Tell Me That You Like It

He apologized as if trying to reassure Anna, who was startled. His low voice, sweet like rich chocolate, seemed to leave a taste of sweetness in her mouth.

 

Under the bright lights, their eyes met and twinkled like stars in the night sky.

 

The noble and dignified blue light looked oddly dangerous. It was like a very deep sea that you can never get out of once you fall into it.

 

“Ah, yes. It’s alright.”

 

Barely moving her lips, which seemed to be coated with honey, she answered.

 

“Is there something wrong? I thought you needed help…”

 

“I think the key is wrong. The door won’t open.”

 

“Would you like to give it to me for a moment?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Anna’s answering voice trembled slightly. She took off the bracelet on her wrist and handed it to him.

 

He took the key and turned his eyes downward.

 

The moment the man’s eyes left hers, she felt pushed away. Anna felt an unknown sadness at the sudden end of eye contact.

 

When he looked at her, she seemed to be connected to the man by something unknown, but when he turned his gaze, she seemed strangely disconnected from him.

 

Taking the key, the man’s move to the automatic lock looked like a scene from a movie in slow motion.

 

The man’s eyes, looking down at the key and the automatic lock, lay languidly down. His long golden eyebrows were thick as if they were drawn with a brush, and the double eyelashes were also long and rich as if they were fake eyelashes.

 

It was amazing how a man’s eyelashes were longer and richer than her own. Is it a difference of race?

 

But for that matter, the blonde was on a different level than any other foreigner Anna had ever seen.

 

The bridge of his nose, which stretched from the middle of his forehead, was in perfect proportion, as if a sculptor had decided to cut it down. If we kiss, that high nose will naturally touch my cheek… 

 

Anna began to imagine herself kissing him passionately.

 

His thick red lips would devour her lips as his blue eyes disappeared between his golden eyelashes.

 

As if forcefully overpowering her with his muscular arms, he passionately pulled her close, kissing her lips frantically and sucking on her tongue. Her heart might beat so intensely that it could burst.

 

For some reason, she felt out of breath. It wasn’t like she was running, but Anna’s breathing was silently accelerating.

 

It was then.

 

Beep beep.

 

The door opened with an automatic sound.

 

Anna, who was daydreaming about kissing a man she had never seen before, was surprised by the mechanical sound and tried to come to her senses.

 

It’s crazy!

 

You’ve never kissed a man before, let alone kissed him, and you’re thinking like this!

 

After a long flight, her hair, her body, and her face were all oily!

 

Anna suddenly wanted to turn off all the lights inside.

 

She wanted to hit the fuse box with her fist and cause a power outage. She wanted to cover her face because she was ashamed of the man staring at her, and of her sloppy, unwashed condition.

 

If there was even a mouse hole, she wanted to hide inside it.

 

“Did you see it?”

 

“What? What?”

 

“You have to put the key in like this and then take it off after a while. That way the door will open easily.”

 

“Aha…Right. Thank you for your help.”

 

“No problem.”

 

When she saw the smile of the man smiling up close, she felt dizzy. Only then did Anna notice that the chin under the line of good-looking lips was split lengthwise and small.

 

The chin was split in half like a baby’s butt. That’s why he seemed more masculine.

 

“Nice to meet you.”

 

He popped out his hand. Anna reached out her hand in bewilderment, and noticed that she was still wearing gloves.

 

As soon as she took off her gloves and reached out, her little hand snapped into his big hand.

 

A thrilling tingle spread from her hand to her whole body. 

 

The static electricity seemed to rise from the hands held together. His hand, which was much thicker and longer than her hand, was much hotter than Anna’s body temperature.

 

Her heart was pounding. It felt like a strong heat, transmitted from her fingertips, spread to her heart and heated up my whole body.

 

Is it because a small hand is wrapped in a large hand?

 

It was a strange handshake that seemed to be more like a touch. Anna shook her hand, feeling bewildered. The fingers that touched her still felt tingly.

 

“Me too.”

 

“Where are you from?”

 

“I’m from Korea.”

 

“Aha, south or north?”

 

Are you really asking because you don’t know?

 

From Anna’s point of view, of course, it was the south, but when she saw the man asking which way it was, she suddenly felt mischievous. So she deliberately hesitated to answer.

 

“Well, what do you think?”

 

The handsome face is wrinkled. He was surprised when she didn’t answer South Korea easily.

 

“It depends on your attitude…”

 

Anna almost burst into laughter at the increasingly serious complexion, but she tried to hold it in and maintain a serious look.

 

“No way, it’s not North Korea, is it?”

 

“It’s a joke, a joke! Of course I’m South Korean.”

 

Anna couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into laughter. 

 

Then the nervousness disappeared from his face, and he smiled. A beautiful smile like a spring flower gave him an innocent aura like a young boy.

 

“You didn’t really think I was North Korean, did you?”

 

“I can’t deny that I was really surprised. It’s like seeing a North Korean person in real life, who I only used to see on the news.”

 

“I think North Korea is more famous than South Korea abroad.”

 

Hearing her reply, Lucino also began to laugh aloud.

 

“I think you’re right.”

 

Anna finally stopped laughing aloud, but her face was full of laughter.

