Chapter 109

It wasn’t.

…It wasn’t.

Why on earth did we go up to such a high place when it wasn’t even that? I naturally had no idea which floor the VIP lounge was on, but Hwa-won was quite taken aback when we got off just below the top floor, likely due to a prejudice that such places would be high up.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that what appeared before us was a children’s and youth’s store, I couldn’t tell.

“Come on, loosen your expression. Anyone would think you dragged me here against my will.”

“Isn’t it true that you dragged me here?”

“Half of it isn’t against your will.”

“Shut up.”

I couldn’t help but feel more irritated, and my words didn’t come out nicely. In fact, if we only considered this part, I was more frustrated with myself for having such ridiculous and foolish fantasies than with Hwa-won. However, I had no intention of voicing that. But I figured it was okay to at least ask something out of curiosity.

“Are you a VIP here by any chance?”

“Huh? Why VIP? Definitely not. I’ve been wandering outside the house for years, so how could I be that?”

“Right, good for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

It was more amusing to hear the rebuttal than the fact that there was no time for that, but Hwa-won was definitely right.

It hadn’t been long since I returned home, and since I hadn’t properly settled in, I likely wouldn’t have the time for that. My perception of what a department store VIP was was also incredibly narrow, and I didn’t even know how it worked in reality.

It seemed to truly be a completely foolish imagination of mine.

“Well, my stepmother might be a VIP here, but we’re not going to the luxury store anyway.”

…Maybe not completely.

However, it was certain that this wasn’t a typical neighborhood clothing store. Even though I was dragged here, I wasn’t rich enough to shop at places like this. At first, I just thought I’d see how much things cost. It didn’t take long for that thought to shatter.

We walked leisurely while looking at the surrounding stores. More precisely, Hwa-won was looking, while I was already half in a bad mood. Thanks to that, the gloom that lingered before had faded a little, though my expression was still hard to ease.

“Let’s take a look over there.”

“Sure.”

I casually responded to Hwa-won’s words as we stepped into the first store, which seemed like a brand but was not popular enough that I had no idea what it was. Since it was the kind of store that could be found in a department store, it was natural for it to be a brand, yet I still only thought, how expensive could it be?

“Do you have any outerwear? They say it’s going to be a bit chilly this year, so shouldn’t you at least have a puffer coat? All the clothes you currently have are spring or summer wear.”

I needed to buy outerwear. While I lacked light clothes as well, I basically had none aside from the very thin one I was currently wearing. Usually, I survived winter with one or two puffers or coats, and even before I became like this, I managed with just two.

“A puffer and a coat should be enough. I do have a cardigan from Madame.”

“They say wearing that is bothersome.”

“Cardigans are relatively less bothersome, and honestly, I don’t feel like I need one that badly.”

Of course, I didn’t want to spend more money either.

“Then I guess we have to buy two coats, and maybe some other clothes too.”

“Two? I don’t want to buy that much from a place like this.”

Since we came here anyway, I did consider buying a couple of items, but buying everything here was definitely beyond my budget.

“Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean all winters are the same. You should buy both thin and thick ones. Let’s look around first.”

“Think of my budget first.”

Ignoring my words, Hwa-won began looking at the clothes around her. I was quite unmotivated to wear clothes, so I just stood still while she seemed to be particularly enthusiastic.

As she held up various clothes to my grumpy expression, asking if they looked okay, I kept responding with a playful scorn, saying they didn’t suit me. Just when I began to feel a bit sorry for her as she continued fetching new clothes and asking for my opinion without tiring, she said:

“Should we go to another store?”

Hwa-won probably knew well that I wasn’t saying that because I genuinely thought they didn’t look nice. Although she knew this was already a matter of taste, she didn’t show any irritation. With a slight sigh, she opened her mouth.

“No, it’s fine. The one you’re holding looks pretty good.”

“Want to try it on?”

“Yeah.”

It was a thick red puffer coat. It was slightly big for my body size, but that was at a reasonable level. Although my comment of ‘it’s good’ was just an offhand remark, when I put it on and looked in the mirror, it actually did look pretty good. Plus, the fact that it was a bit bigger made me look somewhat bulkier.

“But it seems a bit too thick to wear right now.”

“Once the colder days come, you’ll have to wear it anyway.”

Hwa-won’s words weren’t wrong, and even though buying everything here was overkill, this one should be fine… I thought as I checked the price tag.

… I immediately took off the puffer and put it back where it was.

“Why are you putting it back?”

“You crazy bastard. How can I buy a 450,000 won puffer?”

What did I even mean by ‘a couple of items’? Even just buying one would easily exceed my budget. This was indeed a department store, but it was clearly different from any department store I had known. Could it be that all the stores here were like this?

