3. Starting Our Hot Cohabitation.
3. Starting Our Hot Cohabitation.
'Kueuuu... Is this what Myeong-ho-hyung was talking about yesterday? Not the consciousness of having driven a nice car, but just the perception of having driven their own car that was at home?'
I don't know about a wealthy neighborhood, but since the area I live in is pretty close to being a backwater, most people passing by turned their heads automatically when the Porsche Panamera was parked there.
If it were Myeong-ho-hyung, he probably would have enjoyed that attention and acted all cocky.
Honestly, don't a significant number of people who drive awesome cars have that exact purpose in mind?
However, for Seo Mi-na, who is so-called "born into that world," the Porsche Panamera seems to be nothing more or less than her daily driver.
"Oh... this is super pretty, Mi-na-ya!"
"Is it?"
But to me, it's a freaking awesome 180 million won car.
And I don't really want to deny that.
Sitting in the passenger seat, I looked around frantically, enjoying the interior of the Porsche Panamera.
"My mom bought it for me. Tae-yang-ah, do you like this style?"
"Yeah, it's really pretty. I can see why guys go crazy over cars."
"Hmm..."
It seems my reaction was okay for Mi-na.
The tone of her voice and her gaze when she asked if I liked this style made it clear she was genuinely curious about my opinion.
"I don't think it's bad either."
Bing-geut...!
When I nodded vigorously at Seo Mi-na's question and told her so, Mi-na slowly started the engine and gave a faint smile.
"Whoa... this place feels almost like a foreign restaurant?"
"It's a cafe, you know?"
We arrived at the reserved cafe, and the atmosphere was just completely different.
A valet attendant naturally took the car keys at the entrance,
and Mi-na and I stepped inside the cafe.
The cafe's name was Beatrice.
As the door to Beatrice opened, a subtle scent of dessert began to delight my nose,
followed by quiet music, well-arranged lighting, and widely spaced tables that left a deep impression.
It looks expensive just by looking at it.
"Oh my~ our Mi-na, long time no see?"
Just then, someone appeared from deep inside with a bright smile and approached me and Seo Mi-na.
"Ah! Auntie!"
This is the most dynamic reaction I've seen from Mi-na in the last two days.
She must be a fairly close acquaintance,
and it seems she's the owner of this cafe.
"Do you know how sad I was because you didn't come for a while?"
"I started preparing for my graduation project at the end of last year."
"Is that so! Come to think of it, our Mi-na must be in her final year now, right?"
She was indeed the owner.
Her styling made her look to be in her early 40s,
but her face and figure felt like someone in her early 30s.
On top of that, she was overflowing with elegance.
"But who is this...?"
The cafe owner lady who was talking to Mi-na turned her gaze toward me.
Interpreting it with the intuition honed by military life and social life, it seems she's asking, "Is he your boyfriend?"
'That's unexpected. Do I look like her boyfriend?'
It was outside my expectations.
Generally, it's correct to ask that, but
looking at us, there's a clear class difference—a keyword Myeong-ho-hyung loves to use—between me and Mi-na.
Even so, for her to react like that, I wonder if she's a very open-minded person.
"He's a very close friend I met after a very long time. That's why we came here."
Mi-na's answer to the lady's question was also mysterious.
"Ah...! That's right. If it's a friend like that, our Mi-na should bring them here. Ho ho ho!"
And the lady smiled very satisfactorily, as if she had perfectly understood Mi-na's answer.
"Is this your designated seat, Mi-na?"
"Sort of."
"It's nice, isn't it? It feels open yet cozy."
"Not bad. To think you could feel that."
The owner lady escorted us herself, and Seo Mi-na and I took our seats at the reserved table.
Even within the luxurious cafe, it was a spot that felt particularly calm and exuded an elegant atmosphere.
"Hmm... I don't really know what to make of this menu. Don't you just have a latte?"
"Just obediently eat what I order for you."
Afterward, Mi-na went to the restroom for a moment.
I scanned the menu in the meantime, but I was flustered because there was absolutely nothing I was familiar with.
"Ah, your grandmother passed away..."
The banter that started from the menu, tossing comments back and forth,
matured into a real conversation by the time the coffee aroma was rich and the dessert plates were one by one being emptied.
"I was very sad, but on the other hand, I was able to go to the military without worries. Honestly, I was worried a lot. It wasn't like I was in a position to postpone military service either."
"You accepted that situation like that? You're really the same as ever. You're hopelessly positive."
After all, Mi-na is the one who knew I was living alone with my grandmother.
She seemed curious about me being in Seoul alone.
