—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Cheonggwang Neighborhood Park was built around a stream near Cheonggwang University. So, people often called it Cheonggyecheon, short for “Cheonggwang University stream.”
Seora Ahn was jogging along Cheonggyecheon, as usual. Her ponytail swayed with every stride.
“Huff, puff, huff, puff.”
This year marked her eighth year of jogging. It was an unbreakable part of her daily routine. Regardless of whether it was on-season or off-season, no matter how busy she was, she made time for a jog at least once a day.
Seora circled Cheonggyecheon several times before stopping. Her body was flushed, and sweat dripped down her face despite the chilly air. After a good sweat, she felt a sense of accomplishment that allowed her to start her day refreshed.
But today, there was a lingering unease. The man who had been jogging along Cheonggyecheon every day for the past week was nowhere to be seen.
He’s always here around this time.
Even though they didn’t know each other’s names, she was strangely aware of him. The image of him running until he was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath was particularly striking.
Seora felt a connection to him. She saw a reflection of her past self in his struggle. So, she had been silently cheering for him every morning during her jog.
But the man, who had been jogging at the same time every day for a week, was nowhere to be seen today, even though it was almost time for her to finish her workout.
Did he give up?
It was highly likely.
Even if someone started exercising with a strong determination to change themselves, maintaining that resolve wasn’t easy.
Seora hadn’t just been cheering for that man. During her eight years of exercise, she had supported many people, regardless of gender, who were working hard, especially those who were overweight and trying to lose weight.
But most of them disappeared without a trace after a while, even before reaching their goals.
I thought I’d see him more often.
Seora recalled the man running as if his life depended on it. He ran with such desperation, even though no one was chasing him. That’s why she had, out of a sense of unnecessary concern, offered him her water.
“Hmm. Maybe I made him uncomfortable?”
He had been quite flustered when she offered him the water. So much so that he couldn’t even speak and just opened and closed his mouth.
Seora shook her head and started walking home. It felt ridiculous to be so concerned about a man she didn’t even know.
A chilly breeze drifted in. Even under the covers, Pi A-reum felt cold.
She instinctively curled up in a ball, trying to get back to sleep.
Then suddenly…
Her eyes snapped open. She realized she wasn’t in her own bed. She sat up abruptly and groaned.
“Ow…”
Her head ached, her stomach felt queasy, and her body was stiff and sore. A strange ache pulsed in her lower body.
“Ugh. They say the day after your first time is the worst…”
Her hips ached as if they were twisted. It had been a vigorous night.
Pi A-reum grimaced in discomfort and carefully climbed out of bed. She picked up her underwear and t-shirt and put them on. She had fallen asleep naked last night, saying she liked the feeling of skin against skin, so she hadn’t been wearing anything.
The oversized t-shirt reached her knees like a dress. She sniffed it and caught the familiar scent of a man.
A smile spread across Pi A-reum’s face.
“I’m not a virgin anymore. Graduation from virginity, woohoo!”
She was babbling nonsense as soon as she woke up. If Cheol-jin Kang had heard her, he would have undoubtedly made a strange face.
“But where did Cheol-jin go?”
The window seemed to be open for ventilation. Did he leave the apartment with the door unlocked?
She might be a little upset if he did. Waking up alone after a night of passionate sex felt worse than she expected.
Just then, the sliding door connecting the kitchen to the bedroom slid open.
Cheol-jin Kang, holding a pot, widened his eyes when he saw her.
“You’re awake? Wash up and come eat breakfast.”
Pi A-reum blinked her large eyes and then chuckled.
“I thought you were my mom.”
He hadn’t left; he had woken up early to prepare breakfast. How diligent.
She walked briskly towards Cheol-jin to take the pot from him, but her legs gave way, and she collapsed.
Cheol-jin quickly put the pot down on the table and rushed to her side.
“A-reum, are you okay?”
“…My legs feel like jelly. This is all your fault, Kang Cheol.”
“But…”
“You said you’d help me wash up, but you just kept pounding me in the shower!”
After their second round in the early morning, they had gone to the bathroom. They felt too sticky to just go back to sleep. But she was so weak that she had asked Cheol-jin to wash her. You’re the reason I’m so weak, so you’re responsible for washing me!
And naturally, they had another vigorous round in the bathroom. Cheol-jin, unable to resist her body, had pounced on her like a wild animal…!
Cheol-jin protested with an indignant expression, “Hey! You kept touching me and getting me hard! You said you wanted to try shower sex!”
“Heehee. Help me up.”
“Sigh…”
Cheol-jin sighed and rubbed his forehead. His headache wasn’t just from the hangover.
