Oppa, Look Forward To It.

The time we had left now came to just six hours.

Once those six hours were gone, the two of us wouldn’t be able to see each other whenever we wanted for a while, however much we wanted to. According to Sia’s grandfather, we’d probably be allowed three hours a week, and no more. For the time being, we were becoming the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl¹, kept apart.

With all of that in mind, this date couldn’t be anything but special, which was exactly why I felt we mustn’t waste a second of it.

“Oppa, is there anywhere you want to go? Or anything you want to do?”
“Plenty. So many I can’t even begin to figure out where to go or what to do first.”

Counting only the places and things that came to mind right away, there were dozens.

“Hmm. Where should we go?”

We didn’t have much time left, but Sia was racking her brain too, as if she wanted a date with a little more meaning and romance to it. It wasn’t long, though, before we hit on an answer that satisfied us both.

“How about Gangwon Province?”
“Gangwon Province?”
“We said we’d take a trip to Gangwon Province, remember?”

By my reckoning, that had been about a year ago, just a few days before Sia’s accident. We’d talked casually about taking a trip to Gangneung before the semester started. It was a little late in the season for a summer getaway, but that was exactly why we thought it’d be perfect, with fewer people and relatively cheap prices too. I think we’d said something like, let’s do two nights and three days in Gangneung and make ourselves a memory of this summer.

“Right, we did. Then that settles it, we’ll go there!”

Sia clapped her hands. “I love that idea!”

“What should we do when we get there?”
“It’s half past five now, so… let’s eat first and think about it. Oppa, how about king crab for dinner?”
“…It’s that late already?”
“Mm. Time really is heartless, isn’t it.”

The thought did cross my mind of how things might have gone with even a little more time, but right now we didn’t even have time to feel wistful.

After taking our leave of Sia’s grandfather, we made straight for a king crab specialty restaurant in Gangneung and got there in no time. We skimmed the menu and ordered just as quickly, and then we sat waiting for the food to come out.

“Sia, I’m going to run to the bathroom for a sec.”

I hadn’t been able to go for hours, so I decided to step away from the table for a moment.

“Then Oppa, could you lend me your phone for a minute?”

The request to borrow my phone came out of nowhere.

“What for?”
“We have to book somewhere to stay later, don’t we? I want to find a decent place first. My phone’s battery is completely dead right now.”

That was her explanation, but a worry crept in that there might be some other purpose behind it. A phone check, say, or a poke around my phone, or a browse through my messenger and my gallery…

I flinched for a second, then concluded that even if she saw everything, there was nothing on it to prick my conscience, so I handed the phone over without hesitation.

As if Sia would get up to anything strange while I was gone.
And it’s not just anyone, it’s Sia. I ought to trust her.

When a girlfriend abruptly asks to borrow your phone, most men would probably find it suspicious. How many men in that situation would hand their phone over without hesitation?

However much two people are in love, handing over a phone, that treasury of private records, without a second thought is extremely hard, and Sia knew that perfectly well. Minjun couldn’t possibly have lent it to her without any thought or suspicion at all. Seeing him hand it over readily even so, Sia had resolved that the very thing he was imagining would never happen.

Instead, there was exactly one thing she wanted to check.

His wallpaper.

Was it the default, some other photo, or a photo taken with her? Surely this much was allowed.

She checked right away and found it set to a photo of herself and Minjun together. But the photo wasn’t from today. By this world’s calendar, it had been taken about two years ago.

If he’d changed the wallpaper today, he’d obviously have set it to a photo from today.

So what did an old photo on his wallpaper mean? In all likelihood, that he’d set it long before. Just before she died, perhaps? Or after? Either way, it made no difference. A two-year-old photo still on his wallpaper meant that even after she was gone, Minjun had never stopped missing her.

And in fact, Sia had guessed right. Minjun had set the photo as his phone wallpaper a few weeks before she died, and after her death, out of longing for her, he had never once changed it.

“…Why am I crying again?”

She’d been so certain there would be no more reason to shed tears, yet before she knew it, the corners of her eyes were growing damp again.

“No. This isn’t the time for this.”

How flustered would Minjun be if he came back to find her suddenly crying? Sia quickly wiped the damp from her eyes and checked her face in selfie mode.

Good. It doesn’t show.

She picked Minjun’s phone back up, meaning to look for a room as she’d originally intended. Before that, though, she decided to search for something else.

And what did she look up before the room?

Swimsuits.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, I got my phone back from Sia and studied her reaction.

“Sorry. Did you wait long? The bathroom was outside the building and a ways off, so I took a bit.”
“It’s fine. I didn’t wait long.”

Apart from the meaningful smile on her face, she looked like her usual self.

