episode_0033

“Seo Ijin! Do you have any spare pajama pants?”

I turned my head to look at Hong Yeonseo’s question while tearing open a snack.

“What pajamas?”

“Ugh, no sense at all! Look at us. Wearing skirts is uncomfortable, right?”

Yeonseo’s finger pointed downwards.

Following Yeonseo’s touch, I nodded in understanding.

It must be uncomfortable for guys to sit on the floor in short school uniform skirts. It would be uncomfortable and their legs might hurt.

I stood up and asked Yeonseo, “Just need pants?”

“Yeah~”

“Do the others need them too?”

In response to my question, all the girls nodded.

I took out four pairs of loose-fitting pajama pants from the room and distributed them.

“These are what I usually wear, is that okay?”

Even though I haven’t worn them before, they’ve been washed and put away, so it should be fine.

Yeonseo chuckled and said, “I actually like it!”

What’s there to like?

The four girls who quickly took the clothes, which no one else was taking, entered the empty room, now a changing room.

Even though they only changed into one pair of pants, the girls were noisy and giggly.

It felt like a scene from an anime, where heroines gather to change clothes or bathe.

Hmm. This is youth.

“Yoon Jiu, do you want some comfortable clothes too?”

“Um… no, I’m good.”

Yoon Jiu’s response was a bit cold, as if her attitude towards me had subtly changed since yesterday.

“…Alright then. I should change too.”

I quickly changed into comfortable clothes and came out.

Yeonseo, who was the first to leave the room, twirled around in the pants.

“Ah, this is much better now.”

Although it was a funny sight with the school uniform on top and pajamas on the bottom, it looked cute.

Since everyone had changed into skirts, I glanced into the room and saw a shocking sight.

The skirts were neatly laid out on the bed.

I never thought I would see four school uniform skirts lined up like that.

I closed the door to the room and returned to the living room.

While everyone was comfortably chatting, Yeonseo grabbed a bag of snacks and lay down on the massage chair.

“Ah~ this feels great.”

Lying on the massage chair and making sounds of satisfaction, she didn’t look like a high school girl at all.

With her legs stretched out due to wearing pajama pants under the skirt, she looked like a middle-aged man.

“If you eat snacks there and crumbs get in, you have to clean the chair. It’s a frequently used chair, so don’t spill anything.”

“Got it, got it~ Huh? Is it because this is Jin’s frequently used massage chair, it feels even better~”

She said that with a calm expression.

Then, she sneakily turned her head to smell the scent of the chair near her neck…

“Hey, hey! Why are you smelling that?”

“Hehe. Are you embarrassed?”

Yeonseo, who was like a little devil, laughed mischievously.

Lately, she’s been teasing me more often.

Playing pranks and just being a kid.

Oh, she really is just a kid.

“Ah~ I want to live at home instead of the dorm.”

“Your hometown is in Seoul, right?”

“Yeah. It’s just because of school…”

Yeonseo, who was eating snacks, mumbled the rest of her sentence.

Although Yeonseo usually seems confident, she seems to feel a lot of loneliness.

As for me, I have an adult’s mindset and a lot of experience living alone in my past life, so living alone isn’t a problem for me.

But Yeonseo is just a high school girl. It’s natural for her to feel lonely.

“Jin’s house is spacious too, why can’t you live here? You said you always fight with your dorm roommate.”

…But that’s not the case.

“No, you can’t!”

“No, you can’t!”

“Of course not.”

As someone’s words overlapped with mine, I glanced sideways.

Ise-ah and Iso-yoon, who met my gaze, gently turned their heads away from me.

…But it’s interesting that the friendly Hong Yeon-seo can’t get along with her roommate. That’s quite intriguing.

Hong Yeon-seo continued to speak while looking at me.

“Why? You must get bored living alone too.”

“It’s true that living alone can get boring, but do you really not know that…?”

Feeling everyone looking at her with incredulous eyes, Hong Yeon-seo quickly averted her gaze.

“Ah, just kidding.”

Hong Yeon-seo waved her hand.

Turning my gaze away from Hong Yeon-seo, I looked outside and saw that the sun was slowly setting.

“By the way, when are you going to study and when are you going home?”

“Yeah, I should start studying soon.”

Ise-ah, looking at the clock, began to clean up the mess left from the snacks.

Seong Yoo-rin and Iso-yoon quickly approached and helped Ise-ah.

