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“Sooo,” Jung Heewon tries, for maybe the third time since they’ve stepped off her motorbike, “what do you like to do in your free time, Seolhwa-ssi?”
Lee Seolhwa beams at her, which makes Jung Heewon think she’s finally going to give a workable answer for all of three seconds. “Have you ever had a mushroom garden before, Heewon-ssi? It’s actually quite fun.”
Maybe, just maybe, Jung Heewon should have listened to Han Sooyoung about this.
In her defense, she hadn’t thought it would be this weird right off the bat. When they first met a week or two ago, it had been because Jung Heewon sprained her ankle (or pulled a muscle, or broke a whole leg—she can’t even remember anymore, her attention had been preoccupied elsewhere) after trying to haul a shitton of delivery boxes up the stairs of the university’s front gate, and Lee Seolhwa, a med student passing by, had helped her over to the nearby hospital she was interning in. Jung Heewon, somewhat predictably enough, could not stop thinking about cherry-red lips and pale hair artfully draped over shoulders the whole while that the nurse asked if she had a concussion too.
“No way. Lee Seolhwa?” Han Sooyoung later gawked at her over her bowl of rice (which, incidentally, Jung Heewon had sprained an ankle/pulled a muscle/broken a leg for). “Yeah, I know her. She’s totally crazy, though, and I swear she’s killed people before.”
Jung Heewon knew she was in deep when that just made her want to see Lee Seolhwa again. “How do you know? She keep the bodies in her place?”
“Who knows? She’s definitely keeping something there, though,” Han Sooyoung said, shoveling rice in her mouth like a starving man. “I’ve never actually been to her apartment, but I heard rumors that it stinks something awful. And she never lets anyone in, not even Yoo Joonghyuk when they were dating. Maybe she’s selling organs in there.”
“Maybe she just likes her privacy. Anyway, who cares what’s in her place—do you think I could catch her… somewhere… you know?”
Han Sooyoung shook her head. “You don’t want to do this, Jung Heewon. Trust me. She’s out of her mind and out of your league.”
Jung Heewon scowled. “I sprained my ankle for your dinner, so you might as well get me a date in return.”
“What, your leg’s fine,” Han Sooyoung grumbled, but after a long-suffering sigh, she set her food aside and fished out her phone. “I know Yoo Sangah’s on actual speaking terms with her. Damn, you’re really going to try and hook up with Yoo Joonghyuk’s ex, huh?” In an undertone, she added, “Hopefully that means you’ll be her type too: muscles for brains.”
So one thing led to another: Yoo Sangah helped properly introduce the two of them, Han Sooyoung ordered more takeout, and Jung Heewon strategically timed her deliveries so she could ever-so-coincidentally run into Lee Seolhwa again, who always went off-campus around the same time everyday to do… something. Jung Heewon wasn’t really sure. Anyway, the point is, she’d finally scored herself a date, and she had spent almost the entire week leading up to this weekend thinking of conversation cues and things to do together after their lunch. You know, just in case Jung Heewon could get a dinner, too.
And it has been going fine so far! The date’s just started, they’ve just set foot in the restaurant (that Jung Heewon is definitely going to go broke paying for, but it’s fine, love is all about sacrifice), and okay, Lee Seolhwa is just a little bit strange. That’s fine. Jung Heewon is totally fine with strange. Just… maybe she should have prepared more conversation cues. Her usual ones aren’t cutting it.
Whatever. She’s not about to back out after three weird answers, Jung Heewon’s no coward. “Uh, no,” she answers. “I didn’t know you could… garden mushrooms. What’s it like?”
It must have been the right thing to say, because Lee Seolhwa brightens. “I’m glad you asked! It’s actually quite simple,” she says, and then proceeds to go on about the least simple instructions Jung Heewon has ever heard of, precise temperature measurements and all. “Really, though, the fun part is just seeing them sprouting in the most random of places outside my unit,” Lee Seolhwa says. “Although I suppose it isn’t as fun to the ones who get poisoned.”
Jung Heewon is at first relieved to hear a string of words she actually understands before the horror sets in. “P… Poisoned…?”
“Yes. Some people think the mushrooms are edible and eat them. It’s a good thing I keep an eye out for any stalks without caps and ask around often.” Lee Seolhwa tilts her head. “I couldn’t save everyone from kidney and liver failure, though… but, well, that’s their own fault for just eating anything off the ground, don’t you think?”
Why does she grow poisonous mushrooms that can cause kidney and liver failure!? This woman is more frightening than Jung Heewon had thought. “Uh… Uh, yeah! They should… be more careful… about poisonous mushrooms in their apartment building,” Jung Heewon manages, weakly. “Is that why you, uh, don’t like having people over, Seolhwa-ssi?” she remembers to ask. “Han Sooyoung mentioned it the other day.”
