Chapter 30 - Oppa, Have You Ever Kissed That Woman?

"I'm asking what your relationship is."

That was chilling. What exactly was my relationship with Yuna? As things stood now, I could say with certainty that there was nothing between us. We'd known each other only until I was eight. Then her family had emigrated, and I'd lost touch with her. I'd forgotten she even existed, so I never imagined we'd meet again like this. In other words, we were nothing like what Sia was worried about.

And yet. 'Why?' Why did I have such an ominous feeling? I didn't know. My instincts were simply warning me that, whether or not I'd done anything wrong, I had to choose my words carefully. The early-autumn weather was cool, but cold sweat was running down my back.

"Uh, Sia." Was this how a guy felt when his girlfriend caught him drinking alone with a female friend? Why was I so nervous when I hadn't done anything wrong? "... It's just like you heard earlier." Yuna's mother and mine had been friends in the neighborhood, so Yuna and I had been close as kids in kindergarten. We were obviously too young then for anything romantic. She'd just been an older girl I liked playing with, nothing more and nothing less. I couldn't believe I had to explain all this.

"Is that so?" Sia gave me a look I couldn't read. Was that explanation still not enough? "Yeah. Besides, her family moved to America when I was eight. We didn't contact each other once after that. I didn't even know what she was doing. I really never expected to run into her here."

"Then, Oppa, let me ask you one thing." Sia pressed herself against me and looked up. "Have you ever kissed her?" "... Huh?" "I'm asking if you've ever kissed that woman." "Well..."

What would a couple of snot-nosed kids playing house at kindergarten know about kissing? We barely understood physical affection at that age, so why would we have... 'Huh?' ... It had happened, hadn't it? It was over twenty years ago, so it would have been natural to forget. Strangely, though, a hazy memory surfaced: Yuna had kissed me on the cheek, and I'd shoved her away, saying it was gross.

"..."

"Oppa, why aren't you saying anything?"

Should I tell her the truth? It happened in kindergarten, and I wasn't the one who kissed her. I was the one who got kissed. But if I tried to hide it badly, Sia would probably find out later anyway. Better to come clean now. "... I have been kissed by her." I watched Sia's reaction. The fact that her expression didn't change was somehow even scarier.

Surely not. It was just something that happened when we were little kids. Did it really bother her that much? Maybe she was jealous because she hadn't been the first girl to kiss me. It was cute, but the way to ease that jealousy was to reassure her of how I felt. "But other than family, I've never been the one to kiss any woman but you. And I never will."

But then she said, "... That's not true. You're going to kiss another girl." Her expression had gone rigid. What? Why? I was just about to ask why she'd think that when she said, "You'll kiss our daughter, won't you?" The chill in her expression had given way to mischief. "Sia, you..." She'd scared ten years off my life. No exaggeration: my heart had nearly stopped.

"I hate even imagining you kissing another woman, Oppa, but of course you should kiss our daughter. I wonder how cute a daughter who takes after you would be."

"Whew..."

Once I'd calmed down, I handed Sia Yuna's business card to show that I wouldn't contact her privately. "Anyway, nothing you need to worry about has happened, and nothing will. So don't worry." "Okay! Then, Oppa, in that case..." I knew what she was about to ask, so before she could finish, I kissed her deeply on the lips. "You wanted a kiss, right?" "Yes!" Satisfaction spread across her face.

After lunch, we had a little over an hour and a half left. It was an awkward amount of time for anything else, so we decided to do some shopping at a nearby department store. We wanted another matching T-shirt or two besides the ones we were wearing, and Sia wanted a few more outfits as well. We hurried around the store, choosing clothes for each other: two sets of matching T-shirts, one outfit for me, and five for Sia. We'd made good use of the time, and still had enough left to take photos at a nearby photo booth.

"It's... time to say goodbye." After shopping, we had less than five minutes left. "I wish we had more time." "Me too. Today went by so fast." Once again, it was time to part. Sia pouted, clearly reluctant to leave. We loved each other so much, yet could spend only three hours a week together. It hurt. 'I have to get stronger if we're going to see each other more often, for longer.' The more I thought about it, the more I yearned for the "power" said to lie dormant within me. If I wanted to be with Sia, growing stronger mattered more than anything. Promising to meet again in a week, we held each other close one last time.

Just as I was about to head home, Sia said, "Oppa, before you go, take this." She handed me a phone charm. Inside it was a photo of us smiling together and making a heart with our hands. I didn't know when she'd put it together. "It's a present. I made it yesterday." She didn't say why, but she probably wanted me to make it unmistakably clear to everyone that we were a couple. "Thanks. I'll keep it on my phone." But that alone felt like it was missing something. Since we'd taken photo-booth pictures together for the first time in ages, I slipped one we'd just taken into my phone case. The case was transparent, so the picture of us together showed clearly through it. Sia smiled in satisfaction. Then she surprised me with a kiss on the cheek, teleported me home, and went back to her place with a promise to see me in a week.

