I am back – Chapter 99

Not awkward at all.

Well, it really wasn’t awkward.

The day after exchanging those texts, when I saw my older sister, I was completely convinced of it. Saying hello to her and standing next to her felt awkward enough to make me want to die, but it really wasn’t.

More so, I felt shy.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was shy about. Was it because I almost kiss her yesterday, or because I sent those texts with emojis? But the moment I stepped into the store and saw her face, a tickling sensation crept into my chest.

It felt like a long thread was tied in the center of my heart, with a feather dangling from its end. If my heart stirred even slightly, the thread would sway, and the feather, hanging precariously close to the bottom of my heart, would swing along with it.

The fluttering feather tickled my heart.

It seemed like my sister felt that way too.

She looked at me and blushed.

The reason we ended up almost kissing yesterday was because of her leaning on me. She was the one who leaned against me and brought her lips close.

I thought maybe I blanked out for a moment, but apparently, that wasn’t the case. After all, it didn’t seem that way when I saw her yesterday. If it really was, she would’ve fallen asleep as soon as she got into her room and wouldn’t have been able to text me.

“Were you okay this morning?”

It wasn’t awkward, but I couldn’t just stay silent out of shyness. We had to keep going like this until next Wednesday. Plus, we were planning to go to the amusement park together next Wednesday.

“Ah, yeah, I was fine.”

I asked out of concern, thinking she might have a hangover, but she seemed okay. Thank goodness.

If she had a hangover, she wouldn’t have such a relaxed face… Well, maybe not relaxed; it was the face of someone who was embarrassed.

If she really had a headache, her brow would be furrowed or something. Even though she drank, she probably didn’t have that much, so it wasn’t a big deal for her body to detox.

After changing my clothes and standing next to her, the scent of perfume wafted over. It smelled like some flower I couldn’t name.

Was she worried about the alcohol smell from yesterday? If that’s the case, I wanted to tell her there’s no need to worry… But then again, I knew it would be rude to just say that outright, so I decided to let it slide.

“……”

“……”

The conversation had died down.

But it wasn’t like when she burst into tears last time. It was much warmer now, with a natural atmosphere where, if we wanted to, we could easily continue talking.

The weather outside was nice.

“Cough.”

Suddenly, she cleared her throat and shifted a little closer to me.

We were both facing the register, so she sidled beside me.

Though it wasn’t completely pressed together; there was still half a step of distance between our shoulders.

“Ah.”

The tips of her fingers brushed against mine.

Actually, it wasn’t just our fingertips; it was the backs of our hands.

Little by little, our hands grazed against each other. I stood still, and her hand seemed unable to resist as her fingers moved gently.

Her fingernail touched the tip of my index finger. Then her finger slowly rose, and soon it seemed like we were matching the backs of our hands and interlocking our fingers.

She stayed like that for a moment, warming her hand.

I glanced aside and noticed she had slightly tilted her head away from me.

I couldn’t see her expression, but I could see her ears turning red.

I felt like laughing, but I held it in.

She was gathering her courage right now.

Since she showed courage, I should show some too.

I moved my fingers.

As I rotated my hand around my index and middle fingers, our pinky and ring fingers separated. Soon, the middle finger followed.

I moved my hand carefully so that it wouldn’t seem like I rejected her, and placed my palm over hers.

Then I slipped my fingers between hers and held tight.

“……”

“……”

Neither of us said anything.

In fact, at this moment, there were only the two of us in the bakery. There was no reason to care about anyone’s gaze.

Yet, here we were, silently holding hands.

I could hear her breathing.

Oh, thinking back, I had almost forgotten about the music playing. It was only after hearing her breath that I realized.

It seemed we were both so on edge that we even forgot about that.

How long had we been holding hands?

Ding—

The door to the store opened, and a little bell on it rang.

We hurriedly let go of each other’s hands. Fortunately, the customer who came in quickly turned away to grab a tray, so they didn’t seem to notice we were holding hands.

I sighed softly. My breath and her breath overlapped.

Only then did we look at each other.

Relaxed, we exchanged silly smiles.

With her warmth still lingering on my hand, I turned on the music in the store.

*

Around the time the morning customers had left and we were starting to wind down, Older Sister Yu-ri came in.

“Ah.”

She paused, slightly flustered, as soon as she saw our faces.

But it didn’t last long. She quickly relaxed her expression and walked into the store.

“Hey, you both look like you’re in a good mood.”

Older Sister Yu-ri’s gaze lingered on me for a while.

Was there something she wanted to say to me? But to my surprise, she quickly averted her eyes from me.

She grabbed a few breads with a tray. Coincidentally, they were a cream bread and soboru bread—the first two I had picked when I came here.

“Two of these and a cup of Americano.”

Saying that, Older Sister Yu-ri pulled out her card and handed it over.

“……”

While paying, Older Sister Yu-ri glanced back and forth between me and Older Sister Ah-yoon.

She seemed like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know if she should.

In the end, unable to bear her silence, Older Sister Ah-yoon took the card and spoke up.

“If you have something to say, you can go ahead and say it.”

“Ah, then I won’t hold back.”

As if she had been waiting for that, Older Sister Yu-ri spoke up without hesitation.

“Did something happen between you two yesterday?”

“Ah.”

Before I knew it, I let out a sound at Older Sister Yu-ri’s question.

Older Sister Yu-ri stared at me intently. Older Sister Ah-yoon also looked at me, surprised.

…I had completely let my guard down and reacted to her words.

Older Sister Yu-ri had always been good at picking up on things. No matter how hard I tried to hide my expression, she would notice and be considerate.

Especially when she had come to visit our neighborhood; she didn’t even mention wanting to come over. She must have been curious, even though she said nothing.

Of course, in a world where lives are different, there are parts she probably couldn’t understand, no matter how perceptive she was.

“What do you mean by ‘something’?”

Instead of answering, Older Sister Ah-yoon received the question.

“Come on, you know what I’m talking about.”

Older Sister Yu-ri said that and looked around. Fortunately, there were no customers.

Then, leaning slightly against the register and peering toward us, she whispered.

“Well, I can’t precisely say it was yesterday, but it just seemed to me that you two were acting like those college students who just decided to date and are awkwardly keeping their distance.”

“……”

Older Sister Yu-ri’s intuition was truly sharp.

Seeing that we were both unintentionally making eye contact, she seemed convinced and shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, even if that’s the case, I’m not going to say anything. Just saying, that’s how it looked. Or not.”

Saying that, she took her tray and headed to an empty table in the store.

Her expression seemed oddly troubled, but I didn’t feel it would be right to ask her what was wrong.

She might be troubled after all.

At least, I wasn’t, but Older Sister Ah-yoon had been friends with Older Sister Yu-ri for a long time.

The thought that two girls dating wouldn’t seem usual in the eyes of others. Older Sister Yu-ri was open-minded and probably wouldn’t care too much, but the outside world was different.

Thinking about it, the actions we did yesterday evening before parting were also risky in many ways. If someone passing by saw us…

If a guy and a girl were that close, they might make a disapproving face but feel nothing more than that.

But if it were two girls, good or bad, people would inevitably stare.

I wasn’t sure if people would provoke us or not. I didn’t know too much about that.

“……”

The expression on Older Sister Ah-yoon as she made coffee didn’t seem as troubled as Older Sister Yu-ri’s, but she looked a bit thoughtful.

I briefly pondered and thought, was there any need to worry that much?

After all, apart from our mom, we were pretty much alone in this world.

Just the two of us was enough. No matter who came along, there was no need to care.

Thinking this way brought some relief to my heart.