My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend is Too Pretty - Chapter 108

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 108: 41. My Platinum-Blonde Girlfriend Who Wants to Have a Baby

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Even after arriving in Busan, we barely left the expensive hotel. We ended up spending practically the whole second day getting in and out of the large bathtub, passing the time like a proper staycation.

It was a little unfortunate that we hadn't visited even a single tourist spot after coming all the way to Busan, but it didn't really bother us.

We'd taken ten hours just getting there and back, enjoying the journey to the fullest. That was enough.

Getting away from familiar surroundings and spending time alone together somewhere new, that was enough to satisfy us both.

Of course, if the timing worked out and we felt like seeing something, we could always go. But there was no need to feel bound to it.

Even if we traveled somewhere new again, the way we enjoyed our trips probably wouldn't change much.

"What was the bread we wanted to get? Mentaiko baguette and deep-fried cream bun and..."

"Just buy whatever looks good. We're splitting it with everyone anyway."

"With Jeong-woo hyung and Bini-noona too?"

"And Lee So-yeon and Joo Hye-ryeong. We're meeting them the day after tomorrow."

"Will the bread still be okay by then?"

"I'll only give them enough to eat that day. Something to snack on while we catch up."

"We'll have to keep it somewhere cool, then."

With that in mind, we stopped by Daejeon on the way home. The bread there had sounded too good to pass up, and Daejeon was basically on the route anyway.

The bread lived up to the hype. Would we make a special trip to Daejeon just for it? Probably not. But if we happened to be nearby, we'd definitely stop in. It was cheap and it was good.

Anyway.

Our summer at twenty got off to a great start, with the two of us on a Busan trip all our own.

* * *

Summer had only just begun, and our schedules were already packed.

Right after the Busan trip, Elli had a string of photoshoots lined up one after another. She'd already been keeping busy through May and June ahead of summer, and now that July had arrived, her popularity showed no sign of cooling.

Three days after we got back, we visited a shooting studio rented inside a shopping mall. This time there was a couple shoot, so I came along.

The moment we arrived, the staff whisked Elli away for makeup. My turn wasn't until the end, so I waited comfortably in the meantime.

"Do-yoon came today? Want noona to grab you something to drink?"

"I'm fine, thanks. Is Ye-jin-noona off today? I don't see her."

"She's in the back going crazy trying to coordinate today's concept outfits."

"Sounds rough."

"That's the job. Oh, and she's going to cry happy tears when she finds out you're here. Ah, Jung-hyeon-oppa! Do-yoon's here!"

"Oh, Do-yoon! You've got about three or four hours of waiting ahead of you. You're early."

"Hey, hyung. I don't mind. Time flies when I'm watching Elli."

"Hot as ever. You two went to Busan, right? Crowded?"

"Crowded even before the official beach season. But the roads weren't that bad."

"Ha, I was planning to take my girlfriend there too. I always end up going during peak season and it's just too packed..."

I didn't come to every shoot with Elli anymore. Still, four years of tagging along and shooting alongside her had made me pretty close with the shopping mall's MD unnis and hyungs.

So I sat quietly in a corner, waiting for Elli and chatting with the staff as they passed by.

Then.

"Do-yoon."

"Oh, Director!"

Ha-yeong-ssi, the director of Blanché, came over to say hello. She was busy enough that sometimes I'd see her on set and sometimes not, but today she seemed to be stopping by briefly.

"Your girlfriend's been bringing in good money on shoots with you around. Have you thought about signing on exclusively yourself?"

"I've got school to think about."

"I know, I know. Study hard and land somewhere good. I just can't help asking. You heard we're having you two do your own styling later today, right?"

"Yeah. Selling it as a set, right?"

"Sets like that do surprisingly well. People who don't know how to put an outfit together will literally strip a mannequin at the store."

"Makes sense from a buyer's standpoint too. Hard to go wrong with it."

"Exactly. Anyway, we'll have our own styling direction later, but we're folding your ideas in to offer more variations. Ready? Seeing how well you're dressed right now, I'm expecting great things."

