88. End of Exams, Start of Cohabitation. And a Trip to Japan. (5)

“Well, we should be going now. Get some rest, Grandpa.”

“Alright, give my regards to your grandma. And don’t forget to think carefully about what this old man has been saying on the way home.”

“…Ugh, *seriously*.”

*Sliding door sound*

Closing the sliding door, Aki shook her head, looking utterly drained. And no wonder. Aki had come to see her grandfather and say hello, but instead, she had to listen to a full thirty minutes of ‘the reasons why my granddaughter Aki needs to get married soon,’ with everything else brushed aside.

If I were Aki, I would’ve felt like my soul was getting s*cked dry. I completely understand how she must be feeling.

‘But, seeing him in person, he doesn’t seem like such a strict or scary person, huh?’

I hadn’t seen him before his retirement, so I couldn’t compare, but what I saw and felt was that Aki’s grandfather wasn’t strict at all. He was more of a doting father—no, a doting *grand*father.

From his tone and behavior, I could tell that he adored Aki, and when Aki said even one word, he would pretend he couldn’t win against her and give in.

Ah, except when it came to marriage. Aki turned red in the face and begged him to stop, but he wouldn’t. He was saying things like, ‘Show me a great-grandchild before they nail my coffin shut! Can’t you grant this old man his dying wish~?’

“That’s the problem with my grandfather. He’s a really nice person normally, but once he gets fixated on something, he refuses to listen to anyone else!”

“He’s that stubborn?”

“Ugh, really, *really* stubborn. I bet he’ll nag me every time he sees my face until I get married. Telling me to get married quickly so he can see a great-grandchild while he’s still of sound mind.”

“Ah, I can imagine what that’s like…”

“Doesn’t it give you the shivers just imagining it? Right? …Hoo.”

Akihiko’s cheeks were flushed a bright red, likely from the little squabble we’d just had. She mumbled under her breath, sounding rather put out.

I found the sight a little endearing, and gently took her hand, a silent signal that it was time to head down.

“We’re going to see your grandmother now?”

“Ah, yeah. Gotta go see her. But let’s eat dinner first. Auntie said she’s made galbi…”

“Sure, let’s eat. But Aki, I didn’t know you even liked galbi?”

“I don’t really like just any galbi, but I like the one Auntie makes. It’s super sweet and delicious!”

“Ah.”

So, anything sweet, then. A remarkably consistent taste.

“Uju-chan, don’t you like galbi much?”

“Huh? No, I like it. It’s meat, after all.”

“Heh, so you like anything that’s meat?”

“Not just *anything*, but I usually like it, yeah? It’s protein.”

It’s rare to find someone built like me who dislikes meat. If you dislike meat in the first place, you can’t really build much muscle. There are exceptions, of course, but that’s usually the case.

“Heeeh, protein…”

Akihiko narrowed her eyes, glancing at me sideways.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing… It just seems like men need a lot of it…?”

I squeezed her hand as we started down the stairs and said,

“So now that you’re twenty, you’re just going to say stuff like that?”

“Eung, what?”

“Saying men need a lot of protein, weren’t you making a dirty joke at me just now?”

“Heh, why is that a dirty joke? I don’t know anything~?”

‘So you’re going to play it like that…?’

Making suggestive jokes and then pretending to be clueless. What a sly girlfriend I have.

Well, I had been preparing a comeback for moments like this. I interlaced our fingers and gently rubbed the back of Akihiko’s hand.

“So, when should we get married?”

“……Eung?”

Pause.

Just as expected, Akihiko flinched, surprised.

I seized the moment, adding one more thing.

“About the wedding, the wedding. Grandfather said he wants us to hurry up and get married, didn’t he? If he’s going to see his great-grandchild, we need to set a date, and to do that, we need to pick one ourselves first, don’t we?”

“Wh-what…? …Ah.”

A faint giggle escaped as I spoke, and Aki, belatedly realizing it was a joke, tightly pursed her lips.

Her face briefly soured, but then, not wanting to be outdone, she retorted crisply.

“You said you’d only marry me if I got a romantic proposal, didn’t you? Forgotten already, Uju~chan?”

“Ah, that’s right. The proposal. But what even counts as a romantic proposal?”

“…Hmph, figure it out yourself. *Atashi* won’t tell you.”

“I’m really not sure, so can’t you give me a hint? Hmm?”

“I don’t know, you big dummy…!”

