I Witnessed My Girlfriend Cheating
It was eight o’clock in the evening. After finishing dinner with my colleagues, I headed for the emergency stairs on the way back.
“I’ll go this way.”
“What, you’re seriously walking up again?”
My colleague laughed, teasing me.
“Can’t be helped. I haven’t been getting enough exercise lately. See you upstairs.”
“Like that’s going to melt your gut away.”
I pushed open the emergency exit door, still hearing my colleague’s voice behind me.
The weather had warmed up, but the stairwell never saw sunlight and stayed chilly.
I took a light breath and started climbing the stairs at a brisker pace.
I wasn’t old enough to have a proper belly yet, but my lower abdomen had grown noticeably round.
It was probably because I ate so much oily, sweet food to match my girlfriend’s tastes on our dates.
Hehehe.
A chuckle slipped out before I could stop it.
That’s right—my girlfriend. I’m currently in a very happy relationship.
The thirty years I’d lived until now had been one long string of misfortune, so much so that I sometimes wondered if I’d been cursed.
Stepping into an open manhole while walking down the street was routine. Getting bombed by bird droppings happened at least once a month.
At some point I simply accepted it and started carrying spare clothes everywhere I went. Wet wipes for cleaning my hair were non-negotiable.
It had been that way even before my parents passed, so it felt like I’d been bouncing from one disaster to another since the day I was born.
Dating was no different. It wasn’t that I had zero luck with women, but every time a relationship seemed ready to bloom, it would wither right before it could become real.
Thanks to that, I had remained a virgin until recently.
But when your luck finally turns, it really opens the floodgates.
Right after landing my first job, I experienced my very first genuine relationship.
And the woman had confessed to me first.
It had only been a few months, but our physical chemistry was excellent. This was my first time, so I couldn’t be entirely sure, but it certainly felt that way.
Wanting to look good for her, I had even started going back to the gym I’d abandoned for a while.
I couldn’t let her see my flabby belly—at least not until I had something closer to a six-pack.
But overtime kept piling up and I missed too many gym days, so I began taking the stairs everywhere instead.
I used them for commuting, for lunch, and even after dinner instead of the elevator.
Of course, I kept it secret from my girlfriend, who also worked in the same building.
Both the existence of my belly and the fact that I was climbing stairs to get rid of it.
I wanted to be at least a little cool in front of her.
In a building this tall, almost no one used the stairs.
I’d been going up and down for days, yet I had never encountered another person.
Most employees had already left for the day, so the building felt even more deserted and eerie.
It seemed like the perfect spot for a ghost to appear.
“....”
If a ghost were to show up, I wished it would be my mother or father.
My parents had passed away while I was in high school and had never once appeared in my dreams.
Well, if my parents became ghosts, that would be sad in its own way.
The reason I couldn’t see them was probably because they were still happily together on the other side.
Mom and Dad had been an incredibly affectionate, harmonious couple.
So they must be living just as happily in the afterlife.
My older brother, who was married and lived separately, said our parents had never appeared in his dreams either, so they were clearly doing well.
Maybe Dad is desperately holding Mom back from coming here. It can’t be good for the living to meet ghosts. Well, there’s no need to rush. We’ll all end up there someday anyway.
My brother had once said that with a lonely smile.
These days, I felt the same way.
In the past, the longing had been so strong that I had resented my parents for leaving so early.
Why did you go out that day? Why were you there at that exact time? Why didn’t you see the drunk driver rushing toward you? I had hurled every unreasonable accusation imaginable inside my head.
They really had been unreasonable.
I took a deep breath and bounded up two or three steps at once.
The woman I was dating now resembled my mother.
Not in appearance, but the way she smiled was a little similar.
That must have been why.
Whenever I had business in the sales department, I would unconsciously find myself searching for her.
She must have noticed.
Maybe that was why she had been the one to confess.
Because I was so frustrating—unable to even meet her eyes, let alone confess first.
I laughed silently.
Thanks to her courage, we had started dating.
These days we were even talking about marriage.
She had been the one to bring it up first.
It was still early, but she said she truly loved me and wanted to stay together forever.
