‘I’m going to close the store tomorrow, so take my daughter somewhere. Don’t go anywhere shady.’

Dojin thought back to what happened yesterday as he looked at the five ten thousand won bills in his hands. Saturday night. As he took a breather after a lot of customers left, Iseul’s mother quietly approached him and handed him the money. Dojin was originally going to refuse, but Iseul’s mother was adamant and stuffed it into his hands. Her hands were rather strong, yet gentle.

“Yeah, Iseul. I’m just leaving. Wait, you’re there already?”

Dojin looked at the clock. It was 10 in the morning. They promised to meet at Suwon station by 11.

“Why did you leave so early?”

-Because I was too bored while waiting at home. Take your time.

“Hey, how am I supposed to take my time when you’re there already? Wait a moment, I’ll be there soon.”

-Then get here in 10 minutes.

Iseul’s cheerful laughter could be heard over the phone. She really acted as she wished. Of course, it wasn’t that he felt displeased or anything. It wasn’t like this was the first time, and that was also one of her charming points.

“Mom, I’m leaving!”

He put on his shoes and hurriedly walked to the bus stop. Luckily, the bus heading towards Suwon station was just arriving. He stamped his travel card on the scanner and stood in front of the back door. He looked at his faint reflection on the window and combed his hair until the bus arrived at Suwon station.

“You’re here?”

The first thing he saw was the one-piece dress that Iseul was wearing. She always wore pants at school and at the restaurant because she found skirts uncomfortable. Dojin was unable to speak for a while as he looked at the pink one-piece dress that matched her reddish face.

“What, am I that pretty?”

“Uh, yeah? No, what?”

“You’re supposed to say that I’m pretty. But it feels rather uncomfortable after not wearing it for so long.”

Iseul grabbed the hem of her skirt and waved it sideways. Glimpses of her white thighs could be seen intermittently. Dojin abruptly opened his eyes and took off his jacket to cover her legs.

“Hey, they can see you!”

Hearing those words, Iseul smiled before pinching Dojin’s nose. Dojin made a nasal sound.

“I get it, so don’t overreact.”

Dojin sighed and put his jacket over his arm. Although it had been nearly a year since they started dating, she was still hard to handle.

“So? Where are you going to take me today?” Iseul asked as she reached her hand out.

Dojin grabbed her hand tightly just like he always did.

“I said we’ll go to Hyehwa station to see a play.”

“Before that, we should get lunch. You must have done your research, right?”

“Of course, I saw on the internet that there is a restaurant with a good curry. I’m learning how to make Japanese-style curry at the cooking academy, and apparently, I’ll get to taste what it’s like when we go there.”

“So are you going there to study or are we on a date?”

“Can’t I do both?”

Iseul chuckled and replied ‘you can’. They passed the ticket barrier and went inside. As it was Sunday, Suwon station was packed with people. After watching the crowd of people for a while, Dojin pulled his arm so that Iseul was right next to him.

“Oh, being considerate of me, are you?”

“Of course.”

“How reliable.”

When they smiled at each other, the train arrived.

“How’s the academy these days? Can you still handle it?”

“Yeah. I thought there would be a lot of girls, but surprisingly, there were a lot of men. Most of them are older than me so they look after me a lot.”

“The famous chefs and cooks are all male if you watch TV. That’s probably why.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“If you’re too busy to go to the academy, then you don’t have to come to help out anymore. My dad has gotten a lot better and he can start working now.”

“I’m doing it because I want to. I’m earning wages too.”

They got off at Geumjeong station and switched to line number 4. There were a lot of people wearing backpacks and they seemed to be going hiking. Dojin had Iseul stand next to the door and blocked in front of her.

“Where did you learn manners like these?”

Iseul smiled as she brushed Dojin’s hair. As they waited, they talked about the TV program that they watched on Saturday, then about dramas, and then their conversation led to talking about Maru.

“That was freaky.”

“Yeah. I thought it wasn’t Maru at first even when I had a look at his face.”

“He’s a friend of mine, but he really is incredible.”

“He’s also a friend of mine, you know?”

As they watched the scenery outside, they were told that the next station was Hyehwa. The train stopped, and they took a step outside the door.

Dojin was looking around as he climbed up the stairs, and from what he saw, 70% of the people there seemed to be on a date.

“The weather’s good,” Iseul said, as she looked up at the sky.

The yellowish sunlight was emitting just enough heat to be comfortable. The strong winds had died down as well so it was the perfect day for a picnic. Dojin grabbed Iseul’s hand.

“It’s still a little early for lunch, so should we look around?”

“Sounds good. I hope I can see the guitar guy that we saw last time. He was good.”

“I want to see the guy that played the janggu[1].”

“It’s a djembe, not a janggu.”

“Same thing.”

The two walked around the ticket office in front of the exit for a while before walking towards Marronnier Park. As expected of Daehak-ro on a Sunday, it was filled with vitality. They bought a corn dog each before walking towards the park.

“Looks like there’s a photo exhibit here.”

There were large photos lined up along the trees. Kids holding cotton candy were flocked in front of them, and Iseul was very fidgety as she looked at them. Iseul always liked children. When she looked at kids that came to the restaurant grabbing their moms’ hands, she would often go up to them and ask if she could hug them. Whenever that happened Dojin thought of Iseul being a preschool teacher. That would definitely suit her.

“This looks cool.”

Clouds on top of a cliff, and a tree covered in snow. That photo had a charm that attracted people’s eyes. When they looked below the photo, the name of the photographer was written on it, and the name under each photo was different. To the left of that was a noticeboard that explained the details of this exhibit.

“Apparently these are taken by the elderly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They aren’t taken by professionals, but by old people as a group activity of sorts.”

