Ch.9595. Stars, Light, and You [Illustration]

After repeatedly securing her promise several times, I walked with Hwa Nabi holding her hand with extremely light steps.

“Sigh… men.”

She looked at me with a slightly tired expression and gave a bitter smile. But what did it matter? If I could hear a cute and lovely girl like Hwa Nabi call me “oppa,” I would gladly endure any kind of looks.

…As I was continuing these trivial thoughts, Hwa Nabi, who was walking beside me, suddenly stopped.

“Oh? Siwoo, look over there.”

“…Hmm. What, where?”

I was a bit slow to respond because I had been lost in various fantasies. Hwa Nabi put her hand on the back of my head and forcibly moved it to make me look somewhere.

“There, up ahead. That place that looks like a flower garden.”

I looked in the direction her outstretched finger was pointing. At first glance, there were several spectacular sights that looked quite magnificent.

Going a bit closer to examine it in detail, it was indeed a flower garden as Hwa Nabi had said. But not an ordinary flower garden—an incredibly elaborate artificial one. More precisely, it was an LED flower garden made by carefully weaving and trimming bushes, then densely placing LEDs on top.

“Siwoo, they say this flower garden is called Light Hill.”

“Light Hill…?”

It sounds more like a candy name than a flower garden. Keeping that thought to myself, I looked at Hwa Nabi and asked:

“Want to take a quick look before we go?”

“Yes, shall we?”

Having reached an agreement with this simple exchange, we immediately walked toward the sign that read “Light Hill.”

One step, two steps, three steps… As we got closer, Hwa Nabi’s face gradually brightened, and when we finally reached it:

“Wow….”

She let out a small exclamation, thoroughly impressed.

I glanced at her profile and made a suggestion.

“Nabi, want to go inside?”

“What? Is that allowed?”

“Yeah, I saw earlier that as long as we don’t damage anything, we can go in and even take pictures.”

Since anything was fine as long as we didn’t damage or destroy anything, taking photos would obviously be allowed. Though with all the LED lights flashing, I wasn’t sure how well the pictures would turn out.

At my suggestion, Hwa Nabi seemed to consider it briefly before nodding.

“Then… shall we go in for a moment?”

“Sure, I’ll stay outside. Go ahead in.”

Hwa Nabi carefully moved toward the empty space between the artificial flowers and slowly crouched down.

With a softened expression, she gazed at the flower garden with dazed, even enraptured eyes. She reached out to touch it but stopped just before making contact.

Even while entranced by the beauty of the flower garden, she seemed to remember the rule about not damaging the artwork.

“Want me to take a picture?”

“Ah… yes, please.”

“Alright, then strike a pose.”

Since she was surrounded by artificial flowers and crouching down, there weren’t many poses she could take, but I figured she should still try to look good. Hwa Nabi looked down at the flower garden, lost in thought for a moment, then slowly began to move her arms.

The pose she chose was… pulling her knees close to her chest, resting her elbows on them, and creating a flower cup with her hands to rest her chin on—in simple terms, a flower cup pose.

“…Siwoo, where am I?”

Then, with a face full of expectation, she looked up at me with a bright smile and asked.

This must be… that event where I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know what’s happening, right?

When wandering around festivals, you often see couples doing these embarrassing things, and back when I was single, I wondered why they acted that way.

But now that I’m actually in that position… so this is how it feels. Even though I clearly recognize it as obvious aegyo, Hwa Nabi looks so adorable that I suddenly want to play along.

“Hmm….”

Suppressing my pounding heart, I mumbled.

Various cringe-worthy lines came to mind, like “With a flower (花) mixed in the flower garden, I really can’t tell where you went…” but in the end, I chose the most conventional option.

“…I wonder where our Nabi went?”

…After saying it, my face felt slightly hot. Indeed, such lines shouldn’t be said in one’s right mind.

Even though I knew Hwa Nabi was crouching right in front of me, I still felt a bit embarrassed for brazenly pretending not to know… but the person in question seemed even more embarrassed than me.

She had been looking up expectantly, but as soon as she heard my words, her face turned bright red.

“Ugh….”

“…Pfft.”

Ah, I shouldn’t laugh, but Hwa Nabi is so cute that I can’t help it. But she seemed to misinterpret my laughter as mockery, and this time she blushed for a different reason and glared at me.

“Siwoo…?”

“Hmm… sorry. Strike a pose again, I’ll take a proper picture this time.”

Finally suppressing my laughter, I picked up my phone and got into position. Hwa Nabi sighed lightly with her reddened cheeks, then changed her pose again as I suggested.

“…Alright, but make sure to take a pretty picture, okay?”

That’s my specialty. I took several shots, carefully adjusting the angle to minimize light glare, and then took a few more with the light deliberately blurred.

“Siwoo, are you done taking pictures?”

“Yeah, want to see?”

Perhaps because the model was so outstanding, the results came out well enough to cover my somewhat amateur skills. Hwa Nabi seemed to share this sentiment as she looked through the photos and let out a small exclamation.

“Wow… Siwoo, you always take such good photos. How do they come out so pretty?”

“Well, it’s not because I’m good at taking photos, but because the model is pretty.”

