Ch.3130. Conferment Ceremony (3)

# 30. Knighting Ceremony (3)

She entered the café in casual clothes.

The flowing dress suited her well as she came to my table and sat down.

“Did you wait long?”

“I just got here myself.”

She pointed at the coffee in front of me and said.

“For someone who ‘just got here,’ you’ve finished your drink.”

“I’ve been here about 15 minutes.”

“15 minutes? That’s quite a wait…”

“I just arrived unnecessarily early. Shall we go?”

We left the café and headed to the department store nearby.

It had been a long time since I’d visited a department store, so I was looking forward to it.

“You came alone?”

Now that I thought about it, Riel, who was supposed to join us, was nowhere to be seen.

“Riel couldn’t come because she’s sick.”

“I see you’re quite perceptive.”

“Is it just my imagination that you prefer it this way?”

“It’s not your imagination.”

Of course, I definitely preferred it this way.

The fantasy I had yesterday was becoming reality.

“You’re very honest.”

“I already told you I like you… this much is just being sweet.”

We were browsing through the formal wear section on the second floor of the department store.

Numerous suits caught my eye.

We examined them carefully one by one.

As we were looking through them, our gazes simultaneously stopped at one particular suit.

“You seem to have some taste.”

“Black suits me best.”

Having bought many suits before, I knew which styles suited me well.

Still, I tried on that suit.

When I came out wearing it, both the store clerk and she gasped in admiration.

“Wow…”

“It suits you well. Your boyfriend has a nice physique.”

The clerk’s use of “boyfriend” made me smile involuntarily.

I asked her.

“What do you think?”

The answer was already obvious, but I wanted to ask anyway.

“It… suits you well.”

“Then I’ll take this one.”

I went back to the changing room and changed my clothes.

The clerk packaged the suit I had tried on.

“That will be 300,000 won.”

It wasn’t a large amount, so I paid without hesitation.

We left the suit store and looked around other shops.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

When the clerk had made that comment, she had just stared at me without any reaction.

“I thought you’d dislike it if I denied it.”

“You know me quite well.”

Just as I was getting to know her, she was also getting to know me.

That fact made us feel like a couple, and that alone made me happy.

“Would you like to try this on?”

I handed her a hat from the store right in front of us.

She tried on the bucket hat.

“It suits you really well.”

“You’d say that no matter what I wore.”

“You know me well.”

I tried on the same hat.

Looking at me wearing the hat, she said:

“It suits you surprisingly well.”

“Surprisingly?”

“Yes, surprisingly.”

It was an ambiguous compliment, if it was one at all.

She took the hat I was wearing and said:

“Let’s buy this one.”

For some reason, she was the one who suggested it first.

“It’s a couple item.”

I was certainly happy about it.

I put the hat back on after she paid for it.

“We’ll really look like a couple now.”

I countered her statement.

“We already looked like a couple.”

“I suppose we did.”

Looking at the reflection of the man and woman in the mirror, she said:

“Really…”

I interrupted her.

“We look like a couple.”

She looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

“Isn’t that what you were going to say?”

“I was going to say we really match well.”

We looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“That’s a shame.”

She looked back at the mirror and said quietly.

“We do… look like a couple.”

“Right?”

She nodded, and seeing that, I couldn’t help but smile.

It had always been the case, but lately, I felt like I was drawing strength from seeing her.

After that, we browsed through various clothing stores in the department store and immediately bought items that suited us well.

Before we knew it, it was already 2 PM.

Feeling hungry, I asked her first.

“Shall we go eat?”

“Sure, I’m getting hungry too.”

I asked her again.

“What would you like to eat?”

“I want a hamburger.”

I didn’t have any particular preference, so I just went along with her suggestion.

We went down to the first floor where many restaurants were located.

She asked me.

“Do you like hamburgers?”

“A little? Not a lot.”

We entered a hamburger franchise restaurant.

***

Aelin and Riel were tailing them.

But…

“Where did they go?”

They seemed to be right in front just a moment ago, but they lost sight of them while being distracted for a moment.

Aelin believed that even if she had lost them, Riel wouldn’t have.

“I don’t know either.”

However, that belief was shattered by that single sentence.

“You don’t know?!”

“Yeah, where did they go?”

“I asked because I don’t know either.”

They frantically looked around.

They continued searching for them on the second floor for about 20 minutes, but there was no sign of them.

After wandering aimlessly on the second floor, Aelin finally said:

“Sis, maybe they just went down to the first floor to eat?”

“Oh… maybe.”

Believing in this plausible hypothesis, they went down to the first floor.

They started searching for them on the first floor just as they had done earlier.

People around them looked at them as if they were strange, but they didn’t particularly care.

“Maybe they went into a store?”

“But what if we go in and get caught?”

“That’s true.”

They decided to wait until the couple came out.

After about 10 minutes, Riel said:

“Does he usually eat late?”

“He does eat rather slowly.”

Neither Alberto nor she was a fast eater.

They were convinced it would take a while.

“Sis, let’s eat something too.”

So they also had a meal at the nearby snack bar.

While eating, they discussed the future of this date.

“What do you think they’ll do after eating?”

“I don’t know, but they probably won’t part ways right away. The mood was so good earlier.”

“I did tell him to go to the movies or something, but I’m not sure if he’ll do that.”

She wasn’t the type to take the lead aggressively.

So they had to rely on Alberto…

“He’ll do well, right?”

“What’s with that ambiguous response?”

As they were hesitating without being able to confirm anything.

“Sis! There they are!”

They spotted the couple coming out of a franchise restaurant in the distance.

“Let’s go right away.”

Although they still had a lot of food left, there were more important matters at hand.

After paying, they immediately resumed tailing the couple.

“Where are they going?”

Despite having eaten, the couple didn’t leave the first floor and kept wandering around.

They seemed to be looking for something.

“Maybe they’re going for dessert?”

Just as Riel said that, the couple entered an ice cream shop ahead.

“We should have just finished eating…”

“This is so annoying.”

They were thinking about the food they had left behind.

“Should we wait like before?”

“We have to.”

Aelin sat on the bench with a dejected expression, as if she had lost a country.

***

“How did you know I like ice cream?”

“I asked Senior Riel.”

She gave me a suspicious look.

“Didn’t you already know?”

“How would I already know that…”

“I guess that’s true.”

I actually did ask Riel to maintain this lie.

‘Does Her Highness like desserts?’

When I asked, she told me that the princess loves desserts, especially ice cream.

I already knew this information, so it wasn’t helpful in itself, but…

‘At least I can use it like this.’

She was waiting for the ice cream with a beaming expression.

“What kind of ice cream do you like?”

“Vanilla ice cream.”

She seemed a bit surprised by my answer.

“I like vanilla best too.”

“We have a lot in common.”

“Did you know that too before answering?”

This time it was truly a coincidence, but her reaction made me feel a bit hurt.

“This time it’s really a coincidence. You’re quite suspicious.”

“Well, you have so many secrets.”

As expected, Her Highness was someone who held grudges.

“I don’t know what to say…”

“Two servings of vanilla ice cream!”

As the employee brought it directly to our table, she immediately started eating.

I also ate some since I liked vanilla ice cream, but I didn’t eat much.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“Just watching you eat makes me full, Senior.”

The truth was that I really was full.

After eating a hamburger set earlier, I was too full to eat anymore.

‘My stomach has shrunk…’

I thought to myself.

Then, she said:

“What should we do after this?”

“I don’t have anything specific in mind… do you?”

I was thinking negatively, ‘Of course she doesn’t.’

However, contrary to my expectations, she said:

“There’s a movie theater nearby. Want to see a movie?”