My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend is Too Pretty - Chapter 60

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Ryuu

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend is Too Pretty

Chapter 60: Future Daughter-in-law, Elli (2)

The moment we stepped outside, Elli and I headed straight for a photo studio.

It had been ages since I’d last visited one. Apart from the occasional student-ID snapshot, there’d never been a reason to come.

We asked the photographer for passport photos, took turns sitting in front of the camera, and the whole thing was over in no time.

“How long until they’re ready?”

“Come back in about two hours and you can pick them up anytime.”

“Perfect, we’ll grab them on the way home. Thanks in advance.”

Since it was the weekend, we couldn’t apply for our passports right away anyway, so we planned to pick the photos up later and headed leisurely to a room-café.

“Which room-café should we go to?”

“The one at the very back. It’s got a computer inside.”

“Oh, right. That one.”

For two people wanting peace and privacy, a room-café was the ultimate date spot, and we’d tried almost every one near our homes and school.

Luckily, the room-café we’d chosen still had a booth available. We paid and slipped into a small room, settling in at the computer against one wall.

“Hug me from behind.”

“Okay.”

Whenever we were alone, my adorable girlfriend always wanted my arms around her, so I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind.

With my head resting lightly on her platinum-blond hair, just enough not to weigh on her shoulders, I watched the monitor while Elli browsed the web.

“Elli, how about Stockholm? You’ve been there before, right?”

Back then she rarely talked about Sweden, being apart from me always put her in a bad mood.

“There’s plenty to see because it’s a tourist city.”

“Like famous spots? Wow, the streets look pretty.”

“Mm-hm. Pretty, right? It’s nice enough that just wandering around is fun, so if we have free time there I’ll probably just walk and explore.”

“That sounds great.”

“If we can, I’d like to try kayaking…”

“Kayaking? You mean those little boats?”

“Yeah.”

With a serious look, Elli kept searching for Stockholm attractions, probably hunting for places we could enjoy together.

“Gamla Stan… we can just wander around there when we get to it…”

My girlfriend, who seemed more excited about the trip than I was, looked unbelievably lovely today.

Mr. Mark had wanted to take Elli back to Sweden every year, but she’d disliked it so much that he’d either gone alone or skipped the trip altogether.

Yet now, just because she’d be going with me, her attitude had completely changed.

“Pfft…”

I couldn’t help a quiet chuckle at the thought.

“What?”

“Nothing… Elli.”

“Why?”

“Are you really that happy about going to Sweden with me?”

“…”

I’d only meant to gloss over it, but a mischievous urge to tease her made me whisper in her ear.

Elli didn’t answer. She just kept clicking the mouse without so much as glancing at me, ignoring me completely.

But her reddening ears made it obvious she was embarrassed at having been hit where it hurt.

Thanks to her snow-white skin, little things like that stood out, and she looked impossibly cute.

“Hmm? Elli, you used to hate the idea of Sweden, but now you’re enthusiastically looking up sights because you’re going with me.”

“…Be quiet.”

“My girlfriend’s adorable.”

“I told you to shut up.”

“…”

“…Too cute.”

“Ha. Hey, Lee Do-yoon.”

Elli swung her head back as if angry, but her face was red like a ripe persimmon—hardly an expression of rage.

“Sorry.”

Still teasing, I tossed out a light apology, and Elli glared before muttering,

“…It arrives tomorrow.”

“What does?”

She bit her lip and spoke in an ominously chilly voice. I cocked my head, not sure what she meant.

Her next words hit like a bolt from the blue.

“The bunny-girl outfit arrives tomorrow. But I’ll just send it back.”

“G-gasp…”

Send the bunny-girl outfit back?

I’d been counting down the days to my birthday for that very reason!

My beautiful platinum-blonde, fair-skinned, long-legged girlfriend.

Wearing black bunny ears, a cute bow-tie choker, white cuffs, a surely sexy bunny-girl suit and fishnet stockings.

And I wouldn’t get to see that perfect mix of platinum and black?

Impossible. If that happened, I’d want to die.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Elli, I’m really sorry.”

“Hmph. Whatever.”

“It’s my fault. Please forgive me.”

“No.”

I doubted she’d actually return it, but the tiny chance she might made my heart race.

I tightened my arms around her waist, apologizing desperately while she kept her gaze fixed on the monitor, refusing to look at me.

“Forgive me, please? I won’t tease you like that again.”

“I said drop it.”

“Come on. Just look this way for a second. I want to kiss you.”

“…Hmph.”

“You won’t? Then I’ll kiss only your ear—mwah…”

“…”

Mwah, mwah…

I showered kisses on her ear, and though Elli flinched each time, she stayed stubbornly still.

I even considered forcibly pulling her back into a lip-lock, but—

“Elli…!”

“Ugh…!”

When I tugged, she braced against the table and held firm. I couldn’t pull with full strength, worried I might hurt her, and her resistance held.

