WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 77: 30. Preparing to Move In Together

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It was a bold declaration from their daughter, openly saying she wanted to live with her boyfriend and asking for their support. But the family wasn't surprised.

Uncle Mark looked a little glum, and my mom was watching me with this faintly wistful look in her eyes.

Still, neither of them showed any sign of actually objecting.

Even though Elli and I had been glued to each other since we were small, our parents knew better than anyone how much we'd held back all this time for their sake.

"Sure~ Living together before marriage is important, after all~"

Auntie Ye-rin, who had always been our most passionate supporter, said it with a bright smile, and Dad nodded along.

"We've already talked about helping you out, so go ahead. There is one condition, though."

"A condition?"

"You'll look for a place near here. Do-yoon did well on his CSAT, so he'll probably end up at a school nearby."

"Nearby... that's fine."

It wasn't much of a condition.

Elli didn't seem to mind either, though her eyes drifted briefly toward my mom.

Probably wondering if Mom was the one who'd pushed hardest for that condition. Not that there was any resentment in the look.

Honestly, it wasn't our money paying for the place anyway, and if I was going to a school close by, commuting from home would save the most. That was the practical answer.

But knowing all that and still offering to help us made it something we could only accept with gratitude.

"It's not that I'm against the move itself... I'm just worried about Do-yoon..."

"Does this mean I'll come home and Elli won't be there anymore... how sad..."

Mom and Uncle Mark kept voicing their reluctance like they weren't quite ready to let go, but in that moment, our moving out together was decided.

And then.

"Let's go look right now. Once grades come out there'll be more kids hunting for places and the good ones will disappear fast."

"Wonder if there's anything decent left."

"You've got to do the legwork~ Walk around enough and you'll find something."

At Dad's word, everyone stood up.

They must have sensed this was coming today, because the parents had already gotten themselves more or less ready to head out.

So Elli and I followed after them with pounding hearts and barely concealed excitement written all over our faces.

Both families headed straight to the nearest real estate office.

"Ah... right. Yes. What sort of unit are you looking for...?"

"A two-room near the Lean Apartments over there."

"It has to be clean. I am not letting our Do-yoon live somewhere filthy with bugs crawling around."

"Elli loves cooking, so it'd be nice if the kitchen was decent~"

"Good security too, please, Do-hyeon."

The agent looked a little flustered dealing with this crowd pouring in all at once, especially with Uncle Mark in the mix, looking every bit the foreigner he was, rattling off conditions alongside Elli's family.

On top of that, parents coming along to find an apartment for a couple moving in together was apparently not something the agent saw every day.

Still, we got to look at a range of places.

"This first one is..."

"No good. The alley's too narrow and it's too deep in, not safe."

"You're right, your daughter's safety would be a concern. Shall we move to the next one."

Since the condition from the start was places close to our apartment building, we didn't even need a car. Because of that, the agent seemed to have just pulled a full list of available two-rooms in the area and was prepared to show us every single one.

"This one is..."

"Oh my, look at that mold on the wall. They've tried to hide it with wallpaper!"

"Absolutely not."

"If our son catches something doing his homework in a place like this~"

"Hold on. Why is he your son? He's my son."

"Oh come on~ I have a share too~ I've been looking after Do-yoon for years and feeding him all this time~"

"No you don't! All shares of our Do-yoon belong to me, one hundred percent!"

"I have a share. You said you'd give me one."

"You get ten percent!"

"...Hmph. I have ninety percent..."

"What? What did you just say?"

"Nothing."

"Can I have five percent~"

"...Let's move on to the next one."

Finding the right place wasn't easy, though.

Spots that looked decent enough to me didn't always satisfy all the parents.

"This one is actually a great unit. The deposit is reasonable and the building's condition is good..."

"The water pressure is pretty disappointing. And no window in the bathroom either."

"The rooms are small too. The two of them will be sharing."

"Shall we move on."

The parents were strict enough that I started quietly worrying whether we were being too demanding. The agent kept things professional throughout, but I could feel it.

Then again.

This was going to be home for at least a year or two, so maybe being this thorough was exactly right. There'd be plenty of expenses living there, so finding somewhere we were genuinely happy with was better for everyone.

"That last one wasn't great to me either. Kitchen was too cramped and the setup wasn't right."

Elli was going around with an eagle eye too, inspecting everything sharply.

I walked behind the adults, watching my girlfriend with warmth in my chest.

-smooch!

I stole a kiss on her cheek and whispered quietly.

"Hope we find somewhere nice. Somewhere the two of us can have a good time."

"...Yeah."

Elli's face went pink at that, and she gave a short, quiet answer. I took her hand and held it tight as we walked.

Everyone was working hard to find us a good place, and it felt a little wrong to say this, but honestly.

Even a tiny basement studio would make me happy as long as Elli was next to me.

