An Unexpected Encounter with Shin Ye-na
Kim Han-na's side story
“Haa… Those damn bastards. I go easy on them once and they keep coming back like this.”
In a dark alleyway, I stared down at the trash sprawled across the ground. This one was the punk I’d beaten the crap out of last time for running his mouth. That one was a new face. Seriously, why don’t these guys ever learn?
It wasn’t like I went around picking fights with them. I’d just started walking around the streets a bit more often. Yet the same types kept showing up—guys with old grudges against me, guys hired by girls who hated me, or guys I’d already punched out for getting too handsy.
…Maybe I should just break one of their bones so they finally get the message. But even for street trash like them, doing that would make me feel too guilty thinking about my dad’s face.
“Sigh… Please, next time, let’s not see each other again. Got it?”
I gave the already unconscious guy a light kick in the ribs, then straightened my clothes and stepped back out onto the main street.
…Now where?
The PC bang was starting to get old. And it wasn’t like I had that many places to go alone… In the end, was I just going to end up there again?
While I squinted against the bright midday sunlight and debated my next destination, my phone started buzzing in my pocket.
“…Hello? Yeah, it’s me.”
It was a junior I used to know, calling to check in after apparently hearing some news. How annoying. I already knew they were probably going to ask me to help with one of their stupid fights.
Still, I couldn’t just hang up on them coldly, so I gave vague responses while slowly walking down the street… when I noticed a beautiful woman in a modest white dress walking toward me from up ahead.
She had sleek black hair that just brushed her shoulders and a refined, calm face. But her body was the complete opposite of that innocent vibe—extremely glamorous. Especially those huge breasts…
She looked like the type who could easily reel in any guy she wanted. No matter how pretty she was, that was all the impression she left on me.
“…Excuse me, just a moment.”
Until she stopped me as I tried to walk past while still on the phone.
…What now?
She didn’t look like the type to pick a fight just because I glanced at her. I ended the call and stared at her quietly.
“You know Seon-ah, right? Ah, I mean Lee Seon-ah from the Academy. She’s really tall, about this much…”
The woman suddenly started gesturing with her hands and feet, asking if I knew Lee Seon-ah. The moment I heard that name—the one I’d been trying to forget—a sharp pain stabbed through my chest.
“…And you are?”
“Ah, I knew it! I thought I recognized the voice when you walked by, so I took a chance.”
I’d bitten my lower lip and asked her name in a crooked tone, but she didn’t seem to care about my attitude at all. She clapped her hands together with a bright smile.
“Don’t you remember? That time I was on the phone with Seon-ah and you snatched it away and said all those mean things to me.”
“…Ah.”
Now that she explained it, I remembered. It was during exam season at Seon-ah’s house. She’d been talking so affectionately with some woman on the phone… and I got jealous and interrupted.
According to her, she was apparently an older sister figure Seon-ah knew. I never expected to run into her like this.
“More importantly, why are you here instead of at the Academy at this hour?”
“…I skipped class.”
“Ahaha… Well, I guess that’s the age for it.”
The woman awkwardly brushed her hair back, then said,
“Anyway, this is perfect. I told you last time that I’d buy you a meal someday, right?”
She smiled brightly and grabbed my wrist.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
The woman who introduced herself as Shin Ye-na took me to a nearby pasta restaurant. We sat across from each other after ordering two plates of some pasta whose name I didn’t even know.
She chatted about how the weather was starting to get chilly lately, how the big temperature swings meant we had to be careful about catching colds… Despite her appearance, she talked like a housewife from somewhere, twirling her pasta as she spoke.
Then finally, after a long stretch of small talk, she brought up what I’d been waiting for.
“Um, so… about Seon-ah. Has something happened to her?”
“…What do you mean?”
I slowly lowered the fork I’d been twirling pasta onto and stared hard at Shin Ye-na’s mouth.
Had something bad happened to Seon-ah?
“Hmm… Seon-ah’s been acting strange lately. When I call to suggest we meet up, she answers in this really depressed voice. When I ask what’s wrong, she won’t tell me anything…”
Since I’d stopped hanging out with Seon-ah and Cha Eun-jung after that incident, I couldn’t be sure of the exact reason for her depression. But I figured it was probably because of me.
