Movie Theater Story (1)

Today’s event.

It was watching a movie. I had no idea how much impact movies would have on Rurin.

Anyway, we decided to do the most typical date course today: go to a movie theater.

It’s the most typical, but neither of us had ever dated at a movie theater.

Naturally, Rurin hadn’t, but neither had I.

Of course, I had been to a movie theater as a kid, but it wasn’t a date. It was with family.

So I had the desire to try it. It’s the most basic of basic modern date courses, but we’d never done it.

Watching a movie itself is a very simple act, but the meaning is in doing it, right?

So we came to a huge movie theater in Seoul.

“What exactly is a movie?”

Rurin, of course, didn’t understand the concept of a movie and had question marks all over her face.

“You’ll know when you see it. An interesting story unfolds on the screen.”

“…?”

Even after explaining, Rurin still had question marks.

It seemed impossible to make her understand until she saw it with her own eyes, so I quickly gave up and decided to buy some snacks first.

Popcorn is a must at the movies. I bought two buckets mixed half and half with caramel-flavored popcorn and regular popcorn. The sweetness of caramel and the saltiness of regular popcorn mixed like this keeps you eating. Hehehe.

“Rurin, ah.”

“Aah!”

As soon as the popcorn came out, I put a bucket in Rurin’s hand and fed her a few pieces. Since it was her first time, I wanted her to taste it.

Not knowing anything, Rurin opened her mouth to receive it because I gave it to her. She chewed heartily and her eyes started to shine. I gave her caramel popcorn. Since it’s sweet, of course, she reacted.

“Oh, delicious! Give me more!”

She said that, leaned forward, and opened her mouth for more “Aaaah!” but there was no more to give. I firmly informed her of that fact.

“No. This is for eating inside the movie theater. If you eat it all first, it’s a problem, Dear.”

“Inside?”

“Yes.”

“To where? Isn’t this the movie theater you were talking about?”

“Yes, but no. You have to enter the screening room to really say you’ve entered. The screening room is over there.”

“It’s complicated! Um, I don’t get it, but let’s go in quickly!”

“Wait! We forgot the cola.”

“Cola? The fizzy one? I’d prefer beer over that!”

“You’ll get drunk without watching the movie, so no. Tell me if the alcohol is too strong.”

“Ugh! Alcohol is strong! But beer is no problem.”

“You’re funny. Drink the cola. Cola!”

The dragon who gets drunk from one drop of soju can’t be allowed to get into beer at noon, so I firmly refused and took her hand, leading her into the screening room.

A big screening room. It felt nostalgic coming here after a long time. Excitedly, I searched for our seats. Since it was a weekday lunch hour, there were very few people.

“Let’s see, it’s nice and spacious. Over there.”

“Why are there so many seats?”

“Movie theaters need seats, so there have to be many.”

Still full of questions, I pulled Rurin’s hand and led her up to find our assigned seats. I sat down beside her and pointed at the huge screen in front, beginning to explain.

“The movie plays over there. It’s nothing special. You just sit and watch the screen.”

“Hmm?”

She tilted her head again. It seemed she wasn’t going to clear up her doubts about the act itself.

Crunch crunch.

So she just kept munching the popcorn in her hand. She started eating as soon as she sat and didn’t stop.

“I don’t know about other things, but this is delicious.”

Then, perhaps annoyed to grab handfuls, she opened her mouth wide and dumped the popcorn in. No one could imagine a mouth opening that wide from the outside.

Seeing Rurin’s mouth stretch like a four-dimensional cat’s pocket, I thought it could be added to the world’s mysteries.

I was blankly watching the scene when I suddenly snapped out of it.

“Hey! You have to eat when the movie starts.”

“What’s that noise? I gotta eat before or during too! Oh dear!”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“This is exactly what I’m doing!”

Crunch crunch. Slurp slurp.

After eating all the popcorn in her mouth, she sucked on the cola straw, finally freeing her mouth.

“Hehe, it’s delicious. I have to eat more.”

But when she tried to stuff more in again, I grabbed her wrist.

“Hey, stop that.”

I raised Rurin’s wrist with the gaze of someone catching a cheating gambler.

“Why? There’s nothing else to do, so I have to eat! Or give me a kiss!”

“Wh-what kiss!”

If you want a kiss, you have to do it first. The really shy one is good at talking. No, no, and it’s not even dark yet in the movie theater. We didn’t rent the whole place either.

“Then eat.”

“What? Ah!”

When I grabbed her hand, she magically lifted popcorn. Can’t handle it. Really.

Rurin opened her mouth again and stuffed popcorn in. At this point, I had nothing to say. I give up.

“You.”

Then she quickly finished chewing the popcorn full in her mouth and called me.

“Why?”

“I’m done eating.”

She turned the large popcorn bucket upside down and shook it. Nothing came out. She must have eaten even the hard kernels at the bottom.

“Already?”

Nodding.

“So yours is mine too!”

