Unexpected Ch 3 part 1

She tossed and turned all night before barely managing to fall asleep in the middle of the night. Although she planned on waking up late after a long, restful sleep, her eyes burst open early in the morning.

Even though she didn’t soothe the pain of heartbreak over liquor and tears like an idiot, her head was numb from the neverending thoughts that continued to whirl through her head.

Was this all a dream? After yesterday’s chaotic events, she still couldn’t believe it. She went over tens and hundreds of scenes in her head over and over again.

The more she went over them, the angrier she became. Towards SeungHoon, who had deceived her so completely, and towards herself for being so oblivious. No matter how she looked at it, it was so absurd.

Even though she thought it was a hundred percent better to break up with him in a cool manner rather than cling onto him, she still couldn’t help but feel that it was unfair. She felt like she had been cheated out of the two years she had spent with him.

If he hadn’t been caught, how much longer did he plan to hide it? Was he going to two-time both of them after he had gotten married as well?

Damn it. Maybe she shouldn’t have let him go so gracefully. She should have splashed a glass of water on his face and cursed him out.

Ah, she should have made it so that the two of them wouldn’t be able to raise their faces anywhere. She should have left scratches on his face with her fingernails.

She buried her face into her pillow and quickly shook her head from side to side. The more she dwelled on this, the more she’d rip herself to shreds.

She shrugged off the emotions that still clung onto her and got out of bed. Then she got washed and headed straight for the kitchen. She pulled out some premade rice she had kept frozen in the freezer and began to heat it up in the microwave. She took out the various side dishes and set the table as well.

This was because her maternal grandmother had always told her that she mustn’t skip a meal for any reason.

“My lil’ baby. Did ya eat?”

Even after she had grown well into adulthood, the first thing her grandmother had always asked when they met was, ‘Did ya eat?’. While her parents neglected her to deal with their own work, the only family member who had embraced her was her grandmother. The one who had always taken care of occasions like her birthday or Children’s Day was her grandmother.

Her parents believe that giving her an expensive gift was all they needed to do as parents. For the most part, she received these gifts from a delivery man.

Ever since she could remember, she could not recall a meal that her mother had prepared for her in all her life.

There was a housekeeper who helped around the house, but the one who cooked her what she liked and the healthy meals she didn’t like was her grandmother.

Her grandmother never held back when it came to the food that entered her granddaughter’s mouth and also when it came to love.

Sometimes, she would even sit down and imagine she was having a nice meal with her again. She’d talk about what happened that day, about her parents, and even imagine talking to her about the child she’d have with SeungHoon.

She decided she’d never become a parent like her mother or her father. Even though she wasn’t perfect, in order to create a perfect family, she thought she had been taking steps to make this dream come true.

However, she had driven herself into a corner. In order to become a commendable employee, she had worked tirelessly day and night to receive her superiors’ acknowledgement. She had also done her best with SeungHoon, the man she believed to be her life companion.

After her grandmother passed away, that was also the reason why she had begun to use the neglected kitchen once again. She wanted to cook meals for her family in the not-so-distant future.

She didn’t think her skills were good enough to feed other people just yet, so all the food she made was for herself only.

All the distracting thoughts would disappear once she became absorbed in her cooking. No matter how busy she was, she’d make sure to eat breakfast before leaving for work. Surprised by this, the head of her department gave her a bewildered look and claimed that he’d be lucky if he even managed to chew on some cereal before coming in.

Beep-beep, beep.

As she stood blankly, lost in thought, the microwave beeped to indicate it was finished. She pulled out the steaming bowl of rice and placed it on the table before sitting upright on the dining chair.

“I should eat quickly and start cleaning the place.”

She moved her spoon and chopsticks militantly, but everything tasted like sand in her mouth.

“Maybe I should have just made some egg soup instead.”

Her blank eyes blinked as she murmured with the spoon in her hand. She excused her lack of appetite on not having egg soup.

* * *

In the end, she threw the food away.

