WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 72: 27. After the Winter at Seventeen, Eighteen Passes Like a Dream in the Night -2

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A nineteen-year-old third-year in South Korea.

Declared in spring that she was giving up on the CSAT.

It wouldn't have been strange at all if her parents had smacked her on the back and sent her crying to her room, but the family just listened, calm as anything.

Everyone had already seen it coming to some degree.

Elli had never really been interested in studying.

Once she started high school, she'd actually pushed herself harder than you'd expect, driven by the idea of going to the same university as me. But...

Her grades had crept up a little compared to freshman year, though honestly the progress had been sluggish.

I, on the other hand, had kept climbing steadily since freshman year, and by now most decent universities were within reach.

Unless I deliberately aimed lower to secure a scholarship, going to the same school as Elli simply wasn't going to happen. And lowering my sights just to be at the same university as her was the last thing Elli herself wanted, more than anyone.

"Even if I keep studying the way I am, getting into a Seoul school is touch-and-go, and I don't want to study any harder than this."

Everyone nodded at the blunt honesty.

Her grades hadn't improved much, but Elli had done her best in her own way all this time.

It felt more like she was tagging along because So-yeon and I were studying, but she still stayed for evening self-study sessions often enough, and when she did focus she watched online lectures hard.

Uncle and Auntie would have cheered her on even if she'd given up sooner, but knowing the effort she'd put in made them watch her decision with that much more warmth.

"So what do you want to do, Elli?"

Not a reproach. Just Auntie asking what kind of future her beloved daughter had in mind.

"Modeling."

Elli answered lightly.

It was something she and I had already talked about. Not that she was dead set on spending her whole life as a model, but that she wanted to work as something close to an exclusive model for the shopping mall she was already with.

"Oh, are you going to take it seriously?"

"No. Just exclusive to the mall I'm at now."

"The owner is going to be thrilled~"

"We talked about it a little. I asked if the same shooting conditions as now would be okay."

"What did she say?"

"She said it was fine and she'd really appreciate it."

No couple shoots with any man other than me.

Shorts were fine, but nothing too revealing, like underwear or swimwear.

Those were exactly the two conditions Elli had laid out.

The owner said of course she'd work around all of it, and she even took us out for a good meal.

Then she quietly pulled me aside.

"You'll be busy once you start university, but could you come along once every month or two? I'll make sure the pay is good."

I said I would. I'd shot with Elli here and there often enough that I'd gotten used to it, it was actually fun, and the pay wasn't bad.

That was about all we settled with the owner for now, and we said we'd get back to her after running everything by our parents one more time.

She'd been good to us and taken care of us in a lot of ways, but signing something like a contract on our own still felt a little nerve-racking.

So that's why Elli brought it up today, and the parents' reaction was warm.

"That sounds fine. The conditions are what I like best. Good job, Elli. Definitely no swimwear or underwear."

"Exactly, exactly."

Dad, who was helplessly devoted to Elli, and Uncle, who was helplessly devoted to me, were both pleased that the conditions she'd held to until now would carry forward.

"Everything Elli models sells well, doesn't it? I can see why the owner wants to lock her down."

"Seriously though~ Every time we bring the kids over she takes us out for something delicious~ We'd always kept the contracts short before."

Mom and Auntie weren't much different.

Any concern about giving up on the CSAT seemed to have quietly left the room.

"And."

Right then Elli mentioned one more thing.

"I want to enroll in a class."

At that, everyone's eyes snapped back to Elli.

"What kind of class? Not a modeling class, I'm guessing."

Mom couldn't hold back her curiosity and jumped in ahead of Auntie Ye-rin.

"Um..."

"Um?"

"......"

Elli opened her mouth to answer, then seemed to suddenly get embarrassed and started silently mouthing nothing.

Her pale cheeks flushed red, and she shot a look my way as if it were somehow my fault.

"She wants to take cooking classes. While I'm studying."

I answered for her, in a voice full of delight.

At the same moment Elli's face went even redder and her eyes sharpened another notch, but to me she was nothing but pure cuteness.

"......"

"......"

"......"

"......"

Cooking classes were apparently the one thing no one had seen coming, because our parents stared at us with these odd little looks.

They all would have figured out why she wanted cooking classes. It was plain to see, even though she'd never said it out loud to me, that Elli wanted to make tastier food for me, that it was something like bridal prep.

A brief silence settled, and then Auntie Ye-rin spoke for all the parents with a bright smile.

"I'm completely for it~ Fighting, Elli!"

Well. Our relationship had the parents' seal of approval, so.

* * *

In the end, Elli's decision to skip the CSAT, the exclusive modeling contract, and the cooking classes all sailed through without a hitch.

What made the difference was that Elli hadn't said any of it on a whim. She had reasons behind every single thing she brought up.

On the cooking classes, not just Auntie Ye-rin but even my mom nodded along with something like.

"Well... if she's going to properly take care of our Do-yoon, that much is a given."

That said it all, really.

The closer we got to twenty, the more Mom was treating Elli like a daughter-in-law.

When we got back to my room.

-Pinch!

"Ow, Elli."

"So what."

My girlfriend, face full of embarrassment, had her fingers dug into my side.

I said it hurt, playing it up a little, though it actually did hurt, but for Elli's sake I could get pinched a thousand times and just smile through it.

My girlfriend had grown more mature and more beautiful since she was seventeen.

Her hair had shifted into a fully wavy, goddess-style, and her figure, which I'd thought couldn't possibly get any better, had developed just a little more.

Her face had shed some of its youthful softness compared to two years ago, and the beauty she carried now was so perfect that a single passing glance was enough to fall for her on the spot.