Rurin confidently nodded and reached for my popcorn. I lifted the half-and-half bucket to protect it. But she already had a handful in her hand.

“It’s originally yours is mine and mine is yours, so it can’t be helped. Crunch crunch.”

She rambled as if explaining the laws of nature, then chewed popcorn.

At that moment. The dark lighting signaled the start of the movie.

“Huh?”

Rurin looked confused, then looked at me with an expression of “I can’t handle this.”

“Why did you turn off the lights? No way…?”

“I didn’t turn them off, and movies are meant to be watched in the dark. No ‘no way’ about it.”

“Is that so?”

Finally, the theater was completely dark and the movie began.

The movie I chose was a full-fledged blockbuster. Lots of explosions, shooting, flashy visuals, a high-budget Hollywood action movie.

It was chosen for Rurin’s first movie experience. To show her what movies are like?

“Oh, is this a movie? It looks like a giant phone screen.”

“Right?”

Thankfully, her voice was very quiet. I’d told her over and over to whisper inside the theater.

But about 10 minutes later.

Rurin started dozing off.

The flashier the action scenes, the more she dozed off. She was so sleepy that even when I handed her the popcorn to wake her up, she kept dozing, eventually leaning on my shoulder and falling into a deep sleep.

Eating popcorn together in a movie theater.

Holding hands in a movie theater.

I only dreamed of a very simple, modest level of date. But what happened was my wife leaning on my shoulder and falling asleep.

The drool was a bonus.

I don’t think “patting the head of my wife sleeping on my shoulder in a movie theater” was on my bucket list?

At some point, I gave up waking her. Rurin was sleeping soundly, and since the money was spent, I focused on the movie myself.

The movie I watched after a long time was fun. It was fun, but I think I understood why Rurin fell asleep.

It was kind of bland, I guess.

The action scenes, the explosions, the people dying—if those were bland, then it was indeed bland.

To confirm, I forcibly woke her. With a dazed face, she grabbed my shirt sleeve and we walked out of the theater slowly, and I asked,

“Rurin, why did you sleep so deeply? Was it boring?”

“Yes. It was boring. Why watch something like that? It’s too fake. So I couldn’t help but sleep.”

“Well, all movies are fake though…”

“Fighting dragons is a hundred times more fun. That’s way more explosive.”

As expected, it was this.

Rurin and I have experienced battlefields. Not ordinary ones, but battlefields filled with dazzling magic and meteors falling, even more spectacular than movies.

The real explosions from magic were a hundred times more magnificent than those on screen.

Even after experiencing it firsthand and being tired of it, watching movies makes you sleepy.

A failure in genre choice, a mistake.

The first attempt ended with Rurin’s deep sleep mode, so after lunch we tried again.

Learning from the mistake of obsessing over Hollywood while only thinking about my childhood, this time we changed the genre completely.

We carefully chose this time. Unlike action, we had to pick something very unfamiliar to Rurin.

So we chose a romance movie. A movie with deep romance.

This should get Rurin more interested than action, right?

With that hope, we tried again.

Even after eating so much popcorn and lunch, Rurin showed interest in popcorn again. As soon as we entered the theater, she remembered the popcorn stand, ran over, and shouted,

“Dear, if it’s boring again, buy me this to eat. Lots and lots! Gahdug!”

My dear making a big gesture with both hands to show “a lot.”

Yeah, eat a lot.

I’m full so I won’t eat, you can eat it all by yourself.

What can I do if she wants to eat?

I bought two large buckets mixed with garlic, caramel, and regular flavors as she wanted. All for Rurin.

And back into the theater we went!

Today, we decided to compete at the movie theater. It’s not a win if only I have fun; Rurin has to enjoy it too.

If Rurin finds it boring till the end, it’s a lost day.

Since we decided to compete at the theater, the result is either Rurin finds a genre she likes and wins, or she doesn’t and the day passes.

The battle has begun.

Weekday afternoon. There were still many empty seats. It’s not vacation time, so naturally.

People will start to come in the evening at the earliest.

So it was still comfortable. For Rurin, who dislikes crowds, this was very fortunate. There was no complaint about that.

All her attention was focused on popcorn and cola.

Soon the movie started.

I observed Rurin as soon as it began. At first, she frowned, making a “hmm” sound and looked bored like before, but gradually she seemed to become interested and focused.

When it came to the part where the protagonist was a married man, she seemed really engrossed. Then suddenly, she stared at me, then returned her gaze to the movie.

The story was about reuniting with a childhood love who was already married and spiraled into an affair. It was a clichéd story, if anything. The ending was about getting tired of the bland married life where they never really fought and starting a married life again with the old woman they met again. The ending then showed that old woman meeting someone else again, which was a somewhat ridiculous conclusion.

Rurin didn’t doze off. Her posture was very different from when watching the action movie. The popcorn she munched on barely decreased. She had already eaten one whole bucket before the movie started, but the other bucket was still intact, which was proof.

By now, she was properly watching the movie.

I was curious about her impression.