Extra Story - 1. Late Summer

Meow-

The fall semester had begun, but the sound of cicadas clinging to the last vestiges of late summer echoed through the campus.

Jun-woo, having glanced up at the intensely clear autumn sky, walked diligently under a tree noisy with cicada song.

Having come to Korea University as an exchange student last semester, Jun-woo had already completely grasped the campus shortcuts. No one looking at him would imagine he had only been attending Korea University for half a year.

The short trail leading beside the Academic Hall was a shortcut to the Business School. It was a somewhat steep uphill path, a place to avoid during the summer midday heat, but when he was about to be late like now, there was no other choice.

Panting, he quickly ran up the trail when he saw a female student running ahead of him.

With long strides, Jun-woo quickly overtook the female student running ahead. As he passed, he caught a fleeting glimpse and the title of the thick textbook she was holding to her chest immediately caught his eye.

‘Same class.’

As his eyes left the book, his gaze reflexively moved up to the female student’s face. But before he could even properly see her face, the female student pointedly overtook Jun-woo and ran ahead.

A faint floral scent, like that of a delicate flower, wafted from the female student as she passed him. It was a subtle lingering scent that seemed like it would disappear after a few inhales, yet it lingered at the tip of his nose. Without realizing it, Jun-woo held his breath, trying to remember the fragrance.

And when he looked at the female student again, she was no longer near him. In the brief moment he had paused, she had run so quickly that she was already far ahead.

‘Ah.’

A strange competitive spirit rose within him. At the very end of the trail, Jun-woo ran quickly to catch up with the female student again.

The midday sun blazed down, beating on his head. He ran hard enough to get quite out of breath, but the female student in front of him was so fast that he couldn’t catch up at all.

‘Wow. Seriously. She’s incredibly fast.’

Jun-woo only caught his breath, panting, after entering the Business School building. The female student had already disappeared from his sight like an arrow.

The cool indoor air soothed the sweat that had sprung up on his forehead. Several years ago, Yeongwon Group had made a generous donation to the Korea University Business School building. He had heard that many things inside the building had been updated to the latest technology at that time.

Jun-woo lifted his head to check the brand of the built-in air conditioner installed on the ceiling. When the logo and initials of Yeongwon Electronics came into view, a smile spread across his lips.

No matter how hard he tried to hide it, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride whenever he saw the Yeongwon logo or initials.

Because Yeongwon was his father’s company.

The group, which had changed its name from its original ‘Taesung’ to ‘Yeongwon’, had reportedly gone through a difficult period in its early years. It had been a massive conglomerate with its reach everywhere, but several businesses were liquidated, and there was an inevitable drop in corporate valuation.

However, after several more years, Yeongwon, which had fallen from 1st to 10th in the business world rankings, steadily climbed the ladder again to reclaim the top spot. The person who had led the group at the forefront was Jun-woo’s father and the current chairman of Yeongwon, Jung Soo-hyun.

“Oh no! This is no time for this.”

Jun-woo checked his phone and ran towards the elevator. Looking at the floor it was stopped at, it seemed the female student who had gone ahead had taken it. Jun-woo didn’t have time to wait for the elevator and ran towards the stairs.

He rushed up the stairs breathlessly and ran down the long hallway for a while. When he opened the classroom door and stepped inside, thankfully, the professor hadn’t arrived yet. Jun-woo quickly sat down at an empty desk near the back door.

As he sat down and took out his notebook and textbook from his bag, organizing his things, someone’s back view caught his eye not far away. It was a rather familiar back view, and Jun-woo tilted his head, examining it. Then he sighed softly.

Looking more closely, he immediately had a feeling who it was. It was the female student who had been running ahead of him earlier.

For some reason, Jun-woo’s gaze, which should have been facing forward, kept returning to the female student’s back. It was because he noticed things he hadn’t seen earlier when they were running together.

Her slender neck, delicate shoulders, and a few strands of black hair that had fallen from her tied-up hair.

Unlike someone who had overtaken him while running, the female student’s back looked fragile, as if it would break easily. She was a small-framed female student, and it seemed like he would have to take several steps to match her pace of one.

Throughout the class, Jun-woo couldn’t take his eyes off the female student’s back.

________________________________________

Throughout the class, instead of listening to the professor, Jun-woo pondered why he was so concerned about that woman.

A woman whose face he hadn’t even properly seen.

Right, perhaps the lingering feeling of not having properly seen her face by a hair’s breadth was creating this lingering attachment.

