Not Even a Date

"Why are you drinking so much water?"

At Na-hee's question, Ji-eum glanced down at the tumbler in her hand. It was already nearly empty.

"My throat's a little scratchy."

She coughed, the words coming out with effort. Her throat had been stinging and dry since last night, and when she woke up that morning it even felt as though she'd swallowed a mouthful of sand.

"Whoa, they said pollen allergies are brutal right now... You okay?"

Na-hee patted her back in concern, and once Ji-eum nodded, she promptly sank back into her phone game.

Ahem...

Ji-eum drained what was left of the water and cleared her throat. She didn't have a pollen allergy. The real reason her throat hurt was the karaoke she'd been dragged to yesterday, unable to hold out against Kwon Beom-ju's relentless pestering.

At first, Ji-eum had sung three songs by herself. She'd figured that even if it was a coin karaoke booth with just the two of them, going with Kwon Beom-ju wouldn't feel like much of anything — but once they actually got there, the atmosphere turned awkward. Sitting alone together in that cramped booth, she found herself conscious even of the sound of their breathing.

The distance between them, side by side, was barely a few centimeters. Every time his thick thigh brushed hers, the faint warmth that came with it made Ji-eum flinch.

Kwon Beom-ju paid it no mind whatsoever. He rolled up his sleeves and gave the mic a casual test.

"You wanna go first?"

"Sure. It's been a while... What should I even sing."

On the first song her voice wouldn't come out properly, nerves getting the better of her, but as she kept going it opened up, and she ended up singing several more. Every so often she felt his gaze land on her cheek, but Ji-eum kept her eyes locked on the screen and sang.

"Hey, you've got a nice voice. You're not secretly working as a singer, are you?"

"What... koff, my throat hurts. Pass me that water."

After that they sang two duets in a row. By the time they finished, her throat felt ready to split open.

Then Kwon Beom-ju sang ten songs straight on his own. He moved freely between unbelievably high notes and deep lows, and she was stunned that his voice never once gave out.

Did he forge his vocal cords out of steel...?

At any rate, she decided to concede that his voice was pleasant to listen to, and that he sang well.

"I oughta show you some dance moves too."

"Ah... that's really not necessary?"

After they left the coin karaoke, they ducked into a little place that served steaming bowls of bean-sprout soup and ended up having dinner together as well. The hot broth eased her throat some, but it didn't fully recover.

Getting tangled up with Kwon Beom-ju like this, all slapdash and unplanned...

It felt as though they were getting more and more deeply involved, which made her head ache. And yet it was also true that for as long as she was with Kwon Beom-ju, thoughts of Seung-jo didn't surface at all.

"Hahh..."

Right... if Kwon Beom-ju hadn't stepped in that day, she wouldn't have been able to hold the tears back in the end, and the atmosphere with Seung-jo would have gone strange. Feelings she'd hidden so carefully all this time — she'd come within a hair of blowing everything. Thinking of it that way, she felt a little grateful to Kwon Beom-ju.

Shaking free of those tangled thoughts, Ji-eum sketched a muscular demon on her tablet, the stylus whispering across the screen. When she finished, it somehow looked less fierce than before, so she deliberately slashed the outer corners of the eyes upward into something vicious.

Lecture time was nearly upon them, and still the professor hadn't arrived. Room 209 of Jinri-gwan was noisy because of it. Someone yanked open the curtains that were always drawn, and sunlight poured brightly into the classroom.

The view beyond the windows was spring in full bloom. Everyone had clustered into little groups, making weekend plans, laughing and chattering in excited voices.

"I'm going down to the Hangang River this weekend to ride bikes. Anyone wanna come?"

"I'm going to an amusement park with my boyfriend. They said there's a tulip festival."

"Pfft, you guys were fighting and now it's a tulip festival? That's hilarious, seriously."

The Hangang River, amusement parks, tulips...

In the middle of all that noisy conversation, Ji-eum paused the pen in her hand and lowered her eyes. The bursts of laughter from every direction grew louder, and she quietly shut her ears against them.

Watching everyone lay out their own plans and look forward to the weekend, she had the uneasy sense that something was off. She'd been intending to just roll around at home.

Maybe I should go out too.