Not that I actually wanted that, because Elli would hate it, but that was how I felt on the inside.

We spent all of Saturday looking at places, and unfortunately nothing quite hit the mark.

But.

The next day, Sunday.

We had been out again since lunch, going from place to place, when.

"Hmm... this one's nice, isn't it? Ji-eun, what do you think?"

"I agree. This is the best one we've seen so far."

"I love this place~"

"Not bad. It's got to be at least this good if it's where Elli's going to be living."

We finally found a newly built two-room villa that everyone loved.

Wood flooring, white walls, clean and pretty just to look at, and the room sizes were reasonable. The kitchen even had an oven. All around, the setup was good.

It was a little far from the station, but honestly that wasn't a dealbreaker. What really stood out was that it sat right on a main road and had solid security.

The downsides were that, being a new build, there was no telling when some defect might pop up out of nowhere. The deposit for the half-jeonse was on the steep side. And it was a bit of a distance from both the station and our apartment. Those were the parents' main reservations.

Even so.

"Well... no obvious problems with what we can see... and they'll fix things if something comes up..."

"The deposit is cheap considering how low the monthly rent is~ And the fact that both families are splitting it fifty-fifty is such a lucky thing, isn't it?"

"That's true."

"Do-hyeon, what do you think?"

"The unit itself looks fine. But these days a lot of places look fine on the surface but have problems underneath... let's check the registration documents."

"Ha ha. I probably shouldn't be saying this myself, but compared to other listings in the area, the mortgage-to-value ratio is very reasonable. It's genuinely a great find. We just got word that the remaining unit was available to show, so you've got good priority here too."

"Hmm."

"I'll contact the office, so if you'd like to check the registration documents, sir, I can continue the walkthrough with the others here."

"Good. Please do that. Honey, I'll head to the office with Mark, so take your time looking around with the kids."

"Call me right away if something's wrong!"

"I will."

Dad and Uncle headed back to the real estate office to look into the details, and Elli and I walked around the apartment with our moms.

"Good sunlight coming through the windows... if the paperwork checks out, this could be the one."

"It's fully furnished too so there won't be much to bring~ And look at this, a tower-type washer-dryer combo! I've been going back and forth about whether to get one~"

"Want to wait and see how they find it and then save up for one? We could just buy the dryer separately and share it."

"Oh that's such a good idea~"

"And an oven... yeah. I'm going to have to try making bread."

Everyone was already charmed enough that it was nothing but praise.

The agent was standing to one side smiling, probably sensing we were leaning heavily toward this one.

Then we moved back into the bedroom, and the conversation shifted to shopping for the place as if it were already decided.

"If you buy too much now you'll have trouble moving later, so just get the basics and let them figure out the rest as they need it."

"That's true... Elli?"

"What?"

"Are you going to have friends over a lot?"

"Sometimes. I'm not going to have people around all the time."

"That's what I figured. Then we can just get enough dishes for the two of them~"

I had a hard time joining that conversation. My clothes and everything I needed had always been handled by Mom or Elli, so I had no real idea what a household actually required.

I just stood there with a contented little smile, looking around at the clean, lovely place we might actually get to live in.

I was quietly doing that on my own when Auntie Ye-rin turned to me with a sly smile.

"Hey, Do-yoon~ Do you know what the most important thing we still need to buy is?"

"Huh? The most important thing... um... hmm... I'm not sure? It's fully furnished so I figured we could basically just walk in..."

"Hehe, that won't do~ I know you're excited about your first place, but you can't be like that when you're living with your girlfriend~ Right, Elli?"

"I wasn't expecting anything."

"That's fine. That's just right for my son. No matter what the fox and her mother say, this is exactly right for my boy."

All three women were teasing me and I still couldn't figure it out.

The most important thing to buy, given that we were moving in together with my girlfriend.

Maybe a con... no, that couldn't be it.

What, then?

-buzz buzz!

"Huh? It's my husband. Hello?"

I was floating a question mark above my head with no answer in sight when Mom picked up Dad's call.

"Really? Looks good? Okay... right. Got it. See you in a bit."

-click

"Is it okay?"

"Seems like it. Not a hundred percent sure yet, wants to look into it a little more."

"That's good, better to be careful."

From the sound of it, we were about halfway to decided. No contract today, but it felt like the top candidate.

"Ahh~ Still, it's great we found something so fast~ Hey, Ji-eun."

Auntie Ye-rin had clearly been walking around since lunch and was stiff, because she stretched her arms above her head as she spoke to Mom.

"Whether we go with this place or not, that's enough for today. Want to go look at that?"

"Sure."

"That?"

"Auntie mentioned it earlier~ The most important thing."

What was the most important thing, exactly.

I still had no idea, and Elli nudged me in the side with her elbow and told me.

"...A bed."

"A bed?"

"We're going to go look at beds."

"......Oh."

Oh.

That's important, yeah.

Right.

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