NILWM - 56

One year and six months later

While retelling the story from over a year ago to Sumin, Yeseo paused. The moment she had been so moved back then was so vivid it felt like yesterday, and her heart was pounding.

The restaurant, three days before Christmas, was dazzling with a lit-up tree and sparkling decorations. Jo Sumin had forgotten about the dessert that had been served and was engrossed in urging her to continue the story.

“Wow... that’s so touching. It’s like a drama. A white hat hacker, that’s so cool! So, what happened? Did you end up recovering the data?”

“Yes, when I woke up, it was really recovered.”

She also told her in detail about the novel she had been preparing for a long time for the contest. She even recalled how she had tearfully asked if she could borrow five million won in case she had to pay the hacker and how Han Juhyeok had chuckled at her promise to pay him back with interest.

• You’ve been starving all day; what on earth have you been doing? Eat everything and get some good sleep. I’ll take care of it.

After eating the home-style meal he had ordered from a nearby late-night restaurant and drinking the chamomile tea he had brewed himself, she felt so relaxed that she became sleepy. She must have fallen asleep as soon as she closed her eyes on the sofa.

• Did you look through the encryption key storage? No matter how I look at it, it’s an old one and they’re not a professional, that son of a bitch.

She had briefly regained consciousness. Her body had been laid on the bed in the bedroom on the second floor. She could faintly hear a low-pitched curse and the sound of someone clicking their tongue coming from beyond the slightly ajar door.

Han Juhyeok was on the phone with someone and typing furiously on his keyboard at the same time. It seemed he was working on her laptop’s recovery on the second-floor living room.

• I’ve run every decryption program I can find, and it’s still the same. Is that the only way? The way to get back at him.

A strange voice on the speakerphone chuckled and added.

• CEO Han. Just give me his email address. I’ll plant some toxins with a black com. Seeing that he’s using such an outdated extension, he’s obviously an amateur pretending to be a pro. Ah, you’ll probably have to send about 3 million won out of the 5 million won in advance. That’s how you’ll hook him.

Her consciousness began to blur again. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. It felt like something she couldn’t see was holding her down from head to toe and dragging her into a deep abyss. It wasn’t surprising since she hadn’t had a single sip of water and had been running around all day.

“No matter how many times I asked him how he did it, he would just laugh and say I wouldn’t understand even if he told me since I’m not an expert. I pressed him several times about whether he had paid the hacker, but he said he didn’t spend a single penny...”

“He would’ve said he didn’t pay even if he did! He’s so cool. Isn’t that what true love is?”

Yeseo smiled faintly at Sumin’s admiration. In fact, she had gone through a lot of emotional turmoil, but she hadn’t mentioned that part. It was only because she had started studying for her real estate agent’s license and was no longer working at her mother’s pharmacy that she was even opening up this much.

Sumin had always treated her like an older sister, so she was disappointed when Yeseo quit the pharmacy and they had promised to see each other occasionally. But it had taken them several months to finally make a plan for today. As they talked, the topic turned to her mysterious boyfriend, and they ended up going back in time to a year ago.

“So that’s why you stayed at your boyfriend’s officetel for a few days back then. I thought something was wrong with Jeongwoo again because you weren’t coming to the pharmacy even though you weren’t sick, and the pharmacist’s expression wasn’t good either. It was when Jeongwoo was in Korea. Then when you came back, I had to leave the pharmacy for two weeks because something came up at home... By the time I came back, we had just forgotten all about it, but that’s what happened.”

Sumin sighed deeply.

“Is the pharmacist still the same these days? Well, I guess she would be. I grew up in a family where my parents only doted on my older brothers, so I understand. But my parents are just country elders, so it’s one thing, but why is a person as educated as the pharmacist... Oh, my mouth! Sorry! I’ll be right back.”

Perhaps she thought it was wrong to badmouth her mother to her face, so she cut the conversation short and got up. Yeseo just gave a bitter smile. Her mother was probably still the same. She would probably be that way forever.

Thankfully, Han Juhyeok had recovered her files, but he told her that the laptop couldn’t be properly formatted. He gave her one of the laptops from his office and transferred all the data for her. It looked brand new, but he insisted until the end that it was a spare that had been stashed away in the warehouse.

He had urged her to move out during the summer, but that was the one thing she couldn’t agree to. The biggest reason was that she didn’t have the money. But she couldn’t just accept his money, so she made up other excuses.

• I’m really okay, Sunbae. Mom also called to ask where I was...

That was true. Jeongwoo had also sent her a belated apology text. Of course, she still wasn’t over it, but her heart had softened again.

At any rate, her mother also had some affection for her daughter. After all, she was her child. And that made it even harder for her. If there was not even a speck of affection, she could have completely given up on her side.

• I’ll stay at home until I graduate. From now on, I’ll make sure to set a password for my laptop, so nothing like that will happen again.

• Then stay here on the weekends at least. All my staff members work from home on weekends, so it’ll be completely empty from Friday evening. You can come and stay whenever you want.

She reluctantly nodded, but she never did. For some reason, she didn’t want to be alone in his space when he wasn’t there. Sumin’s voice, who had returned to her seat, brought her consciousness back from its temporary reverie.

“By the way, what about Jeongwoo? He still couldn’t transfer from his community college to a four-year university this year, right? Ugh, when on earth is he going to graduate? He needs to stop bleeding the pharmacist dry and get his act together.”

“He’ll probably do it next year. Mom firmly declared that she’d cut off her support if he couldn’t...”

