Chapter 60

As soon as Ji Kang-hyeon’s words registered, his face transformed into one that was desperately trying to hold back laughter. In contrast, my face was probably wearing a look of pure disgust.

“Oppa, that’s not it.”

“Oh, your boyfriend?”

I had struggled so hard to suppress the urge to curse at that moment. If the person saying those words wasn’t a complete stranger, one could have imagined a slew of profanities spilling out of my mouth.

“…He’s not my boyfriend either.”

Ji Kang-hyeon could no longer hold back his laughter and burst out. The sight of him laughing maniacally was almost breathless. At this point, the employee must have sensed that the atmosphere was becoming unusual, as he was sweating profusely and looking flustered.

“Then, what kind of relationship is it?”

“We’re not related at all.”

“Just… friends. Ah, heh heh.”

This was truly maddening.

It was obvious how people would perceive us if I simply said we were friends. No matter how much I denied it, if a middle school boy and girl came to an aquarium together, what kind of relationship would that suggest? The discussions about boyfriends and older brothers would likely be taken as just cute bickering. The thought of the employee’s clear assumptions made my head spin.

Moreover, it was obvious that we weren’t alone in the Penguin Pavilion; there were other visitors and employees around. Because of Ji Kang-hyeon’s laughter, everyone was watching this little drama unfold, and for some reason, it made me feel very uncomfortable to see their smug expressions while they were laughing.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, wait. I haven’t seen much of the penguins.”

“Look later!”

Of course, I knew there would be no later. In the end, Ji Kang-hyeon ignored my words and steadfastly continued to observe the penguins.

For the record, I was going to leave Ji Kang-hyeon and move on to the next place, but after hearing from the employee that this was the last area, I returned.

Hadn’t we only spent about an hour here? Is it already over?

…It was only natural for me to come back to squeeze out more enjoyment. Ultimately, I stood at a distance from Ji Kang-hyeon as I looked at the penguins again. Soon it was time for the seal show. I had to see the seal show, after all…

~

Finally, the seal show that I had waited for, even putting off leaving the aquarium, came to an end.

After about five minutes.

I had been looking forward to the seal show, but there really wasn’t much to it. It wasn’t something extra that required a fee, so it wasn’t regretful enough to be considered a waste of time, but it was somewhat disappointing.

Was it wrong to expect a circus-level performance like the ones on TV? I thought it would be more of a talent show, but all the seals did was swim a bit and follow a few commands from the trainer before saying goodbye.

It seemed that others were also bewildered by the lack of excitement; there were some murmurs among the crowd, but the trainers had already disappeared, leaving only seals swimming leisurely.

“I expected more; this is kind of underwhelming.”

It seemed Ji Kang-hyeon’s thoughts were not much different from mine.

“The seal was cute, though.”

“Really? I found it a bit scary.”

“The seal? Why?”

“It looked a little scary in the animation I watched when I was younger.”

“Was it Pingu? That’s a sea lion, not a seal.”

“…How do you know that? It came out before you were born.”

“It’s famous on the internet, so I know. Anyway, they’re different animals.”

“To me, they all look pretty similar.”

“They’re not. Seal, sea lion, elephant seal, leopard seal, walrus, and so on.”

“What’s so different about them?”

“This is why amateurs shouldn’t talk.”

Anyway, with the anticipated seal show now over, there was truly nothing left to see. It felt like we had walked around for just under two hours, but the amount of attractions was a bit lacking.

We crossed back through the Penguin Pavilion and headed outside. On the way out, I made eye contact with that employee from earlier, who awkwardly smiled at me. Of course, I ignored him.

As soon as we exited, the first thing in sight was, of course, the souvenir shop. As we strolled through the shop casually, most of the items were figures and plush toys of marine creatures.

I had no intention of buying anything from the start, so I was just browsing. Unexpectedly, Ji Kang-hyeon was seriously contemplating which plush toy to choose.

“What are you going to buy?”

“I collect whale and shark plush toys. Whenever I come to places like this, I make sure to buy at least one.”

“Are you a girl?”

“Reflecting.”

Ji Kang-hyeon picked and put down various plush toys before finally stopping at a section where only the largest toys were displayed. Even roughly, they seemed to be over a meter tall and looked more like pillows than toys.

He glanced at those toys for a moment before moving on to look at others, but he kept returning to that spot, clearly having some lingering attachment to that corner.

“Why don’t you pick one soon?”

“I’m in a big dilemma right now.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m debating whether or not to buy this huge whale shark plush toy.”

The toy he indicated was a fish plush with an open mouth, indistinguishable whether it was a whale or a shark. It was, quite literally, enormous.

