Memories
"Ugh. What a mess."
I shuddered as I stepped out of the house.
It was all Seorin's fault.
Sleeping next to me, calling herself my girlfriend—sure, I understood the context, but her mischievous little comments left me stuck at home for ages, explaining everything to my parents.
You used protection properly, right, son?
Pfft.
Even now, just remembering Mom's question made my face burn. I shook my head hard.
Honestly, Mom.
I could understand the worry. Her son was dating for the first time, after all. I'd never even brought a female friend home, let alone spent the night at a girl's place.
"…More than that, I don't have Seorin's number or a single photo of her."
That had been the real shock.
When my parents asked to see her face and told me to show them a picture, I realized for the first time that I had neither a photo of the two of us nor even her contact information.
If we'd been friends on social media, I could have at least shown them her profile picture. But we weren't even that.
I'd gone so far as to lie and call her my girlfriend, yet I didn't have a single photo. It felt ridiculous, so I made something up about not having a good one and promised to show them later.
"Well, we see each other every day. Maybe that's why it never occurred to me."
I'd thought we'd grown pretty close.
Thinking about why things had turned out this way, it was probably because we never needed each other's numbers. Outside of the nights we slept, we were always within sight of each other. Whenever we needed something, we could just walk over and talk. So exchanging contacts had never come up.
And photos… well, there'd simply never been a reason to take any.
"Maybe I should ask Seorin for her number today."
Or ask her to take a picture with me.
Plotting that slightly scheming little excuse, I finally headed for the café around lunchtime.
And just as I arrived, I spotted Seorin in the distance, getting out of an unfamiliar car and bowing in greeting.
"Thank you for today, sunbae. And for the ride, too."
…So that was the "schedule" she'd mentioned?
I remembered our conversation over ramen that morning.
"Ijun, you're heading home, right?"
"Yeah, I should. Because of you, I need to show my face to my parents. Plus I want to change clothes."
"Then I'll see you around lunch."
"Why? Got something going on today?"
"I have a schedule. I'll probably only make it to the café around lunchtime."
I hadn't pressed for details.
But in the months I'd been coming to the café, Seorin almost never missed her usual hours. For her to have a "schedule"… She'd said she didn't have a part-time job or anything.
Maybe she was meeting family or friends?
Thinking that, I walked toward her.
"Oh? Seorin?"
The closer I got, the clearer the figure inside the car became.
"Ah, Ijun~ You're coming now too?"
She smiled brightly as she greeted me.
Seeing her lifted my mood instantly, and I asked with extra energy in my voice,
"Yeah. But you said you had a schedule today. Already finished?"
"Just wrapped up. What about you?"
"I saw my parents and rested a bit before coming out. Maybe the hangover hasn't fully worn off—my head's still foggy."
And then my words died in my throat.
Because the person who'd just dropped her off was a man.
A guy with a kind of hippie vibe.
Around my age, or a little older. He had a mature yet natural air about him. And he was handsome. Quite handsome. The type who'd probably been popular with girls back in school—like a cool band-club sunbae.
…Don't tell me today's "schedule" was meeting this guy?
Suspicion rose unbidden.
She'd said she didn't have a boyfriend. So maybe family? People could look completely different even if they were siblings like me and Seoyeon. But no matter how I looked at him, he didn't give off big-brother vibes. A cousin, maybe? Possible, sure.
No—she'd only said she didn't have a boyfriend. She'd never claimed she had no male friends…
Did Seorin have a lot of guy friends?
Come to think of it, pretty girls always seemed to have guys hovering around them. Attractive guys, at that. Whether they just hung out in the same circles or were testing the waters for something more, I never knew.
…Even if Seorin wasn't interested, what if he was after her?
What if she was just too oblivious to notice, and guys like him were circling around her, waiting for a chance?
The thought made my chest tighten. My heart clenched without my permission. I briefly met the man's eyes, then looked away.
No. Stop overthinking it, Kang Ijun.
"Next time something like this happens, don't stew over it alone. Come talk to me right away, okay?"
The words I'd said to her after the whole thing with Seoyeon flashed through my mind.
I'd said that myself, and here I was about to fall into baseless suspicion again. Seorin was right in front of me. There was no need to spiral alone. I could just ask her honestly. That was how we'd avoid misunderstandings like last time.
"…So, who's that guy? A friend?"
The words came out more territorial than I intended.
Right then a horn blared from behind us. He'd been parked in front of the café too long.
"Whoa. Better not stick around. I'll head out first, Seorin? Clear up any misunderstandings for me, yeah?"
"Ah, yes. Take care."
Misunderstandings? What misunderstandings?
Seorin and I were left standing alone on the sidewalk. Anxiety lowered my voice; I couldn't help it.
She looked at me, a small smile tugging at her lips, and said,
"I'll explain upstairs. Come on. Someone's probably already stolen our usual seats."
"…So, to sum it up, he's a sunbae who asked you to do a guide-vocal recording as a part-time gig?"
"Yeah. That's all it was."
"So not even a male friend or anything."
"We don't see each other personally. If it hadn't been for work this time, I probably wouldn't have met him at all."
Seorin carefully laid everything out so I wouldn't misunderstand—how she'd gotten the job, what she'd done there, and how she'd ended up getting a ride home. Every part of it made perfect sense, and the tightness in my chest finally eased.
