WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 93: 35. The Plan for a Car to Drive Around with Elli -2

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We talked a little more the next day.

Between my account and Elli's, our combined balance came to roughly two million won.

We'd talked about cutting back as much as possible on the allowance and living expenses we each received, but we decided to leave that money out of the car fund for now. The plan was to keep letting it build up in the household account and only pull from it later if we came up short.

Given that, my monthly income from illustration commissions, assuming one or two jobs a month, ran anywhere from thirty thousand on the low end to a hundred thousand on the high end.

Technically I could take on more work and earn more, but Elli was against it.

"You're going to be busy with university once classes start. And you have to make time for dates with me. Stick to just that. If it gets to be too much, you don't have to do it at all."

"Still, leaving everything to you feels wrong..."

"Then make it up to me by doing better."

"Want me to try harder at night? I'll do whatever you want."

"...Don't even think about sleeping tonight."

My girlfriend actually worrying about me like that almost brought me to tears. And putting in effort for Elli at night was its own kind of reward for me anyway.

So that was my monthly income. What Elli brought in as an exclusive fitting model for the shopping mall was a good deal more.

Her new contract from this year paid a day rate of five hundred thousand won for a five-to-six-hour shoot.

No lingerie, no swimwear, no shoots with other men, and no formal modeling training either, just things she'd picked up from watching others during her part-time modeling work.

Even with all those self-imposed conditions attached, she was pulling in a pretty impressive rate.

Part of it was the exclusive contract premium, and part of it was just how popular Elli was whenever she modeled.

Apparently, if her physical specs were this perfect and she were available for absolutely every type of shoot, including lingerie and everything else, she could be making a great deal more.

170 centimeters tall.

Slender but with real curves, and a small face.

A perfect platinum-blonde Northern European beauty.

And yet completely Korean on the inside, so communication was flawless.

The sales numbers on clothes she'd worn back in high school were proven track records.

Even I could see why the shop would want to keep her.

The thing was, shopping mall fitting shoots didn't run on a fixed schedule, so how much she earned varied month to month.

Even so, a minimum of three hundred thousand a month was realistic. Just last month she'd gone in only three times after renewing her contract and still cleared a hundred and fifty thousand.

Honestly, our whole plan for buying a used car was only possible because of what Elli earned. Without that, even a used compact car would've had to be a year-long project at minimum.

"The owner asked if you could come in this time too."

"Really? Want to do a shoot together after all this time? We could go on a date on the way back."

"Sure. Oh, and she also asked if swimwear shoots would be okay..."

"Didn't we agree no lingerie and no swimwear?"

"It's a rash guard. Looking at it, it's basically just like a tracksuit."

"Oh, that kind is fine then."

On top of everything, the owner sometimes asked me to come in for couple shoots too, and on those days our combined income got a little bump. Nowhere near what Elli made, but the hourly rate she offered was still pretty decent.

"We need to factor in car insurance too, and there might be other expenses that come up in between... Let's give ourselves a comfortable four months. Buy it when summer hits and drive around for fun."

"We could take the car to the beach."

"Exactly."

"Then should we go to Busan this summer? See the ocean, eat good food together."

"That works. On the way back we could stop by some other places too."

"Other places?"

"Somewhere out in the provinces. We've always stuck to the Seoul area. The farthest we ever went was Neverland, wasn't it."

"Oh, true. The only time I've gone farther than that was when we went to Gwangju. That day, the day you gave me the ring."

"Let's stop there too. Family Land and that cafe we went to."

"Oh, I love that! That place was open twenty-four hours, right? Should we pull an all-nighter there? Like we did back then."

"If we're pulling an all-nighter, who's driving?"

"We could stay up all night, sleep a bit at a motel nearby in the morning, then head out."

"What kind of plan is that."

"You don't want to?"

"...Keep your schedule clear. If we want to do all of that, we'll need at least three or four days."

"I'll leave a whole week free. No plans at all."

We couldn't buy the car right away, but I was confident I'd enjoy even the wait.

When you're planning a trip somewhere, the actual time there is obviously fun, but what's even more fun is moments exactly like this one, mapping everything out together.

How to save up the money, what kinds of dates to go on while saving, where to go once we actually had the car.

Elli curled into my arms like a cat, and as we talked through everything we'd be doing together, I was already having a good time.

* * *

Two days later was Elli's shopping mall shoot day.

Back in high school, my mom or Auntie Ye-rin would always come with her, but now it was just the two of us heading to the location.

"Do-yoon, it's been a while! Thanks for coming."

"I should be thanking you for having me."

"Listen to you, all smooth-talking, when you never came even when I asked. I'd love to have you as an exclusive like Elli, but I suppose I can't say that now that you've gotten into Seoyeon University."

The owner always treated me with the warmth she'd give a nephew. After greeting her, we got straight into the shoot.

"For the pose, something like this... bring your leg a bit further forward and lift your chin just slightly. Got it?"

"Yes! Like this?"

"Perfect. Hold right there. And Alicia... I can tell you adore your boyfriend, but don't press quite so close. Understood?"

