Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Oppa, Look Forward to It

Only six hours remained for us to be together.

Once that brief window closed, meeting up whenever the urge struck would become an impossibility for the foreseeable future.

Going by the terms Sia’s grandfather laid down, our time together would likely be restricted to a mere three hours per week.

For the coming days, we would be living out the legend of Gyeonu and Jiknyeo, torn apart by circumstance while aching for one another.

Because of that harsh reality, every second of this outing carried immense weight, and I refused to let even a fragment of our remaining time slip away pointlessly.

“Oppa, where do you want to head? Is there anything particular you’d like us to do?”

“So much. My mind is racing with so many ideas that I can’t even figure out what should come first.”

A dozen different destinations and activities flashed through my thoughts all at once.

“Ah, choices, choices. Where do we even start?”

Our time was running short, but Sia was just as set on making this outing both romantic and memorable.

Luckily, finding a shared plan didn’t take us very long.

“What would you say to Gangwon Province?”

“Gangwon Province?”

“Don’t you remember? We promised to take a trip there together.”

From my point of view, that conversation had happened roughly a year ago, barely days before her tragic accident.

We had offhandedly planned to take advantage of the quiet lull right before the start of the upcoming semester to visit Gangneung.

The peak summer rush would be winding down, which we figured made it ideal—the tourist crowds would thin out, and lodging rates would drop significantly.

I still had faint memories of us planning a simple three-day, two-night getaway to Gangneung to give that summer one last unforgettable send-off.

“That’s right! We totally planned that. Let’s do it!”

Sia clapped her hands together, radiating excitement.

“What’s the plan once we get there?”

“It’s already past five-thirty, so… how about dinner first while we sort out the rest? Oppa, does king crab sound appetizing?”

“…Has the time slipped away that fast already?”

“Mhm. Time really doesn’t show any mercy.”

I wished with all my heart that we had more time to spare, but brooding over its scarcity was a luxury we couldn’t afford.

After bidding farewell to Sia’s grandfather, we traveled swiftly and soon reached a king crab specialty spot in Gangneung.

We quickly reviewed the menu options and placed our order without dragging our feet.

As we waited for the kitchen to bring our food, I spoke to Sia, “Sia, I need to slip away to the restroom for a second.”

I hadn’t found an opportunity to relieve myself for hours, making a quick break necessary.

“In that case, Oppa, do you mind letting me hold onto your phone for a bit?”

Sia abruptly requested to use my smartphone.

“What’s it for?”

“We need a place to crash tonight. I figured I’d browse around and check out available spots. My own battery completely drained.”

While her explanation sounded reasonable enough, a fleeting worry crossed my mind that she might harbor a secret curiosity.

What if she planned to run an impromptu check on my device—browsing chat histories, combing through messaging logs, or snooping through private photos?

A slight jolt ran through me, but I swiftly recalled that my phone held nothing incriminating whatsoever, even if she scrutinized every folder. With that peace of mind, I handed it over without reluctance.

It wasn’t as if Sia would pull any funny business in my absence.

This was Sia. Having complete faith in her was natural.

*

Whenever a woman suddenly asks to look through her partner’s smartphone, the average guy would naturally become wary.

How many boyfriends could hand over their devices on the spot without an ounce of hesitation?

Regardless of how deeply two partners cared for each other, a smartphone was essentially a private vault of personal history, making it nearly impossible to surrender with total ease. Sia understood that reality intimately.

She knew Minjun couldn’t have parted with his device completely blind to the possibility of snooping.

Even so, the fact that he handed it over so willingly made Sia vow that she wouldn’t indulge in any behavior that might justify his concerns.

She had only one harmless detail she wanted to confirm: his home screen image.

Would it be some plain factory preset, a random scenery picture, or perhaps a photograph the two of them had taken together?

Verifying just that much couldn’t possibly be crossing the line.