Yeseo’s expression darkened slightly when her twin brother was mentioned. In fact, Jeongwoo was not only bleeding her mother dry, but her as well.

• Yeseo. Just 500 dollars. Please? I’ll definitely pay you back when I go to Korea. Please? I happened to spend all my living expenses this month, but it wasn’t on anything frivolous. It was for my tutor, who has been putting in a lot of effort to make sure I transfer next year, so I bought him something... I thought I had money left, but I was mistaken.

• What did you buy your tutor? Mom sends you money for your tutoring fees separately. Is your tutor... a girl, by any chance?

• Huh? Oh, no! He’s a guy, a guy.

A girl, then.

Haa. A sigh escaped her lips. She wanted to flatly refuse, saying she wouldn’t send him the money and that she didn’t have any, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Min Jeongwoo would have to know that she was getting a steady, albeit small, paycheck.

• This is the last time. My salary is barely enough to cover my rent and living expenses. You know that.

But in the end, she sent him 300 dollars the next month after he asked. Seeing him do that time and time again, even though the allowance her mother sent him wasn’t a small amount, she figured he had either gotten a girlfriend or his spending habits had gotten worse.

• Min Jeongwoo. No more. I’m going to tell Mom.

• Then just 100 dollars... Please? This is really the last time. I promise I won’t ask you for money again, please!

That was a month ago, in November. Thankfully, she hadn’t heard from him since, but she was worried about when he might start complaining again. The thought of Min Jeongwoo was suffocating. Would it ever end?

She thought that if she graduated and moved out, she would be completely free and could focus only on her own life. It wasn’t impossible to do that if she put her mind to it. But she just couldn’t bring herself to pretend she didn’t know.

• I’m sorry, Yeseo. I can’t even get you a deposit for you to move out. What can I do? I’m so strapped for cash because of Jeongwoo... Instead, I promise you this one thing. No matter how difficult things get, I won’t ask you for money, so you can rest assured about that.

In spite of her mother’s words, Min Jeongwoo was still asking her for money. If she didn’t stay alert, she would be in the red every month. Even though she always resolved not to be soft-hearted, she couldn’t firmly turn him down when he pleaded with her.

“Anyway, your boyfriend, he sold his startup and went to some big company now? Didn’t you say his family was in the pharmacy business?”

Sumin suddenly asked about Han Juhyeok as if she had just remembered.

“Yes, that’s what I heard too... And he also mentioned that he would have to go into his uncle’s company and help out at some point. He hasn’t told me much about his family yet, so I don’t know the details.”

“But why is he so secretive? It’s been a full two years since you started dating; that’s a little suspicious...”

Sumin’s gaze stopped behind Yeseo. A tall, handsome man, as tall as a street lamp, stood behind Yeseo’s chair with his hands in his coat pockets.

In the brief moment their sharp gazes met, Sumin gasped. The man, with a softened expression, nodded slightly to Sumin, then reached out to the back of Yeseo’s neck. His hand, which gently wrapped around her long hair, was quite large like his build, but his fingers were long and beautiful, almost pale.

“Yeseo.”

“...Sunbae?”

Yeseo was startled and turned to him. Her eyes sparkled as if they had reflected sunlight. The man’s eyes, looking down at her, were just as brilliant. The sharpness that had been there when he first met her eyes had completely disappeared, and warmth was overflowing.

“Oh, it’s only 4 o’clock... We have an hour until our dinner reservation, so why did you come so early? Oh, Sumin unnie. This is Sunbae Juhyeok. Sunbae, this is Sumin unnie. I’ve talked a lot about her.”

“My field work finished early. I saw you through the window as I was passing by.”

And he greeted Sumin again.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry for interrupting. I’ll come back at our scheduled time for dinner, so please continue your conversation.”

Sumin was a little flustered but smiled back. Why is he so secretive? He’s suspicious. She hoped he hadn’t heard what she had said.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you too. And, um, Yeseo. Didn’t I say I had a dinner reservation with my study group earlier? I’ll just go now so I can be there early.”

“What? Unnie, it’s okay. Finish talking with me and then you can go at 5!”

“No. We can see each other again sometime. Oh, thank you so much for the Christmas present! I’ll send you some side dishes from my mom for the Lunar New Year, so make sure to empty out your fridge at your place. Got it?”

Sumin, with quick wit, hastily grabbed her clothes and bag.

“Then I’ll get going now! It was nice meeting you.”

“Can I drive you to the subway station?”

“Oh, no. It’s okay. There’s a bus. Yeseo, I’ll be in touch!”

Whether he was just saying that or not, it felt like it would be better for her to disappear quickly. She wondered if she was just imagining that he seemed to like it when she got up to leave.

Sumin waved her hand at Yeseo, who was shouting “Unnie, bye!” from outside the cafe, and hurried toward the bus stop. The image of the man’s beautifully sculpted face was etched in her mind. He was really, really handsome.

Even though he was around the age of her youngest sibling, she, who was in her mid-thirties, still felt her heart flutter. But apart from his looks, the atmosphere around him was not comfortable. Not at all. He was the type of person who would make you feel suffocated just by being in the same room.

In short, he was a type of person with a lot of energy. It could be described with various phrases like natural charisma, intimidation, and unspoken pressure.

“Hah. He’s so incredibly handsome... And he seems to have a lot of money, be capable, and have a good family background because of his refined and wealthy appearance. But it’s so strange.”

Sumin got on the bus that had just arrived and sat down. As the bus was briefly stopped, she could see the entrance of the cafe where she had been with Yeseo through the window.

Why does it feel so cold? The feeling is so dark.