“What? Come on, I’m not pretty. It’s because of your skills.”

“What are you talking about? You’re so pretty and cute. Probably the prettiest photo model in the world?”

“Hmm, if I’m the prettiest photo model in the world… then Siwoo must be the most handsome photographer in the world?”

“…Is that so?”

After randomly complimenting each other, Hwa Nabi and I stared at each other for a moment… and burst into laughter simultaneously.

Thinking about it again, it was quite ridiculous. The conversation definitely started about photography skills, but I’m not sure how we reached this conclusion.

Laughing so hard that tears formed at the corners of my eyes, I finally managed to calm down after a while.

“Ah… that’s really funny.”

“…Hehe, Siwoo. Shall we take a picture together this time?”

“Sure, let’s do that.”

Stepping carefully out of the flower garden, Hwa Nabi took out her phone.

She came close to me, shyly linked her arm with mine, and held up her phone with the camera app open.

“Siwoo, isn’t your expression too stiff? Smile brightly, smile!”

“……”

I know my face visible on the phone screen looks somewhat ridiculous, but I still couldn’t relax my expression.

With Hwa Nabi linking arms and pressing against me, something soft and elastic was touching my forearm. In such a situation, wouldn’t it be stranger to remain calm without changing facial color?

But unaware of my inner turmoil, Hwa Nabi looked at me with slight dissatisfaction.

“Siwoo, if you keep doing that, I can’t take a proper picture.”

“Ah, sorry. I’ll stand properly.”

“It’s more about your expression than your posture.”

Yes, that’s the problem… but when we’re this close together, I can’t help but feel tense even if I don’t want to.

Just as I was thinking that, Hwa Nabi, who had been muttering complaints, suddenly half-opened her eyes and smiled slyly.

She seemed to have noticed something.

“Hmm… so that’s why Siwoo is like that.”

“……”

Her meaningful voice—the atmosphere seems to be flowing in a strange direction.

…Is it just my imagination?

“Siwoo. Look here.”

“Huh, yes?”

As pressure increased on my right arm linked with hers, and I instinctively turned to the side at her call.

──Click!

-Smooch.

Caught off guard while my attention was elsewhere, I was surprised by the unexpected ambush.

“…Huh, what?”

Though there had been similar situations before… this time the position where her lips touched was completely different.

That’s because Hwa Nabi’s soft lips touched and left not my cheek, but my lips.

“Here, Siwoo? Look at this. It came out really well, right?”

On the phone screen Hwa Nabi showed me, a single photo… captured the moment where I was looking to the side with wide eyes, kissing Hwa Nabi who had her eyes gently closed.

“No… Nabi, how could you take a photo like that?”

“Why? It came out well, didn’t it? It’s pretty, right?”

It came out too well. That’s the problem. Since Hwa Nabi tends to upload all her good photos to Instagram, there was a high possibility this kiss photo would be uploaded too.

After various things being uploaded for three years already, it’s not about being embarrassed at this point… but still, a photo that clearly captures a kissing scene like this is a bit much.

“People might misunderstand if they see it.”

“What misunderstanding could people have?”

“……”

When she asked like that, I had nothing to say. In fact, there’s nothing to misunderstand. We’ve been together for three years if we count the total time, and we’ve been officially dating for two and a half years.

As I was moving my lips without being able to come up with a rebuttal, she delivered another blow.

“…After taking my first too.”

“…What, what?”

Did I hear that correctly? My eyes widened involuntarily at words that shouldn’t be spoken in a place with so many passersby. Hwa Nabi smiled mischievously.

“Oh? Siwoo, your neck is turning red.”

“That’s… not the important thing. Hey, Nabi? Don’t say things like that in public….”

“Things like what?”

“About, about firsts and such.”

“Firsts? Ah… that? Why? I was just talking about my first kiss. Are you embarrassed about kissing?”

“…Hey, you really.”

This is really playing with my emotions. Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, I quickly pulled her into a hug and wrapped my arms around her, putting them between her armpits. Finding it ticklish, Hwa Nabi laughed like a child.

“Ah… hehe, Siwoo. That tickles!”

“It’s supposed to tickle!”

I’d like to just lift her up high and take her straight to the hotel, but I should restrain myself since there are many onlookers. After tickling Hwa Nabi moderately, I unwrapped my arms and let her go.

But at that moment, I suddenly felt a vibration in my pants pocket.

“Siwoo, wasn’t that a vibration just now?”

“Yeah, I think it’s my phone?”

Taking it out to check, there was one unread missed message, a reminder for a text that arrived an hour ago. The sender was an unexpected person.

“What is it, a text? Who sent it?”

“…It’s from my mother.”

“Ah, Siwoo’s mother. …What? Your mother? At, at this time?”

“I know… what could she want at this hour?”

Since we came on this trip with both families’ permission, she obviously knows we’re in Jeju, so contacting me means it must be urgent.

Having reached that conclusion, I quickly checked the message content.

“What, what is it? What does it say? It’s not an emergency, is it?”

“No, it’s not that urgent…”

“Then what is it? What’s going on?”

Looking at Hwa Nabi, who seemed even more surprised than me, I slowly spoke.

“…My brother has come to Korea.”