“Oh, so Heewon-ssi talks about me to her friends?” Lee Seolhwa asks, sweetly. Jung Heewon only has time to feel her face go burning-hot before Lee Seolhwa speaks again. “That’s not it, really. I like my privacy. There are just some things you can’t do with someone else in the room, you know? And most people don’t understand why I keep the mushrooms around and stop talking to me afterwards.”
“Ah. Right, that sucks.” Jung Heewon was right about it being a privacy thing after all. Maybe the bad smell is from the mushrooms too? “So, uh…” Jung Heewon wracks her head for something else to say, then has to restrain a sigh of relief when the waiter returns with their food. “Oh, food’s here! Wow, Seolhwa-ssi, you must really like mushrooms,” her idiot self says, when she sees the mushroom pieces scattered along the pasta Lee Seolhwa had ordered.
Lee Seolhwa shrugs. “Some of them are nutritious, and some of them are poisonous. Aren’t they fascinating? That’s what I’m doing my thesis about, actually.”
“Thesis? About mushrooms?”
“Specifically about new ways we can put certain species that grow using certain methods to medicinal use. I’ve been running some experiments in my apartment—ah, but I’m not about to go on about my research on a date,” Lee Seolhwa says, and Jung Heewon’s heart rockets up to her throat at the reminder. Right. She’d almost forgotten that this is a date and not, well, her trying to find out just what is wrong with Lee Seolhwa. “What about you, Heewon-ssi? You do deliveries, but that’s about all I know about you.”
After lunch, they wander aimlessly in the surrounding area—through the park (where Jung Heewon is immediately accosted by dogs begging for pets), down the streets (Lee Seolhwa makes window-shopping look unbelievably graceful), and even in the aquarium they almost pass by. It’s having some kind of opening promo and is selling tickets half-off, which is how Jung Heewon can even afford one in the first place; she’d gone through a few First Dates 101 guides, and a lot of them had mentioned aquariums, but Jung Heewon honestly failed to see how watching fish could be fun.
Then again, Lee Seolhwa finds growing mushrooms fun, so maybe Jung Heewon should have planned the aquarium visit in advance after all. “Do you like places like these too, Seolhwa-ssi?” Jung Heewon asks, moving to stand beside Lee Seolhwa while she’s gazing adoringly at one of the tanks, though Jung Heewon… can’t actually see any fish in the tank. Don’t tell me she’s admiring the seaweed? Is she a botany student or something? “Do you want to go to the planetarium while we’re at it?”
Lee Seolhwa smiles up at her. “That sounds nice. We should do that next time.”
Next time hits Jung Heewon harder than a punch in the gut, sweeter than on a kiss on the lips.
Of course, Lee Seolhwa just has to turn back to the tank and point at what Jung Heewon had initially thought was just some funky rock decoration. “That’s the stonefish. Did you know they’re the most venomous fish in the world? Apparently even just one sting can lead to tissue death, temporary paralysis, and death.”
“Oh,” Jung Heewon says, weakly. “That’s… neat. You think they have those at the souvenir shop?”
They don’t have stuffed plushies of stonefish at the aquarium’s souvenir shop, but they do have stuffed pufferfish, which are the most poisonous (there’s a difference) fish in the world. Lee Seolhwa falls in love at first sight with what Jung Heewon thinks has to be the ugliest little fat stuffed fish she’s ever seen. “Isn’t it adorable?” Lee Seolhwa says, lifting the pufferfish doll to Jung Heewon’s face. Its evil beady glass eyes bore into her soul. “You should get something too, Heewon-ssi.”
“Yeah?” Jung Heewon doesn’t know how to break it to her that the price tag on that pufferfish is enough to keep her well away from so much as entertaining the thought of a similar purchase. “Uh, I, uh… This one’s cute.” She reaches blindly into the discount rack and comes out with a wooden shark keychain in hand. It feels like it’d snap into splintered pieces if she gripped it a little tighter than usual.
Lee Seolhwa looks contemplatively down at it. “It looks like it’s going to shatter in your fist.”
“Well, it’s on the discount rack for a reason.”
“I’ll get you this.” Lee Seolhwa very gently places her pufferfish in Jung Heewon’s arms, then reaches up for—holy shit—a truly humongous shark plushie instead. “Surely this is a step up? And won’t break apart if you throw at a wall for stress relief.”
The shark plushie is a lot cuter than the pufferfish. “You don’t mind?”
“As long as you don’t either.” Lee Seolhwa takes the shark keychain from Jung Heewon, who has to pretend she isn’t internally freaking out over the unnecessary brush of their fingers against each other, and returns it to the hook it had been hanging on. “Let’s go. I think I saw a restaurant outside nearby. Do you want to have dinner while we’re out?”
