Chapter 43
Chapter 43 – With the Night’s Protection
“What are you doing? Sign it quickly . ”
Suhee moved her hands up and down and urged him .
Jaegun took the book and got a pen in his name .
On the blank sheet of paper, a signature became engraved . It was the first signature he gave to anyone and didn’t feel like it had confidence .
“It must be his girlfriend . She’s pretty . ”
“We should go . Writer, thank you . ”
“Yes, yes . Thank you . ”
The two girls left the cafe . Looking through his window, the girls were still looking at the picture taken with Jaegun and blabbering happily about it .
“Aww ~ Ha Jaegun ~~ already a favorite writer . ”
Suhee said in a joking manner as she sat across from him .
“Don’t you have to wear a hat around now? Is it ok with just a hat? You need a mask too . ”
“Don’t tease me . It’s not that much . Those people just recognized me conceptually . ”
A laugh came out as he looked at Suhee .
With a beige blouse and a gray scarf on top of it, it fit the color of autumn very well . He almost spits out the words ‘You look pretty’ out of his mouth
“Here . ”
“Thank you .
Suhee checked the sign as she got the book .
It was a strange awkward sign . And there was a sentence on the bottom .
-Ha Jaegun’s first sign goes to Lee Suhee
“Haha, that’s cool . ”
Her lips, with a red tint, had a small smile .
“I’ll keep it well . I read it too fast . I should have read it slower . I already read the 90s Child as well . ”
“Just wait . I’m working on another story . ”
“Wait? Really?”
Suhee’s face had surprise now instead of laughter .
It’s only been so long since he won with 90s Child and A Dumb Woman . And now he was making another one . And the fantasy series was still printing .
She wondered how Jaegun’s 24 hours looked like .
“How long is it?”
“It’s about 16,000 words for the draft . There are a lot of errors though . ”
“Jaegun, how many hours do you spend on writing?”
“I’m not sure if you ask the hours . I think I spend everything on writing except for the eating and sleeping . ”
“You’re amazing… Really . ”
Suhee muttered, shaking her head .
She was more than a bit worried . More important that writing is health . If you’re sick, you can’t even write . Jaegun’s’ face looked a lot skinnier than before .
“Ah, sorry . You should drink something . I’ll buy . ”
She pulled down Jaegun who was getting up .
“I’m fine . I drink coffee at the office a lot . We need to eat . I’m hungry . ”
“Ok, what do you want to eat? I’m good with anything . ”
“Anything?”
“Yeah, anything . ”
Jaegun answered with some gusto .
If it was king crab, or sushi, or steak, he could now buy anything that he couldn’t even think about before .
“Ok, let’s go . ”
Suhee stood up and pulled her bag around her shoulder . On her eyes, there was a smile .
“You’re not gonna regret it?”
“Of course . Go ahead . ”
Jaegun answered confidently and went out the café with Suhee .
“There’s another store that recently came up near the office . It’s closed . ”
“What do they sell?”
“You’ll see when you get there . ”
When he got there, it was a store that sold spicy ribs as their main dish . Jaegun’s face got pale even before he went through the door .
‘It’s another spicy meal . ’
He didn’t think he was bad at eating spicy stuff . But he wasn’t totally good either .
The chicken that he ate with Dasul before was spicy as well and he almost died eating that .
“Welcome . Two people? Come here . ”
The employee said with an energetic voice .
Jaegun and Suhee sat across from each other at a table .
“Give us 2 cheese ribs . Hey, can you drink?”
“I’m fine . ”
Jaegun answered immediately .
He didn’t bring his car so it was fine .
And it wasn’t with anyone but Suhee .
He didn’t want to feel awkward by refusing to drink because of writing .
“Give us a bottle of soju as well . Brand Liesel . ”
“Yes . ”
The food came out quickly
The ribs looked spicy just by looking at it . The cheese was boiling on top of it .
Suhee gave a rib onto Jaegun’s dish .
“Eat it . ”
“Thanks . ”
Jaegun, with his gloved hand, took a rib and took a bite out of it . It was fine for a second, then in 10 seconds, his face burned hot red .
‘Ahhhhhhhh……!! This isn’t a joke!’
It was double what he ate with Dasul .
His tongue couldn’t stand being in his mouth and was flopping around
“Is it that spicy? Eat the cheese . ”
Suhee gave some cheese onto his dish with a spoon .
Jaegun frantically poured cheese into his mouth,
Suhee was smiling as the whole spectacle was fun .
“You can’t eat spicy things like before . ”
“This isn’t the spiciest thing?”
“You didn’t eat spicy things since college . Remember you cried when you ate that Tteok-bokki near the school?”
“That place was incredible as well . No, aside from that, you just eat spicy things really well . This is just… you win, you win . ”
“Hahaha . ”
Suhee pulled the bottle out to Jaegun .
As she poured a drink to Jaegun, he poured a drink to her as well .
“Ahh, this is great . Since it’s hot, it goes in better . I can’t eat this without soju . ”
“It’s hot to me too . But when I came here with employees, I got addicted to it . ”
“Yeah, even though it’s spicy, it’s amazing . ”
The two people talked about small things .
The world, their friends, the college days that they both remembered…
Jaegun and Suhee’s face were busy smiling .
“Here, give us another bottle . ”
Jaegun looked at Suhee’s face as he took a 2nd bottle . Her face was a bit red, but it still had the strong and focused gaze .
Realizing the gaze, Suhee asked, putting the back of her hand on her face .
“Why are you looking at me? My face really red?”
“No, It’s just, you’re strong with drinks as always . ”
“What? You’re thinking of MT at freshman year?”
