The Unwelcome Reunion and the Fox’s Arrival
I’ll keep this brief, as it’s not exactly a pleasant story to tell. After returning to university from my military service, I met a girlfriend in my department. We dated, and after a one-month internship, I landed a job quickly. Even while working, I continued to see her. Her name was Choi Gaeun. But there’s really no need to remember that name. We broke up not long after I started my career.
Honestly, at the time, I was so blindsided I didn’t know what hit me. One day, out of the blue, Gaeun just kept repeating, "I don't think we're a good match," and she slowly drifted away into a ghosting breakup. I was so busy trying to adapt to my new job that I didn't even have the space to try and hold onto her.
After spending about a week in a daze, curiosity got the better of me. It might seem pathetic, but because I was so frustrated by the lack of closure, I created a burner account and peeked at her social media. And there, I found the reason for the breakup in an instant. After we split, she had posted a selfie with a new boyfriend, as if to show him off. It was a photo taken at some resort. It was just one picture, but it was more than enough to explain everything. Even the tags didn't bother hiding her true intentions.
It was her new boyfriend. The photo was taken on a weekday, and the bag visible in the shot proved the man's wealth. That was it. To put it simply, Gaeun wanted a boyfriend upgrade. Whether it was all planned or just a lucky opportunity that fell into her lap, we drifted apart. Perhaps she decided that since I was only working at a mid-sized company—not a major conglomerate—and was too busy with work to see her often, she’d quickly jump ship to someone better. I had become the victim of a story you’d only see on the internet. At first, a wave of disgust churned in my gut. But as time passed, it became a thing of the past, and after two months, I gradually accepted it. Rationally speaking, from a personal standpoint, it might have been the "right" decision for her. I decided to accept that she made that choice based on her own judgment. And it was around this time that my personality changed a bit. I think this was when I started suppressing my feelings for others and keeping a pessimistic distance from the world. The "moderate position" of taking a step back after tasting the bitterness of the world was established then. My dating cells probably suffered a mass extinction around this time, too.
"Seungwoo oppa..."
"……."
It was her. And so, this uncomfortable encounter was destined to follow the standard procedure: either we’d ignore each other and turn away, or we’d share an awkward smile and go our separate ways. Or so I thought.
Grab!
"!?"
"Oppa, it’s so good to see you!"
"Huh? ……………Oh, oh oh!? It… it has been a while, hasn't it."
"I’m so happy to see you. How long has it been? Haha, look at you! You’ve got that office worker vibe now, looking sharp in a suit, and your complexion is pretty good, too!"
A completely unexpected development. She grabbed my hand without hesitation, acting like we were the best of friends.
"What's going on?"
Then, someone else appeared. A guy who looked incredibly cocky, clearly her boyfriend.
'...That's not the same face.'
The man wasn't the one I’d seen on her social media. He was much younger and looked like a total punk compared to the guy in my fading memory. It seemed she’d swapped boyfriends again in the meantime. I felt a strange mix of emotions. I’d been dumped for someone else, but I didn't think she was the type to cycle through boyfriends like this.
"Oh, this is Son Seungwoo oppa, a senior from my university."
"Were you guys close?"
"Well, we dated a bit back in the day."
An uncomfortable revelation after her current boyfriend asked. The guy, who had dyed hair and a cocky attitude, looked me up and down, then smirked. He curled his lips in a sneer and held out a hand.
"Ah~ nice to meet ya. I'm Park Jinseong, Gaeun's 'current' boyfriend."
"Ah, yes… I’m Son Seungwoo."
'What is this…?'
A pointless introduction for someone whose name I didn't even want to remember. I had no idea what kind of situation this was. If this weren't reality but a terrible nightmare, it would actually make more sense.
"Seungwoo oppa, why the long face?"
"……U-uh?"
"Ah… right, is it because of how things ended?"
As if she’d just remembered, she opened Pandora's box herself. Honestly, I was curious to see what she’d say. I watched silently to see how she’d justify it.
"I'm sorry, oppa… I'm sorry for leaving so quietly back then, but I was really out of it."
With a pitiful, upward glance like a child who didn't want to get scolded, she continued, "You know me, right? The project I started didn't go well, so I was taking a break due to the stress, and I had some problems with my family… It was a really tough time for me."
It was absurd. My ex-girlfriend Gaeun was spinning lies like a vintage AI, fresh off the assembly line.
'…What the hell, does that even make sense?'
What made me angry was how she skillfully mixed truth and lies from that time. My blood was boiling, but I didn't deliver the killing blow: "But you were seeing another guy!" If I did that, I’d be admitting that I’d been stalking her social media.
"Well… it’s all in the past now."
Above all, I didn't want to get deeply entangled. Just as I was about to mumble something and go my own way,
"I'm so sorry! You must have had a hard time too, I'm really sorry!"
"No… I told you, it’s in the past, I’m fine."
"Oh, right! How about this? Let’s grab a meal together this weekend!"
"………Huh?"
"My boyfriend is pretty open-minded. He’ll give us his blessing if it’s in front of him. Right?"
"Well, a meal together wouldn't hurt."
"Then it’s settled!"
She pushed ahead on her own. The nightmare deepened. 'No, you idiots, I said I'm NOT fine?!'
"No, Gaeun, I—"
"Oppa, I’ll treat you to a proper meal as an apology, so come here at 1 PM this weekend," she said with a smile. "Let’s bury the past over a meal, okay?"
