Chapter 172

Chapter 172

“Yeah, I’ll be back soon . ”

- Don’t be late .

“Mhm, okay . ”

- Remember, anything more erotic than a kiss is reserved for adults .

“Mom!”

She felt her face heat up in embarrassment, especially because Maru was looking at her . She tried to hang up, but her mom asked to talk to Maru . What sorts of weird plots is her mom planning now?

“Mother, thank you for the beef ribs . We’ll enjoy it . ”

Maru chimed in happily from the side, looking at him kind of made her annoyed for some reason .

“Take this . ”

“Mm?”

“Mom wants to talk to you . ”

“ . . . . . . ”

Maru’s expression stiffened almost immediately . Oho . She nudged him more to take the call, the boy took her phone respectfully with both of his hands .

“Yes, mother . This is Maru . ”

Maru got into a kneeling position as soon as he received the phone . It was such a refreshing sight, watching his anxious expression . It was nice having something fun to watch . As Maru continued the conversation, he kept nervously twitching or stretching around . She laughed out loudly from right next to him .

“Yes, I’ll come visit next time . Goodbye . ”

Maru flopped down on the floor as if he just finished an important test .

“Come on, so nervous over just a single call?”

She poked Maru’s forehead with a finger . Maru fumbled upwards like a robot that got turned on .

“Mother’s still the same as ever . ”

“Still?”

“ . . . You don’t want to know . ”

She narrowed her eyes at Maru .

“You know, sometimes it’s incredibly obvious that you’re trying to change the topic . ”

“Really?”

“Yeah . ”

“I’ll do better next time . ”

“You’re just saying that . ”

Maru sat down in front of the glass coffee table in the living room and rested his chin on it . He looked exhausted, even more so than when he cooked . “Did something tiring happen?”

“Mm?”

Maru looked at her with some confusion . Normally, he’d immediately say ‘no’ or make a joke, but today he missed a beat before he responded .

“Is it because you talked with mom?”

“No, not at all . That’s… well, that does take a lot of energy, but it doesn’t really tire me . ”

“Then what? Now I feel sorry for dropping by while you’re so tired . I feel like I interrupted your rest . ” “Interrupted? No way, I’m happy you came . ”

Maru stood up, scratching his head . He looked like he was thinking about something . He was smiling, but every bit of her womanly senses told her that this was a fake smile .

“Something did happen, right?”

“Nothing . I’m just a bit exhausted with the seasons changing . Nothing you need to worry about . ”

Maru was drawing a clear line here, she wasn’t a fan of that . Did Maru not trust her? Was that what this was? She pouted and glared at Maru angrily, he avoided her gaze with an awkward smile for a bit before finally raising his hand .

“I’m just a bit tired from all the things I’ve been thinking about . Nothing else is really going on . ”

“Thinking about what?”

“You know, this and that . ”

“So what’s this and what’s that?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows nervously, his lips were twitching a few times from how troubled he was . To think Maru who was always so positive and quick-thinking was hesitating like this… She got kind of scared . He said that things were okay, but maybe this was a super big issue? Right then, Maru finally opened his mouth .

“I’ve been thinking . About the people around me… and about what might happen in the future . ”

Maru emphasized that this wasn’t anything serious . He didn’t look like he was lying, so for now she sighed in relief .

“Nothing’s wrong, right?”

“I swear to god, yes . ”

“That’s fine, then . I really did think there was a problem for a second . ”

“I wouldn’t hide anything if I needed to talk to you . ”

That was a little embarrassing to hear, but it did calm her significantly . Probably because of how serious he looked .

“But in any case, you were worried because of the future?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yeah . ”

“Ugh, you know, it’s not really time to think about that . ”

“That’s why I said it wasn’t anything important . I just started thinking about this because I’ve been lying down daydreaming in the hospital for so long . ”

“Daydreaming?”

“What, want to find out? It’s super perverted . ”

Maru stepped closer to her with a perverse grin . She tried to do a neck slice to stop him, he dodged pretty quickly . Come to think of it, the boy never got hit by her .

“Hey . ”

“What?”

“Let me hit you, just once . ”

“What? Why?”

“You always dodge! I’m not that slow either . ”

“Violence is bad, miss . ”

“Is that so?”

An opening! She tried to poke Maru’s cheeks with her finger, Maru’s done this to her often already . Once again, they crossed empty air .

“ . . . You’re making me feel oddly competitive . ”

“Don’t get competitive over stuff like this . . . ”

“You know it’s actually really annoying that I can’t tease you when you’re always teasing me, right?”

“Do you really have to get annoyed over something like that?”

“Let me poke you . ”

“No . ”

“Why?”

“Just because . ”

She wanted to do it, at least just this once . She started jabbing at Maru relentlessly, she still wasn’t able to hand a single hit . Maru dodged all of her strikes with a smile on his face . She started this out of playfulness, but this was actually annoying her at this point .

“Stay still . Let me poke them just this once . ”

“Were you always this perverted?”

Maru crossed his arms to cover up his chest, she felt her face heat up almost immediately . At the same time, she got angry again at getting teased again . So this is how you wanted to play it, huh? She stood up and jumped at Maru . He’ll probably dodge this one too, right?

