I Saw You Cheating Yesterday
In the noisy bar, Yumin—his friend of ten years—filled Woojin’s glass and spoke.
“Yeah, just one drink. I really thought I was going to die today.”
“Dude, what the hell have you been doing lately that you can’t even answer your phone?”
The events of the past few days flashed through Woojin’s mind like a panorama. A dry laugh slipped out.
“...I’ve been busy.”
“You little shit. Landing a permanent gig at a big company and now you’re too good for us?”
The glasses clinked, and cold beer slid smoothly down his throat. The moment it quenched his thirst, Seo Ihwa’s face rose unbidden in his thoughts.
Have I lost my mind?
He couldn’t understand why she was appearing here of all places, but he chalked it up to the alcohol and let it go. That was when Yumin struck.
“You got a girl?”
It was the inevitable topic whenever men drank together. Woojin shook his head, trying to erase Ihwa’s face that had floated up again.
“You dated two girls per year back in college. No one at the company catch your eye?”
“When did I ever do that? Drop the girl talk, man.”
Woojin quickly drained his glass, but Yumin watched him with a sly smile. Ten years of friendship was more than enough to read the truth behind a single expression.
“You’ve definitely got a woman.”
“It’s not like that…”
Eventually, the combination of alcohol and their long friendship wore him down, and Woojin spilled everything about the contract relationship. Yumin clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Seo Ihwa?! The person you’re talking about is the Seo Ihwa?”
The unexpected reaction made Woojin narrow his eyes. “You know her?”
“Of course I know her. We went to the same university.”
Woojin dropped the side dish he’d been about to eat, eyes round as saucers. Yumin took another swig of beer and continued.
“I told you back then, remember? There was this girl in our school who was celebrity-level pretty.”
Woojin, who had never paid much attention to Yumin’s usual nonsense, was genuinely stunned. “Did you?”
“But how on earth did Seo Ihwa end up proposing a contract relationship to you… She didn’t have a single friend in college. I’m serious. Most loners have at least one or two people, but she had literally none.”
Woojin nodded silently. Seeing her at the company made that easy to believe. She gave off the impression that there was no possible way to get close to her. Even now, he still couldn’t understand why someone like her had entered into this bizarre contract with him.
Yumin grinned in admiration. “Still… she really is gorgeous.”
Woojin couldn’t deny it. Anyone who saw her would inevitably let out a sigh at her beauty.
“Does a contract relationship change anything? In webtoons they always end up doing skinship and kissing and stuff.”
“...We’ve held hands.”
Yumin leaned in like an audience member at a dating show, peppering him with questions. Woojin’s mood soured, so he quickly changed the subject.
“Whatever. How’s your wedding prep going?”
Yumin was engaged to Jimin, his girlfriend since high school. He looked down at the ring on his finger with a content smile.
“Obviously. I’m going to make her happy.”
They emptied their glasses, piling up all the stories they hadn’t yet shared.
How much time had passed?
Yumin was already face-down on the table, dead asleep. With a sigh at the familiar sight, Woojin called Yumin’s fiancée, Jimin. She was someone he’d known since high school too.
Before long, Jimin arrived in her car and looked down at her passed-out future husband with exasperation.
“He must’ve been excited to see you after so long and went overboard. How have you been?”
“Surviving, I guess.”
Jimin practically tossed Yumin into the backseat, then pulled out a cigarette. The sight made the stress of that brutal day surge up inside Woojin. The cigarettes he had quit after leaving the military suddenly called to him like a siren.
“Hey, give me one.”
Jimin handed one over as if she’d expected it. “I thought you quit.”
“I did. It’s been four years…”
Woojin lit it with a bitter smile. The smoke filling his lungs after so long tasted awful, yet it also felt like it was loosening some of the knots in his chest. Still, the fear of getting addicted again washed over him. After three drags, he dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his shoe.
“Hey! Why waste it like that!”
“You gonna take responsibility if I get hooked again? Take your man and go.”
“You’re the one who asked for it! What a rude bastard…”
Leaving Jimin’s grumbling behind, Woojin breathed in the night air. The cigarette smoke had vanished, but the unanswered questions in his chest remained. All of them tied to the name Seo Ihwa.
And the one person who had been watching that scene unfold.
Monday morning.
Woojin sat at his desk, sighing. His face was a complete mess from a vicious hangover. Someone tapped him on the back. When he turned around, Yu Chaewon from another department was standing there. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered.
