Campus Log - Chapter 90

***

The scorching sun was so intense it felt like the top of his head might get burned.

The amusement park on a Friday afternoon was absolute chaos. The line to enter stretched endlessly, the air was muggy, babies waiting in line were crying at the tops of their lungs, and the whole place was a mess.

Eunseok quietly looked down at Sang-hee, who was standing beside him in line. The fine brown strands of hair illuminated by the sunlight looked especially delicate, prompting him to raise a hand. The shadow cast by his palm fell over Sang-hee’s round head.

“What are you doing?”

Startled by the sudden shade, Sang-hee looked up at him over the rim of her glasses. Whenever she looked up at him like this, the slightly upturned corners of her eyes became especially noticeable.

“So you don’t get heatstroke.”

“Then your hand will get sunburned.”

“Better my hand than the top of your head.”

Sang-hee stared at him with her lips slightly parted. She looked as though she still had something to say, but the line began moving, so she turned her attention forward.

Even as they started walking, Eunseok didn’t lower his hand. He could clearly see Sang-hee’s eyes darting around, seemingly conscious of the palm trailing after her like a makeshift parasol. The sight was so cute that the corners of his lips twitched upward.

The reason they had come to see pandas in the middle of summer—on his birthday, the one day that came only once a year—was entirely because of Hong Sang-hee’s preferences.

It had all been planned around Sang-hee’s preferences.

To be honest, Eunseok liked roller coasters more than pandas. But their relationship was still too ambiguous for the two of them to spend his birthday together without a reason, so pandas had become the excuse.

Of course, there were plenty of advantages.

Most of all, he liked being able to watch Sang-hee’s normally guarded expression soften. He could also stick close to her under the pretext of the crowds. He enjoyed standing face-to-face during the long waits, chatting and joking around, and hearing the excitement in Sang-hee’s voice whenever she got carried away.

“When we go to the gift shop later, pick out whatever you want.”

As Sang-hee entered the panda enclosure area, she turned to Eunseok and said quietly,

“I’ll buy it for you as a birthday present.”

“Okay. Then I should just sweep everything into my shopping basket.”

Eunseok didn’t even bother with a token refusal.

Perhaps finding him ridiculous, Sang-hee let out a small laugh. Seeing her smile, even like that, was enough to satisfy him.

After moving into the indoor viewing area, Eunseok paid more attention to the people around Sang-hee than to the pandas themselves. His head kept turning nonstop as he stayed alert—making sure excited children didn’t shove her, that giant camera lenses weren’t blocking her view, and that stroller or wagon wheels didn’t run over her feet.

“What are you doing?”

Sang-hee, who had been taking pictures of the father panda with her phone, noticed how restless he was and tugged on his arm.

“Come over here and actually watch.”

With a surprisingly firm grip, Sang-hee pulled Eunseok all the way to the front. Then she spread his hand open and placed it on top of the railing.

The meaning was clear: stop fidgeting around behind her and hold onto this safely instead.

If anyone was in danger, it should have been her. She was shorter and smaller than he was. Yet here she was, looking after a grown man who was twenty-six centimeters taller than her. It was both amusing and endearing.

Eunseok couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.

“Want to stand here?”

He gestured toward the space between his arms resting on the railing. There was more than enough room to fit one Hong Sang-hee comfortably within them.

“That kind of thing is seriously obnoxious.”

But Sang-hee immediately frowned.

“Do you know how many times couples like that have shoved me aside whenever I come here? This is a sacred place where a panda family lives, not their living room. It’s incredibly inconsiderate to the other visitors.”

After unleashing a stream of complaints, Sang-hee lifted her phone and resumed filming the pandas. As she recorded the father panda eating a carrot, the crease between her brows smoothed out again and a faint smile settled on her lips.

“I’ve still got a long way to go before I can compete with them.”

A quiet lament escaped Eunseok.

“You don’t even smile at me like that.”