Chapter 8 : Second Vlog (2)

“As the spring breeze blows~ those fluttering cherry blossom petals~!”

Singing the song from our school days that used to echo every spring, she walked down the path lined with cherry blossom trees.

Watching Chaeryeong, who looked excited as always, I asked indifferently,

“You come to see flowers all the time, and you’re still excited?”

“All the time? Where are you getting that kind of misinformation?”

“You came last year, and the year before that too.”

“That’s not ‘all the time,’ that’s called coming every year.”

True to her active personality, Chaeryeong loved wandering around energetically.

But even if she got along well with others at school, there were few friends who stuck by her like I did.

So I often got dragged along on her outings.

Which meant that coming to a cherry blossom festival wasn’t all that unusual for me, either.

“More importantly, let’s take a photo! A photo!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll take it. Go stand over there.”

She turned her head this way and that, searching for a spot with no people but a nice background for the photo.

Then, seemingly having found the perfect place, she stood beneath two trees in full bloom with cherry blossoms.

“One, two!”

Click.

With the sound of the phone camera shutter, I captured her image.

Her smiling face against a beautiful backdrop.

It wasn’t anything special, but it looked like a photo shoot for a spring-themed magazine.

The pink cardigan and white skirt she wore to match the cherry blossoms blended perfectly with the color of the flowers.

“Did you take it?”

“Yeah. But juggling two cameras is killing me.”

“Of course. Hehe. Wait a sec—”

Suddenly scanning the area around her, she smiled and picked up a fallen tree branch.

A pure white blossom was still attached to it, not yet fallen off, and she held it beside her face and leaned toward the cherry blossom tree.

…Is she asking me to take a picture like that?

So I lifted the phone with one hand again, but—

“Taeo.”

“Mm? Why? Your voice sounds ominous.”

“Hehehe. Guess who the flower is~?”

There’s cheesy, and then there’s this.

I instantly felt deflated at her shoujo manga-level antics.

“You’re not exactly young anymore, so why act like this…”

“Aww, come on~! Just answer. Who’s the flower?”

But Chaeryeong was always stubborn.

This ‘answer-me-the-way-I-want’ creature clearly wouldn’t stop until I gave the reaction she wanted.

Maybe she thought this looked like a picture-perfect couple moment or something.

Still, holding the flower like that, she looked endlessly beautiful.

I almost lost myself just staring.

But the words that came out of my mouth were colder than my thoughts.

“That’s the flower, and this is the human. A grown woman who can’t act her age, tsk tsk.”

“Taeo… you’re so mean… So cold… I’m gonna sulk now…”

When I pointed exactly between the flower and Chaeryeong to distinguish the two, she pouted and lowered her head.

She wasn’t actually sulking, but walked off with her shoulders dramatically slumped.

“Was it that hard to just say one nice thing…? I mean, come on… We’re dating, aren’t we…”

Then she suddenly turned her head to look at me before facing forward again, pretending to be upset.

Her antics made me chuckle in disbelief.

She was cute when she muttered like that, and honestly, I wanted to leave her be for a while longer.

But I couldn’t just let it drag on—we had a story to move along.

So I spoke up first.

“Chaeryeong.”

“What.”

“My legs are getting sore. Wanna sit at that table over there? Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Then let’s go grab a cup ramen from the convenience store. My treat.”

There were outdoor tables provided for festivalgoers to use.

Wooden tables and benches.

We saved a seat and headed into the convenience store to get some food.

And when we came back from what was supposed to be a simple trip to get one cup ramen…

“Didn’t I say I’d just buy one cup ramen?”

“But! They were selling chicken skewers right there!”

“So what? Just because they’re selling them, we have to buy?”

“It’s the duty of the strong, right? And next to it they were selling corn dogs. How sad would the corn dogs be if we only bought the chicken skewers…?”

“You’re empathizing with corn dogs now? And what does this have to do with ‘the duty of the strong’? Sounds more like the duty of a pig.”

“It’s fine~! I’m the type who doesn’t gain weight even if I eat a lot.”

“Wow. You just said something that would get you beaten up by everyone watching this vlog.”

Powerful F-type, powerful P-type.

And throw in a strong appetite.

By the time we got back, her hands were full of food.

“Hehe. Looks so yummy.”

Excited at the sight of all the food laid out in front of her, Chaeryeong dove into her mukbang.

I briefly showed the menu to the camera, then started filming her devouring everything like a food fighter.

