Chapter 36: Sweeter Than Tangerines

After dinner, Kangeun sat on the sofa, waiting for Siheon, and let out a laugh at her own expense. She didn’t know why she had been so tense when she was about to have such a comfortable time.

Siheon’s attitude was consistently refreshing throughout. He didn’t talk much while preparing dinner, but the gaze that met hers was gentle. When she wandered around the kitchen, looking for something to help with, he pulled out a dining chair and told her to just sit back and watch.

The way he prepared the delivered ingredients with his large hands looked familiar. He would tilt his head after tasting the side dishes and hold them out for Kangeun to try, or mutter, “Ah, it’s hot,” while tasting the soup.

Those little things reminded her of the Siheon from when they lived together.[Siheon-ah, is it almost done? Is there really nothing I can do?]
[Then just put the side dishes on the plates.][Should I dish out the rice too?]
[Would you? The bowls are right here.][Our Siheon is so good at this. Who taught you all this?]
[Go Kangeun raised me well, didn’t she?][That’s right. I raised you well.]

As the situation mirrored those times in the past when they prepared meals together, Kangeun forgot her tension. She no longer felt conscious of the fact that she was in a house where a man lived alone. That was how she came to be lounging on the plush sofa, waiting for Siheon to finish cleaning up after dinner.

“Siheon-ah, do you have a lot of dishes to wash?”
“No, just a few. I’m all done.”
“Should I have helped?”
“No. Help me with something else later instead.”
“Something else? Like what?”
“I’ll tell you if I need help.”

Kangeun, who had been nodding and flipping through channels, stopped. It was a travel program introducing famous eateries in Milan, Italy.

“Ah, that place is delicious.”

It was a pizzeria Kangeun knew well. The day she ate pizza there for the first time, she had thought of Siheon. Thinking that Siheon, with his plain palate, would surely like this pizza, her throat had tightened, and she had gulped down orange juice to hold back tears.

“What is?”

Kangeun was startled by Siheon, who had approached her before she knew it.

“Hmm?”
“Didn’t you say something? I didn’t hear you.”
“No. It’s nothing.”

Siheon held out a Screw Bar to Kangeun, who was waving her hand. It was one of the many frozen treats filling the freezer. As Kangeun accepted it with a smile, he sat down next to her naturally and began peeling a mandarin orange.

“Aren’t these clothes uncomfortable?”
“I’m fine.”
“I didn’t know my clothes would be that big. My T-shirt is like a short dress on you.”

Kangeun looked down at her outfit, confirming that her choice in the bathroom had been correct. Earlier, after washing only her hands, she had taken off her sweater and changed into the T-shirt he’d given her. The sweater, which covered half her neck, had felt hot and suffocating. She was still wearing her wool slacks, but Siheon’s oversized T-shirt was as comfortable as pajamas, so she didn’t feel any major discomfort.

“You’re just too big.”
“I haven’t grown since middle school, have I?”
“……Yeah.”

She had never felt bad about her height, which was just shy of 160cm. But when Siheon said it in such a teasing way, she couldn’t help but pout. Kangeun glared at Siheon, who was smiling with his eyes, and tore open the packaging.

“What if the orange doesn’t taste sweet because of that?”
“Then why did you give it to me?”
“Because both are things Go Kangeun likes. Mandarin oranges and Screw Bars.”
“You even served me side dishes for dinner that only I like.”

The dinner table Siheon had whipped up in fifteen minutes was modest. Scrambled eggs with finely chopped vegetables, seasoned herbs, quail eggs in soy sauce, and a lightly boiled clear bean sprout soup. It resembled the meals they used to prepare and eat a long time ago.

Each dish was prepared in the way she used to make them. In truth, Kangeun hadn’t learned to cook from anyone, so she didn’t know delicate techniques like making stock or adding garnishes. So, she just cooked by roughly balancing the flavors.

However, just as her mother did, she never forgot to draw a heart with ketchup on the rolled omelets, and seeing a large ketchup heart drawn on the plate of omelets Siheon had set down, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

The home-cooked meal they shared was incredibly delicious, and the dessert he offered after the meal was equally welcome. It felt like they had returned to the past.

“If we hadn’t parted and had kept living together, would we always have spent our evenings like this?”
“Who knows…… Try this mandarin orange.”

It was natural that a slice of mandarin orange peeled by Siheon ended up in Kangeun’s mouth as she chattered away. Kangeun frowned after chewing the orange, which tasted intensely sour because of the ice cream she was still eating.

“Ugh, it’s too sour.”
“It should be sweet? It’s because you ate that, that’s why.”
“You’re the one who gave it to me.”
“Because that’s what Go Kangeun likes.”

