Just Because I Have Narrow Eyes Doesn’t Make Me a Villain!

TN: Thank James Baily for the chapter.

“Where do you want to start? Shall we look around from the 1st floor?”

“…Yes.”

This is tough. I feel like my energy has already been drained.

It’s only been ten minutes since we started the date, but one of Siwoo’s mischievous pranks exhausted me.

He was definitely a cool and always kind person before we started dating. But these days, he sometimes plays these mischievous pranks.

It feels like I’m always the one being teased, and even when I try to endure it, I end up turning bright red.

Ugh, too much. Is my reaction that amusing?

“But it’s a bit unexpected.”

“Unexpected?”

“I didn’t know you liked fish.”

“…?”

Siwoo asked me with a surprised tone. I like fish?

If I have to choose between liking or disliking, I do like seafood, but that’s in terms of food.

This is my first time coming to a place like an aquarium, and I never had a chance to see live fish, so I didn’t think I particularly liked them.

But he says I like them. I don’t think I ever mentioned that.

“Uh, no? Since you said you wanted to go to the aquarium…”

“Ah…”

So that’s what it was. Since I chose an aquarium as our first date spot, he must have thought I liked fish.

“I don’t like them that much.”

“Really? Then why…”

“I thought it would be a good experience. As you know, I lack common sense.”

More precisely, it was Amelia’s suggestion. Since we’re going on a date anyway, she suggested gaining some trivial knowledge.

Amelia must have seen me solving common sense questions from Dorothy before and thought of it.

Actually, at first I thought it wasn’t a bad idea. But thinking about it again, I wondered if this was okay.

It’s our first date, so shouldn’t we go somewhere more meaningful?

Worried that Siwoo might not like it, I kept glancing at him.

“I see.”

“…You’re not mad?”

“Me? Why?”

“But I chose the location for our first date for personal reasons…”

“Don’t think weird things again.”

Tap. Siwoo lightly flicked my forehead.

It didn’t hurt, but I was startled by the sudden action and looked at Siwoo.

“I would have said yes no matter where you wanted to go.”

“…Why?”

“Because you’re there.”

It’s always like this. Sometimes, I feel down because it seems like I’m always just receiving from Siwoo.

I don’t do anything for him, but only receive, so I sometimes feel a bit sorry.

Every time that happens, Siwoo keeps saying embarrassing things to me.

…Unfair. If you say that, all the worries I had become trivial.

It makes the thoughts of whether this is okay seem like nothing.

“Now that I think about it, this is your first time coming to a place like this, right Arte?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll choose. Is that okay? …Here.”

Siwoo naturally extended his hand to me. That gesture seemed to say everything would be alright as long as I followed Siwoo.

It seemed to say he’d help me overcome any future hardships together.

I happily took Siwoo’s hand.

***

“Phew, that was fun…”

“Right? It was more amazing than I thought.”

Ah, I’m tired. Is it because I ran around a lot without knowing shame and stood for a long time?

After going around the aquarium once, I sat on a chair for customers to rest for a bit, and exhaustion hit me.

…Ugh, my neck hurts. While rubbing my neck with my hand, I noticed Siwoo smiling at me.

“…What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“…”

Suspicious. I get teased a lot whenever I see Siwoo smiling smugly like this.

What is he going to say this time? When I stared at him doubtfully, as expected, Siwoo spoke to me with a smile.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you so excited. Did you like it that much? Enough to hop around?”

“Y-You said you wouldn’t talk about that!”

“Me? When?”

Grinning, grinning. The smile on Siwoo’s lips showed no sign of fading.

“I was really surprised. I can’t believe the Arte Iris was looking at some fish, finding it amazing, and hopping around like a little kid…”

“…”

“Okay, okay.”

Siwoo was right. I did get too excited.

I admired how amazing it was and running around like the little kids nearby.

I blurted out an excuse to Siwoo.

“B-But… It was really amazing.”

I thought an aquarium would just have some interesting fish or a few pretty fish on display.

But this place far exceeded my imagination.

First, the size of the tanks. I don’t know what they did, but the size of the aquarium was unimaginably huge.

It must be to exhibit massive marine life. It didn’t look that big from the outside, so I guessed they must have used superhuman abilities to do something.

Second, the creatures in those tanks. It’s not like there weren’t interesting or ornamental fish like I thought.