Dwelling on the matter with the person right in front of him was a waste of time. So, Jun-woo planned to approach the woman right after class and ask for her phone number. He would try to strike up a conversation at the very least. It was the first time a woman had captured his attention to this extent.

And that plan completely fell through.

It was because a call came from Jun-hee in the United States at the exact same time the class ended.

While he held the incoming call, hesitating for a moment to decline it, the female student disappeared again. When Jun-woo briefly checked his phone and looked up again, the female student was no longer in her seat.

“What, aren’t you asleep?”

Jun-woo answered the phone with a somewhat blunt expression. At her older brother’s curtness, a hint of sadness quickly crept into Jun-hee’s voice.

“...I couldn’t sleep, so I just called.”

Feeling the loneliness in his younger sister’s voice, Jun-woo immediately regretted his tone. He was planning to return to the United States after the fall semester ended, but he had left his younger sister alone in the US. For his sister, her long-time roommate with whom she had shared everything had disappeared, so it was understandable that she would feel empty.

“Sorry, sorry.”

As soon as he apologized, Jun-hee’s voice softened immediately.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, just a moment. Why, can’t you sleep again?”

“The team project is over, and it’s a short break, but maybe because I was so busy and suddenly have free time, I feel a bit dazed. Mom isn’t answering her phone either.”

“Ah, Mother?”

Jun-woo briefly wondered what his mother might be doing at this time.

Four in the afternoon.

It was definitely a time when she would be at work. His mother, Yoon Hae-in, was the CEO of Yeongwon Apparel. Leading a vast organization that spanned cosmetics, clothing, and department store management, she was renowned as a leading female entrepreneur in South Korea.

Jun-woo, who had never made a personal call to his mother during the day, was a little surprised by his sister’s words. Perhaps because she had grown up as the beloved youngest daughter of the family, Jun-hee sometimes acted immaturely like this.

“Of course, Mother is busy at this hour. You really couldn’t sleep, huh?”

“Yeah. Are you at school, Oppa?”

“I just finished one class.”

“Oppa, then can you do me a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Um, can you show me that place? The stairs where Mom and Dad first met.”

“Why there?”

“I’ve never seen it. I just wanted to see it once. Since you’re at school.”

“Okay.”

Jun-woo chuckled lightly at his younger sister’s request and started walking. A video call came from Jun-hee, and Jun-woo slowly walked, showing her the campus on his phone.

The exterior of the Business School building where his parents had studied together, and the large cherry blossom tree in front of it. And then he walked a little further and turned back onto the trail leading to the Academic Hall. It was the same path where he had raced the female student earlier.

‘This place must be beautiful in the fall.’

It was still a path lush with greenery, but the dense leaves formed a tunnel overhead. He thought it would be quite picturesque when the green leaves turned red and yellow. He could somewhat understand his father’s words that he had fallen in love with his mother at first sight here.

When he first heard it, he had wondered if it was a bit of an exaggerated lie from his father.

“Wow, Oppa. This place will be so pretty when the leaves fall. It looks like a path from a postcard.”

“It does.”

Jun-hee seemed to have the same thought as Jun-woo, as she exclaimed with excitement. Jun-woo chuckled, watching his younger sister’s reaction.

Sunlight filtered down through the leaves. But it was September, so the heat had subsided, and a slightly cool breeze blew in the afternoon.

“Wow, isn’t that it? Those stairs, right?”

Walking along the path in the pleasant breeze, they eventually reached the stairs at the end of the path.

“The atmosphere is nice. It’s like a place made for dates.”

“It is.”

“Dad said he first saw Mom there. He saw Mom coming down the stairs...”

Listening to Jun-hee’s chattering voice, Jun-woo, who had turned towards the stairs, noticed someone coming down from the top of the stairs.

“Dad is secretly romantic, isn’t he? Though he’s only like that with Mom.”

As the female student who had walked down the stairs quickly passed him, Jun-woo stopped walking, right where he was on the stairs.

Jun-hee’s voice kept chattering incessantly from his phone, but Jun-woo couldn’t hear it anymore. His gaze was fixed on the female student who was passing him. The faint scent he had remembered earlier lingered at the tip of his nose.

In that fleeting moment when she passed him, all five senses were completely focused on her.

“Oppa, Oppa?”

When Jun-woo didn’t answer, Jun-hee called her brother. But Jun-woo forgot to even pick up his phone to answer.

His father’s words must have been right. It was possible to fall in love at first sight.

That was the thought that crossed Jun-woo’s mind as he watched the female student walk away gracefully.