Chapter 99
Is a kiss supposed to feel this good?
The woman in the mirror fidgeted with her swollen lips for a long time even after washing up. The plump, swollen flesh felt so unfamiliar that my own face reflected in the mirror looked strange as well.
Then, trying to imitate the fresh smile of Ryu Eun-seok, whom I’d been seeing every day lately, I lifted the corners of my mouth. But my lips only tilted askew, as if displeased. Just like my bee-stung lips, my smiling face was equally awkward.
I reluctantly tore my gaze away from the mirror and finished packing the things I would take to the dormitory. I used to feel sad every semester when I had to leave home. But now, I want to leave for school as soon as possible.
My parents mustn’t notice this filial impiety.
That’s why I also refused Ryu Eun-seok’s suggestion that we go to the dormitory together in his car. From the moment I mentioned a friend in Cheonan, it was bound to be obvious to my mom. A daughter who had no friends since entering adolescence—if I suddenly said a boy was coming to pick me up, wouldn’t that be too obvious?
Besides, if I went to see Ryu Eun-seok even while cutting short my time parting with my mom, my closest friend, I felt like she would be too hurt. Lately, I had been putting Ryu Eun-seok before my mom, and my heart felt heavy about it.
“Did you pack everything?”
“Yeah.”
As we moved my belongings for the next three months into my dad’s car one by one, my mom closely observed my lips. Is this how a wanted fugitive feels standing before a sudden police checkpoint? My heart trembled, and my lashes fluttered rapidly.
Is the swelling noticeable? After my first kiss last week, I’d been rubbing lips with Ryu Eun-seok in his car at every chance. So for the past few days, the swelling on my lips hadn’t gone down.
“You’ve been wearing makeup lately, haven’t you?”
My mom’s gaze didn’t focus on the thickness of my lips but on the tint applied over them.
“I bought you nice stuff, but you never used it. What wind blew this way?”
“No, I just didn’t want it to go to waste. They say cosmetics have an expiration date.”
I knew the trick to lying. As long as I didn’t overdo it and act overly guilty, I usually got away with it.
“Yeah, put it on properly. You should make an effort to look nice when you’re young. When you get older, you’ll find it so bothersome. You look so pretty with makeup on.”
I tried to maintain a sullen expression, but at my mom’s compliment that I looked pretty, my cheeks flushed with heat. Would anyone else think so? The man who naturally occupied my mind made my temperature rise.
“When you go out, you should wear lenses sometimes. Our daughter’s eyes are so pretty, it’s a shame to hide them all the time.”
Because of my severe astigmatism, I had gotten hard lenses separately at great expense. But I couldn’t get used to the foreign body sensation, so I tried them a few times and then buried them in a corner.
In the past, my mom’s urging to wear lenses had sounded like nagging, but strangely, now my ears perked up. Should I try them? Even if it was too much while studying, it might be nice to wear them when going out, as she said.
Above all, I was most curious about Ryu Eun-seok’s reaction.
Before every kiss, Ryu Eun-seok always took off my glasses, and each time, he would stare intently at my bare face. At first, I wondered what was so fascinating that he looked at me like that, but later I became convinced it wasn’t a bad thing.
Because after seeing my bare eyes with nothing covering them, he would eagerly suck my lips, gently touch my lashes with his fingertips, and in between kisses, he would stop and look into my eyes from so close that our noses almost touched.
“Are you eating dinner with us starting today?”
Sitting in the back seat, I was blankly staring out the window, so I didn’t even notice the question coming from the front.
“Sang-hee.”
“…Huh?”
Lost in thought replaying my kiss with Ryu Eun-seok, I missed my dad’s question. I was startled to see my parents looking at me with puzzled faces.
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