My Japanese Childhood Friend Is Too Flirty - Chapter 144



143. Wedding Ceremony, Honeymoon, and Just the Two of Them…. (5)

Day two of the honeymoon.

Aki and I, after happily playing in the hotel pool for about two hours, showered, changed our clothes, and headed into the city of Paris.

Today, Aki is feeling well, so we’ll go to the Arc de Triomphe, then stroll down the Champs-Élysées nearby. We’ll move on to the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures, and then, in the evening, we plan to take a Bateaux Mouches cruise to see the Parisian night view. If nothing unexpected happens, we’ll be back at the hotel a little after 10 PM.

“Husband, did you pack everything?”

“Wallet, phone, passport, keycard… yeah. Got it all.”

“Hehe, okay. Let’s go then…!”

Aki smiles and holds out her hand. I smile back and take it.

Hand in hand, so sweetly, the trip begins.

We left the hotel almost glued together, as if flaunting our newlywed status. The first stop, as I just said, is the Arc de Triomphe. It’s at the western end of the Champs-Élysées, smack-dab in the middle of the famous Place Charles de Gaulle, so it wasn’t hard to find.

What was difficult wasn’t finding the location, but going up the Arc. You can’t just admire the Arc de Triomphe from the outside; there are interior stairs that lead to the observation deck at the very top, and they were a lot more numerous than we expected.

Well, the Arc is 50 meters tall, so it’s to be expected, I suppose. Anyway, Aki and I made it to the top, finally, and looked out at the view from the open-air deck.

“Wow…!”

“Oh…”

Unlike Seoul, there aren’t any tall buildings here, so no matter which way you look, the cityscape spreads out, unobstructed.

It’s so unobstructed that you can even faintly see the Grande Arche de la Défense in the distance, in the western business district. If this were Seoul, even if you came up to a 50-meter observation deck, you’d barely see the side of a high-rise apartment building.

“Even though we didn’t come up that high, the scenery is amazing! It’s totally different from Seoul…!”

“Yeah. It really is. It’s so… unique?”

To see the Seoul skyline like this, you’d have to take the cable car up Namsan Mountain or go to the top of the 63 Building. I guess that’s why people are so up in arms about limiting building heights in Seoul.

To be honest, I never really understood those arguments before. But after seeing the cityscape of a European city with my own eyes, I get it. People who have seen the grandeur of Paris firsthand must find Seoul’s skyline pretty suffocating. All you see is apartments, no matter where you look.

“Aki, should I take your picture?”

“Yeah, yeah! Please do…!”

“Okay. Let’s see… how about standing over here?”

I had Aki stand in a spot where the Grande Arche would be in the background. Then I took out my phone and took a picture.

Click, click-!

I quickly took a couple of shots, then changed the angle slightly and took a couple more. Then, I added some minor edits and checked the results.

Hmm. Even if I do say so myself, I took a good picture. After all, ninety percent of a good photo is the model, and when the model is good, it’s easy to get a nice shot. I admired my handiwork in my head, then showed the photo to Aki.

“It came out well, right?”

Aki in the photo is smiling, wearing a thick knit sweater, a skirt, nude-colored stockings, and an ivory trench coat. She’s wearing a heat-tech layer underneath, and the weather today is unusually warm for October, which is why this outfit is even possible… but that’s not really important, so let’s move on.

Aki smiled brightly, clearly happy with the result.

“Hehe… it came out great. Thank you, I love you, Husband…!”

Smooch.

Aki linked arms with me and gave me a peck on the cheek. I felt inwardly pleased, but I cleared my throat in a nonchalant way and said,

“Want me to take a few more pictures?”

“Hmm…. Let’s take one together this time. Now that we’re here, it’s better if dear husband takes one with me, right?”

“Ah, should we? Then….”

Switching to selfie mode, I held up my phone high.

*Click*—!

With the Parisian cityscape as our backdrop, the affectionate moment of Aki and I, arms linked, was captured perfectly in the photo. I definitely have to make this my KakaoTalk profile picture later.

“Okay, done. Shall we head to the next place?”

“Ah. Just a moment, let me take a few more photos…!”

I waited for Aki, who was diligently snapping pictures of the Parisian panorama. About ten minutes worth.

