Model (1)
Sunday morning, when I was supposed to be fighting off loneliness. Yet somehow a plan had taken shape, and I left the house.
The caller was Yu Jiyeon. Feeling bad about leaving early at the last general meeting, she had contacted me saying she would buy lunch.
The place she took me was a rice-set restaurant that stayed open even on Sundays: Baekban Kimgu. Though it wasn't as if this was the only place open on a Sunday, was it?
"Wow, this still tastes amazing even after so long. I haven't been here since freshman year."
She herself admitted she hadn't set foot in the place for two whole years. So she really did feel bad about me, huh?
"Why aren't you eating? You used to love this place."
She eyed my half-hearted spoonwork with suspicion. Except I never loved this place.
I only pretended to because you did. It was fine for a solid meal, but it was never on my best-wish list.
"It's just been so long I got a little nostalgic. But why come all the way out here on a weekend? We could've just grabbed something at the cafeteria."
"How late were you there on Friday?"
So that was the real reason. She could have asked over the phone, yet she had come in person—clear proof she meant to catch any lie in real time.
"I left a little after you."
"You gonna lie to me? Who were you sitting with?"
"Han Gyeoul."
"You conveniently left out Oh Sujeong's name. There's no way the two of them were sitting separately."
"It's true. Oh Sujeong went off to pass around drinks. I just sat quietly with Han Gyeoul and then left."
Of course, after that I spent a pretty enjoyable stretch of time with Han Gyeoul, but she didn't need to know that far. At that, Yu Jiyeon set her spoon down with a sharp, emotion-laden clack.
"What's the reason you're going this far to hide whatever happened with Oh Sujeong?"
"Because nothing actually happened… I'm the one who doesn't get you. Back in the day, whenever something like this came up, you couldn't wait to pair me off with the other person. Why are you so desperate to separate us now?"
As late as Friday I had felt oddly happy under Yu Jiyeon's brand-new brand of possessiveness. But being hauled out on a Sunday for a full-blown interrogation was starting to get on my nerves.
"Haa… Don't take this the wrong way."
"I'll try."
"Oh Sujeong isn't as innocent as you think. She's not a bad person either. But she knows exactly how attractive she is, and she knows precisely which parts make guys confuse flirting with non-flirting."
"So you're saying Oh Sujeong is some sly little player who strings guys along?"
"I didn't go that far. But doesn't it strike you as weird that nothing was going on between you two, and then suddenly the relationship shot forward? I only saw you for a second on Friday, but the way she was teasing you was no joke. So don't go drinking kimchi soup ahead of time and get yourself hurt. As a friend, I can at least tell you that much, right?"
"…"
Sure, she could. But from where I stood, Oh Sujeong had zero interest in me.
If I had to name someone who might actually have something going on with me, it was Han Gyeoul. Yet Yu Jiyeon left that girl completely out of it and kept firing only at Oh Sujeong.
She wasn't that dense. So why the blatant separation work?
"I get what you're worried about, but I don't have the slightest interest in Oh Sujeong, so can we drop it?"
"Then who are you interested in?"
"Guh… Do I have to be interested in someone? Maybe I'm just living without a single thought in my head."
"Hey, don't tell me it's Jeong Ain? That is absolutely not okay! The upperclassmen throwing themselves at her is one thing, but how could you join in too?"
Yu Jiyeon shuddered as if the very idea made her teeth ache. Thinking of myself in that pack was enough to make me dizzy too.
"Don't worry about that either. Even if I followed her around with a packed lunch, she wouldn't give me a second glance."
"What's with that confident tone? Did something happen?"
She looked curious, so I gave her a brief rundown of that day. Sparks immediately flew in Yu Jiyeon's eyes.
"What… huh? You just let that slide? Wow, the world really is upside down. Kids these days may be blunt, but how does a freshman say something like that to a senior's face?"
"Whoa, whoa… Calm down, Jiyeon. It's not worth getting that angry over."
"How is it not worth getting angry over? What? No charm? Doesn't even register as a man? What does she even know about you? That tiny thing met you for the first time that day and acted like she'd mastered the universe, and nobody shut her down?"
Someone had, actually. At the very least Han Gyeoul had gotten so angry on my behalf that she put on a scolding face that didn't suit her at all.
But the way you're reacting right now feels even more out of character.
"Ain wasn't exactly wrong, was she?"
"What did you ever do that makes you accept that so easily?"
"Hand on your heart—honestly? Among all the people you know, has there really never been a single one who said something like that?"
"…"
Of course there had. My pheromones had been pumping nonstop then and now, so anyone without a point of comparison would have registered it as nothing but a "stench."
But since I looked normal and had no obvious defects, it inevitably got labeled "no charm," or something close enough, just like Ain said.
"Ah, whatever. I don't think that."
"You used to think it the most, didn't you?"
"Because we were friends, I never even tried looking at you as anything more. I never once thought you had no charm or that something was missing."
"…"
Even after saying it herself, Yu Jiyeon rolled her eyes awkwardly. Still, the words were nice to hear.
Whether I should be grateful for mere words was another question, but I never expected to hear something like that from her mouth.
After the meal we went for coffee. Since she had paid for lunch, the coffee naturally fell to me.
