Seeing Something I Shouldn’t Have Seen
"Then call me later when you’re heading home. Promise me!"
"Okay. I will."
Once Yujin had confirmed that visiting the hospital was no big deal, she finally brightened into her usual radiant smile and headed back to where her friends were waiting.
No matter how close we were, she still couldn’t bring herself to tell me the truth.
Still, I watched her receding back in silence.
Against my will, a ticklish feeling stirred in some corner of my chest. But there was no shortage of intruders willing to interrupt my mood.
With Yujin gone after worrying over me like that—
"Hey, Jo Hajun. What the hell is going on between you two? What kind of thing is it, huh? What kind of thing is it!!"
The moment Yujin disappeared from view, Minjun cut in and rushed over, stealing my attention.
His eyes were gleaming with curiosity—and a little jealousy.
"Nothing much. We just live next door."
At my flat reply, Minjun’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
Watching him badger me for an answer, I couldn’t help laughing to myself.
In Jo Hajun’s memories, there had never been a clear definition to my relationship with Yujin.
We were childhood friends who had simply lived next door and watched each other grow up, but given the way I’d acted and the way Yujin had acted until now, we’d long since crossed beyond the boundaries of ordinary friendship.
"Wait, next door? You mean you’re really just friends? Come on, man, the way she looks at you isn’t like that."
"I told you, it’s not like that. We just knew each other since we were kids, that’s all."
Minjun accepted it at once and drifted into staring blankly after Yujin again.
Whether he was stupid or innocent, he didn’t seem to realize that Yujin didn’t even so much as glance his way.
The original Jo Hajun had been just as oblivious to Yujin’s feelings, but now I could read her heart at a glance.
Maybe it was because I still hadn’t fully adapted to this body after moving into it.
On the outside I was brushing off Minjun’s questions with an indifferent face, but inside my chest was pounding hard enough to make me dizzy.
Suppressing the body’s instinctive reaction, I had to swallow dryly in secret.
---
By the time class was almost over, dismissal was drawing near.
I had just remembered Yujin’s earlier words about calling her and was about to take out my phone when Minjun suddenly grabbed my wrist.
His expression was deadly serious.
"Hajun, do me a favor. Can’t we go home together?"
"What are you talking about? Your place and ours are in completely opposite directions."
"Aw, come on, I’ll just walk for exercise! I want to go with Yujin. Please, man, okay?"
It was a desperate plea from a guy who wanted to see Yujin a little closer, and for a little longer.
I fell into thought for a moment.
"Hmm... I’m not sure. Yujin gets really shy around strangers, so I don’t know if it’ll work out."
It wasn’t a lie.
Yujin might have looked sociable and outgoing, but in truth she was extremely shy around people, and it had taken years for her even to become comfortable with me.
That was exactly why she had only checked up on me briefly in the lecture hall and then left right away.
The mere fact that Minjun was standing there had made her hurry off.
"Don’t worry! I’m good at lightening the mood, right? I’ll make it work!"
"Ha... fine. Do whatever you want."
Already foreseeing what was coming, I sent Yujin a message.
A moment later, I saw her running toward me with a bright smile from a distance.
But her steps faltered and slowed the instant she noticed Minjun standing beside me.
"Did you have a good class?"
"Y-yeah..! Um, but... who’s the person next to you...?"
As soon as Yujin noticed Minjun’s presence, she half hid behind Hajun’s back.
So much for the confidence she’d shown this morning—now she looked like a frightened stray cat.
She had definitely been standing beside Minjun when she greeted me in the classroom, but now she was reacting as if she had never seen him before.
"Hey! I’m Kang Minjun, Hajun’s best friend."
Minjun tried to greet her as gently as he could, but to Yujin it was nothing more than an intimidating approach.
Her face stiffened at once, and her pupils trembled.
"S-sorry..! I-I should go first, Hajun! Call me later!"
In the end, unable to bear the pressure, Yujin bolted as if fleeing the scene.
Minjun reached out in flustered alarm, but she didn’t even look back.
It was almost impressive, the way she could be that shy.
"See? I told you it wouldn’t work."
"...Sorry. I really didn’t know she was that bad with strangers."
"I should go too. See you tomorrow."
Leaving the deflated Minjun behind, I started running after the direction Yujin had vanished in.
The original Jo Hajun would have just stood there blankly, too shocked to move, but I was certain I couldn’t leave her alone now.
"Yujin, wait a second! I’m coming with you!"
"Eek...?! Ah, Hajun..!"
After running for a while, I caught up to Yujin’s retreating figure.
She was on high alert, as if afraid Minjun might be chasing after her.
But the moment she confirmed I was alone, the taut string of tension in her body snapped, and she let out a relieved breath.