"...Yes."

"Alright, just like that... ahhh, let's take five! Her face is going red again, are we actually going to finish this shoot today?"

"Uhh... I'm sorry..."

"Do-yoon. I'm rethinking trying to recruit you as an exclusive. Elli's even more like this because you two live together, isn't she?"

"Elli likes me too much... there's really nothing I can do about it."

"Hey...!"

There were a few small slip-ups mid-shoot where Elli couldn't hide how much she was hung up on me, but thankfully everyone found it endearing.

Elli could come across as a little sharp on the outside, and her way of speaking wasn't exactly soft, but she never showed an attitude toward anyone other than me. So nobody ended up thinking badly of her.

After about three hours of shooting with that little bit of chaos mixed in, I waited for Elli to finish her remaining scenes and chatted with the owner.

"You two don't have to worry about date money, do you? Elli brings home plenty."

"Well, yeah. Though lately all our dates have been at home..."

"Oh, you're at that stage, aren't you. You two not fighting at all?"

"Elli always takes good care of me, so there's nothing to fight about."

"Honestly... if my husband were even half as good as you, coming home would feel like heaven..."

She seemed to have a bit of free time just then, and as we kept chatting about nothing in particular, the topic of cars came up naturally.

My head had been so occupied with that lately.

"You're buying a car? To drive to university?"

"More like just to take Elli out places."

"Right, right. You can't go out with your girlfriend without a car, you just can't. What are you thinking of getting?"

"Right now we're leaning toward a Ray. Compact cars are cheaper and come with a lot of perks."

"A Ray? Really? Hold on... oh my."

"What is it?"

"Well... you haven't bought a car yet, right?"

"Not yet. We still don't have quite enough money."

"Then maybe I can set something up? I happen to know someone who's selling one."

"Really?"

I blinked at that. I'd only brought it up as casual conversation, so the idea that she might suddenly broker a used car sale for us hadn't crossed my mind at all.

The owner seemed equally surprised by where things had gone, because she widened her eyes, checked her phone, and kept talking.

"My niece is getting married and moving to Australia, and the car she's been driving to work is a Ray. She said she'd sell it since she has no one to give it to."

"Ah."

"She's had it about a year, and she's the tidy type, so I'd imagine she kept the car in good shape. Want me to look into it for you?"

"The thing is, we're grateful for the offer, but we don't have the money to buy right now..."

"Oh, right, you said you were saving up yourselves. I'll still ask her. If she can settle it quickly she might give you a good price. Trying to sell something secondhand online is a hassle and a headache."

"Then please do. Thank you so much."

"What are you thanking me for? If you two buy it, my niece will be happy too."

Something about it felt surreal. We'd been thinking of this as a long-term plan stretched over several months, and here was an opportunity landing out of nowhere like this.

Of course we'd need to check all the details about the car, but if the condition turned out to be worse than expected, the owner would be the first to say so and back out.

I trusted her that much.

And if we did decide to go through with it, we'd have Dad and Uncle Mark come along to look it over properly.

One way or another, the unexpected turn left my head full of thoughts right up until Elli finished her shoot.

* * *

The owner had something come up and left before Elli was done, so I filled Elli in on what she'd said on our way home.

Elli looked tempted, but uncertain.

"Going through the owner is definitely better than buying from a stranger, but..."

"Right?"

"I was planning to think it over more while we saved. Like your mom said."

"That's fair too."

"But if she gives us a good price..."

"We'd be grateful, obviously."

"Do you want to die? What do you actually want to do?"

"Hmm... if the car's in really good shape and she sells it cheap, I think it's a great opportunity. I get what Mom meant about thinking it over, but I feel like if we have a car, we're definitely going to get a lot of use out of it."

"Hmm..."

"Honestly, part of it is just that I want to buy it quickly. I want to drive around with you."

"I mean..."

Honestly, neither of us was in any state to make a cold-headed decision.

We'd already been talking about wanting a car every single day, completely fixated on it, and now someone was offering to sell us a perfectly good one at a discount right away.

The temptation was hard to resist.

"For now, should we just wait for the owner to get back to us? We don't know how it'll go yet anyway."

"Yeah. Let's do that."

We couldn't reach a conclusion on our own that day, so we left it there for now.

And while we were at it.

"Elli. About my birthday present from last year that got put off."

"Did you decide?"

"Yeah. Can you do the puppy one for me?"

"The puppy... so you want to put a collar on me?"

"That, and I want to see the tail too. Will you do it?"

"Fine. I said I'd do anything, didn't I. Cute style or sexy style?"

"Sexy."

"Pervert. I'll look it up and order it, so just wait."

"Thank you!"

We finally talked about the thing that had been sitting on the back burner forever. I'd gone back and forth a lot between the four options, the reverse bunny suit, the maid outfit, the cat, and the puppy, and in the end I went with the puppy.

I'd eventually ask for the others someday too, and Elli would definitely say yes. So I just picked the one I wanted to see first.

I wanted to see puppy Elli being all cute and fawning over me.

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