Sia activated the display right away, and her gaze fell upon a photograph of herself and Minjun side by side.

Yet the picture wasn’t from their reunion today. According to the flow of time on Earth, that shot had been captured approximately two years in the past.

‘Had he updated his background today, he certainly would have chosen one of the fresh pictures we took earlier.’

Retaining a dated photograph as his wallpaper meant there was an overwhelming likelihood he had kept it unchanged for an extensive period.

Perhaps he set it right before she passed away, or perhaps he set it sometime afterward in remembrance.

To her, the exact timing didn’t diminish its value.

The simple reality that a picture taken two years ago still occupied his display proved Minjun had held onto his longing for her throughout her absence.

And Sia’s intuition hit the mark perfectly.

Minjun had chosen that specific snapshot as his wallpaper mere weeks prior to her untimely death.

In the wake of her loss, the ache of missing her proved so deep that he never could bring himself to swap it out.

“…Why are tears welling up again?”

She had firmly promised herself that her days of crying were over.

Yet without her noticing, moisture gathered once more along the edges of her vision.

“No. I can’t fall apart right now.”

Imagine the panic Minjun would feel if he returned to find her sobbing out of nowhere.

Sia rapidly wiped away the glistening droplets and flipped the camera into portrait mode to inspect her appearance.

‘Good. There aren’t any visible traces.’

Picking up Minjun’s device once more, she prepared to carry out the original task of securing their overnight stay.

Yet just before diving into the lodging search, she gave in to a different priority.

Before looking at guest rooms, Sia opened a tab to browse swimsuits.

*

Having rushed back from the washroom, I accepted my phone back from Sia while subtly trying to read her mood.

“My bad. Did I take too long? The bathroom happened to be located outside and was quite a walk away.”

“Not at all. You weren’t gone long.”

Apart from an intriguing, knowing grin on her lips, she looked like her normal self.

Just as I thought. My anxieties had been entirely unfounded.

Even had curiosity gotten the better of her, there was nothing to unearth anyway.

The only woman whose contact appeared in my recent call logs was my mother.

If you excluded immediate relatives, the final occasion I had spoken with a woman on the phone traced all the way back to Sia’s memorial service a year prior.

That clean record was precisely why parting with the phone hadn’t caused me any hesitation.

“Yeah, all good then.”

“Did you come across any nice options?”

“Mhm. A couple caught my eye… though I haven’t settled on the final pick.”

Sia angled the screen so I could examine the places she had bookmarked.

“Every single one looks wonderful. Do any of them stand out to you, Oppa?”

I assumed she might lean toward upscale boutique hotels, yet intentionally or otherwise, every option on her curated list happened to be a pool villa.

Her quiet insistence on making sure we went swimming together practically radiated from the screen.

Among the trio of choices, we ultimately settled on the property boasting the most panoramic ocean scenery.

“Let’s go with this one.”

“Go ahead and lock in the booking, Oppa. I’ll take care of covering the cost later on.”

Without further delay, our overnight arrangements were finalized.

Right around the moment the booking confirmation came through, our feast made its way to the table.

The staff laid out plates of fresh sashimi, assorted marine delicacies, a lavish arrangement of side dishes, and finally the star attraction: a magnificent, steaming king crab.

“Wow…”

Never in my life had I been treated to such a sumptuous spread, and my jaw dropped open in pure wonder before I could catch myself.

Since photography was far from my strong suit, I passed the smartphone across to Sia, who enthusiastically started snapping artistic angles as if she had been itching for the opportunity.

Even after living an overwhelming majority of her existence as a dragon rather than a human, the fact that she handled modern smartphone features with effortless fluency felt wonderfully endearing.

The moment she wrapped up the impromptu photo shoot, both of our hands reached out in unison to grab a crab leg.

Noticing our identical instincts, we exchanged warm chuckles.

“Oppa, should I pull the crab meat free for you?”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s no need to take on the extra hassle. Just take it easy and enjoy your meal.”

