‘That’s not it, he seems to be smiling because he found something fun…….’
I thought sullenly, but it was difficult to openly refute Banye’s words. If I argued for no reason, he might get upset…….
So I nodded, saying his words were right.
‘Cu, cute.’
But secretly inside, I was thinking how cute he was. To think he likes riding attractions, he’s totally a baby!
I took Banye around to ride various other attractions to confirm whether my thoughts were correct.
As expected, Banye pretended not to, but was extremely happy. He even smiled showing his teeth slightly. He quickly closed his mouth as soon as I looked at him, but I definitely saw it!
‘It would have been terrible if I hadn’t brought him!’
Moreover, Banye waited for the parade that happened on the hour and took pictures.
At this point, wasn’t he actually waiting for me to suggest going to the amusement park? I waved enthusiastically at the princess in the parade, then poked Banye repeatedly and asked.
“Banye! Should we come play again next week?”
“Coming every week is a bit much.”
“Then, next month?”
“I guess so.”
Banye said that and once again took a picture of me. I smiled for the photo without knowing why.
Then I suddenly became curious about what Banye had photographed.
“What did you take?”
“Don’t cling to me.”
“That’s mean!”
But Banye only pushed me away with his elbow and absolutely wouldn’t show me the photo. I worked hard taking pictures of Banye and the rides…….
Of course, more than 80 percent are pictures of Banye, but still, I can show them to Banye. But Banye stubbornly wouldn’t show me.
I wheedled a few more times, then this time begged Banye to take a picture together.
“Banye, then let’s take a picture together.”
“Together?”
“Yeah! We came all the way here to play, we should have at least one picture together~”
I kept talking without pause, even using the line I had prepared in advance, while looking into Banye’s eyes.
Banye seemed burdened, but soon spoke to a group of female students passing by.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“Please take a picture for us.”
And then handing his phone to the female students who hadn’t even answered yet…… he seemed to believe they would naturally take it.
I thought that was a bit obnoxious, but the female students were nice, so they quickly blushed and accepted Banye’s phone.
“I’ll take it when I say one, two, three!”
“Wh, what kind of pose should we do?”
“Yes.”
And Banye…… stood me in front and stretched both my cheeks out to the sides.
It was very embarrassing that the female student taking the picture was giggling, but I stayed still, consoling myself with the mental victory that this was Banye’s own way of showing affection.
Click, only after hearing the sound of the picture being taken did my tingling cheeks return to normal.
“Thank you.”
“Yes!”
The female students returned the phone to Banye while laughing merrily.
On the phone that was returned was handsome Banye and, sure enough, me with a ridiculous face.
“What the heck is this.”
“It suits you well.”
“What do you mean it suits me well……!”
I tried to delete the photo, but Banye quickly dodged. And cowardly lifted the smartphone high above his head.
I tried several times, hopping up and down in the middle of the amusement park trying to snatch the smartphone, but eventually compromised.
“Then, let’s take one more with my phone instead. Don’t pinch this time!”
“Okay.”
I pulled Banye, who was trying to take the phone. It seemed better to take a selfie rather than asking someone else to take it. When I stuck close to Banye to fit in one screen, my heart beat wildly.
I struggled to erase the awkwardness and reached out my hand to Banye’s cheek. Just as I was about to pinch Banye’s cheek the same way, my wrist was caught. Even though it wasn’t time to take the picture yet, I heard a click sound.
In the thoroughly shaken photo were me with a dumbfounded expression from having my wrist caught, and Banye looking incredulous.
“If you fool around, I won’t take it.”
“But you did it to me……!”
It was unfair, but this was a game that the person who likes someone more was bound to lose.
Only after I desperately begged that I really wouldn’t fool around did I take one more picture. In the picture taken that way, unlike Banye, my expression was incredibly awkward. I guess if you’re handsome, your expressions come out naturally too.
Banye looked at the photo and said to me.
“This one or that one seems similar.”
“They’re different.”
Actually, to me they looked the same too.
I pouted my lips and said.
“……Let’s go eat.”
“What are we eating?”
“There was a restaurant over there, should we go there?”
What we could eat at the amusement park was limited anyway. I took Banye to the restaurant that looked the best among them.
When we entered inside, I noticed the interior modeled after a European castle, adorable props, and puppy and cat character merchandise placed here and there.
As I sat down and glanced at the next table, the food was beautifully decorated with characters on each dish.
“Cute, right?”
“……You really want to eat here?”
To Banye, who was subtly disgusted, I confidently nodded.
“Yeah. Since we came to play, we should eat this kind of thing too!”
I excitedly ordered various items including pasta, gnocchi, and steak. The drink with a character straw stuck in it was a bonus.
After the staff took our order and took away the menu, an awkward silence flowed for a moment.
It was when I was about to say something. I saw the man sitting diagonally suddenly stand up.
Wondering what he was doing, the man went to sit next to the woman sitting across from him. Watching the couple holding hands and chatting amicably side by side…… I belatedly noticed that more than half of this place consisted of couples.
“Th, there are a lot of couples.”
Instead of answering, Banye stared at me intently as if asking ‘you only noticed now?’ With reproachful eyes, as if I had deliberately brought him to a place full of couples…….
I gulped and said to Banye as if making an excuse.
“I didn’t know there would be this many couples.”
“Everything we could see from the moment we entered were couples.”
“But…… it’s not a weird place for friends to come to either. Hahaha…….”
“…….”
“Hahaha.”
My excuse didn’t seem very brilliant. Because the atmosphere became even more awkward……. In the end, we had no choice but to wait for the food to come out in awkward silence.
But perhaps we picked the wrong time, as the restaurant full of customers took a very long time for the food to come out. Usually eating in silence isn’t that awkward, but especially today…… time passed excessively slowly.
It was a time when only I was restless. Banye was on his phone and seemed to be looking at the pictures he had taken. I thought about looking at photos too, but I had taken too many of Banye so I couldn’t openly look in case Banye caught me.
After waiting for so long, the food finally came out. Still, the food was very cute. The characters drawn with sauce were elaborate, setting aside the taste for now.
I took lots of pictures of the food.
“Looks delicious, right!”
“It’s okay.”
Looking at the food neatly arranged on pretty plates made my mouth water. Because this was the first proper meal I’d had since coming to the amusement park, having been playing with Banye.
I took a bite of food, full of anticipation.
“…….”
“…….”
However, the pretty food didn’t live up to expectations at all. The pasta was salty, the gnocchi I ate next was greasy, and the steak was tough.
Wondering if it just didn’t suit my taste, I glanced at Banye and his expression was also somewhat lukewarm.
“How’s the taste……?”
“It’s okay.”
‘That’s not the face of someone saying it’s okay…….’
It was difficult to say it was delicious even as empty words. If it had been during the time when I was eating retort food, I might have eaten it okay, but it was an excessively stimulating seasoning taste.
In the end, we left more than half the food. The only thing we finished was the ade that soothed the salty and greasy taste.
We came out and filled our stomachs with snacks. To think snacks sold at the stands were tastier than the expensive restaurant. It was really the worst.
‘Haah……. Should we have just eaten outside?’
It was our first date, and I was concerned that it seemed to have gone a bit wrong.
But Banye didn’t complain about the food and didn’t say anything to me. Rather, he enjoyed the rides excitedly until nighttime.
And when evening came, seeing the lit-up Ferris wheel made me want to ride it…… but I thought the atmosphere would become excessively awkward so I didn’t have the greed to go that far. Above all, even if we actually rode it, I didn’t think I could handle that atmosphere.
So that day at 8 PM in the evening, we returned home only after watching the last parade.
