Chapter 9

—Uh…. It’s research about building a new firewall, and I’m useful for it. The professor is even letting me use a studio apartment near the school, and anyway, I don’t have to worry about food or a place to stay.

‘Still, you didn’t take any of your things with you…….’

—They’re providing daily necessities too, and if I need anything absolutely necessary, I’ll make time to go get it. Even if I’m too busy to contact you often, don’t worry.

‘Jiho, then I…….’

—Uh, Sis. The professor is looking for me, so I have to hang up now. I’ll contact you again later when I can. Sis, don’t worry about anything and just take care.

Before Seoyun could even finish speaking, Jiho hung up. She had waited anxiously for Jiho’s call, but after receiving it, Seoyun found herself even less able to sleep.

No matter that food, lodging, and daily necessities were being provided. Jiho had not even been able to take a change of clothes with him, let alone underwear or even a pair of socks.

The more she thought about it, the less right it felt.

Back when Seoyun attended Korea University, the humanities college and the engineering college had been far apart, but she had passed by the engineering college a few times because of general education classes.

Compared to the humanities college, the engineering college certainly had more young professors. But she had never once seen professors with such fit physiques and sharp impressions like the people who had come to the house the night before.

What kind of project was it, that they would take along an undergraduate student and not even a graduate student? She knew that Jiho had had a talent for computers since he was young and had won prizes in various competitions. He had also taken part in overseas competitions several times, and he had said people praised him as a genius. So perhaps professors really might value Jiho’s talent highly.

Even Seoyun was confused about how much of Jiho’s words she should believe. It did seem possible, and yet she could not shake the feeling that something was suspicious.

Letting her hands fall from the laundry she had been hanging, Seoyun dropped down onto the platform set on the rooftop.

Go Changseok’s proposal, and that night with Ijun.

Her heart was so tangled that it almost made her forget, in an instant, all the troubling things that had happened lately.

It was then. The phone she had tucked into her pocket began to ring. Wondering if it might be Jiho, she quickly took it out, but it was an unfamiliar number.

Even so, with an anxious heart, Seoyun pressed the call button.

“Hello?”

—Song Seoyun.

In a low voice, the other party called Seoyun’s name. It was not a voice familiar to her ears, but it was definitely one she knew. Even before she could think of whose voice it was, goosebumps rose all over her body by reflex.

“…Who is this?”

—It’s me. Cha Ijun.

For a moment, Seoyun froze completely.

***

Stepping out of the elevator, Seoyun hesitated with uncertain steps. It was the same TJ Hotel as last time, but it felt like a completely different world from the café in the lobby.

The hallway, covered without a single gap in carpet that looked expensive at a glance, was quiet. The heavy-looking oak doors were so large they seemed to reach all the way to the ceiling. There was a scanner on the wall beside the door for recognizing VIP cards, but there was no way Seoyun would have such a card.

Beyond this door was a world Seoyun dared not enter. Her urge to turn back at once and the impatience that she might never get another chance to meet Ijun fought violently within her.

Swallowing dryly, Seoyun pressed the bell attached beside the door, as if she had made up her mind.

—Yes, Ma’am. How may we assist you?

“Uh…. I, I came because I have an appointment here.”

—May I ask the name of the person who made the reservation?

“Cha…Ijun.”

The moment Seoyun finished speaking, the door that had stood like a fortress slid open. A staff member in a neat uniform bowed her head properly.

“You are Song Seoyun, correct? Please follow me this way.”

The members-only lounge, where a gentle piano performance flowed, was bright with sunlight shining through the windows. At tables and sofas placed with generous space between them, people who looked wealthy at a glance were drinking tea and chatting.

The staff member’s gentle voice and elegant steps that made not a single sound even on the marble floor. Even her white skirt and navy jacket looked incomparably more luxurious than Seoyun’s worn dress.

Clutching the handbag she had brought with her, Seoyun followed the staff member. It was an outfit she had carefully chosen after changing several times in a fluster the moment she heard from Ijun.

And yet, in this place, it felt far too shabby and out of place.