It wasn’t something to brag about, but I’d been one of the two people closest to Seon-ah along with Cha Eun-jung. For me to suddenly disappear completely from her side like that…
But after what I’d done to Seon-ah, I couldn’t shamelessly stay by her side anymore.
My empty spot would probably be filled by some other pretty girl before long. There had always seemed to be so many beautiful girls around Seon-ah besides me.
Once again, I felt something sharp stab into my chest.
“So I asked my daughter about it. Oh, my daughter is friends with Seon-ah too.”
“……Pardon?”
I could understand the first part, but the second part made no sense at all. Daughter…? Did she mean she called her little sister “daughter”? No, what family calls their little sister their daughter?
“You might know her? Jeong Ye-ji. She’s taller than me and her eyes are a little sharp like this… Oh right, I should just show you a picture! Here.”
“…I don’t know her at all.”
Seeing her completely serious expression without a trace of humor, it really seemed like she had an actual daughter. What the hell? She looked like she was only two or three years older than me at most, yet she had a daughter my age? How was she so young-looking?
“Hmm… I see. Anyway, back to the main topic.”
Shin Ye-na seemed a little embarrassed about showing her doting-mother side and took a long sip of her soda through a straw.
“When I asked my daughter, she said something did happen to Seon-ah recently… but that it was a secret in her class and she couldn’t tell me. Still… Seon-ah is a very important child to me too.”
Shin Ye-na’s expression grew somber as she gently stroked the ring finger of her left hand. Beneath her pale finger, her rather loose wedding ring spun around and around.
“That’s why, when I spotted you, I wanted to ask. …Do you know if something happened to Seon-ah?”
“…”
“Of course, I know you and your friends care about Seon-ah too, but so do I. So if you know anything…”
I’d thought there was no way since she was a married woman, but when I looked closely into her eyes… I felt a very familiar emotion.
It was clearly more than normal affection—something that shouldn’t be directed at her daughter’s friend.
“Haaa…”
I turned my head slightly and gazed out the window, lost in thought.
…Was it right for me to tell her this?
The story involving me, Cha Eun-jung, and Lee Seon-ah… wasn’t the kind of thing that should be revealed to anyone. If the truth ever got out, even if I could handle it, I couldn’t bear the thought of what people would say about Seon-ah or how they’d point fingers at her…
But… if this woman named Shin Ye-na had truly gone past the wall of being a married woman and really loved Seon-ah, then not giving her any hint at all would be far too cruel.
“…Then please listen to this story first.”
“What… story?”
As Shin Ye-na tilted her head in confusion, I began speaking in a quiet voice.
“There were three close friends. One was a sly, fox-like girl. One was an incredibly kind and innocent girl. …And the last one was a girl who had a one-sided crush on that kind and innocent girl.”
“…”
Was this how people felt when they went to confession? A little anxious, but also like the heavy knot that had been twisting inside me was finally starting to loosen.
“One day, the fox-like girl brought the innocent girl along and showed the crushing girl how she was using her… Then she signaled for the crushing girl to join in. And the girl with the one-sided crush ended up falling for that temptation.”
The girl who had been swept up in desire and, together with the fox-like girl, had been deceiving the innocent girl eventually discovered one day that the fox-like girl had been making it possible for even more girls to use her, and that the two of them had been hiding it.
The furious girl with the one-sided crush called out the fox-like girl and confronted her, but during their conversation, she realized that she herself wasn’t all that different from the fox-like girl she had hated so much. Overwhelmed by guilt, she ended up leaving the innocent girl’s side.
“But then she heard that the innocent girl was suffering because the girl with the one-sided crush had left. …So what do you think the girl with the one-sided crush should have done?”
“…”
Shin Ye-na continued gently stroking her wedding ring for a moment, then suddenly pulled it off, set it down on the table with a clack, and looked at me with stern eyes.
“First of all, I can clearly see just how much of an idiot that girl with the one-sided crush is.”
Her entire aura had done a complete 180 from the gentle atmosphere earlier. Without realizing it, I swallowed hard.