Chapter 25
[25] Oppa, How Did You Know?
I looked through the bundle of old clothes I’d packed and fell into thought.
They were all clothes I’d been wearing for over four years on average. They’d grown fuzzy or the collars had stretched out, so I’d been planning to drop them off in a clothing donation bin soon.
What on earth did Sia want them for?
‘She could’ve just asked me to buy her an outfit.’
Wanting to give her a proper present, I’d also prepared some classic housewarming gifts, separate from the things Sia had asked for.
I’d picked out the usual rolls of toilet paper, a blanket that would come in handy for all sorts of things, and little essentials for someone living alone, like instant rice and ramen.
‘Is there anything else I could bring?’
Sia had already decorated her lair just fine, but as her boyfriend, I still wanted to do a little more for her.
If I had more time, I could’ve run to the grocery store near my place.
It was my girlfriend’s housewarming, after all. Wasn’t there anything else I could bring?
‘Actually, something did come to mind.’
Judging from why Sia had asked for my old clothes, I thought she might like something like this, too.
But if anyone else heard about it, they’d definitely think I was crazy.
Besides, I wasn’t even sure I could call it a present.
…Still, there was nothing to lose.
If it didn’t seem right once I saw her reaction, I just wouldn’t give it to her.
While I gathered a few more things and put them in my subspace, then straightened my clothes—
“Oppa!”
I felt Sia’s presence approaching from far away.
Sia, who could teleport whenever she wanted, had come to pick me up herself.
The moment our eyes met, she let out a happy squeal and wrapped her arms tightly around me.
“I missed you so much, I thought I was going to lose my mind!”
“Me too. I was wondering if a week had always been this long.”
Even though we’d spent hours on a video call just yesterday, we hugged each other fiercely, as if we’d been apart for months instead of a week.
But when Sia kept squeezing me so tightly I could barely breathe, I wheezed and spoke up.
“Cough, cough. Sia, I can’t breathe.”
“Oh!”
When I complained, Sia quickly loosened her arms, startled.
“O-Oppa, are you okay? I was just so happy to see you that I didn’t realize how hard I was squeezing you… I’m sorry!”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
I wasn’t exaggerating. If she’d kept it up a little longer, she might have broken one of my ribs…
Fortunately, Sia soon returned to her usual energy and asked,
“Oh, right. What about the thing we talked about yesterday?”
At her question, I awkwardly pointed to the pile of old clothes stacked in the corner.
The moment she saw them, the corners of her eyes lifted with delight.
“Wow, how many outfits are there? Thank you, Oppa! I’ll put them to good use!”
I had no idea what she planned to do with those old clothes, but Sia hugged the bundle to her chest as if it were a priceless treasure.
“Are you happy with them?”
“Of course I am! Thank you so much, Oppa!”
Humming to herself, Sia carefully put all the presents I’d brought into her subspace. Then, to thank me, she kissed me on the cheek.
“I thought it’d feel a little stingy to give you only these, so I prepared some other gifts, too.”
“Aw, this is already plenty, Oppa. I really don’t need anything else.”
She waved her hands and said it was fine, but her face, brimming with anticipation, told the truth.
I showed Sia the other gifts I’d stored on the balcony. The moment she saw them, she broke into a huge smile.
“Wow, what’s all this?”
She looked deeply touched, saying she hadn’t expected me to bring so much.
After we’d gathered all the presents, Sia took my hand and teleported us straight to her lair.
As soon as we arrived, I was greeted by the familiar scenery I’d seen through my phone screen.
“Ta-da! This is our lair!”
Sia had given me little virtual tours during our video calls, but seeing the place in person felt different.
It didn’t really feel like a dragon’s lair. How should I put it…
It looked more like a luxurious detached house.
The spacious lair was furnished with charming yet elegant pieces, and the interior was so sleek and modern that I’d never have guessed it had been built by hollowing out the inside of a mountain.
What caught my eye most were the many picture frames hanging along one wall.
The large frames were all filled with photos of Sia and me together.
A while ago, Sia had asked me to send her some of our photos. So that was why she’d wanted them.
Seeing my own face enlarged and hung up in a frame made me feel strangely embarrassed.
As I stared at the pictures, Sia pressed close beside me and slipped an arm around my waist.
“What do you think, Oppa?”
She sounded excited, probably expecting me to praise her.
“It feels like I’ve come to an exhibition dedicated to the two of us.”
Sia gave a pleased little smile, as if she liked my answer.
“I like that. An exhibition. We should take lots more pictures from now on, so we’ll have enough to call it one.”
“Of course. They say photos are what you have left in the end.”
After that, Sia showed me around the other rooms.
The lair was so huge that I thought I might’ve gotten lost if I’d tried to explore it without her.
“What do you think, Oppa? Do you like it?”
“I wish this were our newlywed home.”
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place for a newlywed home, but unfortunately, we weren’t in a position to live together just yet.
