Ch.100100. Past Embarrassments Are Always Shameful

I looked over the conditions for the apartment that Hwa Nabi and I would share, which were also her requirements:

‘The apartment must face south, have good water pressure, be near a park suitable for walks and a large supermarket, have the kitchen and living room as separate spaces, have at least two rooms excluding the dressing room, and have good soundproofing.’

Obviously, there’s no way to find a cheap and nice rental place that meets all those conditions.

Well… if we searched hard enough, we might find something somewhere. But would people just leave such a property vacant? Such places don’t really exist, and even if they did, someone would have already snatched them up—that’s just how the world works.

As the real estate agent said, if we wanted to find such an ideal place, it would be much faster to look at newly built officetel units or luxury apartments rather than student rentals near campus.

So, that’s what we did.

“…”

To repeat what I’ve already said, let me be clear about this: there are no rental units near Gwanaksan Station that meet Hwa Nabi’s conditions.

So, how can we satisfy those conditions?

The answer is simple. As I mentioned earlier, we need to move into a luxury apartment instead of a rental.

Brand-name apartment complexes are usually in excellent locations, so they would more than satisfy Hwa Nabi’s conditions.

But there’s a major problem with this approach: it costs a lot of money. How expensive are homes these days? They’re not just house prices—they’re gold prices! That joke isn’t even funny anymore considering how true it is.

…I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent, but what I’m trying to say is this:

──I ended up moving into an apartment with Hwa Nabi.

Even as I say it, it doesn’t feel real. I secretly pinched my cheek hard to make sure.

“…Mmm.”

It hurts like hell, so this isn’t a dream.

It seems I really am going to live in an apartment with her.

Not only are we living together, but we’ve pooled our money to get an apartment under joint ownership. We’re not even married yet, but we’ve already sorted out a home.

I felt a mix of emotions as I realized this. I have ten years of experience living alone. I’m at the level where I can do household chores with my eyes closed, but even for me…

No… precisely because of that experience, living face-to-face with another person feels quite unfamiliar. So naturally, I felt anxious about whether I could adapt well.

But why did my excitement outweigh that anxiety? I think I knew the reason.

Yes, living together with a girlfriend is something every man dreams of at least once.

Needless to say, I’m a man too. It would be a lie to say I’ve never imagined it. But dreams are dreams, and reality is reality.

Setting aside the fact that I didn’t have the means to live with someone, I didn’t even have anyone to live with, so I wasn’t even hoping for it. Who would have thought I’d fulfill this dream as soon as I turned twenty? And with someone as pretty and cute as my fiancée…

As I dwelled on this fact, I couldn’t help but get excited. Naturally, I started imagining various scenarios.

“…Mmm.”

Han Siwoo, calm down. You’re not a little kid, so why are you acting like this?

While I was lost in these thoughts, Hwa Nabi, who was walking beside me, suddenly turned to look at me.

“…”

I was startled, of course, but I pretended to be calm and looked back at her.

“Siwoo, what’s wrong?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean… you were staring at my face. Do you have something you want to say?”

“Um. Well. Ah, that. Moving date. I was thinking about that.”

It had nothing to do with what was actually filling my mind, but Hwa Nabi didn’t seem to notice. She listened to me quietly and then tilted her head as if to say, “What are you talking about?”

“Moving date? Siwoo, what are you saying now? We already decided to move in a week, remember?”

“A week? Ah… right, that’s right.”

Come to think of it, that was true. Today we just made a down payment for the preliminary contract, and we’d finalize the official contract three days later when meeting with the sales representative, then move in a week after that. It worked out because a week from now was an auspicious day for moving.

“‘Ah, right?’ Siwoo, don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten what we just talked about?”

“…What did I say again?”

That was a question I shouldn’t have asked, as Hwa Nabi narrowed her eyes and looked at me. Embarrassed, I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Siwoo, you promised to help me pack my things. Did you already get tired of the idea?”

“Ah… right, I did. No, let’s go. Let’s pack.”

*

After buying lots of packing boxes from the post office, we headed straight to her house. The reason was obvious—we needed to organize our belongings in preparation for the move that was just a week away.

“But Hwa Nabi, we still have a week before moving. Is it okay to put everything in boxes already?”

“Hmm, we can leave out the essentials and pack them the day before, so it’s fine. For now, let’s just organize clothes we won’t wear soon, bedding, and miscellaneous items.”

“Okay, got it.”

The moving company staff will handle transporting the packed boxes, so we just need to organize our things. We’ll set aside valuables that can’t be lost, and after opening the boxes, we’ll stack the bulkier items first.

