WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 120: 46. Small Jealousy, Envy, and Happiness

──────

Those blue eyes burned with a sharp, piercing light.

The chatter around her gradually died down, drawn in by that imperious presence.

Like something out of a ghost story, Elli swept a cool glance across me and the table beside me, then slowly began to move.

Toward me.

Looking, by any measure, furious.

Of course, I could tell she was only riding a flash of jealousy, that her eyes had just gone sharp for a moment. She wasn't truly that angry.

How did I know? Well, it was hard to put into words.

I just could.

Fifteen years of history, and the kind of closeness that comes from spending every night together, made certain things simply visible.

-step, step

And so.

Threading through the tables packed with people, platinum hair sweeping behind her.

My girlfriend came to me.

"Whoa..."

The beauty of her face, stunning enough to stop anyone in their tracks, drew gasps from everyone watching, men and women alike.

But neither Elli nor I paid any attention to that.

We only looked at each other as the distance between us closed, and then, when Elli finally reached me.

I welcomed my girlfriend, who had rushed straight over the moment her shoot ended.

"You made it? I wasn't expecting you since you said you might not be able to come today. Must've been a long trip, thanks for-"

"Lee Do-yoon."

"Yeah?"

"Vill du do? -- (Do you want to die? Who said you could chat it up with girls like that? I told you to behave yourself.)"

Oh boy.

* * *

Elli knew.

She knew her boyfriend was popular.

It would have been nice if she were the only one who found him attractive, but unfortunately, Lee Do-yoon was the kind of man any woman would inevitably fall for.

It wasn't simply a matter of looks.

She followed idols and modeled for shopping brands, so she had seen plenty of men called handsome here and there.

But honestly, she had never looked at any of those other men and thought, oh, he's attractive, or anything of the sort.

She hadn't been interested in the first place.

Because beside her, always, there had been Lee Do-yoon.

Age five. Those days at kindergarten when she drifted on the outside of everything.

Others might brush it off as nothing, but to her, small as she was, those days had been hard. It could have been a fork in her life where she grew to feel only resentment toward this country called Korea, with no warmth for it at all.

The one who had stayed by her side despite her prickly temperament back then, who had always called her a princess and praised her, who had always followed after her, and who had ultimately become the one and only boyfriend in the world who was hers alone.

That was Lee Do-yoon.

Because it was him, she had found him endearing. Because it was him, she had thought him handsome. Because it was him, she had fallen in love.

His kindness, his thoughtfulness, and yet underneath all of that the quiet stubbornness and backbone that were distinctly his own, the more she came to know those things, the more she was pulled in. And layered on top of it all, the unwavering constancy with which he had looked only at her since they were children. All of that together made him, quite simply, a perfect man.

"Like they'd know any of that."

And yet other women, women who knew absolutely nothing about Lee Do-yoon, were turning their eyes on him for his face alone.

She didn't think that was wrong, exactly. She understood that people could be that way.

But she didn't like it.

"Flirting with what's mine?"

Her childhood friend.

Her man.

With couple rings on his hands, no less.

A table full of girls, fussing and fluttering at her boyfriend with their most charming expressions.

That was the first thing she saw when she arrived, a little late because the shoot had run over.

They were looking at her boyfriend with eyes so obviously warm toward him, even flashing little smiles. Right in front of her.

It genuinely, sincerely did not sit well with her.

"Lee Do-yoon is so dead tonight. I told him to behave himself, I told him so clearly...!"

She knew, rationally, that her boyfriend hadn't done anything wrong. She could even see from a distance that he had cut things off firmly. But a woman's heart wasn't something that ran on reason alone.

Soon.

The eyes of the people drinking beneath parasols began turning toward her one by one. The other university students who had been serving tables stopped in their tracks and stared.

And then Do-yoon noticed her too.

Her boyfriend had turned away from the girls' table, and when the shift in the air around him struck him as odd and he looked over.

"Oh?"

He found her.

Surprise and delight mixed across his face, and a bright smile spread over it immediately.

"...He's so cute."

That smile, and the jealous anger boiling in her chest dissolved in an instant. No matter when she saw it, no matter how many times, her boyfriend's smiling face was impossibly cute.

And what was he wearing, honestly.

Slacks and a dress shirt paired with a black waiter's vest. Simple, but with a clean, effortless sort of appeal.

