Oppa, How Do I Look?

“Ah.”

When I made a troubled face, Sia finally noticed the strange way she was gripping her chopsticks and hurriedly set them down.

“W-what did I just… do? Oppa, I mean, this is—”

Sia waved both hands as she explained herself, insisting she really hadn’t meant anything by it.

I knew she hadn’t done it on purpose. More than anything, though, a flustered Sia with her face gone tomato-red was adorable.

Maybe I’ll tease her a little more.

“It’s fine. Anyone can slip when they’re flustered. But surely you weren’t actually trying to stab me?”
“Nonono!”

Any more joking around and I really might get stabbed.

I told her not to worry about it and picked up a king crab leg that was still in its shell. Sia could have shelled it easily with magic, but having your boyfriend do it for you, carefully, had to feel different.

I picked the leg clean, put the meat in a bowl and carried it over, and Sia beamed, clearly pleased.

Dinner wrapped up in a warm mood.

“Hoo. That was good.”

Sia patted her belly cutely.

“Sia, shall we head over to the villa and rest, then?”
“Mm. I’m excited already. You’re excited too, right, Oppa?”
“Hugely. It looked really nice in the photos earlier.”

I’d been on a few trips with Sia since we started dating, but I’d never once stayed at a pool villa, which was probably why. It wasn’t far, either, so we walked.

“Whoa.”
“We really picked a great place, didn’t we, Oppa?”
“Mm. Our Sia’s got an eye for these things, all right.”

Dazzling lights broke up the pitch-dark night, small gardens laid out beneath them. Higher up, the private pool we’d be swimming in shone bright under the moon.

We checked in quickly and went up to the room, where a gorgeous night view and a pool glittering with moonlight were waiting for us.

It was a pool villa, so all that was left now was to swim.

Since the whole trip had been planned on the spur of the moment, naturally neither of us had anything like a swimsuit. I was about to head down to the lobby to ask whether we could rent some when Sia stopped me.

“I brought them.”

She said it with nothing at all in either hand. Then again, she was a dragon; she might have them tucked away in subspace.

“Then I’ll just have to rent mine.”
“No. I brought yours too.”
“…Mine too?”

Our Sia really is serious about this swimming business.
When did she get one for me, too?
No, did she even have the time to?

It was a little puzzling, but I decided to let it go for now.

“Sia, if you wanted to swim, you should have said so sooner. I really don’t mind.”
“Actually, I wanted to do it just the two of us, all cozy. Somewhere with nobody else around, just us two.”

Her face was slowly flushing with shyness.

“Where other people can’t see. Just the two of us.”

So that’s why she picked a pool villa, even though she said it was fine when I brought up swimming.

“Oh, right. Oppa, I’ve got something to take care of for a second, so wait for me, okay?”
“Sure. You’ll be quick?”
“Don’t worry. Really, it’ll only take a second.”

Having made sure Minjun had gone up to the room, Sia quickly left the building and used teleport.

Her errand was nothing other than buying swimsuits. She hadn’t prepared any in the first place, and she had hardly been back on Earth long enough to have bought one in the meantime. She had lied to Minjun about bringing them for a single reason.

I’ll go buy them now.

She wanted to pick the swimsuits out herself.

Swimsuits.

People might think of them as nothing more than clothes for swimming, but in fact nothing shows off a person’s charm better. Sia wanted to flaunt hers in a swimsuit, and at the same time she wanted Minjun to flaunt his in one she had chosen for him herself. And now she was supposed to swim alone with him in some cheap, basic rental?

The old me might not have minded.

Now she couldn’t accept it. For a trip with family or friends, maybe, but a rental would utterly shatter this romantic mood.

With the generous allowance her grandfather had given her in hand, she teleported to a department store in Seoul.

Which swimsuit would suit our Oppa best?
And which one should I wear to get to see our Oppa go all embarrassed?

The Sia who moments ago had shyly confessed she wanted to swim alone with him had vanished.

“Hee. I can’t wait. Buy them fast and get back to Oppa fast.”

She had already narrowed it down to a few candidates on Minjun’s phone earlier, so the shopping probably wouldn’t take her long.