Before starting the organization in earnest, I took off my coat and sweater and hung them carefully on a hanger. Then I unbuttoned my dress shirt a bit and rolled up the sleeves to my forearms.

There probably wouldn’t be many heavy items in a house where a woman lived alone, but my shirt was rather tight around my forearms and getting in the way.

“…”

But Hwa Nabi stared at me intently.

More precisely, she was staring not at me but at my shirt sleeves—my forearms.

“What? Is there something on my arm?”

Even when I asked, she didn’t answer and just stared blankly. Then, with a slight gulp and a somewhat trembling voice, she replied.

“…Gulp. What? What is it?”

“…I asked if there’s something on my arm, and why you’re looking at me like that.”

“—Ahem, ah, no. It’s nothing. I’ve had a good look, so let’s get to work now. I’ll organize the storage room first, so could you please organize the main bedroom?”

After suddenly clearing her throat, Hwa Nabi said just that and slipped into the main bedroom. Left alone in the living room, I stared at her retreating figure in bewilderment. What’s up with her? I looked at my rolled-up sleeves from different angles, but I couldn’t figure out why she was acting that way.

It must be just one of her occasional quirks. I had no choice but to think that and move on.

“I really don’t get it…”

Anyway, time to start organizing.

I entered the main bedroom as Hwa Nabi had instructed. I’d leave the clothes and bedding since she said we’d pack those right before moving, and start by organizing items we didn’t need immediately or rarely used, arranging them by size.

As I made that assessment, opened a box, and started putting things in order, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Isn’t it usually the opposite?”

Thinking about it normally, shouldn’t Hwa Nabi, as the homeowner, be organizing the main bedroom while I take care of the storage room? Yet for some reason, we were doing the exact opposite.

“…No point in bringing it up now.”

I should just finish organizing.

I opened the door of the second wardrobe. Inside, various clothes hung from the rack attached to the upper part, and the storage space at the bottom was filled with what looked like thick books.

Looking more closely, they weren’t just books but photo albums.

“Oh.”

Curious, I carefully pulled out an album and looked at the text on the cover.

[Baekha Middle School Graduation Album]

“Ah…”

Not a personal album but a graduation album. Come to think of it, family photo albums are typically kept at one’s parents’ home, right? In a way, that makes sense.

I was about to put the graduation album in the box when I hesitated.

“…”

Somehow, it felt like a waste to just put it away.

After all, I don’t know what Hwa Nabi looked like in middle school. We first met on the first day of our freshman year in high school.

So naturally, I’m curious about this album that contains images of Hwa Nabi from a time I didn’t know her.

“…Let me just take a quick look.”

With trembling hands, I opened the first page of the album.

Skipping past the school history that no one cares about and the principal and vice principal’s speeches, I searched for Hwa Nabi’s picture with a pounding heart.

After flipping through about half the album…

I found Hwa Nabi’s graduation photo in the individual photo section of Class 3-4.

“…”

Unlike now, she had a much more youthful appearance, looking incredibly fresh. Making a V-sign with her fingers next to her eyes, she looked adorably spirited.

“Well…”

She’s cute no matter when I see her. But maybe because she wasn’t wearing the Chungha Highschool uniform I’d seen for three years, the Hwa Nabi in the album looked quite unfamiliar.

To exaggerate slightly, it was as if she wasn’t the Hwa Nabi I knew. It’s probably a meaningless assumption, but if we had met during this time, our first impressions might have been quite different.

“…Hmm.”

But then again, Hwa Nabi was lively and spirited from the moment we first met, so maybe not.

Just as I was having these idle thoughts…

“Siwoo? What are you looking at so… huh?”

Our eyes met in mid-air—me sitting on the bed looking at the album, and Hwa Nabi frozen with her hand on the bedroom doorknob.

“…”

“…”

And then, after about three seconds of strange silence.

Hwa Nabi, who had been quietly staring at me, began to blush more and more… and then, with wide eyes, she rushed toward the bed where I was sitting.

“S-Siwoo. Why are you looking at that album?!”

“…Whoa.”

As her pink mane fluttered, I reflexively raised my arms high to avoid her attack.

Then the pink lioness—I mean, Hwa Nabi—clung to my side and stretched out her arm.

“Siwoo, give that to me. Quickly!”

“No, wait. Hwa Nabi? First, put this down, and hey. Hey? J-just a moment. Where are you touching? Even if you’re my girlfriend, this is sexual harassment…”

“Argh… stop resisting and stay still…!”