Left with my arms around my slender girlfriend’s body, I faltered and then—

—pfft.

A quiet laugh slipped out. I felt a flicker of embarrassment, but this was just another playful skirmish with Elli.

She wasn’t truly angry—just a bit sulky because I’d teased her.

So I decided to attack head-on.

“Elli.”

“…”

“I love you.”

“…”

“I love you, Elli. More than anything in the world.”

“…Hmph.”

“I’m sorry I teased you. I just couldn’t help it, you’re so cute. You know I love you, right?”

“…”

“I love you-u-u.”

Endlessly repeating “I love you,” my lips brushed her ear with each confession, my breath tickling her every time. Elli kept twitching—just like when we kissed—until finally,

“…Hey.”

She turned back to face me at last, cheeks still red, eyes half-lidded.

Sulking yet delighted by my confession, her mixed expression was so cute it almost made me laugh again.

“Yeah.”

“…What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“You say you love me, so why aren’t you kissing me? Are you messing with me? Want to die?”

“Oh.”

The moment she said that, I planted kisses on her cheek and then her lips.

“Mwah… smooch…”

As always.

Elli angled herself until she was fully facing me, lips pressed to mine from inside my arms.

“Nngh…”

“…If you tease me again I’ll bite harder…”

She gave my lip a gentle warning nibble and glare, then…

“Smack… smooch… mmwah…”

…kept me in a long, lingering kiss that lasted nearly twenty minutes without a break.

Honestly.

Same as always.

We’d come to the room-café to search for Swedish travel spots, but in reality we barely did any of that.

We fooled around, kissed, and when Elli pressed her forehead to mine and threatened, “Try teasing me again if you want to die,” I begged forgiveness.

“If the house is empty one weekend starting next week?”

“That’s when we’ll do it.”

“Got it. I’ll wait.”

We settled on when Elli would debut her bunny-girl cosplay—never when our parents were around, but not anywhere outside the house either.

Then we left the room-café.

We swung by the photo studio to pick up the passport pictures, strolled arm in arm around the neighborhood, and wrapped up our date a little early.

“Dinner? We haven’t eaten yet, actually.”

—Then why not bring Elli over? We can all go out with Mr. Mark.

“Really? I’ll be right there.”

Dad had invited us to dine out with Elli’s family for the first time in a while.

So we headed home, met my parents waiting outside, and entered a fancy Korean set-menu restaurant that looked expensive at a glance.

“Thanks, Do-yoon. I’ll enjoy the meal.”

“Thank you for the food~”

“We’ll be leaning on Mr. Mark a lot this winter, so eat up, everyone.”

While Elli and I had been out, the adults had clearly talked through some of the Sweden trip.

Since we’d rely heavily on Mr. Mark’s help there, Dad seemed to be treating dinner as a pre-emptive thank-you.

Naturally, the table conversation revolved around travel plans.

“Tourist spots are worth seeing once, but honestly you can feel Sweden’s beauty just by walking the streets.”

“Right, since I don’t go that often myself, every time I do it feels like a movie set and I love it.”

“Even the photos Ye-in showed me looked lovely… I’m curious. Honey, are the plane tickets okay?”

“I checked, there are enough seats left for the four of us. Elli’s flying with us, right?”

“I haven’t booked hers yet in case plans changed, so please take care of that.”

Mr. Mark seemed convinced that if Dad’s schedule fell through and our family didn’t go, Elli wouldn’t either.

So Elli would be on the same flight as us, which both she and I thought was perfect.

“Still, the trip itself is rough. You have a connection and it takes over ten hours, right?”

Just like Mom said, a flight of more than ten hours felt daunting, especially imagining that long in-air stretch without seeing Elli, since phones wouldn’t work up there.

“At least we’ll all be on the same flight. Thank goodness, right?”

“Think of how you’ll kill time on board. It’s incredibly boring.”

“Yeah, fifteen hours… that’s seriously long.”

It was hard to imagine sitting on a plane that long.

As long as Elli was beside me, even with our parents there and no heavy PDA allowed, I’d still enjoy it. Just as we were happy simply holding hands when evening study sessions ended.

Anyway, dinner finished quickly, but we kept chatting about the trip before heading home.

“I’ll treat you all in Sweden. Thanks for dinner.”

“It was delicious, thank you~”

Mr. Mark and Mrs. Ye-in left first, and for some reason Elli followed us into our house.

“Go wait in your room. I’ll stop by in a bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“I need to thank your parents properly.”

“Oh, okay.”

Elli shooed me into my room and followed Mom and Dad into their bedroom.

A moment later…

“You—you! I said I haven’t given permission yet! How dare you already… Don’t call me that! Absolutely not!”

Mom’s voice boomed through the house. Peeking past my door, I saw Elli emerge with her usual dignified face and slightly flushed cheeks.