“Heave-ho!”
“Whoa!”
Pi A-reum yelped in surprise. She had reached out for him to help her up, but Cheol-jin had practically lifted her into his arms.
Held in a princess carry, Pi A-reum blinked and looked up at Cheol-jin, her heart pounding. He’s being more assertive than yesterday. Do men really change this much once they shed a layer? Should we go back to bed for another round?
Sex as soon as we wake up. It would be tiring, but kind of hot. She thought excitedly.
Gently.
He placed her on a chair.
“Awww…” Pi A-reum couldn’t hide her disappointment.
Cheol-jin gave her his usual bewildered look. “What’s with the ‘awww’?”
“I thought we were going to the bed.”
“I said let’s eat breakfast.”
“Tsk.”
“Seriously, what’s your problem…?”
“I was imagining a lust-driven Kang Cheol shoving his hard cock at me and saying, ‘This is your breakfast.’ I’m disappointed.”
“…I often struggle to understand your thought process. Is this really a conversation between two people who just met yesterday?”
“Heehee. I’m joking, I’m joking.”
“…You are joking, right?”
“Maybe?”
Pi A-reum giggled, watching Cheol-jin’s confused expression. He was really fun to tease.
As she sat there swinging her legs, a delicious breakfast appeared before her.
Spicy bean sprout and kimchi soup, pan-fried spam and sausages, and a bowl of white rice.
Pi A-reum gave a thumbs-up to the simple yet appetizing meal.
“Kan Cheol, you’d make a good wife.”
“…Not husband?”
“What? Are you saying you want to be my husband?”
“Are we even speaking the same language?”
“Let’s just eat. You didn’t add anything weird to it, did you? Like, ‘This is my special sauce’?”
“…I’m really tempted to curse right now.”
Pi A-reum giggled and took a bite of rice.
He seemed to have cooked the rice himself instead of using instant rice, and it was fluffy and delicious. The spicy soup soothed her upset stomach, and the spam and sausages were light and easy to eat.
“This is good. You’re a good cook, Kang Cheol.”
“It’s just bean sprout soup and some fried spam… Thanks for enjoying it. I’ll make you something even more delicious next time.”
“Next time? Oooh, are you trying to seduce me? Do I look like an easy woman who’ll fall for you just because you give me good food?”
“No, that’s not what I… Seriously.”
“Nom, nom, nom.”
“…Are you ignoring me?”
Cheol-jin clenched his fists and trembled. Pi A-reum giggled at his reaction and continued eating. He sighed and resumed his own meal. He reacted so well that she couldn’t help but tease him.
After they finished eating, “Want some coffee?” he asked.
“Yeah. I love coffee. I’ll do the dishes.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I can’t just eat and run!”
While Pi A-reum was washing the dishes, Cheol-jin made coffee. But it wasn’t ordinary coffee.
“Wow, is this hand-drip?”
“Yeah. I like coffee, so I bought a cheap setup.”
“Are you rich, Kang Cheol?”
Having a hand-drip coffee setup at home was unusual, and his apartment was quite spacious and nice for a single university student.
Cheol-jin quickly waved his hands in denial. “No, not at all. I told you I took the GED. I earned some money while others were in school, so I spent it on my hobbies.”
He sounded like he was making excuses, but Pi A-reum didn’t really care whether he was rich or not. It was just an observation.
As they chatted and sipped their coffee, Cheol-jin suddenly said,
“Um, Areum. It’s a bit late to ask now, but…”
“Yeah?”
“…Are you okay that I was your first?”
“Huh?”
What was he talking about?
Pi A-reum blinked and looked at Cheol-jin. Was it because she was sober now? Instead of the passionate man from last night, she saw a timid, shrinking figure.
Pi A-reum frowned, disliking what she saw. She had noticed it since yesterday, but Cheol-jin often seemed to withdraw into himself, even in the middle of a conversation.
Was there a reason? Come to think of it, he didn’t seem entirely comfortable with Sung-hyun either.
Several questions flashed through her mind, but…
Getting lost in thought wasn’t her style.
Pi A-reum decided to confront him directly. “Kang Cheol, why are you so insecure?”
“…Because I’m fat and ugly. And I’m not particularly interesting.”
Pi A-reum, on the other hand, was strikingly beautiful and had an easygoing personality. The comparison was inevitable.
But that was just Cheol-jin’s perception.
Pi A-reum pouted and said,
“Cheol-jin, it’s kind of insulting when you say that. It makes it sound like I slept with some loser.”
“Th-That’s not what I meant.” Cheol-jin stammered.