Kangeun, smiling back at Siheon who only said pretty things, stared blankly as he picked up the remote to search for a movie. The atmosphere was different from when he was in a suit. His comfortable clothing and slightly disheveled hair made him look his actual age.

“Have you seen this movie?”
“No. Honestly, I’ve barely watched any movies. Whatever you choose, Siheon, I’ll like it.”

Siheon chose a foreign romance film and pressed play. It was a genre Kangeun liked. When the commercials came on, he picked up another mandarin orange. It was just peeling an orange, but his delicate movements were so pleasing to watch that Kangeun, gazing at his hands, opened her mouth as if bewitched.

“You’re truly magnificent. You’ve grown up so well.”
“Do you like what you see, Go Kangeun?”
“Yes. Actually, I’ve been feeling so proud lately. I heard it from your team staff. You’re very popular at work, aren’t you? It seems like there are as many people who like you as there are who talk behind your back.”
“……That’s just their way of being sarcastic.”
“Then why are you so rigid? There’s a café on the first floor of your company, right? I buy sandwiches there often. Every time I go, I hear people talking trash about you. Do you know how hard I have to suppress my urge to tell them that our Siheon isn’t that kind of person?”

Siheon burst into a clear laugh and split open another mandarin orange. It was clear he intended to keep feeding Kangeun, even though she said it was sour.

“I’m full. Stop.”
“What do you mean, stop? You’re eating it just fine.”
“You’re not eating, so why are you only giving them to me?”
“I’ve already brushed my teeth.”
“I’m really full. Stop.”

Even as she said to stop, she accepted the orange slice when he brought it close to her mouth. Looking at Siheon’s expression as he smiled, crinkling his eyes, it was obvious what he wanted to say.

“It’s the truth. I’m only eating because you keep giving them to me. Stop. I don’t want any more.”
“Eating so well, aren’t you? Now I know that everything Go Kangeun says about stopping is a lie.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not.”

As they laughed together over his teasing, the movie started. Siheon put down the orange, and Kangeun placed the empty Screw Bar stick on top of the pile of orange peels.

Kangeun was soon focused on the movie. She didn’t even notice when the lights were turned off, or when a blanket was placed over her lap.

“You’re only watching the movie.”

“……Huh?”

As soon as she turned her head toward the low voice, something soft touched her lips. It was the mandarin orange Siheon had peeled and held out. Kangeun, about to smile and open her mouth, realized he was sitting much closer than she had thought.

Siheon’s body was turned toward her, not the screen. Unlike her, who had been focused on the movie, his face, slightly tilted as if he had no interest in the film, was not smiling. The only thing reflected in his jet-black pupils was Go Kangeun.

She felt trapped, caught by his gaze fixed on her. While she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Siheon, who was staring right at her, Kangeun felt the density and temperature of the air around her slowly rising. As she became conscious of the silence settling between them, her mouth went dry.

“I’m upset.”

“…….”

“Right now, I can’t even see the movie.”

She thought it was the orange that had touched her lips again. But the sensation that softly touched her lips, traced them as if tasting them, and then rubbed against them with firm pressure was not an orange slice. It was Siheon’s thumb, which carried a mellow heat.

“…….”

“Go Kangeun, who only ever likes sweet things.”

His gaze, which had been locked only on Kangeun’s eyes, slowly descended. Only then did Kangeun’s gaze, finally freed, follow suit.

One half of his face was shaded by the light leaking from the screen. The expression hidden by his lowered eyes, his long eyelashes, his sleek nose bridge, his sharp jawline, the slightly curved corners of his lips, and his slightly parted mouth.

She knew that what she was seeing right now couldn’t be all that different from what he was seeing. Kangeun felt thirsty for some reason. She wanted to make eye contact with him as he meticulously engraved every corner of her face into his mind, but at the same time, she wanted to avoid his gaze.

“It will be sweet.”

“…….”

His large hand gripped her cheeks and neck. The heat transmitted from that hand.

Kangeun instinctively bit her lower lip in her desperate desire, but Siheon blocked it by pushing in his fingertip.

“Right?”

“…….”

“It will be sweet. I’m sure of it.”

With that low whisper, her vision went dark. At the same time her eyes were covered by his large hand, a familiar scent washed over her like a tidal wave.

“Ah…….”

A warmth touched her lips before she could even register it. It was brief, the moment she went blank at the sensation of him licking her lips slowly and cautiously as if tasting them. What parted her lips and entered—making her forget to breathe—was a heat that felt like it would burn her:

His breath.