"Sorry about that earlier. My friend’s a little clueless."
"No, I was the one being too sensitive... sorry."
Now that we were alone, Yujin perked right back up as if nothing had happened.
No, she actually stuck even closer to my side than usual and started walking with me.
The distance between us was close enough for our shoulders to brush.
The faint scent of shampoo drifting from her tickled the tip of my nose, and after walking together for a while, we were soon standing in front of our houses.
"Then get home safe."
"Mm! You too, Hajun!"
We were exchanging our goodbyes in front of each other’s front doors when a familiar, mature voice came from behind me, and I turned at once.
"Oh my, Hajun. It’s been a while."
The moment I turned around, I sucked in a breath.
It was Lee Sehui, Yujin’s mother.
In Jo Hajun’s memories, she had been someone I’d not seen in so long that her face had grown fuzzy, but the woman standing before me now left a far stronger impression than the one stored in those shallow memories.
I had expected at least a little, since Yujin was quite pretty, but her mother was even more of a beauty.
Honestly, if you went by real age alone, Sehui was much closer to my original age than Yujin was.
Maybe that was why—though I felt a little sorry toward Yujin—I kept finding my eyes drifting toward her mother’s beautiful, mature aura.
"If you’ve got time, why don’t you stay for dinner at our place?"
"Huh? Ah, of course. I’d love to."
"Mom! Wait, I still haven’t even tidied my room..."
Yujin tried to stop her mother, flustered, but Sehui simply ignored her daughter’s resistance with a relaxed smile.
"So what? Hajun is practically family at this point. Hajun, could you come in and wait a moment?"
In the end, I was led into Yujin’s house by Sehui’s invitation.
Yujin blushed bright red and shouted at me not to come in, to wait outside, before rushing off into her room.
Left alone in the living room, I had no choice but to turn my gaze toward the kitchen, feeling awkward.
"Auntie, is there anything I can help with?"
"Oh..! N-no, it’s fine. I’m okay, Hajun... haah..♥"
Sehui was putting away the things she’d brought from the kitchen when she reacted in a very suspicious way.
When she turned back, her face was flushed far too red, and even her breathing was faintly trembling.
Sweat had begun to bead on her forehead, too.
Something about this... feeling was strangely familiar, though I couldn’t tell whether it belonged to Kang Doyun’s memories or Jo Hajun’s.
"Are you feeling sick? You don’t look very well."
"No, really, I’m fine... thanks for worrying about me...♥"
She hurriedly turned her head away, avoiding the conversation.
No matter how carefully I looked at her, her reaction was too extreme to dismiss as simple heat from cooking.
But if she said she was fine, then pressing her further didn’t seem polite, so I sat down on the living room sofa and waited for Yujin to come out.
"Hajun..!! You can come in now!"
"Got it."
After waiting a little longer, Yujin finally came out of her room, having finished tidying up.
My childhood friend’s room—the one I had not set foot in since middle school.
Inside were little decorations that reflected Yujin’s taste, along with traces of her days as a high school girl.
"How is school? It’s not too hard, is it?"
"Mm..?! I-it’s fine..!! I’m meeting lots of friends and..."
For some reason, she seemed embarrassed and sat primly and obediently in her chair, while I took a seat on the bed opposite hers.
By "friends," she seemed to mean the classmates I’d seen at school.
Because she was so painfully shy, Yujin had only had one or two real friends all the way through high school, and even among them, one of them had been me.
And yet now she had made more friends in college than she had in all the years before that. It was kind of amazing.
"That’s a relief. You’re making lots of friends now that you’re in college too."
"Eep..!?♥ H-hey, stop it..!!♥"
Feeling oddly proud, I reached out and lightly patted her head.
She jumped in surprise and leaned back, but an unmistakable smile spread across her lips.
The way she looked—happy and embarrassed at the same time—was exactly like a twenty-year-old girl hopelessly in love.
"Come out and eat dinner, you two~"
We were chatting about this and that when time passed, and Sehui called to us that dinner was ready.
The table was filled with food that looked neat and delicious.
It had a depth and delicacy all its own, different from my mother’s cooking.
"Hajun, after you finish eating, could you do Auntie one favor?"
"Sure, of course. Go ahead."
I didn’t think much of it.
I assumed she’d ask me to move something heavy or fetch something from a high shelf, the sort of thing that might come up in a house with only two women living there.
But the instant dinner was over and I followed Sehui into the master bedroom, my expectations shattered to pieces.
---
"So what do you need help with?"
"Just a second, Hajun!"
After dinner, I had gone into the master bedroom alone with Auntie for a moment.
And in that place...
"Hngh..!"
"Auntie?"
"No..!! No, Hajun, don’t look..!!"
I had ended up seeing something I never, ever could have imagined.
---