MIS 16

“I’m busy these days. Let’s do it next time.”

He had finally summoned up the courage to ask her, only to be met with a calm refusal. Expecting her refusal, Yoon-woo continued, “If you don’t feel comfortable meeting me alone, we can meet with our friends.”

Seo-hee said quietly, “Next time.”

Yoon-woo bit his lower lip as he turned the wheel. Seo-hee always added ‘next time’ when she made promises.

“I’ll give you my address next time.”

“I’m busy. Let’s hang out next time.”

“Can I give you my answer to your confession next time? I’m too flustered right now.”

He didn’t know that when he was younger. This ‘next time’ didn’t exist. It took him a long time to realize that it was a habitual phrase she used whenever she wanted to distance herself from him.

Still, it was their first reunion in six years.

Hoping that she had missed him even a little, Yoon-woo asked, “Didn’t you miss me at all?”

She gave him a polite smile. Even this small gesture made Yoon-woo’s heart flutter.

“When will you finally see me as a man?”

Yoon-woo asked bluntly, pretending to be indifferent. He wanted to approach her slowly, but he couldn’t. He wondered if that was why she saw him as a child.

Seo-hee didn’t answer.

Unconsciously hopeful, Yoon-woo looked at the passenger seat. Sensing his gaze, Seo-hee opened her mouth carefully.

“Don’t joke around.”

Seo-hee tried to brush him off, but then realized that she shouldn’t.

“I’m sorry, but this conversation makes me uncomfortable.”

“….”

“I think I wasn’t clear enough with my rejection when we were younger. If I had rejected you outright instead of pretending to consider it, you wouldn’t have been hurt…”

Seo-hee trailed off, then continued, “Yoon-woo, I’ve never thought of you as more than a friend.”

The red light felt unusually long.

“You’ve been a good friend since high school. You looked after me when I had no friends. I thought you would feel bad about rejecting your confession outright. I’m so sorry…”

More than her other words, the apology hurt the most.

Yoon-woo asked in a strained voice, “Why do you have so much to apologize for?”

That too.

He knew that even apologies could become tiresome if repeated too often, but he really had nothing else to say.

Seo-hee turned her eyes back to the window. She had met Yoon-woo for the first time in her third year of high school. He was her desk mate.

To Seo-hee, Yoon-woo seemed a bit scatterbrained.

During class he would scribble, secretly play games on his mobile phone under his textbook and then fall asleep.

When even that got boring, he would watch Seo-hee studying.

‘I wish he would stop staring…’

Yoon-woo was popular and his desk was always surrounded by friends. Seo-hee, who sat next to him, felt uncomfortable.

“Are you Kang Yoon-woo’s girlfriend?”

“Huh?”

“Are you dating Kang Yoon-woo?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ah, I’m dating her.”

Seo-hee didn’t know how the rumor that she was Yoon-woo’s girlfriend had started.

But Seo-hee, who had been struggling to fit in, suddenly had friends thanks to the subtle envy and jealousy among her classmates.

Before she knew it, she was hanging out with Yoon-woo’s group of friends.

She had friends who ate lunch together, and she had friends who wanted to walk home together.

“Why are you pretending to date me?”

“Should we actually date?”

Yoon-woo asked with a smile in his eyes.

“No, you should only date someone you like.”

“Then you just have to start liking me.”

“I don’t like you.”

“…You like hanging out with my friends, don’t you?”

“Well, that’s true…”

Yoon-woo ruffled Seo-hee’s hair.

“Oppa’s friendly, you know.”

“I like having friends thanks to you, but I don’t like lying. This prank will only last until the college entrance exams, okay?”

There was silence in the car.

Neither of them spoke.

Seo-hee only spoke to Yoon-woo after getting out of the car in front of her studio apartment building.

“Thanks for the ride. I’m going in now.”

Seo-hee turned around. Not wanting to let her go just yet, Yoon-woo gently grabbed her wrist.

“Seo-hee.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I run a restaurant near your company. If you’re not busy, maybe sometime with your friends…”

When Yoon-woo hesitated, Seo-hee finished his sentence, “You want me to come with my friends?”

Yoon-woo laughed awkwardly and covered his reddened neck with his hand, as if he had just confessed.

Seo-hee smiled slightly, not wanting to embarrass him with another rejection.

“You run a restaurant? That suits you. It would be nice to meet our friends there sometime.”