“…Is this a whale or a shark?”

“It has ‘shark’ in the name, so it must be a shark. Anyway, I’m still debating.”

“If you want it, just buy it. You have plenty of money.”

“Are you really telling me to go back to my accommodation hugging this gigantic whale shark plush? I’m a 16-year-old middle school boy!”

“…What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s embarrassing, you know. At this size.”

“Are you a girl? Getting embarrassed over something like this.”

“Reflecting.”

I gently kicked at his leg and picked up the whale shark plush to check it out. It was indeed surprisingly soft and fluffy, clearly made to double as a pillow. However, there was a bit of a problem.

“Why is this so big?”

It looked big just by sight, but holding it confirmed it was even larger than expected. Precisely, it was long. It was almost as long as me, and checking the tag revealed it was an astonishing 150cm. In other words, it was indeed bigger than me.

“It definitely would be a bit troublesome at this size. It’d be hard to carry and would draw attention.”

Carrying a plush toy this size would certainly be kind of embarrassing. It seemed that this was not something expected to sell well in the souvenir shop; it was likely just a product to attract attention, as it was the only one in stock and had a hefty price tag of 180,000 won.

While I held the plush toy, Ji Kang-hyeon began fiddling with it seriously.

Holding a plush toy that was about my size made me feel like I was drawing more attention again. Unfortunately, it seemed it was not just my imagination; turning my head, I noticed people were indeed looking our way. Annoyed, I started to return the plush toy to its original place.

“No, wait a minute.”

Ji Kang-hyeon stopped me, took the plush toy from me, and held it himself.

How much time passed? We had already been standing in the souvenir shop for 20 minutes. I had switched my focus to my smartphone midway, but in the end, Ji Kang-hyeon made a firm decision.

“I’ll take this, please.”

The employee looked just as surprised as I felt. I thought anyone would be taken aback. Surely, they never expected someone would actually buy something like that.

Either way, Ji Kang-hyeon ended up with the 150cm whale shark plush. The toy was packed into a large plastic bag, but there was no way he could just hold it with one hand; he had to hug it with both arms.

As soon as we walked out of the souvenir shop, I could feel all eyes on us. It seemed the wrapping they provided wasn’t very meticulous like a gift box; simply being wrapped in plastic made it immediately obvious that it was a whale shark.

I started to walk a little further away.

Anyway, Ji Kang-hyeon’s face, after buying the whale shark plush, looked incredibly bright. Although the sunglasses obscured his eyes, the corners of his mouth were turned up.

“Is it that great?”

“Cute, right?”

“You’re being short with your replies.”

“Yeah.”

With an attitude reminiscent of a raccoon, I couldn’t help but sigh.

Though we added a giant plush to our haul, our plan remained unchanged. We headed towards the nearby PC bang that I had searched for in advance.

Despite the attention from the plush toy, there was no way we could go back now and ask for a refund. After arriving at the PC bang and setting the plush toy down beside me, we finally took a breather.

Then, naturally, we jumped into League of Legends. I originally had only that one game I could play, and it didn’t seem Ji Kang-hyeon was particularly into other games either.

“Honestly, it’s not often I come to a PC bang like this.”

“I can see why.”

Because he’s a celebrity.

“I’ve been a few times with friends, but since I’m not good at games and don’t play often, it’s hard to game together.”

“Silver 4, so it makes sense.”

“If I had just put in a little effort, I could have reached Platinum.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Are you really 28? The way you talk sounds more like an elementary school student.”

“Shut your mouth.”

Anyway, the result of that first game was… disastrous.

Naturally, with my skills still not fully maxed out, all I could do was die repeatedly in the top lane all day long, while Ji Kang-hyeon, who confidently declared he would carry, ended up with exactly double my death count. The miserable performance of Silver 4 was beyond my imagination, leaving me speechless.

“No, I’m seriously trapped here. The enemy jungler kept diving. This is a serious jungle difference.”

And then the pitiable excuses continued. Ji Kang-hyeon flushed red at the sight of my disappointed expression and vowed to carry in the next match.

Fortunately, the first match was the only one that went that horribly. Of course, Ji Kang-hyeon still didn’t carry. In the next game and the one after, neither of us did well, but somehow, through good plays from other lanes, we kept winning.

We both received bus-worthy losses for four straight games, blamed each other, and quarreled with our teammates in the chat. It was a ridiculous game filled with foolishness, senseless bickering, and a worthless passage of time.

Never before had I experienced anything so foolish.

For some reason,

…it was perhaps a little bit fun.