There were plenty of those too. But there were so many interesting creatures that I couldn’t even compare to what I had imagined.

“Like an eel that puffs up like a balloon, a fish that breathes fire from its mouth, a fish that swims around folded in half, and, and…!”

“Calm down, calm down.”

Thinking about it again, it’s amazing. How does a fish breathe fire from its mouth?

And in water too.

“In the past, fish from a dungeon that opened up in the ocean flowed in, and since then, there have been a lot of interesting fish.”

“Ah…”

“The fish you saw are those kinds. They’re not classified as monsters, but they have monster blood.”

There it is again. Common sense I didn’t know keeps popping up here and there.

But I don’t mind. Because Siwoo will always be by my side.

He’ll always teach me the things I don’t know like this.

“Arte.”

“Yes?”

“How was today?”

You should know that without me saying it. I made a fuss all day today, so Siwoo even teased me.

Even if I had not shown such a reaction, he would have roughly figured it out with his intuition.

But Siwoo still purposely asked me. If I enjoyed it properly.

Maybe he wants to hear it directly from my mouth.

“…What about you, Siwoo?”

“Me?”

“Yes. I had a lot of fun, but what about you?”

I had fun. But did Siwoo too?

Wasn’t he bored seeing things he already knew? Siwoo coolly turned my worries into nothing.

“Yeah, I had fun too.”

***

“Wouldn’t it be okay to eat out? You must be tired.”

“Oh my, do you not want to eat my cooking?”

“But what about the ingredients? There definitely wouldn’t have been any in the fridge…”

“I ordered them in advance, so don’t worry.”

“…Okay. I’ll go wash up.”

“Yes, look forward to it. I’ll prepare a delicious meal.”

I understand Siwoo’s concern. He must be worried that I’ll be tired after playing outside for a long time.

But I also wanted to make dinner myself tonight. A delicious dinner made by your lover after a date.

No one would dislike that. It was my stubbornness to make a tasty meal for Siwoo.

Not long after Siwoo entered the bathroom, water hitting the floor could be heard as he started showering.

“…Good.”

Amelia’s planned date course was perfect. Playing a lot at the aquarium and eating a delicious lunch.

Watching the penguin and dolphin show, then looking around the aquarium a bit more before going home.

No matter how many times I thank her, it will not be enough. I should thank her the next time we meet.

“Oh no, this isn’t the time.”

Now that Siwoo started showering, I had to quickly prepare the meal, so I hurriedly opened the box Amelia had sent me.

“Wh-What is this…”

Cancel the thanks I was going to give her. What on earth was she thinking…!

I frantically tried to find other groceries, but there was no way there would be any.

There were only a few frozen foods and some canned goods. I couldn’t feed Siwoo this when he was definitely very hungry.

Especially not on a day like today.

“…Sigh.”

I guess I have no choice… I steeled my resolve and started cooking.

“Oh, it smells good. What is it?”

“It’s eel.”

“Eel? Wow, that sounds delicious. What are these?”

“Ah, those are… Oysters and abalone. I grilled them with butter. And added a little chives and ginger…”

“What about this?”

“I was planning to serve schisandra and black raspberry as dessert. I thought it would be nice to have as tea…”

“Huh? I feel like I’ve heard of this before…”

“Ah, ahaha… Th-There’s also octopus and shrimp! Since we went to the aquarium!”

“No, wait a minute. Chives, eel, abalone, ginger, schisandra, and black raspberry…? Arte, this is…”

“I-It’ll take some time, so please rest for a bit…!”

I forcibly kicked Siwoo out of the kitchen. I guess he figured it out after all.

I started to resent Amelia. Why on earth did she give me this?

Siwoo might find it strange.

***

At that moment, in Amelia’s room.

“Hal. Did you deliver it properly?”

“Don’t worry. Who do you think I am?”

“Really? I’m sure Arte will figure it out… But I wonder if Siwoo will.”

Amelia sat leisurely in a rocking chair and popped a grape into her mouth.

“Kuku, I wonder what kind of face Arte is making right now?”

“…Who knows.”

“I do want to see for myself, but I’ll have to give up.”

She was tempted to sneak into their house and watch, but if she actually did that, the two of them might come after her life.

Amelia decided to be content just by hearing about the two of them.

“Mm, these grapes are delicious. I should have included them too. What a shame.”

Translator’s Corner

Guess what the food have in common.

-Ruminas