After that wait, we moved on to the next course. Our second destination was the Champs-Élysées, right next to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s the main thoroughfare of Paris, France, and renowned as the most beautiful avenue in the world, so it was truly dazzling.

Plane trees stood in rows on both sides of the street, and luxury boutiques, of brands that everyone knows by name, were everywhere the eye could see. Car dealerships displaying high-end vehicles, the kind that would make any man’s heart race, lined up, literally, one after another.

There are also luxury streets like this in Korea…but speaking from the perspective of someone who’s been to both, the Champs-Élysées is better, I think. Of course, Korea’s luxury street is also well done, and the view is beautiful enough to make you feel like a tremendously important person just by walking there. But still, it can’t quite capture the atmosphere of the original. Truly.

“Wow…. Impressive.”

Looking around here and there as we walked, I muttered in front of a Mercedes-Benz dealership. A car with the Mercedes emblem was parked inside the glass-walled building. Its sheen was so beautiful and refined that no man could possibly just walk by.

“You think *that’s* impressive? I don’t quite get it, but….”

“What…?”

My pride took a little hit.

To say something like that about a brand new Mercedes-Benz, a dream car for men. This was truly an unbearable comment as a man. I turned to look at Aki with a slightly serious expression.

“Aki, that’s something you really don’t understand….”

“Ah, should I ask Papa to buy me one?”

“…….”

*Gulp.*

I swallowed the words I was about to say.

For a moment, I was thrilled and tempted by Aki’s words, but…even so, asking for a Mercedes-Benz is a bit much, right?

“Aki, that costs around 80 million won in its barest form. Asking him to buy that would be too much of a burden, wouldn’t it?”

“Barest form? What’s barest form?”

“Hmm…. To put it simply, it means a car with no options added?”

“Ah~ So that’s barest form. Because there’s nothing inside?”

“Uh-huh. That’s right. Our Aki is so smart…?”

She understood even a potentially difficult analogy so well, she’s truly impressive. Now she could be called an honorary Korean.

Jokingly praising her, I gently stroked Aki’s head. Aki, pressed close against my side, muffled a laugh.

“If you add all the options, does it come to about a hundred million won?”

“Well… it’s different for each model, so I can’t really say. That’s an E-Class, and even within the E-Class, there are different sub-levels, so the prices all vary. The cheapest one is eighty million won, and the most expensive, bare-bones one is nearly a hundred million. If you put all the options on a hundred-million-won car, you need several tens of millions more, and if you think about acquisition taxes and such, it’s almost a hundred and fifty million won?”

Even after saying it, my mouth hangs open. A hundred and fifty million won for one car. Even if I saved every penny of my salary from the army, I wouldn’t have even thirty million.

“Hee-eung. I see. A hundred and fifty million…”

“Expensive, isn’t it?”

“…Well, it is a bit. Shall we get going soon?”

Aki, who seemed to be pondering something, grabs my arm and pulls. I nod to indicate that I understand, and then we walk along the Champs-Élysées.

We look at buildings and chat about this and that, walking for about an hour. On the way, we see a public bicycle rental station and stop for a moment.

Aki shows interest, looking down at the bicycles.

“Darling, shall we take this to the Eiffel Tower?”

“Ride bikes?”

“We’ve seen most of the sights, and it’ll be much faster than walking, so it’ll be nice, I think. How about it?”

“Sounds good. Shall we rent a two-seater and ride together?”

“Mm-hm. Let’s do that. I’ll go rent the bikes!”

Aki says enthusiastically and walks toward the ‘Velib’ public bicycle rental station. I watch Aki’s back as she walks, her trench coat fluttering, and I think.

‘…A skirt and a bicycle, huh.’

I’m glad I forced her, halfway, to wear those undershorts.

If she hadn’t… um… that would have been a real problem.

“Darling, I rented the bikes~!”

“Oh, already?”

I walk towards Aki, who is waving her hand back and forth. The bicycle rental station had instructions written in French, English, Japanese, Chinese, and, surprisingly, even Korean.

After reading through it, it seems like if you buy something called a Ticket V, you can rent a bicycle for up to 45 minutes. The price is three euros. It’s a little less than five thousand won in Korean money, but I don’t know if it’s expensive or not. I haven’t had the chance to rent a bike lately, you see.

“Darling, get on!”

Aki, sitting in the back seat, pats the front seat.

