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“You can take the call.”
“Oh, no. I can take it later.”
Eun-chae hurriedly found her phone in her bag and hung up.
The convenience store owner, who was interviewing her, nodded and looked through Eun-chae’s resume.
The convenience store was located right in the middle between the company and the apartment. If she worked there until midnight after work, it was a reasonable distance to walk back to the apartment.
“We’ll contact you sometime this week. We need someone urgently, so we won’t take long to give you the result.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After the interview, Eun-chae left the convenience store.
Even though it was just a few hours of part-time work, she could earn enough to send allowance to her mother and money to her father in detention.
Then she would have a little more financial leeway, and at least enough for a small studio apartment deposit in three or four months.
It’s okay. I can do it.
Eun-chae encouraged herself as she walked towards the apartment.
Spring was quickly approaching, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom on the streets. She had never had time to enjoy the seasons because she was always so busy, but the sky she looked up at today was really beautiful.
When she took out her phone to take a picture, she saw the missed call log that had been piling up.
It was Seok-kyung.
Not just one or two calls, but eight.
When she didn’t answer, he kept sending messages asking where she was.
I don’t want to see you today. I don’t even want to think about you.
Eun-chae turned off her phone altogether.
She decided to fill her eyes with the beautiful cherry blossoms. She stood still and looked at the sunset, the cherry blossoms, and the streetlights that were just starting to come on.
When she arrived at the apartment, she took the private elevator and got off on the 28th floor. But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Seok-kyung standing in front of the door.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
Seok-kyung, leaning against the wall, looked at her with flames flickering in his eyes.
“I didn’t want to answer.”
Eun-chae ignored Seok-kyung and tried to open the front door, but he slammed the door shut again.
“Where did you go? It looked like you left work early.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“None of my business?”
“I think I told you I have a private life too.”
She glared at him and spoke coldly.
He had left her alone that morning and hadn’t contacted her for days.
She didn’t care what he did when he went to meet his fiancée, but she was tired of him only contacting her and coming to see her when it suited him.
She couldn’t call him first and tell him she wanted him. That was something she absolutely couldn’t do.
“Private life?”
“Yes, private life.”
Seok-kyung raised one corner of his mouth and gave her a cold smile.
He stroked Eun-chae’s cheek with one hand. It was definitely a gentle touch, but she shuddered at the eerie feeling.
“I could track down everywhere you’ve been and everyone you’ve met and destroy them all.”
“What do you get out of doing that? What do you want from me?”
Eun-chae asked Seok-kyung in a resentful voice.
“Do you want my body? Here, take it. No, you already have!”
“Do you think I only want your body?”
“Then what? If you don’t just want my body, do you want me to obey you? Do you want me to be a maid?”
“Lee Eun-chae!”
Bang!
Seok-kyung punched the front door hard. Startled, Eun-chae looked at him with wide eyes.
His eyes, burning with fire, were glaring at her as if he would devour her.
“I have to pay you back the debt, and after you get married, I have to quit my job and leave this apartment.”
“What?”
“That’s how it is. I can’t keep living like this after you get married.”
“So?”
She really didn’t want to say it, but Seok-kyung always made her reveal her weaknesses.
“I found a part-time job. I just came back from an interview.”
“......What?”
“I interviewed for a part-time job at a convenience store. That’s why I couldn’t answer your calls earlier.”
Seok-kyung took a step back with a slightly deflated expression.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Eun-chae turned around and tried to open the front door again. She was tired and didn’t want to talk anymore.
But Seok-kyung still had something to say, and he stubbornly grabbed the door to stop her from closing it.
“Why? I’m tired.”
“Don’t do it.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t work part-time at the convenience store. No, don’t do any part-time work.”
What am I supposed to do if I don’t?
Instead of answering, Eun-chae tried to pull the front door closed. But his strong grip held the door tightly and wouldn’t let go.
“I gave you a new place to live and paid off your debt because I didn’t want to see you struggling to survive. So don’t do things like that.”
“What am I supposed to do if I don’t do things like that? Keep begging you for money? What am I? What am I to you?”
Her voice rose again. She felt heat rising to her ears from anger.
She was tired of asking the same question over and over again. She knew her voice would only echo back to her without an answer, but she couldn’t help it because of Seok-kyung’s reckless behavior.
“You only helped me because of your pride or because you wanted my body anyway.”
“That’s not it!”
Seok-kyung answered urgently. His face, with his brows furrowed, was filled with displeasure.
“Then what is it? You have a fiancée, and you’re getting married in a few months. What are you thinking? Are you planning to break off the engagement?”
