TATMFL - 9

“Where are you?”

―I’m at the bank right now. I don’t have any cash in my wallet.

“How about Jian?”

―She should be coming out soon, right?

“Uh...?”

Raon, who had been walking quickly, suddenly stopped and asked.

“Weren’t you with Jian?”

―I left right after we hung up, Raon. It’d be uncomfortable for me to be around while Jian’s getting ready.

“She’s not the type to worry about that.”

Raon replied with a bit of hesitation, recalling how Jian would casually toss her clothes aside in front of Hyesung as if it were nothing. The embarrassment was always just between her and Hyesung, not Jian’s problem.

So, the one who would have been uncomfortable was probably Hyesung, but Raon didn’t point that out and just laughed.

A small laugh came from the other end of the phone as she laughed.

“So, you’re waiting alone?”

―Yeah.

“I’ll be there soon. Don’t wait outside, go back inside the bank to stay warm.”

Her steps, which had momentarily slowed, quickly picked up again.

A teasing laugh came through the phone.

―It’s so warm here, I don’t even want to leave.

Raon couldn’t help but smile at his warm tone.

―Where are you right now?

“I just passed the business building, so I’ll be at the main gate in about five minutes. I’ll call you when I get there, so stay inside until then.”

―Got it. You must be cold. Put your hands in your pockets and be careful coming over, Raon.

“Okay.”

After hanging up, Raon began to jog, knowing she didn’t have much distance left to cover.

Although she had agreed, Raon knew that if Hyesung had come out to meet her, he wouldn’t just be sitting comfortably somewhere—he would be up and waiting.

Sure enough.

“Ji Hyesung.”

“Raon.”

Hyesung waved at her from where he had been sitting on a stone structure beside the building with the bank.

Looking at his red, slightly flushed nose, Raon let out a sharp breath from running to get there.

“I told you to wait inside.”

“I heard Jian is on her way too, and I was planning to leave right when you got here. What’s the point of walking double the steps to the bank in this cold?”

His gentle tone, combined with his face that looked almost too kind, made Raon laugh helplessly.

At that moment, as the traffic light changed, they crossed the street, and Hyesung asked.

“How’s the preparation for your work going?”

Raon recalled that when she last wrote him a letter, she had mentioned that she was about to start preparing for her graduation project. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she thought of how she had been staring at a blank canvas earlier, unable to make a single mark. A sigh escaped her lips.

“Do you think showing you a blank sheet of paper would answer that?”

“Ah, that’s too bad.”

Hyesung laughed as if he couldn’t help himself, his face so bright that his pupils were hard to see. Raon couldn’t help but smile faintly in response.

“Isn’t there still plenty of time though? The exhibition’s in December, right?”

“That’s true. But I still need to get approval from the professors in between, and if they don’t like it, I might have to start over completely...”

Raon let out a sigh, thinking of her strict professor, who was well-known for being tough, and muttered as if she hadn’t laughed in a long time. Then, she waved her hand at the figure she spotted.

“Yoo Jian!”

Jian, who had wrapped herself up tightly in a scarf and hat due to the cold, spotted them and quickly ran over. She lowered her scarf that had been pulled up to her nose and shivered.

“Why is it so cold today? If I wore what I wore yesterday, I’d catch a cold. If Hyesung hadn’t warned me, it would’ve been a big deal.”

Raon carefully rewrapped Jian’s scarf as it had gotten undone and said,

“Why are you, an Alpha, so sensitive to the cold?”

“My goodness, Yoo Raon, you narrow-minded person.”

Jian’s exaggerated tone made Raon shrug her shoulders and step back. With her nose completely buried in her scarf, Jian spoke.

“Even though I’m an Alpha, I’m still sensitive to cold and heat, you know? I get colds, and sometimes I suffer from constipation. Huh?”

“Do you have constipation lately?”

Jian, who had been grumbling, nodded sulkily at Raon’s surprised question.

“Thanks to it, going to the bathroom has been the scariest thing lately. I mean, yesterday…”

Despite Hyesung being there, Jian had no hesitation in talking about her constipation, and it wasn’t until Raon covered her mouth that she stopped.

As they continued their trivial conversation, they arrived at a hangover soup restaurant, a place chosen to help recover from the hangover caused by the excessive drinking at their reunion.

“Studying abroad?”

After finishing lunch, they moved to the café where Raon worked.

Raon raised an eyebrow at the words she heard while placing a warm latte in front of Hyesung and a frappe in front of Jian.

The mention of a departure date in early March made Raon’s face, which had been indifferent, show clear astonishment.

“Raon, didn’t you know?”

Hyesung, who was equally surprised, looked at Raon with eyes that seemed to find a kindred spirit.

Raon nodded and replied with a stiff voice.

“You’ve never mentioned anything like that to me.”

“Well, last year I said I might go. I even told you that if you had the time, you could go too.”

Raon furrowed her brow as she watched Jian sip her frappe with an innocent face.

“Last year?”

Tilting her head slightly, something suddenly came to mind.