They looked around the photo exhibit. This was what was good about Daehak-ro. They didn’t have to prepare anything and there would always be things to look around and spend their time on in a joyful manner.

“We went there last year and did a small performance as the acting club, didn’t we?”

Iseul pointed at the bathroom. She was probably pointing at the place beyond the bathroom where the public performing grounds were - the place where there were round marble chairs around.

“Should we go there?”

Dojin moved. They went past the bathroom and as they approached the performing grounds, they heard murmuring sounds. Was there a performance? The last time they came here, a cool college band was playing music.

“Oh?”

They saw a group of four people where everyone was looking; three men and one woman.

“It’s Maru.”

“Senior Ganghwan is there too.”

“Oh!”

Iseul widened her eyes before grabbing Dojin’s hands and walking forward. Dojin was practically dragged by her.

“It’s Yoo Sooil.”

There was a good-looking boy where she was pointing. Dojin felt like he had seen that guy somewhere. He thought that it was perhaps on a telecommunication commercial. Dojin looked at Iseul displeased.

“Aren’t you liking it too much?”

“Whew, Han Dojin. Jealous, are you? Maybe I should do this from time to time.”

Iseul chuckled as she poked Dojin’s waist. How could she be so cute? - Dojin subconsciously grinned. He was going to get himself together and look at her seriously again, but he would always become soft when he looked at Iseul smiling at him. He was in a seriously bad condition.

“Maru said he was practicing for something recently and I guess this is it.”

Dojin said as he looked forward. Actually, while it was called the public performing grounds, there wasn't any equipment set up or anything like that. It was just that the chairs placed around were pointed at a wide opening. The four performers were standing on top of a pedestrian road as well.

They pushed forward and stood at the front. Dojin met eyes with Maru, and he nodded at him. There were around 30 people here. Some of them left after watching for a brief moment, while some took a seat.

“Ah, ah! My heart!”

Ganghwan clenched his chest before lying on the ground. Even though the ground must have been cold, he pulled out his tongue in a comedic manner and shouted ‘help me’. He rolled on the ground for a while before making a cool expression in front of a pretty girl and asked her ‘Is this ahjussi cool?’ making everyone around laugh.

“Someone help!” The woman that was also in the performance shouted urgently.

Dojin thought that there was a performer reserved for that role, but the woman kept shouting at the audience.

“There’s so many of you here and not even one of you is willing to help? Please help us. You should save this man.”

At that moment, Dojin felt his hand rise into the air. Iseul had raised her hand that was grabbing his.

“I’ll do it!”

“Thank you, lady.”

Iseul walked forward and put her hands on top of Ganghwan’s chest before pressing down. The people around all cheered.

“I think we need to do mouth-to-mouth.”

“What?”

“Mouth-to-mouth.”

The woman raised her hands in the air and started clapping. Mouth-to-mouth! Mouth-to-mouth! - when she started saying that in a certain rhythm, the audience followed suit.

Dojin looked at Iseul who was kneeling down with her knees together. Absolutely not - he vigorously shook his head, but Iseul made a strange smile and brushed her hair behind her ears.

“I’m really doing it!”

When Iseul said that, Ganghwan raised his hand in the air and shouted ‘okay!’. The audience started laughing again.

Iseul’s head started lowering down. The moment Iseul’s hair touched Ganghwan’s cheeks, Dojin tensed his eyes and walked forward!

“I’ll do it!”

Then he pushed Iseul away before taking a deep breath in. Since it came down to this, he decided he should have a blast doing it.

“H-hey! Not you!”

“It’s okay, senior! I’m good at kissing.”

“H-hey!”

He grabbed the resisting Ganghwan’s face and was about to ‘press down with his lips’ before turning his head around at the last second. It was impossible to do it for real.

“Doctor, have you come to yourself?”

“Yeah! That really brought me back to life. But for a brief moment, I had a really scary dream, you know?”

“What kind of dream was it?”

“In it, I was wearing a wedding dress.”

Ganghwan twisted his body up in embarrassment before coughing awkwardly and sitting down on a chair.

“The two patients over there, please sit down.”

Iseul, who looked like she was having an extremely fun time, grabbed Dojin’s hand and sat down. Dojin felt like he was sweating cold sweat due to all the gazes and boos that he was getting from around him. He was extremely nervous just like when he was standing on the stage.

“Are you two lovers?”

“Eh? Yes!”

“Then prove it to me.”

“Eh?”

Just as Dojin was dazedly looking at Ganghwan, he heard a smooch sound from next to him. When he looked next to him in surprise, he saw Iseul taking her face off his as though nothing happened at all. ‘Hey! Don’t you have any shame, woman?’

“My, my. You have a serious condition! Everyone, please give a round of applause to cure this man of his disease!”

Ganghwan stood up and induced the audience to start applauding. His prankster eyes and movements reminded Dojin of a clown. The audience reacted to each of his movements and followed him. Dojin became part of the audience for a moment and watched Ganghwan.

“Well then, go down. This place is only for the sick to come up. A lovey-dovey couple doesn’t belong here!”

Dojin went back to the front row under the applause of the audience. He was dazed by the sudden turn of events, but soon, there was a grin on his face.

“Everyone. I’m going to fall down due to heart disease in about 4 seconds, and let me remind you of something. First, only ladies are allowed. Second, the kiss should be a deep one. And third, I hope it’s someone who’s seriously willing to date me.”

When he said those words, the college girls lined up on the right side of the audience seats started screeching. It seemed that they were fans of Ganghwan’s. Dojin laughed and watched as Ganghwan fell down once again.

[1] A Korean traditional drum-like instrument with ‘drum faces’ on both sides. Wikipedia for more info.