WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 125: 50. Marry Me

──────

The living room was vast, unmistakably part of a suite.

Mood lamps had been placed all around, on the table at the center of the room, on the sofa, on the furniture here and there. The soft, spreading light set a deeply atmospheric mood.

That alone was enough to catch me off guard for a moment, but only for a moment.

Because what actually seized my attention, there in the middle of all of it, was one girl.

"How long are you going to stand there?"

She was watching me, frozen and dazed in the doorway, and she curved the corner of her mouth up and gestured to the seat across from her.

But I couldn't move.

I forgot to breathe. I just stood there looking at my girlfriend.

"......"

I'd spent plenty of time imagining what kind of cosplay Elli might pull off. I'd gone through all sorts of guesses.

But I hadn't seen this coming. Not even close.

No way.

"The princess is speaking to you and you're ignoring her? How rude."

No way she would actually become a princess. Especially lately, when everything had leaned toward the sexy and seductive.

She was perfect from head to toe.

A tiara rested on that neatly arranged platinum hair.

Silver accessories hung from her ears and along her throat.

And below that, a dress that looked like it had stepped straight out of a Disney film, yet nothing like Snow White's garish riot of colors. Instead it was a pale blue gown, the skirt full and lush, the overall impression elegant and composed. Like Cinderella.

"Wow..."

It was off-shoulder, which left her arms, shoulders, and collarbone completely bare, and somehow that kept it from reading as childish at all.

If anything it bordered on sexy, yet for some reason that thought didn't come naturally. It was something else entirely.

What was the word for it.

Noble, maybe?

She'd worn dresses for cosplay before, once or twice. But back then neither of us had taken it very seriously, and the quality hadn't been anything like this.

I'd thought she looked great and pretty, sure, but I hadn't felt this kind of reverence.

Yeah.

This was it. The girl standing in front of me.

She was a real princess.

Platinum hair and ivory skin. Beautiful blue eyes. Cherry-red lips. A figure that was slender and full in equal measure, like a Barbie doll brought to life.

If a thousand people saw her, every single one of them would nod without a moment's hesitation. This was a princess that could not be more perfect.

The kind of princess I'd loved watching in anime since I was little, the kind I still drew in my sketchbook even now.

My ideal princess, made real.

-thud

In a daze, I drifted toward the chair across from her and sank down into it, as if pulled by a spell. Not because I'd registered what Elli had said a moment ago, but simply because I wanted to see her from closer up.

Noticing me finally sitting, Elli smiled and rested her chin on her hand.

She raised her eyes slightly to look at me, and the moment that gaze landed on me, I felt my heart stop.

The chest that had been pounding furiously before I walked into the hotel room had gone perfectly still. It had simply stopped working.

"Well?"

"......"

"I'm asking what you think of me."

"......"

"Do you want to die? I've been asking and you've been ignoring me."

"...You're pretty."

"Hmph. Finally."

"Sorry. You're just... so pretty... you're so beautiful... the words won't... yeah. They won't come out..."

The halting, stumbling praise made the princess's face light up with a bright smile.

-thump

The heart that had stopped lurched back into motion. Heat rushed to my face. I was probably completely red.

"You've been singing the praises of princesses your whole life. Does this measure up?"

"It's the best. You're just... you are exactly what I always pictured. A hundred percent... no, two hundred percent perfect."

Even as I said it, a thought struck me. That it wasn't right for someone like me to sit at the same table across from a princess this noble.

The moment that feeling hit, I slid down from the chair without thinking.

I knelt on the floor.

The lingering, strange shyness I'd felt made it hard to hold her gaze directly anyway.

"What are you... hmm...?"

Elli started to question my sudden movement, then something seemed to occur to her, because the corner of her mouth lifted.

-scrape

She turned her chair slightly toward me, propped her right elbow on the armrest, and rested her cheek against the back of her hand.

Looking down at me from there.

That haughty, self-assured manner. That face. That gaze, which announced plainly and without apology that she was the one in command here. It sent a little shiver through me.

