Even if the takeout hadn't arrived, Liu Xin'an and Bae Juhyun never ran out of things to talk about when together.
In the presence of others, the extremely shy Bae Juhyun seemed to have endless questions for Liu Xin'an, curious about his profession and his country.
And Liu Xin'an patiently told Bae Juhyun everything he could and knew, in exchange earning the girl's cute cries and exclamations.
After chatting like this for a while, the doorbell rang again.
Liu Xin'an stood up and walked towards the door.
"The delivery must be here."
Bae Juhyun also stood up.
But don't misunderstand, she wasn't going to help Liu Xin'an get the food; she found a spot in the corridor out of sight and hid herself there.
The same old story—if the delivery guy saw her, that would be the end of the world.
Exposure of her identity was a minor issue, but if Bae Juhyun was caught staying late at night in a man's house and turned into a news scandal...
She didn't even dare to think about it.
Luckily, the frightening possibility didn't come to pass.
Liu Xin'an returned to the living room with two bags from the entryway and glanced at the curious Bae Juhyun, who was peeking about.
"Eat here or go to the balcony?"
"Here, the balcony is too cold."
"Yet you run off to the balcony every day?"
"Every time I go out there, I wear a really big and thick coat, then curl up inside it," Bae Juhyun said with a giggle, and she even mimicked the motion of putting on a hat with her hand, indicating she always dressed warmly.
"Do you even feel the cold breeze that way?"
"Why would I want to feel the cold breeze? It's too cold."
"Err..." Liu Xin'an went silent; he went up there just to feel the cold breeze.
He didn't get cold easily; even dressed like that on the balcony, he was completely okay.
But since the girl mentioned she would be cold, he didn't insist. After laying out the food, Liu Xin'an looked at Bae Juhyun again.
"What would you like to drink?"
"Water is fine," Bae Juhyun hurriedly said. Although Liu Xin'an was a friend, he was just a friend and also a man.
She would definitely not drink alone in the presence of a man.
That was a basic rule she certainly knew.
Liu Xin'an didn't plan on getting Bae Juhyun drunk. He nodded, stood up, moved to the refrigerator in the kitchen, and took out a bottle of cold water along with a can of beer before returning.
In the meantime, Bae Juhyun had already taken the late-night snacks Liu Xin'an ordered out of the bags.
Despite Bae Juhyun not eating it, he had still ordered fried chicken because he would eat it.
Other items included snacks good for accompanying drinks, like blood sausages and pig's trotters, and of course, the essential packed rice was not missing.
There was a lot of food. Bae Juhyun took the water from Liu Xin'an, who had unscrewed the cap, and a glint of something unusual flashed in her eyes.
"Wow, so considerate. You must have done this for many girls, huh?"
She didn't know why she suddenly blurted out such a line, maybe to spark a topic?
Liu Xin'an was taken aback by Bae Juhyun's remark, chuckled wryly, and waved his hand dismissively, "It's not like what you think, it's just etiquette."
Facing the scissors toward oneself when handing them over, helping others by opening their water bottle—these are just basic social manners. Liu Xin'an did them very well.
Bae Juhyun took a sip of water to moisten her lips, then eagerly surveyed the table full of food in front of her.
"You ordered so much."
"What we don't finish, I plan to eat tomorrow. This way, I won't have to order again."
"Hmm, that's true." She picked up a piece of rice cake and put it in her mouth, then wrinkled her little nose and let out a sound of pure enjoyment.
And Liu Xin'an found Bae Juhyun's reactions peculiar every time he saw them.
Not for any particular reason, but mainly because Bae Juhyun's responses were too good, making him even question whether they were really eating the same thing.
But there's no denying, a great reaction like that could really whet an appetite, not to mention that Bae Juhyun was a beauty with an extremely attractive face that alone could prompt a second helping of rice.
He pulled the ring on the can, took a sip of the cold beer, and contentedly remarked, "Indeed, beer feels more refreshing."
Hearing that, Bae Juhyun glanced at the beer in Liu Xin'an's hand, then averted her gaze.
She knew all too well that these snacks were best paired with a bottle of alcohol, but... no! Drinking alone in front of a man was absolutely out of the question!
And frankly, she wasn't too fond of beer; she quite liked soju, though.
"Haven't you tried our soju before?" she asked curiously all of the sudden.
Liu Xin'an shook his head. He had drunk soju before but, how to put it... perhaps it was because his homeland had tastier spirits.
Apart from the brief fragrance at the first sip, soju really couldn't capture his interest.
Obviously, criticizing someone else's national drink to their face was out of line, so Liu Xin'an chose his words carefully, "I'm not used to it, I prefer this."
However, Bae Juhyun misunderstood his diplomatic answer.
Her face creased slightly, "Try more of it, why don't you? It has a higher alcohol content than beer and goes better with these dishes."