“If ya waste food, you’ll be cursed.”

She felt like she could hear her grandmother’s voice by her side. However, she was going to get indigestion if she kept trying to force herself to eat.

She washed the empty dishes and began to clean out anything that reminded her of Kim SeungHoon. Thankfully, he hadn’t been the affectionate type, so there weren’t many precious gifts he’d gifted her.

Additionally, she had been the one who gave more than received in the relationship. This was because he had been studying for the state exam when they first met, so he didn’t make any money. And when he finally did make some money, he had to send most of it back to his family, making it difficult for him to spend money on anything else.

Because she understood his situation, she even bought him nice clothes. The knitted sweater that Kim SeungHoon had been wearing yesterday was one of them. And even now, as she cleaned out her home, there was barely anything she had to throw away.

She did a deep cleaning of her home while looking for things to throw out. By the time she was finished, noon had quickly passed by. She went to the bathroom to take a shower when she suddenly stopped with an ‘ah’. She recalled her promise to meet with Sunbae at one o’clock.

She quickly checked the clock and saw that she didn’t even have thirty minutes till one.

“Haa.”

The moment she saw that she was covered in dust and sweat, she let out a sigh. He was probably already on his way here, so it would be impossible to change the time they were to meet. More importantly, she didn’t even have his phone number.

Sunbae also didn’t have her number, so the only thing she could do right now was get ready as soon as possible and get out.

She frantically took a shower and dried her hair with the blow dryer. She was hurrying, but she didn’t even have fifteen minutes left.

She tossed her dryer down and opened the doors of her closet. Her damp hair bothered her, but compared to being in the nude, it was negligible.

She just grabbed whatever she could, and what she pulled out was a pair of straight jeans and a loose-fitting white shirt. By the time she hastily put on the clothes, she only had five minutes left.

When she looked in the mirror, her bare face looked back at her. She hadn’t even put on any lotion. She couldn’t just leave her home like this, so she quickly rubbed some cream on her face and finished her make-up with some lip gloss.

Vrrr.

The elevator doors opened, and she stepped out. As she hurried out of the building entrance, the first thing she saw was her car that had been parked perfectly between the lines. And then she saw KunHyung, who was wearing comfortable, casual clothes, standing next to it.

Unlike her flustered appearance, it looked like he had gotten here a lot earlier than the promised time. He seemed so relaxed.

Even though he was wearing casual, beige cotton pants and a matching knit sweater, he gave off the graceful aura of a greek statue.

His clothes fit loosely on his body, but they could not hide the outline of his wide shoulders or his sturdy, long legs. As well as his long eyes that had faint double-eyelids, his straight, tall nose, and the outline of his lips that seemed to be drawn by the brush of a painter. They all looked marvelous.

Not only did he have unforgettably handsome looks, he also had the charming aura that drew everyone’s eyes to him.

Maybe that was why her eyes remained fixed on him for a long time without her realizing it. By the time she regained her senses, she realized that he was gazing back at her.

Oh my goodness. What am I doing right now?

Checking out a man in my current situation. No matter how she thought about it, it was so ridiculous that she began to chew on the inside of her cheek. Her legs moved briskly as she made her way to him.

“It was a long wait, wasn’t it?”

She sheepishly opened her mouth first as she came to a halt in front of him. Her damp hair rustled in the wind and emitted a sweet and delicate fragrance.

Suddenly, his smooth brow furrowed. She could see his jaw clench. He looked uncomfortable. He continued to frown as he moved his lips.

“Looks like you’ll be standing me up all day.”

He mumbled to himself in a voice so soft that she could barely catch it.

She was only two minutes late because she had been waiting for the elevator. Either way, she was still late, so she didn’t have the right to make excuses, but she wouldn’t say she had stood him up ‘all day’. She was a bit put off by the exaggeration.

“I wouldn’t call that ‘standing you up’…”

She grumbled under her breath. He looked her in the face and answered back.