Left alone, I muttered, "... Back to reality." As before, I always felt empty after a date ended. A whole week until I saw her again already felt daunting. But there was only one thing to do now. 'Train.' The answer was always the same. I had to learn to wield a dragon's power fully as soon as possible, so Sia and I could spend the whole day together without a problem. With that motivation in mind, I started looking for gates to enter next. I was going through a list of them when Junhwi sent me a KakaoTalk message.

[Hyung, have you thought about joining a guild?]

[Yuna said she'd look into guilds for you.]

... Out of the blue?

* * *

"It still bothers me." Back at her lair, Sia put away the clothes she'd bought and thought over today's date. Contrary to her fears, Junhwi's sister Jiyun had no romantic feelings for Minjun at all. She saw him simply as the person who had saved her brother's life, and Sia had reached the same conclusion. But Jiyun wasn't the problem anymore. '...Why did this coincidence have to happen?' Go Yuna, the woman who'd been friends with Minjun as a child, seemed like the greater problem to Sia.

Yuna hadn't made it obvious, but Sia could tell as a fellow woman. Her expression, her tone, her behavior: Yuna might have thought she was hiding it, but everything about her suggested she wanted to reconnect with Minjun somehow. She'd even kissed his cheek when they were children. Sia had no hard proof, but putting it all together, she suspected Yuna would keep trying to contact him. Then she'd hover around him, pretending to be just a female friend, and keep flirting with him like a sly fox. "I think I need to look into her." For now, it was only a suspicion, but Yuna would make a move somehow. Minjun had handed over the business card, saying he had no reason to contact her. Even so, Go Yuna would find a way to contact him. Sia's woman's intuition told her so.

Meanwhile, at that very moment... 'This is fate.' During a short break, Go Yuna went to the staff lounge to catch her breath and, her heart trembling, recalled the miracle that had happened at lunch. Their connection went so far back that most memories of that time had faded. Yet she remembered her moments with Minjun vividly. Even as a child, she'd been precocious when it came to love. She'd fallen for him at first sight. Though she'd carefully hidden her feelings out of childish shyness, even then she'd wanted them to become a couple. She'd been utterly serious about it.

Back then, Minjun and Yuna had plenty of opportunities to meet. They went to the same kindergarten, lived in the same building of the same apartment complex, and their mothers were friends. That wasn't all. They'd both worked as child models, too, giving them even more in common. They often met on shoots as well. At kindergarten, on set, and in each other's homes: the more Yuna saw Minjun, the more her feelings grew. Even then, his good looks promised what he'd become, and he was warm and affectionate. How could she not fall for a boy like that?

So, shy though she was, she'd tried to show him she liked him in all sorts of ways. Sometimes she'd hinted at it indirectly; once she'd even worked up the courage to kiss his cheek. But whether he was oblivious or simply didn't feel the same way, Minjun never returned her feelings. He saw her only as an older girl from the neighborhood he was close to. Still, Yuna hadn't given up. She believed he might recognize her feelings someday. She'd planned to stay close to him in that familiar role. But she'd been too young then to know that life wouldn't always go her way. When her father's business took the family to America, she'd burst into tears at the realization that she could no longer be with Minjun.

And yet. 'I never thought a miracle like this would happen.' Today, she'd reunited with Minjun as if by a miracle. He'd grown so much in twenty years, but she'd recognized him at once. His body had changed, but he still had that unmistakable air about him. She'd gone to meet her friend's guests without thinking much of it. The moment she realized that one of them was Minjun, the boy she remembered from childhood, feelings she'd long forgotten began to stir in her heart again.

The fact that he already had a girlfriend was an obstacle, but... 'I can live with that much.' If he had a girlfriend, she could still be his close female friend and he her close male friend. They might not become as close as they'd once been, but even something like that would be wonderful. 'Or he might break up with his girlfriend someday.' Then she could slip into the opening and seduce him. She smiled, pleased with the thought. She'd given him her business card; if he contacted her, she intended to rebuild their old closeness naturally. And if he didn't? 'Then I'll make the first move.' She could always find an excuse.

She searched her phone's photo gallery and found a picture from more than twenty years ago. In it, she and Minjun stood with their arms around each other's shoulders, smiling brightly. "You were so cute back then." Now he'd grown into a man. She kissed young Minjun's face on the screen. Sia and Minjun would have been horrified to see her like this, as would anyone else who knew her. Who would imagine that a beautiful, capable young businesswoman would do something so unsettling? But at that moment, what anyone else thought didn't matter to her. All she cared about was finding an excuse to have more to do with Minjun.

'Hunter.' She was a former A-rank hunter with plenty of connections in the profession; Minjun was a D-rank hunter still new to it. There had to be plenty she could help him with. From what she'd heard, he didn't seem to belong to any guild. 'Maybe I could introduce him to a good one.' Even she thought it was a promising way to keep in touch. "Wait for me, Minjun." Another woman had already taken the place of girlfriend, but surely the place of female friend was still open. That was what she thought.