From noble mtl dot com

Seeing Aki’s childlike innocence, I chuckle and get on.

“Where shall I take you, madam?”

“Please take me to the Eiffel Tower, driver!”

“…Pfft.”

Just look at her playing along with the act. She’s so cute I could die…

“Alright, let’s go…!”

“Whoa…! Faster than I thought…!”

I rode along the bicycle path with Aki on the back.

The path was wonderfully maintained, so we zoomed along without a hitch, the unusually warm autumn wind of late October buffeting our faces as we pressed forward for several minutes.

“We’ve arrived, madam!”

And so, we reached the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower.

Aki and I returned the rental bikes after getting off at the Trocadéro station. Then, after purchasing some bottled water to drink, gum to chew, and a picnic blanket to sit on, we headed for the Champ de Mars, a park known as a prime Eiffel Tower picnic spot. As soon as we entered, a tremendous crowd came into view, even though it was a weekday.

Some appeared to be locals, others tourists like us, and there were also several peculiar individuals carrying enormous cameras and wearing placards around their necks. As far as I knew, those folks were probably freelance photographers.

“Wow…. There are so many people. Honey, shall we find a spot first…?”

“Mhm. Let’s. I think there might be some open spaces if we go further in.”

I took Aki and headed further into the park.

Needless to say, the area directly beneath and near the Eiffel Tower was so jam-packed with people that there wasn’t even room to set foot. So, we spread our blanket a little ways away from the Tower, a spot that allowed us to see it without being too far.

“Honey, I brought chocolate. Want some?”

“Chocolate? Ah, sure. Give me one.”

“Here you go. Aah~”

“Aah….”

“……Hehe. So cute.”

“……Munch.”

The chocolate was quite sweet.

It was a hard candy type of chocolate, so it wasn’t really meant to be chewed. I was slowly letting it melt when Aki held out another one with her hand.

“Here, one more~”

“I’m still eating this one….”

“Mhm, hurry! Aah~”

“……Aah.”

*Click!*

Just as I was about to take the chocolate. A noisy shutter sound rang out from beside us. Aki and I startled, looking toward the sound.

A blonde woman holding a large camera was smiling down at us.

“……?”

What’s up with this person? Why is she taking our picture?

Slightly bewildered, I looked at Aki. I don’t speak French well, so I looked at her to ask her to say something on my behalf…

“Are you Korean?”

Amazingly, the blonde woman holding the camera addressed us in Korean.

I was inwardly surprised, but I responded calmly, first and foremost.

“I am Korean, yes… Why did you take our picture?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I startle you? I’m actually a candid photographer. I was watching you two from the side, and you looked so good together. Before I knew it, I just absentmindedly… I’m truly sorry…!”

She even bowed her head deeply, seemingly sincere in her apology. I had thought her rudeness to take a photo first was inexcusable, but seeing her act like this, perhaps that wasn’t the case.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll let it go since you apologized. But the photo…”

“Excuse me. You said you’re a candid photographer?”

Aki butted in.

The blonde woman nodded.

“That’s right. A candid photographer.”

“Then, would you mind taking some pictures of us? We’ll pay you.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yes. Please? Darling, you don’t mind, right?”

“Huh…? Oh, no, it’s fine by me…”

I had to go along with whatever Aki wanted. I nodded rather awkwardly.

“Alright! I’ll take them for you. So, first… Ah, would you stand facing each other over here?”

The blonde woman guided us to a spot with the Eiffel Tower behind us. I moved as instructed and stood facing Aki.

“I’ll take the photos, so you two just talk comfortably. Okay, let’s start…!”

Click, click-!

The shutter sound echoed from the blonde woman’s camera. I tried my best to avoid looking directly at the camera, consciously muttering quietly.

“…What does that woman do?”

She looks like a complete Westerner, but her pronunciation is quite fluent. Maybe she’s a Korean mixed-race like Aki……

Ah. Aki isn’t Korean mixed-race, is she?

“I don’t know… But she doesn’t seem like a bad person, does she? She apologized right away, and she’s polite.”

“Well, that’s true, but I’m still uneasy…”

“It’s okay. Darling, who knows? Maybe she’ll give us a discount because she was rude…!”

“Okay, now a k*ss! The woman, give the man a k*ss, please~!”

“…Pardon?”

“Hehe… Darling, come here…!”