Sia’s eyes curved like crescent moons.

While Sia was away on the errand she said would take a moment, I went up to the room ahead of her and had a look around inside.

“This is heaven itself.”

It’s a waste to take in this fantastic view alone, without Sia.

“When’s Sia coming?”

It didn’t seem like she’d be long. Maybe ten minutes passed while I waited there alone.

“Oppa, I’m back!”

Her voice came through the door along with the doorbell, and I opened up right away. In her hand was a big shopping bag.

“What… is this?”
“Snacks! I bought a few in case we get hungry after swimming. Snacks, and a few cans of beer too. The swimsuits are in here as well.”
“So that was the errand. I could have come with you, then.”
“Nah, it’s fine.”

Sia started unpacking the shopping bag: chips, drinks, alcohol, and last of all, my swimsuit.

“But Sia, where on earth did this swimsuit come from?”

I’d let it slide earlier, but now that I thought about it, something seemed fishy.

Why would Sia be carrying a men’s swimsuit around?

“Actually, I went to the department store just now and bought it.”
“That’s what you went out for? You could have just worn the suits they rent out here.”

Going all the way out for that looked like quite a hassle to me.

“I didn’t feel like wearing some rental today. So I bought mine and yours both.”

It didn’t entirely add up, but I decided not to dig any deeper.

If Sia says so.

“You bought all of this… in that time?”
“Mm-hm.”

Two swimsuits plus snacks. I did wonder whether that was physically possible, but come to think of it, physical distance meant nothing to a Sia who knew how to teleport.

“Then I’ll go change over there.”

Keeping her own swimsuit hidden to the very end, Sia trotted into the bedroom with the shopping bag that held it.

Making a guy curious like that.

I’d find out what she was wearing soon enough. In the meantime, I went into the other room to change into mine.

“So this is Sia’s taste.”

We’d picked out clothes for each other a few times while shopping together, but never swimsuits, which was maybe why this felt so novel. Quietly curious about the design, I took out the swimsuit she had chosen and had a look.

That’s it?

Out came a single pair of plain black trunks.

Abroad might be one thing, but in Korea don’t people usually wear a rash guard with these?

I preferred a rash guard myself when I swam, so the thought of going in wearing nothing but trunks left me a little uneasy.

But looked at from another angle…

If she’d wanted me in one of those too, Sia would have bought it as a set in the first place.

If she’d bought only the trunks, that meant she wanted me wearing only the trunks. I decided to wear what Sia had bought me exactly as she’d bought it.

It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not like anyone else is here.

Once I’d changed, I went out to the pool and waited for her.

Which swimsuit did Sia pick out, I wonder.

The Sia in my memory was practically a Confucian girl¹. In everyday life, and back when we’d gone to the water park together, she never cared for outfits that showed skin. So odds were she’d picked something that covered as much of her body as possible, with hardly any exposure. A full-body suit of the kind you’d only expect to see at a swim meet, say.

…But if that were it, I feel like she’d have just rented one here.

Since she probably wasn’t going to wear anything flashy anyway, I couldn’t see why she’d need to stop by a department store and buy one.

Or does she have some other design in mind?

Or so I’d thought.

“Oppa!”

Sia called out to me, apparently done changing. The moment I turned my head, I couldn’t help being startled.

Where on earth did the Confucian-girl Sia I know go?

Sia came my way waving, wearing the kind of plain black bikini you can spot anywhere at a water park, with no decoration to speak of.

But isn’t there a saying that goes ‘simple is best’?

“How’s the water? Not too cold?”

Without bringing up the swimsuit at all, Sia sat lightly beside me, and that drove me even crazier.

Why is she this sexy.

If Sia had been in the habit of wearing swimsuits like that, it wouldn’t have hit me this hard. But I was seeing a side of her I’d never known, and of all days, I was seeing it today.

I stared at her, eyes wide open.

How am I supposed to hold out against this.

When I went on staring at her without a word, Sia, far from being embarrassed, seemed to enjoy my stare and gave me an alluring smile. Her eyes settled on my bare upper body.

Don’t tell me she skipped the rash guard for this…?

