TIC 12

“You’re up early.”

He opened a bottle of water and gulped it down. He tilted his head back and poured the water into his mouth without touching his lips to the bottle. A thin stream trickled down his chin. It traced his sharp jawline and Adam’s apple before disappearing into his collarbone.

Cho-yeon swallowed and looked away. Her throat was tight and hot. He held a mouthful of water, his cheeks puffed out, and offered her the bottle, blinking.

“Mm?”

He seemed to be asking if she wanted some. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing conspicuously.

“No, I’m fine.”

Cho-yeon shook her head slightly. She felt a warmth spreading through her eyelids, even though she hadn’t seen anything particularly suggestive. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His forehead, neck, and exposed forearms were covered in sweat, as if he had been running for a while.

“You’re up early too, Professor.”

“I always wake up at this time.”

“But yesterday…”

She regretted her words as soon as she said them. It felt like she was creating an uncomfortable atmosphere.

“I couldn’t get up because someone was clinging to me.”

His casual answer took her a few seconds to process. As she hesitated, having missed the chance to retort, he tilted his head and stared at her face.

She noticed now that he was wearing clear sports glasses. With his silver-rimmed glasses he looked like an intelligent nerd, but with the sports glasses he looked like a flower boy.

What am I saying? Nerd and flower boy?

He would probably be horrified to hear her call him that.

“Why?”

“You look like you didn’t sleep well.”

Cho-yeon sighed and nodded.

“How many nights a week do you sleep badly?”

“I toss and turn for two days, then I sleep soundly for one day, then I toss and turn for two more days, then I collapse from exhaustion for one day. Something like that.”

Her disrupted sleep pattern was a longstanding problem.

“Have you tried counseling or therapy?”

“I’ve had therapy and taken medication… It gets better, then worse.”

He nodded slowly, his demeanor open and accepting, as if he would listen to anything she said without judgment.

“I’ve tried getting sunlight during the day and listening to sleep music. But they weren’t very effective for me.”

“The medication didn’t work either?”

Had someone else asked that, she might have bristled and changed the subject. But his dry question, devoid of excessive concern or worry, strangely reassured her.

Perhaps it was because the question came from someone not deeply involved in her life.

‘What is this? Stilnox? Is this a sleeping pill? Are you going to keep doing this to upset Mom? You need to take care of yourself!’

When she turned twenty, her mother had found the prescription she had received from a psychiatrist and was screaming and crying.

‘You have to live well. Do you know how hard Mom raised you? Mom lived with you in mind! If you are like this, how can Mom live? What do you have to be unhappy about?’

‘I’m sorry, Mom.’

She could still vividly picture her mother collapsing on the floor, tearing up the prescription, and throwing it on the floor. After that day, her mother’s control over her had intensified. Thinking about her mother made her feel suffocated.

“I tried sleeping pills and tranquilizers. Some worked and I felt better when I took them. Better, then worse…like that. But after taking sleeping pills, I didn’t feel fully awake in the morning, and that grogginess was uncomfortable. It’s hard when I’m on medication, and it’s hard when I’m trying to manage it myself…it is what it is.”

But she had slept well the night before last. He had said he had patted her because she had moaned, but she didn’t remember having any nightmares.

“That must be hard.”

He offered another word of comfort.

“How about we have breakfast a little early? I saw a cafe up ahead when I was jogging.”

“Sounds good.”

She was grateful that he had changed the subject so naturally.

She was wearing a yellow houndstooth dress that came up to her knees when they met again in the lobby. Paired with white sneakers, she looked carefree and refreshed.

“Shall we go?”

She glanced at Min-hyun after reading the local news on the bulletin board in the lobby. She seemed surprised, but quickly hid her expression.

The white T-shirt he was wearing happened to have a yellow logo on it. Not all yellows were the same, but this one was a similar pastel shade with a hint of white.

“Won’t students mistake you for a student if you wear that to school?”

“Is that a compliment to make me feel good?”

She chuckled. Despite her tired appearance, her laughter sounded pleasant.

“No, I’m serious.”

