Chapter 4

I simply gave him a death glare. “It’s not that damn thing! It’s an innocent creature! So pure, so innocent. You should thank me for giving you one of my favorite flavors instead of complaining about it!”

“Nah, thanks. I don’t want it.”

“Oh, are you sure you don’t want to eat this?”

He rolled his eyes in annoyance. “I really appreciate your kindness, but I don't want to eat that, so I think I’ll skip it.”

I immediately aimed one of the ice creams that I was about to give him straight to his mouth before he could protest.

“How was the taste? Is it good?”

He tried to digest the ice cream that I had been steaming earlier and swallowed it with difficulty. “Hmm ... it tastes really good. I feel like I want to throw it up in your bag right now. Can I throw it up now?”

I immediately saved my bag from him. “If you want to vomit, don’t do that in my bag. Just go to the bathroom and puke over there!”

“This is the first time I eat trash like that. The smells ... ugh!” he said, trying to throw up the ice cream he had eaten earlier.

“Eits, you can’t throw it up. You have to finish all this.” I said, spooning back mouthful after mouthful of ice cream with the taste he hated into his mouth.

He tried to refuse my ice cream, but immediately fell silent and obeyed when I sent him another death glare, asking him to finish every ice cream I gave him without any protests.

Finally, he finished his ice cream ration I gave him. His expression that was trying to suppress nausea from the ice cream I had made me want to laugh.

“How can you eat such trash like that?” he asked, holding back his nausea by closing his mouth.

“No, this isn’t trash. If you’re the trash, it’s a different story.” I replied, spooning a mouthful of ice cream into my mouth with joy. “It’s tasty, as usual.”

When he saw my expression, as I was enjoying my favorite flavor of ice cream earlier, he immediately moved from the bench where we both sat and stood in front of me.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t take it anymore,” he said before he grabbed my hand and hurried off to the men’s room. As soon as we arrived in front of the toilet, he took his hand off me.

"Remember. Don’t you dare go anywhere except this place. And don’t you dare leave me here."

"Yeah, yeah. I won’t go anywhere. You act like a girl who needs someone to accompany her to the toilet." I said it with an annoyed look.

Satisfied with my answer, he immediately went into the toilet. While waiting for him to come out of the toilet, I went back to enjoy my ice cream, which I still hadn’t had time to finish earlier because of him.

“So good! How come this ice cream can be so good?” I said, spooning another bite into my mouth.

While I was enjoying my ice cream, I glimpsed an old man looking at me, who was eating ice cream with a lustful look. I tried to ignore the old man and returned to scooping out my ice cream as if I hadn’t noticed his existence.

Feeling that I didn’t see him, the old man slowly stepped towards me. Then, before he could approach me, someone’s voice managed to drive him away.

“Wow, I didn’t expect that you’re still here. I thought you already left.” Said the person I was waiting for earlier in astonishment.

I rolled my eyes lazily. “You were the one who told me to wait for you. Besides, I just want to enjoy this ice cream before it melts.”

I directed my second ice cream to him, which he quickly dodged. While laughing at his reaction, I went back to eating my ice cream.

“Can you eat that damn thing faster?” he asked with an uneasy face toward me.

“What do you mean? I still want to finish it slowly.”

He leaned closer to me and brought his face right to my left ear. “Don’t you see that old man over there looking at you with a face full of lust?”

I nodded. “Yes, I saw him. In fact, I saw him as soon as you entered the toilet.”

“You are... ugh! I can’t stand that smell! We’re leaving this place right now!”

He immediately grabbed me and threw away my ice cream container, which I luckily had time to finish before he snatched it from me.

His hand roughly pulled me away from the men’s room, where I was waiting for the person, who was now pulling me. To be precise, he was pulling me away from the old man who was staring at me.

Could it be that he was worried about me?

I looked at his back while trying to hold back my joy. Deep down, I knew I shouldn’t be happy at a time like this, especially with a stranger like the one who was pulling my hand at the moment.

It’s just that I wanted to imagine my assumption of him was true; because if it was true, that meant I was not dreaming right now.

I meant this was the first time I met a stranger who was so worried about me. And this was such a new experience for me.

So, instead of protesting at what he did to me, I decided to just let him continue to take my hand, without asking where he would pull me away.

Once we arrived in the parking lot, he finally took his hand off me. Then he turned around, and he fixed his eyes on mine. “It’s safe here now. I’m sure the old man won’t be able to reach us here.”

“You are such a weirdo, huh?”

I couldn’t hold in my laughter anymore, so I laughed at him, which somehow made him turn his face to me in confusion.

“Why do you think of me as a weirdo?”

“Because of what you did to me just now. I mean, you didn’t want that person to keep looking at me like that. Even though we were strangers who just met each other today.”

When I heard what I said earlier, he returned his gaze to me and held my shoulders.

"Are you aware of it? If you continue to ignore that perverted old man, you might end up with him kidnapping you. And then, he would use you as his way of satisfying his desires. That’s really terrifying, you know!"

Hearing his words earlier made me instantly unable to hold back my laughter, and I burst out laughing immediately.

He looked even more confused by what I was laughing at right now.

“This is the first time I’ve realized someone is concerned about me,” I said while pinching his cheek. “But thanks for being worried about me.”

He blinked his eyes as I pinched his right cheek.

“Don't you have anyone worrying about you like I did before?” He asked with an innocent face.

The question just managed to stop my laughter. I immediately pulled my hand that was pinching his right cheek and turned my body away from him.

“I believe it’s none of your business.”

“But…”

“Our business is done from here. Okay? Thanks for the ice cream. I gotta go now.”

Slowly, I stepped my feet away from him.

How could he ask such a thing with his innocent face? His words made me remember that after this I had to go back to my house, and just remembering that made me feel so sad.

“Hey! Wait! Don’t leave!”

His voice, which sounded so loud just now, made my footsteps stop for a moment. I looked around and just realized that in this place there were only the two of us and a row of neatly parked cars.

Reluctantly, I resumed my footsteps, trying to ignore his shouts, which looked more like orders than pleas for me to stay.

From afar, I could hear the sound of his footsteps, which seemed to be running toward me. As I was still ignoring him, I kept on walking forward until I could feel his hands trying to hold on to me.

“I said wait, and you keep walking, as if you pretended you didn’t hear it,” he said, catching his breath. He was panting because he tried to catch up with me earlier. Then he pulled my body toward him.

“Why should I listen to your words? I told you, our business is over.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Who says that our business is really over?”

Now it’s my turn to look at him with a flustered face. “What do you mean?”

He did not answer my question and immediately carried me away, just like that.