“You may go in here.”

After rounding a thick pillar, the staff member guided Seoyun with restrained movements to a place closed off by a wall. Following the woman’s gesture, Seoyun passed through an arched doorway and entered the room.

“Sit.”

The moment Ijun saw Seoyun, he jerked his chin from where he was reclining loosely against the sofa. She had hurried to get ready and left with plenty of time before the appointment, but it seemed he had arrived first.

“H-hello, Senior. Have you been well?”

“Yes.”

His gaze and expression were so cold that Seoyun smiled awkwardly. Why had he called her here? What was it that he wanted to say? No matter how much she thought about it, all that came to mind was what had happened that night at the hotel.

He had given her a rough explanation that day, but perhaps it had not satisfied him. If he questioned her about that matter, what was she supposed to do?

Just thinking about it made her so embarrassed and ashamed that she had no confidence she could speak without blushing.

When Seoyun sat down timidly on the sofa, Ijun straightened the body he had been leaning back against the sofa with.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Ah, I’ll have coffee…….”

From the moment Ijun placed the order on the tablet on the table until the tea was served, an unbearably uncomfortable silence flowed between them.

Ijun’s sharp gaze, as though it were peering even into her mind, swept over Seoyun without pause. She tried several times to say anything at all just to break the silence, but each time she only moved her lips a little and gave up.

At last the tea was served. When the staff member she had seen at the entrance quietly set down the cups and left, it felt as though the air that had been frozen finally began to move again.

“You can guess why I asked to see you, can’t you?”

“Because of that… night…….”

Compared to his sharp eyes, his voice was calm. Ijun looked at Seoyun, who answered cautiously, as though observing her.

Had he perhaps noticed that she had followed him from the café? Seoyun shrank in on herself even more.

“That’s right. Quite a bit of time has passed since then, but it kept bothering me, so I asked to see you.”

“Ah…. If I may ask what exactly….”

“Well. In any case, I don’t remember anything.”

Ijun leisurely placed his interlaced hands on the table. His plain, matter-of-fact voice stood in contrast to his gaze. Somehow that gap only made Seoyun more nervous.

As he said, it had already been quite some time ago. The bewildering memory of that morning when she had awakened had already faded. It was only that whenever the time she had spent with him came back to her mind from time to time, her heart felt warm and ticklish, like a spring breeze brushing softly past.

Afraid that even such feelings might be read by Ijun’s gaze, Seoyun could not look him straight in the eye.

“You must have been very flustered…. But really, what I told you that day is all there is.”

“I happened to see you, and when I saw you were dead drunk, I worried and moved you to your room, and then I fell asleep without realizing it.”

“Yes. I know it might sound strange, but that’s really what happened.”

Ijun twisted one corner of his mouth. It seemed he was not believing her at all, and Seoyun grew anxious.

“Was there perhaps some other motive?”

“What? A m-motive? No. No, there wasn’t anything like that.”

“Right. It didn’t seem like we were close enough for you to take care of me when I was drunk. And did you really have to go to all that trouble to move me all the way to my room?”

“…….”

“Yes. Even if, as you say, there was no intention from the beginning, perhaps something came up during the process.”

“What?”

“For example, taking pictures. There are useful things like that, things you can make use of.”

The blatant suspicion was quite intentional. But to Seoyun, who had not the slightest idea of Ijun’s purpose even in her dreams, it was simply a shock.

Far more humiliating suspicion than when he had tried to hand her money that morning.

It was such an insulting suspicion that her fear of him somehow discovering the feelings she had never been able to show anyone seemed almost laughable. Seoyun bit her lip, feeling as though tears were filling her eyes from the injustice of it.

“I don’t know why you’d suspect something like that, but I’m not… not that kind of despicable person. I don’t know what kind of person you thought I was….”

“I heard life has been hard since your father passed away. When people are struggling, don’t they start desiring what they see?”

At those words, spoken as if deliberately to provoke her further, even her stiffened jaw now trembled. Without realizing it, Seoyun clenched her fist tightly.