"…"
But this was unnecessary spending too, wasn't it? If she hadn't offered to buy lunch in the first place, I would have just rinsed my throat with water at home.
Still, even after all these years, she was Yu Jiyeon. Free talk bars didn't exist in this world, so I decided to think of it as buying time with her at a bargain price.
"You really don't want to try the LEET? You don't even know what last year's seniors are doing after graduation, that's why you're like this."
"That damn LEET… You must have agonized forever before deciding to take it yourself. Pulling the lawyer talk only two days after first bringing it up is a bit much, don't you think?"
"You can at least try the past papers. The score is surprisingly hard to raise, so a lot of people say their first practice score is the one that sticks. Why not come to our study group and take one seriously? I'll time you."
"Haa… At least give me some time to think. So was that meeting the other day useful?"
"It was fine. Heard how they passed, the pros and cons of each graduate school, career paths, that kind of thing."
From there the conversation bloomed into how we were living these days and stories from the past.
I had expected some awkwardness after so long apart, but once our mouths opened it really felt like we had slipped back into those old days.
"…"
Was that okay, though? Yu Jiyeon was a woman with a fatal, irresistible charm.
I had told myself I let all the lingering feelings wash away during my military service, but did a person's heart really cut that cleanly? What if I started getting attached again?
What if I ended up liking her all over again?
"…"
Then I suddenly realized I could no longer hear Yu Jiyeon's voice. Wondering what was up, I rolled my eyes over and found her staring straight at my face without so much as a twitch.
"What's with that look?"
"What look?"
"If you stare at someone like that without saying anything, of course it gets uncomfortable."
"You've looked at me like this before too, haven't you?"
"Sure, I have. But that was…"
Because I liked you as a woman. No matter how hard I tried to cosplay as a friend, the moment I let my guard down my eyes would lock onto you without my noticing.
But you're different, right? Back then and now, still nothing more and nothing less than a friend?
"I don't know…"
She muttered something out of nowhere and shook her head from side to side.
I wanted to ask what exactly she didn't know, but for some reason that particular question felt like one I absolutely should not ask.
Clomp, clomp…
We walked with the leftover coffee in hand. I headed toward the bowling alley where my room was, and Yu Jiyeon trailed after me…
"Hey! How far are you following me?"
"Your place."
"What the hell… Why would you come to my house?"
"Why not? Back in the day when you went to your roommate's place, I even snuck into the guys' dorm and slept over."
"Is that the same as this? Don't you have anything better to do? If the score really doesn't rise like you said, you should be investing every single minute."
"My scores are pretty good. I just need to manage my GPA and focus on the interviews."
"…"
Even so, that still wasn't a reason to follow me home. Yu Jiyeon seemed to realize the stretch herself and rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking sheepish.
"I'll just check where you live and go."
"Why do you need to see that?"
"If you vanish without a word again, I should at least have one place to go look for you, right? Just because I don't bring it up, you think you can pretend that whole thing never happened?"
"…"
If that was the reason, I had nothing left to say. I stopped walking on the spot.
"Why'd you stop?"
"I live here."
I pointed at the building right beside us—an old one-room place long overdue for redevelopment.
"Okay… If you don't show up at school, I'll come catch you here."
Yu Jiyeon coming to catch me… Once upon a time, just imagining those words would have made my chest swell so much I couldn't sleep.
So why was my heart pounding right now?
The makeup was a little too careful for someone just meeting a friend. The trendy clothes that looked both deliberate and casual, the way her eyes kept studying me when they shouldn't—everything.
This isn't good. With Han Gyeoul I can still put up a wall on my side, but with Yu Jiyeon I can't even choose not to see her.
"Excuse me, could I get past?"
"…?"
Fortunately, someone appeared to cut through the taut tension. A woman who had just stepped out of the building asked us to clear the doorway we were blocking.
"Sorry."
We stepped aside and she brushed past without a second glance. Time to say goodbye to Jiyeon and head in myself…
"Room 301… right?"
"…?"
Then something completely unexpected happened. The woman who had just passed us suddenly turned around and stated my exact room number.
"Y-yeah, that's right?"
"…"
And with that she simply spun on her heel and sauntered off. What the hell was going on?
"What was that? Who is that woman?"
Yu Jiyeon was the most worked up of all. To anyone watching, the scene looked plenty suspicious.
"I don't know either."
"What do you mean you don't know? That woman knows where you live! So why did you try to act like you didn't know her just now in front of me?"
"Because I really don't know her! I've never seen that person before today. And she doesn't know me either, does she?"
All she had done was say my room number; that didn't prove we knew each other. But Yu Jiyeon clearly wasn't hearing any of that.
"Wow, this is ridiculous. So that's why you kept saying it wasn't Oh Sujeong or Jeong Ain? Do you even actually work that part-time job? Or do you just bolt home the second school ends so you can meet that woman?"
"I said no!"
Even if it were true, why was she this pissed? Though I could understand Yu Jiyeon's side of it.
Because that woman just now had been insanely pretty. Not simply pretty—the vaguely trashy makeup and clothes were the problem.
Exactly the type Yu Jiyeon hated most. The kind who looked easy, spoke with a coy lilt, and had eyes full of sex appeal.
The idea that I lived under the same roof as a woman like that was something she simply could not stand. Even so, did it really warrant getting this angry?