LLU 81

I deliberately spoke in a cocky tone as I commanded, but Choi Junghan merely accepted my words with leisure. His white, long fingers lightly pressed the button.

Because there had been a time when I rode in the car with him every day to go out, I knew that if he listened to music, it was classical—he never listened to things like people chattering. That was why the sound of the radio flowing through the car felt extremely out of place.

—The chilly wind brushing the tip of your nose tells us that winter has already approached in big strides. It’s a pity to say goodbye to the romantic autumn, but a cozy winter is waiting for us again. Everyone, now standing at the threshold of winter, is there any music you want to listen to? Listener 2412 says that in this season, they especially think of Director Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, and they’ve requested a song…

Listening to the host’s commentary reading the story in a calm yet slightly bitter voice, I remained silent. The movie title stabbed my throat like a sharp thorn. Soon after, a familiar song began to fill the car.

A romantic melody flowed out, completely mismatched with the situation. As the saying goes, it was the perfect song to listen to while standing at the boundary between autumn and winter. And it was an excessively repeated coincidence to hear it three times with Choi Junghan.

“A lot of things start without me knowing.”

Choi Junghan recited in a calm voice.

“That’s considered one of the famous lines from this movie. Do you remember?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

I replied curtly.

In truth, I did know. I simply didn’t want to obediently admit it. After leaving Choi Junghan behind in the movie theater… I had searched for this movie several times. However, I never separately looked up the song to listen to it or watched the film itself.

Even I thought it was a strange reason, but that was how it was. If I did, it felt like the axis of my heart would tilt in a direction I didn’t intend. To be more honest… I thought the face of him willingly accepting and drinking the sleeping pills I gave him and falling asleep would come to mind. I didn’t want to give myself any room in my heart at all.

“Why were you watching that movie that day?”

I asked as if entranced.

“That day?”

“The day I came to find you. A few days ago.”

“Ah.”

The car gradually slowed down. The green light turned amber, then red. After gently stopping the car, Choi Junghan met my eyes through the rearview mirror.

His beautifully closed lips slowly opened.

“After you left me, I watched that movie every day, Oon-ah.”

“…….”

“I replayed and reenacted the time when you left me hundreds, thousands of times. While vividly watching you moving on the monitor together with me.”

The smile he gave me while looking at me was impeccably handsome, as if drawn. I couldn’t hide my dumbfounded face.

“…Crazy bastard.”

The curse finally came out belatedly, but my dry voice lacked strength. Faced once again with the pure and immense madness I could feel, I couldn’t even properly hurl insults at him.

The music slowly faded. The radio host repeated the process of reading another listener’s story and playing the requested song. By the time the third requester’s story was read, the car had entered an apartment complex. It was my tutoring student’s house.

After completely stopping the car, Choi Junghan turned his head toward me.

“I’ll come pick you up later. Do well with the tutoring.”

“No need.”

Just as I curtly replied and was about to get out of the car, our eyes met his gaze that was fixed on me. They were still thick like a swamp, ferociously devouring my gaze.

However, the reason I hesitated was different. It was because a strange feeling came over me for a moment. Him saying he would come pick me up later, telling me to do well with the tutoring. It was so utterly ordinary, yet the way he spoke… made him seem exactly like someone pretending to be a lover.

“…Don’t come. I’ll go on my own.”

After silently meeting Choi Junghan’s eyes, I spat out those words and got out of the car without any lingering attachment. I walked to the communal entrance without looking back and pressed the bell.

However, as I entered the building, I unconsciously turned around. Choi Junghan’s car was still parked in the same spot. I turned my back on him sharply and walked in, then roughly pressed the elevator button.

For the next few days after that, I was mindlessly busy.

I never imagined that one of the worst cases that occasionally circulated about group projects would become my story. One of the team members had finally ghosted us.

Fortunately, the remaining group members fairly divided up the disaster we suddenly faced. I stayed up all night filling in the gaps in the presentation materials that had fallen through. I drank countless cups of coffee to chase away the oncoming sleep. For the first time in a while, I felt how annoying a single shred of sleep could be when I had suffered from insomnia and longed for it so desperately.

Friday afternoon, I finally finished the presentation. Feeling much lighter, I ate dinner with Yeon-i and Joo-hyun for the first time in a while. As soon as I got home, I threw my bag aside and fell into a deep sleep. I slept profoundly, like a bear hibernating through winter.

The next morning, what woke me was the ringing of the doorbell.

“……?”

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I sat up in bed. Until now, the only people who had ever pressed the doorbell of this house, aside from the landlord and delivery drivers, were none.

With gradually clearing vision, I read the clock hanging on the wall. I had no clue who would come at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. So it was only natural that I was shocked the moment I opened the door.

“…Choi Junghan?”

The dumbfounded voice came out automatically.

Even though I said it myself, it was far too unrealistic a name to call out in front of my house on a weekend morning. Moreover, with him standing there in perfect attire—a light semi-formal outfit topped with a coat—I looked far too raw in comparison.

Choi Junghan clicked his tongue without restraint upon seeing me like that.

“What a mess you are. Go wash your face.”

“What does it matter to you? More importantly, why are you coming here from early on a weekend morning?”

