Episode 12: Cha Na-ra Was Frustrated... and Mustered Courage
Episode 12: Cha Na-ra Was Frustrated... and Mustered Courage
Chapter 12: Cha Nara Was Frustrated... and Found Her Courage
"Come in."
The office bell rang, and when I pressed the button and told them to enter, two people walked in.
"Hello, Manager Choi."
"Good afternoon, Manager Choi."
"Welcome. Quite a hike from your building, isn't it?"
These were the students I'd evaluated a few days ago.
A few days earlier—
—So second place was Hyeonwoo?
"Yes."
—Hyeonwoo is good-looking, I'll give him that... deep-set eyes and all...
"Honestly, if I were into men, I might've been tempted."
—Hm... bring them both in.
"Both of them?"
—Cha Nara and Kim Hyeonwoo. Nara got first place, so I have to keep my promise. And Hyeonwoo's a guy who beat out all those girls to take second—he deserves at least this much of a reward.
And so the two of them had come to my office today. But...
"Hyeonwoo."
"Y-yes? Yes..."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
He was so not fine that I found myself wondering if a person's face could really look that hollowed out.
So this is what they mean by "worn down."
A good-looking guy reduced to that state—it honestly made me feel bad for him, almost want to take care of him. Is this what women mean by maternal instinct?
"Hm..."
He was even forcing his eyes wide open to try to look okay, but it was kind of unnerving.
"Did you catch a cold?"
"Yeah..."
The weather had been fluctuating lately. On top of that, he'd pushed himself too hard, so it was no surprise he'd gotten sick.
"Get some rest here. Nara and I will head out for a bit."
"That's really..."
"You genuinely look unwell. I don't usually like pulling this card, but I'm older than you, so just listen to your hyung."
I gently pressed down on Kim Hyeonwoo's stubbornness with the quiet weight of seniority.
"Okay..."
Only then did he give in.
I handed him two blankets and a cushion from the stack in the corner of the office.
"Get some sleep."
"Thank you."
Once I saw Kim Hyeonwoo lie down on the sofa, I headed out of the office with Cha Nara.
"Would it have been better if you rested too?"
"No."
"What do you want to do?"
"Hm... I want to look around Department 5. I've only ever been to Department 4."
I wasn't sure there was much worth touring, but I kept that thought to myself and walked out of the building with her.
"Other departments share it too, but this is our biggest lecture hall."
"Oh..."
The stage was bigger than a small theater but not quite large-scale. Somewhere between medium and small, if I had to categorize it.
"Do you do performances here?"
Cha Nara pointed at a poster stuck to one side of the lecture hall and asked.
"Probably during the break. You might've noticed on the way over—it's a little removed from the main building, so we rent it out sometimes too."
"Ah-ha."
We headed toward the Department 5 main building together, but then Cha Nara suddenly grabbed my arm and pressed up against me.
"Hm? Nara?"
I took hold of her hand and started to pull my arm free, but the look in Cha Nara's eyes as she gazed up at me was laced with fear.
I could feel the hand gripping my arm trembling.
"Let's go. Quickly."
"R-right..."
I rushed Cha Nara along and got us into the main building.
I considered heading straight to the lounge on the first floor, but figured fewer people would be better, so I called the elevator.
I brought her into the lounge next to my office, locked the door, and drew the curtains so no one could see inside.
"Are you okay?"
"Y-yes..."
I wondered if it was a panic attack and asked cautiously, but she said it wasn't.
"Lately I've been getting this feeling that someone's been watching me... just now too."
She wasn't one of those idols every single person in the country knew, but she was a popular member of a reasonably well-known idol group.
A sasaeng fan... no, you can't call people like that fans. Some malicious piece of work had latched onto her, apparently.
"It got pretty bad starting last year... my agency CEO sent me to school because of it..."
Since Department 4 was full of idols, their security was fairly tight, so she'd apparently been able to live relatively comfortably there.
"Sounds like your CEO made a good call on that one..."
Department 5 had good security too, even if it wasn't quite at Department 4's level. How they'd found her here was a mystery.
"I think it's because of this."
Cha Nara showed me her phone. On the screen was an article: "Posuta's Woohyun, Cosmos's Nara Take on Acting Challenge."
"Ah, for fuck's sake."
A reporter must've slipped in during the chaos this morning, pretending to be a student from another department.
The stalker had probably seen that and followed Cha Nara here.
I was annoyed. Annoyed that a student who came here to rest was terrified because of some piece of shit, and more than anything, annoyed that my workload had just increased...
The school headquarters and security office would handle the basics, but as the Department Manager of Department 5, this wasn't something I could afford not to know about.
"Fucking hell..."
"Manager?"
I'd cursed without realizing it, my face twisting into a scowl at the thought of more work piling up.
Cha Nara looked at me with a worried expression, and I internally winced. I quickly turned my head away, opened my mouth wide once to loosen my expression.
"Are you feeling a little better now?"
"Yes... um..."
"Go ahead."
"Could I use the restroom..."
"Ah!"
Even while walking to the restroom, Cha Nara kept her arm linked with mine, glancing around warily.
"It's okay. No one can get in here without a card or prior authorization."
My words eased her alertness slightly, but she still didn't unlink her arm, as if she couldn't quite bring herself to feel fully safe.
"Go ahead."
I stood in front of the restroom and turned around, but Cha Nara grabbed my arm.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"Um... I'm scared, so could you... come in with me..."
"Excuse me???"
What kind of absurd request was this? No matter how scared she was, going into the restroom together was...
On one hand, I understood, but still—going into the women's restroom was not something I could do. I told her I'd wait right outside the door and sent her in.
"Manager? You're still there, right?"
"Yes, I'm here."
Cha Nara checked several times to make sure I was still there while she did her business and came back out.
