Chapter 84
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“W-what?!”
Ji Nuri gaped, her mouth opening and closing.
“······.”
I was similarly bewildered.
I was caught off guard myself.
Why on earth was she here?
We hadn't run into each other in Seoul; we'd somehow met all the way down in Gimhae.
There couldn't have been a more unlikely coincidence.
“···Why are you here?”
Ji Nuri's eyes narrowed slowly.
I answered her question calmly. There was nothing for me to feel uneasy about.
“I came here to have fun.”
“You came here to have fun?”
“Yeah.”
I had nothing else to say.
Because I really had come here to have fun.
“To Gimhae?”
“Yeah···.”
“Today? At this hotel?”
“······.”
Saying it like that did make the situation seem a little strange.
— “I didn't think he'd be like this··· He's incredibly forward when it comes to romance···.”
The Minimi's enormous eyes trembled violently. It clapped both hands over its mouth.
Ji Nuri made a huge fuss, saying, —I knew it!—
‘I had a feeling this would happen.’
It was the reaction I'd expected.
A hollow smile slipped out before I could stop it.
— “I do prefer meeting people naturally, but···.”
Ji Nuri kept glancing around.
— “But even so, he followed me here so blatantly···! Even if he does like me, this is too much···!”
The Minimi squeezed its eyes shut.
It shouted furiously, its adorable little fists waving up and down.
“······.”
Ji Nuri's misunderstanding was beginning to spiral out of control.
It was getting harder and harder to keep my expression in check.
I could barely maintain a blank face.
Whether I did anything or not, she continued along with her own train of thought.
— “···This isn't right.”
Ji Nuri's expression suddenly hardened.
— “···As his friend, I need to give him a stern talking-to.”
What was she planning to say?
“······.”
This wouldn't do.
For Ji Nuri's sake, it would be better to stop her before the misunderstanding grew any worse.
I parted my lips.
“Hey, um···.”
Just as I was about to say something—
“Huh? What? It's Nuri unni!”
I didn't know when she'd arrived, but Lee Seungah spotted Ji Nuri and opened her eyes wide.
— “What, what??”
Lee Seungah's Minimi shrieked excitedly.
She rushed over, grabbed both of Ji Nuri's hands, and swung them up and down.
It was a sign of how happy she was to see her.
“Did you come here to have fun too, unni?”
“Huh??”
Ji Nuri noticed Lee Seungah too, and her lips fell open.
“Seungah, did you follow Seungho all the way here too?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Lee Seungah tilted her head as if she had no idea what Ji Nuri meant.
Their words didn't line up. They continued exchanging blank looks.
This wasn't good.
I stepped forward before the misunderstanding could deepen.
“She had tickets, so she came here on vacation.”
I lightly patted Lee Seungah on the shoulder.
“Tickets··· ah.”
Ji Nuri rummaged through her pocket as if she'd just remembered something.
“···This?”
She pulled a ticket from her wallet.
It looked like the same kind of ticket we had.
“What? You got one too?”
“No, it's not that···. Dabin gave it to me because she's traveling abroad during vacation.”
“Dabin?”
Who was Dabin?
As I wondered about that, Lee Seungah poked me repeatedly in the side.
“You know, my friend.”
“Oh.”
Was the girl's name Dabin? The one we'd met at the event?
It had already been two months, so I couldn't quite match her face to her name.
My memory was fading in and out.
I had a rough idea of who she was.
“······.”
Hmm.
So Ji Nuri had stayed in touch with them all this time.
I hadn't known that.
— “What? And here I thought it was something else···.”
Ji Nuri's Minimi let out a long breath.
It seemed the misunderstanding had been cleared up.
In the end, the fact that we'd received the same kind of tickets was what caused it.
— “It really was a coincidence···?”
Ji Nuri only now accepted that fact.
— “Uh···.”
She moved her lips hesitantly, then—
— “So I guess this really does count as a natural encounter···?”
Ji Nuri tilted her head with a peculiar inflection.
She let out an awkward laugh, saying that, come to think of it, it was true.
“······.”
I turned my head away.
Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, I should go back to choosing bread.
Just as I was about to move—
“Nuri, is something wrong?”
A middle-aged woman I'd never seen before approached at a leisurely pace.
She looked somewhat like Ji Nuri. I could see Nuri's features in her.
“Mom, it's···.”
“Is he a friend?”
“He's my classmate. Say hello—this is my mom.”
Following Ji Nuri's words, I bent at the waist.
“Hello. I'm Lee Seungho, Nuri's classmate.”
“Oh my, you're Nuri's friend?”
She covered her mouth as if surprised by those words.
She lightly clapped her hands together, then let out a soft laugh.
“What an incredible coincidence! Are you here on a family trip?”
“Yes, we received the tickets as a gift.”
“Tickets?”
She continued thinking it over carefully, then—
“Ah. Then you're the boy who goes to the same club as her?”
I opened my eyes wide and looked at Ji Nuri.
It was unexpected that she had told her family about me.
“Mom, come on···!”
Ji Nuri shouted as if embarrassed.
“Okay, okay.”
Her mother let out a mischievous laugh.
Then she glanced around.
“Hmm··· Since meeting like this must be fate···.”
She looked at the plate of bread in my hands and asked,
“You put those in because you were going to eat them, right?”
“Huh? Yes.”
“Give them here.”