Sia and I both knew that, so neither of us brought it up.
“When I move in here someday, how about buying a little plot nearby and growing some tangerines?”
“That sounds nice. Or, since the lair is so big, we could build a greenhouse inside! Then we could harvest the fruit we grew ourselves together…”
It would probably be at least a few years before that could happen, but Sia happily let her imagination run wild, as if her dream had already come true.
“Sia.”
“In winter, we could share a blanket and eat tangerines—”
“Sia?”
“Oh! I got carried away.”
She must’ve been so lost in her daydream that she hadn’t even heard me.
I wasn’t sure what she’d been imagining, but her face had grown even redder.
“This isn’t the time to stand around. Oppa, let’s hurry and make tteokbokki!”
Our first date at Sia’s lair.
For days, we’d been thinking about how to spend this special date. In the end, we decided to make tteokbokki together and eat it.
Remembering how cute Sia had looked when she suggested it, I smiled without meaning to and took out the things I’d secretly prepared in my subspace.
Tteokbokki was Sia’s favorite food, and more than anything, she loved watching me cook.
We’d cooked together a few times back when Sia was human, but strangely enough, we’d never made tteokbokki together at home.
That was why I’d suggested we make some, and Sia had readily agreed, saying it was a great idea.
But before we went to cook, there was one more thing I needed to give her.
“Sia.”
“Yeah?”
“Actually, I brought you another present besides those.”
At the mention of another present, Sia clasped her hands cutely and looked at me with shining eyes.
She’d said earlier that the other gifts were plenty, but apparently…
I’d called it a present to Sia, but from my point of view, it was more like a collection of things. As I’d said before, calling them presents felt too embarrassing.
“When you asked me for my old clothes as a present, I started wondering why you wanted them.”
They were old, and the sizes wouldn’t fit her, so she couldn’t wear them.
After thinking it over, I’d come to this conclusion:
She wanted to feel as if she were living with me, even while we were apart.
If she had reminders of me scattered around her lair, she might feel as though we were living together, no matter how far apart we were.
“So I brought you a few other things besides the old clothes.”
I took out the things I’d set aside in my subspace.
My old perfume and a pair of worn-out shoes. I hadn’t been sure whether I should bring the last item, but… even a pair of my old underwear.
It might’ve been a little embarrassing, but wouldn’t that make it feel more real?
I laid the things I’d brought out in front of her and watched her reaction.
Just as I began to wonder if I’d read too much into her request—
“Oh my.”
Sia’s eyes curved into crescents. She took the things I’d offered as carefully as if they were priceless treasures, then held them to her chest.
“How do you always know exactly what I want, Oppa?”
Uh…
Had she wanted these from the start?
The day before our date.
When Sia had asked Minjun for his old clothes, she’d been secretly worried.
It made sense, didn’t it?
Even if you were dating, it wasn’t normal to suddenly ask your boyfriend for clothes he’d worn for years.
And to ask for them as a present, no less.
‘What if Oppa thinks I’m weird?’
There were plenty of perfectly normal gifts she could’ve asked for. What would he think when she specifically wanted clothes he’d worn?
He might even assume she had some strange clothes fetish.
When her thoughts went that far, her face turned bright red with embarrassment.
‘But I can’t exactly tell him the truth!’
The reason she’d asked Minjun for his old clothes was so she could smell his scent whenever she missed him.
She was far too embarrassed to say that out loud.
“Pfft!”
Just imagining herself breathing in the scent soaked into his clothes—or secretly trying them on and feeling as if she and Minjun had become one—was enough to make her…
Even she thought the plan sounded a little perverted, but she couldn’t help it.
She believed it was the best way to soothe her longing for Minjun, whom she couldn’t see very often right now.
‘…Oppa doesn’t know I’m thinking this, right?’
He probably didn’t know—and he absolutely couldn’t find out.
Even as she worried, she’d been secretly hoping Minjun would bring lots of old clothes bearing traces of him.
But then—
Minjun brought not only the clothes she’d asked for, but also his old shoes, the perfume he used, and even his underwear. Then he said:
‘You wanted to feel like we’re living together, right? I thought these might help make it feel more real, so I brought them just in case.’
When he said that, Minjun had been nervously wondering whether he’d guessed right.
But Sia wasn’t in any state to notice.
She’d never even thought of getting his shoes or the perfume he used.
And the underwear Minjun had brought…
“#%% @%@=$’”
It filled her head with such mortifying thoughts that she couldn’t bring herself to say them out loud.
“How do you always know exactly what I want, Oppa?”
Worried that Minjun might think she was a pervert, Sia did her best to suppress her surging emotions and carefully stored the things he’d given her in her subspace.
“Thank goodness. I was worried I’d completely misread what you wanted.”
Strictly speaking, Minjun had misread her after all.
He probably had no idea.
And it might be better if he never did.