Chapter 3 (Part 3)

As the end of the workday approached, rain poured down heavily outside the window. In-ah, having finished her work, sat staring blankly out the window. Hye-yoon, who had finished preparing to leave, stood up and glanced at In-ah.

“You didn’t bring an umbrella, did you?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry, I only brought one. I’ll head out first.”

Hye-yoon’s departing figure looked unusually cheerful. 

Turning her gaze back to the window, In-ah let out a deep sigh.

An hour past quitting time, In-ah came down from the office and stood at the company entrance. 

But the rain showed no signs of stopping.

“Oh? In-ah!”

Turning around, she saw Sang-wook standing there with an unusually bright expression. In-ah’s gaze naturally moved to Sang-wook’s hands. They were empty.

“You didn’t bring an umbrella either? Is that why you haven’t left yet because of the rain? Oh dear.”

In-ah forced a smile. Then Sang-wook, as if a good idea had struck him, snapped his fingers.

He then took off the jacket he was wearing and held it over his head.

“In-ah. It’s humble, but may I escort you?”

He stretched out his arms, creating a jacket roof, gesturing for In-ah to come under it. 

In-ah forced a smile and shook her head and hands simultaneously.

“No, it’s okay. My sister is coming to pick me up.”

“Oh.”

It was a lie. But fortunately, Sang-wook backed off easily.

After Sang-wook left, In-ah stood again, endlessly watching the falling rain. 

Perhaps she might end up spending the night here. 

Rain.

Because of the rain, In-ah had even secretly sought psychiatric counseling. But her inability to be in the rain hadn’t improved at all.

If even a single raindrop touched her body, she felt an indescribable pain, as if the raindrop were piercing her like a needle.

Although she could guess the cause, she couldn’t alleviate the symptoms. 

So on days like today, when unexpected rain fell, she was stuck with nowhere to go.

At that moment, a large umbrella was suddenly extended in front of In-ah. Turning her head, she saw it was the security guard.

“Someone left it behind. Use this. You need to get home.”

In-ah bowed deeply.

“Thank you. I’ll return it tomorrow.”

“Just take it. No one’s come to claim that for weeks.” 

After the security guard left coolly, In-ah cautiously opened the umbrella. It was a large, blue umbrella with a theme park logo and characters printed clearly on it, resembling the color of the sea.

***

The day Jinwon and In-ah first met, it was also raining. Someone had stolen the umbrella In-ah had left in the design lab, leaving her in a difficult situation. At that moment, one of her classmates ran outside without an umbrella, gesturing for others to follow. With a cheer of “Woo-hoo,” the young people rushed out into the rain. Her classmates were playing around in the rain, creating a commotion. Among them were In-ah’s close friends.

‘Where did In-ah go?’

‘Seo In-ah! Hey!’

In-ah quickly sensed what was about to happen and swiftly moved out of the way. If she stayed there, she would have inevitably been dragged out into the rain as well.

While her friends were looking around for the now-vanished In-ah, she slipped into the building and hid in a corner of an empty practice room.

‘Rustle!’

A lump in the opposite corner of the practice room moved. Startled, In-ah quickly covered her mouth to stifle the scream that almost escaped. Upon closer inspection, the lump was a sleeping bag. Soon, the zipper of the sleeping bag opened, and a male student with a messy head of hair rubbed his eyes and sat up. Jinwon, still not fully awake, looked blankly out the window.

Meanwhile, In-ah, on tiptoe, quietly tried to sneak out.

‘Do you want this?’

Startled, In-ah froze in place. She turned her head, half-expecting it, and saw Jinwon, who had already come out of the sleeping bag, standing next to her.

‘What?’

‘I said, do you want this?’

Jinwon was holding out a large umbrella to In-ah.

‘Oh, um… well…’

While In-ah fumbled for words, Jinwon stuck the umbrella into her side and turned away.

‘No, this…’

In-ah started to speak, almost like a shriek, with the umbrella in her hand. Jinwon, dragging his slippers as he left the practice room, replied without turning back.

‘It’s not mine. It was just lying around, so you take it.’

In-ah opened the umbrella. The blue umbrella was large enough for two people to use comfortably. The umbrella had a large print celebrating the opening of a restaurant.