She had heard he'd be wearing something like that, but seeing it in person, she liked it far more than she'd expected.

-gulp

Without thinking, Elli swallowed.

The thought that she wanted him to hold her just like that, in that exact outfit, filled her head completely. She even found herself wondering whether she should buy him a set to keep at home.

But right in the middle of all that.

The girls who had been wagging their tails at him caught the edge of her vision, and the jealousy that had briefly settled flared back up.

She let it show on her face, fixed her boyfriend with a stare, and walked toward him.

-step, step

Confident. Without a moment's hesitation.

"Who's that?"

"She's insanely pretty... her face is so tiny..."

"Isn't that Do-yoon's girlfriend? Looks like it. He's got a photo of her in his profile picture."

"Oh man... but isn't she mixed? She looks completely foreign."

"I heard she's not mixed. Just speaks Korean really well, apparently."

"No, I heard mixed."

"Can that hair color come out naturally without being mixed?"

"Is there anyone here from the genetics department? We need an expert."

She ignored the whispering around her completely.

And she walked up to Do-yoon, who was smiling that cheerful smile of his as though he had no idea what he'd done wrong. Well, if she were being honest, she couldn't quite say out loud what he'd done wrong either.

Regardless, she stepped up and stood in front of him.

"You made it? I wasn't expecting you since you said you might not be able to come today. Must've been a long trip, thanks for-"

"Lee Do-yoon."

"Yeah?"

"Vill du do? -- (Do you want to die? Who said you could chat it up with girls like that? I told you to behave yourself.)"

And she demanded answers from the boyfriend who had greeted her so warmly.

In Swedish, because yelling where everyone could hear would be embarrassing.

"What? What did she say?"

"What language is that?"

Nobody understood, naturally.

Do-yoon caught on and switched to Swedish too.

"She asked for my number and I said I had a girlfriend and shut it down right there. Nothing happened at all-"

"Why did it get to a point where she was asking for your number?"

"I was serving tables and she just called me over out of nowhere..."

"Why were you talking to another girl."

"She's a customer?"

"Do you not remember what I said? I told you to make sure nothing like that happened with girls."

"Hmm... but we agreed you'd understand when I'm serving tables, right?"

"I don't know about that."

"Ah... you don't know. Well, nothing to be done about it, then."

She knew this was unreasonable. She knew that dragging it out would cause trouble for everyone around them.

Elli was only venting a few words of jealousy. She had already planned to wrap it up right around here.

Do-yoon seemed to pick up that she wasn't being sincere, because he didn't look particularly flustered.

So Elli had been about to close things out with something like, "We'll talk again later."

The thing was, everyone inside the pojangmacha tent bar was already watching, and even people passing outside or peeking in from the booth next door had their heads craning over to look.

"Tonight I'm definitely not letting him sleep until dawn."

She had made that silent resolution and was just about to open her mouth again when.

"I'm sorry, Elli."

Do-yoon apologized. Not in the voice of someone wracked with guilt, but in a tone that had something almost like a laugh tucked underneath it, said in Swedish.

And before Elli could even react or form a response to that apology.

His next move followed.

-smooch!

"...!"

"I was wrong. So will you forgive me?"

At home it was as natural as breathing, but outside, unless they were somewhere with hardly anyone around, it was something they almost never did.

That kiss, brief and soft like the bisou from their high school days.

Elli was left standing there, completely stunned, words gone.

"Ahhh...! He kissed her, he actually kissed her!"

"Oh my god, Do-yoon is insane... holy-"

"I thought he wasn't the type to do that kind of thing, but I guess it's different with his girlfriend..."

"That was so cool... I'm so jealous...!"

The people around them erupted into a screaming, admiring uproar.

In the middle of all that chaos, Do-yoon reached out and caught her by the arm as though nothing had happened.

"Elli, this way... hmm. There's no seat..."

He glanced around for a moment.

"Hey, Han Seong-min, move! Make a seat, make a seat!"

"You're kicking out your own customers? I can move, but can't you at least set something up inside? I don't want to go out."

"Then sit in the kitchen! Everyone else get out here too... hey, Do-yoon! Sit your girlfriend down right here! We'll clear the table right now!"

"I'm sorry to trouble-"

"No trouble at all, just hurry! She must be tired from coming all the way out here, let her rest!"

"Thank you."

His seniors had clearly realized he was looking for a place to sit, and in an instant they had cleared out an entire table. Do-yoon gave a quick bow.