With features that had grown even more defined, something naturally mature and alluring seeped from the line of her eyes, the bridge of her nose, the fullness of her lips.

Sometimes, when Elli looked at me with half-lidded eyes, I felt like my heart might actually stop.

My childhood friend, my girlfriend, almost certainly the person I'd spend the rest of my life with, being this beautiful was obviously a good thing. But.

There were minor side effects.

Which is to say.

"...Mm."

"...Are you turning this into a kiss again... Ngh... Mm..."

Even when she pinched me viciously, even when she started to speak in a cold, warning tone.

I couldn't hold back the desire that made me want to kiss my girlfriend.

I pulled her waist toward me, turned her face, which was trying to look away, back in my direction, and started pressing kisses one after another to her cheek and lips.

"Mmph... Mm... Hmm..."

Elli stared me down and kissed me back.

With lips that had grown a little fuller than before, a little softer than before.

We pressed them together and shared warm breath, and tongues.

-Thud!

We tumbled onto the bed, until I was hovering over her.

We kissed, deep and slow.

After a little while I pulled back and looked down at her. My beautiful girlfriend in a sprawl of platinum-blonde hair, every bit of that shine still undiminished.

Just looking at her made warmth well up in my chest. I smiled and apologized.

"Sorry."

"Hah... You... I told you not to just jump me like some animal in heat. Want to die?"

"If you were even a little less pretty I could hold back, but you're too pretty. What am I supposed to do."

"Hmph. Easy to say... when you can't go any further than this."

"Sorry. But I really wanted to just now. Imagining you learning to cook, then when we're living together someday, you making something delicious and waiting for me... yeah. Absolutely couldn't help it."

"That too. The cooking class thing, I was going to say it myself. Why did you say it?"

"What does it matter. Your business is my business and my business is yours. Right?"

"...You're so smug, it's genuinely irritating."

"I'm happy because you're cute."

Elli was still a little stubborn, a little prickly, still had her moments of doing whatever she liked, but she was definitely gentler than before.

Same with me. I was still helpless against Elli, still said yes to everything she wanted, still a complete yes-man where she was concerned. But.

I'd gotten more relaxed and a little more teasing in how I handled her.

Maybe it was because I'd gotten a bit taller and bigger, so even Elli, who was quite tall for a girl, fit neatly into my arms now.

Or maybe it was because no matter what I did.

"...Hmph."

In the end she always smiled like this, a pretty little smile, looking happy.

She really was endlessly cute.

My girlfriend, I mean.

"You're still doing evening self-study next week?"

"That's the plan. There's a mock exam coming up."

"I'm going to talk to the owner about the contract and look into classes. No more evening study for me."

"Got it."

When we were little, I thought the more you loved someone the more time you'd spend together.

But I gradually learned that wasn't how it worked. The older you got, the more time apart was unavoidable.

What I also learned was that when you love each other this much, a little distance doesn't change anything. If anything, the longing only grows sweeter.

Of course, being apart for a long stretch was absolutely out of the question, but half a day? That was fine.

Half a day apart and I already missed Elli, and she missed me too. At seventeen even that much had been unbearable, so we'd always been together. But we'd both grown a little more patient since then.

"Joo Hye-ryeong studies with you too, right?"

"Yeah. She's really good at Korean. I teach her and So-yeon English, and they teach me Korean and math. We've been doing that lately."

"I should take everyone out after the mock exam."

"You?"

"Me. They're helping with my stuff. Least I can do."

"True. Please do. We've been getting a lot of help from Hye-ryeong-ssi and So-yeon-ssi since last year."

"Invite Seong Min-jae too if he's free."

"I've been supplying him with drawings as a thank-you, but... it would still be fun to eat together."

Since last year, as So-yeon and Joo Hye-ryeong had slowly gotten friendlier, a pretty curious little dynamic had formed.

According to what So-yeon told me, Joo Hye-ryeong always put her best into her appearance so she could look good for me.

But that was all she did. She never tried to force Elli and me apart or wedge herself between us.

She was working on it in a slow, gradual way, or so I was told. Then, apparently around the summer of last year, So-yeon mentioned it seemed like Joo Hye-ryeong had half given up.

From about that point Elli seemed to acknowledge the effort and the feelings behind it, and the three of them started spending more time together.

I heard they still bicker a lot when they meet without me, but apparently it's the kind of bickering you only do with someone you're actually close to.

Anyway.

I kept kissing Elli as she lay looking up at me, and we talked about this and that.

"Elli. Do you remember?"

"What."

"My birthday gift this year. The one we pushed to next year, where you'd wear it for me."

"Pervert. Animal."

She shot back immediately, which meant she definitely remembered.

But right after, Elli's eyes curved into a sultry arc, and with a smile full of something teasing she wound her arms around my neck and pulled me close.

Her cheek pressed against mine, and her voice, soft and low, tickled my ear.

"Decide before the weekend after the CSAT. What you want."

"Okay. I'll think about it seriously."

"If you bomb the CSAT I'm not doing it. So study hard."

"Obviously. It's my reward for doing well."

"And know this too."

"What?"

Her voice, low and warm.

Soft and a little breathless.

"The first time won't be that."

"The first... ah."

"Cosplay comes after. Understood?"

"Yes. Understood."

"Good. Now finish what you started."

"What?"

"I will actually kill you."

"Kidding. Come here."

"Mm... Mm... Mmph..."

It went past my ears and set my whole chest ablaze.

Less than a year left.

The day when I'd kiss her like this and also get to touch everything soft and warm beneath me.

The day when Elli would have all of me, and I'd have all of her.

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