But nope, Maru opened up his arms to catch her . She tried to jump back in surprise when she felt their bodies come together, but her center of mass already leaned towards Maru . Maru fell backwards, ending up in a sitting position . She only managed to maintain her balance by grabbing his shoulders . Her body, which was leaning forwards quite a bit, lowered slowly until she could kneel . She took a look at Maru’s smiling face once, her hands that were on his shoulders once, and his hands that were around her waist once .

“Y-y-you . . . ”

“You’re light . You need to gain more weight . ”

She felt Maru tighten his grip around her waist . What was he going to do? Right then, Maru lay down on his back .

“Woaaah!”

Her body was lifted up into the air, similar to the airplanes that her dad used to give her on in her childhood . She quickly put more strength into her hands on Maru’s shoulder to not fall forward .

“Normally I’d hold you up with my feet too, but I don’t think that’s really proper . ”

“Hey!”

“This is kind of tiring, actually . ”

“Ughh!”

She used one of her hands to twist Maru’s cheeks . Maru immediately said “ouch” very quietly as he loosened his grip on her . Thanks to their antics, they were closer than ever before . She couldn’t even open her mouth, Maru’s smiling face was right in front of her . She wanted to ask him what he was doing, but she was pretty sure her mouth still reeked of dinner . She couldn’t do anything here . So…

Bang .

She headbutt him, but this brought about an unexpected result . Instead of pushing her away, he hugged her tightly . Their chests met together and their cheeks touched together briefly . She could see the wooden floor in front of her, she could see the side of Maru’s face right next to hers as well . She could hear his entire body . His heartbeat, his breathing, and even his eyes closing, to an extent .

“Let’s… let’s just stay here like this for a bit . ”

Maru was being up front . He wasn’t asking her to stay like this, not that he was giving her a choice to begin with . What should she do here? Should she get angry or should she just ask what he was doing? In the end, she opted for a pat on his head . Maru seemed very anxious today, everything from the way he spoke and the way he was acting just screamed anxiety . It felt like he was struggling hard with a problem .

Looking at that made her feel very sorry for him, she just wanted to hug him for a bit . She didn’t know why she felt this way, but she just did . Why did it feel like she’d been comforted the same way by this person at some day she couldn’t remember?

“Han Maru . ”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a movie that I really like . ”

“Which one?”

“Dead Poets Society . ”

“Oh captain, my captain . ”

She let out a small laugh, it was funny watching him say the line a bit seriously . She could feel the breath that Maru was letting out pass by her ear like a breeze .

“I really like the word carpe diem . ”

“Carpe diem, huh . ”

“I don’t know what you’re worried about . I can tell it’s no simple matter, though . But… if you waste away today just worrying about the future that’s yet to pass, I think you’ll regret it . ”

She was able to talk about whatever that was in her heart when she was with Maru . She closed her mouth and slowly raised her body from Maru’s, the boy was looking at her from the floor .

“Do you know why I like you?”

She tilted her head at the sudden question .

“Why?”

“Because you can read me . You can read me oddly well . ”

Maru slowly raised his hands around her neck . By the time she felt the warmth around her neck, her head slowly lowered . Maru was pulling her towards him . The distance between their lips were closing in . She gave up on resisting, looking at his smiling face . No, maybe Maru was just too strong for her . Her long hair draped all over Maru’s face . Just like reaching for a little spring amidst a forest of vines, she carefully reached for Maru’s lips .

And…

Beep beep beep . The apartment door opened .

“ . . . Wowee . ”

Bada made a small noise in surprise .

She wanted to cry .

No, she kind of wanted to pass out .

* * *

“Hah . . . ”

“Don’t worry . I’ll talk to Bada . ”

“What are you going to say?”

“That we’re going to get married . ”

“ . . . Oh my god . You’re crazy . I’m crazy . ”

She got on the bus exhausted, Maru waved his hand towards her energetically . He couldn’t feel more refreshed than this . Though… she did look pretty tired right now . The moment he came back inside, Bada started questioning him about all sorts of things . He knew kids these days were pretty fast with stuff, but he didn’t know Bada was this knowledgeable about romance . None of his excuses worked, and in the end, the girl even cheered him on .

“I’ll keep it a secret from mom . Since I owe you a lot . ”

“Oh, thank you so much . ”

“Ahh, I want a boyfriend too . ”

“You can date all you want in college . ”

“Said the high schooler . ”

“ . . . . . ”

He didn’t have a response for that .

“Ah, right, bro . ”

“Yeah?”

“You know that older brother from before?”

“Who?”

“The one with the flying kick . ”

“Dowook?”

“Yeah!”

She didn’t look normal . Before she could say anything more, Maru bolted for his room . He locked the door as soon as he got inside .

“Hey! Han Maru!”

She was shouting outside, Maru put his hands over his ears . This didn’t feel good . Dowook was handsome and he did save his sister once . Bada hated boredom and loved trying new things . Knowing that… he didn’t even want to think about it .

“Hey!”

Her normal personality was starting to come out . The moment things started to go badly for her, she changed immediately from ‘bro’ to ‘hey’ . Maru wanted to put his foot down as an older brother, but he just didn’t want to talk to her today .

“Date in college!”

“What about you?!”

“Fine, I’m an asshole! Go away!”

“You don’t even know what I was trying to say!”

Maru ignored his sister as she twisted the doorknob and threw his body into the blanket . He’ll go to school at dawn tomorrow for sure .