We had only six hours left.
Once these six hours were up, for a while we wouldn't be able to see each other whenever we liked, however much we wanted to.
According to what Sia's grandfather had told us, the time allowed to us would probably be just three hours a week.
For the time being, we'd be the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, living apart.
With all that in mind, this date couldn't help but be special, and for that very reason, I felt we couldn't afford to waste a minute of it.
"Oppa, is there anywhere you want to go? Or anything you want to do?"
"Loads. So many that I can't even figure out where to go or what to do."
Places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do; just the ones that came to mind right away numbered in the dozens.
"Ugh. Where should we go?"
We didn't have much time left, but perhaps because Sia also wanted a more meaningful, romantic date, she seemed to be thinking hard about it.
But before long, we found an answer we were happy with.
"How about Gangwon Province?"
"Gangwon Province?"
"We were supposed to take a trip to Gangwon Province."
It had been about a year ago by my reckoning, a few days before Sia's accident.
We had casually talked about using the break before the new semester started to take a trip to Gangneung.
It was a little late in the season for a summer getaway, but we'd thought that was exactly what made it perfect: fewer people, and relatively cheaper prices.
Let's go on a 2-night, 3-day trip to Gangneung and make a memory of this summer; I think that was what we'd said.
"Right, we did. Then that's where we'll go!"
Sia clapped her hands, saying she loved the idea.
"What should we do there?"
"It's five thirty now, so... let's think about it over food first. Oppa, how about king crab for dinner?"
"...Is it already that late?"
"Yeah. Time really is heartless, huh."
I couldn't help wondering what it would be like to have even a little more time, but right now we didn't even have time for regrets.
After saying our goodbyes to Sia's grandfather, we made quick work of getting to a king crab restaurant in Gangneung.
We skimmed the menu and ordered in no time.
Once we'd ordered, we waited for the food to come out.
"Sia, I'm going to run to the restroom real quick."
I hadn't been able to go for hours, so I decided to step away for a moment.
"Then, oppa, can I borrow your phone for a sec?"
Out of nowhere, Sia asked to borrow my phone.
"Why do you need my phone?"
"We have to book somewhere to stay later. I want to look for a good place first. My phone's battery is dead right now."
That was what she said, but I started to worry that she might have some other purpose in mind.
Like a phone inspection, or snooping around my phone, or browsing my messenger or gallery.......
I flinched for a second, but concluding that I had nothing to feel guilty about even if she saw everything, I readily handed over my phone.
Surely Sia wouldn't do anything weird while I was gone.
This was Sia, not just anyone. I had to trust her.
***
When a girlfriend abruptly asks to borrow his phone, most men would probably find it suspicious.
There couldn't be many men who would readily hand over their phones in a situation like that.
Even between lovers, readily handing over a phone, which you could call a treasure trove of private records, was a very hard thing to do, and Sia knew that well.
She knew Min-jun hadn't lent it to her without a single thought or a shred of suspicion.
Still, seeing Min-jun hand it over so readily, Sia had resolved never to do the kind of thing he was worried about.
Instead, there was only one thing she wanted to check.
His wallpaper.
It could be the default wallpaper, some other photo, or a photo he'd taken with her.
That much should have been fine.
She checked the wallpaper right away.
It was set to a photo of her and Min-jun together.
But it wasn't a photo taken today; by this world's time, it had been taken about 2 years ago.
'If he'd changed his wallpaper today, he'd obviously have set it to a photo from today.'
So what did it mean that an old photo was his wallpaper?
In all likelihood, it meant he had set this photo as his wallpaper long before.
Maybe right before she died? Or maybe, after she died?
Either way, it didn't matter.
A 2-year-old photo still being his wallpaper meant that even after she died, Min-jun had never stopped missing her.
And in fact, Sia's guess was right.
Min-jun had set this photo as his phone wallpaper a few weeks before Sia died.
And after Sia died, missing her as he did, Min-jun had never once changed it.
"......Why am I crying again?"
She had been so sure she'd never have reason to cry again.
Before she knew it, her eyes were growing damp again.
"No. This is no time for this."
If Min-jun came back to find her crying out of nowhere, he'd be so flustered.
Sia quickly wiped her damp eyes and checked her face in selfie mode.
'Good. It doesn't show.'
Sia picked up Min-jun's phone again, meaning to look for a place to stay as originally planned.
But before that, she decided to search for something else.
And the thing she searched for, ahead of any lodging, was this.
Swimsuits.
***
After a quick trip to the restroom, I got my phone back from Sia and watched her reaction.
"Sorry. Did you wait long? The restroom was way outside the building, so I was a bit late."
"It's fine. I didn't wait long."
Apart from a knowing smile, she looked like her usual self.
I knew it.
But even if she had, on the off chance, gone through my phone with bad intentions, it wouldn't have mattered.
