Chapter 19 : I like you, a lot (3)
by fnovelpia
“Did you bring the camera? Are we heading out now?”
“Yeah. Let’s go, let’s go!”
“You’re way too excited. Good grief.”
It was hard to believe this was the same Chaeryeong from before.
For one, she was giddy like a kid as she clung to my back, completely different from the last time she was in pain.
“Whoa, a close-up shot. Taking it like this might be a bit too much, huh?”
She giggled to herself, playing with the camera on my back.
With my hands gently holding the area just above her knees, I started walking slowly toward the nurse’s office.
“Can’t you at least pretend to be sick? Otherwise, I’m not helping a patient—I’m just giving you a piggyback ride for fun.”
“Whatever. Who cares? It’s fun.”
She looked like a little kid riding on her dad’s shoulders, which was kind of cute—but also kind of annoying.
The nurse’s office was a decent distance from the gym.
We had to go all the way from the third floor to the first.
And since I couldn’t say no while the camera was rolling, I really wanted to get back at this brat for making me go through all this.
“Want me to make it more fun?”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Little kids like it when you do this.”
“Kyaa! What are you doing?! Why are you bouncing me?!”
“You don’t know ‘dunga dunga’? Kids laugh like crazy when you do this. My cousin did.”
“Eek! I’m holding the camera with one hand—I’m gonna fall! Stop!”
When I started bouncing her while holding her legs, Chaeryeong let out a girlish scream and grabbed my shoulder tightly with one hand.
She normally held my shoulders with both hands, which made it more stable.
But now she had the camera in one hand, so she couldn’t use both.
“Scared now, huh? How’s that? This is your punishment for making me carry you around like a sack of rice up and down stairs!”
“AAAH! I’m scared! I feel like I’m gonna fall, so stop it! Hey! Hey!”
When I kept shaking her and laughing, Chaeryeong finally wrapped the arm holding the camera tightly around my neck.
“Gah—ack—ugh—! I’m sorry… Let… go…”
“If you do it again, I won’t let go. I’ll strangle you to death right here.”
“I won’t… ugh… I won’t do it again… whew… I thought I was gonna die.”
I came to a stop and surrendered.
Only then did her arms loosen.
Violent as ever—some things never change.
It didn’t seem like her mind had matured at all since high school.
If anything, the only thing that had grown was her body.
Her chest, pressed against my back, had definitely… developed in a more intimidating way than before.
Her thighs too—slim at a glance, but soft and nicely shaped.
I didn’t realize giving a piggyback ride required this much physical closeness.
I’d carried Chaeryeong before, but never thought about it like this.
“Ugh… My posture’s all messed up because of you… I need to readjust. Hold on.”
She squirmed on my back.
I coughed and tried to catch my breath while waiting for her to reposition herself.
“Move your hands a little. Taeo. My balance is off.”
“Where to?”
“More toward my upper thighs.”
“Like this?”
“Hyaak?!”
I thought I moved my hands just slightly higher, but…
I heard a strange sigh right by my ear.
The fluttering of her skirt against the back of my hand told me I’d reached a pretty deep spot.
The softer sensation of her inner thigh made me feel uneasy.
“You idiot… that was too far. Take your hand out a bit.”
“S-sorry… I was going by feel and messed up…”
“It’s fine. Just a little lower. There. Like that.”
Something about her slightly rougher breathing made me feel like I wouldn’t be able to keep walking.
Why was she whispering in my ear like that?
If she wanted the camera to catch it, she should’ve spoken louder…
“All set?”
“Yup, all set. Let’s go again. If you shake me again, I will strangle you this time.”
“Isn’t ‘strangle’ a bit too scary a word to say with a smile?”
“I’m merciful—I’ll let you choose another way to die if you want.”
“Can we maybe remove ‘dying’ as an option altogether?”
And so, bickering the whole way, we made our way to the nurse’s office.
After completing our little exploration of the nurse’s office, we finally left the school building.
Chaeryeong used the security key she’d brought to lock the main gate and we began walking across the schoolyard.
She chattered away, marveling at everything.
“The nurse’s office was exactly the same.”
“Would’ve been nice if we’d seen the nurse too. That’s a shame.”
“Yeah. I used to be close with her.”
“Thanks to you, I got close to her too. Since we were going there basically every day.”
“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. Maybe once a week.”
She always dragged me along to the nurse’s office whenever she got hurt, so I ended up seeing the nurse a lot too.
Her mischievous personality was probably even worse back in school—never got any better, that’s for sure.
“So we’ve seen the whole school now. Where to next?”
“Take a guess.”
“Hmm… where? The PC café we always went to?”
“Buzz! Wrong.”
“Then… the movie theater we used to go to?”