She remembered casually saying, while watching a TV news program about an art studio in some part of Europe, “I wish I could paint in a place like that,” and Jian had replied, “Maybe we could open a studio in that style?”

As the scenes flashed through her memory, Raon looked at Jian with a doubtful expression.

“You’re not going abroad to open an art studio, are you?”

“Well, calling it studying abroad sounds too grand. Let’s just call it a trip to broaden my horizons.”

“Hey.”

At Raon’s cold call, Jian shrugged, leaning back in her chair.

“I didn’t really have anything I wanted to do after graduation, so it worked out well.”

When people are dumbfounded, they often can’t speak. That’s exactly how Raon felt right now.

The sudden talk about studying abroad was already surprising enough, but now she was hearing what? Open an art studio? After graduating from Korea’s top university and completing the difficult business administration program?

“Why would you open an art studio? You don’t know anything about art. Think about using your degree. Don’t waste time with that useless art studio idea.”

Despite Raon’s harsh words, Jian didn’t budge. In fact, the bright smile on her face was so refreshing that it almost made Raon worried about what her true intentions might be.

“You said you want to be a set designer, right? You can come and use it whenever you need to. When things aren’t going well, you can reflect and get inspiration on your own. Doesn’t that sound perfect? And by the way, you probably don’t know this, but it’s also a part of business management, you know?”

“…….”

Raon, looking at Jian as she listed her somewhat detailed but unrealistic plans, rubbed her forehead.

What am I supposed to do with this hopeless bourgeois?

Jian, who was the only child of Raon’s aunt and her mother, casually talked about things that, if her aunt had heard them, would have made her faint. Despite her carefree demeanor, Jian came from a wealthy family.

Her mother ran a well-known clothing company, and she had hoped Jian would learn the business after graduation.

But an art studio? An art studio, really?

‘How am I supposed to face my aunt after this, this fool?’

Raon sighed, remembering how her aunt had generously supported Jian and her family during difficult times, even before the clothing business became successful.

“Even if you’re thinking of opening an art studio, what are you going to tell Aunt?”

“I haven’t really thought about that.”

Jian casually spoke about something that would have sent Raon into a panic, and she absentmindedly twirled her straw.

“With the money I’ve saved, I should be fine for a year abroad. And besides, why would I need my mom’s opinion if I’m the one who wants to do it?”

“……You’re planning to be abroad for a whole year?”

Raon swallowed her frustration and let out a sigh, but just as she was about to explode, Hyesung, who had been silently listening, spoke up, looking shocked.

“Then, it’ll be hard to stay in touch, right?”

After a brief pause, Jian thought for a moment and nodded.

“Yeah, I guess so. It would be tough to make international calls while I’m in the military. The time difference will be a problem too.”

At Jian’s nonchalant response, Raon reflexively glanced at Hyesung. He was trying to hide his discomfort, faintly smiling, but his eyes were blurry and distant.

Raon noticed his pale face and furrowed her brow, then suddenly asked,

“Hyesung, are you sick?”

Hyesung, who had been blinking slowly with an expression that seemed to lack focus, seemed a bit off. He pressed his eyelids with his fingers, nodding slightly.

“Mm… I’m feeling a bit chilly all of a sudden.”

Raon clicked her tongue and grabbed the coat she had taken off earlier, wrapping it around Hyesung.

She knew that Hyesung often caught a bad cold during seasonal changes, and Jian, now looking worried, also watched him with concern.

At that point, the talk of Jian studying abroad had completely faded into the background.

“I’ll get you some cold medicine. Take it and rest.”

Having worked at the café for almost three years, Raon had accumulated quite a bit of her own stuff there, including emergency supplies like cold medicine and painkillers.

After taking the medicine, Hyesung stood up.

“Thanks, Raon.”

Raon gently patted Hyesung on the shoulder as she took his empty cup.

“Go home and rest well.”

“Yeah.”

“Then I guess it’s been a while since I’ve taken care of our dear Hyesung.”

As Hyesung blinked and was about to hand the coat he had draped over the chair to Raon, he hesitated.

“I was going to take you home.”

“Don’t bother. You’re not feeling well. It’s fine, I was already planning to drop you off on the way home.”

Jian waved her hand to dismiss the offer, then turned to Raon.

“Don’t tell my mom.”

Raon raised an eyebrow.

“You said you’d do whatever you wanted, but it seems like you’re having second thoughts? I guess that’s why you don’t want me to say anything.”

“It’s not that, but just thinking about all the nagging I’ll get from the moment the plane takes off until I land... my ears are already hurting. It’s better to tell her as late as possible.”

Raon just shook her head, signaling that Jian should handle it her own way.

As Jian and Hyesung left and Raon started to clean up, a bell rang with a soft chime.

“Welcome, this is Hum.”

Instinctively greeting the customer, Raon turned around but stopped in her tracks when she saw a cup with ice that had completely melted, leaving it dripping with water.

The person who had entered was waving his hand with a sly smile.

“Hey, it’s you again.”

Raon’s pupils wavered in surprise.

...It was that man again.