Chapter 96: It’s Doomed…

“Bam ba ba ba ba!”

Humming the beat with her mouth, Doah spread her fingers wide.

Was she venting out some pent-up stress? …Seemed like it.

Her small hands rapidly hit the rhythm game machine.

Meanwhile, I was standing behind her, watching the scene with a blank expression.

As the song ended, Doah turned her body towards me.

“…Will you play next, Oppa?”

“Um… I-I’m just gonna watch…”

While it would have been nice to do something together since we came to the arcade, rhythm games just weren’t it.

I mean, she was a veteran at it.

Meanwhile, I was just a newbie.

So it might’ve been a bit too much for the two of us to enjoy together.

“It’s fine, you can play on easy mode!”

As if sensing my concern, Doah offered me another suggestion, but that still didn’t change my mind.

“No, you just play.”

If there was one thing in common between rhythm games and VR games, it was that they looked quite silly to a third person’s eyes.

When they were immersed and had fun in it, the players might think they look cool, but from afar, it was pure comedy.

Moreover, it looked even more hilarious if you were bad at it.

Doah shrugged her small shoulders and proceeded to clear the next song.

When the S letter appeared on the score screen, I clapped from behind. She did pretty good.

“You did great!”

“…Are you mocking me?”

What? You got S, how was that me mocking you?

“No? You really did good!”

“But, I’ve gotten a full combo on this song before!”

And how was I supposed to know that, Luka-nim!?

Anyway, if she wanted to play another song, I was willing to wait for her, but she said that she was done playing and led me outside.

“So, malatang next?”

Today, Doah requested two things for the date.

Going to the arcade and eating malatang.

I was also feeling a little hungry, so I checked the time.

“Yes. It’s the perfect time to get some, don’t you think?”

“Do you know any good restaurants around here?”

“Yes, but we’ll have to walk for a little bit. Is that okay?”

Since I didn’t mind a little bit of walking, I agreed with her suggestion.

We headed towards the part of the town we hadn’t visited, leaving the restaurant street we usually frequented.

“…Are you sure we can find the shop in this place?”

Like, no matter how I looked at it, this place seemed like a residential area…

“The real hidden gems are usually in places like this.”

“Is that so?”

“This malatang shop is quite famous among the students of our school though.”

My girlfriend looked up at me with a puzzled expression.

“Wait, you haven’t been there?”

Oh, c’mon, Kim Doah-ssi.

Were you doing this on purpose?

You knew I was a loner, why the hell were you saying that?

“…It’s too much for me to eat alone, you know…?”

You know, once you got used to eating alone, you’d naturally avoid certain kinds of food.

Those foods included the ones that were generally eaten by two or more people, like malatang or budae jjigae.¹

Of course, this also applied when ordering a delivery.

“Do you like it?”

“Mmm… I don’t know, maybe…?”

Actually, I had only eaten malatang once, so I couldn’t give a proper judgment.

I probably ate it with a senior in the military too, so there was a high chance that I didn’t even know if the food was going through my mouth or my nose.

“Then, I’ll make it tasty for you!”

Doah let out a bright smile as she grabbed my hand and pushed the glass door open with her free hand.

“Welcome.”

Then, we entered the not-so-large shop.

After taking my coat off, I was ready to pick out the toppings together with Doah.

“Is there anything you don’t eat?”

She asked while holding the tongs in her hand, I quickly scanned the counter.

“As long as it isn’t green, I’m good.”

“…So, bok choy?”

“Yeah.”

When she heard that, Doah’s eyebrows wiggled.

“But it’s so tasty though?”

Seeing her gestures—just like a hamster trying to protect its food—I burst into laughter.

“Ah, if you want to put it in, go ahead. I just don’t need to eat it.”

“But, you know, I need to check, just in case you have an allergy or something…”

“Are there people allergic to bok choy?”

While that sounded like something that could exist, I’ve never actually encountered someone like that.

“Alright, I’ll pick some for now. If there’s anything else you want to add, just let me know, okay?”

After saying those words, Doah busily moved the tongs in her hand to pick out the food.

She piled up some beansprouts and dangmyeon.²

The large amount of food made me wonder if we could eat all of them, but Doah convinced me that after boiling everything, its volume would shrink.

“Ahh…! It looks tasty!”

The food hadn’t even come in, yet she already looked happy.

“If you say so, it must be that tasty then.”

“Mhm! It really is! Trust me and give it a try!”

Maybe because there weren’t many customers here, it didn’t take long for them to cook the food.

The bright red broth was served in a black bowl.

Its color made me associate it with the lava out of the deepest part of hell.

“Aaah.”

After she picked up a piece of meat that was dripping with broth, she held out her chopsticks towards my mouth.

I felt embarrassed since there were other people here, so I quickly snatched the meat with my mouth.

With movements comparable to an eagle aiming for its prey.

