Ojae recalled Eunyoung’s dark face as he answered the phone with Gyeonhui.
“By the way… Eunyoung also seems to have a history in the past as well. Her face didn’t look good today…” Ojae breathed a long sigh in sympathy.
“Hah…”
Ojae heard Gyeonhui’s deep sigh over the phone.
“Are you frustrated? I am too. When I think of Eunyoung…”
“I’m going crazy because of you.”
“Me? Why?”
“Think carefully about what she said. Are you sure she meant that I feel Sun’s pain?|
“Yes, she exactly said that you’re sick because Sun’s is sick.”
“That’s just what people say in general!” Gyeonhui shouted.
“… What?!”
“She just meant that you’re sick because the person you love is sick. That’s all.”
Ojae’s eyes started shaking. “No… she definitely… said…”
Ojae carefully pondered the conversation that he had with Eunyoung. In many ways, Gyeonhui was right.
“Why did I understand it like that?”
Ojae blurted out the words after he had realized that Eunyoung actually didn’t know anything.
“Because people just hear what they want to hear. You didn’t tell her about me feeling Sun’s pain, did you?”
“Oh, no. Not yet. ”
“Not yet?”
“I haven’t told her anything, and I won’t.” Ojae replied urgently.
“Watch your mouth. Please.”
“Okay. I’m sorry.” Ojae shuddered. “By the way, why did you call?” Ojae quickly changed the subject.
“Hah…”
Ojae heard Gyeonhui’s long sigh again over the phone. He waited for his words nervously.
“… Find out more about Sun’s family.”
“Her family?”
“Yes. Specifically, something about her father.”
“Okay, I got it.”
“And this is your last warning. Watch your mouth.”
“Don’t worry. Haha.”
While Ojae was smiling awkwardly, Gyeonhui hung up the phone.
Ojae breathed a sigh of relief after he had confirmed that the phone had been hung up.
“Agh… It was such a close call.”
He caught his breath and wiped away his cold sweat.
After a moment of thought, he began to head back to the bar.
***
“He was gone all day for nothing…”
Gyeonhui was annoyed and frowned after he hung up the phone with Ojae. Moreover, because of his sudden headache, he couldn’t help but show a frown on his face.
He hadn’t recovered yet, and he was under stress recently, so he had been given these headaches.
After he calmed down a little, he reached out and picked up a thick book on the table.
His desk was full of books about coffee and coffee trees, including the book he just picked up.
“Around 600 AD, Coffee was found by an Ethiopian shepherd… Shepherds started eating coffee beans when they saw the sheep eating the fruit of the coffee tree and getting excited… The fruit makes you feel better and helps you to wake up. They brewed it into alcohol at first, but they have started drinking it as they do nowadays since the 13th century… Hah…”
As he read the book, he just pushed it away in vexation.
He had read and researched dozens of books about coffee, but no one had written anything that tells him that he could feel the pain of someone else.
He slowly turned his head and looked at the pots.
The flower was spread into five petals as if it were showing itself off.
“… What does this flower have to do with the fact that I’m feeling her pain?”
The strange symptom that he can feel her pain and the peculiar floral pattern that occurred on him the day of the blood transfusion was connected somehow. Also, the flower that bloomed after all of it… All of these abnormalities that were happening made him frown even more.
‘Bzzzz.’
Then a text came to his cell phone.
‘Stop by the hospital tomorrow. We need to check your stomach.’
It was a text from Dr. Seo, Gyeonhui’s attending physician.
“… My condition isn’t the problem, Doc…”
Gyeonhui sighed in frustration, but suddenly, he opened his eyes wide.
“Maybe…”
Dr. Seo might be able to figure out these connections between the abnormalities. He hurried out of the office with his coat.
***
Inside the bus on the way home.
Sun leaned her head against the window and was looking at the darkened cityscape through the window.
With a slight sigh, a text message came on her cell phone.
It was Ari.
‘Don’t even think about holding a pen tonight. Just rest completely.’
“Girl, you’re cold outside but warm inside…”
Sun was smiling weakly and texted her back, saying that she would.
When she checked the message that had been sent, she raised her head up and looked out the window.
Besides the dark landscape, her sinking face was seen faintly. She remembered what had happened in the hallway today.
When she couldn’t find him and tried to get back into the office, there was a conversation between two staff women walking down the aisle.
‘Wow, isn’t he really handsome?’
‘Yeah, I love the way he looks too. He’s so stylish.’
The two women were making a fuss about Gyeonhui as if they had seen celebrities on TV.
‘I feel so lucky to work on the same floor as him.’
‘Hey, don’t be so dramatic.’
‘What if I bump into him around the corner, and we fall in love from there. Who knows what’s going to happen with him?’
‘You’re dreaming. We have to go back to work. We’re late for a meeting.’
Sun’s expression sank as she remembered how the two female employees were talking about him that way.
Gyeonhui was definitely there at some point.
She closed her eyes in pain.
Her closed eyelids trembled faintly.
***
In the bar.
When Ojae was back inside of the bar, he sat down, sensing Eunyoung.
“I’m sorry. I had to take the call.”
“I understand. That’s the life of work. No holidays, no going home.”
Eunyoung nodded; she was slightly drunk. Ojae quickly looked at the table. The first bottle of soju was already emptied, and there was a new bottle on the table.
“Did you drink the whole bottle alone?” Ojae was surprised and asked.
“This is nothing. Oh, by the way. What were we talking about exactly?” Eunyoung blinked her eyes and asked.
“That’s… Oh, love is like a curse…”
“… That’s right.” Eunyoung continued talking bitterly. “You love someone, but you have to suffer because of him. The more you like him, the more pain you get. Sometimes you hurt him, but it’s actually me who gets all the pain. If that’s not a curse, then is it?”
Hearing Eunyoung, Ojae realized that Gyeonhui was right.