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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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The day we went to Itaewon.
“Noona! Over here!”
I spotted Soyeon noona, who had arrived first, and approached her. But I was a little confused. Had I mistaken her for someone else?
“Soyeon noona?”
“Yeah. Cheol-jin, you’re here?”
“It is you, noona. I thought I saw someone else.”
Soyeon noona’s outfit was a little different from usual.
Tight black turtleneck and jeans accentuated her figure.
A thin silver coin necklace and a brown belt served as stylish accents.
The beige trench coat she wore also suited her well, and contrasted with her usual casual attire, making her look even more sophisticated.
“You’re dressed up really nicely. I thought you were going to a photoshoot.”
“Is it, is it too much? But we are going to film. And we’re going to Itaewon.”
“…You’re right. Now that I think about it, I’m dressed too casually.”
I was wearing a black hoodie and wide grey pants. Over that, I had thrown on a grey bomber jacket.
Actually, I considered this somewhat dressed up for me. Since I was still losing weight, I barely had any clothes other than workout clothes. And I wasn’t very knowledgeable about men’s fashion.
‘I actually know quite a bit about women’s fashion, though.’
Since I mainly drew female character illustrations, I prided myself on having a good understanding of women’s fashion. On the other hand, I rarely drew men, so I didn’t know much about men’s fashion.
“Shall we go?”
“Let’s.”
We awkwardly looked at each other before moving.
It was, how should I put it, a very unbalanced pairing of outfits.
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Arriving in Itaewon, we took out the panel we had prepared and wandered around the streets.
On the panel, starting with samgyeopsal, various Korean dishes likely to appeal to foreigners, such as jjimdak and tteokbokki, were drawn in sections. We planned to have people stick stickers on their preferred foods to survey their preferences.
We prepared seasoned seaweed snacks as small gifts.
I learned this while doing research for the project, but foreigners apparently love seaweed. It’s perceived as a health food and tastes good, so they eat it like a snack. I heard it’s actually a popular souvenir that tourists buy in bulk when they visit Korea.
“By the way, noona, do you speak English?”
“Uh… a little? I can’t do free talking, but simple surveys should be fine. I brought a script with the necessary phrases.”
“Okay. Then I’ll set up the panel on one side and film you.”
“You know we have to switch later, right? Both of us need to appear in the video.”
“Ugh. I’ll try my best.”
I was already worried. It was hard enough talking to Koreans, let alone having a conversation in English with unfamiliar foreigners.
But we were already in Itaewon. We couldn’t just turn back now.
I decided to watch Soyeon noona first and learn.
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The interviews went more smoothly than expected. It was almost anticlimactically easy.
“Oh, I speak Korean. Little bit.”
There were quite a few people who spoke Korean.
“I try everything!”
“Jjimdak. My favorite!”
Most importantly, many foreigners actively participated.
“Present? Thank you, I love Kim!”
The seasoned seaweed snacks we prepared as small gifts were well-received. They opened the packages and ate them right there. It seemed true that foreigners eat seaweed as a snack rather than a side dish with rice.
There was one tricky situation.
A Japanese man tried to take Soyeon noona’s wrist and lead her away, asking for directions.
“どこに行くの？ (Where are you going?) 私が教えてあげる (I’ll tell you).”
When I removed his hand and spoke in Japanese, he ran away as if he’d been caught. It was clear he was trying to hit on her under the guise of asking for directions.
I clicked my tongue as I watched him go.
“Why would he grab her wrist like that?”
And he was so short, too. …It’s a good thing I’m big. Honestly, I’m not confident in a fight.
Soyeon noona asked with a surprised face,
“Cheol-jin, you speak Japanese?”
“Not fluently, but a little.”
“Hmm. Anyway, thanks. I was a bit flustered when he suddenly grabbed me, but you saved me.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Honestly, I wondered if it would have been okay to leave it alone. I saw noona’s expression turn fierce for a moment. Honestly, I think she would have won if they fought.
Anyway, Soyeon noona and I took turns interviewing foreigners and filming each other with the camcorder.
It was interesting that the gender ratio of the respondents changed depending on who approached them.
When Soyeon noona approached them, men responded kindly, and when I approached them, more women than men responded.
So, does it work better when the opposite sex approaches?
Well, in Soyeon noona’s case, many women also responded, so maybe not always.
In any case, thanks to the surprisingly large number of foreigners who actively participated, our project wrapped up quickly. We used all 100 stickers we had prepared.
“I didn’t think we’d actually use them all.”
“Me neither. I wish we had prepared more seaweed snacks.”
We hadn’t expected to use all the stickers, so we hadn’t matched the number of snacks. We had just bought two packs of 32. Honestly, we didn’t anticipate running out of seaweed.
“Anyway, we filmed a lot of footage. I’ll edit it quickly and send it to you.”
“I’ll prepare the PowerPoint presentation. It’ll be perfect to explain things with the PowerPoint first, then show the video, and then wrap up.”
“We can get an A+ with this, right?”
“Of course. No other group will be as prepared as us. Good work.”
Soyeon noona said with a relieved expression. She had been worried, but thankfully, the interviews were successfully completed.
“Let’s go get dinner now. I’ll treat you!”
The sun had already set.
Soyeon noona hummed cheerfully as she walked.
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The restaurant Soyeon noona chose was a famous straw-smoked samgyeopsal place in Itaewon.
She chose well.
Whether she had researched good restaurants beforehand or not, the quality of the meat was excellent, and the side dishes were delicious.