So, I explained logically that I went to the military without worries after my grandmother passed away, and that I came up to Seoul without regrets with the help of an acquaintance.
"Your face has changed a bit, but you're the same person. Of course, you were decent-looking back then too. But you had a countrified vibe."
"Please soften that by saying I was innocent rather than countrified."
As the atmosphere seemed to be getting down due to the talk about my grandmother, Mi-na immediately launched a heavy fact attack.
'But I was a bit surprised. It's been a whole 6 years, and my hairstyle and everything have changed so much, yet Mi-na was certain it was me yesterday.'
In high school, unlike now, I walked around with a buzz cut.
Because I didn't have to get a haircut for months.
Plus, I'm 4cm taller than back then, and I've gained over 10kg from being a relative beanpole.
In other words, it wouldn't be strange if I had become a completely different person.
But Mi-na recognized me without even a second of buffering.
As expected, her guts are no joke.
"Aren't you even curious? Why I suddenly transferred?"
"I have a rough idea."
I was curious. But because I really had a rough idea, it was awkward to ask first.
Because what I expected wasn't exactly positive.
Then, Seo Mi-na, radiating coolness, opened the conversation as if pressing me.
"That's right. My mom and dad divorced back then. The fault was on Dad's side, and at that point, I had no reason to stay by Dad's side anymore."
Mi-na explained while twirling the straw in her coffee cup, just like at the window seat in the cafe where we reunited yesterday.
It was something anyone could notice that Mi-na's parents' relationship wasn't good.
If she hung out with bullies because she hated being alone at home, from an adult's perspective now, I can estimate the depth of the conflict.
It seems her father, who moved down to the countryside, had an affair, which eventually led to the divorce.
"You must have been confused. You even moved down to the countryside to stay by your father's side."
"I won't deny it. That's why I didn't even have the mental capacity to let you know my changed number. My head was about to explode just taking care of my younger siblings."
I heard back then that Mi-na had three younger sisters.
Honestly, the idea of Mi-na taking care of her younger sisters doesn't suit her character at all, but it's more comfortable to just believe her.
"How much do you know about my family story?"
My attitude must have seemed overly understanding.
And that was enough for Mi-na to assume that I was like that because I knew a certain level of the unusual story about her father and mother.
"Well, just to some extent?"
"That means you know quite a lot. Did you search for it?"
"Search? No way. I just found out while going about my business."
"That's even more of a problem. That just means how much of a mess my family is."
"Ho-oh... come to think of it, that makes sense."
It's not that I haven't searched. But in this situation, I thought it would be better to say I hadn't, so I lied, but I got hit with a proper logical counterattack.
"The superficial stuff you know, Tae-yang, is probably all true. On the other hand, I think there's a lot of extra details added to the specific stuff."
What are the superficial keywords?
'Shocking pregnancy retirement of a top girl group center and boy group center...'
There was an issue 23 years ago that made the whole world buzz.
It was about a 20-year-old top-tier girl group center and a 23-year-old boy group center who was just as successful, who went beyond dating and got pregnant.
'The agency told them to abort the baby, and their families secretly wanted that too, but the two refused. That's why it surfaced.'
According to someone, the idol scene is an animal kingdom,
so how could there not be couples getting pregnant?
The key is that it was publicly exposed,
because the idol couple themselves had no intention of giving up the baby.
'The ones who ignited that fiery love are none other than Seo Mi-na's mother, Kim Seo-yeon, and her father, Seo Min-jun.'
That's right.
The protagonists of that scandal are Seo Mi-na's parents,
and the one conceived in the 20-year-old idol's womb is Seo Mi-na, who is right in front of me.
"My maternal grandfather and grandmother didn't tell me to abort, they say. But since it's such a conservative family, they were very disappointed, so it's true they disowned them."
Let me correct that. It seems neither family urged abortion.
Anyway, it's true they weren't welcomed by either side, and it's true they were disowned.
In other words, Kim Seo-yeon and Seo Min-jun moved out separately and lived diligently.
'They say you shouldn't worry about celebrities, and that's exactly the situation.'
In Kim Seo-yeon's case, she was active for a little over 5 years, and Seo Min-jun was an idol for over 6 years.
Plus, they were both top-tier successful people.
The assets they earned in their early twenties alone were over 20 billion won each, totaling over 40 billion won.
So from the moment she was born, Seo Mi-na and her younger sisters grew up not only without lacking anything but also wealthy.
"Still, when I knew you, it seems they had reconciled?"
Even considering that, the current wealth is off the charts.
How was Mi-na's wealth, which even Myeong-ho-hyung feels a severe class difference from, completed?
"Yeah. My father's business also grew big with capital support from the paternal side."
