TWELVE 29

Gi Seoin, who had approached with long strides, was already right in front of my nose. I stared at him.

“Why did you come here?”

“Where are you coming back from?”

His low, sunken voice was overbearing. I could tell instantly that Gi Seoin was angry. But why?

“…I asked you first. I asked why you came.”

It seemed his inexplicable anger had transferred to me. Even I was surprised by the sharp edge of my words. However, it was too ambiguous a situation to apologize, and I was in no state to be generous enough toward him to play at being affectionate.

Gi Seoin brushed his hair back, and his chest swelled as if filled with a heavy sigh before he parted his lips.

“You haven’t been reachable all day, and you’re asking me why I came?”

“Yeah. Someone can be unreachable. I was busy today.”

“You didn’t even have time to send a single message?”

Go do that kind of interrogation to your girlfriend.

I wanted to scream that out with all my heart.

“It wasn’t a matter of time; I was preoccupied.”

“Doing what?”

“I met a friend.”

“What friend.”

“Ha… Do you have to pry into everything to be satisfied?”

“I asked which friend you met.”

That last question was in line with an answer that basically said, “Right.” When I didn’t answer again, Gi Seoin asked once more.

“Jang Cheolwoo?”

“…”

Right, I did have a friend like that.

Jang Cheolwoo was the only friend I had maintained a relationship with until now, and the sole person among my acquaintances that Gi Seoin did not regard with wariness. He was also the person I considered my best friend, second only to Gi Seoin.

The unfortunate part was that ever since Jang Cheolwoo got married and became a family man, we barely exchanged greetings just before reaching the point of forgetting each other.

“It wasn’t Cheolwoo.”

“Then who. Who else is there?”

It sounded like he was asking, “Do you even have any other friends?” He probably was. Because Gi Seoin knew every single person in my circle. Though that was a story of the past now.

Now, the people from the bar, including Yoon Kijun, had newly settled within my fence. Gi Seoin does not know that I work at Benwood, nor that I share a sense of camaraderie with the people there, nor that I know his secret of accompanying a different woman every time he goes there.

“Would you even know if I told you?”

Gi Seoin knows nothing about me, not anymore.

“I’d have to be told to know…”

“That’s why I’m asking—would you even know? Do you have some kind of ledger? If I just say a name, does it show you exactly who that is? Why do you keep prying? Is it really that important to you who I met?”

“Yes, it’s important.”

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped through my lips.

“Why is it important to you who I meet? Are you my guardian?”

“If you just give me permission, I can be exactly that.”

He was clearly angry, yet I couldn’t understand why he was saying things that couldn’t even pass as a joke. It felt as if he were mocking me. The stone blocking my chest vibrated messily. Fever boiled. My forehead was hot.

“If you’re going to say strange things, just leave.”

“Woo Seungkyung.”

Before I could even turn my back, Gi Seoin grabbed my wrist.

“What is wrong with you?”

“What is it.”

“You’ve been strange lately.”

“Lately?”

“Getting drunk and making me get called…”

Gi Seoin murmured, then pressed his lips together before letting them fall open with an “ah.” The furrow between his brows, which had already been narrow, crinkled even further.

“You met that bastard then.”

Recently—no, in our entire 18 years together—there was only one time I had been so drunk that Gi Seoin ended up being contacted. Gi Seoin was thinking of Yoon Kijun. Regardless, I could not accept him disparagingly referring to my friend as a “bastard” at his own whim.

“Watch your language.”

“You meet that bastard often.”

Gi Seoin took another step closer to me. He looked like he had no intention of being careful with his words or his actions.

“Are you close? How did you get close?”

“You don’t need to know. It’s my private life.”

“Private life.”

Gi Seoin snorted as if appalled.

“Since when did such things become important, Woo Seungkyung?”

Strength surged into the hand holding my wrist. It felt as if every part touched by that large palm was going to break.

“It hurts!”

I shook him off with all my might. I glared at him while clutching my aching wrist. Gi Seoin…

Even though I was the one in pain, he wore an expression as if he were about to cry.

“Seungkyung, why are you like this?”

“…That’s what I want to ask you.”

Just what on earth are you doing to me?

“Seoin.”

He is the one hiding secrets, yet he chokes me, demanding I vomit up everything down to the last shard of bone.

“Is this fun for you?”

“What?”

And then he deceives me again with that innocent face.

“I’m scared of you now. It’s horrible.”

“…”

Was he even able to act out the wound reflected in his eyes?

I turned my back for real this time, determined not to be vainly deceived again. As soon as I entered the house, I leaned against the closed front door and slid down. Tears poured out because I was scared of Gi Seoin trying to lock me inside himself, because I felt pathetic for feeling pity for a guy like that, and because I felt wronged as if I were the only one pushed into a corner.

It was only after a long time had passed that I heard the sound of Gi Seoin’s car moving. Only then was I completely alone and able to cry out loud.

It was a meaningless act. Because the sense of betrayal, loss, and loneliness making me cry would not be washed away by tears.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Hello. Oh? Why is it just Ms. Yeona here?”

