“…….”
“…….”
Swoooosh, swoooosh. Only when a strong wind blew and shook the entire lake did I close my eyes. Until then, Joel and I had been making eye contact. I saw Joel’s pupils shake slightly, and I was reflected in them, and at the same time, I anticipated that he would be reflected in my eyes as well.
Rustle rustle, rustle rustle! The trees shook violently and dead leaves fell and scattered. The same went for very small particles of dust. Dust floating in the air suddenly entered my left eye.
“Ugh.”
My eye stung, and I couldn’t open it properly. If I rubbed my eye like this, I could scratch my eyeball, so I couldn’t do anything either way, when Joel, who had finally let go of my hand, grabbed my chin. And he pulled my face toward him.
“Did dust get in?”
“Yeah…….”
Since my eyes were tightly shut, all I could feel was the firm hand holding my chin and the warm touch cupping my cheek. I tilted my head up slightly as Joel’s thumb pressed.
“Open your eye.”
“It hurts.”
“Open your eye. I’ll blow on it for you.”
“Ugh…….”
My eyelashes fluttered before I finally opened my eye very slowly. My eyeball had become moist with tears that had formed, making my vision blurry. Joel looked like a lump of crushed clay.
“Which side?”
“Left.”
Hoo, hoo! Joel blew his breath strongly toward my left eye. That breath was lukewarm and smelled of strawberry. The artificial strawberry scent of the jelly Joel always ate.
“Better?”
“Not yet…….”
“This won’t work. Cry more. Think sad thoughts.”
“Sad, thoughts…….”
Sad thoughts, I thought it would be really easy. I expected tears would pour out if I just recalled the day I failed to get into Korea University Medical School. But what came to my mind were Mom and Dad, and hyung. Not the family from the real world I had lived in, but the family here in Bluedale.
I would eventually have to part with them and leave this place. That seemed to be the saddest thing I was thinking about now. Tears began to flow down due to the imagination that arose on its own. It was excessive. I soon began to sob.
“Heu, heuk, heuuk.”
“Does it hurt that much?”
“N-no. It’s not because of that. It’s not…….”
I shook my head and tried to wipe away my tears with the back of my hand. But it wasn’t easy because Joel’s hand was still holding my face.
Joel moved his thumb like a windshield wiper and wiped away my tears. But tears kept flowing. Heu, heuuk, heuk…… The reason I, who had been wailing like someone truly grief-stricken, stopped crying was because of something absolutely shocking.
“……What are you doing!”
“I don’t know how to comfort people. There’s only one way I know to stop tears.”
Joel lightly bit my cheek and then licked my tears! After licking from my chin all the way up to my eyes, he even pursed his lips into a circle and sucked up the tears pooled at the corner of my eye. I was so surprised that my tears stopped abruptly. Joel shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“See. It worked. People stop crying when they’re surprised.”
“…….”
“Fucking salty. If you’re going to think sad thoughts, you should think of something moderately sad, what are you supposed to do if you think of something sooooo fucking sad?”
Joel, who wiped my lips with his thumb, frowned slightly and complained. As if I had served him food full of salt.
“…….”
I blankly touched my cheek, which was wet not with tears but with Joel’s saliva. It was damp. I was standing there in a daze with my palm covering that cheek broadly when I suddenly shouted.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
“Anyway, it’s fine as long as it stopped. I made you stop crying and you’re still getting angry.”
“Now I feel like crying…….”
“Don’t tell me you want me to do it again? I told you your tears are too salty.”
So what, does he want me to add sugar to my tears? The point of his complaint was also strange. I twisted my face all over, then finding Joel grumbling with a frown absurd, I burst out laughing. Pffft, puhaha! And this time I threw my head back and laughed wildly.
“After being stupid, now you’ve gone crazy…….”
Like Joel said, I really must have gone crazy. Only after laughing like that for a while until my stomach hurt did I undo the top button of my shirt and even roll up my sleeves before lying down on my back. I could see the gradually darkening sky and swaying tree branches.
“This is really the worst date.”
“What more do you want me to do here? And did I make you cry? You’re the one who cried.”
Joel, who was lying down with his arm raised and his head resting on it, grumbled. Puhaha, pffft! I let out the remaining laughter convulsively before turning my head around to look at Joel. One of Joel’s eyebrows twitched.
“I like it here. Can I come again?”
I want to come during a very bright day next time. When it’s neither cold nor hot like now, and the wind is a bit weaker. Joel lay down on his side, resting his head on his own arm. Since his head was positioned slightly higher than mine, Joel looked down at me.
“Don’t you know the way?”
“You said you didn’t come in circles like your mother.”
I also lay on my side with my hand as a pillow and looked up at Joel.
“But you’re stupid.”
“Is that what a gentleman says? Huh?”
“Right. Well, today you’re my date, so I’ll really be damn mannerly, whatever.”
Joel suddenly sat up, dusted off his hands, and started walking somewhere with shuffling steps. I was left alone by the lakeside, but I wasn’t scared. I thought he’d come back soon. And a few minutes later, Joel really did return. With something in his hands.
