Leaving the Earrings
And it was that night.
After parting ways with Sebin, I came straight home and spent the evening quietly. I needed to pick up the pace on the game I was developing, so I kept myself reasonably busy. All those intrusive thoughts that had been tormenting me had kept me from touching the project at all until now.
Somehow, after meeting Sebin like this, it was as if a game buff lingered for a while—those stray thoughts rarely surfaced. The hours of thinking about Seoa and hurting alone never came for me. In that sense, I seemed to believe I was receiving some kind of healing from her.
But Seoa was a ruthless woman in her own right. Just when I was finding that kind of peace of mind, she refused to leave me alone.
My phone buzzed noisily on the wooden desk. It was a call from Seoa. It was already quite late—what could she possibly want? Since this never happened normally, curiosity got the better of me and I answered.
Even through the phone I could smell the alcohol. Her speech reeked of it. No… this girl never used to drink like that—why the sudden change? Don’t tell me… she drank with that guy.
My calm heart started thrashing. Disasters that strike without any warning always leave the worst damage, don’t they? The moment I took this call, I felt my mental state about to shred itself apart. I still didn’t even know for sure if she’d been drinking with him, yet I was already spinning wild fantasies on my own.
No… it can’t be. It isn’t.
My heart pounded like mad. My mouth went bone-dry in an instant. Even though there wasn’t a drop of moisture left, I forced myself to swallow dry spit. I had to calm down somehow.
Think carefully. If she’d drunk that much with him, she wouldn’t have called me in the first place. Yeah—that’s the rational, sensible thought. Stay calm.
I threw on clothes in a rush and got ready to leave. No matter how firmly I’d decided to distance myself from her, there was still such a thing as basic human decency. Ignoring a call like this would make me no better than a psychopath. Fundamentally, before she was ever the object of my one-sided love, she and I were precious friends.
Ah… maybe we’re just ordinary friends now.
Ugh… even in a situation like this I was still chewing on that kind of thought. I really wasn’t a good person either. I felt like I’d just shown the absolute peak of pathetic behavior.
Near her place. Or rather, it was more accurate to call it the neighborhood where she lived. On the way running toward her apartment I spotted her on a street lined with bars.
I recognized her instantly even from a distance. It wasn’t as if I’d only seen Seoa once or twice. There she was, sitting blankly on a bench by the roadside.
“Hey! What are you doing out here?”
Worry made my tone a little sharp as I scolded her. Then I immediately started catching my breath. But my tone didn’t seem to register in her eyes at all right now.
“Minjae… you really came…”
Her face was flushed from the alcohol. Seoa looked up at me and blinked.
“Sigh… let’s go already.”
I took one of her hands and pulled so she could stand. She immediately sank back down. At this rate… I had no confidence I could get her home. So in the end I carried her on my back. What choice did I have? How was I supposed to take a girl who couldn’t even walk straight?
Truthfully, she was incredibly light on my back. I’d always told her she was heavy, but she never was. Because she was wearing short shorts, my hands felt her bare skin. I didn’t want to notice it, but I was a guy, so the reaction was natural. And more decisive than that… the sensation against my back. Something soft was pressing down on me.
I don’t want to be conscious of this with my drunk childhood friend. Please, just don’t let me disappoint myself any further.
Her slender arms had already wrapped around my neck. Even drunk, she apparently didn’t want the pain of falling to the ground.
“Go inside now.”
I said that in front of Seoa’s door. Even though she was light, carrying her that long distance had left sweat beading on my forehead.
“1111.”
“Huh?”
“The password…”
What… was she telling me to open this door and go all the way inside? Me, entering Seoa’s place? I’d been to her door plenty of times, but I’d never actually gone inside. Of course not—no matter how much we were childhood friends, you didn’t just walk into a grown woman’s apartment. Seoa had seemed somewhat conscious of that too. Yet right now she was handing me the password to that sanctuary, as if opening it to me.