‘Pfft.’

In-ah couldn’t help but laugh. Somehow, the notion that it was an ownerless umbrella seemed believable.

As In-ah prepared to step outside with the umbrella, she caught sight of Jinwon standing in the rain. 

Jinwon stood with his eyes gently closed, looking up at the rainy sky. Then, as if embracing the rain, he slowly spread his arms wide. 

To In-ah, he looked like a scene from a youth movie. She was so captivated that she didn’t even realize she was staring at him. 

When Jinwon finally noticed her, he gave her a bright smile. At that moment, In-ah had a premonition that he would become her first love.

***

The next day, In-ah went out for fieldwork to check on a store inside a department store. She listened to the store staff’s feedback on the products and took detailed notes.

“But there are many complaints that the wardrobe doors are stiff.”

“Really? It might be because of the displayed product. I’ll take a look.”

“Could you?”

Upon examining the wardrobe doors on display, she found that, as expected, the hinges were unusually stiff.

“Could I borrow a wrench? You have a ladder in the store, right?”

The staff, who handed her the ladder and wrench, became busy attending to customers. In-ah cheerfully set up the ladder in front of the wardrobe and climbed up. As she gently loosened the hinges with the wrench, her hand suddenly stopped. From her position on the ladder, she could see into the women’s clothing section across the way.

‘Who is that?’

To be precise, she saw Jinwon picking out clothes in the women’s section.

‘He goes shopping for women’s clothes himself? I never knew.’

In-ah subconsciously pouted. Then she snorted.

‘What’s the big deal, Seo In-ah. What does it matter if he buys women’s clothes? He could have a girlfriend.’

At that moment, she noticed a woman approaching closely next to Jinwon. Her hand slipped, causing the ladder to wobble.

“Whoa, that was close.”

As she regained her balance and descended the ladder, she suddenly lost her footing, quickly losing her center of gravity. At the same time, her body tilted sharply to one side.

“Oh! Oh!”

At that moment, her waist was gently caught. In-ah stiffened, realizing someone had caught her by the waist. She rolled her eyes to the side and saw a man holding the falling ladder with one hand while supporting her with the other.

Ah, who was this agile and strong man?

Filled with embarrassment and curiosity, In-ah turned her head.

“Thank you.”

But then? Jinwon?

‘When did he move from that store to this one? Or was it not Jinwon I saw earlier?’

“What were you looking at that made you so distracted you almost fell?”

Startled by Jinwon’s question, In-ah quickly gathered her wits.

“I wasn’t looking at anything.”

As she stepped off the ladder, Jinwon’s hand finally left her waist. Jinwon, looking at the wardrobe In-ah had just worked on, muttered.

“Do you do things like this yourself?”

“Of course. Designers have a lot of responsibilities.”

“But don’t you usually do fieldwork in pairs?”

As she put the wrench back in the toolbox, In-ah replied.

“This isn’t some patrol duty. I can handle it alone.”

“That’s not something someone who almost fell should say.”

“I’m done here. What about you, Team Leader?”

Just as Jinwon was about to answer, In-ah seized the moment to speak.

“Oh, now that you’re here, you should get to work. I’ll head back first.”

Without giving Jinwon a chance to respond, In-ah turned and left, not looking back. 

‘This is ridiculous. So I was mistaken about seeing someone else? Get it together, Seo In-ah.’

Shaking her head in disbelief, In-ah felt foolish.

“In-ah, wait a minute.”

A store employee gestured for In-ah to follow her to a corner of the store, linking arms with her.

“Is that your new Team Leader?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen a face like that in real life before!”

The employee, as if she had seen a real celebrity, was practically bouncing with excitement.

“He’s single, right? I didn’t see a ring.”

“Uh… hmm… probably not?”

At In-ah’s response, the employee’s face quickly fell. Pretending not to notice, In-ah continued.

“I think he usually wears a ring.”

“Really? Ugh, why do all the handsome men have partners?”

“Ah… haha… is that so? I didn’t really notice.”

Leaving the disappointed employee behind, In-ah exited the store.

‘Seo In-ah, what are you doing right now?’

Frowning, In-ah gave herself a light tap on the head.