“Here.”
What Joel handed me was a red disposable plastic cup.
“What, disappointed it’s not wine?”
“I can’t drink alcohol anyway.”
Joel opened a can of cola with a crack, poured it into my cup, then poured all the remaining cola into his own cup.
“Cheers.”
Joel arbitrarily knocked his cup against the edge of mine and took a sip of cola.
“Ugh, it’s fucking lukewarm.”
The words he spouted with an elegant face as if evaluating wine were truly vulgar. Finding that disparity amusing, I smiled to myself and took a sip of cola.
“Really…… it’s fucking lukewarm.”
“It’s because I left it in the car trunk. It all got lukewarm because of the engine.”
Joel and I kept sipping our half cups of cola that we shared while complaining. Before long, the sun had completely set, and the light of the moon that rose in place of the sun scattered light on the water surface like unfolding a thin cloth.
“It’s pretty. Well, I guess this is pretty romantic.”
A lakeside under the bright, large moon. It was such a romantic picture. Romantic enough to moisten even my heart, which had been dry and parched from being consumed by entrance exam preparation.
Swoooosh, swoooosh. The wind blew again and shook the lake, and as the water surface rippled, the shape of the light changed as well. It was a scene just like a painting. Just as I was about to ask if he thought so too, I kept my head turned and closed my mouth.
Because Joel, sitting loosely under the cool moonlight, looked truly magnificent in harmony with this beautiful scene. That uniquely gloomy impression hidden beneath his rough temperament matched the moon and this night so very well.
Swoooosh, when the wind shook his thick hair, I unconsciously reached my hand toward Joel. And only when I touched and smoothed his black hair shining in the moonlight and received Joel’s gaze did I come to my senses.
“There was a, a leaf stuck…….”
Joel’s hair was perfectly clean, but I made a pointless excuse. Joel looked straight at me while sweeping his hair back with his large hand like a comb.
“Why?”
“Do you know what the end of a date is?”
“What is it?”
Joel, with no expression, came close to me and whispered in my ear.
“Sex.”
“…….”
At that metallic pronunciation, I flinched and stiffened my shoulders. At the small laugh Joel let out with a snicker, I felt anxious and nervous emotions like prey whose weakness had been completely exposed. I wanted to get away from Joel quickly. But I couldn’t because of the hand that subtly wrapped around my waist.
“But there’s not much time. I’m not a man who can finish that quickly. And well, outdoor play isn’t really my taste either.”
For a moment, I thought I was fortunate. But when something soft touched my lips, my mind stopped. When something moist and warm entered my mouth and began to tickle the roof of my mouth…… I thought I had died. Because my brain had stopped. As if to tell me to please come to my senses, that I was kissing Joel right now, the system window rang noisily.
NEW!
Romance Index has increased by 1%!
NEW!
Queer Index has increased by 1%!
【Rotten Pineapple】
Current [58]%
◈ High-Teen: 100%
◈ Romance: 29%
◈ Queer: 24%
Joel, who lightly rubbed the back of my neck and pulled out his tongue refreshingly without any lingering attachment, grinned at me. It was a really pleasant and bright smile. But I couldn’t smile along. I only widened my eyes briefly and trembled at the back of Joel’s hand tapping my cheek, excessively startled.
“Time’s up. The date’s over now.”
“…….”
Joel dusted off his knees and stood up as if he’d finished a task he had to do. I blankly couldn’t move and just stared at the grass swaying in the wind.
“Aren’t you getting up? I told you the date’s over. Gentleman mode is terminated too.”
I shuffled my feet, led by Joel’s hand roughly pulling my forearm, and looked at the receding lake. The lights breaking as they met the water surface were so beautiful.
“Get in.”
Joel, who pushed me into the passenger seat with an attitude more rough than usual, climbed into the driver’s seat and immediately started the engine.
“Should I take you home? That’s the role of a gentleman, you know.”
“……Yeah.”
“I’ve lived my whole life and this is my first date that’s less than two hours. Know that it’s an honor. Because this kind of messy, half-assed date is a first in my life. If my date had been a proper woman instead of a guy like you, I might have gone crazy with anger all the way to the top of my head.”
Joel tapped his head with his index finger, smirked at me, and soon started the car. Right, right…… Now this strange date is ending.
“Good thing I didn’t bring condoms.”
“…….”
It’s really ending. Anyway, I raised both the Romance Index and Joel’s affection rating, so I did what I had to do. From Joel’s perspective and from mine too, this wasn’t really a proper date. That act of exploring each other and making efforts to progress the relationship. It was just a happening that occurred by chance.
Thanks to the date that Joel, whose moods change like boiling porridge, happened to accept, I raised many numbers, so it was beneficial in the end. Then, let’s think. Right now the Rotten Pineapple index is…….
But my head kept going blank. It was because I couldn’t escape from the beauty of the lake and the lingering aftereffect of the kiss. Ugh, my lips. I don’t know how many times I’ve kissed here when I never even once kissed in Korea. I felt like I had become a promiscuous and messy playboy myself.