Holding that gaze, I moved toward her on my knees, carefully and politely.

The initial shock had faded a little by then, and I had mostly collected myself.

It was just that.

'The quality is genuinely insane... so that's why everyone helped her put this together.'

I was acting this way out of pure reverence for Elli, who had prepared this incredible princess cosplay for me.

With a small dose of roleplay mixed in, too.

When I finally reached directly below her, Elli seemed to feel the mood as well, because she extended her left hand toward me.

-glint

On the ring finger of her slender hand, the silver couple ring I had given her caught the light.

Naturally I cradled her hand in both of mine.

Guided by instinct alone.

Slowly, I pressed my lips not to the back of her hand, but to the ring.

-smooch...

I kissed her the way people do in films and anime, and something I had dreamed of since childhood felt, in that moment, like it had actually come true. An emotion I couldn't quite name swelled up inside me, full to bursting.

That made the corners of my mouth twitch, which I let open into a genuine smile as I lifted my head.

And I looked up at the princess, who was also fighting a twitch at the corner of her own mouth, doing her best to hold back a grin.

At my girlfriend.

At my childhood friend.

"You're so much prettier and more beautiful than any princess I've ever seen. The most... I mean it. Thank you, Elli. I love you."

I said my thanks. I said my love.

"......"

For an instant, the corner of her mouth, which had been trembling on the edge of a smile, flushed rosy pink.

-pat

She pulled her hand away.

-grab

Then she took my face in both hands, leaned down toward me, and came closer and closer.

Eyes burning with something possessive fixed on me, rushing to cover my face entirely, and then.

-smooch

Those red lips pressed down over mine.

The princess had honored me with a kiss.

"haah... mwah..."

Unable to hold back whatever she was feeling, she took me apart with hot breath and tongue.

That kind of burning kiss.

* * *

A reaction that came from the heart, and a brief kiss dressed up as a little bit of roleplay.

Only after that did we settle back across from each other at the table, calm enough to talk.

"Is that what you were going out for all this time?"

"Yeah. I spent a lot of time with my friends planning how to do it, and looking into which hotels had availability, and getting help from Mina-unni to track down the dress."

"It came together fast, though, considering. I'd have thought a dress like that would take forever to find."

"It already existed. It was half a decorative piece and not actually for sale, but they only had to adjust the sizing so it came together quickly. Even so, apparently it was a lot of work. They improved the quality a bit too."

Of course, my eyes still hadn't left my girlfriend as she talked, sipping wine with quiet grace.

The quality really was something else. The beauty too.

Every princess in the world owed it to themselves to take notes from Elli right now. Not that anyone could ever be as pretty or as beautiful as Elli.

I had looked at this face every single day for fifteen years, yet today it felt faintly unfamiliar in a way that made my heart float even higher.

"The quality is incredible. I was floored the second I saw you. I thought you'd stepped out of an anime."

"Just that?"

"I mean, obviously you're way prettier than anything in an anime, it's just the feeling."

"Hmph. Obviously. Here, you should drink too."

"Oh, right."

-clink

We clinked glasses and I took a sip of wine.

Honestly I wasn't much of a drinker, and the wine didn't taste particularly better than the things I usually had. But it fit the moment perfectly.

It added to the romantic atmosphere, was the thing. The wine glass, the color of the wine that matched Elli's lips.

The princess in front of me who was drinking it.

"......"

"......"

Neither of us spoke right after. We just exchanged glances for a moment, and even that quiet little flutter was pleasant.

The strange, sweet tension felt like it might reach a lethal dose, so I said something a little teasing to break it.

"By the way, Elli. Didn't we agree not to do surprises? You said we'd always do things together instead of hiding them."

"......"

Elli faltered and quietly looked away.

But almost immediately she turned back and raised her voice like she had nothing to answer for.

"Lee Do-yoon."

"Yeah."

"I was disappearing for three hours every day out of nowhere. Did you seriously not know I was preparing something?"

"That, well... I had a rough idea, yeah."

"Then it wasn't a surprise. Am I right or wrong?"

"Mmm..."

