“Yeah, yeah. You already got a spot? Got it. I’ll bring my brother.”
The person hyung was talking to on the phone must be the noona we’re meeting this time.
I’d been to several room-style cafes, but the atmosphere here was a bit different from those places. How should I put it, should I say it looked a bit closed off? Since there are so many unique cafes these days, I thought they must have done the interior like that and didn’t think much of it.
“Hey, come here. You can look around later.”
When I was looking around at the rules? posted on the wall, Daesu hyung suddenly grabbed my arm.
“It’s not polite to make the other person wait.”
“Ah, that’s true.”
At Daesu hyung’s words, I straightened my gaze that had been looking elsewhere and followed behind hyung. Daesu hyung looked above the places that each looked like rooms, then said “Ah, here it is” and opened the door.
I peeked inside through the open door and saw the back view of a long straight-haired woman sitting on the sofa. Daesu hyung went in first and greeted that noona warmly, and she also turned her upper body slightly toward hyung.
“My brother Daeyoung. Talk comfortably and have fun.”
Just seeing the back of the noona who only nodded slightly without saying anything, she seemed very shy. Seeing how she didn’t readily turn her head toward me and kept it lowered.
“Daeyoung-ah, take off your coat and give it to me. I’ll hang it over there.”
“Oh, thanks.”
As I took off my coat and handed it over, I had a good feeling that maybe things would go well from the first meeting. As Daesu hyung left, he said “Sit across from her” and lightly pushed my back.
Click.
The door closed behind me, and something about the sound was suspicious. I thought maybe I was just being sensitive because this was my first blind date and walked calmly.
As I approached from behind that noona, I sneakily stole a glance at her back, and she happened to flip her hair to the other side so the nape of her neck was slightly visible. Her white skin contrasting with her black hair was striking.
Even until I walked around and sat on the empty sofa across from her, I couldn’t properly look at the noona sitting in front of me. In my slightly raised line of sight, I saw crossed legs. Even though it was winter, she wore a skirt and boots—she seemed like quite a stylish noona.
‘……What should I say as a greeting? Should I introduce myself first? Hello, I’m Bae Daeyoung. The Chinese characters use the character dae meaning “to offer flowers” and the character yeong meaning “flower petals,” so it’s Daeyoung. It’s a name my mom gave me meaning to grow up pretty like a flower—should I start like that?’
Feeling awkward, I kept my gaze down somewhere on the sofa legs without being able to say anything. The noona also sat silently, and I could feel her gaze on me as only the tip of her crossed leg’s foot tapped.
“Hmm.”
I shrank at the sound of a small sigh, then fleetingly felt like that sigh sounded deep. Since I hadn’t seen her face yet, I cautiously only raised my eyes to look at the person sitting across from me……
“Hueoooook!”
“Why are you so surprised?”
No, what!
That fantasy figure I’d only seen in a photo recently was sitting right in front of me. Just like long ago when Seongheon hyung crossdressed, wearing a white blouse and skirt. Even the straight-hair wig was the same as back then.
“Daeyoung-ah. How do I look?”
……Ueok.
With Seongheon hyung resting his chin on the sofa armrest, calling my name with red lips, that sight was so shocking that goosebumps rose all over my body.
It wasn’t simply the uncomfortable sensation of a man crossdressing, but because he was so pretty I was amazed. I really am simple. Seeing a close hyung crossdress and just thinking he’s pretty……
I was so flustered I couldn’t say anything, but Seongheon hyung kept talking to me.
“You seemed to want to see me crossdress, so I tried it once. Do you like it?”
“……”
“Say something. Look, I even wore a skirt to show you.”
Wow. To think it was really Seongheon hyung. I was so flustered I started blurting out anything randomly.
“No, hyung. What is this……”
With makeup too, it really seems like your gender changed.
“Why are you suddenly crossdressing……”
My heart’s racing so I can’t speak well.
“To tease me again……”
But, really like a woman.
“You’re totally pretty.”
Why on earth are you playing such a prank?
While I was pouring out various words, Seongheon hyung listened without saying anything, then curled up the corners of his mouth at my last words.
I was also rambling when I belatedly realized my thoughts and words came out wrong. But Seongheon hyung seemed to have heard clearly, as he pinpointed exactly the part I’d misspoken.
“I’m totally pretty?”
Maybe because his lips were bright red, but his smile looked more bewitching than usual. Especially seeing the lipstick applied, his lips seemed to float alone like they were checked with a red pen.
Were hyung’s lips always that plump? It was just crossdressing, but I felt like I’d die of embarrassment from keep looking at hyung’s face.
“……Ah, I don’t know. I’m leaving.”
I urgently stood up and headed for the door I’d entered through. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, but click-click, I only heard the sound of it catching and it didn’t open.
