Tell Me You Like It [R19]

Chapter 6.1: An Impure Intention

Cover

 ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ: ᴀᴛʜᴀɴᴀꜱɪᴀ

The two sat down in chairs.

The night view of Toledo, which was lit along the wall through the window, was so beautiful that she could hardly help but admire it. In the darkened city of Toledo, the cathedral and Alcázar were shining most splendidly. The lights lit throughout the city were shining as if stars were floating on the ground.

“Anna, you have excellent travel luck. Even though we made the reservation late, you still managed to get a seat by the window.”

Luciano whistled and admired.

“I guess I accidentally changed my luck with the theft incident.”

She replied, now recovered enough from the shock to make a joke. It was all thanks to Luciano.

She didn’t want to continue to dwell on the incident when she was with such a beautiful man with such a brilliant night view before her eyes. She wanted to remember this trip pleasantly even when she went back to Korea. She didn’t know when such luck would come again, so she wanted to cherish every moment and remember it happily.

Since she had decided to seek his help, she wanted to fully enjoy the trip. Money could be earned again. Anna made up her mind to appreciate it all.

A little later, a white-haired, black-clad employee brought them a menu.

At the suggestion of the employee, they tried a glass of red wine produced in the nearby region before deciding to order a bottle.

Anna’s eyes were wide open by the strong scent of fruit in her mouth. As it smoothly went down her throat, the fragrant scent brushed against her nostrils and pierced deep into her lungs.

“It’s really delicious.”

“This isn’t too bad.”

The two spoke at the same time, but the reviews were different.

“’This isn’t too bad.’? How delicious is Italian wine then?”

“It’s more delicious than this. You must come to Italy one day.”

Luciano, whose lips were pulled up, showed off like a male peacock with its beautiful feathers spread out. It was cute and amusing to see him consistently excited about wine.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

As the waiter approached, Luciano ordered the whole bottle of wine they were drinking.

“Isn’t that too much to order?”

“Don’t you want to drink it?”

“It’s not that, but…”

Anna’s words trailed off. She enjoyed drinking and was good at it, but she was a little surprised by the high price.

“The night view is so beautiful, how can we resist drinking wine?”

“That’s true. But I think it’s a lot.”

“Don’t worry. If you can’t drink it all, you can leave it.”

After ordering the course meal, a bottle of wine was on the white table. The staff began pouring red wine into the wine glass in a skillful pose.

“Really!”

“What’s wrong?”

Luciano reacted reflexively to Anna’s cry.

“It’s good to drink, but how can I drive downstairs?”

“We can call a taxi, or we can give a tip to the staff and ask them to drive us back to the hostel. Don’t worry about it. The distance is short, so it should be possible. Or we can ask the taxi driver to do that for us. We’ll find a way somehow.”

“Oh…”

In short, the answer was to spend money. It was a different mindset from scrimping and saving, but it didn’t bother her. After all, Anna had come all the way here on the plane to enjoy herself.

“Anna, when you drink in Korea, do you just drink or do you also clink glasses?”

“Oh, we do that. We say ‘geonbae’ and clink glasses.”

“How do you say it? Say it again for me.”

“‘Geonbae.’ Geon, bae.”

“Gunbae?”

“Just say ‘geon.’ Geon.”

To help him with the pronunciation, Anna broke it down syllable by syllable.

“Geon? It sounds similar to ‘gun’ in English.”

“Oh! That’s right.”

“Geonbae.”

Luciano’s attempt to pronounce “geon” with an accent brought a smile to Anna’s face, but she held back her laughter and praised him.

“Well done. It’s perfect.”

“Does my pronunciation sound like a Korean?”

“Yes. You speak Korean very well.”

“Really?”

“Yes?”

“Anna, you also speak Korean very well.”

Anna burst into laughter, belatedly getting the joke. Seeing Anna laughing out loud, Luciano couldn’t help but join in, reaching across the table to move his wine glass to the center. And of course, he made sure to say “geonbae” correctly.

Anna managed to control her laughter and lifted her glass, gently clinking it with Luciano’s. The sound of the lightly clinking wine glasses resonated cheerfully between the two. They both laughed and shouted “geonbae” at the same time.

