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About 30 minutes later, after I returned from doing an errand for my mother and went up to my room, a familiar scene unfolded.
“Aki, I’m sorry, I was wrong. I’ll never tease you like that again, so please forgive me, okay, okay?”
“……!”
Aki, who was pouting with her cheeks puffed out as if she was really sulking, had her arms crossed and her body turned to the wall, while Kim Yoon-ah-ssam, who tutored Aki and me, was clinging to Aki and begging her to please forgive her.
“……”
I didn’t know what had happened while I was gone, but I had a rough idea of why this situation had unfolded.
Well, it must be that Kim Yoon-ah-ssam had teased Aki and that’s why Aki was sulking.
It had already been almost four months since Kim Yoon-ah-ssam had been tutoring us, and after we had become closer and started talking informally, these kinds of incidents were commonplace, so it was easy to see through it.
“Teacher, did you tease Aki again?”
I sat down in my place, deliberately making a loud noise.
In an instant, the gazes of the two women landed on me.
Aki, one of them, pretended not to see me and puffed out air through her nose, while Kim Yoon-ah-ssam gestured at me, as if she was glad that I had come at the right time, even though she was in trouble.
“Woo-ju! You came at the right time, come here and try to appease Aki…!”
“Appease her, what am I supposed to do?”
“You two are dating. Just appease her by telling her you love her, or kissing her, or something, okay?”
“You caused the problem, but why am I the one who has to clean up… no, and we’re not dating, you know…?”
I answered instead with the words that I had started saying because I was asked about it so often.
“We’re just very close childhood friends.”
-Stare.
Aki turned her body slightly and started staring at me without saying anything.
For some reason, her gaze was a bit piercing.
“Yeah, whether you’re childhood friends or a couple, it’s true that you’re both close, right? So please do it for me, huh? Woo-ju, Joo Woo-ju~!”
“……Sigh.”
I was already so awkward from what happened earlier, but now they want me to appease Aki.
I wanted to just leave it to the teacher and stand away from them, but if Aki continued to be sulking, it was clear that tutoring or anything wouldn’t be able to progress.
It’s not like the person who caused the problem is separate from the person who has to fix it, and it was unfair for me to be taking all the blame, but there was no other way. I couldn’t let the day go to waste like this, so I had to do it if I was asked to.
I deliberately cleared my throat to attract attention.
“Um, Aki…?”
“……Why?”
“I’ll buy you something tasty later, so can you please stop being mad?”
“Woo-ju~chan, I’m not a child, so just because of some food…”
“I’ll buy you whatever Aki wants, how is that?”
“Well, then, can it be tanghulu too?”
“No, that’s too bad for your body, so no. But other than that, anything is fine.”
“Tch, then it’s not all okay, is it…? Woo-ju~chan is a liar.”
Although she was snapping at me with her words, she seemed to be slowly feeling better because of the mention of buying her sweets, and she stopped crossing her arms and turned her body towards me.
I looked at Kim Yoon-ah-ssam with the gaze of, ‘Is this good enough?’ and Kim Yoon-ah-ssam took the opportunity I made and approached Aki slightly.
“Aki, you’ll forgive me, right…?”
Aki sighed deeply, probably because Kim Yoon-ah-ssam, who was much older than us, was being so submissive.
“……Don’t ever joke like that again, Yoon-ah-ssam.”
“Oh, I understand! Thank you, Aki!”
“Don’t thank me, thank Woo-juchan. If it weren’t for Woo-juchan, I would still be angry…”
“Ah, that’s right. Woo-ju, thank you~”
“Yeah, whatever….”
“Okay, then, shall we start again from where we left off? Woo-ju, could you please read this passage out loud?”
“Um, when x plus y is 6 and xy is 7, then, the square root of x minus the square root of y divided by the square root of x plus the square root of y is……”
“Yeah, that’s good enough. Do you have any more questions?”
“No, I don’t. What about you, Aki?”