"……."
I lamented my own weakness in the face of such aggressive pushing.
Looking back, the probability of this being a coincidence was impossibly low. I rummaged through the memories stored in my hippocampus and recalled the time I’d taken Gaeun to that Japanese restaurant after getting my first paycheck.
'Ha…… so that was why.'
That was it. It was a butterfly effect that started there. Because I had shown her this place in the past, that snowball had rolled all the way to the present, two years later.
Yeoeun, who had the original plans, seemed disappointed. Still, she let it slide, assuming I had work to do since I was an office worker. The fact that she didn't pry for reasons felt like the composure of a woman three years my senior.
"Oppa, why do you keep looking at your phone during our meal?"
"Oh, no…"
At her prompt, I quietly set my phone down on the table. Taking my eyes off the screen, I saw an absurd scene in front of me. An ex-girlfriend, her current boyfriend, and her ex-boyfriend having lunch. What kind of combination was this, and why was I wasting my precious weekend doing this? They said they were paying, but I couldn't tell if the food was going into my mouth or my nose.
"Seungwoo oppa, eat up! It’s my way of saying I’m really sorry about back then."
An apology delivered without even a hint of sincerity. Nominally, this was a reconciliation meeting to erase the bad past.
"You know," she said.
"Yeah?"
"Since we broke up a long time ago, you're not 'oppa' anymore, right?"
"Huh? Well, I don't really have another title to call you by."
She chatted with her current boyfriend, then added, "Ah! Is Jinseong oppa jealous right now?"
"Jealous? Not at all…"
"Heehee~ honestly, he’s such a kid at heart. It’s so cute I could die."
When her current boyfriend—whose name I didn't even want to memorize—interjected, the two of them suddenly started flirting. They were acting so lovey-dovey I wondered why they’d even called me. 'You call someone over just to do that? Ugh!' It wasn't just nightmare-level; it was a living hell.
Gaeun—no, Choi Gaeun—had been acting strange since I saw her outfit today. A luxury bag with a famous logo plastered all over it. A coat that looked like it had been carefully ironed and kept in the closet, only worn on special occasions. A necklace that looked expensive, which I hadn't seen yesterday. This wasn't a reconciliation. She’d set up this meeting to show off. Every gesture was intentional, meant to show me how she was living. She was even flashing a ring on her finger at a local Japanese restaurant. Seeing that it was on her index finger rather than her ring finger, it meant they weren't in a super serious relationship, but she just wanted to wear expensive-looking accessories. She was putting on a show of everything I’d seen on her social media, right in front of me. She’d called me over just to serve her own emotional needs. 'This is completely fucked up.'
I didn't know who this meal was for. I wasn't the one who ghosted anyone, so I didn't know why I was the one being put through this. Her intentions were so obvious, and while I wasn't exactly jealous, it was just… one of those days. A day where, because I’d been too happy lately, the universe was balancing things out by throwing some misfortune my way. I’d been dragged here like a pushover, but I vowed that once this meal was over, I’d never see her again.
"Hehehe."
"……."
On one hand, it was infuriating, but on the other, it was bitter. Seeing how much Choi Gaeun had changed from the past. She used to be a girl who was both pretty and socially adept. Even though she’d dumped me for someone else, my first impression of her was that she was shy, and I’d even been envied as a "thief" for dating her. I wondered if she’d always been like this, but if not, it meant she’d been worn down by society to become this way. She’d put so much effort into her social media that she’d become a woman desperate to flaunt and show off everything she had. Time is truly cruel—
"Honey?"
"Huh? ……Whaaaaaa!?"
I turned my head reflexively, and there was that presence right in front of my nose. The fox who was supposed to be my original date, appearing out of nowhere.
"Yeo, Yeoeun?"
I couldn't believe it. After rubbing my eyes and checking a few times, I asked, "What… what are you doing here?"
"? It’s the restaurant you told me about, isn't it? I couldn't eat here last time, and after my morning class today, I was craving it, so I came for a light meal."
That really seemed to be all there was to it. From Yeoeun's perspective, she was bewildered as to why I was here when I’d canceled our plans, and she blinked her long eyelashes in confusion.
"……Who is that?"
At the sudden appearance of another woman, the words slipped out of Choi Gaeun's mouth unconsciously.
"Heehee."
Yeoeun didn't answer. She just observed. She scanned our seating arrangement, Gaeun's outfit, and the man beside her. She looked us over for five seconds, as if licking the situation to grasp exactly what was going on. Heehee♡ Then, the corners of her mouth rose. It was the smile she wore when she found something truly interesting or was about to pull a prank. She seemed to have grasped the entire situation in an instant and looked satisfied.
"Looks like something fun is happening♥"
Zzzzip!
She slid down the zipper of her tracksuit jacket. She must have come straight from work, as she was wearing leggings that went up to her navel and a sports bra-style tank top that pushed up her chest. It was very similar to the outfit she’d worn on the first day. She wiped the sweat lightly trickling down her chest with a handkerchief, then leaned against my shoulder and asked, "Honey, you don't mind if I join you, right?"
"……."
A cunning fox who asked for permission only after she’d already decided to sit down. Press♥ She leaned in even closer, as if to flaunt something in return.
"“……”"
"Fufufu♥"
Things had gotten strange. At this uncomfortable lunch table in the middle of the day, the dynamic had shifted completely.