“To go for a drive.”

Isn’t this guy seriously insane? …The curse caught in my throat. I rubbed my face dry with my palm and chewed on the words.

“Get lost. I have plans.”

“You don’t.”

“……”

My teeth ground audibly. This bastard—don’t tell me he’s even bugged me? The suspicion I had harbored multiple times resurfaced. However, unlike the cameras that blatantly revealed their presence, no listening devices had been discovered yet, so it remained mere conjecture.

“If you keep invading my privacy like this, I won’t let it slide.”

“Come on, Oon-ah. It’ll be fun.”

“I don’t believe you when you say it’ll be fun. The moment I heard those words from you, my life got ruined.”

I glared straight at him and chewed out the words.

“Stand there all you want or do whatever. I’m not going.”

I slammed the door shut with a loud bang and came back inside. With footsteps full of anger, I walked in and buried myself back in the bed.

Crazy bastard.

I pulled the blanket up and covered my face completely. My rough breathing wouldn’t calm down. I had never seen such a shameless human being. Showing up suddenly on a weekend morning to suggest going for a drive.

The reason I was angry wasn’t because he interrupted my rest. It was because of his excessively lover-like behavior—stubbornly coming to find me for days now, trying to take me to destinations or buy me meals.

This attitude of trying to share everyday life with me so quietly and persistently didn’t suit Choi Junghan at all.

He was a born invader. It would be more like him to kidnap me again, lock me up in his house, and tie me down. Not this—acting like some chauffeur and trailing after me like a dazed idiot.

What on earth was Choi Junghan doing this for?

I thought he would keep ringing the bell or break down the door and barge in, but unexpectedly, it was quiet outside. Considering Choi Junghan’s temper, he was more than capable of doing that and worse.

It seemed he had gone back after all. None of my business. A bastard who arbitrarily showed up and tried to mercilessly control my daily life really got worse the more I thought about it. I huffed out rough breaths while tossing and turning this way and that.

Perhaps because of the accumulated fatigue, despite the incident just moments ago, my mind quickly grew hazy again. The quiet outside helped a lot too. After all, with Choi Junghan’s pride, he wouldn’t be sulking outside just because I rejected him. I couldn’t even imagine such a sight.

After tossing around on the bed like that for a while, I unknowingly fell fast asleep. How long had I slept like that? What violently dragged my consciousness back wasn’t the doorbell or Choi Junghan’s voice,

but water.

“Ugh, ack! W-what the hell is this!”

I screamed and shot up from my spot. I couldn’t believe the reality that water was being sprayed from somewhere. I looked around in all directions. Absurdly, water was jetting out from the ceiling.

The sprinkler?!

Had a fire broken out? In a panic, I quickly scanned the house with my eyes, but there were no signs of fire anywhere. No thick smoke, no blazing flames. Nothing.

Then why the hell was this happening? I fumbled for my phone to call 119. But the moment I unlocked the screen, the sprinkler stopped working as if it had been a lie. Soaked through and looking pathetic, I let out a hollow laugh. I was dumbfounded.

Calming myself down, I first called the management office. If the sprinkler had malfunctioned, it couldn’t be just my unit. Though for that to be the case, the entire building was suspiciously quiet…

—Um… There’s no such incident. Everywhere else is perfectly fine.

But what came back was only the building manager’s somewhat dubious voice.

“Then why is it only activating in my place?”

—Ahem, please check carefully. Maybe there’s smoke somewhere…

“No, I told you there’s nothing like that.”

—Anyway, it’s off now, right? We’ll come inspect on Monday, so if it activates again, please contact us.

The call ended somewhat bewilderingly. I sat there dumbfounded with my mouth open in disbelief. The floor, of course, and even the bed were thoroughly soaked. At that moment, an unpleasant thought struck my head.

…No way.

It was probably an excessive assumption. However, the several years I had spent with Choi Junghan had been more than enough to equip me with such rich imagination. Most of the absurd hypotheses I had made had invariably turned into reality.

The room was drenched and soggy everywhere, and fire boiled in my chest. Vowing that if it was true, I wouldn’t let it go, I strode toward the front door. The moment I flung the door open, the face of the scoundrel standing right in front of me came into view.

“It was you?”

I spat out only the main point without any preamble. Choi Junghan, standing at the front door, looked at me and smiled as if intrigued.

“You look like a completely drenched rat.”

“I asked if it was you.”

“Which one? If you’re asking about your current messed-up state, I’d like to say I haven’t even set foot inside this house.”

“Don’t play innocent, you son of a bitch! You activated the sprinkler to…!”

“How could I?”

Choi Junghan opened his eyes wide and exaggeratedly shrugged his shoulders. I really wanted to kill him.

“If it’s you, there’s nothing you can’t do! You could buy this entire building, tell the manager, and order them to spray water only in the unit where I live—problem solved!”

“Oon-ah.”

A deflating sound like air leaking escaped from his broad chest. Lifting his lips, he truly looked like he found it interesting.

“Fun. Keep going.”

I couldn’t say anything more and just glared at him while breathing heavily. The blood that had rushed to the top of my head now surged to my face.