Pointing at the chicken skewer in front of her, I asked,

“What flavor is that one?”

“Um… gulp. Cheese. This one’s kinda spicy. This one’s just spicy.”

“Which one do you like best?”

“Give me a sec. Hmm… yeah. The spicy one is the best. Koreans love their spicy food, after all.”

“You can’t even handle the mild version of tteokbokki.”

“Excuse me! Stop making baseless accusations just because the camera’s rolling. I’m not that bad with spice.”

“Next time, we’re doing a vlog of you eating fire-level tteokbokki. Let’s see if that’s true.”

“For the sake of preserving my actor image, I’ll have to politely decline that malicious video concept~.”

As if you even have an actor image.

And so, while joking around, we happily gobbled up our festival food.

Once her stomach was full, Chaeryeong was visibly in a good mood again.

Just goes to show—food really is the best way to cheer someone up.

With a satisfied smile, she glanced around.

“Isn’t there something fun to do?”

Then, all of a sudden, she crouched down on the ground.

More spontaneous behavior.

I stared to see what she was up to.

She was carefully picking up cherry blossom petals from the ground, one by one, and placing them on her palm.

“What are you doing now?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m picking up petals.”

“What are you trying to do? Take those home?”

“They’ll be useful. Don’t rush me, just wait and see.”

She busily picked up cherry blossom petals from the ground.

After a few minutes, her palm was filled with soft white and pale pink petals.

Once she’d gathered enough, she stood up, seemingly satisfied.

Then, as if to answer my curious look, she gave me a heads-up.

“Okay, now make sure you film me well. Capture this moment clearly on camera.”

“Yes, yes. Understood.”

Wondering what she was up to, I kept the camera on her and watched closely.

Chaeryeong suddenly hummed the background music from a Pocari Sweat commercial and spun around once.

“Ta-da-da-da~ ta-da-da-dan~ I like you~!”

Whoosh!

She threw the handful of petals into the air and began spinning in place.

Petals fluttered around her as she twirled with a bright smile beneath the falling blossoms.

I couldn’t help but wonder where she even came up with ideas like this.

Still, it really did look like a picture-perfect scene.

Once the petals had all fallen to the ground, Chaeryeong stopped spinning.

“Ugh, so dizzy…”

“You spin well. You should go on a variety show. You’d kill it at elephant spins.”

“More importantly, how was it? Didn’t it feel like a commercial?”

“Honestly? It felt more like a movie.”

“Really? What kind of movie?”

“That girl with flowers in her hair from Welcome to Dongmakgol.”

“That’s the crazy woman!”

Well, if you spin around and throw petals like that, what else would it look like?

Good thing she’s pretty—anyone else doing it might’ve just looked… off.

Then I noticed a more immediate problem.

“Uh, hey… You’ve got petals all over your hair.”

“Seriously? Eww! Get off, get off!”

She made weird sound effects as she shook her head.

She looked like a bobblehead doll, which was cute, but not particularly effective.

The petals on her clothes fell off with the shaking, but the ones tangled in her hair weren’t going anywhere.

“At this rate, you’d probably have to do breakdancing or b-boying to get them out.”

“They’re still there?”

“Yeah. A lot, actually. Come here—I’ll get them out for you.”

She shuffled over with petals in her hair.

I reached out with the hand not holding the camera and began plucking the petals one by one from her hair.

We were now very close.

She waited quietly for my touch.

Carefully, I threaded my fingers through her hair, doing my best not to ruin the curls as I picked out the petals.

“…Hey, when’s this going to be done?”

“If you hadn’t dumped a bunch of petals on your own head, we’d be done by now.”

“Your touch is kind of… pervy. Or maybe just, like, weirdly delicate?”

“Are you trying to compliment me or insult me? And aren’t you the one who always complains when your curls get messed up?”

It’s not like I want to be doing this.

It’s hard trying to pick out petals without undoing styled curls.

“You know, doing this…”

“Yeah?”

“Doesn’t it feel a little romantic?”

“Sure. Super romantic.”

“That reaction’s so cold… It hurts…”

She was definitely just trying to mess with me.

That’s what I told myself as I focused on removing the petals.

“Okay, done. Geez, they wouldn’t come off.”

And when I finally looked at her face—

“Why is your face so red? Are you feeling sick?”

“Huh? Really? No, no… It’s probably just the weather. Haha… Maybe wearing this cardigan was a bad idea?”

That was when I first realized her face had gone red.