Wallet (2)
Wallet (2)
We stepped out of the department building, but soon went back inside.
We went up to the 4th floor where the department office was, and checked the entire timetable for the Department of Social Welfare.
"There's a class at 6."
"It's 5:30 right now, so... wait?"
As we were checking the timetable in front of the door, people started trickling in.
From aunties who looked a bit older, to older female and male students in suits— all kinds of people were entering the lecture hall.
They seemed to be night-class undergraduates.
"They come pretty early, don't they?"
"They say night classes have a lot of work."
I'd heard that night classes, which focus intensively on the major, were quite pressed for time.
Lots of assignments, a huge amount of daily workload, and even fewer class hours than the day session.
It was a Spartan-style lecture, no two ways about it.
"But the owner of the wallet isn't in sight."
I looked around the lecture hall that the night students had entered earlier.
I could see other pretty older female students, but the striking one from the student ID wasn't there.
Could she be downstairs looking for the wallet?
"Lee Min-ho, let's go back down."
"Huh? Why?"
"Maybe she's looking for the wallet downstairs? That might be why she's not here..."
"I didn't think of that."
If that was the case, we should have just waited downstairs.
Lee Min-ho was a smart guy, but sometimes he had moments like this.
I gave a wry smile at the sight of Lee Min-ho scratching his head,
and followed him down to the 1st floor.
*
"Where is it..."
The wallet that had definitely been in her pocket just moments ago was gone.
She realized it while trying to pay at a cafe outside the school.
The moment she suddenly became aware that she had lost something,
all kinds of stray thoughts started swirling in her head.
And with good reason—she had put quite a bit of money in there: 50,000-won bills and 100,000-won checks.
She could file a loss report for the checks, but the cash was gone for good.
On top of that, the wallet was a luxury brand she hadn't even finished paying off in installments yet.
All combined, three months' worth of her salary was about to vanish in an instant.
"Aagh... If I'd known this would happen, I should have sent my parents on a trip instead..."
If she was going to lose it anyway,
it would have been so much better to have done something big for her parents and spent a day with a light wallet but a full heart.
The thought that she hadn't lost 6 million won on filial piety, or games, or luxury goods, or gambling,
but from a single moment of carelessness,
made a crushing feeling of shame wash over her.
And to make things worse, there was no CCTV in this parking lot,
and by the time she had gotten into her car to go buy coffee, all the day-session students had already left,
so she couldn't even check a dashcam.
The only cars here were that Porsche Cayenne over there
and the cars of the night-session students who had just arrived.
"A Porsche..."
As a car enthusiast, seeing a Porsche parked in front of her while she sat slumped on the steps, just sighing, she felt truly pitiful.
"Hoooh... Huh?"
As she let out another sigh, two men came out of the department building.
One of them was a pretty famous figure at their school.
The husband of world star Song A-ra, and someone who had become quite famous himself on Qtube— Yoo Seong-hwan.
And she knew the guy next to him was also a Qtuber, but she wasn't sure of his name.
The two of them looked around here and there, checking for other people.
She was in this spot, but perhaps because she was sitting in a slightly dark corner, they didn't seem to see her.
After glancing around for a moment, Yoo Seong-hwan scratched his head and started to look a bit troubled.
Then, he took a car key out of his pocket and pressed a button.
At the same time, the Porsche Cayenne flashed its lights and made the sound of its locks unlocking.
She was pretty sure she'd heard he had just turned twenty.
A Porsche at twenty... Just how much money did he make?
Compared to that, she started to feel pathetic, having earned money only to basically throw it away.
The two men opened the car door, put their bags inside, and came back out.
Class had ended quite a while ago, so what were they doing here?
"Oh...? Wait... Is that...?"
What the man next to Yoo Seong-hwan was holding
was a black wallet.
And unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, it was the same brand and the same model.
Even the shiny look that showed at a glance it hadn't been long since she'd bought it and used it carefully.
It was identical to the wallet she had lost.
She shot up, overwhelmed by the shock of being reunited with her lost wallet and the bewilderment of why that person had it.
The two men, who had been looking elsewhere and surveying the area, must have sensed her presence, as they started looking her way.
And, for some reason, they were walking toward her with bright smiles.
"You're Miss Se-hui, right? Night class, Department of Social Welfare."