A few staff members gave me odd looks as they passed by, seeing me standing in front of the women's restroom, but thankfully no one asked for details.
Even after leaving the restroom and walking around elsewhere, Cha Nara didn't unlink her arm. If anything, she held on even tighter, using her other hand to lace her fingers through mine on the arm she was clinging to, pressing even closer.
It was awkward and I was worried, so I tried to pull my arm away, but the hand holding mine was trembling, so I just let it be.
"By the way, is it okay for an idol to be doing this?"
"You said it was fine here."
I had no comeback for that. That wasn't what I'd meant, but I didn't press further.
The building wasn't large, so the tour wrapped up quickly.
We returned to the same lounge as before and sat down on the sofa to rest. I asked how it had been.
"So, how was it?"
"Hm... nothing really different, but the atmosphere was a little more relaxed," Kim Hyeonwoo said, glancing at his watch.
"Yeah, things are a bit more regimented over there. Shall we head out? Or rest a little longer?"
"Let's rest a little more."
Cha Nara said that while still not letting go of my arm, leaning her head against my shoulder.
"Hyeonwoo. Hey, Hyeonwoo."
"Y-yeah..."
Kim Hyeonwoo's voice came out hoarse—he must've been deep asleep. Still, his complexion looked much better than before, which was a relief.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"You look a lot better. Want to rest a bit more before you go?"
"Ah, I have a schedule after this."
Kim Hyeonwoo, who'd been tidying the sofa, looked at his watch as he answered.
"Got it. It was good having you both here. Get back safely."
"Okay!"
"Thanks to you, I got some good rest."
I saw Kim Hyeonwoo and Cha Nara off, then came back inside, finished tidying the sofa where Kim Hyeonwoo had been, and was just sitting down in my chair when the bell rang.
"Huh? Nara?"
Cha Nara had come back. I looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"Did you forget something?"
"Yes."
"Huh? I didn't see anything..."
I'd been tidying up and hadn't come across anything unfamiliar. A question mark was just forming in my head when—
Cha Nara had somehow already closed the distance. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pressed herself against me, and stole my lips.
"Mmph?"
After a brief kiss, Cha Nara held me tight and whispered in my ear.
"Next time we see each other, talk to me casually. Oppa."
"What?"
Cha Nara was trembling, as if clinging to me was straining her, so I carefully rested my hands on her waist and back.
At that, she pressed even closer and whispered once more.
"That was the first kiss of a girl who just graduated high school a few months ago!"
My mind went slightly blank at those words. And in the meantime, Cha Nara slipped out of the office.
"What the hell???"
---
Cha Nara was a little frustrated.
The man called Choi Sijun who'd come into their class wasn't overwhelmingly handsome, but for some reason she couldn't take her eyes off him.
He didn't seem much older than her, yet he held the official title of "Department Manager"—not an interim one, either.
Once she'd factored in the calculation that getting close to him would make for a great connection, she'd genuinely wanted to befriend him no matter what.
So she'd even resorted to what people called acting coy, but the man hadn't taken the bait.
As she spent time with him, the frustration melted away under the gentle tone and kind gestures she hadn't seen during class.
And in that moment, she felt it—that ominous gaze that had been following her since last year.
Cha Nara did not let the opportunity slip.
Using the stalker as an excuse, she pressed right up against him. It wasn't that she felt no fear at all. But it wasn't at a level that made daily life impossible either.
If she had been truly terrified, she wouldn't have gone outside at all—she'd have stopped all activities. So she exaggerated a little and clung even closer.
Even the scowl on his face when he'd cursed in the lounge had been so damn cool.
After leaving his office, while walking to the parking lot with Kim Hyeonwoo to head back to Department 4, she remembered a conversation she'd had with her new sister-in-law.
"Unnie, why did you decide to marry Mom's son?"
"Mom's son? Ah, you mean Oppa?"
"Yes."
"Well... you might not see it this way, Nara, but Oppa is handsome and cool, you know. And with that comes a lot of competition."
Cha Nara couldn't exactly agree that her own older brother was handsome and cool, but she wasn't about to say that in front of the woman who was about to become her sister-in-law.
"So?"
"Every time I met Oppa, I made my move. Whenever I got the chance."
"Whoa..."
"I'm serious. Oppa and I didn't really have much overlap in our circles. So during those few opportunities, I made up my mind: I'm going to get this man. Nara, if you ever find someone like that, be proactive and make your move. You're way prettier than me—you'll win at love a lot more easily than I did."
"Ah! But don't just make a move on anyone! Only for someone you truly love!"
Cha Nara suddenly stopped walking. Kim Hyeonwoo turned around.
"What's wrong?"
"You go on ahead."
"Did you leave something behind?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. I'll let the manager know. Go on."
Objectively speaking, Kim Hyeonwoo was much better-looking than Choi Sijun. But Kim Hyeonwoo didn't have that same sense of reliability, of comfort, of warmth that Choi Sijun had.
Cha Nara decided to follow her sister-in-law's advice. Her sister-in-law had added some extra advice after that, but it had long since been erased from her mind.
She went back to his office, wrapped herself in his arms, and pressed her lips to his. She hadn't had the courage to use her tongue, so it was just a simple kiss—but even that had required enormous courage from her.
She liked the way he'd steadied her trembling body, holding her gently as if she'd thrown herself into his arms.
"You crazy bitch, are you seriously an idol?"
She cursed at her own actions belatedly, but all that day, Choi Sijun wouldn't leave Cha Nara's head.
---
"You're back?"
"You were pretty famous today, huh?"
"What?"
Nuna greeted me warmly when I got home, but what came back at me wasn't a kind hello—it was a pointed question with an edge to it.
[ Cha Nara Illustration ]