Ji Nuri's mother quickly snatched up the tray.
Then she strode toward the register.
I hurried after her.
“Ah. You really don't have to do that.”
“Don't worry about it. I'm buying them so you can look after Nuri from now on.”
As she said that, she paid for everything in an instant.
Then she set the tray down on the table.
“Here, eat up, okay?”
“Thank you.”
“I'll go upstairs first, so take your time chatting and come up later.”
Ji Nuri nodded at her words.
“I'll call you when we head upstairs.”
The café was left with only me, Lee Seungah, and Ji Nuri.
“······.”
“······.”
Once the bustle faded, an awkward silence descended.
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I'd seen Ji Nuri.
We had exchanged messages now and then, though.
But this was the first time we'd seen each other face-to-face in roughly two weeks, since vacation had begun.
“Hmm···.”
The awkwardness showed as I struggled to think of a topic to bring up after so long.
“Ahem~”
Regardless of that—
— “That looks delicious···!”
Lee Seungah licked her lips, immediately picked up a piece of bread, and began munching.
She was the only one who seemed completely at ease.
“What have you been up to?”
I brought up the question, tossing out a reasonably suitable topic.
Then, just as I was choosing a piece of bread to eat—
“?”
Ji Nuri, who was sitting quietly on the sofa, caught my eye.
“···Aren't you going to eat?”
“Oh, yeah. I am.”
There was something strange about Ji Nuri's tone.
Her voice was stiff, and her gaze held a subtle hint of displeasure.
What was this?
Why was she acting like that?
I rolled my eyes around, searching for Ji Nuri's Minimi.
— “···Come to think of it, they've been hanging out among themselves all this time. They never included me···.”
The Minimi puffed out its cheeks, its eyebrows drooping sharply.
That was what she was upset about.
I supposed she'd spent a lot of time alone in her room lately.
“······.”
What should I say?
From my perspective, it was a little unfair.
Besides, if she'd asked me to hang out, I would've done it.
The words rose as far as my throat, then went back down.
— “Hmm··· mmm···.”
Ji Nuri's Minimi's cheeks wobbled like pudding.
As she ate the bread, Ji Nuri's mood gradually improved.
I could see it at a glance.
“······.”
···What should I say?
Her mood went back and forth, but she was surprisingly easy to cheer up.
······.
Smack smack—
“Wow—but how did we all run into each other here?”
Lee Seungah said as she sucked down her milk.
The effects of what had happened were still lingering.
“I know.”
My head nodded of its own accord.
It really was an incredible coincidence.
Although we had the same kind of tickets, we could choose the dates we used them.
To run into each other at the exact same hotel on the exact same day really was the product of pure coincidence.
Ding—!
The elevator we'd been waiting for arrived at that exact moment.
As I stepped into the elevator, I asked Ji Nuri,
“What floor are you on?”
“Uh··· the seventh. Yeah, the seventh floor.”
Ji Nuri answered while checking her key card.
“The seventh floor?”
“Yeah. We're on the seventh floor too.”
Just as Lee Seungah said, we were staying on the seventh floor.
Ji Nuri asked back in surprise,
“Really? Then what room are you in?”
“We're in Room 731···.”
“I'm in Room 710.”
I nodded at Ji Nuri's answer.
So we weren't in immediately adjacent rooms.
Still, we were on the same floor.
Perhaps because the tickets were the same kind, the rooms we'd been assigned seemed to be in similar areas too.
“Oh, you're back.”
My mother gave me a demure smile when she saw me.
Ji Nuri's parents were standing in front of her.
That explained why her smile had seemed different from usual.
“Hello.”
Although we hadn't been separated for long, I bowed once more.
“···What happened?”
Ji Nuri whispered to her mother.
I was inwardly wondering the same thing.
I hadn't expected us to run into each other again so soon.
Ji Nuri's mother gave a knowing smile and said,
“We ran into each other on the way up. Turns out we're on the same floor.”
“Ah···.”
“Seungho looks exactly like his father, so I recognized him at once. I'd been meaning to introduce myself anyway, so I came right over.”
Ji Nuri's mother laughed softly.
Though we'd happened to meet by chance, the way she approached without hesitation was just like Ji Nuri.
“Oh, right.”
My mother lightly clapped her hands together.
“Since we met, we might as well take it as fate, right?”
“···I suppose?”
“So we've decided to go out together tomorrow. You two are close, too, aren't you?”
Just like that, an outing was announced.
After exchanging only a few words, she already seemed to have become close with the other family.
Her sociability was truly something else.
Just like my mother. Her capital-E energy came with matching follow-through.
— “Oh···!”
— “Wow···!”
Ji Nuri and Lee Seungah's inner thoughts chimed in together at the announcement.
The two of them waved their arms excitedly.
They both seemed happy about being able to hang out with each other.
“Really?”
I nodded appropriately.
Honestly, I didn't particularly mind.
It might have been different if she were someone I felt awkward around, but this was Ji Nuri.
It would probably be fun to go out together, and Lee Seungah looked happy about it too.
— “···Lee Seungho really hit the jackpot.”
Ji Nuri's Minimi looked at me with a triumphant grin.
Even if that was irritating—
Looking at Ji Nuri,
I couldn't really deny it.
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(!Sign!)
(There's an AI illustration if you scroll down!)
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(Traveling Ji Nuri)