CHAPTER 69

The night lights were blurred in the eyes brimming with tears, like paint spreading in the water.  Then, in a fleeting moment, a sharp light flashed before her closed eyes. Her moist palm slid down the glass window.

“Stop… please… ugh!”

Minhee couldn’t leave the bathroom for a while. Her eyes were glazed over, her throat was hoarse from sobbing, and she was carried to the king-size bed, wrapped in a large robe. She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

When Minhee woke up, the surroundings were dim.

‘No way…! Did I sleep all day?’

Taejun’s muffled voice flowed from the living room to the bedroom. She sat up abruptly and looked around. Bright yellow light seeped through the blackout curtains.

The digital clock on the bedside table showed 12:22 with “pm” written in small letters beside it. Minhee breathed a sigh of relief and swung her legs off the bed.

“Kyaa!”

Her legs gave out from the sudden muscle pain and she landed with a thud on the hard wooden floor. It was something that had happened to her occasionally since she’d become Taejun’s s*xual partner, so she’d usually tensed her leg muscles and stood up whenever she got off the bed, but today, with the change of venue, she’d forgotten, and stood up in a hurry.

The bedroom door burst open, and a scowling Taejun entered. He helped her up and seated her on the bed. He was on the phone, with a small earpiece in his ear and a cell phone in his hand.

[Yes, I’m listening. I’m on holiday, so I won’t be available in the evening. Then from 9:30 to 10 a.m. tomorrow in the conference room… There’s another meeting right after, so it’s inconvenient. Yes, the hotel name is…]

Taejun held Minhee’s chin with his hand, turning her head from side to side, then opened her robe and looked her up and down. Startled, Minhee quickly buttoned up her robe and whispered, glaring at Taejun.

“What are you doing…!”

Taejun paid no attention and knelt on one knee, grabbing and lifting her ankle, bending and straightening her knee.

[No, I already have lunch plans. Yes, then I’ll see you at 10 a.m. tomorrow.]

Taejun unplugged the earphone from his ear and placed it on the bedside table, then hugged her.

“Good afternoon.”

“……What did you just do to me?”

“Just a simple check. I’ve ordered room service.”

“It’s because of you that my legs are weak and I fell.”

“Be careful. You look like you’ll scatter if you fall.”

Taejun scolded Minhee as he set her down in front of a full brunch room service. She jumped up in surprise.

“Hello? Where’s that man from last night? The one who did this to me?”

“Would you like some coffee?”

During brunch, Taejun’s phone buzzed incessantly with calls and messages from venture companies and investment banks wanting to meet him.

Glancing at Minhee apologetically, Taejun checked his phone. She gestured for him to take the call while she stuffed her mouth with the fluffy omelet.

Taejun, on vacation, mostly declined meeting requests and entertainment proposals.  However, he tightly scheduled meetings with the people he absolutely had to see, from the afternoon of the first day to the morning of the second day.

“Rose’s grandparents invited us to dinner tonight. Is that okay with you?”

“Of course! I’m curious to see how Rose is doing, whether she woke up well and had a good meal.”

“She woke up early this morning, had a good meal, and they contacted me saying they’re going to a place called Kids Cafe.”

“That’s good.”

Taejun glanced at his watch with furrowed brows.

“I need to leave in 20 minutes. I’ll be back at the hotel before 6 pm. Will you be okay on your own?”

A sense of unease flashed across Taejun’s face, as if he were leaving her in a remote mountain area in a foreign country for the first time. Minhee burst out laughing, and Taejun raised his eyebrows with a puzzled expression.

“Taejun.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know where we are?”

Taejun narrowed his eyes, seemingly trying to grasp the intent of the question, and mechanically recited the hotel address. Minhee smiled widely again.

“So, do you know what kind of neighborhood this is?”

“…”

“If you walk a little from the hotel, there’s a place called ‘Garosu-gil.’ You can shop, there are plenty of restaurants and pretty cafes. And a five-minute taxi ride away, there are luxury brand shops that are even more extravagant than Madison Avenue.”

Taejun looked at Minhee with surprised eyes, then chuckled.

“We’re in Korea, not a foreign country. The language is familiar, and it’s much safer here than in New York. Don’t worry about me and just go.”

“…From tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have time too. I’ll leave for Busan on Thursday morning and come back up on Saturday morning.”

“Okay.”

