My Girlfriend Is Very Good To Me [EN]: Chapter 77

Ep. 76

Before I could fully process what was happening, Heena ushered me into the car. I was already dressed, anticipating a possible date, so I just grabbed a coat and went.

Sitting in the back seat as we drove off, I stared blankly at Heena. She was next to me, grinning and holding my hand tightly.

I was momentarily stunned, but I figured the “house” she mentioned probably had something to do with her moving out. She had been subtly hinting at living alone for a while now, so I had considered it might happen.

She also got into Seoyeon University easily through the regular admissions process. With her grades, it would be hard for her to fail.

“Suddenly a house? Are you really living on your own?”

“Yep~”

Her casual confirmation surprised me, and I ended up being the one making a fuss. I mean, living alone is a dream!

“Really? But isn’t Seoyeon University manageable from home?”

“It’s not impossible, but it takes an hour each way.”

“Yeah, going back and forth for two hours is a bit of a waste of time.”

I would have just stayed at home, but since Heena is a girl, it could be dangerous for her to come home late. Plus, there would be frequent social gatherings and drinking parties in college.

“So, were you looking at houses yesterday?”

“Yeah. I was originally looking at studio apartments around the university… I didn’t think they were bad, but Dad didn’t like any of them.”

“How can you live there when the building doesn’t even have proper security?”

The driver, who had been quietly driving, chimed in, echoing Heena’s words. I understood his feelings. He had to be thorough when letting his daughter live alone.

Heena smiled wryly at his reaction and continued.

“Anyway, after looking around more, my uncle… well, Dad’s friend has an officetel [a building with both office and residential units] building a bit further away, so we decided to go there. Dad didn’t even know his friend had a building there until now.”

“Oh…”

It was a bigger story than I expected, so it didn’t feel real. In short, her dad’s friend is a building owner, and they happened to find a place nearby to rent?

Friend discount, crazy. I hope I can benefit from my friends later… Nah, what benefits would I get from those guys.

“Actually, we only saw pictures yesterday because we got the call late. We’re going to see it for the first time now.”

“Is moving in confirmed?”

“Yeah. They’re doing the flooring now, so we can’t move in right away. It’ll be available around early February.”

“Wow.”

What could I say? I just kept exclaiming. Then, I suddenly remembered that my mom had been talking about cooking since yesterday.

Plus, she had been talking about living together with Heena for a long time. Even though Heena talked about living alone a lot, I had vaguely thought of it as something for the future.

Wait a minute.

Could this be?

—

The place we arrived at after a 30-minute drive was an officetel building that looked ridiculously expensive. From the entrance, it felt like the security would be tight.

While Heena and I were wide-eyed with surprise, a bald, easygoing man approached us.

“Yo, Lee Myung-hun! How have you been?”

“We saw each other last week.”

The two of them laughed and greeted each other, then turned their attention to us, so I immediately bowed.

“Hello.”

“It’s been a while, Uncle.”

“Wow~ Heena, it’s been a long time! You’ve grown up so much! Who’s this?”

“He’s my boyfriend.”

“Ah~ The one Myung-hun mentioned? Nice to meet you. I’m Byung-chil. You can call me Uncle.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Han Yeon-hoo.”

“This guy’s polite~ Let’s go up first!”

His speech was a mix of standard Korean and dialect, which made him feel approachable. He felt very friendly even though it was our first time meeting. As we followed him and Heena, who were walking ahead and chatting with loud laughter, I whispered to Heena.

“You guys seem close?”

“He used to come to our house often since a long time ago. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him too because of the college entrance exam.”

I guess so. They seemed like real friends, talking and laughing so loudly.

“Hey! I’ll only charge Heena the maintenance fee, so you’re buying the drinks from now on!”

“Alright, alright. But why are you replacing the flooring?”

“Don’t even get me started! The girl who lived there before really messed it up!”

We got on the elevator while listening to their conversation. We got off on the 7th floor.

After getting off the elevator and looking around, I noticed that there weren’t as many rooms as I had expected. I thought there would be many rooms on each floor since the building was big. We entered room 702 by entering the password.