Just as I thought.

Even in the unlikely event she’d had bad intentions and gone digging through my phone, it wouldn’t have mattered. The only woman I’d been on the phone with recently was my mother. Setting family aside, the last woman I’d phoned was a year ago, about Sia’s funeral. That was exactly why I could hand the phone straight over without hesitation.

“Nah. It’s fine.”
“Did you find anywhere decent?”
“Mm. There are a few places I like the look of… but I haven’t decided where to go yet.”

Sia showed me the list of places she’d found.

“They all look fine to me. Is there anywhere here you like, Oppa?”

I’d figured she would have dug up some upscale hotel, but every single place Sia had found, coincidence or not, was a pool villa. Her determination to get in the water with me one way or another came through loud and clear. So of the three on the list, we finally settled on the one with the best view of the sea.

“Here.”
“Then you just make the booking, Oppa. I’ll pay for it later.”

Tonight’s lodging was settled in no time at all, and right after the booking went through, the food came out. Sashimi to start, then all sorts of seafood and a spread of splendid side dishes, and of course the delicious king crab to crown the evening.

“Whoaaa…”

I’d never once in my life sat down in front of a table this lavish, and my jaw dropped before I knew it. Bad at taking food photos as always, I passed my phone to Sia, who took to snapping pretty pictures like a duck to water. She must have lived far longer as a dragon, yet she still remembered how to use a phone, which was adorable.

The moment the photos were done, we each picked up a king crab leg almost in the same breath, and feeling that we’d read each other’s minds, we looked at one another and smiled.

“Oppa. Want me to shell the crab meat for you?”
“Nah, it’s fine. Don’t put yourself out. Just eat in peace.”
“I’m going to use magic, that’s all. Hehe.”
“Ah.”

Why didn’t I think of that?

Magic might have gone mainstream these days, but the idea of shelling crab with it had never once occurred to me. Then again, my awakened ability was swordsmanship, not magic.

I handed Sia a king crab leg, and with one pass of her hand the meat came away clean.

“Thanks, Sia.”
“I’ll do the rest of them too, so eat in peace, Oppa.”

With a word of thanks for the meal, I ate the king crab, its meat cleanly parted from the shell. Whether because it was expensive or because Sia had shelled it for me, it tasted out of this world. Sia watched me eat, looking proud, and kept shelling more as though that alone could fill her up. She was eating her own king crab too, of course.

Thoroughly captivated by the charms of king crab, the two of us ate in silence for a while. Partway through, Sia, who’d been clearing away the emptied shells, seemed to remember something and spoke up.

“Oppa. Has anyone besides me ever shelled king crab for you?”

Taking it for simple curiosity, I answered without much thought.

“Today’s the first time I’ve ever eaten king crab, so no. And with regular crab and stuff, I’ve always shelled it myself, except when I was little.”
“Mm-hm. Is that so.”

The corners of Sia’s eyes curved into half-moons.

“Then, have you ever shelled it for anyone?”
“Uh… not yet.”

I might shell it for a child of my own someday, but so far I’d been busy enough shelling for myself alone. If I had to do it for someone other than my own child, it would probably be my parents, or…

Hold on.

I thought I understood now why Sia had asked a question like that.

“Then Oppa. What if I asked you to shell it for me?”

She’d probably built everything up to get to this question. From the moment she threw it out, the fact that she could shell anything spotless with magic stopped mattering. The answer was already decided, and all I had to do was say it out loud.

“Of course I’d shell it for you. King crab, shrimp shells, whatever it is.”
“Hmhm-hmm.”

Apparently pleased with that answer, Sia beamed.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but now that we were together again, Sia seemed to express her feelings more openly than before.

“Oppa. You only shell for me, okay? You only peel shrimp for me, and you only hold perilla leaves for me. Never do that for other women. Okay?”

Even though I’d said only a moment ago that I’d never done any such thing, Sia went out of her way to stress it again. And perilla leaves, at that?² Family and Sia aside, there was nobody I’d particularly wanted to hold a leaf for in the first place.

“I honestly don’t think I could stand watching you peel shrimp for some other woman, being all sweet about it.”
“No, that’s…”

I already told you I had no intention of it to begin with.

I started to make an excuse that wasn’t really one, but Sia was already locked on. She picked up her chopsticks, a chilling look in her eyes.

“You won’t, will you?”

Why was that, I wondered? Why did the perfectly ordinary restaurant chopsticks in her grip suddenly look like a vicious weapon? Was it because she gripped them like a dagger rather than holding them properly? And why did her smile look so devilish?

“U-uhhh… before that, Sia. Of course I won’t, but could you maybe, put those chopsticks, down…”

I’m scared, Sia.