“This is so good!”
“I can see that. You’re eating a lot.”
“I’ve only been eating chicken breasts for a while…”
How many chicken breasts had I slaughtered for my diet? If I went to hell, I’d probably be greeted by chestless chickens.
But Soyeon noona made a strange joke after hearing my words.
“‘Chicken breasts’? Isn’t that a bit… suggestive?”
“Huh?”
I wondered if I had misheard. I blinked and looked at her, and Soyeon noona averted her gaze.
“Laugh a little. You’re making the person who made the joke feel awkward.”
“I’ll laugh if it’s funny. Your sense of humor is terrible, noona.”
“What? Hey, you pay for your own meal.”
“Ahahahaha! Oh, my stomach hurts!”
“Too late!”
Her face, flushed with embarrassment, was kind of cute. At first, I thought she was a scary noona.
Perhaps working on a five-person project with just two people had brought us closer. A strange sense of camaraderie had developed.
We resumed our meal while chatting about trivial things. Since it had been a while since I’d had something delicious, my appetite was unleashed, and it was hard to control myself.
“Ah, I need to lose weight. This is so good, it’s a problem.”
“One day is fine.”
“One day becomes two, two becomes three. But I’m going to eat it anyway.”
“Then just eat. Don’t feel pressured, you can order more. Freshmen are supposed to mooch off their seniors.”
“Then thank you!”
As I was about to dive back into the meat, my phone vibrated. It was A-reum.
“Ah, excuse me, I need to take this.”
I excused myself and answered the phone.
“Hey, A-reum.”
“Are you out?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“When are you coming home?”
“I think I’ll be late.”
“Why! I came over to your place! Come home quickly!”
“Sorry. I’m in Itaewon right now, so I can’t.”
“Damn it! Why are you in Itaewon! I want to have sex! It’s been a week!”
“Hey, hey! Keep your voice down!”
I panicked and glanced at Soyeon noona. Her voice was so loud that it probably carried outside the phone.
‘She heard that.’
Her expression confirmed it. Her face was flushed, and she avoided my eyes. She was pretending she hadn’t heard anything and kept picking at the meat, but she definitely heard.
“Seeeeeex!”
“You crazy woman.”
“This is all because you can’t satisfy me! You limp dick!”
“What? Who’s limp?”
If there were winners and losers in sex, I was on a winning streak. If anyone was limp, it was definitely A-reum’s limp vagina. Just last week she came over wanting to be pounded, and I gave her what she wanted, and now she’s saying this?
“I’m hanging up.”
“W-What, are you mad?”
Her voice sounded a little uneasy.
I lowered my voice and said,
“No, it’s just that I’m with Soyeon noona right now. I came to Itaewon for a group project.”
“Oh, Popular Culture Theory?”
“Yeah. I’ll call you back later.”
“Hmph. I’m going to ask other guys to hang out with me. Don’t regret it. A-reum is going on a journey to find a new dick!”
“Oh really? I’m sure you will.”
Even though she seemed like a sex-crazed bird, A-reum cared about her reputation in the department. She only seduced me at the freshman gathering because of the combination of alcohol and the specific circumstances.
“What’s with that confidence? It’s annoying!”
“Yeah, yeah. I love you too. I’m hanging up.”
Of course, I meant that I loved having sex with A-reum. We often exchanged playful banter like this.
Click.
After hanging up, Soyeon noona said with an awkward laugh,
“A-reum? You and your girlfriend seem close.”
“Huh? She’s not my girlfriend. We’re not dating.”
“…Huh?”
Soyeon noona blinked, as if asking what I meant.
Then, with an expression suggesting she might have misheard, she asked again,
“You’re not dating?”
“No. I’m not thinking about dating. Neither is A-reum.”
I had subtly asked A-reum once. Why didn’t she date, when she wanted to have as many experiences as possible while she was young?
Her answer was a doozy.
‘If I have a boyfriend, I can’t do it with you. It would be fine if we were sexually compatible… but what if I date someone and his dick is small?’
Thinking back on it, it was incredible. Her American mindset shocked me. Judging by that statement, it seemed unlikely that A-reum would date anyone until she found true love or until I went to the military.
But that was just between the two of us.
Soyeon noona looked at me with a shocked expression.
“Th-Then you’re not even dating, but you had outdoor se…”
“N-Noona! We’re in a restaurant.”
“R-Right. Sorry.”
“And we agreed not to talk about that. Do you want to have a serious conversation about it?”
Like a scared dog barking loudly, I narrowed my eyes menacingly and asked. It wouldn’t just be me who would be in trouble if we brought that up, would it? I implied as much.
As expected, Soyeon noona shook her head vigorously. Then she said,
“I suddenly want a drink. Want to drink?”
“…Just one bottle?”
Of course, one bottle became two, and two became three.
The strange atmosphere.
The unfamiliar streets of Itaewon.
The delicious food.
Empty bottles quickly piled up on the table.
Before I knew it, I was carrying Soyeon noona on my back.
“Noona, noona? Where do you live? Should I call a taxi?”
“I don’t knoooow. I’m tiiiired…”
“I’m even more tired, you know?”
“Let’s just go in somewheeere…”
Soyeon noona slurred, lifting her finger.
Her finger pointed to…
“…Noona, you’re not actually drunk, are you?”
“Coool…”
Who makes a “cool” sound while sleeping?
I paused, conflicted, before finally entering the motel building.
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She was definitely intrigued.