"Right, next time, definitely next time!"
Bae Juhyun definitely didn't play around on some small broken website; she had no idea what "next time for sure" really meant. She simply thought that Liu Xin'an had agreed to try it in the future, so the girl's beautiful face bloomed with a bright smile.
"By the way, what's that boy who's chasing you like?"
Liu Xin'an certainly had a curiosity for gossip. After finding out why Bae Juhyun was hiding, he became very curious about the guy who was pursuing her.
Generally speaking, people are aware of their own limits.
A beauty with Bae Juhyun's looks would only really be pursued by guys who weren't too shabby.
Either they would have looks that matched the girl's, or their assets would pass muster.
After all, in the phrase 'tall, rich, and handsome,' you've got to have either the wealth or the looks, right?
As for being tall... with Bae Juhyun's height, probably any random guy standing next to her would count as tall.
Cough cough cough, he certainly couldn't say that to her face.
This question put Bae Juhyun in a difficult position.
After all, the character was made up, and now Liu Xin'an was asking her to describe this non-existent person...
Bae Juhyun, who wasn't very good at school to begin with, wasn't someone who could spin tales.
Rather than risk exposing herself by blindly making things up, Bae Juhyun quickly changed the subject to Liu Xin'an.
"I don't want to talk about that guy; he's just really annoying, to say the least. But speaking of which, what about you? You're so handsome, you must have no lack of admirers, right?"
"Me?" Liu Xin'an pointed at himself and asked with a laugh.
Bae Juhyun nodded, her big eyes full of curiosity.
Liu Xin'an wasn't planning to lie; the truth was indeed just as Bae Juhyun described.
"Back when I was a student, indeed, quite a few people chased after me, but now that I'm a full-time video blogger, the number of women I come into contact with has decreased significantly."
After becoming a full-time blogger, aside from thinking about video ideas, he would just nest at home playing games to gather material.
When he had a moment to spare, he'd edit videos, and he also needed to stream live every day without fail...
Managing both streaming and uploading videos concurrently had already drained all of Liu Xin'an's energy. Where would he find the time to nurture a romance?
"Who would want to date someone who's always so busy with work that they can't find any free time, right?"
Liu Xin'an laughed at himself. In fact, he should consider taking a good rest or maybe even taking a break from his streaming work.
If he were to only upload videos and not stream live, he would have a lot of time on his hands.
He would have more than enough time to live his life, find a woman he liked to have a relationship with, or travel and improve himself...
But the moment he thought about how taking a break would disappoint his loyal fans, Liu Xin'an couldn't dare to stop.
His fans' love was both his honor and his pressure.
Alcohol numbed Liu Xin'an's brain and prompted him to pour his heart out to the girl sitting before him.
Bae Juhyun listened earnestly; emotionally, she felt the same way as Liu Xin'an.
However, to tell the truth, she wasn't nearly as busy as Liu Xin'an.
"Then why don't you just date a video blogger?"
Liu Xin'an chuckled lightly, then his eyes lit up.
"Hey! You've really hit on something. There's actually a friend in the industry who's currently studying abroad, and she's very pretty!"
Bae Juhyun was startled, then blinked and fashioned a smile.
"Really? Do you have a picture?"
"Hmm, let me find one for you."
Liu Xin'an, feeling enthusiastic, took out his phone and opened Snow Cat's social media page.
Indeed, Snow Cat whom he had met a couple of days ago was a video blogger with both beauty and a great figure.
And her status was similar to his; they both were among the top creators on the small broken website—they could certainly understand each other.
However, they didn't have much contact; Liu Xin'an merely remembered that there was such a person, and that didn't mean he really wanted to pursue Snow Cat...
Soon, a photo of a girl with a pretty face and a tall figure was found by Liu Xin'an from the social media page, and he turned his phone screen towards Bae Juhyun to show her.
Bae Juhyun took one look and then spread her hands.
"She looks good, seems like a good match for you."
"Haha, I'm just saying, I don't have any plans for dating right now."
Mainly, dating... maybe another time. He had business to attend to this trip.
"What's up?"
"Um, some personal matters that I'd rather not talk about, private stuff. Anyway, I just don't have that thought at the moment."
Liu Xin'an took a sip of his drink and continued chatting cheerfully.
Bae Juhyun did not respond, instead, she just lowered her head and poked at the pitiful rice cake with her chopsticks, skewering it before popping it into her mouth, chewing in small bites.
"Are those girls staying at your place tonight?"
Bae Juhyun nodded and affirmed with a sound.
"So, it's no problem for you to come over here late at night?"
"What could be the problem, we are not some odd... "
Bae Juhyun had instinctively responded but stopped herself midway through her sentence. It wasn't a big deal not to mention it, but now that she had, she suddenly felt the atmosphere turn inexplicably strange.