My heart fluttered. It raced for a completely different reason than earlier. I carefully pressed in the numbers. The door lock clicked open. When I pushed the front door, a small entryway with neat little shoes came into view. Even then I hesitated to step in.
I took one deep breath. Don’t overthink it. I’m not doing anything weird right now. This is just to get Seoa home safely. Go in, lay her on the bed, and leave. That’s all.
With the lights still off, I relied on night vision to carry her to the bed.
“Why did you drink so much?”
“Because of you… it’s your fault, Minjae.”
“Huh?”
“Why didn’t you reply earlier?”
“To what…”
Come to think of it, I remembered the message she’d sent through SNS earlier. I’d definitely read it and just scrolled past, but that couldn’t be the reason she’d drunk this much. Lying on the bed, she started rambling. I decided to treat it as drunken nonsense.
“Minjae… you’ve been weird lately, right?”
“Me?”
“Yeah… something’s off…”
“I don’t really know.”
“Who’d you go to the café with?”
“Just club people.”
“I see…”
After that she fell quiet for a while. A still silence filled the dark room.
“Minjae… you remember the promise we made, right?”
The promise. I knew exactly which one Seoa meant. Of course I did—I had no choice. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’d stayed by her side holding onto hope because of that promise.
It was the one where we said that if we both still didn’t have anyone by the time we turned thirty, we’d date each other. It was a promise from when we were really little. We hadn’t even made it all that seriously. That was why I’d assumed she’d forgotten it. So when the words came out of Seoa’s mouth just now, I was a little surprised. So she still remembered it too.
“Why bring that up all of a sudden?”
“Just… as long as you remember it, that’s enough.”
I couldn’t understand why she was suddenly reminding me of that promise now. Especially when she herself was interested in another guy—why dredge that up with me? It almost felt like she was telling me not to look at anyone else and just wait. Still selfish as ever.
Have you ever once thought about how that person feels? Could you do it? That painful thing?
Those words rose all the way to my throat, but they weren’t things to say to a drunk girl, so I swallowed them back down. She must have just been spouting nonsense because she was drunk. A slip of the tongue.
“I didn’t drink with Woo-bin today.”
“Yeah…”
“I felt like I had to tell you. I didn’t drink with Woo-bin, so… don’t get the wrong idea.”
I had nothing proper to say in reply. All I felt was a mild sense of relief. Unlike what I’d been fretting over, she hadn’t been drinking with that guy. I quietly stood up from my spot. Then I reached into my pants pocket to check if I’d dropped anything on the way.
That was when… the earrings I’d bought earlier were still sitting in my pocket, never having seen the light of day. Since I’d bought them to give to Seoa anyway, I figured I might as well leave them while I was here. Honestly, handing them over while looking her in the face felt a little embarrassing too. Perfect. Now I could just leave them.
I set the packaged earrings roughly on what looked like a table. A post-it pad caught my eye beside them, so I hurriedly tore one off and left a note. You never know. She might wake up tomorrow and get the wrong idea. Worst-case scenario: the heavy drinking had blacked out her memory, and she had no idea I’d even been inside her place. If she suddenly saw earrings sitting on the table in that state, how terrifying would that be? Goosebumps would cover her whole body for sure.
You seemed way too drunk, so I brought you all the way here. And since you told me to come in, don’t go suspecting me of anything. Also, lose some weight—I thought I was gonna die from how heavy you were. The earrings are just a gift after a long time. I still don’t really know your taste, but this looked the prettiest to me, so I went with these.
I’d meant to keep it short… but it got long without me noticing. I managed to cram it all onto the post-it somehow. Well, this should do. Satisfied in my own way, I carefully set it on the table, then pushed it a little farther into the corner. Maybe I was hoping she wouldn’t find it right away. If she discovered it immediately, I’d feel embarrassed. I hoped she’d find it around the time she’d forgotten I was the one who gave them.
With that, I left her place. The last I saw of her, only soft, even breathing reached my ears. She must have passed out completely. Thankfully I finished the mission safely and got out of her apartment. I really was glad I’d bought those earrings after all.