The tulip festival would mean going all the way to Yongin, so that was out, and the Hangang River would be packed. Somewhere nearby, just to get a breath of fresh air, would be enough.

Ji-eum quietly spoke up to Na-hee, who had just paused her game and was rummaging through her inventory.

"Na-hee. Wanna go somewhere this weekend, just us?"

"Oh. I was gonna take my nephew out to Hanam. Wanna tag along?"

"Uh, no, no."

Even Na-hee has plans...

Then she'd be on her own. A comic cafe, maybe, or an art museum?

While the professor came in and took attendance, Ji-eum looked out the window she'd been avoiding.

Cherry blossoms in full, lavish bloom scattered on the wind, raining down pale pink petals. It was pretty as a painting. And yet, strangely, her mood didn't lift at all.

That was when a message notification chimed. Ji-eum tapped the popup, and her eyes went round.

Ji-eum stepped out of the bathroom and stood in front of the full-length mirror.

A round-neck cable-knit sweater, pants in a fresh, clean tone, hair left down instead of tied up. It was an unfamiliar look for Ji-eum, who usually went around in nothing but her department jacket.

I should've just worn a sweatshirt like before. Why did I even bother changing...

"It's not even a date..."

A flicker of regret, but it was already too late. There was no time to change again.

Ji-eum shuddered at the outing clothes she hadn't worn in ages and headed for the front door. The hallway of the officetel was quiet.

He hasn't come out yet, of course.

Today was Sunday. It wasn't ordinarily a day she saw Kwon Beom-ju, but the day before yesterday a plan had materialized out of nowhere.

She already saw him all week long, and now she had to look at Kwon Beom-ju's face on the weekend too? Ji-eum replied, unenthused.

Fair enough. Ji-eum found herself nodding. The popular titles had rotated off, and the catalog was filled with things that just didn't match her taste; she'd been considering canceling her subscription.

So he was thinking the same thing.

She hadn't even said she was going, and yet screenshots of currently showing movies arrived one after another. While she was still hesitating, another message came in.

Just the two of them at a movie theater... It would be a little awkward, wouldn't it? Would that even be okay? She hesitated, and then the coin karaoke came back to her. That had only been awkward at the very beginning; she'd gotten used to it soon enough.

Besides, she'd only been watching streaming at home, and it had been ages since she'd set foot in an actual theater. And Dawn of the Dead was a movie they'd already watched together, so seeing the sequel with Kwon Beom-ju would actually give them something to talk about.

And so today, the movie plans had been set.

"Why isn't he coming out..."

Ji-eum paced the hallway, her hand hovering over the doorbell of the unit across from hers, lifting and settling again. To ring or not to ring. Should she just punch in the passcode and go in?

She was still deliberating when a rustling sounded from inside, and at last the door opened.

"What. You were waiting out here? Just ring the bell."

"......"

Kwon Beom-ju was wearing a crisp Oxford shirt and dark tapered pants. The right sleeve had been folded up with practiced ease, the cast sticking out. It was a clean, refined look, nothing like the jock vibe he gave off on campus.

That unidentifiable deep cologne still clung to him, along with the scent of men's aftershave, drifting off him in waves.

Ji-eum stole a sidelong glance before she could stop herself, and found herself impressed.

...That fit is insane.

He was big, heavily muscled, and yet everything was in proportion, so the clothes hung on him just right.

So that's why he's so popular.

Does he not even date? How high are this guy's standards...?

She was still lost in those thoughts all the way down to the underground parking garage and into the car.

It was only after quite some time that she realized Kwon Beom-ju, in the driver's seat, had been watching her.

"What...?"

"Did you put something on today?"

The question came out of nowhere. Kwon Beom-ju ran his tongue lightly over his lips, then kept glancing at her even as he buckled his seatbelt.

"Just sunscreen and lip balm?"

"Yeah?"

"Why, what's wrong?"

"You just look... different somehow."

Under that clinging, puzzled gaze, Ji-eum grew embarrassed and turned her head away. It's the same as always, what's supposed to be different... Wait, is something on my face? She checked the side mirror in a hurry, but there was nothing on her anywhere.

"Huh. Weird."

Kwon Beom-ju looked at her a few more times, then, as if it were nothing at all, turned the key with the same easy motion as always. A bright little chime rang through the car.