"If you already knew and were waiting, that's basically the same as being in on it together. Isn't it?"

She said it boldly, as if she hadn't done a thing wrong.

It was clearly a stretch of logic, but.

"You're right. It wasn't a surprise. I might as well have helped plan it."

"Hmph. Should have said so from the start. Like last time too, if you keep cornering me about that kind of thing it won't be fun for either of us."

"Sorry. That was my fault. Can you forgive me?"

"Be more careful going forward."

The princess had spoken. Naturally, she was right.

She crossed her arms and snapped her head to the side, and it was so entirely the self-centered, willful thing a princess would do that it made her all the more endearing for it.

"So you're not going out to meet anyone now, right?"

"Why. Do you want me to leave?"

"No, I'm happy about it. Like I said before, I get lonely when you're not around."

"Being needy... I don't have anywhere to go anymore, so don't worry."

"Good. Being on my own kept making me think about the army. It's not that far off now."

"......"

Elli went quiet.

She seemed to feel the weight of the topic, the one I'd brought up without thinking.

Maybe it was the wine, or the mood getting to both of us.

I realized too late that I'd said the wrong thing, and I didn't want to ruin this happy occasion, so I moved to comfort her quickly, but.

Before I could, Elli looked at me with clear, steady eyes and asked.

"Do you remember?"

"Hmm? Remember what?"

"When you gave me these couple rings."

"Of course I remember. I confessed to you when I put them on and we had our first kiss. And we had our first overnight stay."

"You said it back then, right? That you were mine, and I was yours."

"Yeah. I did."

"That's still true, right? You still feel the same way."

"Not just now. That's how it'll always be. There hasn't been a single moment when it wasn't."

"...Yeah. Me too."

Elli smiled. The kind of comfortable smile that comes from confirming something that goes without saying, and she continued.

"You remember how you promised to propose to me more romantically than when you confessed?"

"Of course. I've already been thinking about it. What I'd have to do to make it the most romantic thing in the world. And after seeing what you put together tonight, I'll have to work even harder."

"When are you planning to do it, though? Five years from now? Six?"

"After we've got a bit of a foundation? Getting properly set up for a wedding and real independence is going to take some time."

"...Okay."

With that, Elli fell quiet for a moment. She took a sip of wine.

There was something in it, the way she paused, like she was calming herself down, or wetting her throat before saying something. Watching her do it.

Something clicked in me. Instinct.

I knew what Elli was about to say.

Why she had gone to Bini-noona of all people, who had nothing to do with this kind of occasion.

Why the living room had been decorated this romantically, this carefully, if it was only meant to show off the princess cosplay.

All of it swirled together in my head and arrived at a single answer.

And right then, Elli opened her mouth.

"I don't want that."

"What?"

"Waiting that long."

"For marriage?"

"The wedding can happen later. Having kids a little later is fine too."

"......"

The words didn't quite make sense to me. She didn't want to marry late, but the wedding and children could wait. I couldn't follow the distinction.

So I stayed quiet and listened.

"Like you said, whether it was before or now or later, you're mine and I'm yours. But I want it to be more certain than that."

-scrape

Elli pushed her chair back and stood up. She stepped forward and stood in front of me.

And she looked at me with eyes full of love and affection, with just a little nervousness mixed in, and said.

"I don't want it to be something only the two of us know. I want the whole world to know. That Lee Do-yoon is mine. That I'm Lee Do-yoon's."

Three years ago.

I had bought couple rings without telling Elli, and on a Ferris wheel I confessed to her and slipped the ring onto her finger.

And now, three years later.

This time.

-slide

The platinum princess extended her hand to me.

Not reaching out for love, but offering it, the way someone grants a gift.

From somewhere she had hidden it, a small square case sat in her palm.

"Say no and I'll kill you. I won't hear any objections."

Slender fingers gripped the case and lifted the lid.

A soft click, and a delicate silver ring set with a jewel came into view.

"Lee Do-yoon."

The princess said my name, and with an expression that dared me to even think about refusing, she added one final line.

"Marry me."

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