“I don’t have any either, Yoon-ah-ssam.”
“Really? Then, let’s end the tutoring session here for today.”
The time was 7 PM, and the tutoring session, which had been later than usual, had ended.
Kim Yoon-ah-ssam gathered the textbooks that she had used for the lesson and put them together. Then, she stood up from her seat. Aki and I also gathered our respective workbooks and followed Kim Yoon-ah-ssam out of the room.
“Mother, the tutoring is over~”
“Yoon-ah-ssam, Woo-ju~chan’s mother is not home right now.”
“Oh my, really? Where did she go?”
“Yeah, I got a text earlier, saying that she and Father went out to have fun and that they would be a little late. She told us to just prepare dinner ourselves.”
“……?”
What, I didn’t hear anything about that.
I was confused by the unfamiliar information, and Kim Yoon-ah-ssam nodded her head.
“Ah ha, then, shall we say our goodbyes and end it? Woo-ju, Aki. Good work today. Rest well, and let’s meet next Friday~”
“Goodbye, teacher.”
“Yoon-ah-ssam, please go safely!”
Clack, thump…
Kim Yoon-ah-ssam, who had left a brief goodbye, went out through the front door.
As the three people became two, the noisy house became quiet in an instant. Aki and I, who had finished seeing her off, looked at each other.
“Woo-ju~chan, what shall we do now?”
“Huh? What do you mean what shall we do?”
“What do you mean what? I meant dinner, of course. I told you earlier, right? That Woo-ju~chan’s parents were going to be late, so we have to eat dinner by ourselves.”
“Ah, right. That was what happened….”
I was so nervous because it was just Aki and me that I had unknowingly blanked out.
‘……I usually wouldn’t get nervous.’
Was it because of what happened earlier, I’m not acting like myself right now…
“Woo-ju~chan, is there any leftover rice at home?”
“I’m not sure. Why? Were you perhaps going to cook something?”
“Yeah, I’m good at cooking now. I learned it from my Mama!”
“Ooh, really? That’s amazing….”
I, on the other hand, only know how to make ramen and kimchi fried rice.
So, I was genuinely impressed and looked at her as if I was seeing her in a new light, and Aki, as if feeling proud, puffed out her chest and smiled.
“I don’t usually do this for just anyone, but I’ll make it for you especially since Woo-ju~chan is special!”
“Yeah, thank you! But what kind of dish are you going to make?”
“Hmm, first, I think I should check the fridge. Woo-ju~chan, is it okay if I open the fridge?”
“Of course, it’s okay. Feel free to open it, Aki.”
We moved from the living room to the kitchen.
Clunk-.
Aki opened the fridge with quite practiced movements, then looked around and made a ‘Hmm…?’ sound, and tilted her head.
“Woo-ju~chan, there’s not much inside the fridge?”
“Oh, really? Did Mom perhaps not go grocery shopping…?”
“This is a problem… Is there any rice?”
“Wait a minute, I’ll check.”
I approached the place where the rice cooker with a large brand logo was placed.
I pressed the button and opened the inside. Then, I could see that the inside of the rice cooker was empty.
“Aki, there’s no rice either?”
“Oh, there’s no rice either? Woo-ju~chan, is your rice cooker a pressure rice cooker?”
“Huh? What kind of rice cooker?”
“……Come out for a second, Woo-ju~chan.”
Aki looked at our rice cooker from here and there, then touched her chin cutely and let out a ‘Hmm….’ sound.
“It’s a warming rice cooker. Hmm, then it would take at least one hour to make rice… Woo-ju~chan, are you very hungry?”
“A little. How about you, Aki?”
“Um, I’m not really…”
Grumble.
Someone’s stomach clock rang out loudly.
Of course, it wasn’t my stomach, it was the sound that came from Aki’s stomach in front of me.
“……”
Whoosh
Aki’s cheeks turned bright red.
To be considerate of Aki, I acted as if I hadn’t heard anything, and naturally turned my body and started fidgeting with the magnet on the fridge.