“I can just rely on magic, though. Hehe.”

“Ah.”

Why hadn’t that crossed my mind?

Even though modern society treated magical arts as an everyday reality, using mystical power simply to de-shell seafood had never once entered my thoughts.

Then again, my own awakening fell under the realm of swordsmanship rather than arcane spellcraft.

I handed the crab leg over to Sia.

With a graceful flick of her fingers, the succulent meat separated cleanly from the tough exterior.

“Thank you, Sia.”

“I’ll handle the rest of them too, so you just sit back and eat, Oppa.”

After offering my gratitude for the meal, I bit into the perfectly extracted morsel.

Whether the extraordinary flavor stemmed from the steep price tag or from Sia’s thoughtful preparation, I couldn’t quite tell.

Sia watched me savor the food with an expression of pure satisfaction while continuing to extract fresh portions for me, almost as though filling my plate was enough to satisfy her own appetite.

Even so, she made sure to indulge in a healthy share of crab meat herself.

Drawn completely into the rich taste of the meal, the two of us spent a good while eating in quiet contentment.

Then, setting aside another shell picked entirely clean, a thought appeared to strike Sia, and she broke the silence.

“Oppa. Has any woman besides me ever extracted king crab meat for you before?”

Assuming she was simply making casual small talk, I gave an honest reply without reading too much into it.

“This happens to be my very first time trying king crab, so nope. Even when eating ordinary crabs, I’ve always tackled the shells myself ever since I was a little kid.”

“Mhm. Is that so?”

Her eyes curved happily into crescent moons upon hearing my words.

“Then have you ever pulled the meat out for someone else?”

“Well… not so far.”

I imagined I might do it for my own kids down the line, but up until now, handling my own plate had consumed all my attention.

If circumstances ever forced me to peel seafood for anyone besides a future child, it would probably be my parents, or…

‘Hold on.’

The true motive behind her line of questioning suddenly dawned on me.

“Then, Oppa. What would you do if I asked you to peel it for me?”

It turned out every preceding question was merely building up to this exact test.

With the inquiry out in the open, the reality that Sia possessed the magic to de-shell seafood in an instant became completely irrelevant.

The required response was set in stone the second the words left her mouth. My role was simply to deliver the line properly.

“Naturally, I’d do it for you in a heartbeat. King crab, shrimp tails, whatever you ask for.”

“Ehehe.”

Thoroughly pleased with the textbook answer, Sia’s face broke into a radiant, ear-to-ear smile.

It might have just been my impression, but ever since we crossed paths again, Sia seemed far more uninhibited about displaying her emotions than she used to be.

“Oppa. That privilege belongs strictly to me, got it? You peel shrimp exclusively for me, and you only hold down perilla leaves for me. Don’t ever do those kinds of favors for other women. Understood?”

Despite hearing me confirm that I had never done such a thing for anyone before, Sia went out of her way to hammer the point home.

Bringing perilla leaves into this too? Lending a hand with those for anyone outside my direct family or Sia had never even crossed my mind to begin with.

“The thought of Oppa sweetly peeling shrimp for some other girl would drive me crazy.”

“Wait, that’s not—”

I had literally just pointed out that I had zero intention of doing anything of the sort.

I began trying to clarify a point that felt glaringly obvious, but her train of thought had clearly latched onto the notion completely, because Sia gripped her metal chopsticks with an unsettling gleam in her eyes.

“You won’t, right?”

All of a sudden, the regular dining chopsticks nestled in Sia’s grip looked less like cutlery and more like lethal implements.

The strange way she clasped them—gripping the pair together like wooden stakes rather than holding them properly—only made the visual worse.

And how had her pleasant smile morphed into something that looked distinctly sinister?

“Uh… Sia. Obviously I’d never do that, but maybe… could you lower those chopsticks first…?”

Honestly, Sia, you’re genuinely terrifying me right now.