59. Hidden Pictures
Late at night on the bus.
Sun looked at the night view of the city through the window with her sunken eyes.
The Gangnam roadside was crowded with lots of people coming and going even late at night.
Everyone was moving diligently to somewhere, but it seemed like she was only wandering around to find her own goal.
Then, a call came from Ari.
“Hey, Ari, what’s up? How’s Eunyoung?” Sun asked.
“Well, I just dropped her off to her place safely. She is fine, but I think she’ll have a hard time tomorrow because of her hangover.”
Imagining Eunyoung struggling with a hangover tomorrow made Sun smile a bit.
“How about you, Sun?”
“Me? I’m on my way home by bus now.
“Good. Go home and get some rest. By the way, don’t schedule anything tomorrow evening.”
“Tomorrow evening?”
“I told you that I’m going to introduce someone I know to you.”
“Oh, Ari. I’m not ready to do that now.” Sun was embarrassed and tried to stop her.
“Hey, you promised me. That will happen tomorrow evening! Don’t forget!”
Ari just hung up the phone after what she had to say.
Sun rushed to call her back, but she wasn’t answering the phone on purpose.
Sun was frustrated and started typing a text message to say that she was not willing to do it yet.
When she was just about to push the send button, she noticed a massive signboard on the building outside the window.
‘Consencio struggles on merger and acquisition of DNBM.’
She wondered if things were not going well with him.
The content of the article seemed quite serious.
Sun’s head was suddenly filled with Gyeonhui’s face.
There was a particular face that he had when things didn’t go well. She recalled that specific face of his.
His frustration was always hidden beneath his poker face and his cold reaction, but she could feel his pain and how much the failure hurt and outraged him.
Sun shook her head like she was trying to erase her thoughts about him, but the more she did, the clearer his expression came to her mind.
“Hah…”
Sun turned her head with a deep sigh.
She had made up her mind many times, but it was not easy to erase him from her thoughts.
Suddenly, Ari’s words came to mind.
‘To clean up your mind about him, you need to do something more. Just deciding in your mind isn’t going to work.’
She had made her mind up more than a thousand times, but she always had failed every time.
As a result, she ended up dragged to Consencio without having cleared her mind of him until now.
Maybe, as Ari said, she had to do something.
She closed her eyes and was lost in thought for a moment.
She opened her eyes again, took a deep breath, and erased the text message that she was going to send to Ari.
***
Gyeonhui walked out of the building with his heavy steps and headed to the road to grab a taxi cab.
‘She waited for you and came to you whenever you wanted because you demanded her to do so. She was always standing by because you made her do so. Is that really a relationship that you want to have again? You also said that you wouldn’t marry her.’
While Gyeonhui was walking on the road, Ojae’s words remained in his mind.
‘Because you’re so afraid of that…’
He could finally realize what she was afraid of. The fear that he never could find from her.
The old days that he wanted to go back to were just the past that she never wanted to experience again.
He finally realized that was why she was desperately pushing him away.
“Gyeonhui!”
At that time, his assistant Ojae hastily followed him and called his name. However, Gyeonhui refused to stop, so Ojae grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Calm down.”
“Let go of me.”
“What are you going to say to her?”
“I have to tell her it’s all a misunderstanding!” He cried like he couldn’t resist his agitation. “I don’t want to go back to that time either, but I am just looking forward to going back to the time when it was relatively less difficult. It’s so frustrating now. You also know that I’m changing a lot.”
“I know. I know…” Ojae sighed in frustration. “But why can’t you understand that doing this could hurt her more?”
“What?”
“Think of Terry. Even a small animal can’t accept changes all of a sudden. Terry became more afraid of you. Do you think it would be different because she is a person? I totally understand how you feel, but doing this is going to make her mind even more conflicted.”
Was Gyeonhui listening to Ojae? Gyeonhui was lost in his thoughts with a firm expression.
“Why don’t we sit down and think more carefully, huh? She also needs more time too.”
However, while Ojae was calmly settling him down, Gyeonhui saw a taxi cab that was coming.
“… No, If I explain to her properly, she’ll accept me again because that is how she has always done it for me.”
His eyes showed that he had made up his mind.
“Gyeonhui.”
Ojae called him again, but he shook off Ojae’s hand roughly and got into the taxi.
The taxi sprang down the road at high speed.
Ojae could only watch as the taxi left him.
***
“Hah..”
As Sun climbed the stairs, she exhaled for a long time and seemed exhausted.
When she pulled the key out of her bag and opened the door, she noticed the dark living room.
“How was your day, Labong?”
Sun looked for Labong with an excited face.
“Ruff, Ruff!”
Labong barked, welcoming her.
“Hey. Labong.”
Sun hugged Labong and turned on the light switch with one hand.
“Oh my…”
However, she could not keep her mouth shut as soon as she saw what happened to the living room.
The trash bin was spilled, and the laundry that had been folded was scattered all over the place. The torn pieces of paper and sketchbooks were spread out in the living room.
“La, Labong. Why did you do this?”
Sun asked while looking at Labong. She was surprised to see a mess that he had made for the first time.
Labong avoided her gaze as if he knew what he had done wrong.
“Hah…”
Her anxious thoughts for Labong’s well-being was visibly clear on her face.