Ah, is this not the right door?
Since I’m directionally challenged, I sometimes get confused about directions. So I walked to a similar door on another wall. And I turned the doorknob, but likewise it didn’t open.
Then is it that door?
I went to the last door visible in the room and urgently tried to open it, but that also wouldn’t open.
While I was spinning around touching all the doors in all directions, Seongheon hyung smoothly— stood up from the sofa and slowly approached me as I held the last doorknob.
The straight-hair wig aside, why did he even dress like that? He wore a fluttery white blouse and a black tennis skirt…… Hyung should be taller. It was short enough to reveal his thighs completely.
“Daeyoung-ah.”
Seongheon hyung stretched out his arm, trapping me between the door and hyung’s chest and looked down at me. The long hair that blocked both sides of my vision like curtains aside, the problem was hyung’s stockinged legs currently digging into my thighs.
“Ah! Hyung! The skirt’s too short!”
“Really? Hyung’s legs are killer, right?”
“Hyung, did you wear safety shorts?”
“What’s that?”
“Uwaa!!”
I struggled as much as possible to escape from hyung’s wall slam. I tried hard to run away, but in this room of only a few pyeong, there was no way to escape hyung’s line of sight.
Hyung approached me with leisurely steps like a killer in a movie. You know, in horror movies the killers walk while the protagonists desperately run and roll around, but they always get caught in the end, right? That was my situation now.
I grabbed another door again and tried turning it hard, but it was still useless.
“No, why! The door won’t open. Hyung, I think we’re locked in!”
“It’s supposed to not open.”
“Huh?”
“This is an escape room cafe. You have to solve the code to open it.”
“A code, what code?”
“You have to find clues hidden in the room and input the password into the lock next to the door. Then it’ll open.”
“Huh……”
For a moment I had no room to think of anything else seeing Seongheon hyung crossdressed, so I belatedly recognized my situation, and this time too it seemed I’d been had by my hyungs. If there’s CCTV in this room, the other hyungs are probably watching me panic right now, giggling and laughing.
It’s true that I’m the biggest idiot for following along thinking it was a real blind date, but isn’t this really too much? I came out to this blind date with desperate feelings to avoid seeing nutria!!
“Hyung, then what if we can’t solve the code?”
“What do you mean, we’ll have to live here together forever.”
“Ah, don’t joke. I can report to 119 to rescue us!”
“You don’t have your phone right now.”
“……Huh?”
“Daesu probably took it. You always put your phone in your coat pocket.”
“Ah!!!”
No wonder the person who’d never once gotten me socks eagerly took my coat saying he’d hang it up—I should have been suspicious from then.
I looked around quickly and went to where the CCTV seemed to be and shouted.
“Let me out! I want to leave!”
“Daeyoung-ah, calm down. Will hyung eat you?”
I knew Seongheon hyung wouldn’t do anything to me, but I was the problem right now. With Seongheon hyung looking so pretty and constantly being next to me, I was so nervous I couldn’t maintain my composure.
And really, hyung’s skirt was too short. It wasn’t even a tight skirt but that fluttery kind, and he wasn’t even wearing safety shorts. The underwear that might show was one problem, but I became more embarrassed remembering the skin he’d shown me in the past saying he didn’t have any hair.
If nothing else, my gaze kept going to the skirt. If my hyungs knew, they’d definitely tease me saying “look at this guy,” so I looked around and picked up what looked like a knee blanket.
“Hyung, just stand there for a second.”
“Why?”
Whatever Seongheon hyung said, I spread that blanket and wrapped it around hyung’s waist. Only after covering hyung’s legs down to his knees could I breathe a sigh of relief.
“I dressed like this on purpose for you, why are you covering it all up?”
“Because I’m uncomfortable.”
“So you can look at my legs all you want.”
“No, I’m really fine.”
When hyung tried to unwrap the blanket, I hugged his waist and desperately prevented him from unwrapping it.
I was really trying to prevent him from unwrapping it and clung to hyung’s waist, but our posture seen in the distant mirror looked like I was one-sidedly hugging hyung. Moreover, with hyung wearing the long-haired wig, that sight looked quite strange.
I urgently pulled my body away, but hyung at first was really trying to unwrap the blanket around his waist, then when I made an exhausted expression, he left the blanket wrapped and pulled my hand.
After Seongheon hyung sat me on the sofa, he himself perched on the armrest next to it and urged me while stroking my head.
“Daeyoung-ah, say what you said earlier again.”
“What did I say?”
“When you said I’m totally pretty.”
“That’s because you dressed up so well, were you offended?”
“No, not at all. I dressed up on purpose to look pretty to you, why would I be offended?”
“Why for me?”
“I was curious.”
“Curious about what?”
“Honestly, if I were really a woman, do you think you would have asked me to date?”