"Huh? Yes..."
She was flustered by the sudden mention of her name.
How did these two know her name?
Had she been put on blast on Everytime or something?
That would be a bit of a problem.
"We found a wallet in the parking lot earlier."
And he held out the wallet he was carrying.
In his hand was the luxury wallet that was definitely hers.
***
"Are you really sure it's okay to miss your lecture?"
"Is class what matters right now? Missing one day is fine."
Maybe she was just that happy to have found her wallet.
After suddenly slumping down and starting to cry, she insisted on treating us to dinner, even skipping her class, and we ended up at a steakhouse.
Since things had turned out this way, I tried to make myself scarce to push Lee Min-ho forward, but Lee Min-ho told me there was no need and was the first to ask me to come along.
And since she already knew I was a married man, she suggested I at least get permission from my wife, encouraging me to join them for dinner.
"Please, eat up. If it's not enough, order more."
"Thank you for the meal."
Just how many steaks did she order?
Ribs and all sorts of things...
It looked like the table legs were going to buckle.
"I was so scared when I realized I'd lost it... I had most of my paycheck in there as cash, you see."
"Your paycheck? I'd be too scared to carry something like that around..."
She had some nerve.
Stuffing several million won in cash into a wallet and walking around with it in her pocket.
If I ever lost the money I worked so hard for, I thought it would keep haunting me for a while and make daily life hard.
"Is that why you keep your wallet and phone in your bag?"
"Yeah. A bag's harder to lose, you know."
If you keep it inside a bag, it's less likely to be stolen.
Maybe that was why I rarely ever put my car key in my pocket, either.
"You must be very meticulous, Seong-hwan-ssi."
"Rather than meticulous... it's more that I'm a bit clumsy."
I gulped down some cold cola.
It's been a while since I talked this long with a woman I just met.
It was a little tiring, so my throat was drying up on its own.
"Anyway, Noona, you're an office worker, right?"
"Huh? Ah, yes, I'm an office worker."
"Wow... It must be really hard to study while working."
Lee Min-ho expressed deep admiration.
Because the ID photo on the student ID we'd seen earlier had her wearing a large company employee ID card around her neck.
Working at a major corporation and going to night college on top of that.
Devoting time to studying when she barely had enough time to enjoy a hobby was admirable.
"It's... it's not that big of a deal..."
When Lee Min-ho complimented her, she started blushing, maybe from embarrassment.
It looked like Lee Min-ho was starting to make his move.
Does he actually have a talent for picking up women?
"Working like that, you probably don't even have time to watch a single movie."
"Movies... The last one I saw was back in 2013, one with a spy in it..."
She started recalling that distant past.
We must have been in middle school back then.
I had a faint memory of watching that movie, too.
"Then would you like to go see a movie with me tomorrow, since it's the weekend? Actually, I have two movie tickets I got from an acquaintance a while ago."
"W-with me...?"
"Unless you have a prior engagement..."
"No, no! I don't have any!"
She suddenly started denying it loudly, then smacked the table and shot up from her seat.
That action was full of the vibe of a woman who had never dated before, getting her first approach and feeling slightly excited.
Was a guy who'd never dated before hitting on a girl who'd never dated before?
This might be a little fun.
Watching the two of them chatting like that, I figured I should just focus on eating and raised my fork.
***
The two of them finished even exchanging phone numbers and slowly came back down.
Seeing her call the number she got from him and confirm his phone rang, she must have been pretty pleased.
She was four years older than him...
For a first romance, he was being quite bold.
"Seong-hwan-ssi, thank you so much for finding my wallet today."
"It was nothing. I didn't even find it for you, I just held onto it for a bit."
"That's what I'm grateful for."
Smiling like that, the noona looked over at Lee Min-ho.
I didn't know why, but the fresh, youthful vibe already coming from them was a little funny.
"I'll be heading off first, then."
"Will you be okay alone? I'll give you a ride to your school."
"No. I can just take a taxi, so please just take care of Lee Min-ho here."
If I offered to give Lee Min-ho a ride here, or tagged along and asked her to take me to school, I'd be branded a clueless guy.
I said goodbye to the two of them and went back to school.
Maybe I should go watch a movie with A-ra, too.
I think some fun movies came out recently.