104. Entrance Ceremony, After-Party, and….(3)

“You have a girlfriend? …For real?”

“Yeah. For real. Why?”

“…Just asking, but you don’t mean just a female friend, do you?”

“No, of course not?”

“……”

Noa clamped her mouth shut.

What to say? Like she has so much to say but is forcing herself to hold it back, that sort of peculiar expression.

“…Never mind.”

Noa took a sip of her beer.

Or, more precisely, pretended to sip her beer, muttering to herself in a voice barely audible.

“Why sit next to me and ask me all sorts of things if you have a girlfriend…? Wasn’t that… flirting?! Jeez. Got excited all for nothing….”

“Huh? What was that?”

“……Nothing!”

*Thunk-*!

Noa put her beer glass down.

As if she’d sorted out her thoughts while pretending to drink, she stared intently at me before opening her mouth.

“How long have you been dating?”

“Hmm, I don’t know? I’m not the type to count every single day…”

“……Really? More than about a month?”

“A month? Nah, not that long…”

“Then… 3 months? Or maybe 6 months…?”

Noa’s face brightened slightly.

“Neither of those. We’ve been dating… maybe 3 years?”

Since Aki and I started dating in 1st year of high school, it’s probably been 3 years.

We’ve known each other for almost 14 years, but there’s no need to tell a girl I’m meeting for the first time all of that, so I only said that much.

But then, my words make his face set hard.

“Three years…?!”

“Yeah, not exactly, but around that, give or take.”

“You mean, you dated one person for three years? Not just that you had a girlfriend for three years?”

“Right? Only dated one person.”

“Really…?”

Noah’s eyes rake over me, assessing, not quite believing.

I didn’t exactly have the face of someone who’d be unfaithful, but his suspicious gaze made me chuckle a little.

“What, you thought I was playing the field?”

“…Well, just a tiiiny bit?”

“Sounds like more than a tiny bit…”

“No, honestly… really, only one girlfriend? Like, there weren’t other girls trying to get with you too…?”

“Didn’t happen.”

“Really? Tell me the truth. The honest-to-god truth.”

“Hmm, the honest-to-god truth?”

“Yees, the honest-to-god truth…!”

I took a swig of my beer.

“Okay, honestly? There were a few girls who were obvious about being interested, sure? But.”

“But…?”

“I pretended not to notice and only dated my girlfriend. She was my first love, after all.”

“F-first love…?!”

Noah’s eyes widen to the size of saucers.

Having come this far, I figured I might as well spill the whole story, so I took another gulp of beer and continued.

“Yeah, first love. We’d been together since kindergarten. You probably saw her too? The girl I k*ssed at the baseball game.”

“Uh…?! Seriously? That…the foreign girl with the pink hair? *She’s* your first love…?!”

“Yup, seriously.”

“Wow…honestly, that’s hard to believe…?”

Noah’s mouth hung open a little, like he couldn’t quite process it.

Well, come to think of it, even *I* would have a hard time believing it. Not only was my first love a foreign girl, but we’d also been together since kindergarten. If you didn’t know about my and Aki’s 14-year-long journey together, you’d probably think I was just making up a story.

“I have a bunch of pictures of us together, wanna see?”

“Ugh, show me…!”

“Just a sec.”

I pulled out my phone from my pocket. Then, I opened the gallery app and tapped the folder titled “[Aki’s Photos Collection].”

The photos cascaded open, with the total number of pictures I’d saved displayed at the top. 978. Soon, if I just took a few more, I’d have a thousand photos showcasing Aki’s face.

No need to look at the recent ones. I swiped up, up, up, showing her a photo of Aki that I’d snapped the moment I got my smartphone. The date it was taken was a staggering ten years ago. Back when we were elementary schoolers.

“This is you, and the girl next to you is your girlfriend… huh?”

“Yeah, that’s right. The one on the left is me, and next to me is Aki.”

“Ah, her name is Aki. She really looks foreign…?”

“Doesn’t she look like a foreigner just by looking at her?”

In Korea, you could search high and low and never find hair the color of pink cotton candy, sapphire blue eyes, and skin as pale as snow-white rice cake.

Back then, Aki was unmistakably a foreigner, and to be honest, she still looks foreign now. To be more precise, she looks like a Western beauty. Of course, if you only listen to her talk, she’s practically Korean, though.

“Well, she could be mixed race… Wow, but she’s really pretty. She was beautiful even when she was little…”

“She’s still beautiful now. Wanna take a look?”

“Do you have any recent photos?”

“I do. I even have one I took just yesterday.”

I showed her a photo taken at the park near my house. It was a picture of Aki making a V-sign beneath a tree much taller than us.

Since it was taken with the rear camera, there was no Photoshop, no editing, nothing like that… Aki was just different from the beginning. Even wearing long clothes, her proportions couldn’t be hidden.

It wasn’t just because she’s my girlfriend, but really, objectively, Aki boasted proportions that would make you believe she was a model. Seeing her in the photo, Noah seemed to think similarly, letting out a captivated gasp.

“Whoa…”

“What do you think, pretty, right?”

“Ugh, so pretty… Does she do any modeling work or something?”

“Nope, just a regular person. Goes to college.”

“Really? Which college… Ah, is it rude to ask that kind of thing…?”