It was the first time I had ever received a reverse proposal.
Of course, it was also the first time I had dated anyone seriously.
Let’s be happy.
Let me enjoy every bit of happiness my mother and father had experienced in this world—and more.
Let’s become an even warmer couple than they were.
I’m sure my parents would want that for me.
My brother had lived with that thought, always striving to be happy.
Now it was my turn.
I breathed deeply and paused on the steps.
Climbing two stairs at a time was still too much.
I felt like I was going to die.
Still, I’m almost there.
Just two more floors and I’d reach the office.
I stopped to catch my breath, gathering strength for the final stretch, when voices drifted down from above.
“...Mm… wait… what if someone comes…?”
“It’s fine. Everyone’s gone home. There’s no one here.”
“Still… even so… Is this why you told me to wait here? Ah… ahn… What are you doing? You’re too impatient… Manager… No… Mm… Ahn…”
My legs froze mid-step.
I had no interest in voyeurism.
Normally I would have turned around immediately and left the stairwell.
But those voices were painfully familiar.
The man sounded like my superior who had recently been promoted to manager. The woman, despite the different tone and atmosphere, sounded exactly like my girlfriend, Jeong So-hee.
No. No way. That can’t be right.
There was no chance the girlfriend who should have already left work would be here with Manager Kim on an empty stairwell.
The Jeong So-hee I knew would never do something so vulgar with a married man.
I had certainly never heard her make sounds like that.
It had to be someone else with a similar voice.
Yes. It can’t be So-hee.
Wanting concrete proof that it was someone else, I charged up the stairs.
It seemed that in moments of desperation, the body found strength it didn’t know it had.
My legs moved so fast I wondered why I had been huffing and puffing earlier.
When I reached the landing and saw the two figures tangled in the corner, my eyes widened so much they felt like they might fall out of my head.
The half-naked pair locked together were unmistakably Manager Kim and Jeong So-hee.
Both of their pants lay discarded in a heap on the floor.
What the actual fuck.
Not only Jeong So-hee, but Manager Kim too.
He knew exactly who I was dating.
To do this anyway, you son of a bitch.
The moment the thought hit me, I roared.
“Hey, you fucking bastards! What the hell are you doing naked in a goddamn office building?”
Manager Kim and Jeong So-hee whipped their heads toward me in shock.
By now my colleagues who had taken the elevator would be standing in the hallway, pulling coffee from the vending machine.
If I made enough noise, they would definitely hear.
Fuck it. I’ll make sure everyone sees this.
I’d shame them so thoroughly they wouldn’t be able to show their faces at work again.
I screamed their names at the top of my lungs.
“Is it okay for a married man to screw another woman? Manager Kim! Does your wife know about this? And you, Jeong So-hee! Ha, I can’t believe this. You acted all pure and innocent with me, but you’re fucking a married man? Is this what you meant by a ‘serious relationship’? One guy for marriage, another to fuck on the side? Jeong So-hee! Answer me! Is your mouth glued shut? Manager Kim, you knew exactly who your subordinate was dating—how the hell is this acceptable? Did you laugh at me every time I asked you for relationship advice?”
A pig being slaughtered couldn’t have been louder.
Jeong So-hee recovered first.
She shouted in a panicked, tiny voice.
“No, no, Jinwoo! This isn’t what it looks like! Lower your voice! I… I was forced into this. He had something on me. I’m the victim here.”
But her voice was completely drowned out by my shouting.
I kept roaring even while she tried to explain.
Manager Kim shoved Jeong So-hee aside and stepped forward, flustered.
“You crazy bastard. You’re the one who seduced me first.”
He flailed his arms toward me as if trying to grab me.
“Jinwoo, q-quiet down. Calm down. Let’s sit and talk about this rationally.”
You sit down and talk. And instead of talking to me, cover that disgusting thing first. My eyes are going to rot.
Anyway, it was already too late.
I was still screaming their names at the top of my lungs, and people were already pouring through the emergency exit door.
“Whoa, what the hell?”
“Is that… the manager… with Sales Department Jeong So-hee?”
“Wow… in a place like this…”
“They’ve lost their minds.”
The first ones through the door were the colleagues I had eaten dinner with.
Right behind them stood the department head.
I’d thought he had already left, but apparently not.
His eyes widened like saucers.
So your eyes can actually open that wide, sir.
I had only ever seen his usual sleepy, half-lidded expression.
If the situation hadn’t been so awful, I would have wanted to savor the sight two or three more times.
“Kyaaaa!”
A beat late, Jeong So-hee screamed and crouched down.
Since both of them had their pants off, they would have to stand up to put them back on, but that would expose everything.
Crouching was their only option.
Jeong So-hee covered her face and began to cry, mumbling nonsense about wanting to die, about being threatened—every excuse she could think of.
“N-no, she’s lying, sir. We were both willing… this is…”
Manager Kim stood awkwardly, covering his groin with both hands, desperately trying to explain himself, but there was nothing he could say that would fix this.
From where I stood, I could see everything, right down to the hair on his ass.
Before my eyes rot, at least turn one hand this way or something.
As I muttered under my breath, laughter erupted from the crowd.
In the end, Manager Kim had no choice but to sit down on the cold floor.
The sound of a phone camera shutter clicked somewhere.
Someone was taking pictures.
I pulled out my own phone.
No matter what happened later, I wanted evidence.
As I pointed the camera at Manager Kim, I suddenly realized something.
I wasn’t as devastated as I thought I would be.
I was shocked. I was furious. But the heart-wrenching sorrow I had expected was strangely absent.
I’m just angry.
Maybe I hadn’t actually loved Jeong So-hee herself. Maybe I had simply seen my mother in her.
Come to think of it, my brother had also married a woman with a similar atmosphere to our mother.
Unlike me, though, he had chosen someone whose personality also resembled hers.
Sigh. Maybe I should just end it here.
I had shamed them enough. We weren’t married, so we could simply break up.
In fact, it was a blessing that I had discovered what kind of person she really was.
Maybe my parents had been trying to help their foolish son from the afterlife.
Just as I was lowering my phone with that thought, the camera screen filled with Manager Kim’s face.
“You son of a bitch! This is all your fault! I’m ruined because of you!”
Manager Kim screamed in rage.
No matter how you look at it, the son of a bitch is you.
But I never got the chance to say it.
Manager Kim shoving me and the crowd screaming probably happened at almost the same instant.
I felt a powerful impact and was hurled backward.
I twisted instinctively and shoved him away with everything I had.
Manager Kim flew through the air and tumbled down the stairs.
In that brief moment our eyes met.
His eyes widened like dinner plates, as if he couldn’t believe he was the one falling instead of me.
But the recoil from my push sent my own legs tangling, and I began to fall backward too.
Behind me, Jeong So-hee screamed.
“Kyaa!”
Our heads collided.
It hurt.
Did this woman have a skull made of stone?
It hurt like hell.
It felt like lightning had flashed inside my brain.
That was my last coherent thought.
Because right then, a pure white light swallowed my vision.
“Uh…”
“What is this light?!”
“Jinwoo! Come this way!”
“Hurry!”
I heard my colleagues’ bewildered voices. One of them reached out in panic.
I tried to stand up and escape the light.
But just as I was about to grab my colleague’s hand, the light thickened as if to stop me and wrapped around my body.
The dazzling white brilliance blurred the surroundings.
Right behind me, Jeong So-hee’s scream rang out.
“Kyaa! What is this?! My body is disappearing!”
It wasn’t just her.
My own hand was dissolving into particles, melting into the light.
I forced my body forward, desperate to escape somehow.
Then—
Boom!
A tremendous shock slammed into my head like a lightning strike.
My consciousness grew distant. I felt my body floating.
By the time I realized what was happening, everything had already turned to darkness.
It felt like I was being dragged into an empty void.
My awareness cut off cleanly there.
“Huk!”
I woke with a gasp.
For some reason I was lying on bare ground.
But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
I stared blankly in every direction.
“Where… am I?”
I was standing completely alone in the middle of a vast, empty wasteland.