“Hmm. Hmm.”
Instead of answering, Eunyoung gulped cold water in embarrassment.
“Moreover, you didn’t get in touch with us all day yesterday, right? Who is it? Is it your new boyfriend or maybe…” Ari accused, and lashed out at Eunyoung.
“Stop it.” Eunyoung flicked Ari’s head.
“Oh, why did you hit me!?”
“Keep quiet, kids don’t need to know,” Eunyoung said, intimidating Ari.
“Chi.” Ari glared at Eunyoung as if she were innocent.
“Huh? It’s him, the squid assistant.”
At that time, they saw Ojae entering the lounge. As soon as Eunyoung saw him, she grabbed her bag and quickly rose from her seat.
“Just tell him that I’m not here today if he finds me, okay?”
Eunyoung looked at Ojae furtively and exited the lounge through the back door.
“What’s going on with her?”
Watching Eunyoung walking away, Sun and Ari couldn’t hide their confusion.
Meanwhile, Ojae approached them.
“Is Eunyoung here at work today?”
“Oh… That’s…”
“There. She went that way.” Ari intervened tactlessly.
“Oh, great. Thank you very much.”
After an awkward greeting, Ojae hurriedly went after Eunyoung.
Then, Sun and Ari looked at each other curiously.
“No… way…” They said at the same time in unison.
***
Ojae lifted his heels and looked inside of the window. Eunyoung was focused on her work in the office.
“Hah…”
Ojae sighed deeply while closing his eyes.
He didn’t know how to start talking about what happened yesterday, or how to act in her company now.
After contemplating for a while, he carefully raised his hand to the doorknob.
‘Bzzzz.’
At that time, his cell phone rang. It was Gyeonhui.
“Hello, hello?”
Ojae covered his mouth with his hands and spoke in a low voice.
“What are you doing? I can’t hear you.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
Ojae spoke in a quiet voice, seemingly conscious of what’s happening inside of the Kids Fan office.
“Did you see the email that I sent?”
“Email? Oh, yes. I did.”
Ojae recalled the list Gyeonhui had sent, saying that ‘the list’ should be completed today.
“You have to get it done today, no matter what. Okay?”
“Oh, okay. Where are you, anyway?”
“Jeongsun in Gangwon-province.”
“Jeongsun? Why?”
“Let’s go ahead and talk later. Don’t mess up anything, okay?”
Gyeonhui repeated everything to him several times and hung up the phone.
“Hum… Jeongsun?” Ojae tilted his head in wonder. “That’s not important right now. Hah.”
Ojae sighed and raised his hand to grip the doorknob. After a moment of contemplation, he quickly opened the door and went inside like he had finally determined something. Eunyoung saw Ojae as she heard the door opening. However, Eunyoung just moved her gaze back to the monitor, refusing to pay attention to him.
“Hey, Eunyoung.”
Ojae called her in a self-conscious tone, but it seemed like she couldn’t hear it. She was just tapping her keyboard away.
“Hey, Eunyoung.”
Ojae called out to her in a louder voice than before.
“Hah.” She sighed and raised her head. “What’s going on?”
Hearing Eunyoung, it seemed like she must have heard him when he called out to her the first time.
When she asked him, Ojae felt like his head just turned blank instantly.
He didn’t know where to begin.
“Um… I mean, yesterday…” Ojae struggled to speak.
“So… Last night…”
“Do you remember what happened last night?”
“… Vaguely.” Ojae barely answered.
“Hmm. Yes, you’re right. I slept with you.” Eunyoung said as if it was not unusual for her.
“Umm. What?”
Surprised Ojae, Eunyoung pretended to be casual.
“We were both heavily drunk and insane, just like you now. I barely remember what happened yesterday. Why don’t we just forget it like it never happened.”
Eunyoung responded in a bossy and bold tone, like a judge making a sentence at the courthouse.
“Ha, but… How can we treat it like it didn’t even happen?”
“So what? What are you going to do? What do you want from me?”
“That’s…”
“Why don’t you just forget about it and be cool? It’s just a one-night thing.”
Eunyoung tried to get past him as if nothing had happened between them. Then, Ojae grabbed her arm.
“… I will take responsibility.”
“Excuse me?”
“The responsibility you said last night… I’m going to be responsible for you.” Ojae’s voice crawled down onto her angry face.
“How dare you…”
She seemed outraged and pushed his arm out of the way.
“Mr. Kwon. Are you responsible for me because we slept together just once? What period are you living in?”
“…”
“And I’ve never asked you to take responsibility for me. I don’t like you.” Hearing her cold words, Ojae couldn’t say anything. “Don’t even mention this ever to anyone. Do you understand me?”
She turned her body away and left the office.
Ojae was left alone in the office, devastated. He breathed a long sigh of frustration.
***
Due to the last-minute construction at the Seoul-Yangyang Expressway, the highway was packed with cars like it was a parking lot.
“Hah…”
After barely exiting the highway, Gyeonhui turned the steering wheel toward the capsule park. He went down the curvy road for a long time, but there was no sign of the park.
After quite a long time, he noticed the unpaved path that he had seen before.
“It’s still there.”
His car rattled along the unpaved road, which lasted a few more miles.
The mountains surrounding the road were lush and green in the aura of spring. He managed to enjoy the energy of spring that he had never felt in Seoul.
“… When did this happen?”
It seemed like one season had passed in an instant. During that time, he had broken up with her, started to feel her pain, and reunited with her. Now, he’s coming all the way out here.
The frantic time that had passed went through his mind like a flash.
“… Is it really the last… of us?”
He mumbled bitterly to himself.
He didn’t want to think about her, but he still felt her pain throbbing in his chest like her pain had been engraved in his heart.
He didn’t want to hurt her anymore.
With a slight sigh, his car entered the parking lot of the time capsule park. The park looked tame, and it seemed like he was the only guest in the park this weekday.
With a firm expression, he got out of the car and headed to the visitor’s office.
In a moment or so, he would know about the hidden meaning she mentioned in the past.