"Though my outfits are a hundred percent Elli's doing... she said she was confident about today, so it should be fine."

"You two really are something. It's been four years already. I still remember Elli suddenly kissing you mid-shoot like it was yesterday."

"Haha... it really has been four years."

That first shoot we did together, when Elli kissed me right in front of the camera. A memory now.

I chatted with the director for a while, and she made her usual sincere case for me to consider modeling seriously.

Then, a little later.

"Lee Do-yoon. Director."

Elli stepped out, hair and makeup done.

"Oh my goodness, it suits you so well! Elli! That's a gift, so take it home with you after the shoot!"

"Thank you."

The director fussed and gushed the moment she saw Elli.

It was warranted.

Elli was wearing an incredibly thin, fitted cream off-shoulder V-neck wrap top and skinny dark blue jeans, and she looked both elegant and strikingly beautiful.

Her hair had a bit more wave in it than usual, making the platinum blonde look rich and full, like something straight out of a foreign fashion spread... well, she is a model. Right.

Anyway. Looking at Elli right now, there was really only one thing to say.

"You're beautiful. It suits you perfectly."

I stood up and said it, short but completely sincere.

Part of me wanted to take that perfectly made-up face in my hands and kiss those lipstick-red lips.

But ruining the careful makeup she'd had done for the shoot wasn't an option, so I held that impulse back.

"Hmph."

Even so, Elli gave her usual little scoff and stepped a little closer.

She reached up and held my face in both hands, slowly...

"That's far enough. Alisha? Time to shoot with the bag."

"...I wasn't going to kiss him."

"If I hadn't stopped you two, you'd have kissed at least ten times by now. I get it, your boyfriend is handsome, but we need to start right now."

The stylist who had followed her out stopped her, and Elli jutted out her lower lip and stepped back.

"Stay here and watch me."

"I will. I'll only watch you."

"Let's go, unni."

"Alisha, don't you know any decent guys? You could at least introduce me to someone before rubbing it in my face."

"I don't know any guys."

With the shoot starting up, Elli only showed her face for a moment before heading away from me.

The director stood beside me watching, then, with longing eyes fixed on Elli, slipped in a quiet suggestion.

"Do-yoon. Any chance you could talk Elli into doing a bikini shoot? Just once. I'll make it very, very worth your while..."

"Elli would never agree, and I don't want that either."

"I see... nothing I can do then..."

She dropped her shoulders at my immediate answer. Still, I had absolutely no intention of allowing it.

The skin underneath was mine alone to see, and she felt the same way about me.

The off-shoulder top was already just about the limit I could smile through, and Elli never let me show my torso in public either, not even when we went to the beach.

* * *

Elli kept up with every modelling commitment without fail. When she had work, I either came along or spent the time at home drawing, and that was how things went.

She took the exclusive contract seriously and worked diligently, but honestly, outside of that, all we ever thought about was going out and having fun.

I was still in my first year, and this was my first summer break.

Sure, I knew that picking up certifications or doing something productive from here on out would definitely benefit me down the line. But this was the first summer of adulthood we were spending together, and I couldn't give that time up.

So besides dates together, we had plans for a camping trip with Jeong-woo hyung and Bini-noona, a family trip timed around dad's and Uncle Mark's vacations, and more.

But before all of that.

We went to the beach with friends.

"I heard you guys are all wearing rash guards. Please tell me that's not true."

"Please let it not be true."

"It is, though. Who's the bikini even for?"

"Exactly. Getting a tan, having to turn down guys hitting on you... it's all such a pain."

"Fair enough. In that case, should we just die, Chae-hwan?"

"Let's do it, Jin-woo."

Lee So-yeon and Joo Hye-ryeong, along with two high school friends, Jin-woo and Chae-hwan.

"University is rough... but living alone is great."

"Glad to hear it. Can I come visit sometime?"

"You're always welcome. Though... you know you can't bring Alisha, right...?"

"Oh, is that how it is?"