There was no answer.
His face, filled with pain, met hers.
“Or do you want me to be your mistress?”
Again, there was no answer.
You’re a coward. Don’t shake me up when you don’t even know what you want. You keep making me have expectations.
“Go back.”
Many words swirled in her mouth, but Eun-chae chose to tell him to go back.
Seok-kyung, still lost in various thoughts, was holding onto the front door.
But Eun-chae knew. This time, Seok-kyung would let go.
“Go back.”
Eun-chae gently pulled the front door, and as she expected, Seok-kyung let go of the door this time.
Bang. Eun-chae stood in front of the closed front door for a long time.
The front door sensor light turned on and off several times until she heard Seok-kyung walking away.
She had already been hurt so much that there was nothing more to be hurt about.
Eventually, Seok-kyung would marry his fiancée, and she would return to the time when he didn’t exist.
The reason he was wavering for her right now wasn’t because he had feelings for her, but because, as he said, his resentment had been consumed by lust.
He’s probably mistaking the feelings that came from sleeping together as real feelings.
She, who had feelings for him from the beginning, had a different starting point and a different destination from him.
I need to get out of this relationship quickly for his sake too.
Perhaps the only way she could atone for betraying him with lies and leaving him was to do just that.
Not to mention that she was also deceived by Madam Cha and unfairly ended up like that.
________________________________________
Seok-kyung lifted the crystal glass and savored the aroma of the whiskey inside.
The unique smoky scent of malted barley dried by burning Scottish peat created the distinctive aroma of Scotch whiskey.
And drinking that scent was Seok-kyung’s only way to relieve stress.
“You’re drinking a lot today?”
The bartender asked as he refilled the empty glass with whiskey.
“I have a lot to think about.”
“You tend to have a lot on your mind when preparing for a wedding.”
Seok-kyung glanced at the bartender with the glass in his hand, and the bartender smiled awkwardly.
“I saw your wedding news on TV, sir. Congratulations.”
“Yes.”
Seok-kyung heard wedding stories from everyone he met, to the point where there was probably no one in Korea who didn’t know.
Marriage.
Seok-kyung was about to get married for the second time, something that was difficult for others to do even once.
And both times, it was with a woman he didn’t love.
Wasn’t it funny?
It wasn’t that he had never had someone he loved. He had experienced passionate love and a cold farewell with a foreign girlfriend in college.
Of course, he never thought about marrying that girlfriend.
“Your marriage partner will be chosen by your mother. Someone who is perfect for you, without any shortcomings.”
He had always heard those words from his mother growing up, and since he didn’t have anyone he wanted to marry at the time, he didn’t think much of it.
Even though he simply said yes when told to marry Eun-chae, he had other thoughts when he saw her seemingly indifferent attitude.
Ah, so this is a political marriage. Since it’s not someone you love, everything is just a show.
It was Eun-chae who ruined that show. She left his side with lies that he couldn’t understand now.
Why was that?
She must have been tired of a marriage that was just a shell.
For some reason, the reason came to mind too quickly, and Seok-kyung chuckled.
“Sir, you have a call.”
At the bartender’s words, Seok-kyung took out his ringing phone from his pocket.
Unlike his wish that it was Eun-chae, the person who called was Joo-eun.
“Yes.”
“What are you doing?”
“Drinking.”
“Again?”
It was a reproachful question, asking if he was drinking again after suffering from a hangover not too long ago.
“What’s up?”
“Where are you? Can I come too?”
“I thought you didn’t like drinking.”
“I like to drink lightly.”
Seok-kyung hesitated. He didn’t feel like drinking with Joo-eun.
“Don’t just give me time on weekends. Ask me out on a date.”
“A date?”
“Even if it’s a political marriage, aren’t you being too cold? This is difficult for me too.”
What’s difficult? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it.
“Are you listening to me, Seok-kyung?”
“I’ll send you the address. Come.”
“Thank you.”
Even though it was a date obtained by begging, Joo-eun hung up the phone with a nonchalant smile.
Seok-kyung sent the address of the whiskey bar in a message and enjoyed his remaining time alone.
About thirty minutes later, Joo-eun opened the door of the whiskey bar and entered.
Even though it was spring, the weather was still chilly, and she had taken off her coat, revealing her slender shoulders in a tube top.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Can’t you just say I’m pretty?”
“......Pretty.”
“Thank you.”
It seemed it would take a long time to get used to Joo-eun.
Joo-eun ordered a single malt, and the bartender quickly filled her glass.
She sipped her single malt with the newly released snacks.
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