Hwa-won paused for a moment and checked the price tags of other clothes. It seemed like she had half-realized something and showed a slightly flustered expression. It had been a long time since I had seen Hwa-won look flustered.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I really didn’t think about this. It wasn’t intentional.”

As she said, it probably wasn’t intentional. The kid who only got 500 in pocket money monthly after moving out wasn’t going to think about such things. Even if he knew that I had a tight budget, he probably never thought about how much the clothes in the stores would cost.

Normally, I wouldn’t have noticed, but since this was a sudden situation where she was trying to cheer me up, it seemed Hwa-won had no room to think.

Hwa-won readily apologized and returned the clothes she was holding to their original place.

We stepped out of the store with a slightly awkward atmosphere. We had visited other stores as well, but their prices were mostly similar. The cheapest one at least seemed reasonable for buying one piece, but no matter how I thought about it, it seemed much better to buy several reasonably priced clothes, so ultimately, I couldn’t buy anything.

Now that we ended up in this situation after forcibly dragging me here, Hwa-won had also discarded her earlier nonchalant behavior and started showing a bit of an embarrassed expression. Suddenly, Ham Yejin and Muk Ha-neul came to mind. Both had invited me to go shopping with them.

If it were Ham Yejin, she would have let me choose the store from the start. If it had come to this situation, she might have just bought me something with her own money and gifted it to me. If I felt uncomfortable, she probably would have persuaded me with a plausible excuse.

Muk Ha-neul would have looked for the prices and chosen the stores first. Although such a situation wouldn’t have happened at all, if it did, she might have forcibly bought me clothes because they were relatively cheap.

Hwa-won was neither of those. Coming to a department store like this was surely Hwa-won’s mistake. Yet she did not say anything about compensating for her mistake with gifts or that I should pay her back later; instead, she acted like she was treating me.

I thought about the girls Hwa-won had dated. He wasn’t someone who was stingy with money when it came to relationships. Usually, the girls who dated Hwa-won would unashamedly eat off him or plead for gifts, and he’d generally listen to their requests as long as they were within reasonable limits. However, he would cut them off the moment they crossed the line.

Logically, one could get angry at the fact that he gave gifts to them but not to me, yet I didn’t feel that way. If anything, I felt somewhat relieved.

It confirmed once again that we were not in that kind of relationship, and that this relationship had not yet degraded. I didn’t want to be in a one-sided relationship where I received something without giving anything in return.

Sometimes, one could receive the most by giving nothing at all.

“That’s enough. It’s fine, so don’t worry about it.”

Of course, this one comment didn’t dramatically change Hwa-won’s demeanor or expression, but she wouldn’t keep sulking either.

She stopped me from pressing the button for the first floor in the elevator and instead pressed the basement level one. It was the food court.

“Are we going to eat? It’s still early.”

It was still too early for dinner, and since I had eaten a lot for lunch, my stomach wasn’t empty yet. Hwa-won had also eaten almost two portions, so this wasn’t really the time to be feeling hungry.

“Do they only serve rice at the food court?”

“What else would they serve if not rice?”

“I meant we should at least grab some snacks.”

That noticeably straightforward expression made me laugh slightly.

“Is there anything you want to eat?”

“We’ll have to go see.”

When we got to the food court, various restaurants caught our eye. We walked around looking at the stands just like before. The difference from earlier was, while before Hwa-won was just looking and talking to herself, now we were both critiquing all the food we hadn’t eaten.

We ended up walking around the food court, grabbing more snacks than meals, and finally settled on a dessert shop that seemed appealing. I hadn’t chosen it; it was Hwa-won who picked it after I mentioned I was craving something sweet.

As I said before, I preferred sweet things over bitter ones. My belief was that if I was going to drink coffee, I might as well have a chocolate latte. Hwa-won often teased me about being childish for this preference, while I would retort, calling her preferences old.

Even so, I wasn’t one to be crazy about sweets to the point of frequently visiting dessert cafes, so this was my first time in such a shop. On the other hand, Hwa-won had likely frequented places like this with her girlfriends.

“I can’t tell what’s what just from the names. Why is the menu all in English?”

“It’s a trend nowadays. Kid.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

I ordered a vanilla ice cream, a slice of chocolate cake called ‘Schwarzwälder’, and iced tea, while Hwa-won ordered an affogato and madeleine.

“Aren’t you full? Can all that fit in there?”

“The only thing I agree with about the things girls say is that there’s a separate stomach for desserts.”

“Since when have you thought that?”

“I just decided that now.”

By the way, since it was a dessert cafe, it definitely had a somewhat different atmosphere than regular cafes. It felt like a trendy spot for social media, with half the people there being couples and the other half being girls. Most of them were probably girls.

As we waited for the dessert to arrive, I was conversing with Hwa-won when suddenly, I heard the sound of a camera shutter, making me turn around instinctively. Thankfully, it seemed they were just taking pictures of their desserts, and no one was paying us any mind.