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Ihwa waited for Engen to arrive, scrolling through her phone mindlessly, starting to feel more and more impatient as the minutes passed by. She had to bug Engen to come with her to the school fair, and he was taking painfully long to arrive. Was he ditching her? Ihwa clenched her fists at the thought, infuriated at the idea.
Technically, she had only invited him to go with her since Rachel and her other friends were busy that day, and he was ridiculously rich- which would allow her to consume more goodies and not have to feel bad for spending his money. But still, the idea of being stood up by him was a little humiliating, and quite vexing.
Just before she was about to furiously go into the school fair by herself, Engen finally arrived, looking a little disheveled as he walked into view. Ihwa looked up at him, her eyes twitching in irritation.
“Took you long enough. What kept you up?”
Engen shrugged, clearly not wanting to speak on the matter. Ihwa simply huffed, before dragging him along with her, her grip firm.
“You’re paying for everything.”
“Wouldn’t I already have paid even if I wasn’t late?” Engen smirked, making Ihwa’s grip tighten on him as if to quickly shut him up. Engen handed her his card obligingly in order to placate her, which made her face light up immediately at the sight of money. Ihwa hurriedly snatched the card out of his hands, her gaze fixated on the shiny and seemingly magical card that spewed out endless amounts of money.
“Come on now, rich guy.” Ihwa impatiently hurried them through the various stalls, before stopping and laying her hungry eyes on a crepe stall, taking the opportunity to order ten crepes to fill her gnawing hunger, intent on maxing out Engen’s seemingly limitless card and satiate her stomach with some good food.
The stall owners were understandably shocked at the absurdly large order, quickly complying when the fee was paid by Engen whilst Ihwa was too busy ogling the crepes. The fact that he didn’t even look fazed by her voracious appetite was slightly humorous, but it was well known among her peers that she might as well have had a bottomless stomach.
As soon as the crepes were made, she quickly devoured them in a blink of an eye, flabbergasting the surrounding people. After finishing what seemed to be more like a snack, she grabbed her partner’s arm, once again dragging him around like a doll to the next intriguing stall, whizzing about the school fair with much interest whilst he followed along, bearing a comically unbothered expression.
“Ihwa, wait.” Engen started, glancing at her face. She cocked her head slightly in confusion, stopping in her tracks as she faced him.
“You have some cream on your cheek.” He remarked, pointing at his own cheek. Ihwa tried licking her cheek, but to no avail. Engen shook his head, as she continued to fail her multiple attempts at licking it off, unable to wipe it off with all the food in her hands.
After watching her multiple attempts and failing miserably, Engen put his hand to her cheek, wiping the cream off for her and tasting it, commenting that it was sweet as he continued gazing back at her, as if daring her to react.
Ihwa furrowed her eyebrows, her lips forming a small frown while her cheeks reddened slightly, her gaze fixated on the unusually playful man before her. She was about to speak up, before the sight of some delicious looking fish bread distracted her, and she was off again, food in one arm and Engen with the other.
After visiting several other stalls and wandering around in her search for something interesting, she crossed by an advertisement about a food eating competition. It immediately caught her attention, and she yanked Engen closer to the advert to study its contents. Feeling excited at the prospect of being able to eat delicious food for free, she sped towards the stall where it was taking place. However, at the sight of her, the stallowners hastily pointed at a sign, banning Ihwa from partaking in the competition. After all, she was infamous for eating copious amounts of food.
At the realization that she was being banned from the free food, Ihwa gaped, her mouth hanging open in utter appallment. Her shoulders slouched down in disappointment, her lips forming a despondent frown whilst Engen simply patted her back, looking unsurprised by it.
Ihwa quickly recovered from the shocking rejection, whizzing past more stalls until her eyes landed on a photo booth while eating some skewered candied strawberries. She eagerly pointed to it, discarding the sticks of the skewers into a nearby trash can. It would be quite appealing to have a photo of this as a keepsake, she felt as she dragged Engen into the photo booth.
Engen looked at her, showing a puzzled expression as he had expected her to use the time to indulge in food, but not before being urged by her to take a photo together. She was often spontaneous in what she wanted anyways. She closed the curtains, and used his card, scanning it in the photo booth as it accepted the purchase.
Ihwa posed, holding a peace sign, her cheeks flushing slightly from her eagerness whilst Engen simply looked down at her, not posing along with her as he bore a awkward and distant expression. *click*
“Why aren’t you posing?” Ihwa questioned him, frowning as he looked away in an unbothered manner, making some dumb excuse about how silly it was and such. Determined to take one good photo together, she clutched his other hand, making him do the peace sign. *click*
She quickly yanked him by the neck, lunging for him as his mouth hung agape, while her other hand firmly kept the grip on his own. “Wait–” Engen started, not getting to finish his words as they left his mouth. *click*
She pulled him closer to her, keeping a firm grip on his hand holding the peace sign, her face flushing slightly as she pouted slightly, her cheek pressed against Engen’s. Engen was speechless, his own face flushing as well by surprise as he stared at her in awe while she held the pose. *click*.
They held that pose for a while, Engen relishing in the warmth of her cheek whilst he continued looking at her in awe and something indiscernible before Ihwa pulled away from him, eagerly collecting the pictures. He had never really been that close to her before, but it wasn’t as if he hated it either.
After being quickly separated from her, he awkwardly stood to the side as she printed out two copies and handed one of them to him.
“What was that for?” Engen asked, rubbing his still blushing cheek, as if willing himself to calm down. Ihwa shrugged, her eyes scanning over the plastic photo card. Her wordless answer left the man feeling more confused as he looked back at the photos, observing his own reaction to her lunging at him.
It was definitely adorable, for sure, he presumed, his gaze running over the shiny plastic film as he tucked it into his pocket. Ihwa looked like she was already ready to go to another stall run, eyeing some other stall advertising some game.
She pointed to it, staring back at him with expectant eyes. He walked up to the stall owner, forking over some cash in exchange for a try for each person. The game was to shoot down some targets using a cork gun, and the biggest prize- being a life-sized pudding plushie- was on the smallest moving target.
Engen went first, using his five bullets to shoot down the other targets, winning him the second prize. Ihwa, being more ambitious, aimed for the tiny whizzing target, and missed every single shot. Feeling competitive, she went round after round, her ambition dying down after several attempts. Finally, she gave up on the game entirely, her head hanging low in disappointment.
Since Engen got the second prize, he received two smaller plushies- a honey bee and a honey pot. He glanced at Ihwa’s despondent expression, before handing the honey bee to her casually. She lit up at that, clutching the bee plushie in awe.
After an eventful day at the fair, the day was coming to an end and Ihwa figured that it was better to go home at this point, her belly full and her energy starting to run out. She never thought that she’d have such a fun time with Engen, yet she did.
“...Thanks for paying for me.”
“It’s no problem. I could do it again, anytime.”
She pressed the bee plushie against her cheek, enjoying its softness, her eyes closing briefly before looking back up at him.
“Sure. Next time.”