Ah, she’s angry.

Immediately, I clung to Aki.

“Is this how you do it? I love you, marry me…. Something like that?”

“…Ugh.”

Aki’s waist subtly trembled.

“D-don’t talk in my ear. *Atashi* is weak there…”

“……”

To reveal her own weakness.

This was an opportunity for me. Since doing what I’m told not to do is what I’m prone to, I came down to the first floor and I brought my face in even closer.

“I’ll stop if you say you’ll marry me.”

“Wh-what…?!”

“Quickly, if you don’t say it, I’ll keep whispering.”

“Ah, ugh….”

“I’m not joking. Really, if you don’t say you’ll marry me soon…”

*Slam!-*

Suddenly, the bathroom door burst open, and someone emerged.

“Miss, you were here… Oh, my.”

The cleaning lady, drying her hands, began to speak with a smile, but seeing Aki and me—looking, at first glance, as though we were tenderly embracing and whispering sweet nothings—seemed startled.

She cut her words short, and, as if to apologize, nonchalantly brushed past us.

“……”

“……”

Aki and I froze in that very position.

I slowly lowered my gaze, taking in Aki’s face.

Whether it was because of my lame flirting or not, her ears were bright red, making her look exactly like someone caught in a romantic tryst, blushing with embarrassment.

“…Agh, seriously!”

“……”

Even her embarrassed face is cute.

* * *

“Thank you for the meal, Auntie…”

“Thank you for the meal.”

We awkwardly bowed and rose from our seats. The woman didn’t say much, just kept smiling. It seemed she was trying to be considerate of us, having caught us in the middle of… that. But even that only fueled our embarrassment, our faces burning.

‘It’s my first time meeting her, and there’s unlikely to be a next…’

Aki, however, would have to see her Auntie every time she came to her family home, so she must be even more mortified than I was.

My assumption seemed to be correct, as Aki, having finished her meal, only managed a hasty, “W-well, we’ll be going now…!” before rushing out of the house.

Instead of Aki, who had already bolted, I gave a deep bow just before exiting the doorway.

“Thank you for dinner, Auntie.”

Calling her ‘Ajumma’ felt inappropriate, so I followed Aki’s lead. At that, the woman, no, Auntie, smiled warmly.

“Yes. Please take good care of our daughter, Young Master.”

“E-excuse me? Young Master…?”

“You two are getting married, aren’t you? Then I should address you as Young Master, shouldn’t I?”

“……”

She heard everything.

Figures, the timing of her coming out of the bathroom was too perfect.

“Next time you come, I’ll make you something delicious, but keep it a secret from our daughter, okay?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll see you next time…”

“Yes, goodbye~”

I left Aki’s family home, Auntie’s farewells ringing in my ears.

Aki, who had been waiting for me outside, was fanning herself vigorously, her face still flushed, but she noticed my arrival and approached me.

“You’re here? Let’s go, Uju~chan…”

“Eung, we are going to grandma’s house, right?”

Aki, instead of answering, pulled out her phone. I wondered what she was doing, watching her intently as she opened a green browser and searched for something in Japanese.

[Yoshida Sanso]

“Yoshida Sanso…?”

“Yeah, this is where my grandmother lives. Or, more precisely, where she works as an Okami (女將).”

“Okami? What does that mean?”

“Ryokan proprietress. But these days, they also call women who are family members and handle the hospitality ‘Okami’.”

“Ah, really? So, if Aki works at your grandmother’s ryokan and handles the hospitality, they’d call Aki ‘Okami’?”

“Eung, eung, right? I guess so.”

If attached, it’d be ‘Okami Aki’. It’s not like it’s a term used that way, but ‘Okami Aki’ sounds a little cool. It’s also because ‘Okami’ is also the Japanese word for wolf, too.

I was about to make a pun with the similar-sounding words, but stopped when I saw Aki seriously fiddling with her phone. She was calling a taxi.

“Woo-joo-chan, I just called a taxi, so let’s take it.”

“Doesn’t a bus come this way?”

“You have to go all the way to the main road to catch a bus, and it’s a 20-minute walk just to get there. It’s faster to just take a taxi.”

“Ah, I see.”

Then I should wait.

As Aki said, after waiting patiently for less than 10 minutes, a taxi arrived. Because it was a taxi called by phone, it wasn’t a regular sedan, but a black van with a high roof and wide seats. The basic fare was a whopping 730 yen, multiplied by a 1.3x surcharge for a large vehicle, totaling around 950 yen.