“I never wear this to school.”

“Not even to sports days or MTs?”

“It would be annoying if professors attended sports days or MTs?”

She burst out laughing, her face flushed, and looked up at him. She looked like a butterfly perched on a yellow petal, tempting him to catch her.

Min-hyun clenched his fist and suppressed the urge to grab her butterfly wing-like dress.

“I bet you’re popular, Professor.”

“Even if I am popular, I am still a professor.”

“You don’t deny you’re popular.”

“Delinquent-looking guys are popular when they are frowned upon.”

She burst out laughing again, this time clapping her hands. He had never said such nonsense in his life. Her laughter was pleasant, so he kept saying ridiculous things, and she kept laughing, amused.

Is she laughing to be polite or because she really finds it funny?

He would feel better if it was the latter, but the possibility of the former made him continue his pointless chatter.

“Are you laughing to be polite, or because you really find it funny?”

This time she laughed and even slapped his arm. Look at her.

But a smile touched Min-hyun’s lips as he looked down at her laughing. He was an idiot for smiling after being slapped.

“I’m sleep deprived, so I could be laughing at anything. Don’t flatter yourself.”

After laughing all this time, she suddenly turned serious and threw cold water on his ego.

“You’re like an Eumenis autonoe, Ji Cho-yeon-ssi.”

The Eumenis autonoe was a natural monument that inhabited Mt. Hallan.

“Is that a good thing?”

It meant that it was a rare and hard-to-find species.

“Yes.”

The problem was that rare species tended to attract collectors.

Min-hyun murmured, “A good thing…” and looked at her as she walked briskly, her face still flushed with laughter.

He had never wanted to collect a person before, so what was he supposed to do?

His older brother, Jun-hyun, had taught him how to catch insects. It was a very primitive method: sneaking up and grabbing them quickly. He had caught dragonflies, butterflies, and grasshoppers that way.

But his brother hadn’t taught him how to catch a human. And he probably never would.

The phrase ‘catch a person’ reminded him of what she had said yesterday.

She had said that he looked so good that he would devour someone, hadn’t she?

“What do you want to have?”

They had left the hotel and walked up the path, and now they were sitting across from each other in a cafe.

“I’ll devour some French toast.”

“What?”

She blinked, looking up from the menu.

“Ah, I mean, I’ll have French toast… and plum juice.”

She looked at him suspiciously, then nodded and muttered, “I thought you were literally going to devour something.”

Judging by the twitch of her lips, she was right.

Unable to compliment her perceptiveness, Min-hyun kept his mouth shut.

Soon their order came: an open-faced sandwich with ricotta salad and an iced Americano for her, and French toast with plum juice for him.

The ricotta salad and toasted bread were served on a jar lid, the iced Americano in a brass mug, the thick French toast that looked at least two inches thick on a white china plate, and the plum juice in a handmade-looking mug.

“How am I supposed to eat all this? It’s too much.”

Perhaps because lack of sleep had affected her appetite, she worried about leftovers before she even started eating.

“Just eat what you can. I’ll eat the rest.”

She froze and stared at him as if she had malfunctioned. Then she answered as if she could barely breathe,

“Then I’ll take some on my plate. Thank you.”

He couldn’t understand why she suddenly looked so stiff.

She looked like a bird pecking at seeds. She spread whipped cream on the toasted bread, covered it with lettuce, and ate it.

It was fascinating how her small face held such big eyes, a straight nose, and full lips. It was fascinating to watch her eat. He found himself strangely fascinated by the sight of her eating.

‘Professor! Go meet some friends! You’ll go crazy staring at insects all the time!’

Teaching Assistant Ma’s whining seemed to ring in his ears. Had he gone crazy from staring at insects like his assistant said?

He was in the process of cutting the French toast into bite-sized pieces with his unused fork and knife and placing them on her plate when she smiled brightly at him.

Yes, he was a thoughtful man. He just hadn’t had a chance to show it.

Just as he felt a surge of pride, her gaze shifted to her phone.

“Oh, Do-jun.”

The French toast he was holding between his fork and knife fell to the table.