WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 87: 33. Sweet Cohabitation with My Platinum-Blonde Girlfriend -5

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"Honestly, Lee Do-yoon... you only ever go for stuff like this..."

Elli kept grumbling at my blatant selection, but even as she complained she started carefully inspecting the underwear I'd picked. She checked the material, asked a nearby employee about sizing without a hint of embarrassment, and I was somehow the one feeling flustered.

It was just that scandalous a see-through piece.

She held it up against the back of her hand to see how much it would reveal, then fixed me with a half-lidded look and said, "Just say it straight. Are we getting this one?"

"That, well, um... how about we put it in the candidate pile and look at a few more things first?"

"What kind of things. The see-through kind?"

"Not necessarily just that..."

"Animal."

We both, and probably Elli too, had already burned that first piece firmly into our minds as we moved on to browse the rest.

Honestly, I'd figured the first one would be so shocking and stimulating that nothing else would catch my eye. But that wasn't the case at all.

Everything looked like it would suit Elli perfectly, and there were far too many pieces I wanted to see her wear in front of me.

So the me who had been sneaking glances at the staff and other customers stopped caring at some point, stuck right beside Elli, and started voicing my opinions with full enthusiasm.

"What about that white one over there with the lace and the little ribbon? I think it'd be cute."

"Anything too frilly is uncomfortable. No."

"Ah, fair enough... What about that one, then? The red one, really simple."

"Do you want to see me in it?"

"I do. Oh, that one too. That black one over there..."

"This won't do. You, pick two more besides the first one you chose. At this rate you'll be trying to put me in everything in the store."

"Just two? That's way too few..."

"Two. I said two."

"...Yes."

It did feel like too few, but I folded under Elli's firm tone.

For a shop that looked fairly high-end, the prices weren't as steep as I'd expected, but they still ran from about fifty thousand to a hundred thousand won apiece.

Blowing that much money on underwear that was ninety-nine percent about looking sexy and zero percent about practicality did feel a little much.

So I put on my sharpest eagle eyes and combed through every corner of the store with Elli, more serious than I'd ever been about anything.

It took nearly thirty minutes, but we finally settled on two more.

A see-through slip, and a cute but sexy white lingerie set.

The slip was outright indecent. The straps running from shoulder down to chest, the hemline short enough to show off the underwear beneath, the see-through fabric that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. All of it.

The white lingerie we picked next was a simpler choice. Elli's skin was naturally pale with a rosy tint, and I thought it would look genuinely beautiful on her.

There were plenty of other pieces pulling at me, but I had zero regrets about my selections.

"Done picking?"

"Yep. Three altogether."

"Then wait here while I go try them on inside."

I slipped in a hopeful little question. "Any chance you'll take a selfie?"

Elli lifted the corner of her mouth and shook her head.

"No. Not taking one."

She said it in a teasing tone, then whispered close to my ear in a low, suggestive voice.

"You'll see for yourself later. Me wearing them."

"...Yeah."

I watched her disappear into the fitting room in a daze.

Only then did it click, a little too late, that she'd dressed casually today on purpose so she could change in and out of things easily.

* * *

We paid for the underwear and stepped out of the store.

Fortunately they had all the right sizes for Elli, and the fitting room results had apparently pleased her enough, because she left with a satisfied smile.

"Pervert. You know this one is completely see-through, right?"

"Is it?"

"Everything. Every single thing."

"......"

"Want to see?"

"Are you wearing it tonight?"

"No. One is for Valentine's Day the day after tomorrow. One is for before the orientation trip. The last one I'll wear when I get back."

"Wow..."

"Problem?"

"No, but... which one are you wearing when you get back?"

"The pink see-through."

"Can I cry?"

"Go home and cry. It's embarrassing here."

She was using the underwear as leverage to keep me on edge. The cruelest part was how effective it was. The thought of wanting the orientation trip to be over as fast as possible so I could just get home had already started creeping into my head.

I supposed I should count myself lucky that I'd at least get to see one the day after tomorrow.

I buried that mix of longing and anticipation somewhere in my chest and carried on with the date, shopping bag in one hand and fingers interlaced with Elli's in the other.

