Ch.252252. The Unfathomable Female Heart

After feeding me something sweet and walking me home, shouldn’t you be grateful to me? I don’t understand what the problem is. For about three seconds, I stood still in confusion before suddenly realizing.

Could she possibly be indirectly asking why I just let her go?

No, that can’t be it. That would be too male-centered thinking. Hwa Nabi came simply because I invited her, without any ulterior motives. If I didn’t send her home while expecting something more, I’d truly be a bad person.

You know that common saying among women? That atmosphere matters most to women. So you need to stimulate their emotions, but just feeding someone sweets doesn’t create an atmosphere out of nowhere.

While thinking this, I glanced at Hwa Nabi to gauge her reaction. She was smiling with an unreadable expression.

For some reason, though, that smile looked to me like she was testing me.

“…Are you saying I should have kept you longer?”

I asked cautiously after contemplating. This didn’t seem like something I could figure out by just thinking to myself, so I chose to ask directly.

But predictably, Hwa Nabi didn’t answer my question. She just stared at me silently, then tapped her lips with her index finger.

What’s this? Is she asking for a kiss? I found myself staring at her face, watching her pink lips move.

“No, that’s not it. With family upstairs and downstairs, and me being a minor at the time, how could we have spent the night together?”

I’m pretty sure I said “kept you longer,” but after Hwa Nabi’s filtering, it somehow became about spending the night together. The leap was so sudden that I was momentarily taken aback, but I quickly regained my composure.

This wasn’t the first time she’d done this. She was probably just teasing me as usual. Realizing this made me feel a bit more at ease.

“That’s why I sent you home right away.”

“Yes, and that’s the problem.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“You just finished your business and sent me right back.”

“What else should I have done?”

I genuinely thought she must have had her own schedule, and keeping her without any purpose would be more inconsiderate. I truly couldn’t understand. Hwa Nabi looked at me as if I were hopeless.

“Come on, were we just ordinary friends?”

We were much closer than just classmates. In front of others, we were affectionate fiancés, and when alone, we were an intimate couple who kissed without hesitation.

After that, I confessed on the festival day and we officially became a couple… but that’s not relevant right now. What Hwa Nabi is asking about is our relationship during that middle period—between the school trip and the festival.

“We were pretty close, weren’t we?”

We weren’t dating, but we were at that pre-dating stage, kind of like having a crush. It was already three years ago, so I’m not entirely sure.

“Yes, we were very close. So why would you invite a girl you’re very close with to your home and then just send her away?”

“Huh?”

“Why did you just send me away? Are you stupid?”

“Well, I could just send you home. Calling me stupid is a bit…”

“Kicking away a prepared meal makes you stupid. Don’t you think?”

“…”

I’m a man, obviously. When I’m with a pretty girl I’m close to, of course I imagine doing this and that. It’s not just me—all men are like that. I guarantee there’s no man in this world who doesn’t feel that way. How can anyone deny the instinct encoded in our genes?

But we have reason. We can distinguish whether a meal will make us sick or not. And at that time, I thought that meal would definitely make me sick.

Our relationship was incredibly complicated. If we had made a mistake, it wouldn’t have ended with just us—it would have caused an uproar in both our families, so I had to be more cautious.

It is a man’s shame not to eat a prepared meal. However, if the meal will make you sick, isn’t it right not to touch it?

Well, looking back now, maybe I was too cautious. But that’s too results-oriented, so I’ll skip it for now. After much deliberation, I put down my fork.

“To be honest, truthfully speaking.”

“Speaking what?”

“Since I’m a man… of course I had those feelings.”

“What feelings exactly?”

She doesn’t seem to be asking because she genuinely doesn’t know. She probably knows but is just asking anyway.

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t know.”

She urged me on, fidgeting slightly, so I decided I should be direct for once. I turned my head and whispered in her ear.

“Like what we did yesterday… you know.”

I whispered the last part so quietly that only Hwa Nabi could hear it. Perhaps because of my explicit statement, her body suddenly flinched, and her ears turned slightly red.

“But we couldn’t do that, right? What if we had made a mistake when we were students? Would our parents have given their blessing as easily as they do now?”