“How do you say it in Italy?”

“We say ‘chin chin.'” Luciano replied.

Instead of “chin chin,” they sometimes said “salute,” but Luciano started with the simpler and easier-to-remember term.

“Chin chin. The pronunciation is cute.”

“Geonbae is cuter.”

“I think your chin chin is cuter.”

“No, geonbae is cuter.”

“But chin chin is easier to pronounce…”

As Anna was about to continue her reasoning, Luciano interjected.

“Anna is cuter.”

“Right? Chin chin is… huh?”

Caught off guard by Luciano’s sudden comment, Anna’s eyes widened.

“Anna is cuter.”

Anna found excitement in her clear, autumn-sky eyes. Like twinkling stars in the sky, they reflected in his eyes as well.

Although she couldn’t understand the lyrics, she could faintly hear the romantic voice of a singer in the distance.

Luciano was looking at her like a man who saw the most precious thing in the world. He looked at her as if he was seeing the cutest. most lovely thing in the world.

She couldn’t understand. Anna had never seen herself like that when she faced herself in the mirror, let alone her parents who gave birth to her.

Anna didn’t know why he looked at her like a sunflower longing for the sun, but she liked how he looked at her like that.

His tender gaze was so gentle. Anna could feel warmth in his serene blue eyes, and her heart began to dance. It felt like fluffy cotton candy was rising from the depths of her chest. An elusive tingling sensation was resonating within her heart.

Anna looked deeply into the transparent, deep blue pupils that sparkled. She realized that it mirrored her own excitement.

It was a feeling she had never experienced in her twenty-nine years of life.

To have someone look at her as a person, to feel an attraction, to receive attention, compliments, and laughter…

Anna suddenly realized how deep and intense her loneliness had been.

She had been so lonely that she hadn’t even recognized her own loneliness.

From a young age, she had always felt lonely. The earliest memory she could recall was of her younger sibling sitting on their grandmother’s lap, everyone smiling and laughing, but her not receiving any attention. She was always overlooked, always unimportant…

The never-ending echo of her loneliness had exhausted her to the point of giving up.

She thought to herself, ‘Ah, I must be an unlovable existence.’

She disconnected from her family, improved her quality of life, and saved money, but the time she spent alone was still filled with solitude.

The profound emptiness and loneliness she felt couldn’t be cut away like a pair of scissors would.

In the deep corners of her heart, the unstoppable void of emptiness and loneliness couldn’t be filled no matter how hard she tried.

She thought maybe new experiences, like traveling, could help fill that void.

But it was the constant gaze, mixed with consideration and interest, and the eyes that saw her as someone loveable, that slowly melted her frozen loneliness without her even realizing it. The process was painful, yet it brought her joy. Sorrow mixed with happiness.

There were people who could and would look at her like that, too.

In the world, there could be people like that.

It was an unbelievable stroke of luck. A fantasy that she had never even dreamed of was vividly sparkling before her eyes.

Even if it was just an illusion allowed for the two weeks she was in Spain, it didn’t matter. She welcomed any warmth that was only allowed during her time with Luciano.

Luciano’s gaze was affectionate and warm enough for Anna to finally realize that someone had wished to look at her like that.

Once she became aware of it, she couldn’t resist this warmth. And she was happy that the person it came from was none other than Luciano.

If someone’s heart wasn’t pounding when being complimented as cute and pretty, by a man so gorgeous and radiant it was almost blinding, then that someone wasn’t human. Anyone would feel uplifted, as if they were flying in the sky, and never stop smiling, like someone on drugs.

“Thank you.”

She smiled bashfully with flushed cheeks. She couldn’t help but smile at the man’s compliments that came from his heart. Being conscious of him and understanding what she wanted, strangely, embarrassment rushed over her, causing her to sip on her wine awkwardly.

Before long, the waiter brought appetizers: potato croquettes with ham and vegetable soup with beans.

Anna cut one of the croquettes in half and placed it in her mouth.

“Wow.”

“Is it delicious?”

“It’s a taste that opens my eyes.”

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Athanasia’s time to *shine*