Jung Heewon has never wanted to have dinner so badly. “Yeah, alright!” She looks down at the pufferfish in her arms, which Lee Seolhwa is smiling lovingly at, and adds, “This is the sort of thing you want on your bed, though? It’s not… a bit creepy?”
“There are plenty of other things I would like in my bed,” Lee Seolhwa says, and ignores how Jung Heewon probably looks like the stupid flushed emoji as she heads to the counter.
The restaurant turns out to be mostly seafood, and Jung Heewon snorts at the sight of pufferfish on the menu. Miraculously enough, though, they stay away from any more topics like poisonous mushrooms and venomous fish; Jung Heewon learns how Lee Seolhwa has a horrible singing voice, can cook maybe five dishes but burns everything else, and even speaks fairly decent Chinese, which is more than a little impressive considering Jung Heewon can barely remember all the letters in the English alphabet on a good day.
In return, Jung Heewon feels woefully uninteresting: high school graduate turned fast food restaurant delivery girl by day, bartender in a cheap bar by night. “I lived with Han Sooyoung and Sangah-ssi for a while,” she says, not sure where she’s going with this. “Until they, uh, you know.”
“Started—” Lee Seolhwa tilts her head in lieu of filling up the blank—“on the couch?”
“Wow, yeah, exactly. How did you know? Did Sangah-ssi tell you?”
“No, I just guessed. So they are in a relationship?”
“Wha—S-Seolhwa-ssi!?”
The food is better than expected, and the prices aren’t too bad either, though this time Lee Seolhwa insists on paying for both of them after Jung Heewon’s (wallet’s) sacrifice during lunch. It’s later than Jung Heewon expected when they step outside, and they reluctantly climb on her motorbike to head back to Lee Seolhwa’s place—well, hopefully they’re both reluctant and Lee Seolhwa isn’t just frowning to be polite or something. Jung Heewon tries to savor Lee Seolhwa’s arms wrapped around her torso for as long as she can, but the drive back to her apartment isn’t very long, and before she knows it they’re back at the building front.
“We’re here,” she says, reaching up to unstrap Lee Seolhwa’s helmet for her. “Today was fun, Seolhwa-ssi,” Jung Heewon adds. Mushrooms and stonefish aside, anyway. “Um, if you want to, we should…”
“Are you going already?” Lee Seolhwa asks. “If you don’t have work tomorrow, why don’t you come up for a while, Heewon-ssi?”
Jung Heewon almost falls off her bike at the speed with which she follows Lee Seolhwa through the front door, up the building stairs, and down the hall where her unit is. She hadn’t been kidding about the random mushrooms, that’s for sure; on the way here Jung Heewon has already spotted a few sprouting out of the cracks of the wall and floor. “My place is a bit of a mess. I don’t usually have anyone over,” Lee Seolhwa says, almost shyly. “I hope it’s not a problem.”
“No, of course not!” It does kind of smell, even from out here, but as if Jung Heewon could actually care about that right now. Han Sooyoung had been wrong after all—of course Lee Seolhwa has a few people over every once in a while. Maybe she’d just been exaggerating. Or maybe… but Jung Heewon couldn’t possibly be the first person other than Lee Seolhwa herself to step inside her apartment? The thought makes her giddy all over. She almost opens her mouth to ask what they’ll be doing, but then the possible answer Lee Seolhwa might give has her too pumped-up on nerves to speak.
Lee Seolhwa smiles, so sweet it rips Jung Heewon’s heart right out of her chest. “I’m glad. Then… come in, please. Oh, but be careful where you step,” she says, pushing the door open. “The mushrooms on the floor are the most important.”
“A-Ah. Right.” The stink intensifies and worsens a hundredfold, and now Jung Heewon is genuinely worried because she hadn’t thought mushrooms would smell this bad, but Lee Seolhwa is still just smiling expectantly at her, so she holds her breath as she crosses the threshold. It’s dark inside, but with just the hallway light Jung Heewon can see mushrooms sprouting up from… something on the floor. Soil? Grass? A flower bed? It doesn’t look like any of those. “Seolhwa-ssi,” Jung Heewon says, when Lee Seolhwa steps inside and closes the door behind her, “don’t you think it smells a little… strange… in here?”
“Does it?” Lee Seolhwa doesn’t turn on the lights, and with the door closed Jung Heewon can’t see a thing. “Does it bother you, Heewon-ssi?”
“Well, I mean, I guess you’d get used to it after a while. But… why would you get used to this anyway?”
“For the sake of my thesis, of course,” Lee Seolhwa says, cheerily, only—why does she sound a lot closer than she should? Jung Heewon’s heart starts beating rapidly, though she now has no idea from excitement or nervousness, or both. “I told you, didn’t I? I’m running a few experiments in my room… and I’d really love it if you could help me out with them, Heewon-ssi.”