Suhee looked at him .
Jaegun laughed instead of answering .
It was the freshman year at MT .
A few older girls gave Suhee a few drinks, making very stupid excuses for it . They wanted to break the strong and confident Suhee’s will .
But Suhee didn’t break .
She survived while standing up to almost 10 girls alone .
And in the end, the people who fell drunk were the older girls .
Then Jaegun already knew .
Suhee didn’t have a huge capacity; she was just average . But she didn’t back down because of her strong pride . The feeling of sympathy was still in Jaegun’s heart .
So Jaegun helped her without anyone noticing .
When the people didn’t notice, he poured water in Suhee’s drink and made it weaker .
Suhee didn’t know . Even his best friend Jongjin didn’t know . It was his secret .
“What are you thinking? My cup is empty . ”
“Drink slowly . You’re getting drunk . ”
Jaegun laughed while getting a drink from Jaegun .
“That’s funny, . Since the words came out, but you know I’m really strong at drinks? I almost killed 10 girls . ”
“Almost kill . Wow . Like the game company team leader, your language is very different as well . ”
Suhee sighed slowly after a loud voice .
A shadow, that couldn’t be hid by the light, was present on her face .
“What’s up?”
“Hm? No nothing . ”
Suhee waved her hand and answered .
Because of Jaegun, the company came up in her thoughts . She didn’t want to tell Jaegun right now that the game that they were developing was about to be scrapped .
“Ah, you were writing another story . ”
Suhee clapped her hands and changed the topic .
“What is it about?”
“Ah, um… . It’s a romance about a girl and a boy . But there’s a lot of stuff when I started writing . It’s about society, or about the suffering of the office workers, and stuff like that .
Jaegun lifted his cup and rank .
With a bitter expression, he continued his words .
“I said before, I finished the draft but there’s so many things wrong with it . The female main character’s emotion and actions are just awkward . She feels like a man . ”
“You portrayed it well with A Dumb Woman . ”
“But that’s because the model was my sister . I knew her from a young age so I could portray it well . This is different . ”
But Suhee didn’t understand .
“What about the quest you did for our game . That was amazing . I saw that and thought you really understood women’s feelings really well . I was surprised . ”
“Ah, umm… . ”
He couldn’t say that he got Somii’s feelings .
So Jaegun changed the topic with a loose voice .
“But it’s hard . I’m writing all day except for eating and sleeping, and it doesn’t work out . ”
“Liar . ”
Was it the drinks .
A word that was in her mind came out without even her realizing it .
“What?”
Jaegun asked with wide open eyes .
Suhee answered trying to look calm .
“When you called me earlier, you were at the karaoke bar . I think you have fun a lot . ”
“Ah, that’s … . That’s not…”
Jaegun hesitated while putting his glance somewhere else .
Suhee one-shoted a cup, thinking that her assumptions were right . Her face was calm, but inside it was boiling like the cheese on the plate .
“You can say that you met a girl . Ha Jaegun? What’s up with you? You’re 27 . Is anyone gonna eat you?”
Suhee grabbed the bottle .
Jaegun took the bottle away from her who was pouring herself a drink .
“Don’t do that . Drink slowly . ”
“I’m strong, so don’t worry . ”
The soju filled up the empty cup .
Jaegun said while looking at Suhee who was bringing the cup to her mouth .
“I went to see a karaoke helper . ”
Suhee froze with her cup on her lips,
If it went in her mouth, she might have spit some out . She was that surprised . Jaegun quickly added, looking at her pale face .
“Don’t think of it that way . I went to go for an interview . ”
“Inter… view?”
“The female main character is a karaoke helper . So I need to know things about it . So I went there myself . There’s no other way . ”
Her suspicions didn’t disappear quickly .
She could believe that he went there for an interview . Since a long time ago, he was always the type to get directly involved for his writing,
‘But did it only end in an interview? When I heard the voice, it was really friendly’
The words were on her tongue, but she couldn’t say it .
Because she didn’t have any excuse to say it .
Suhee muttered because she was angry that she was probably overthinking this .
“I want to read that . That book . ”
“The one that I’m writing?”
“What else? How fun would it be to read a book that you got directly involved in . I want to read it right now, but i can’t so…”
The bar was loud and the lights were dark .
Therefore, Jaegun didn’t recognize that she was just saying it and accepted it as her truth .
“You want to come to my house?”
“… . Ah?”
“You want to read it now? I only have the ending on my phone . If you read it with your hawk eyes, that would be amazing . I thought you would be busy, so I didn’t ask . ”
Suhee was completely shocked that she forgot her upset feelings and sat there with her mouth open . How did the conversation get like this .
“It’s only about 8 . We were going to drink again so let’s drink at my room while reading . I’ll drop you off when you’re going . OK?”
“Uh, uh… . ? It’s fine but…”
“We ate so let’s go right now . I’ll buy . ”
He was really happy . The feeling that a writer got when someone wanted to read his story was the best feeling . And it was even better with his smart friend Suhee reading it .
“You left your car? Let’s get a taxi . ”
“Ah, umm…”
The two people sat next to each other in the taxi .
The night setting went by quickly out the window .
Suhee couldn’t calm her beating heart while looking out the window .
‘It wasn’t a passing comment . But did I come too easily? Won’t he think I’m weird?’
It felt very fluttering, and also a bit worrying .
She went during the day, but at this nighttime, and with some drinks, she was going to a room where a man lived alone .
It was on her mind even though it was Jaegun . Without any care about her anxious mind, the taxi ran nonstop to the destination .