Yunjoo blinked at the sound of Sihyeong calling her name, then jolted upright in her seat. She had dozed off. Startled awake, she moved to get out of the car.
“I’ll head in.”
“Ms. Yunjoo.”
Sihyeong grabbed her arm as she rushed to get out. She looked around. Somewhere familiar. She was in front of her own house.
“I’m sorry. How long was I asleep? This is my house. Why did you come here?”
“You looked exhausted. Go in and rest.”
“But how will you get home from here, Mr. Sihyeong? I was going to have coffee and then drop you off.”
“Ms. Yunjoo, look behind us.”
She looked in the direction he pointed and saw a car driven by the manager who usually traveled with Sihyeong. She had fallen asleep on someone who had suggested getting coffee, and she kept apologizing.
“I’m sorry.”
“Then I feel even worse. It feels like I went and bothered someone who was exhausted.”
“You know it’s not like that.”
“Go on inside. Your eyes are still full of sleep.”
“I think your manager is going to have it out for me. He’ll think I’m working his actor to the bone. I’m taking up time you could be resting. Coming to the site, and now driving me home on top of that. Mr. Sihyeong, this makes me uncomfortable.”
Sihyeong looked at Yunjoo, her face not quite fully awake yet, speaking to him in all seriousness, and paused to think. Should he say something now, or step back and give Yunjoo time to settle in? The weight of his gaze made Yunjoo restless, and she spoke first before he could.
“Mr. Sihyeong, let’s be real friends. We’re the same age, so let’s talk informally like actual friends. What do you think?”
“Would that make you more comfortable?”
“Tell me yes and I’ll talk.”
Sihyeong turned his head and let out a small breath. Should he bury his feelings completely and stay by her side, or just say what he wanted to say and be done with it? A lot of thoughts passed through him in a short time.
“Alright. For now, let’s do it your way.”
He decided to take a step back for the time being. Better to play the long game and wait for the right moment than to say something clumsy and get shut down all at once.
“I have something I want to do, Mr. Sihyeong. That’s why what I’m doing right now matters so much to me. So I don’t want to look at anything else, and I don’t have the room for it.”
‘I’m sorry. I’ll pretend I don’t see anything.’
Yunjoo wasn’t naive. She wasn’t smiling and calling him a friend because she genuinely had no idea. She had spent enough of her life reading the room, and growing up under her father’s roof, where you had to be sharp to get away with anything, had made her exceptionally good at it.
She had chosen friendship as the way to keep things from getting uncomfortable. She didn’t want things to turn awkward with the good people she had barely managed to find. And besides, she was someone who would be leaving.
Yunjoo felt sorry that she couldn’t return Sihyeong’s feelings. While she was steadying herself with that thought, Sihyeong asked:
“Can I ask what that is?”
“Later. I’ll tell you later.”
Sihyeong looked at Yunjoo, who gave him a faint smile, and decided to swallow what he wanted to say for today. She looked so serious that something clearly important was weighing on her. He got out of the car, and as he did, he tossed out a line in a tone that was light, almost like a joke.
“Ms. Yunjoo, I don’t do friends with pretty women.”
“What a relief. So you’ll be friends with me then.”
He had nothing to say to that. She had taken his words and turned them completely on their head, grinning wide, and there was nowhere left for him to go with it. What he had actually wanted to say was something else entirely.
‘Cha Yunjoo, I don’t do friends with women who catch my eye.’
Sihyeong kept those words to himself, strode to his car, and drove out of the alley. Yunjoo watched him leave without so much as a goodbye, and her eyes grew heavy.
“What a hassle.”
Drained to the bone, she had no energy for anything that felt like hide-and-seek. She sat there staring at the empty road where Sihyeong had disappeared, and when she finally came back to herself, a laugh slipped out. She didn’t know what she was doing. She had no room in her to hold feelings for anyone, and she didn’t want to be held in anyone’s feelings either.
Yunjoo walked into the house and ran into Kangwook coming out of the study. Kangwook’s mood lifted at the unexpected sight of her coming home.
“Are you eating properly while you work?”
“You’re still up? You must be busy.”
“Had some things to look over. It’s been a few days. Want to have some tea?”
“Sure, I’d like some too.”
She had dozed briefly in the car, so her mouth felt stale, and it wasn’t unpleasant to have someone welcome her home after not seeing him for a while. She followed him in. When Yunjoo stepped into the kitchen and moved to go ahead of Kangwook, he stopped her.
“Why……?”
“I’ll do it. Sit down.”
What did he just say? Had she heard that wrong? She looked genuinely startled, her expression still disbelieving.