The only woman I'd talked to on the phone recently was my mother.
The last time I'd talked on the phone with a woman outside my family was a year ago.
And even that call had been about Sia's funeral.
That was why I could hand my phone over without a second thought.
"Nah. It's fine."
"Did you find a good place?"
"Yeah. I found a few places I like...... but I haven't decided where to go yet."
Sia showed me the list of places she'd found.
"They all look good to me. Do any of these catch your eye, oppa?"
I'd figured she had found some fancy hotel.
Coincidence or not, every place Sia had found was a pool villa.
I could feel her determination to go swimming with me no matter what.
Of the three on the list, the one we finally chose was the one with the best view of the sea.
"This one."
"Then you just make the reservation, oppa. I'll pay later."
Just like that, we'd picked our lodging for the night.
The food came out right after I finished the reservation.
Starting with sashimi, there were all kinds of seafood and lavish side dishes, and of course the delicious king crab that would crown the evening.
"Whoa......."
Never in my life had I been served such a lavish spread, so my jaw dropped in awe before I knew it.
I was never good at taking food photos, so I handed Sia my phone, and she started snapping pretty pictures like a fish returned to water.
Her years as a dragon must have far outnumbered her years as a human, yet she remembered how to work a phone down to the last detail, which was cute.
As soon as she finished taking pictures, we each picked up a king crab leg at almost the same moment.
Feeling like we were on the same wavelength, we smiled at each other.
"Oppa. Want me to pick the crab meat out for you?"
"Nah, it's fine. You don't have to go to the trouble, so just relax and eat too."
"I'll just use magic. Hehe."
"Oh."
Why didn't I think of that?
Magic may have become commonplace these days, but I'd never once thought of using it to pick out crab meat.
Then again, what I'd Awakened in was swordsmanship, not magic.
I handed Sia the king crab leg.
With a single touch of Sia's hand, the meat came cleanly out of the shell.
"Thanks, Sia."
"I'll do all the rest too, so just relax and eat, oppa."
Saying thanks for the meal, I ate the king crab meat, neatly separated from its shell.
Whether because it was expensive or because Sia had picked it out for me, it tasted incredible.
Sia watched me eat happily with a proud look and busily picked out more meat for me.
Her expression said that just watching me eat was enough to fill her up.
That said, Sia was also busily picking out king crab meat for herself.
Utterly captivated by the king crab, the two of us ate in silence for a while.
Then, as she was clearing away the picked-clean crab shells, Sia spoke up, as if something had occurred to her.
"Oppa. Has anyone besides me ever picked king crab meat out for you?"
Thinking she was asking out of simple curiosity, I answered without much thought.
"Today's the first time I've even eaten king crab, so no. And with regular crab, I've always picked it out myself, except when I was little."
"Mm-hmm. I see."
Sia's eyes curved into half-moons.
"Then have you ever picked it out for anyone?"
"Uh...... not yet."
Maybe I'd do it for my kids someday, but until now I'd been too busy picking out my own to eat.
But if I had to do it for someone other than my own kids, it'd probably be my parents, or.......
'Wait.'
I thought I finally understood why Sia was asking these questions.
"Then, oppa. What if I asked you to pick it out for me?"
She had probably been building up to this question all along.
The moment she asked, the fact that Sia could cleanly pick out anything with magic no longer mattered.
From the moment the question was asked, the answer was already decided; all I had to do was say it.
"Of course I'd do it. Whether it's king crab, shrimp shells, or anything else."
"Mm-hm-hm."
Perhaps because she liked the textbook answer, Sia was grinning from ear to ear.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but since our reunion, Sia seemed to express her feelings more openly than before.
"Oppa. Only for me, got it? Peel shrimp only for me, hold down perilla leaves only for me. Never do that for other women. Okay?"
Even though I had just told her I'd never done that, Sia made a point of stressing it again.
And perilla leaves?
I'd never felt like holding them down for anyone other than my family or Sia in the first place.
"I just can't bear to see you kindly peeling shrimp for some other woman, oppa."
"No, I mean......"
I told you, I never meant to in the first place.
I tried to offer an explanation of sorts, but perhaps because she had really latched onto this topic, Sia picked up her chopsticks with a chilling look in her eyes.
"You won't, right?"
Why is that?
Why do the utterly ordinary restaurant chopsticks in Sia's hand suddenly look like a deadly weapon?
Is it because she's gripping them like a stick instead of holding them the normal way?
And why does Sia's smile feel like a devil's smile?
"Uhhh...... first, Sia. Of course I won't, but could you, maybe, put those chopsticks down......."
You're scaring me, Sia.
TL Notes:
TL Note: Perilla leaves — in a famous Korean couples' debate, using your chopsticks to hold down a stuck pickled perilla leaf so someone of the opposite sex can peel theirs off counts, for many, as crossing a line.