NILWM - 26

After finishing her tutoring session on Saturday evening and leaving the apartment complex, Ye-seo stopped short at a traffic light. She could see the residential officetel that Choi In-ha had pointed out a few days ago across the street.

When she came to her senses, she was already crossing the street and heading toward the building. Through the glass entrance door, she could see a wide desk where a security guard was sitting. Ye-seo couldn’t bring herself to go inside and just lingered in the small plaza in front of the building. It was a little past 7 p.m.

It was crazy. The self-loathing and despair she had felt in the lobby of the Rosemont Hotel were still so vivid, so what on earth was she doing here? Ye-seo stood there for about another minute before turning around again.

I’ll go home. I’ll grab a quick dinner at a nearby gimbap place as usual, digest it on the way home, and then, with a clear head, I’ll sit at my desk and write the next part of my story. I’ve already set up all the monsters for the next quest. All I have to do is write, so why am I only thinking of doing something so pointless?

Just then, she saw a familiar face across the street. Park Sung-joon was huffing and puffing while talking on his phone. It seemed that he did live here, just as Choi In-ha had said.

“Oh, seriously. Just you wait until I get my hands on you! Man, when I heard about online sales scams, I thought it was something that only happened to other people, but I never expected to be a victim myself. I don’t know, for now, I’ve sent a warning message saying I’m going to file a complaint tomorrow, so if I don’t hear from him by then, I’m going straight to the police station. It’s a lot of money, so I have to catch him, of course!”

It seemed he had lost contact with a seller after a high-priced transaction. The moment he hung up the phone, he turned around and saw her standing in front of the plaza bench. Ye-seo was startled and flinched.

“Oh, Ye-seo! What are you doing here?”

The scowling expression from moments ago was gone, replaced by his usual gentle face.

“Do you know someone who lives here? A friend? I live here with my sister, you know.”

“Um... no. Actually...”

Ye-seo gulped and decided to just say it.

“I tutor nearby and was just passing by... I thought I might run into Senior Joo-hyuk, so I came by for a bit. I thought I heard he lived here... I had something I wanted to talk to him about...”

She stammered, a mix of lies and truth coming out at the same time. Park Sung-joon was usually easygoing, but he wasn’t the type to gossip or spread rumors. Since he was closest to Han Joo-hyuk, maybe he knew if he was really living with that mysterious woman.

“Joo-hyuk? Oh, Joo-hyuk doesn’t live here. He doesn’t, but he is here right now... Didn’t you guys do a team project together? Don’t you have his number?”

He doesn’t live here, but he’s here now. Was he really living with that woman, something like a cohabitation?

“Yes, I do have it, but...”

Did Park Sung-joon know? Even if he did, he would probably pretend not to. If he was so openly picking him up at school, there was no way he didn’t know. Ye-seo gulped and shook her head.

“It’s okay. I can talk to him another time, so I’ll just go...”

“Oh, then I’ll call him and have him come down. Wait a minute.”

“What?”

Ye-seo’s eyes widened at the unexpected offer.

“Is Senior Joo-hyuk... at your place?”

“Huh? No, not my place, but...”

He would live there alone after the wedding, but it was still his sister’s house, which his future brother-in-law frequented as if it were his own.

“Actually, my sis...”

The moment Park Sung-joon was about to say it was his sister’s house, a drop of rain fell on her head.

“Oh, it’s raining. Do you have an umbrella? You don’t, do you? He might not be able to come down right away, so why don’t you wait over there?”

He pointed to a cafe on the first floor of the officetel’s commercial area. Ye-seo nodded her head widely without thinking.

“Okay, I’ll wait. Thank you, Senior.”

“Yeah, just wait a little bit. He’s definitely here, so he should be able to come down soon.”

Park Sung-joon quickly entered the glass door. She could see him putting a security card up to the inner door through the opaque glass.

Ye-seo stood there for a few seconds before walking into the cafe Park Sung-joon had pointed out. A window seat with a view of the officetel’s exit was empty, so she sat there and ordered a drink.

She felt dazed by the unexpected help. At the same time, her heart was still heavy. Park Sung-joon had said that Joo-hyuk wasn’t at his place.

Is he at that woman’s place after all? Are they really dating?

It didn’t matter. She just wanted to have a final showdown. She wanted to hear from him that he didn’t like her anymore, that she was no longer on his mind, and that he had decided to date another woman. No, she had to hear it.

Only then would she be able to finally end this miserable one-sided love, shake off her lingering feelings, and move on.