“Oh, Mr. Kangwook said he’d do it? I didn’t mishear that, did I?”
“Who was it that told me to learn?”
“This is why teachers matter.”
“The student is just smart.”
Kangwook let go of Yunjoo’s hand and headed into the kitchen. Behind him, Yunjoo’s face broke into a playful grin.
“I’m really just going to stay here.”
“Feel free.”
She had been unable to sort through the jumbled thoughts Sihyeong had stirred up, and it had left her feeling stifled. But having someone welcome her home eased something in her. There were times when she hated being alone in a dark house. On those nights she would turn on every light she could find.
For just a brief moment, it felt like coming home. Yunjoo sat lost in her thoughts, then turned toward the kitchen and called out:
“Are you actually making it?”
Before the words were even out of her mouth, Kangwook emerged holding two mugs. It was a sight that seemed like it shouldn’t suit him, yet it looked surprisingly natural. So he was a man this suited too.
“You underestimate me. Cha Yunjoo gave such a thorough explanation. From quite close up, if I recall.”
“So you’re a man who looks right holding a teacup too.”
“I tend to pull off whatever I set my mind to.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“I could do other things too, if you asked.”
“……!”
He leaned in close as he handed her the cup, and she tensed for a moment. Yunjoo never seemed to build up any immunity to that face of his. She wanted to act unbothered, but it never quite worked out that way, and every time it happened, Kangwook caught on with uncanny precision. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him as he sat down and burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha. Honestly, Cha Yunjoo.”
“Wha…… what? You suddenly shoved your face in, of course I reacted.”
“Who said anything?”
She knew he was teasing her, but she kept her eyes fixed on her tea and refused to look at him. It was a problem she couldn’t quite explain, the way her heart would sometimes beat strangely when she looked at Kangwook. This was one of those moments. It was the way he spoke, making her feel like she was somehow something to him.
“But honestly, I’ve been seeing a lot of surprising sides of Choi Kangwook lately.”
“Has Cha Yunjoo any interest in getting to know the Choi Kangwook she doesn’t know yet?”
“What would I do with that? I have no intention of lining up behind Choi Kangwook. There must be an enormous queue even without me. No need for me to join it.”
She said it offhandedly, turning her cup in her hands, and the words stuck in Kangwook like small needles. He knew it came from things he had shown her, but that didn’t make it easy to hear.
“Why does it always go there? Instead of lining up, how about just being right in front of me?”
“What! What are you saying? Do you know how strange you’ve been lately?”
“Drink your tea. It’s peppermint.”
What was the point of saying anything? Not a single word out of Yunjoo’s mouth landed in his favor.
“Thank you. But really, why have you been home so much lately?”
“Is that so strange?”
“Yes.”
“Because what holds me here these days is in this house.”
Yunjoo’s eyes went wide at his words. She looked at him with a serious expression, then seemed to disappear into her own thoughts, growing grave on her own, before carefully looking back at him.
“Is it in the study? It’s not something weird, is it?”
“What do you mean, weird?”
“You know, something you do on the computer…… you know what I mean. Something you can’t do outside so you do it at home……?”
Kangwook had been playing along at first, entertained by the chance to tease her, but as her thoughts veered further and further off course, he had been thinking he ought to rein them in.
Then the words that actually came out of her mouth were truly something else. The more he knew this woman, the more she surprised him. He couldn’t fathom how her mind had jumped there. He sat with an expression of pure incredulous disbelief.
She had apparently been imagining the kinds of unsavory things people were commonly said to do on computers. He was a grown man. The idea that she thought he was holed up in his study doing something that absurd. He wasn’t even angry. He just sighed.
“Good grief. What is going on in Cha Yunjoo’s head? I prefer doing things over watching them.”
“Oh! Right, of course. I can’t believe I said that. Ahahahaha.”
She laughed to cover her embarrassment, but the awkwardness hung in the air regardless. Choi Kangwook, of all people, doing something like that…… Even she found her own train of thought ridiculous.
But Kangwook found it remarkable that she had grown comfortable enough to laugh with him over something this absurd. Yunjoo had barely spoken, and sitting across from him like this was something she only did on special occasions.
It would have been nice if they had lived like this all along. A wave of regret washed over him for the way things had been. Kangwook told the tired-looking Yunjoo to go upstairs and rest, then went to his own room. He closed his eyes with a contented smile, having spent what felt like an unexpected bonus of an evening.
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Tillda
Preposterous. Guy was cheating on her for three years, but now he made a cup of tea, so we’re even.
And sure, she should fight for first place in queue. Who wouldn’t for such a fine man 🤮