"......"

Still not fully out of the lingering daze from that kiss, Elli let herself be guided quietly by her boyfriend and sat down. The snacks and bottles on the table were swept away just as fast.

"You're not drinking, right? I'll bring you pajeon and something to drink. Wait just a little. The ingredients are almost all gone anyway so we'll wrap up soon."

"......"

-nod

"Thanks for understanding. I love you."

She watched her boyfriend's back disappear into the kitchen with those words.

She watched him get caught immediately by his seniors the moment he stepped inside, bombarded with questions.

She listened to the noisy chatter all around her about what had just happened.

And Elli raised a finger and carefully traced it over her lips.

A kiss was nothing new between them, just an ordinary part of daily life by now. But she wasn't particularly fond of that kind of skinship in front of other people.

The way people nearby were murmuring and sneaking glances at her was something she was used to as well, even if she'd never quite grown to like it.

Still.

"...Seriously annoying."

She had to admit it.

"Annoyingly cute."

Because it was Do-yoon who had done it, it just felt good. Public skinship or whatever else, she was simply happy.

The sight of her boyfriend stealing a little kiss and then acting like nothing had happened at all made her want to lose her mind over how cute he was.

And on top of that.

The girls who had been wagging their tails at him were now pouting and shooting sideways glances at her, which honestly felt nothing short of wonderful.

"Hmph. Can't be helped, I suppose. It's not like girls like that are ever going to stop... I'll let it go just this once."

She had only been jealous in her own head to begin with and hadn't truly been that angry, and yet she carried herself with the air of someone graciously forgiving her boyfriend.

Buoyed by the kiss, in thoroughly high spirits, Elli straightened her posture.

As if to say, look all you want.

At her, Lee Do-yoon's girlfriend.

* * *

"There's no way she looks like that in person."

"No wonder Do-yoon never lets his eyes wander."

"I don't know what happened but she looked absolutely furious, and then one kiss and it all melts away... hah. Is that a Do-yoon thing?"

The murmurs of envious admiration from seniors and classmates kept flowing in without end.

Still... or rather, thanks to Elli, the pojangmacha tent bar was even more packed than before, and people were even crowding outside or leaning in from the neighboring booths to get a look.

Though since everyone seemed busy staring at Elli and wasn't really placing orders, things had actually gotten a little less hectic.

"Our junior is something else, seriously. Kissing her right there... I thought I was watching a drama."

"Haah... I'm so jealous. Should I try setting up a blind date again?"

"You want to find a boyfriend who kisses you in front of everyone at the festival too?"

"Please. If I did that it'd be embarrassing enough to make me take a leave of absence."

"Still, he's genuinely cool though. Is it the height? His figure is insane too. And that hair color especially, it's so unusual. Can that come out naturally? That's not dyed, right?"

"Nope. Not dyed. Thank you for saying so."

Like that, listening to comments from male and female seniors and classmates alike, I also quietly snuck a glance at Elli.

I had kissed her without thinking because jealous Elli was just too cute, but Elli didn't really like kissing in front of other people.

Fortunately, though.

"......"

Seeing her sitting with her back straight, a slight curve at the corner of her lips, scrolling through her phone.

"Looks like she's in a good mood."

I could tell the jealousy and everything else had completely cleared up.

If she had pouted over it, that would have been cute in its own way, but her being in a good mood was nothing to complain about either.

The original plan had been to hang the placard around my neck for some advertising and wander around with Elli once she showed up, but the atmosphere right now made that impossible.

Taking Elli out there would practically start a riot. And besides, business wasn't so bad that we needed more advertising in the first place.

From what I'd heard earlier, apparently sales were on track to be record-breaking.

It was getting late anyway, a performance was starting soon, and the ingredients were nearly gone, so I figured I'd just work hard until we closed and then head home.

That was what I was thinking as I started to make my way back out to take orders, when a message from Elli came in.

-buzz...

[ Elli: don't even think about sleeping tonight ]

[ Elli: because I'm not letting you ]

Hmm.

I was going to need to finish up and get home as fast as possible.

"She's so pretty, there are no other words for it... honestly... a model, they said, and it shows..."

Just like that line of admiration drifting over from nearby, my beautiful platinum-blonde girlfriend was telling me not to think about sleeping tonight.

I had absolutely no choice but to hurry.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried