Ex-Girlfriend
He dreamed.
It was from the days when Sunghyun had been wandering after losing his mother.
If he had never met that person, would the man he was now even exist?
He was grateful. And yet, perhaps…
Perhaps those days had been a curse.
Because he could never forget the memories of that time, he had never again been able to form a bond with another woman.
If that was not a curse, then what was it?
Anyway—where was this?
Sunghyun looked around.
Opulent fabrics and an enormous bed. The mattress felt so soft that, at a glance, one might have mistaken the place for a simple rest chamber.
“What the hell? Where am I, seriously?”
He had kept his senses half-awake, so he understood the situation well enough. But he had drifted off somewhere in the middle, lost the thread, and ended up like this.
Creak—.
Someone opened the door and stepped inside.
“Huh?”
The man locked eyes with him and froze for a beat.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
Then he bolted outside like a madman and returned moments later with a familiar face in tow.
Armin… Armin?
“Sunghyun-nim!”
Wait—
A woman with scarlet hair and golden eyes threw her arms around him with startling force. Sunghyun caught her on pure reflex.
But—
“Wh… who are you?”
The voice was unmistakably Armin’s. The body, however…
It looked twice as large.
Sensing his eyes go wide, Armin’s face flushed crimson.
“I… I have changed a lot, haven’t I? It just… sort of happened… ehehe.”
What on earth had she done to grow like that?
Still…
“You look like someone.”
When Sunghyun stared at her with a dazed expression, Armin knitted her brows.
“Who exactly do I look like?”
Feeling the sudden spike of killing intent, Sunghyun hastily changed course.
“Hmm? Your old self, maybe? Anyway, you’ve gotten so much prettier. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
Her face went scarlet.
“Eh… a-ah… prettier…? Hehe.”
Compared to before, the transformation was nothing short of revolutionary. Her lustrous golden eyes held a brilliance as if they had gathered starlight itself. Flawless skin gleamed like polished pearl, and the lightly curved lips, smiling in flustered embarrassment, only heightened her beauty. Her height was perfect; every elegant line of her figure felt like gazing upon a work of art.
“Yeah. You’re pretty.”
Very pretty.
“Uuuugh! Just a second! I’m going to wash my face!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Armin covered her burning cheeks with both palms and fled the room.
Once she was gone, Sunghyun let out the breath he had been holding.
“Hah… I can’t even think of her as a little sister or a daughter anymore. This is cheating.”
He closed his eyes, recalling the new Armin.
“She might even be prettier than Noona.”
Honestly it was hard to declare a winner, yet the grown Armin had clearly stepped beyond her former beauty. Pretty enough to stand on the same level as that person.
It was the first time. Someone like that.
Sunghyun drifted back into the past.
Thud—. Thud—.
That day he had simply wanted to walk the streets forever. Probably to soothe the hollow ache inside him. Walking helped him sort his thoughts, after all.
Someone once said romance begins like a traffic accident.
“You look like something’s weighing on you.”
She appeared in front of him without warning—like a car careening the wrong way down the road.
He couldn’t speak. Under the moonlight her face was so beautiful that calling her a celebrity would have been an insult. An appearance that made the body tense of its own accord.
Is she going to kidnap me and sell my organs? Some kind of cult?
Those thoughts filled his head. As if she had read them, the woman covered her mouth and laughed. The moment he saw that smile, his mind cleared.
Wow… how can a person be this pretty?
Maybe that was why he did something he would never normally do. No—he felt he had to.
“If it’s all right… would you mind talking with me for a little while?”
Afraid she might refuse, he bit his lower lip.
“Heh. Of course. There’s a samgyeopsal place I know. Want to go have a drink of soju?”
“S… sure.”
When he nodded, she beamed.
“Great. Then let’s go.”
Just being beside her made him feel brighter. Their laughter never stopped on the way to the restaurant, and it continued right through the meal.
“Hahaha, Noona, I’m telling you this is real!”
“What? Liar!”
She was twenty-six. Her name was Yu Mia. When he asked what it meant, she said she had taken the “Mi” from Minerva and the “A” from Athena and made “Mia.”
“Haha. Noona, does that even make sense? Who names a person like that?”
She gave a slightly awkward laugh.
“Uh… ahaha, is that so?”
“Obviously.”
Sharing drinks with her, he washed away the pain and sorrow he had been carrying. If he had known it would be like this, he should have gone walking far more often. Then he might have met Mia Noona sooner.
“Do you usually take walks at that hour, Noona?”
“No? I just… felt like it today.”
Just felt like it. He understood; that was how he had started walking too.
“Same as me. Why did you talk to me? Weren’t you scared of some guy wandering alone that late?”
“Hmm… you looked sad somehow. So my body moved first. I thought, maybe the reason I came out tonight was because of this person.”
Ting!
After that they met now and then to share a drink. Then one day the moment arrived.
They had been drinking and strolling as usual when they saw an enormous, brilliantly bright full moon. As if entranced, he spoke.
“The night we first met, there was a moon just like this. Do you remember, Noona?”
“Of course. How could I forget?”
It was the same radiant, beautiful smile as that first night. He did not want to lose it. He wanted to stay with her for the rest of his life.
“I like you, Noona. Will you go out with me?”
She seemed to hesitate for a heartbeat, then nodded, her lovely face tinged with a soft blush.
“Of course. I like you too.”
Peck—.
Her soft, moist lips met his, and their bond grew stronger still.
Back then he truly believed they would stay together forever, that they would even marry. In the year and more they dated they never once fought, and every moment spent going to meet her was pure happiness. It had not been a dream.
“Noona… I still can’t quite believe it. That someone like you is my girlfriend.”
“Aigoo, our boyfriend’s at it again. That’s what I should be saying~! If the people around me found out I was dating you, all hell would break loose.”
“Come to think of it, I’ve never met any of your friends. Introduce me sometime. They sound like a fun bunch.”
The stories she told about her friends felt like reading a brilliantly written novel. If people like that really existed, he wanted to meet them at least once. The occasional stories about her family were just as entertaining.
Mia Noona thought for a moment, then tightly clasped his hand.
“When our boyfriend someday learns everything… then, then I’ll introduce you for sure. Okay?”
She had always had her secretive corners, so he let it slide the way he always did. Friends had told him you didn’t need to know every secret your girlfriend kept; it was no different from opening Pandora’s box.
“Yeah~. I wonder when that day will come~. Maybe when we get married~?”
He gave her a sly smile and her face went scarlet. So he wasn’t the only one thinking that way.
“Th… that’s still way too early… later, okay? Let’s talk about it later.”
At that shy, girlish look he burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! All right.”
Like this for a thousand years, ten thousand years—they would be together and happy. He had believed it.
Until that day arrived.
Rumble—!
It was a night of unusually frequent lightning. The expression on Noona’s face beside him looked terrible, so he pulled her into a tight hug; her features softened a little.
“Noona, is something wrong?”
As if she had been waiting for the question, she burst into tears.
“Sunghyun… I don’t think we can see each other anymore…”
What?
Like the weather outside, that single sentence slammed into his chest.
“No… Noona? What are you saying? Are we breaking up right now?”
The look on Mia Noona’s face as she spoke the truth was awful—as if someone were forcibly trying to sever their bond. Irritation surged through him.
“Who is it? No—why are they trying to tear us apart? We’re just dating like normal people. Say something. Huh…?”
But no matter what he said, she gave no answer. She only wept.
“Sunghyun, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I have a request.”
A request?
As long as he could stay with her, nothing else mattered. He didn’t want to hear it—yet he wanted that face to stop crying.
“What is it…”
Somehow he felt that once he heard the words, he would never see her again.
“It’s a request. I know it’s something I shouldn’t ask of you. But I love you! Please. I’m begging you—even after time passes, don’t forget me.”
Mia Noona poured the words out as if screaming. And he was no different.
“Why would I ever forget you…? You say you love me, you tell me not to forget—then why are you trying to leave? Why…!”
Her words stopped there.
“…I’m going. Don’t follow me…”
With that she left the house. He stared blankly at the empty space she had occupied, then suddenly realized this was no time to stand still.
He had to catch her.
Forgetting even to put on shoes, he ran barefoot into the night.
He had to catch her. He must catch her. She was not someone he could let go like this. Not someone he could end things with like this. The person he loved. The person he must never forget.
There—!
“Yu Mia……!”
The instant he called her name, lightning crashed down before his eyes.
And he woke up in a hospital bed.
Her phone number had been erased. The house she had lived in stood completely empty. Later, no matter how high he climbed or how thoroughly he searched, he never found a single trace of her.
Looking back now, he sometimes wondered if the whole thing had been a dream.
No.
It had not been a dream.
He still remembered her. He still remembered every moment they had shared. And ever since coming to this place, he felt it with absolute certainty.
Soon. Very soon, he would meet her again.
Sunghyun opened his eyes and watched the moonlight slipping through the curtains.
It was the same moonlight as that night.