Pi A-reum sighed and continued, “Honestly, I did sleep with you casually. I was curious about sex.”
It had been a long-standing curiosity. Most of her friends had already had their first time in high school. Some of the more precocious ones had even done it in middle school.
With her own high libido and hearing stories from her friends, Pi A-reum’s fantasies about sex had only grown. One of her close friends had become so enamored with sex with her boyfriend that she drastically improved her grades just to get into the same university.
How good must the sex have been for her friend, who used to hover around the bottom of the class, to suddenly jump to the upper ranks?
So, Pi A-reum wanted to experience it too. But unlike her friends, her family was very strict. So strict that it was difficult for her to even have a boyfriend, let alone have sex.
So, she made a deal with her parents: she would improve her grades and get into a good university in exchange for more freedom. She wanted them to ease her curfew.
In the end, Pi A-reum got accepted to Cheonggwang University, a prestigious institution just below the SKY universities, and she was eager to finally experience sex.
And then, she met Cheol-jin at the freshman orientation yesterday.
“But even though it was casual, I didn’t just sleep with anyone. It wasn’t like anyone would do.”
If that were the case, she would have just picked up any random guy off the street and gone to a motel. Pi A-reum was well aware of her own beauty.
“I think you’re a pretty decent guy. You have an easygoing personality, and I can see that you’re considerate in everything you do.”
Of course, she couldn’t know everything about him in just one day, but there were things that revealed themselves in everyday interactions. From what she had seen yesterday, Cheol-jin was polite to others, including the staff, and his interactions showed a natural consideration for others.
Pi A-reum had a good intuition about people.
“It’s a bit awkward to say this myself, but I’m pretty good at reading people. I thought you’d be okay.”
And more than anything…
“You’re also my type, physically.”
“…Me?” Cheol-jin’s face was clearly flustered.
Pi A-reum chuckled and nodded without hesitation. “Yeah. I don’t understand why you call yourself ugly. And as for being fat… isn’t that a good kind of chubby?”
He was definitely not slim. He had a noticeable belly. But it didn’t look like he was excessively overweight.
Cheol-jin was quite tall. 180cm might be common these days, but he was still 180cm. Because of his height, he didn’t look too heavy even with some extra weight.
If anything, he was the kind of bear-like physique some people liked. Yes, with his fair skin, he was a polar bear.
Pi A-reum sipped her coffee and said,
“My mom always told me, ‘Be humble, but not excessively so. Always be polite. And be confident in yourself.’ She’s a mom with a lot of nagging to do…”
“……”
“Anyway, um, what I’m trying to say is… you’re a good guy. But if you keep putting yourself down like this, people might actually start believing it. Uh, what am I even saying?” Pi A-reum tilted her head, her words trailing off.
Cheol-jin burst out laughing. He understood what she was trying to say.
Don’t put yourself down.
Five years of being a shut-in…
It seemed he had become overly self-deprecating.
That evening, Seora was jogging along Cheonggyecheon again.
Why did I have to eat that for lunch?
She had exceeded her allotted calorie intake. It wasn’t much, but with a competition coming up in a few days, it wasn’t something she could take lightly. That’s why she was back at Cheonggyecheon, even though she had already completed her workout for the day.
As she sighed and circled the stream, “Oh?” She spotted a familiar silhouette.
She picked up her pace and ran towards it. It was the man she had been looking for. She couldn’t help but call out to him.
“Did you change your time?”
“Huh?” Startled, the man looked at her with surprise.
Seora regretted her words, worried that she had made him uncomfortable again.
But contrary to her expectations, the man replied with a smile, “I had something to do this morning. I’m only jogging in the evening today.”
“Ah, I see. That’s why I didn’t see you this morning.”
Oops. She had made another potentially bothersome comment. In her experience, overweight people didn’t like receiving attention. She quickly added, “Y-You work out really hard. It’s noticeable, so I’ve been cheering for you.”
I messed up again. That probably made him even more uncomfortable.
But again, the man’s reaction was unexpected.
“Thank you. Your greetings always motivated me. And thank you for the water the other day.”
“Oh, you’re welcome…”
“Well then.”
“G-Good luck with your workout.”
The man gave a small bow and walked away.
Seora tilted her head, watching him leave.
“Something’s different about him.”
She had thought he was incredibly shy, but he had conversed with her quite calmly. She had only exchanged glances with him because of his initial timidness.
She shook her head and resumed her jog.
Then, she suddenly felt a pang of regret.
“Oh, I didn’t ask his name.”
Well, she would see him again.
She hoped he wouldn’t give up and would achieve his goals. Feeling strangely energized, she quickened her pace.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