“……Shall we just order dinner?”
“Y, yeah…. That seems like a good idea…”
Aki’s mumbled voice came from behind me.
Her voice was almost inaudible, so she must have been very embarrassed.
‘……If I said she was cute, she’d get mad, right?’
I thought to myself that my childhood friend was very cute, and then I took out the cell phone that was in my pocket and opened the delivery app where I could order food.
I used to go out and have fun with Mom and Dad when I was young, but after I turned ten, they would say things like, “Woo-ju, you’re all grown up now, so you can stay home by yourself, right? No, it’s not like you’re alone, you’re with Aki.” And then they would go out and have fun together.
That meant that it wasn’t uncommon for Aki and I to be left alone like this. So, ordering food through a delivery app had become quite familiar.
“Aki, what do you want to eat?”
I asked without looking at her on purpose.
Aki hesitated for a long time, and then she mumbled quietly in a tone that anyone could tell was awkward.
“W, whatever…?”
“Whatever…. then should I just order pizza?”
“Yeah, okay…”
“Okay, the order button is… ah, it’s done. I ordered it. It’ll take about 40 minutes.”
“……W, Woo-ju~chan.”
“Yeah, why?”
I turned around casually because she had said my name, so I thought that she had stopped being embarrassed.
Our gazes met naturally, and Aki’s cheeks were still red.
“About what I said earlier…”
“Earlier?”
“……Ha, at school. I didn’t know that Woo-ju~chan would say those things in front of friends. I was really surprised, you know?”
Aki, with a gesture that seemed to hide her embarrassment, hesitated and took a step closer.
“You know. That was, it was probably because Woo-ju~chan likes Watashi(me) that much, right…?”
“……Huh?”
“D, don’t play dumb. I heard everything. You shouting out loudly that you were going to marry me…!”
“Oh….”
It wasn’t wrong, but why was she bringing up that story in this context?
I pondered for a moment about the time when my dark history had suddenly come up.
‘……Ah, could it be?’
I suspected that she was trying to change the subject by force because she was embarrassed about the sound that came from her stomach.
“Woo-juchan, tell me honestly. Woo-juchan, you like Watashi, don’t you…………?!”
Seeing Aki’s actions, whose tension had suddenly increased, my suspicion turned into a conviction.
“Looking at how you’re not saying anything, that’s right, isn’t it? Right, huh, huh~?”
Usually, I would have been flustered and stammered, but since I could see Aki’s intentions clearly, I wasn’t embarrassed at all. On the contrary, I only thought that Aki was cute.
So, I decided to play along with Aki’s desperate attempt to seize the initiative a little.
“Ah… really, you’re talking about that again? I told you to stop…”
“Hmph, I’m not going to stop?”
“I told you I said it without thinking, so how long are you going to keep doing this?”
“Hmm, until Woo-ju~chan dies?”
“Are you saying that you’re going to stick by my side until I die?”
“Of course, because Woo-ju~chan belongs to Aki!”
Aki was saying things that I didn’t know if it was to tease me, or if it was true.
I looked at Aki and while pretending to be in pain and twisting my body, I thought something different.
“Woo-ju~chan, I was so moved. You shouted out so coolly, just like that, ‘Aki is going to marry me!’ I didn’t say it out loud, but I was really…”
“Stop it, please stop it… Aki…!”
“I don’t want to, I’m going to keep going~?”
Aki, who was acting more mischievous on purpose to hide her embarrassment.
My childhood friend was like that.
“Eiiit…! Woo… chan~!”
“Whoa… Aki? W, wait a minute. It’s dangerous if you hug me like that…?”
“Woo-juchan is tall! …Hmph, eit, eit!”
‘……Ah, cute.’
She was so cute that I felt like I was about to start having different feelings.
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, I thought it was a Backroom, but it was a Yuri Room is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : I thought it was a Backroom, but it was a Yuri Room