“Employee Kim, could you come up to the rooftop for a moment…”
The memory of Ihwa calling him to the rooftop flashed through his mind. Woojin prayed it wasn’t déjà vu as he started to stand. At that exact moment, Ihwa—who had been watching—approached and gently pressed down on his shoulder, forcing him back into his seat. She then spoke to Employee Yu in a cold voice.
“What’s going on? I have work to give to Employee Kim.”
“Employee Seo… I feel so bad for you. I’ll take care of this.”
Yu Chaewon left behind those incomprehensible words and dragged Woojin off toward the rooftop. Left alone, Ihwa wore an expression of pure confusion.
A heavy silence hung between Woojin and Yu Chaewon once they reached the roof.
“What is this about?”
“How can you do this when you already have a girlfriend?”
Woojin wondered if he had misheard her. The more he turned the question over in his mind, the less sense it made.
“W-what are you talking about…?”
Yu Chaewon frowned at him like he was an insect. That blatant stare reminded him of the way Seo Ihwa had once looked at him in the past.
“I saw everything yesterday. You cheating, Woojin.”
Woojin tried once more to parse her words. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t find an answer. Just as he was about to ask for clarification, the conversation he’d had with Jimin the night before flashed through his mind. Realizing what she might have seen, he asked carefully.
“Just to be sure… what did the woman look like?”
“Gray sweatpants and a gray hoodie. Why do you keep pretending you don’t know? Don’t you feel sorry for Ihwa at all?”
Oh god.
His worst guess had been correct. Woojin pressed a hand to his throbbing head and grimaced. Seeing his expression, Yu Chaewon clicked her tongue and raised her voice.
“Ha! See? You’re panicking because you got caught doing something you shouldn’t have, right?”
No. The problem wasn’t that the wrong content had been discovered—it was that the wrong person had discovered it. This woman, who usually seemed completely oblivious with the emotional intelligence of a child, had somehow stumbled onto this misunderstanding. Woojin decided to clear it up before the situation spiraled out of control.
“That’s not it. She’s my friend.”
Yu Chaewon shook her head as if she had seen it all before. “That’s such an obvious excuse. Just tell Ihwa the truth before this gets any bigger.”
Woojin screamed internally. You’re the one making it bigger!
He tried desperately to reason with her before things got worse. “Okay, okay, calm down. It’s not what you think, so please stop meddling and just go back downstairs.”
Even after his earnest plea, Yu Chaewon let out a deep sigh and glared at him.
“So you’re saying you have no intention of telling the truth until the end?”
“No! It isn’t the truth! It’s not the situation you’re imagining at all!”
But his explanation didn’t even reach her ears. Yu Chaewon held up three fingers and declared firmly.
“Three days. I’ll give you exactly three days. Get your thoughts together and confess to Ihwa yourself within three days. Before I open my mouth.”
With that ultimatum, she left the rooftop without a backward glance. Left behind, Woojin stared blankly at the stairs where she had disappeared, completely dumbfounded.
Of all the people who could’ve seen it… it had to be her.
Dealing with Assistant Manager Choi and Deputy Gang—the villains of his own department—was already suffocating enough. Now an employee from another department had joined the fray. For the first time since joining the company, Woojin seriously considered quitting. But the thought of his mother’s hospital bills and the contract conditions Ihwa had offered helped him barely pull himself together.
He returned to the office with heavy steps and sank into his chair. Two unread messages waited on the company messenger. One from Seo Ihwa, the other from Yu Chaewon, whom he had just parted with.
If he read Yu Chaewon’s message right now, he was sure he’d explode and start shouting in the middle of the office. He steadied his emotions and clicked on Ihwa’s window first.
What happened?
It was only four short words, yet they carried Ihwa’s sharp concern and suspicion directed at the man who had been dragged to the rooftop. Woojin rested his hands on the keyboard and agonized for a long time. Should he explain Yu Chaewon’s ridiculous misunderstanding to Ihwa in exhaustive detail?
But explaining something that wasn’t even true already felt like another exhausting chore. In the end, Woojin sent a short reply.
It’s nothing. Please focus on your work.
Telling her would only complicate things further. He believed that showing Yu Chaewon proof that Jimin was his high-school friend would quietly resolve the issue. Woojin swallowed hard, his hand trembling as he clicked on Yu Chaewon’s message.