“You stood me up, so it’s a problem.”

She felt like the conversation was going in a strange direction, but she didn’t have the energy to nitpick everything that was said

“Your lower body strength must be lacking¹.”

When he heard the words she had uttered out of annoyance, his lips stretched into a smile and he began to laugh as if he’d heard something preposterous and absurd. He flashed her a carefree smile.

Unlike the other men who were sensitive about attacks on their stamina, this man was completely different. Her brows furrowed.

What is it? What is with that narcissistic personality behavior?

“If you’re really curious, there’s a way we can check to see if that’s true.”

He looked at her intently and seemed to be lost in thought. There must have been a misunderstanding because he tilted his head as he spoke. Because of this, her eyes traveled down and landed on his lower abdomen.

Gah!

Her unintentional eye movement startled her. She thought she saw an oddly lumpy outline on his pants, but perhaps she was just seeing things.

It was probably because she hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Either that or she was possessed by a lewd demon. There was no way she’d be doing something like this in the middle of the day at her apartment parking lot otherwise. 

She was about to claim his remarks were verging on sexual harassment, but it looked like she was the one who was guilty of it.

Other than his claim that she had stood him up, she was the one who brought up his lower body strength, and it was her eyes that moved to his lower abdomen.

“Where is your car, Sunbae?”

Brushing these thoughts away, she quickly changed the subject. She looked around, but she couldn’t see the car they had driven in yesterday.

“Probably at my place, don’t you think?”

“Why?”

When she raised a brow and asked, he merely shrugged as he gave his answer.

“As you can see, I only have one body.”

“You didn’t call a driver and drove my car over here yourself?”

“Why? Is something wrong?”

She felt like something was strange, but she didn’t know if she’d call it ‘wrong’.

“Not really, but…”

As her voice faded away, he held out her car key and said, ‘Here’. He was telling her to drive.

Just yesterday, this man was telling her she wasn’t in any condition to be driving…

When she silently took her key and unlocked the car, he spoke up as if he’d read her mind.

“I thought you’d have cried all night long, but you seem fine.”

That’s why he was letting her drive. Should she be relieved that she seemed fine? He opened the passenger side door and got inside.

“Have you escaped reality because you lost the will to fight?”

She froze for a moment before walking over to the driver side door. Once she got inside, she was about to buckle her seatbelt when she heard his voice once again.

“Don’t tell me you want to pick up the piece of gum you already threw away and chew on it again… Is that it?”

When she recalled the piece of gum known as SeungHoon, she shuddered. She felt as if all the boiling anger from the night before was instantly being washed away.

Click. She buckled her seatbelt and turned to him before replying.

“Of course not.”

She gave him a forced smile out of gratitude and asked him a question.

“Well, is there anything you want to eat?”

“There is something I’d like to eat right this minute.”

She was relieved to hear that they wouldn’t have to take the time to decide on a menu. This might just be her prejudice against him, but she felt that he would be an incredibly picky eater.

“Where shall we go?”

She started the engine and stretched out her hand towards the navigation system. Suddenly, she heard him sigh. She turned her head to him at the odd sound, but when she saw his face, he looked completely at peace.

“We can eat that next time. I think it would be best to go where you want to go today.”

Next time? When she heard him planning for a future meeting, a grave expression formed on her face.

“Don’t be like that and just tell me what you want to eat. I think sharing a meal today will be enough.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m not sure how expensive the food will be, but I’m not so destitute that I can’t afford to buy you a meal.”

He slowly blinked and tilted his head.

“If I want to eat it, will you let me?”

A moment of silence settled over them as their eyes clashed. Unable to endure his piercing gaze, she looked away first.

“I’m not in the mood to joke around.”

“Neither am I.”

“Sunbae.”

“Hm.”

When she saw him answer calmly, she wondered what he was trying to do right now. Either way, a promise was a promise.

“Then I’ll just go somewhere I know.”

She finally opened her lips and pressed down on the acceleration pedal.