Chapter 258: Date In Disneyland II

He took longer.

She watched him.

"You always actually read menus," she said.

"Yes," he said.

"Most people decide what they want and then look at the menu to confirm," she said.

"I know," he said. "I read them because something you haven’t thought to want is usually on there."

She held her chin in her hand and looked at him across the table.

"Tell me something," she said.

"What kind of something," he said.

"Something I don’t know yet," she said. "About you specifically. Not the investments or the building or any of the things I already know." She paused. "Something small."

He thought about it properly.

"I can’t sleep if there’s a sound that doesn’t have a source," he said. "Not loud sounds. Specific unidentified ones. I have to find what’s making them before I can sleep."

She looked at him. "You have to identify the source."

"Yes," he said. "Every time."

"That explains some things," she said.

"What things," he said.

"The way you read rooms," she said. "You’re always looking for the source of things." She tilted her head slightly. "Your turn. Ask me something."

"The pink dress," he said. "If your mother asked you to wear it again now. Would you."

She looked at him for a moment.

"Yes," she said. "Immediately." She paused. "But I’d tell her in advance that I was going to complain about it the entire time."

"That’s the most honest possible answer," he said.

"I’ve been working on being honest," she said. "I have a good example."

He looked at her.

She looked back with the warm specific directness she’d been developing across the months they’d been building this.

The food arrived.

Sean paid when the bill came.

[340 dollars spent]

[Balance: $68,651,667]

[3,400 dollars received — 10x active]

[New Balance: $68,655,067]

—--------------------

The afternoon moved the way good afternoons moved when nothing was required of them specifically.

The adventure section after lunch. The parade, which Olivia had positioned them for with the specific strategic awareness of the color-coded map, standing in the exact spot she’d identified as the optimal viewing point.

Sean watched the parade.

Then he watched Olivia watching the parade.

She was doing the thing she did in the cinema, fully present, not performing enjoyment but actually experiencing it, the slight openness of someone who had allowed themselves to be somewhere completely.

At one point she looked at him looking at her.

"Is there something on my face" she said while blushing and feeling embarrassed that she thought that maybe some cotton candy was stuck on her face.

"No there isn’t anything on your face" Sean said with a smile on his face.

"Really " said Olivia while she uses her hands to wipe her face.

Seeing Olivia doing that made Sean let out a light laugh because he found this side of of Olivia as also cute.

She held his gaze for a moment, feeling shy with redness clearly visible on her cheek.

She quickly reached over and took his hand without saying anything while using her other hands to cover her blushed face because seeing Sean laughing face which she founded handsome had her heart pounding.

Then with a cute low voice Olivia Said "Lets Focus on the Parade "

Sean could hear what she said but he pretended he couldn’t hear and said " What did you said, i couldn’t hear you"

Olivia noticed that this was part of Sean teasing and put her mouth on Sean ears while she repeats what she had said before while blushing.

Sean smiled and kissed Olivia on her cheek and held her hands and said "Okay lets focus on the parade"

They watched the rest of the parade together.

=============

After the parade they walked without the map.

Olivia had put it away after the adventure section, the plan completed, and now they were in the unstructured portion of the afternoon which was its own kind of thing, the wandering that happened when you’d finished what you planned and found yourself in a place with nowhere specific to be next.

They got ice cream from a cart.

Olivia ate hers with the focused appreciation of someone who had done the walking to justify it.

"The debut," he said. "Three months."

"Eleven weeks exactly," she said. "Kwon has a countdown on his office wall. He says it’s motivational. It’s slightly terrifying."

"Are you ready," he said.

She thought about it. "I’m the most prepared I’ve ever been for anything," she said. "Whether that’s the same as ready I won’t know until I’m in it." She looked at the ice cream. "Yuna is better than she thinks she is. Sori is exactly as good as she thinks she is which from Sori is actually quite modest." She paused. "I’m." She stopped.

"What," he said.

"I’m proud of what we built," she said. "The three of us. With Kwon. Over two years." She looked at him. "Whatever happens with the debut, I’m already proud of it."

"That’s the right way to hold it," he said.

"Is it," she said.

"Yes," he said. "The outcome is one thing. What you built to get there is something else. Both are real but only one of them belongs entirely to you regardless of what the outcome is."

She looked at him for a long moment.

"You always know what to say," she said.

"Not always," he said.

"To me," she said. "You always know what to say to me."

He held her gaze.

"You make it easy," he said.

She looked at her ice cream and then at the park around them and then at him.

"Sean," she said.

"Yeah."

"I want to stay tonight," she said. Quietly. Not performing anything. "Not go home after. I want tonight to be part of the day."

He looked at her.

"There’s a hotel," she said. "Connected to the park. I looked at it when I was planning." She paused. "I didn’t book it because I didn’t want to assume."