I’m pretty sure both our parents wouldn’t have stayed quiet. Korea has a culture that doesn’t look kindly on pregnancy and childbirth among minors.

Moreover, both my parents and Hwa Nabi’s are business people. They’re in professions that can’t ignore public opinion, making them even more sensitive to such issues. If we, as minors, had done something wrong, the consequences were obvious.

“…We could have used that.”

Hwa Nabi, her earlobes still red, carefully suggested her opinion. But I firmly shook my head.

“Even with that, it’s not 100% effective.”

“Nothing in this world is 100%.”

“Yes, but if you don’t start at all, that’s 100%, right?”

So I held back. How could I trust contraception with a failure rate higher than winning the fifth prize in the lottery?

Better for me to suffer a little. If I had hurt Hwa Nabi with a momentary mistake, I probably wouldn’t have forgiven myself.

“…So you deliberately pretended to be clueless? Ignoring all the signals I sent?”

“I didn’t ignore everything, but I did pretend not to notice quite a bit.”

During the three years of my school life with Hwa Nabi, I received many temptations. She shook me in so many different ways that I can’t list them all, but one of the most shocking was when I went to her house after she invited me to study together, and there was underwear conspicuously placed on the sofa.

And it wasn’t ordinary underwear—it was the kind people often call “anniversary underwear.” The kind with minimal fabric that reveals a lot of skin.

At the time, I was so surprised by the bold design that I didn’t notice, but thinking about it now, she must have done it on purpose. I remember that was a time when I was suffering a lot from study stress. She probably left it there with multiple purposes—to do something other than studying, to tempt me, killing two birds with one stone.

“I see. I thought it was strange how insensitive you were. When I tried to initiate skinship and leaned in, you pretended not to notice? Even during the school trip, you knew how I felt but pretended not to?”

“When you put it that way, I sound like a really bad guy.”

Like someone who knows a girl likes him but doesn’t give a clear answer, just stringing her along.

“You are a bad guy. A bad guy who just kissed me and ran away.”

“Ran away? If someone heard that, they’d really think I ran…”

“That was my first kiss.”

“Wait. Let me explain.”

“So I was really looking forward to your confession. But you never properly confessed, and only did it later when you thought I might confess first.”

I have no defense against that weapon. Whatever the reason, objectively speaking, it’s true that I kissed her and didn’t give a clear answer.

Desperate for an excuse, I looked at the table. I hoped to find some hint, but of course there was nothing—just the beef steak getting cold.

“Um, Nabi.”

“Come to think of it, it also took you forever to call me by my name. I called you by your name almost as soon as we met. But you, what, called me by my name after about three years?”

“No, that’s…”

“This much push and pull would snap even a rubber band.”

“…”

I shrank further at her continued outpouring of feelings. I thought she hadn’t cared because she never mentioned it before… but that wasn’t the case.

Well, Hwa Nabi is human too, so it’s natural she’d have some grievances against me. When people meet, there can’t always be only good things.

“Husband.”

“Y-yes?”

“You need to treat me better, right?”

“…I will.”

After answering cautiously, Hwa Nabi smiled mischievously. It was a playful, amused smile that made me smile along without realizing it.

Tap tap, Hwa Nabi tapped her lips with her index finger.

“I’m hungry.”

I almost said, “You can eat what’s here…” but caught myself. That would have made the atmosphere truly awkward. Belatedly catching on, I picked up a piece of Mallorca I had cut with my fork and held it out to Hwa Nabi.

She didn’t eat it right away, but hesitated, then opened her lips primly as if to say she’d try it because I was offering.

Chewing thoroughly, Hwa Nabi sucked on the straw in her drink. After swallowing, she stared at me.

“Have you decided where to go this evening?”

“About that. They said there will be fireworks at the hotel later. They’re doing it on the beach in front of the hotel, but from our room’s position, we’ll have the best view of the fireworks.”

“So you want to stay in the room?”

“Yeah, we can’t go far at night anyway. So I think it’s better to watch the fireworks from our room… what do you think?”

“Hmm… okay. There’s nothing to see at night anyway.”

She nodded readily, then her gaze moved from my face down to my waistband.

“I’ll just have to enjoy looking at your body instead.”