“No one’s gonna steal it! You can take your time, you know?”

“Let me be.”

Muttering those words, I chewed the meat in my mouth.

“How is it?”

“It’s pretty good.”

I could feel the astringent aftertaste and there was a feeling of numbness on my mouth, but overall, it tasted crazy good.

“Right? The dangmyeon and sujebi are delicious too. Here, eat more!”³

We scooped our own portions into small bowls and started eating properly. During that, we went silent for a while.

“You know, about the double date thingy…”

“Yes?”

By the time we started talking again, we could already see the bottom of the seemingly endless bowl of broth.

“You said it’ll be on the 30th, right?”

“The 30th was Tuesday, no? If so, yeah.”

“Where are we going?”

“They suggested that we meet near Korea University.”

Right in the heart of the city then…

The street that was overflowing with youth.

Rampant with clubs and entertainment.

It was also known as a sanctuary for all kinds of Instagram photos.

“What are we gonna do?”

To my understanding, a date was a time when two people in a relationship were having a good time together.

Since that was the case, wouldn’t it be less fun if two strangers were to join in?

Like, you were creating an uncomfortable situation on purpose, no? Why?

No matter what we did, if it weren’t just the two of us, everything would be less fun, at least that was what I thought…

“Um… They hadn’t confirmed anything yet, but they were talking about going to an escape room or something like that?”

“Escape room, huh…?”

That was the kind of place that I used to wonder if I’d ever go to in my life.

I mean, people usually went there in groups, right?

Also, I wasn’t that good at solving mysteries…

The character that I trusted would always turn out to be the culprit and the ones I suspected always turn out to be the innocent victims.

“…Is that okay?”

Since I was only silently holding onto my spoon, Doah stared at me with a concerned look as she tried to gauge my reaction.

“Huh? Ah, yeah, sure. I mean, we already agreed to go anyway.”

“That’s a relief. Hehe. Then should I tell Murin to pick a specific time?”

“Sounds good.”

Still, out of the four of us, at least one of us should be good at it, no?

Judging from how Luka played games, she wouldn’t be a great detective, but maybe the other two would be better?

I mean, Fumurin was a little better at games compared to Luka.

After sending a text and putting her phone on the table, Doah held my hand.

“Let’s have fun that day!”

January 30th, in front of Korea University subway station.

The weather today was clear.

Although there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and I could feel the warm sunshine, we still needed to tighten our coats every time the wind blew toward us.

“Should I call Murin?”

Even though it was slightly past our meeting time, 1pm, the other couple hadn’t shown up.

“Let’s give them five more minutes before calling.”

We did something different today, as Doah had personally picked out my clothes and dressed me up.

Of course, since the clothes were pulled from my own closet, there wasn’t anything particularly unique, but it felt like I gave in more effort than usual.

Normally I wouldn’t wear those loafers.

I mean, my black sneakers were the most comfortable shoes in the world.

More time passed and we still couldn’t see the other two. But, when Doah was about to take out her phone…

“Doah unnie!”

A voice I’d unintentionally become familiar with due to the collab streams entered my ears.

Both Doah and I instinctively turned towards the direction of the voice.

“Ah~ Sorry~ We’re late, right~~”

CLOSER’s maknae, Fumurin, rushed into Doah’s arms at their first meeting.

But, her appearance was…

I could see a glimpse of her belly button inside her open padded jacket.

Above the boots that went up to her knees, she wore a black leather skirt.

This girl was noticeably taller than Doah.

“Ah, Murin, is that you?”

Doah’s voice came out more Luka-like than usual, maybe because she was unfamiliar with Fumurin’s real-life appearance.

“No, Unnie! You need to call me Gahee here!”

“Ah… Sorry… Gahee…”

Was this really how the girl who was dubbed the cute maknae among CLOSER fans looked like?

She had a piercing in the middle of her lips…

I swear, her fans would be shocked if they saw this contrasting image…

“Ah! Haeng-nim! Nice to meet youu~”⁴

The man who appeared next to Fumurin placed his hand on my shoulder.

Wait, why were you touching me?!

Dude, why the hell were you touching me?!

Did we know each other or something, huh?!

That was just my internal screams though.

There was no way I’d scream at his face like that. Especially not after seeing the tattoo on his inner wrist.

This man was dressed similar to a rapper.

He was also wearing a lot of accessories that one would never find at my house.

Two rings on his fingers…

Seemed like he was wearing a bracelet too…

And he also wore what looked like flashy basketball shoes. It felt like he was at the opposite end of the spectrum from me.

“I’ve heard a lot about you~ Hahaha”

I awkwardly nodded at his boisterous laughter.

For a moment, Doah and I made eye contact.

There was that thing about how couples could understand each other’s thoughts just by looking at their expressions, right?

So yeah, from this sunny afternoon, we were already feeling it…

How today would be a really, really rough day for the both of us…