“Wow, how are you so off? How did you even win that school quiz competition?”
“That was just about studying. Easy stuff.”
“Ugh, so smug.”
“So, where is it?”
“Ta-da! It’s the snack shop in front of the school~! I wonder if it’s still open?”
Hearing that, I had to admit—she picked a pretty great spot.
The one where this tteokbokki maniac and I used to always go for tteok-tsoon-twigim.
It was really close to the school, too.
“Oh. That place? The one we always got tteokbokki from?”
“Yup. There’s no place that brings back school memories more than that one.”
“You sure it’s not just because you’re craving tteokbokki?”
…Well, I couldn’t deny that.
That place was seriously good.
With Chaeryeong swallowing her saliva, we made our way to the snack shop of our memories.
It was less than a five-minute walk from school.
I was worried it might be closed on the weekend, but even though it wasn’t afternoon yet, the place was brightly open.
“They’re open on weekends too, huh?”
“Of course. I looked all that up beforehand. Hehem. You know how prepared Yoo Chaeryeong is!”
“Well, okay. I’ll admit—it’s impressive today.”
“Right? I did good, right? I did good?”
“Is YouTube afraid of the unstoppable rise of Yoo Chaeryeong?”
From hacking the security key to scouting the snack shop—her planning really was getting more and more intense.
What if she ends up becoming the next MrBeast?
Would she still film vlogs with me then?
“Hello?”
“Hi, welcome!”
As we stepped into the shop with the camera, the owner greeted us with a bright smile.
Her hair had turned slightly gray with age, but she was the same lady as before.
“You’re ordering the same as always, right? What we used to get?”
“Of course. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a trip down memory lane.”
“Okay. I’ll go order.”
I grabbed a small table in the corner and waited for Chaeryeong to come back.
She chatted a bit with the owner while placing the order, then returned.
“What did she say? Don’t tell me—did she actually remember us?”
“Nope, not that. But she really hasn’t changed at all, right?”
“Yeah. I would’ve been a little sad if it turned out the owner changed.”
“Right? Oh, and get this—she asked what we were filming for.”
“Oh, because of that?”
“Yup. I told her we used to be students around here and were filming a nostalgia vlog, and she said we could film as much as we wanted.”
“So we’ve got permission. Time to loosen that belt, huh?”
“Acting all tough. You’re a guy, but you eat less than me.”
“What are you saying? I’m not that bad. I can totally out-eat you.”
“Oh really? Wanna bet? Prove it right here?”
“Loser pays for the meal?”
“You’re so dead, Yoon Taeo.”
“Like you can talk. You’re the one who’s doomed.”
Just like our childish arguments back in high school, we bantered until the owner brought out the food.
Fried snacks and soondae, drenched in tteokbokki sauce, laid out on a tray.
The heavenly smell of our favorite tteok-tsoon-twigim soaked in sauce made me feel dizzy.
“You two are a couple, right?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right.”
“You looked so cute, I added a little extra. Enjoy!”
“Aw, thank you so much, ma’am!”
“It’s nothing. Eat up comfortably.”
So this is the kind of service couples get, huh?
Our eyes met, and without saying a word, we both smiled at each other.
Then the two of us happily—and voraciously—began our mukbang.
“Woooow! It tastes exactly like back in the day. Freaking amazing. This is insane.”
“Told you. It’s still so good.”
Watching Chaeryeong excitedly devour the food with a wooden toothpick, I turned the camera toward her.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“You’d make a perfect mukbang YouTuber. Forget this kind of vlog—we should just go full mukbang.”
“Hey! Stop filming! I said don’t film!”
She giggled and pretended to be a celebrity avoiding the press.
As I watched her cutely flail her short arms, I noticed a red spot near her mouth.
She got food on herself again. As always.
Without a word, I casually grabbed a tissue from the side.
Then I said to her,
“Hold still.”
“…Huh?”
“I said hold still. Don’t move.”
“…W-Why all of a sudden?”
When I said that with a serious face, Chaeryeong’s face turned slightly red.
For some reason, her gaze wandered aimlessly through the air.
I leaned in and precisely targeted the dot by her mouth.
Then gently wiped it off with the tissue.
“All done.”
“…What did you just do?”
“What do you think? I wiped off the sauce.”
“You could’ve just told me. Why’d you do it?”
She grumbled, looking down at the floor.
I thought she’d be happy since it made good YouTube footage—what’s with this reaction?
Could it be… she’s embarrassed?
Since when did she get shy about this kind of thing?
“What? So what. We are a couple, aren’t we?”
I looked into the camera and said that to her, and suddenly, her eyes widened in realization.
“Oh, right. We are…”
She said it like she’d completely forgotten we were just pretending to be a couple.
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