“……Are you sure it’s okay for me to go alone?”

“I told you, it is. I went around by myself last year just fine.”

“…”

Observing Taejun’s unsatisfied expression, Minhee tilted her head with a grin.

“Taejun, if you have time, would you like to go sightseeing around here with me from tomorrow afternoon until Wednesday?”

“Sure.”

With a curt reply, Taejun turned around and put on his jacket. Minhee suppressed a chuckle, feeling her heart swell like cotton candy.

***

For two days, Taejun followed Minhee silently as she led him to palaces, Insadong, museums, and hanok villages.

He even chewed and swallowed a lump of carbohydrates covered in spicy seasoning in front of the elementary school she attended. Minhee couldn’t help but feel proud seeing Taejun eat it, although he couldn’t understand how it tasted.

Minhee seemed determined to be his tour guide, impatient to show him one more thing. In truth, Taejun wasn’t really interested in sightseeing.

He was quite happy to just wander around and watch Minhee look up at him, sometimes in surprise, sometimes in wonder, sometimes with the world on her shoulders, and smile wryly.

Unlike himself, Minhee had a rich variety of expressions. Her sensitivity and observational skills were extraordinary. She could see something beautiful in small, insignificant things that others would pass over, and she rejoiced with the innocence of a child.

As Taejun walked around with Minhee, occasionally clenching and unclenching his fist while stroking his fingers, he felt a strange sensation in his lower extremities. Spending the whole day with a woman emitting a sweet fragrance from her soft voice, sparkling eyes, and smooth, flushed cheeks made him feel like his limbs were melting and losing strength.

For a moment, he admires Minhee’s stamina for such a rigorous schedule that borders on marching, but then his stomach sours at the thought of her falling asleep as soon as she steps out of the shower for the second day in a row. And today-

“Aaaaah!”

Minhee closed her eyes tightly, letting go of the safety bar and throwing her arms up in a scream. Taejun, with a pale face, stretched his arm across her torso to block.

“Why are you screaming while riding this?”

“It feels weird! Ahhh!”

“Ha…”

Taejun let out a deep sigh, extending his arm towards her while waiting for the damn boat-shaped ride to stop.

“Oh, that was fun! Taejun, shall we ride this again?”

Minhee ruffled her disheveled hair and stumbled, unable to keep her balance. Taejun wrapped his arm around her waist. Holding her slender body tightly, he carefully descended the steep stairs.

“Again? We’ll have to wait for over thirty minutes.”

“Popular rides at amusement parks usually require this much waiting time. Sometimes you have to wait over an hour for roller coasters.”

Minhee muttered under her breath, thinking that Taejun was more impatient than she thought.

“I heard that.”

Despite it being a weekday, the amusement park was crowded. In Particular, there were many people wearing school uniforms. Minhee told Taejun that most of the people in uniforms were actually adults, not students. However, he couldn’t understand why adults would wear school uniforms.

As soon as they entered the amusement park, Minhee dragged him to a uniform rental shop, insisting they rent and wear uniforms together. Fortunately, they didn’t have his size at the rental shop.

Instead, she bought a pair of sparkling star-shaped hairpins and put them on her head. Taejun finally found out where she got the sparkling heart she had on her head when they first met.

While Minhee was contemplating what gift to buy for Rose, she kept fiddling with animal ear-shaped headbands for a long time. Murmuring to herself, ‘Which one is the prettiest?’, she then swiftly put the headband on Taejun’s head while he was off guard. Then, before he could react, she continuously pressed the camera button towards him, frozen like ice just before breaking apart.

Taejun couldn’t imagine what expression he was making. But Minhee’s cute expression, with her mouth rounded and eyes widened like shrimp, was so adorable that he managed to endure it quite well.

However, having to wait again for a long time to ride the trivial swaying ride once more was a bit frustrating.

Taejun had never been to an amusement park before, not even as a child. Adults treated him like a small adult smarter than themselves, and they took him to temples, libraries, and university labs instead of amusement parks.

So he was amazed to see people waiting in line for such a long time just to ride one ride.

‘What is this, how can so many people wait this long?’

Many of the rides that people queue up for are ones that use gravity, height, and speed in ways that most people don’t experience in their daily lives. The idea is that the unusual movements excite the rider’s sympathetic nerves, triggering the release of the hormone endorphin, which, along with adrenaline, is the body’s most powerful drug.