“It’s not rude. She goes to the same college as us. Different department though…”

“Gasp, then could you introduce me to her sometime…?! I’m good at English…!”

Aki is Japanese in terms of nationality. Well, that’s not really the point, so I just nodded. Then Noah asked me twice, three times (You’re gonna introduce me for sure, right, for sure, got it…?!), pressing me for confirmation, and I answered her over and over.

“Wow, making a foreign friend has been my dream…!”

“Why? Don’t you have any foreign friends?”

“Ugh. I’ve been practicing shooting since I was little, so I haven’t had time to make friends. I don’t have any foreign friends, I don’t even have any friends…!”

“…Ah, really?”

I hadn’t meant to ask, but I ended up hearing a reply that tugged at my heart a little.

*I should be his friend…* The thought barely formed when a shadow fell across my sight. I looked up to find a female student standing there.

“Hiya, having fun~?”

It was Lee Soyoung, the sophomore class representative. The moment I realized she was a senior from the same department, I quickly greeted her.

“Hello, Sunbae-nim.”

“Aish, what’s with the stiff *sunbae* stuff? You can just call me *nuna*. Soyoung *nuna*~ or just *nuna*~ like that!”

The sophomore class rep, Lee Soyoung, said with a sweet eye-smile.

“Ah, well….”

I almost complied, ready to call her comfortably, but then I hesitated.

A vision of Aki, not present, flashed in my mind.

If Aki were here, she would be silently pressuring me with just her eyes, saying ‘How dare you call a woman by her first name in front of me…?’ regardless if Lee Soyoung was a departmental senior or not.

Well, I’m a little uneasy in case Aki finds out… but we’re in different departments, so we probably won’t run into each other.

“I’ll call you comfortably then. Nuna. You can just call me by my name too.”

“Ah, shall I? Woojoo…right?”

“Yes, Nuna.”

“……Ahem.”

“Sunbae-nim. Can I call you *unni* too?”

“Huh? Ah, yeah. You can call me *unni*. Call me comfortably, comfortably…!”

Soyoung *nuna*’s face flushed slightly.

Noa, sitting next to me, watched Soyoung *nuna* and then chuckled softly.

“*Unni*. Don’t be fooled by his smile.”

“Huh, what, what…?”

“Woojoo has a girlfriend. And they’ve been dating for three years.”

“……Ah, really?”

“Yeah. I was fooled until just now.”

“……?”

What did I fool them about? I tilted my head, confused by their conversation.

──*Vvvvrrr, vvvvrrr!*

Just then. The cellphone I’d left on the table buzzed loudly. It was a call. The caller was Aki.

[My Aki, the Cutest and s*xiest in the World ♡]

“Wow, look at how you saved her name…”

Noah looks at me with slightly cooled eyes.

“…”

He should be out having fun, why is he calling me…?

Feeling slightly awkward, I asked for their understanding and answered the phone.

“I’m sorry, just a moment… Hello?”

[…Ah, Husband!]

The moment I answered, a loud voice rang out. It was Aki. Startled, I glanced around.

Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have heard. Soyoung noona and Noah were looking at me as if asking if something was wrong. I waved my hand to indicate that it was nothing and spoke quietly.

“Hey, Aki. Why did you call?”

[Well, Husband…!]

“Yeah?”

[The others, the others are… teasing me so much… They ask if Husband is really handsome, if I’m lying, they’re just… just…!]

“…Huh?”

Why does her voice sound like that?

It sounds like she’s drunk, but it also sounds like she’s intentionally acting cute. It’s hard to tell with all the noise on the other end.

Hesitant, I turned up the volume slightly and asked.

“Aki, you didn’t… drink any alcohol, did you?”

[Uhh, no. I only had a litttleee…!]

“You only had a little…?”

[Heehee, don’t worry! I’m not drunk…]

“…”

Anyone can tell that she’s completely drunk. Not drunk?

“Aki, who’s there with you?”

[Umm… Jiyoung, Eunju, Donghee…!]

“…Donghee?”

Who is Donghee?

The first two sound like girls’ names. But Donghee, at the end, sounded like a boy’s name.

[Uhh, Donghee! He’s a friend from the same department, and he’s really, really…]

“Really?”

[……So handsome!]

“……What?”

[Handsome, I tell you! Immensely so, at least in my eyes…. Just a smidge below my darling, I’d say….]

“……Put that Dong-hee girl on.”

[Whyyyy…?]

“Just put her on, quickly.”

[Okay, just a moment…. Dong-hee, swap phones for a sec…! (Why? Who is it?) My darling wants to talk to you…! (Uh…. why me?) I don’t know, he wants you! Hurry, swap it over~]

“…….”

[Yes. Phone’s been switched.]

“……Ah.”

A woman’s voice.

I’d thought it was some guy, talking about how incredibly handsome he was. A woman, huh. Instinctively, I felt a wave of relief wash over me, and I breathed a sigh.

“Excuse me. Are you perhaps Dong-hee-ssi?”

[Yes, I am, but….]

[Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just… I wanted to ask something. That, uh, the girl who owns this cell phone. Aki. Is she… very drunk right now?”

[Yes, very… (I’m not druuunk~!) ……she’s quite intoxicated.]

“…….”

I didn’t need to hear any more.

“……Where are you?”

I shot up from my seat.