We'd come all the way out here, so we might as well enjoy it.

"It's been so long since we went this far out. Don't you think?"

"It has. We've been stuck at home every single day."

We didn't have any particular plans. We just wandered at our own pace.

Then.

"Want to split one of those fish-bread things? The square ones over there."

"Sure. What filling do you want? Custard cream? Nutella?"

"Nutella."

We stopped by a street stall we spotted along the way, and as we were buying the fish-bread the owner looked up at Elli and exclaimed, "Oh my, is she your girlfriend? She's gorgeous~ The boyfriend is so handsome too. Did you come from Europe?"

"Ah, no, my girlfriend is Korean..."

"Here, a little extra on the house! Enjoy!"

"Tack. (Thank you.)"

"Thank you!"

Elli played along as a full-blooded Swede and we ended up scoring some freebies, the owner repeating how pretty, how pretty she was without stopping. She was being genuinely generous, and correcting every little thing would have felt rude, so we just said thank you and left it at that.

"Ah."

"Aah~"

-munch munch

As we walked, Elli fed me pieces of fish-bread with her own hand since both of mine were full. We were taking turns biting into it when a little smear of Nutella ended up on the corner of Elli's mouth.

"......"

She had to have felt the chocolate on her lips, but she made no move to wipe it off. She just stood there looking at me.

I understood immediately. Without a word I guided her into the shadow of a parked car tucked along a side alley.

And then.

"lick... smack..."

I pressed my lips to hers and licked the Nutella from the corner of her mouth. While I was at it I snuck in a little kiss too.

Elli answered in kind.

"smooch... lick..."

She kissed me and at the same time slipped her tongue out to trace along my lips, running it slowly over them as if tasting something. Then she pulled back and gave me a languid smile.

"Delicious."

"Nutella is pretty good, right?"

"What are you talking about. I said you taste good, Lee Do-yoon."

"Oh."

The unexpected bit of sexual teasing hit me like a small jolt to the head. Maybe browsing lingerie together had gotten Elli a little worked up too.

Still, I recovered quickly enough and returned it in kind.

"Your lips taste amazing too."

"Hmph. Just now figuring that out? Come on, let's go."

"Where to?"

"Nowhere in particular. Just walk around and date."

"Okay."

After that we enjoyed a perfectly ordinary date, the kind we used to have all the time. We'd been wandering around together since we were little kids, holding hands and going everywhere, so window shopping, ducking into a cafe, stopping at the Gangnam photo-booth to take pictures felt completely natural.

The same things we'd always done.

Still just as fun.

A few hours later, after a date that ran longer than either of us expected, we got home before evening.

The moment we were inside I stared at the shopping bag in my hands with an expression full of longing, but.

"I said not today. Tonight I'm wearing the one Mina-unni gave me as a gift."

"Cruel."

Elli took the shopping bag and hid it somewhere in the room.

After that we showered together. The shower ran long, naturally. It was impossible not to get distracted when we were washing each other like that.

When we finally got out, I dried her off with a towel and she dried me off, and then.

"You put it on me."

"Alright. Can you lift your foot?"

At her request I knelt in front of her and slipped the lingerie on myself, guiding each foot in one at a time.

"......"

"......"

Looking up at her, looking down at me. Our gazes, hazy with something neither of us said out loud, met somewhere in the air between us.

In the end neither of us could hold back, and right there...

Thirty minutes later.

After blow-drying each other's hair, we changed into comfortable sweats.

Normally we'd have been lounging around in dolphin shorts, leggings, a tank top, thin clothes so comfortable they veered into distracting. But we were expecting guests soon.

-Ding dong!

"Oh, they're here?"

The intercom rang right on cue. Elli and I went to the front door together and opened it to find.

"Hey, you two doing okay~?"

"These little punks... I keep saying come visit more often, and you're nowhere to be seen."

Bini-noona, who still looked like she was probably tipsy around three hundred days of the year, and Jeong-woo hyung, out on his final pre-discharge leave. Both of them standing there with their arms loaded with drinks and snacks.