It might have been my imagination, but I felt like I’d walked right into her plan. Sia let her eyes rest blatantly on my abs.

“Ugh, I can’t hold back.”

She grabbed my shoulders and pushed me flat on the ground as though the poolside were a bed.

“U-uh…?”

Stars were scattered across the sky, and beneath them Sia was looking down at me, her eyes bright with hunger. Her warm breath, her hand resting softly on my shoulder.

She isn’t saying she wants to do something here, is she?
We haven’t even swum yet…?

My fluster must have shown plainly, because Sia finally couldn’t hold her laughter in and burst out.

“Joking, I’m joking. Oppa. Do you know how cute you are when you’re flustered?”
“You…”

Sia burst into laughter and stuck her tongue out at me, teasing.

She got me.

“We’ve still got swimming to do, so we can’t be wearing ourselves out already. I know you’re eager, but hold on just a bit.”

Sia wore a grown-up’s smile, like a much older woman taking the lead.

Total Noona. A proper Noona.

Summer was all but over, but the two of us spent a night as hot as midsummer.

After a happy swim, we went straight on to make love, and afterwards we came back outside to take in the scenery again, each holding a cup ramyeon filled with hot water. We hadn’t taken a single bite yet, but I could already tell it was going to be delicious.

We set the cups down on the little table by the pool and waited for the noodles to cook.

“Ramyeon after work really is the best.”
“Work? We didn’t do any work, Oppa.”
“Night work counts as work too…”
“Eeek, that’s embarrassing. What if somebody hears you?”

It was the same trivial chatter as always, but we both knew without saying it that the time we’d been allowed was almost gone. Once it ran out, no matter how much we missed each other, we’d only be able to be together three hours a week.

How long before we can spend a stretch like today again, long and unhurried?

As casually as I could, I picked up a pair of wooden chopsticks to eat.

“Oppa, let’s take a picture together before we eat.”

Maybe she wanted to leave behind as many traces of our time together as she could before we parted. Whatever the reason, Sia wanted photos.

I handed over my phone, and she snapped away in high spirits. When she was done, she checked the time on it as a matter of course.

I didn’t bother asking how much was left. I could roughly guess myself, and I didn’t want Sia to be the one to say it out loud. By tacit agreement, neither of us brought up the time remaining. Instead we simply ate the fully cooked ramyeon with relish, taking in each other’s faces.

When we’d finished, we checked the time. We had under ten minutes left.

“Shall we wash up and lie down in bed for a bit?”
“Under the covers, with the air conditioning cranked up.”
“Kuh. Nothing’s more heavenly than that.”

We cleared away the empty cups, washed up together and lay down in bed. I shook my head, fighting off the drowsiness pressing in on me.

“Oppa, are you sleepy?”
“A little.”

Truthfully it wasn’t a little but a lot, but I couldn’t fall asleep like this. If I slept at all, it would be only after all six hours we’d been given had run out.

“Today was really fun. Wasn’t it, Oppa?”

Sia pressed herself close against me.

“Happy enough that I don’t want to forget it.”
“I won’t forget it either.”
“You said you’re a dragon, Sia, so you couldn’t forget even if you wanted to.”
“Hee. Right.”

Sia gave me a dazzlingly bright smile.

“I love you.”
“I love you too, Sia.”

“I love you. I love you, I love you, Oppa. I love you to death. I love you so much. Enough to give you everything I have…”

It was as if she had to say, right now, every I-love-you she hadn’t been able to say all that time. Or as if she were whispering in advance all the love she’d have whispered to me over the week ahead, when we couldn’t meet. Softly, endlessly, Sia murmured that she loved me.

“I love you too. Really. So, Sia.”

I took her hand.

“I’ll do everything I can, too. So just wait for me a little longer.”

It might take a few years, or a few decades. In the worst case, it might be something I couldn’t accomplish even if I gave it the whole of this life.

“When that day comes, let’s get married, just like you said back then. I’ll give you a proper proposal.”

Sia held me gently.

That conversation, ordinary-seeming but by no means ordinary, was the last thing before my eyes slid shut.