for Jinuri too.
“Here.”
“Oh, what’s this?”
Jinuri looked surprised as she accepted the cold can.
— “···Did I ever mention that I like cola?”
Her Minimi clung to the can of cola, looking excited.
— “I feel like I mentioned it once···. You remember everything. You’re surprisingly thoughtful.”
No.
As far as I remembered, she had never mentioned it.
I hadn’t even known that she liked cola.
— “Kyaa···.”
Unlike when it was entertaining itself,
it became quiet after drinking the cola. It seemed to be savoring the taste.
— “Wait, wait.”
Jinuri’s Minimi had been lost in thought, but its expression suddenly brightened.
A lightbulb popped into existence above its head, as if it had just had a good idea.
It began muttering to itself.
— “···Come to think of it, do I even need to worry?”
The thing it was worried about had to be the performance. It had been fretting over it nonstop since yesterday.
— “Looking at it, yesterday’s booth line was incredibly long too···. If I finish quickly during a break from work···.”
Was it planning to finish the performance while I wasn’t watching?
There was a set performance order, so I wasn’t sure it would be that simple.
Still, her expression had improved. Whether it was actually possible was beside the point.
‘In the first place···.’
I had no intention of watching Jinuri’s performance.
Performances were only fun if you knew the songs. There was no way they would play a song I knew here.
“Nuri unni~”
Before I knew it, Lee Seungah had appeared.
“Oh, you’re here?”
She had already finished her cosplay.
Normally, she gave off a calm impression based on her appearance,
but with sky-blue hair, her more carefree and innocent personality seemed to show through.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Would it be okay if I went to watch your performance?”
Lee Seungah asked with an innocent expression.
“···Huh?”
Jinuri’s expression turned to stone.
She clasped her hands demurely as if trying not to show her reaction, but her interlaced fingers fidgeted.
“Uh··· I’m okay with it··· but aren’t you busy, Seungah? You have to look after the booth too, right?”
“Oh, it’s fine.”
Lee Seungah pointed her thumb backward at me.
“I can leave it to oppa.”
“···!”
Jinuri had been so flustered by Lee Seungah until just now, but her attitude changed completely.
Her eyes sparkled.
“Then, will you come?”
Jinuri readily nodded.
— “This is better than showing it to Lee Seungho.”
As they say, the lesser evil is better than the worst.
She seemed to see it as a chance to avoid performing in front of me.
— “That solves everything!”
Her Minimi smiled and danced around.
“···.”
I watched it while drinking my cola.
What an entertaining little thing.
* * *
The bus stop on the way home.
“···.”
Lee Sol’s expression was somehow vacant.
People often told her that she looked spaced out, but she seemed even more so than usual now.
She seemed even more disheveled somehow.
She kept raising her head, then lowering it again, busy looking this way and that.
The reason was simple.
The photo that had just arrived kept bothering her.
“···.”
Lee Sol’s eyes rolled around.
She discreetly watched Shin Ayoung, who was touching up her makeup with a hand mirror.
She looked very busy.
It was an opening created by the fact that she wouldn’t be paying attention to anything else.
‘This is my chance.’
···If it was now.
Lee Sol carefully took her phone out of her pocket.
She opened Instagram and checked the DM window Lee Seungah had sent her again.
The photo of Lee Seungho was still there.
‘···Huh.’
Lee Sol let out a short breath. Her round eyes kept blinking.
Whether the photo had turned out well or the makeup simply suited him,
she couldn’t stop looking at it.
She found herself gazing down at it without a word.
Her long hair slid smoothly downward with gravity.
‘···I should save it first.’
Tap. Tap. Tap. She carefully saved it to her gallery.
She checked twice to make sure it had saved properly, then slipped her phone back into her pocket.
‘Ugh···.’
Unable to contain her emotions, she squeezed her phone tightly between both hands.
If she could, she wanted to pet Lee Seungah all over while telling her what a good job she had done.
If Seungah had been beside her, she would have bought her something.
“Hmm···.”
But.
Just a little.
It was only a little, but there was something disappointing about it···.
Since there was only one photo, she felt a faint desire for more.
“···.”
She picked up her phone again and thought about it for a moment.
‘···Should I just ask?’
Gathering her courage, she tapped the screen.
