She wanted to get out of this uncomfortable meeting with the editor.
“We had a tipoff that Soran had dated a different guy.”
“Really? What a scoop!”
“Why are you so surprised? I can meet a guy if I am in the same position as Soran’s.”
Though the editor said that arrogantly, she looked lonely. Right now, she had no date.
“By the way, who was her ex-boyfriend?”
“We have to wait and see.”
“Got it.”
Bowing to her, she came out of the editorial department.
‘Isn’t Soran’s guy Hojoon? For now, he was the most likely candidate. Can I ask him?’
She got curious. She would have called him right away, but for problems between men and women.
Her throbbing heart suddenly became cold. She bit her lip.
After all, you’re just the same as other men, she thought.
‘Were you nice to me out of sympathy? Because I look miserable?’
When she thought about that, she got enraged.
“Dang it! I can’t believe this…”
She was just too embarrassed.
Though she came back to her desk, she couldn’t hide her feelings. While writing an article, Manager Kyong looked askance at her as if she was bothered by Arum’s angry look.
“Why? Are you nervous because of the feature article? What’s the problem?”
“Nope! Oh my…”
Arum let out a sigh.
“You look strange today. Why are you so sensitive?”
“Well, the editor has asked me if I know anything about Soran Cho.”
“Any tips about her?”
“No, nothing. If I have one, let me give it to you, master interviewer. Whew!”
She couldn’t calm down.
“By the way, why are you angry now?”
“You bet. I just don’t know why.”
“What the heck are you talking about? You look weird today. Are you in trouble with your boyfriend?”
When she heard Manager Kyong’s sharp observation, Arum felt as if she had her head hit by a hammer.
‘Why am I so upset about Hojoon when I don’t have any romantic relationship with him. I laughed away his confession. The reason he gave me a ride this morning was because he wanted to soothe my troubled heart. Why was I angry at his scandal? I didn’t even hear his explanation.’
Arum felt funny about herself.
She was endlessly generous to Konsu, while she was pretty much hard on somebody else.
“No, not at all. I feel good now,” she said.
And she rubbed her hands as if she had gotten some trouble off her chest.
“What the heck? Are you suffering from bipolar disorder?”
“Oh my… you must be kidding me.”
Arum just giggled at that.
“I envied Soran Cho for a moment. A woman like Soran has the spotlight in the press when she gets divorced, while other women ruin their lives when they get divorced.”
“It’s the first time you’re laughing while talking about divorce.”
“Do you think I’m laughing? I’m sneering at them.”
“Well, sneering is also laughing. Anyway, I don’t think it’s good that a woman’s divorce makes the headlines.”
“I agree. Let me get down to work.”
Arum typed on the keyboard of the computer.
***
Calling it a day on time, she got in Hojoon’s car. There was lots of traffic on the street leading to Buamdong, slowing down his car.
She was anxious to ask him about what she heard from the editor.
“By the way…” Trying to examine his countenance, she furtively asked, “Last night did you …”
As his car stopped at the red right, he turned his face toward her and asked, “So, did you think about me last night?”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
“Your saliva is spattering.”
Of course, her saliva didn’t spatter, but he exaggerated her response.
“Why did you make me laugh?” she asked.
“Do you feel it’s funny for you to think about me?”
Hojoon sneered at her and knew what she wanted to ask.
“Soran Cho, she slept at my house last night. Were you curious about it?”
“Yes.”
“You must be a stalker!”
Hojoon made a serious expression.
“Stalker?”
“Of course. How did you know Soran came to my house? You secretly came to my house or installed a CCTV, or shadowed her, right?”
“What do you think I am?”
“No?”
“Nope.”
“Then, how did you know that?”
“Because I’m a reporter. I’m chasing after all kinds of rumors in the world. As you know. Soran is not an ordinary woman. Whether they are on the side of her husband or her husband’s home, or her enemy, they’re keeping an eye on her. Be careful!”
“Are you worried about me?”
“What are you talking about today?”
“Because I’m concerned about you.”
“Don’t worry. I’m a very strong woman.”
She lifted her hands like Popeye the Sailor and made a bright smile. He turned the corners of his lips up slightly.
“That’s enough.”
When the traffic signal changed, he drove the car.
***
Hojoon drove his car up to the hilly area of Buamdong. There was an old house with no gate among lots of houses similar in size. A sign in black on a white board indicated that it was a commercial space.
“There it is!”
Arum recognized that house first.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Who first thought of Kongyu Kitchen?”
“When people are lacking in something, they try to solve it. Some present a great solution. The house prices these days are sky-rocketing. Making food and eating is the human instinct, but the house prices pressed down on the human instincts. In the end, they come up with an alternative like this.”
“So, that’s why they came up with the idea of a shared kitchen or Kongyu Jubang.”
“When I am dealing with geomancy interior work, I feel that everybody can get by in one way or another. Some time ago, a shop in Kangnam had two owners. One owner sold flowers during the day, and the other owner ran a wine bar at night.”
“Wow, that’s a good match.”
“Yeah, they live together by sharing the same space. That’s what we call myongdang.”
“In the end, people make myongdang in such a case, right?”
“Want makes wit, you know. No matter how much you like books, you can’t beat the library. And even if you buy sporting goods, you can’t beat the fitness club. House is rest. You just make your house comfortable and share the surplus like this. These days, paesanimsu or any place with a mountain in the back and a river in the front is not myongdang. Myongdang is the place where people communicate with each other well and where the transportation is convenient.”
“Oh, you mean places near the station, right?”
Arum pretended to know something about it.
“Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Giving her a lecture like that, Hojoon started the car. When he was about to open the door, she suddenly said, “Sorry.”
She realized that she couldn’t hide her feelings before him.
That’s another aspect of her that she didn’t show to Konsu.
She always thought hard and calculated about how she looked to Konsu.
But this man disarmed her sense of tension.
It was more like a sense of companionship than love.
For a pleasant dinner, she wanted to clear any misunderstanding.
“If you think I feel you are dating Soran again, that’s your misunderstanding.”
But Hojoon didn’t respond to it. He just tapped the steering wheel with his finger.
‘Did I go overboard?’
Arum was worried that she expressed her feelings too explicitly. She felt good about Hojoon because he met her with no burden. He was comfortable to be around.
‘Is he the opposite?’
She felt he might have been hurt by what she said. She was nervous. It was true she felt sorry for him. She even felt guilty because she felt she judged him in her own way.
“Glad to hear that. I feel good now,” he said finally.
Arum also laughed like he did. She had a strange feeling, though. She didn’t feel this way before. There was a big question mark in her head.
“What do you feel good about?”
“Well, I think what I feel good about is not one-sided.”
“Hojoon, that’s as far as I can feel about you. Namely, my partner.”
“Who cares? Did I ever ask to date you or marry you? I just told you I would be around you.”
“Oh my…”
She looked askance at him. She liked it. At that moment, she didn’t think at all about Konsu.
***
There were more than ten people gathered at . They were sitting around four tables in groups.
“Hey, Hoyoung!” Hojoon called his cousin who was busy preparing food in the kitchen. With a short exclamation of ‘Yep!’ to indicate he heard him, he continued roasting meat. He was busy.
“Arum, do you want to sit beside the window over there?”
“Yeah.”
But that was his mistake.
A little later the sisters of Hojoon’s mother took a seat at the same table.
“This is my oldest aunt.”
She whispered into his ears, “Oh, you’re here, too. Oh my! You have a girlfriend with you.”
“No, she is not.”
“Hello?” Arum greeted her awkwardly.