Yoon-woo’s eyes crinkled at her words. It wasn’t a definite yes, but he decided to be satisfied with it. Seo-hee also smiled when she saw Yoon-woo’s slightly tense expression.

“I’m really going in now.”

“Okay, go safely.”

Seo-hee turned around despite Yoon-woo’s wistful look.

Just then, someone got out of a sedan parked in front of the apartment building.

The figure was so shrouded in darkness that she almost didn’t recognize him.

“Managing Director…”

Tae-jun’s sharp gaze landed on Seo-hee as he stepped out of the car, before finally sweeping over Yoon-woo.

“Han Seo-hee.”

Tae-jun said in a low voice, “Come here. Now.”

* * *

It was just after he returned from his business trip.

Tae-jun stood next to Chairman Kang at the groundbreaking ceremony for the art center in Seogwipo.

He was introduced to political and business figures and engaged in polite conversation. He was tired of listening to the pointless jokes of the older men at the luncheon.

Tae-jun just smiled at the congressman who kept showing him pictures of his daughter and asking if he was interested in meeting her. He looked out of the big window.

Suddenly, he saw Han Seo-hee’s face on the blue surface of the Jeju ocean.

Should I call her when I get back to Seoul?

The woman’s flushed cheeks, clear eyes, soft lips, the scent of her skin and the softness of her body in his arms. It felt like the only way to relieve his stress was to feel her again.

Tae-jun stirred the Haesintang in front of him with his spoon.

How many times had he coaxed her to continue after she had begged him to stop?

She was so weak. Maybe it was because she ate so little.

Come to think of it, he was the one who did all the work, but she was always the one who collapsed afterwards.

That was why he had gone to Seo-hee’s house after arriving in Seoul.

He had thought about taking her to a hotel. But he just wanted to feed her.

But the situation he found in front of her house was unexpected.

Perhaps it was because he recognized the smile on her face, a smile she had never shown him before.

Han Seo-hee’s smiling face, her eyes crinkled at the corners, was the same one he had seen behind the main house years ago. He thought she didn’t smile like that anymore.

Tae-jun tightened his grip on the wheel.

The late hour.

The reunion after a long time.

The shy greetings between former lovers.

But most of all, it was Han Seo-hee’s smile that stirred the dormant emotions in him.

The two men’s eyes met.

The tension between them, with Seo-hee caught in the middle, was as taut as a bowstring about to snap.

Yoon-woo straightened his posture under Tae-jun’s intense gaze. The oppressive aura he usually felt around Tae-jun was even stronger now, but he didn’t want to back down.

Having grown up together as brothers, he knew.

That Tae-jun’s cold look was a sign of his dwindling patience.

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to come here?”

Tae-jun called out to Seo-hee again. He grabbed her wrist roughly, pulling her away from Yoon-woo and shielding her with his broad back.

“Why is hyung at Seo-hee’s house?”

Tae-jun’s lips curled into a sharp smile.

“Is it any of your business where I go to meet my secretary?”

“What’s going on? Even if you’re her boss, coming to an employee’s house late at night…”

“Why, do you actually need me to tell you why I’m here?”

Yoon-woo’s face contorted at his words. He clenched his trembling fists. Tae-jun smiled when he saw Yoon-woo clenching his fists. The atmosphere became tense.

Seo-hee, who was standing behind Tae-jun, finally stepped forward.

“Yoon-woo, it’s okay. Just go.”

“Seo-hee…”

Yoon-woo looked at Seo-hee worriedly.

Maybe it was because of the sudden confrontation, but she looked exhausted.

Yoon-woo didn’t want to back down. He didn’t want to leave Seo-hee alone with Tae-jun so late at night.

He had hoped that Seo-hee would send Tae-jun away, but she asked him to leave first. Not wanting to make things more difficult for her, Yoon-woo finally decided to leave.

“Alright. Call me if anything happens.”

Tae-jun’s eyes turned even colder at Yoon-woo’s last words.

“Get in the car.”

His icy gaze was now fixed on Seo-hee. Just meeting his gaze made her feel breathless.

Seo-hee let out a short breath. As if reacting to her sigh, Tae-jun frowned and walked towards his car.

Seo-hee followed him.

As she got into the car, she was enveloped by his usual clean scent.

Ironically, his scent calmed her down.

She turned her head towards the driver’s seat.

Tae-jun was staring straight ahead, his handsome face expressionless.