"That's a relief."
"What is?"
"That he isn't the kind of person I was imagining."
"What exactly did you think he was?"
"A wolf hanging around you, pretending to be a friend while secretly waiting for a chance?"
"Pfft. Ijun, have you been reading too many webtoons?"
"I'm serious. There are plenty of guys like that in real life."
"For example? You?"
"…Okay, when you put it that way, yeah, I kind of am."
Ugh.
Thinking about it, the wolf circling her while pretending to be a friend… was me. No—we were in the "something more" stage. I wasn't pretending to be just a friend.
Anyway, that wasn't the point. I knew almost nothing about her social circle, so of course I felt uneasy. But I chose to trust what she said. If I couldn't believe her words, then any trust between us was meaningless.
"Still, I'm glad I asked right there. We avoided a pointless misunderstanding like last time."
"…Can we not talk about that? It's my dark history. I'd rather forget it even now."
Seorin ducked her head, clearly embarrassed. She looked so cute that I stared for a while before asking,
"So that guy works in music full-time?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. He's pretty active in the indie scene, I guess. You probably wouldn't know him if you're not into that, but he's fairly well-known. Goes by Seo I-hyeok."
Seo I-hyeok.
I'd never heard the name. I didn't really listen to indie music, and I wasn't deep enough into the scene to go to live shows or concerts. Even if he was active, the odds I'd know him were slim.
"But someone like that asks you to record for him?"
"…"
"You're not secretly a singer or something, right? Going out and performing at night without me knowing?"
Actually, that would be kind of cool. Civil-service exam student by day, vocalist by night. Like a double life. The only Seorin I'd ever seen was the one buried in study materials. I knew she was a practical-music major, but it was still hard to picture her singing.
"Come on, nothing like that. I'm just a regular person. I haven't even sung in a while. It's just… we have some history from the past."
"The past?"
"Yeah. We were in the same band in college. I was the vocalist, and he was the lead guitarist."
"Ah."
"He composes, too. Said my tone would fit the song well, or something like that. A guide vocal isn't a huge ask, so I said yes."
Without meaning to, I pictured the two of them laughing together in a practice room during a jam session. I'd never been in a band, so I had no idea why that image sprang so clearly into my head.
So I asked,
"…Then you two must have been pretty close back then?"
"Hmm. We were pretty close at the time, yeah. Same band, and for all his looks, Ju-hyeok sunbae was someone you could really rely on."
So his real name was Ju-hyeok.
That made sense. If you'd made music together, you'd know each other's strengths. From what little I understood, the line between amateur and pro in the indie scene was blurry. If you knew someone whose style fit perfectly, of course you'd think of them first.
But listening to her talk left a strange heaviness in my chest.
"I think… I'm a little jealous."
"Huh? Why all of a sudden?"
"I don't know. Just… I'm envious that someone else has those kinds of memories with you."
"…"
"I don't know music, I've never been in a band, and I didn't even go to the same university as you."
To someone who'd only ever watched her study, the Seorin who made music felt like a completely different person. And the fact that I stood nowhere near that world of hers left me strangely hurt. I'd thought we'd gotten close, but I was realizing how little I actually knew about her.
The only real common ground we had was Rabiel. And even that wasn't really about Seorin herself.
The easy way they'd greeted each other and said goodbye earlier flashed through my mind. In that moment she'd seemed like someone other than the Seorin I knew. Maybe it felt stronger because that sunbae was a guy. I didn't know.
Seorin listened quietly, then looked at me with an expression that said she found me adorable, and murmured something so soft I almost missed it.
"…I've spent more time with Ijun than with sunbae, though."
Curious, I asked her to repeat it.
"What? What did you just say?"
She shook her head.
"Nothing. Never mind. More importantly—if you're envious, we can just make more, right? The two of us."
"Make more of what?"
"Memories. From now on, the time I spend with you is going to be way more than anything I had with sunbae."
She said it with a smile, almost as if she were soothing me. Looking at her, my childish jealousy melted away.
Yeah. She was right.
The past didn't matter. Right now, the person closest to her was me. And just like we had until now, I simply needed to keep stacking time with her—until we became so close that no one else could ever catch up.
"You're right."
"Right?"
Memories with Seorin.
Hearing those words made me think of what had happened just this morning. So I gathered my courage and spoke up.
"Speaking of which, Seorin."
"Yeah?"
"This morning I had to explain to my parents about staying over at your place last night."
"And? What did they say?"
"Nothing major, really. But they said they wanted to see your face at least once."
"Ah."
"Then I realized I don't have a single photo of you. I couldn't even show them a profile picture because I don't have your number."
"Oh… now that you mention it, yeah."
So.
"That's why I was wondering."
"Yeah~?"
"Could I take a picture of you?"
"Just me? No way. If we're taking one, we take it together. A two-shot."
"Together?"
"Yeah. They think I'm your girlfriend, right? So we should be in it together. Oh, and after the photo I'll give you my number. I want yours too, anyway."
"…"
"Then we can text even when we're at home from now on."
Watching her grin so cutely, I thought to myself:
"Okay, I'm taking it. Come over here."
"Wait a second. Let me prepare myself mentally."
"It's just a photo—what mental prep? Scoot closer. Your face is getting cut off. One, two~"
…Maybe from now on, just like today, I simply needed to keep building memories with her.