“Can we throw the trash here?”

“Oh, for plastic items, put them in a separate bag. We need to recycle them.”

I directed Seong Yoo-rin to the trash disposal location.

I thought she wouldn’t want to get a single drop of water on her hands, being the type to have a maid at home, but she was quite cooperative.

I put the remaining juice back in the fridge and returned.

“You guys should help too.”

Not wanting to study, I kicked Yoon Ji-woo, who was lounging on the sofa.

She groggily got up and went to where she had thrown her bag.

“You should get up too, Hong Yeon-seo.”

“Okayayayay.”

As she answered me, Hong Yeon-seo, who was being massaged on her back, shivered.

Seeing her cute and funny reaction, I chuckled, and Hong Yeon-seo got annoyed.

“D-don’t laugh.”

Struggling to get up from her slouched position, Hong Yeon-seo finally turned off the massage chair.

After stretching her body and relieving the stiffness, Hong Yeon-seo tapped the massage chair and said, “This is really nice. We should get one for our house.”

There is a reason why I use that massage chair frequently.

“But it’s expensive.”

“We live quite well in our house.”

I heard that Hong Yeon-seo’s mother is also a famous handball player.

While we were chatting, Ise-ah went to the kitchen and took out a storage container.

Then, she gathered the leftover snacks and sealed them in the container.

“Let’s eat later. If there are leftovers, Jin, you can eat them.”

As we were getting ready to study, Yoon Ji-woo, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up.

“But aren’t we going to have dinner?”

…

Well, it’s true…. It’s a bit early, but it is dinner time….

I don’t know why it sounds like she doesn’t want to study because she wants to eat.

“Phew. Okay. It’s better to eat and take a break than to interrupt the flow of studying. Should we order something?”

As soon as I finished speaking, two people raised their hands.

“Me, me~ Chicken!”

“Pizza!”

Excitedly suggesting the menu, Hong Yeon-seo and Yoon Ji-woo. Coincidentally, it’s you two again.

Since the other kids didn’t seem to have any objections, we decided on chicken and pizza for the menu.

“Let’s order both since there are six of us. Should we order from anywhere? I’ll take care of the bill.”

I was about to order delivery right away, but with six people, there was bound to be a menu dispute.

Ise-ah said she didn’t mind bone-in or boneless chicken, but

Boneless chicken for me and Lee So-yoon, and bone-in chicken for Yoon Ji-woo and Hong Yeon-seo, there was a brief confrontation.

After a sharp debate, eventually, by a majority vote, three opted for boneless chicken, while one chose bone-in chicken.

As for the pizza, we settled for bulgogi pizza and potato pizza…

Wait, should we order something like premium pizza for the kids these days?

Glancing around, I just ordered bulgogi pizza.

Because I like it.

As I turned on the delivery app to place the order, Lee Se-ah offered an opinion.

“Hmm. Should we create a group account for our gatherings? It’s honestly a hassle to keep track of who pays each time.”

It wasn’t about avoiding paying but rather about everyone trying to pay, causing the issue.

Lee So-yoon chimed in with Se-ah’s suggestion.

“It seems like a good idea…”

Even the quiet Hong Yeon-seo added her voice.

“Yeah. It would be convenient to have something like that.”

The girls gathered around, tapping on their phones, discussing whether to create a group account or a shared fund.

I never thought I’d end up creating such an insider item in my life.

“Um. I’ll apply for a card next week and bring it when it arrives.”

Se-ah explained that it was already past business hours on weekdays, and the weekend was also not feasible.

Se-ah, who used to have to take care of everything when she was young, had grown up to be meticulous.

I sat a little further away, watching the guys chatting.

The girls sitting together on the long sofa, Yoon Ji-woo squeezed out to sit on a separate sofa, and me sitting far away on a dining chair.

This distance felt like a representation of the distance in our hearts.

I guess I’m not the type to easily join in and laugh at such conversations.

With my legs crossed, playing a mobile game, suddenly several notifications popped up on the screen.

They were payment notifications from the girls.

When I looked up, I saw them winking at me.

Really. Just because I exist.

With a wry smile, I chuckled. Seeing all four of them smiling back at me, my heart warmed for no reason.

It was in moments like this, where I could feel that they were thinking of me, that I realized the significance.

…Yes, maybe it’s okay to gradually narrow this distance from now on.