Then, I saw a living room that was noticeably larger than the average studio apartment I had searched for online. Everyone was wearing their shoes inside since it was under construction, so I followed suit.

After taking a few steps, I saw a kitchen in one corner of the living room, and a separate room.

Wow, it’s not a studio apartment?

“Nice~”

“It’ll be done in early February?”

“Yeah! It’s fully furnished, so you don’t need to bring anything! But you’ll have to buy a bed if you need one.”

“Then a desk and a bed. Heena, do you need anything?”

“I’ll buy things as I need them. I don’t think we need to buy too much in advance.”

“Alright. Then Dad will talk with Uncle for a bit, so look around.”

“Okay~”

They left us alone in the room, so I could talk to Heena comfortably.

“I thought it was a studio apartment, but it’s not?”

“This is also a studio apartment. It’s either all in one room, or it has a separate room like this.”

“Ah, I see.”

Both are studio apartments. I know it’s a much better house than I had vaguely imagined.

“Do you like it? It looks really good at a glance.”

“Of course, I like it~ My uncle is practically letting me rent it for free. What do you think? I saw it in the pictures beforehand, but I’m going to put a big bed here─”

Heena was excited about living alone and was telling me all sorts of things. I listened to her and looked around the house a bit more.

The kitchen area was more spacious than I thought, and the room inside was also big. The living room wasn’t huge, but it was nice to have a separate space. There was also a veranda, and the view from the large window was unobstructed.

And when I came in, I saw that there was a security keypad, and there seemed to be many CCTVs [closed-circuit televisions] from the common entrance to the elevator near the room. It was obvious that they were filming. The management office attached to the building was also huge.

No wonder her dad is relieved.

“And Yeon-hoo.”

“Yeah?”

Heena, who had been excitedly talking about how to arrange the bed and desk, suddenly called me.

“You know you have to come with me when I go shopping for things later, right?”

“Me too? I don’t mind.”

“Of course~”

She smiled brightly and hugged me.

“You have to buy things to use in ‘our’ house together.”

The word ‘our’ didn’t feel like it was just her house, but ‘our’ house.

“Uh… Am I living here too?”

I asked a bit dumbly. Heena chuckled at my words.

“Living together? If you want, anytime!”

“Ah, not necessarily?”

“Well~ Honestly, I want to live together too, but.”

She continued with a slightly disappointed face.

“If the environment suddenly changes, you might not be able to focus on studying… And I’ll be away from home a lot when I go to class, so I’d feel bad if you were waiting alone…”

“I’m okay with that. I have to study anyway. It’ll be quiet if I’m alone, so it’ll be easier to concentrate.”

“Then will you wait for me at home?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Hehe, thank you~ But for now, let’s think about it as we go. You’ll come often anyway, right?”

“Ah, of course. I’ll come every day.”

“Hehe, I should reward that pretty mouth?”

She said that and kissed me repeatedly. I hugged her and accepted her aggressive kisses, slowly sorting out my thoughts. Honestly, I thought Heena would ask me to live with her right away, but I was a little surprised that she seemed to be calmly assessing the situation.

But I think I knew what she was trying to say. Our schedules will be a little different in the future, so she might feel a little bad about leaving me at home. Of course, her true feelings are that she wants to live together. She’s wanted it so much until now.

Still, it’s not that far away, and I can come and stay here whenever I want. It seemed okay to decide as we go, as she said.

“Anyway, I really like the house! I have to thank Uncle later~”

“I know. I didn’t expect this level of quality.”

“I hope our honeymoon house will be like this in the future. Right?”

“…What house?”

“Our honeymoon house~ One room is enough anyway. We don’t need a big place if it’s just the two of us, and this size seems perfect.”

Heena seemed to be already planning our future after marriage in her head. She was talking about this and that with a happy face, as if she was walking through a flower garden.

I listened to her future plans and thought about something else. Honestly, it’s not like Heena hasn’t talked about this before.