________________________________________

Joo-hyuk was just standing in front of the elevator when his phone rang. The moment he picked it up, he gasped. It was the number of the fraudster who had sold him a high-end audio speaker for 4 million won, taken the money, delayed shipping it again and again, and then finally stopped answering his calls.

“Hello! Ha, you’ve got to be kidding me. You’re calling me now that I’ve threatened to put you in jail? How dare you do that with the hard-earned money I made from my part-time jobs!”

• “No, that’s... it’s a misunderstanding. I was going to send it, but I was a bit sick...”

“Misunderstanding, my ass! Hey, where are you right now!”

• “I’m at Bangbang-sageori. I’ll give you back the money, so please don’t report me to the police, okay? I’m so sorry, I’m really sorry! If my parents find out...”

Behind the man’s youthful voice, he could hear a familiar welcome song playing. He knew exactly where he was.

“You’re a minor, aren’t you? Ha, how dare a kid commit fraud? You’re at the D ice cream shop, aren’t you? You wait right there, I’m coming right now!”

The moment he hung up, he ran toward the back entrance for residents. A more cunning person would have used the opponent’s weakness to threaten them with legal action and tell their parents. But Park Sung-joon was too simple and hotheaded for that.

“Ah, shit. The world is really going to hell. Now even kids are committing fraud. When I think about all the stress I’ve gone through for a week, I just want to...”

Sung-joon hurried out the back entrance and ran like an arrow through the shortcut between the apartments. It would be more convenient for him to get the 4 million won back on the spot. After all, wasn’t the ultimate goal of reporting or suing to get the money back?

“My precious 4 million won... hah... hah...”

He was so rushed that he had completely forgotten about Ye-seo.

________________________________________

The rain was getting heavier. It was almost 9 p.m. She had been waiting for more than an hour, but there was no sign of Han Joo-hyuk.

[Senior. Can’t you come down?]

She wrote and deleted the message several times. She had her eyes fixed on the exit through the window, afraid she would miss him, but there was no sign of Han Joo-hyuk. She thought there was no way she wouldn’t recognize him, no matter how dark it was or how much it was raining.

Ye-seo sighed, then bit her lip, then looked serious again, repeating the cycle. She wanted to discreetly contact Park Sung-joon to ask what was going on, but she didn’t have his number.

The cafe closes at 10, so I’ll just wait until then. I can’t waste time, so I’ll listen to an English lecture while I wait.

She wanted to take out her laptop and write a little bit of her novel, but her eyes were fixed on the window, so she couldn’t. Instead, she took out her Bluetooth earphones, tuned into a channel for books in English, and looked back at the exit.

After doing that for a while, a feeling of self-loathing slowly washed over her. The English text-to-speech that was playing in her ears sounded distant, like a dream.

This is really the last time. Just this once. After this, I really will...

“Excuse me, ma’am. We have to close in five minutes, is that okay?”

The cafe owner from behind the counter approached her carefully.

“We have to close an hour early today due to an internal matter. I’m so sorry.”

Ye-seo looked around in a daze. The other customers were also getting up, gathering their clothes and bags.

“Oh... yes. I’ll leave now.”

Ye-seo went outside and stood under the cafe’s awning. It was raining quite heavily, and she didn’t have an umbrella. If she were going home, she could just grit her teeth and run to the subway station, but the problem was that she had no intention of going home yet.

She couldn’t just move to another location. She thought about texting Han Joo-hyuk to say she would wait at another cafe but decided against it.

What if he had no intention of meeting her from the start? What if he had received the message from Senior Sung-joon but was ignoring it and staying put?

If that were the case, would it be because he was with that woman? Or did that woman stop him from leaving? Or was it just that he didn’t want to talk to her face-to-face anymore?

Then again, if he had already decided to date that woman, what would be the point of meeting? He must have thought it was useless. But even so, shouldn’t he at least send a text message saying he wouldn’t meet her and not to wait? What on earth was this...?

Ye-seo subconsciously crouched down in the corner of the awning. She was just going to sit for a moment because her legs hurt. It was only when her stomach growled that she realized how hungry she was from skipping dinner. She had had an instant ramen for lunch, and a few pieces of fruit during her tutoring session were the last things she had eaten.

It was almost 9:30 p.m. The rain was still pouring down with no sign of letting up. As she tried to stand up, her head spun with dizziness.

She was about to sit down again when her phone rang. To her surprise, it was Han Joo-hyuk. He was calling her after two hours. She didn’t want to answer out of spite, but her finger pressed the call button on its own.

• “Where are you right now?”

“Huh...?”

His voice sounded a little out of breath. It was strange. Han Joo-hyuk’s voice sounded like it was coming from very close by, not from the phone.