"That's how it is."

"Looks like you finally bought it."

"That's literally why I moved out on my own."

"What is it, though. Lee Do-yoon. Just say it."

"Sorry. I can't say it out loud. It'd hurt Minjae's reputation."

"Seong Min-jae. If you can't explain that to me properly, I'm not letting Lee Do-yoon leave."

"......I'm, sorry."

"Go home and see for yourself."

"It's really not something I should be the one to explain..."

And my otaku friend Minjae, rounding out the group.

Seven of us, on an overnight trip.

We'd planned to drink a little at night and head back around lunch the next day, so we took the train rather than driving.

A nice, easy trip.

Honestly, when guys and girls hang out together, all kinds of things can happen. But Chae-hwan and Jin-woo had both already crashed and burned trying their luck with Lee So-yeon before.

Watching them still get along fine as friends after that, I had to respect their mental fortitude.

Anyway, we arrived at the East Sea beach, split into guys and girls to check in, and ran straight out to the water.

It being peak summer, the beach was packed, but having too many people around wasn't really a problem when you were with friends.

What did happen, though.

Chae-hwan and Jin-woo, who had been enthusiastically eyeing girls in bikinis, turned to me.

"Epic. Hey, Do-yoon. Can't you just walk the beach with us once?"

"Just be next to us when we go talk to girls. You can ditch us after that."

They had plans to use me for flirting. But.

"Do you two actually want to die? Who do you think you're dragging along?"

"You want to die too? Don't even think about taking Do-yoon for something like that."

"Ha, nice day to be getting all worked up, isn't it?"

"...Sorry. Shin Chae-hwan got completely obsessed with girls..."

"...Sorry. Lee Jin-woo got rejected when he confessed to a classmate last week..."

They tucked their tails between their legs at the fierce energy from all three girls.

Jin-woo and Chae-hwan ended up heading off together to grab food and, apparently, try their luck at flirting on their own. I sat quietly under a parasol and let the sea breeze wash over me.

I'd actually wanted to get in the water myself, but Elli had hooked her arm through mine to keep me from going anywhere while she chatted with the girls.

"You wore a bunch of our clothes in that Shorts you filmed, right? The director said thank you and wants to take you out for a meal sometime when you have time."

"I wore them because they were nice... maybe we'll go say hello together sometime."

"I'm so jealous. You two have such good style, everything looks good on you... I'm the only short one here."

"Short, she says... do you know she's more popular in our department than I am? Guys love that height."

"It was the same in high school. Lee So-yeon probably got the most confessions."

"Elli, that's only because you had Do-yoon and people didn't bother!"

Stuck in place with Elli's arm hooked through mine, listening to the girls talk, I turned to Minjae, who was sitting next to me staring blankly at the sea.

"Minjae, you bored?"

"Not really... feels good to get some fresh air for once. All I do after class is play games or watch anime..."

"Anything worth watching lately?"

"I'll give you recommendations if you draw fan art for them. Stop neglecting your Pixiv. Your last update was two weeks ago."

"I've been busy. Sounds like there's something good, then?"

"There's this one that blew up everywhere. I think you'd actually like it..."

We'd come all this way to hang out together, but there wasn't anything particularly dramatic about it. We talked a little, waded in the water, played around in the sand, ate well at a nearby restaurant.

At night we drank and everyone swapped university stories.

"Elli, aren't you having more?"

"The others are here. I'll stick to soft drinks."

I smiled privately watching Elli, who kept strictly away from alcohol whenever we weren't alone together.

Nothing special, but fun because we were with friends. That kind of trip.

And the next day.

The moment we got home, we threw our clothes off to make up for what we hadn't been able to do the night before.

"Elli, condom."

"...I was going to put it on for you. Hold still."

"I know. Thank you."

But again today, Elli tried to ease into things without one. I stopped her, as usual, and Elli clicked her tongue and used it.

Elli trying to go without had been happening more and more lately. I hadn't read too much into it, though. I just took it as her being cute with me.