Seo Yeona was the only person visible when I entered Benwood. She pouted her smiling lips.

“Kijun said in the group chat he’d be about 10 minutes late? The owner is resting because he caught the flu.”

“Gasp, the flu?”

“He says he catches it every time it gets cold.”

I opened the Benwood group message room, which I hadn’t checked on my way here.

[Yoon Kijun Benwood: I missed the bus so I think I’ll be about 10 minutes late. I’m sorry.]

[Cho Jiwon Benwood Owner: ok come slowly and safely.. I don’t think I can go up to the shop today.. the flu I catch every autumn.. 🙁 sorry everyone.. come visit me for a get-well visit.. I’m bored haha]

[Lee Dami Benwood: Flu again?]

[Lee Dami Benwood: I’m still at the intersection so I’ll buy some porridge and stop by.]

“…Ms. Dami is very sweet. She says she’s buying porridge for the owner.”

As I spoke while reading the messages, Seo Yeona laughed.

“Right? Even though she grumbles every day, she takes such good care of him. The owner hit the jackpot. She’s pretty, sweet, and good at her job—where else can you find a girlfriend like that?”

Huh? Girlfriend?

“Are Ms. Dami and the owner dating?”

“Eh, Mr. Seungkyung, you didn’t know?”

It was the first I’d heard of it.

The owner had a personality that was kind to his employees—no, to everyone in the world—and Lee Dami seemed to be the type who rarely showed her emotions, so it didn’t show at all.

Yoon Kijun, who arrived later, heard the story from Seo Yeona and instead playfully scolded me, asking how I could possibly not know.

Listening to the love story of the owner and Lee Dami from the two of them, the opening time arrived quickly. After about 10 minutes, the door opened and customers began to appear one by one. From then on, the clock moved faster.

“Seungkyung.”

I was pouring the ordered cognac into a glass when a voice calling me and a fingertip lightly tapping my shoulder conveyed a sense of urgency.

I turned around and mouthed “Why?” to Yoon Kijun, and he gestured toward the door. Realizing the meaning, I didn’t even check the spot and promptly lowered my body to hide under the bar.

“Welcome.”

The sound of Yoon Kijun approaching the entrance in my stead to greet Gi Seoin drifted over. I peeked out with just my eyes to steal a look.

Sure enough, Gi Seoin was with a woman today as well. It was a given fact now, but she was someone different from the last time, and the time before that.

“Shall I guide you to the hall or a private room?”

“A room, please.”

Gi Seoin answered quite politely. Yoon Kijun guided them inside with the utmost courtesy. I watched the backs of the three people disappearing past the hallway and suddenly realized something.

‘You met that bastard then.’

Gi Seoin had met Yoon Kijun before. At that time, I was wallowing in a vat of booze, so I don’t know if the time they faced each other was a mere flash or longer than I thought. However, one thing was certain: Gi Seoin possessed an excellent memory.

And yet he doesn’t remember Yoon Kijun’s face?

It wasn’t like Gi Seoin, who observed anything or anyone related to me as if scrutinizing them under a microscope. Furthermore, Yoon Kijun did not have a common appearance.

Whether he had changed suddenly one day or was always that kind of person, the Gi Seoin of now is too different—far too different—from the guy I have known all this time.

Suddenly, I considered the possibility that the man visiting the bar side-by-side with a woman was a third party who only shared the same appearance as Gi Seoin. It was ridiculous. There was no way two such faces existed in the world.

I called over Yoon Kijun, who had returned to the hall alone, and asked him quietly.

“Kijun, that time, when I was drunk.”

“Huh? Yeah.”

I gestured toward the rooms with my eyes.

“…He came to pick me up. How much of him did you see then? Did you talk or anything?”

“Um, well, he wasn’t there that long. He didn’t say anything in particular either…”

Thanks to me telling him before about my relationship with Gi Seoin and the fact that I was hiding the fact that I worked at Benwood, Yoon Kijun seemed to catch on to the reason for my question.

“I don’t think I got a good look at him. As soon as he arrived, he put you on his back and went straight to the car. Usually, when people come to pick up a drunk person, they ask how much they drank, say they’re sorry, say thank you—that kind of thing, right? But he left without saying a word.”

“I see… That’s, a bit strange.”

“I know. Now that I think about it, it is strange. He says something even if you just meet a friend, but he didn’t even look at the person who drank with you.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me. Wouldn’t it make sense if that extreme interest he showed me was fake?

“Maybe he isn’t actually interested in who I meet, and he just needed a reason to be angry at me.”

“That’s creepy. Anyway, it’s really suspicious. Something about it…”

Yoon Kijun glanced toward the rooms before continuing.

“I’ve met all sorts of people while doing this and that, but it’s the first time I’ve seen someone who gives off that kind of feeling. How should I put it? Should I say he’s like a mannequin? You can’t tell what’s inside, but I feel like even if I looked, there wouldn’t be anything there.”

If it had been just a few months ago, I would have argued, but at this moment, I could only nod my head.