 

“My name is Lucino Mastrojanni. I’m from Rome, Italy.”

 

“Nice to meet you.”

 

“So, what’s the name of the lady from South Korea?”

 

Anna laughed once more because of Lucino, who emphasized the south by even making gestures with his hands.

 

Indeed, she heard that Italians move their hands a lot when talking, and that seemed to be right.

 

Then he smiled again as beautifully as a flower. If she had to appoint the minister of beauty, this man was the minister.

 

“I’m Anna. Seon-woo Anna.”

 

“Anna. That’s a pretty, easy name to call.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Easy to remember.”

 

Anna knew the origin of her name.

 

Her name had no meaning. Her father, who was disappointed because she was not a son when Anna was born, went to register her birth while being very drunk, and she heard that it came from the name of the ice cream that a child who came to the community center begged his mother to buy.

 

That’s why the name Anna was meaningless. So was her own presence among her family.

 

When she was young, her friends made fun of her with ice cream. After growing up, people did not pay much attention to the name Anna.

 

So this man was the first person to say her name is pretty.

 

An unknown wave fluttered in the middle of her chest. Soft and mellow, it had warmth. She wanted to scratch her heart if she could because of the strange tickling sensation.

 

“Actually, I use this room, too.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“It’s like we’re roommates for a while. Please take good care of me from now on.”

 

Lucino let go of the hand he was holding. Then, he opened the door and gestured for Anna to enter first.

 

Lucino opened the door for her, as he did earlier. So far, no one had given Anna this consideration, albeit trivial.

 

It was always Min-seok, her brother, who had to be cared for and taken care of.

 

Suddenly, her palms became itchy. Anna unknowingly touched her palm with her fingertips. On her palm, she could feel Lucino’s warmth.

 

She was about to sigh out of inexplicable regret.

 

“Ah… Yes.”

 

As Anna entered the room, Lucino followed. Anna’s heart rattled loudly at the sound of the iron door closing.

 

There were about nine bunk beds in the large room. But it was empty.

 

Conscious of being alone with Lucino in such a large room, she felt strange for some reason. She thought Lucino came on a trip with his friends, so maybe his friends share this room, too?

 

The unisex dormitory was the cheapest, so she reserved it, but when she realized that she was sharing a room with a man, her heart skipped a beat.

 

In fact, after seeing Lucino, her heart was beating as fast as if it had broken. Anna approached her bed as if nothing had happened.

 

But her earlobe was red.

 

Even as she did the simple task of removing her scarf and thick padding and putting them on the white sheeted bed, her body felt stiff with tension.

 

From there came the voice of Lucino.

 

“What number is it?”

 

“Yes?”

 

Anna turned her head without much thought and saw Lucino standing in front of the locker. And she lost her mind for a moment.

 

He was really, really tall and his shoulders broad. His head was small, but his neck was manly and thick and his shoulders broad. Lucino, who had taken off his overcoat and was wearing only a knit, had a thick torso as well.

 

He was a big man who could clearly feel the male hormones of an adult man, completely different from her body size.

 

“What number bed do you use, Anna?”

 

Lucino opened his locker and took out his shower supplies from inside, asking questions. Surprised by the question, she came to her senses and tried to calm her fast beating heart.

 

She turned her head away, pretending nothing was wrong. She opened her suitcase and pulled out her pajamas, toiletries, and a small navy blue sleeping bag, answering Lucino’s questions.

 

She brought a sleeping bag because she didn’t think the dormitory bedding where many people come and go would be very clean.

 

“Number three.”

 

“Aha. Locker #3 is over there.”

 

Lucino pointed his index finger to the iron cabinet on the right side of her bed.

 

“Yes, thank you for letting me know.”

 

“If you need help again, let me know anytime. Oh, and the women’s shower room is on the left when you go out. The right one is for men.”

 

“Yes. Thank you, Lucino.”

 

“Well, of course I have to let you know.”

 

Lucino, with a towel wrapped around his neck, locked the storage box with shower supplies in his hand. Perhaps because she was conscious of him, she could hear the sound of the iron door of the storage box closing loudly.

 

“Well, see you later.”

 

“Yes.”

 

As he left the dormitory, Lucino made eye contact with Anna, who was closing her suitcase, and suddenly he winked. The scene where one side of the long eyes blinked seemed like a scene from a movie. He strode out of the dormitory with a relaxed step.

 

Suddenly, the corners of Anna’s lips went up.

 

She didn’t even know she was smiling and closed her suitcase with a smile on her face. She tried to put the locked suitcase inside the cabinet, but it was too heavy to lift by herself, so she left it beside the bed.

 

Anna also went into the shower like Lucino. It was a shared shower room, but there were many shower booths and it was clean and spacious. The water came out well, too. She washed herself clean with hot water, dried her hair with a dryer in the shower room, and went into her sleeping bag feeling refreshed.

 

Suddenly, she turned her attention to Lucino’s bed, but bed number 8 was empty. It was already close to midnight, but Lucino and his friends and the others had not entered the room.

 

Lying alone in a large room, Anna quickly fell into a sound sleep. Tomorrow, it was a schedule that even ten of her bodies were not enough to move as planned.