— [Lee Sol: By any chance···.]
— [Lee Sol: Do you have any more?]
She sent the message to Lee Seungah. There was no harm in asking once.
“···Oh.”
She sensed the silhouette of a bus at the edge of her vision,
and when Lee Sol subtly raised her head, a bus was approaching from farther down the road.
That was the number of the bus Shin Ayoung took home.
“Ayoung. Your bus is here.”
“···Ah, I’m not going straight home today.”
Shin Ayoung didn’t move at all.
She sat on the bench and waited quietly, as if she were waiting for another vehicle.
“···Really?”
Lee Sol gave a small nod.
After they waited for the next vehicle for a while···.
“The bus is here, though?”
This time, Shin Ayoung spoke.
Looking at the number, it was the bus she usually took home.
“···.”
The one who didn’t move
was Lee Sol as well.
“···Aren’t you going home? You said you had to study.”
Shin Ayoung added that the exam period was coming up soon.
“···Today is my day off. I worked hard this week, so I need to rest sometimes too.”
“Really?”
Shin Ayoung nodded, then turned her gaze forward again.
“···.”
Lee Sol discreetly watched Shin Ayoung while pretending not to.
When she looked to see what Ayoung was doing, she found that Ayoung had opened a map app and was searching for a route.
The distance made it difficult to see the destination clearly,
but somehow, Lee Sol felt like she knew where it was.
There was no doubt about it.
She was almost certain.
Shin Ayoung had the exact same destination as she did.
“······.”
Lee Sol bit her lip tightly.
“···Ah.”
Lee Sol raised her voice. At last, the bus they had been waiting for was arriving.
The two of them naturally stood up,
and boarded the same bus at the same time.
“···.”
“···.”
Their gazes passed between them without a word.
‘As I thought···.’
She had moved beyond suspicion and entered the realm of certainty.
Shin Ayoung was heading there for the same reason she was.
And perhaps Ayoung had sensed it too, because···
“Where are you going, Sol?”
Shin Ayoung asked with a meaningful look.
“···Well, I have somewhere to stop by.”
Lee Sol hastily came up with an excuse.
“···.”
“···.”
An oddly quiet silence continued between them.
Soon,
Lee Sol realized that it had been completely pointless.
Their destinations were obviously the same.
The two of them got off at the same bus stop.
A large plaza that looked like the event venue was visible in the distance.
“···.”
Lee Sol made up her mind.
···This wouldn’t do.
She needed some kind of countermeasure.
“···Ayoung.”
Lee Sol tugged lightly at Shin Ayoung’s collar.
“Why?”
Shin Ayoung looked at her with a casual, questioning gaze.
She knew everything already. How unfair.
“···You’re going to see Seungho right now, aren’t you?”
That was precisely why
Lee Sol asked her directly.
If she didn’t, she felt like she would fall behind.
“···.”
Shin Ayoung didn’t answer.
Nor did she look flustered.
They both knew each other’s purpose, after all.
Instead, the way Ayoung shyly turned her gaze to the side gave her answer.
‘If we go in like this···.’
If they ran into Lee Seungho inside, wouldn’t he be surprised?
Both of them had come without telling him anything.
Lee Seungho was only there to help with his younger sister’s event, after all.
She felt like going in now would be a nuisance.
‘Besides···.’
Lee Sol looked Shin Ayoung over.
She didn’t want Shin Ayoung in her current state to meet Lee Seungho.
Unlike when they had been shopping, it was obvious that Ayoung had made an effort with her appearance.
She was dressed in a way that immediately drew people’s attention. She had gone all out.
So they shouldn’t speak to him directly.
“···Should we just take a quick look?”
She put forward a subtle compromise.
“···.”
Shin Ayoung didn’t answer.
After thinking briefly,
“···Okay.”
she soon nodded.
She seemed to have decided it was the most reasonable option.
The two exchanged glances and reached an unspoken agreement.
···They would just sneak a look around and leave.
Soon, the two of them headed inside the event venue.
notes**
Fixes: corrected the perspective in “that was the last photo I took,” clarified the Minimi’s gender-neutral references, and smoothed several literal or awkward phrases. Removed the repeated “it” in the bus-arrival passage and avoided an ambiguous pronoun by naming Ayoung where useful.