* * *

"To think the day would come when I'd be drinking with these two... time really does fly."

"It does~ Here, Do-yoon, one more~"

"Thanks, noona. Hyung, how many days did you say you have this leave?"

"Fifteen. Used up everything I had left. A few days after leave ends and I'm discharged. But why isn't Alicia drinking?"

"Don't like it. Tastes bad."

"Don't like it, sure. She's just embarrassed. The whole base already heard how she gets clingy with Lee Do-yoon the second she has a drink."

"God, that's so annoying! Who even told you that?! Was it my mom?!"

"It was your boyfriend."

"Lee Do-yoon... you..."

"That's slander. I just said you were cute when you're drunk, I..."

"Want to die?! Why would you tell anyone that!"

We spread out in the living room with the drinks Jeong-woo hyung and Bini-noona had brought and just talked.

We'd been close with these two for so long that drinking with them felt every bit as easy as drinking with close friends or family. The mild buzz lifted everyone's mood even higher.

Jeong-woo hyung had enlisted in the second half of the year before last, so we hadn't been able to see him much, but we'd texted back and forth often enough that it didn't really feel like a long absence.

"How's living on your own treating you?"

"Amazing. Both the independence and living with Elli."

"I heard Elli handles all the housework? Lucky you~ I want an Elli at my place~"

"That's exactly why it's so good. Well, there's also what you two said in the group chat... it does look fun. I think once I'm discharged I'll start looking for a studio as soon as I land a job."

"Jeong-woo, what are you saying~ We agreed to move in together~ In a cozy two-bedroom place just like this. Right?"

"I don't want to be cleaning up beer cans every day, so you live on your own. The more I think about it the more that's a no."

"Aang~ Then I'll quit drink... no, I'll cut back a little~"

"Cut it to half of what it is now and I'll think about it."

"Seriously, noona. You really should drink less."

"You're all so mean~"

There was a decent age gap between us and the two of them, but they'd always treated us like actual younger siblings and gone out of their way to meet us where we were.

Even drinking together for the first time felt completely natural. The light buzz made everything a little livelier.

Elli had been bickering with Jeong-woo hyung from the very start, but even she had a smile playing at the corner of her mouth, clearly enjoying herself.

We talked and laughed about all sorts of things, and at some point Jeong-woo hyung threw in some practical advice: get your license first.

"You've done everything there is to do around this neighborhood, let's be honest. Get your license and go on drives on your days off. Borrow your parents' car."

"License... right, we'd actually planned to start lessons around the end of January..."

There had briefly been a plan for Elli and me to take driving lessons together around late January.

Then we'd gotten completely wrapped up in staying home together and pushed it entirely to the back burner.

"It doesn't take long, just do it. Now's the time. Once the semester starts you'll be too busy, and honestly too lazy to bother."

Jeong-woo hyung had a point. Even now I kept putting it off because being home with Elli was too good, and once classes started it felt like it would get pushed back indefinitely.

"Should we just go this weekend, then? Since we're talking about it."

"Sure. You can schedule around your orientation trip so you're not missing days."

Elli must have figured that getting licenses sooner rather than later made sense too, because she nodded along with what I said.

A license would definitely come in handy, especially for when Elli and I wanted to drive somewhere far together. A quick trip to the beach, a visit to some town outside the city.

Taking the train like before wasn't bad, but there was something a little romantic about having a car.

Right at that moment, Bini-noona turned to Elli with a sly grin and leaned in close to whisper in her ear.

"Elli, you know what's great about driving somewhere far away with just the two of you~?"

"What?"

It wasn't exactly a quiet whisper, Jeong-woo hyung and I could hear every word just fine.

I was curious where she was going with it anyway. Jeong-woo hyung seemed to be thinking the same thing, sitting there quietly listening.

And then Bini-noona said.

"You know~ you park somewhere out of the way... and then you do it there... the thrill is absolutely insane..."

"Oh, I was wondering what she was going to say! Why are you teaching her things like that!"

Jeong-woo hyung was furious. Elli and I both had our ears perked up.

Honestly, I found it a little intriguing.

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