Even if Heena starts living alone and I come here often, it would be boring to just study whenever she’s away. I don’t go to school anymore, so I have a lot of free time, but I can’t just study all day.

Actually, that’s what a re-sitter [a student retaking the university entrance exam] should do, but Heena has been constantly giving me advice and self-awareness, so I knew it wouldn’t work out that way. I knew that I can’t concentrate for that long anyway.

Then what should I do? Should I get a part-time job? It would be nice to work short hours for 3 or 4 days a week.

The only part-time job I’ve ever had was at Jung Yoon-sung’s snack bar, but I can confidently say that I’m at least an A-class talent if I didn’t run away from there.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I want to go back to that snack bar. I’d be too tired to study after working there.

Should I ask my brothers if they know of anything good? Heena seems worried about leaving me alone, so it would be nice to start a part-time job.

Just as I was sorting out my thoughts, Heena started saying things like, ‘Ah, but it might be a little disappointing to have only one room when we have a baby…’, so I stroked her hair and stopped her from saying anything more.

It was a future plan that was a bit too much for me to keep up with yet.

—

After touring the house and eating dinner with Uncle, who was Heena’s dad’s friend, I returned home. When I said, ‘Thank you for the meal, Uncle,’ he told me to just call him Uncle.

And I also heard a chilling story about how he would bury me in concrete if I made Heena cry. It was really scary when the bald man said that with a stern face.

Anyway, our family had just finished dinner, so I helped my mom, who was doing the dishes, and told her about what happened today. That Heena’s dad’s friend is incredibly rich. That the house he gave us was amazing, etc.

Then, I brought up the question I had today.

“Did you know, Mom? That Heena was living alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow… It feels like I’m the only one who doesn’t know. Is the reason you’re teaching me how to cook because Heena wants to live with me?”

I asked with half-confidence, but my mom’s answer was unexpected.

“She didn’t say anything like that.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yeah. I was talking to Heena on 톡 [KakaoTalk, a popular messaging app in South Korea] and it came up.”

What? Then why did she say that I wouldn’t be able to study well alone, or that I should know how to cook to feed Heena well?

“Then why are you teaching me how to cook?”

“Aren’t you going to go there when Heena lives alone?”

“I’m going.”

“Then you’ll go often, so feed Heena well. We’ve always received help, so we should at least do that much.”

It was such a correct statement that I had no excuse. Heena always teaches me, buys me food, and takes care of me.

Re-sitter or not, I should repay her, shouldn’t I?

“And if you go there often, you’ll sleep there for a day or two, and then you’ll be living together before you know it.”

“Oh… That makes sense. But why isn’t Jung-hoo hyung [older brother] leaving home? He should live with Yoon-jung noona [older sister]… Ah, no. How can they live there?”

As I was talking, I suddenly remembered Yoon-jung noona’s studio apartment, which I had visited a couple of times. It was really small, so it wasn’t a place for two people to live.

I shook my head and turned the topic back.

“Then why did you ask if I could study well alone?”

“I was worried about whether you could study well alone since you’ll be going there often. Or I’ll get you a study room at the library.”

She was just worried about me. I guess so. When I was in a cast, my mom and everyone else were worried about my mental state. It seems like they’re still subtly paying attention to me.

“But do you talk to Heena often these days?”

“More than the three of you combined.”

“……”

We’re sorry…

Even though we see her at home every day, I apologized in my heart for the fact that the three sons don’t contact her often. Our family has always been like that, so it’s embarrassing to contact her often now.

I finished the dishes, ended the conversation with my mom, and returned to my room. When I checked my phone, I had a message from Heena.

[Heena: The move-in date will probably be February 10th! That day is a shopping date! Got it? Don’t make any other plans that week!]

I replied that I understood, and roughly estimated how many days were left and what the schedule would be like. There’s nothing special about my upcoming birthday, and after that is Heena’s move-in date. A few days later is Heena’s birthday.

-Suddenly

When my thoughts reached that point, I got up from the bed and went to the computer. I roughly knew how to do it, but I needed more accurate prior knowledge.

I can’t be clumsy in front of Heena.