Love for Love's Sake - Chapter 27
Chapter 27
What expression should I make at times like this?
I was happy that Cha Yeowoon ran well. Seriously.
After he ran up to me and held my hand, I almost burst into tears.
If it was a long distance rather than a short distance event, I might have shouted and cheered from the excitement.
So, the reason I was flustered wasn’t because of his race…
“…Is it delicious?”
[ Calculating Cha Yeowoon’s favorability. ]
[ Favorability: 5 ]
It was because of this.
Cha Yeowoon, who was diligently eating the dak-galbi, nodded as he looked at me. Maybe it was because he had cried a lot, but his eyes were a bit swollen, making him look even more adorable.
“Yeah. I’m glad it’s delicious.”
It was great that his favorability had increased. Finally entering the positive territory I had been hoping for was really great.
“Why isn’t senior eating?”
“…I’ll eat.”
[ Calculating Cha Yeowoon’s favorability. ]
[ Favorability: 8 ]
Diing–
The now familiar sound effect rang out cheerfully.
My favorability would go up every time I did something. To the point it was really embarrassing.
Just by saying something. No, even without saying anything.
Cha Yeowoon, who had been watching me with a fixed gaze, picked up his chopsticks and carefully distributed the cooked meat and cabbages onto the plate in front of me. It was a meticulous arrangement to ensure everything was included.
Accompanying the stacked dak-galbi plate was Cha Yeowoon’s attentive gaze.
At the silent urging from him, I held up my chopsticks. The dak-galbi was spicy, salty, and delicious, but I couldn’t savor it properly because my thoughts were elsewhere.
Cha Yeowoon stopped eating and watched how much I ate.
“Y-Yeowoon?”
“Yes?”
“You should eat too.”
“I’m eating.”
“Well, okay…Even so, eat more. You need a full stomach for your workouts. You ran so hard today.”
[ Calculating Cha Yeowoon’s favorability. ]
[ Favorability: 11 ]
What did I do to make it increase again?
It was absurdly easy. I questioned the purpose of all the effort and struggle I had been putting in until now.
I knew when it had started. Earlier, when Cha Yeowoon was running, I also felt an overwhelming emotion.
He had even cried, so it was strange that my favorability had increased. I hadn’t expected it to rise steadily like this.
Was it really great that I had come to cheer him on? I gave up quickly after thinking about it. In any case, it was good that he liked it.
“I’ll have fried rice.”
“If senior wants to eat, go ahead. I’ll pay for it.”
“I can’t accept a meal from a child. After all, we’re eating this as a post-match celebration.”
“But track spikes are expensive.”
Cha Yeowoon’s cheeks flushed red as he said that. No matter how he blushed, he blushed beautifully. Was that what people meant by natural beauty?
“I heard that you bought it with your part-time salary.”
“How do you know that?!”
“Cheong Sangwon said so.”
“Ha, really, that child. Why did he even mention that?”
“I would have known even if he didn’t tell me.”
“Huh?”
“When you see shoes, you can roughly estimate their price range. But senior doesn’t have much money.”
“Aren’t you seeing me as too poor?”
“I don’t see it that way, I just know it. Because our situations are similar.”
I had nothing to say and could only smack my lips.
“Don’t buy me things like this from now on.”
“You shouldn’t say that. We’re in a grandma and grandson mood right now.”
Whether to buy or not, it sounded like a reasonable argument, but Cha Yeowoon’s expression turned sour.
“Do the shoes fit well? Actually, a fan of yours helped pick them out with me.”
It was the perfect time to bring up this topic. It was the first time the favorability had ever reached the positive range, and since we were talking about shoes, it was a suitable opportunity to shift the subject to Ahn Sia.
“Shoes…My fan?”
“Gyeonghun, you know, my friend from class. He has a younger sister and her name is Ahn Sia. She’s your fan.”
“…”
“She said she competed in the same race as you in middle school. Wow. That’s cool. Cha Yeowoon.”
Although I was trying hard to lift the mood, Cha Yeowoon suddenly became less talkative. He spent a long time poking at the remaining cabbage on his plate.
“The person who picked out the shoes was that person?”
“She didn’t lend me any money; she genuinely just helped choose them, just so you know.”
“That’s not it.”
Cha Yeowoon’s chopsticks, which had been rummaging through the plate of wilted cabbages, suddenly stopped.
“She’s a woman.”
“Didn’t I just say younger sister?”
“Is senior close to her?”
“Just so-so? Anyway, she wants to meet you.”
Cha Yeowoon’s face stiffened. I realized my mistake. Didn’t this make me sound like I was arranging an escort?
“It’s not an improper meeting! It’s as a fan. She said she wants to meet you and get an autograph.”
I tried to explain, but I didn’t know what I had said wrong, as his stern expression didn’t ease.
“No good? Should I say no?”
“Do you two meet often?”
Meet often? If I counted the times we had met on set, I had seen her more often than I had seen Cha Yeowoon over the past few days. However, off-site we had met exactly once, which was to pick out shoes.
“Then I want to meet her too.”
While I was thinking about it, Cha Yeowoon spoke first.
“Oh, you will?”