Blood is thicker than water.
With four granddaughters, the hearts of the aging parents on both sides opened up.
Moreover, seeing the young kids working diligently to grow their wealth rather than spending money recklessly made them even more so.
Even if I don't know the exact scale, both the maternal and paternal sides were asset holders nearing the trillion-won range at the time, so their open hearts resulted in open support.
"....."
"Why? What?"
Seo Mi-na, who had been calmly talking about her family,
suddenly stared at me.
"You liked me, right?"
The words she brought up afterward were unexpected for me.
"What is that suddenly?"
I was so flustered that I mumbled to buy time to grasp the situation.
'What is this? What is her intention in saying that?'
If it were just a random comment, I wouldn't be this flustered.
It's because it came up while talking about family.
'Hmm... is Mi-na also conscious of the family situation like me?'
My interpretation was empathy.
I had enough affection for Mi-na to consider her my first love.
That's why I accepted it even when she acted like a weirdo.
But the gap in our circumstances was too big, so I couldn't think of moving forward.
'She might think I had prejudices...'
From Seo Mi-na's perspective, she might think that because her family is full of turmoil, I, who am close to a loser, got scared and ran away.
"Just curious. Other kids were desperate to get close to me because I'm rich and well-off, but you didn't."
My thoughts were completely off the mark.
It seems Mi-na felt a sense of alienation from me, who was different from other people around her.
"Like me? No way. I couldn't even think of anything more than friends because the gap was so big it felt alienating."
"You crazy bastard. You were thinking some stupid thoughts."
"Shut up."
I mixed truth and lies half and half.
I hid the fact that I liked her, and confessed that I hesitated because of the gap.
"You couldn't even dare to think of anything more than friends..."
After pouring out a refreshing curse, Mi-na made a sentimental expression that didn't match it.
What is she thinking?
"I liked you."
Crazy, she hit me with another comment that smacked me in the head.
"You liked me????"
I, who had been properly smacked, couldn't help but widen my eyes.
"Then, I stuck around you because I liked you. Would any girl do that if she didn't like you? Like a stalker?"
"Aha... I won't deny that..."
The reason I widened my eyes isn't actually because Mi-na liked me.
Like Mi-na said, unless I was an idiot, there's no way I couldn't have felt her affection when she stuck by my side so much.
'But why now?'
It's surprising that she's confessing now.
Considering Mi-na's personality, if she wanted to confess back then, she would have, and if not, I thought she wouldn't have done it at all.
She was not only that cool but also had no lingering attachments.
In other words, the version of her I know doesn't match her current self.
"You can just drop me off here?"
"I'll take you closer."
As we were talking frantically, we ended up having dinner at the cafe.
Mi-na wanted to go somewhere else to talk more, but I'm an office worker and have work tomorrow.
"Should I turn there?"
"Yeah. If you turn, you'll see the gray building right away."
In the midst of that, Seo Mi-na insisted on taking me all the way to my studio apartment building,
"Yeah, I knew you'd end up like this."
I had roughly guessed her purpose.
"We've come this far, it would be weirder to just send you off. Let's see how my high school friend lives."
"It's just a semi-basement with nothing to see."
"I'm curious about that 'nothing to see'. How much nothing there is to see."
She wants to grace my semi-basement home with her presence.
When we were talking at the cafe, she had already laid the groundwork by saying she was secretly disappointed she couldn't visit my house during high school.
"The sensor light in the semi-basement hallway is a bit dim. Be careful. You'll trip and fall."
"The sensor response seems a bit slow too?"
"That's the romance of a semi-basement."
For me personally, there isn't really a point of rejection.
It's just that from Mi-na's standards, there are many inconveniences, so I was like, "Why?"
Eventually, I took Seo Mi-na to the semi-basement room greeted by the shoddy sensor light.
Thus, Seo Mi-na, the silver spoon, followed me into the semi-basement room I had entered first, looking haughty.
"Wow...! This has a vibe??"
She showed a quite dynamic first impression reaction.
But that "vibe" comment didn't seem like sarcasm at all,
"This stained wallpaper... mold... and hwooooop...! Musty smell... it's vintage retro itself!"
"What are you doing? Are you a pervert?"
The comments are openly negative,
but she very actively touched the stained wallpaper, observed the mold in the corner, and smelled the room like she was smelling perfume.
"Hwoooo...! I like this feeling...!"
"You're a real pervert."
At my accusation of her being a pervert, Mi-na wrapped her arms around her body as if she had felt an orgasm and even closed her eyes.
"Hey!"
Afterward, she,
"I'm going to live here with you for a while."
She proposed living together.