Converted to Korean won at the current exchange rate, it’s about ₩8,400, but the problem isn’t just that – Japanese taxis add distance-based and time-based fares on top of that. In our case, we went 5km in 15 minutes, so all things considered, it came out to a total of 3,200 yen.

“Here you go. Thank you for your hard work~”

“Thank you. Have a nice trip, miss.”

“…Whoa.”

Only a 15-minute taxi ride, and the fare is ₩30,000?

The taxi I took when coming to my grandfather’s house was also expensive, but calling a luxury taxi doubles the fare. We always say taxi fares in Korea are expensive, but compared to Japan, they’re practically angelic. Newly realizing this, I stuck out my tongue and shook my head.

“Woo-joo-chan, why?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘I think the taxi fare is too expensive…’ I have my pride as a man. My masculinity wouldn’t allow me to show myself scrambling with money in front of my girlfriend, of all people.

“Ah, it’s nothing. How much was the taxi fare? I’ll contribute half.”

“Eung? Why should Woo-joo-chan pay for the taxi fare?”

“We came together, so I should pay too. It was 3,200 yen, right?”

“Eung, that’s right… But, I’m the one who wanted to come here? So, Woo-joo-chan doesn’t have to pay.”

“Euhm….”

Still, wouldn’t it be right for me to pay half?

Just unilaterally receiving felt too burdensome, and it didn’t sit right with my nature, so I quietly gazed at Aki. Aki, too, was looking at me.

“…….”

“…….”

The two of us met each other’s gaze for quite some time.

In the end, Aki laughed as if unable to win.

“Alright, give me half.”

“Okay, here.”

As if I’d been waiting for it, I handed over half of the fare. And I smiled.

To smile while spending money I didn’t need to spend, someone who didn’t know the circumstances might think I was crazy, but this made me feel at ease. More than just receiving from Aki unilaterally, I also wanted to be in a relationship where we gave and took in equal measure.

Aki took the 1600 yen I gave her and started to put it in her wallet.

No, to be more precise, right before putting it in, she stopped her hand and muttered, “Ah.”

“But, you know. We’re going to stay here tonight, right? Is Uju-chan going to pay half of that too?”

“Huh? Uh, er….”

Oh.

I hadn’t thought that far ahead…

Taken aback by Aki’s sudden question, I hesitated.

Aki, who had been walking a couple of steps ahead of me, whipped around.

“Just so you know, the cheapest room at my grandma’s ryokan is 135,000 yen.”

“……How much was that?”

“135,000 yen. But that’s not all. Options other than the standard amenities come at an additional cost, and you have to pay separately for dinner. There aren’t any a la carte options, only set courses ranging from 25,000 yen to 45,000 yen per person.”

“Oh, then….”

I started calculating in my head.

The cheapest room is 135,000 yen, and the cheapest dinner course is 25,000 yen.

Adding the two together, that makes 160,000 yen.

160,000 yen is approximately 1.4 million won in Korean currency.

‘……No way.’

Even if we split the room cost, it’s still nearly a million won.

At the price beyond imagination, I was left speechless.

To spend a million yen for a single night… the remaining two days would be spent starving and sleeping rough. No, to begin with, I didn’t even have 100,000 yen with me. That thought reached its conclusion, and I looked at Aki.

Aki was grinning like a mischievous imp.

“Heheh.”

A gaze that dared me to stubbornly insist on paying half.

“……”

I hesitated, caught between worlds.

Then, Aki lightly snatched a thousand yen bill from my hand.

“Uju-chan, you only brought 90,000 yen~? You’re short, aren’t you?”

“……Yeah.”

I should have brought more money…

Before I knew it, I’d answered with a dejected sigh.

Aki, as if finding my reaction adorable, tapped my side.

“It’s okay. You can pay the rest with your body later.”

“Huh?”

“I want you to give me a massage after the onsen. My back’s been killing me from sitting on the plane and train for so long.”

“…Ah.”

That’s what she meant.

For a second there, I thought she meant something…else.

“Uju-chan, you pervert, you dirty mind! You were imagining something weird when I said ‘pay with your body,’ weren’t you?”

“……No, I wasn’t?”

“No, you weren’t? It was written all over your face. Seriously, Uju-chan is secretly a pervert, too? Heheh…”

“……”

I had no response.

Because… I kind of was.