4. Did You Have Sex With Her?
4. Did You Have Sex With Her?
"What? What kind of crazy talk is that? Did they put alcohol in the cafe coffee or something?"
I didn't think Mi-na would wrinkle her nose and wave her hand dismissively like Myeong-ho-hyung did after seeing my semi-basement room, saying it wasn't a place for a human to live.
Even if she is a weirdo, she isn't the type to be severely rude.
I was just curious what kind of fresh, crazy reaction she would show.
But asking to live together for a while?
This went beyond the category of 'weirdo' I knew.
"You heard my conversation with Auntie earlier, didn't you? I'm right in the middle of preparing my graduation project."
She made an insane request, but Mi-na herself didn't seem to realize it at all.
There wasn't a shred of buffering or embarrassment.
No, she was serious.
Watching her, I deeply felt the truth of Myeong-ho-hyung's words that people born different are the most terrifying beings.
For reference, just like Myeong-ho-hyung's analysis, Mi-na was a Fine Arts and Contemporary Art major.
"The inspiration I can pull from my home studio has reached its limit. Same with school. Besides, at home, my younger siblings and Mom keep coming in and out, breaking my concentration."
I had no choice but to silently listen to Mi-na's venting.
It was quite persuasive.
The pain of a creator experiencing a limited home studio,
And the annoyance when family ruins the vibe—
Seo Mi-na perfectly reenacted those feelings in front of me like a monodrama.
"But lo and behold, it felt unusual from the moment I walked down the semi-basement stairs! Then, the moment I looked into the room through the open door, my inspiration started to come alive. This is it! I'm going to complete my graduation project in this space full of vibes!"
On the other hand, when she inhaled the stained wallpaper, mold, and the musty smell of my room—which even I was ashamed of—she radiated an aura like a vain woman holding a new luxury item.
If that was acting or a joke, Mi-na should quit art and become an actress.
"Then get a place similar to this separately. If I keep coming in and out, won't your concentration be broken just the same?"
"That's not it. The reason my family breaks my concentration is because they have an image of life that doesn't fit the inspiration I'm pursuing."
"What does that even mean?"
"Tae-yang, it means you are already one with this room. You walking around and living in this room is, in itself, my muse. Everything I felt in terms of inspiration when you are with this room finally gains meaning."
"Hmm... That's even more shocking than Myeong-ho-hyung saying I live well in a place not meant for humans..."
Seo Mi-na poured out the reasons why it absolutely had to be this place like a machine gun.
According to Mi-na, the keywords for her graduation project were vintage, retro, gloom, and the abyss of human inner depths.
That's why she decorated her home studio like that.
But the moment Ms. Kim Seo-yeon and the rest of the daughters appeared, it didn't match, and the emotional line of the work collapsed.
"Fine. I like literature in my own way, and I even did Art Club activities with you, so I'll accept the artist's sensibility."
"Yeah. I remember. Back then, Tae-yang, you understood my work better than the art teacher."
Seo Mi-na had been drawing deeply since before she entered elementary school.
Then, she stopped for a while during her 3rd year of middle school, when she was in her most rebellious phase.
And she told me that back in high school.
The reason wasn't simply because we were in the same Art Club, but because I understood her crazy artistic world quite well.
"But realistically, would your home allow it? Like you said, it'll take at least a few weeks, or months, not days. A project doesn't just pop out instantly."
Because I knew that, I argued from a realistic standpoint that it would be difficult.
"No. That's not it. My mom would welcome it with open arms. She keeps telling me to please go meet some friends. If I say I like a friend's house and will make my graduation project there for a few months, she'll probably be desperate to support me even more."
"This is someone who doesn't understand common sense. What kind of life have you lived?"
"I lived in the common sense world of an artist."
Reality was something that only worked on common sense.
Yesterday, after Mi-na left, Myeong-ho-hyung said something like that.
That a friend like her is either a celeb surrounded by people,
Or someone with a firm world of their own who meets almost no one.
I saw the latter as more likely, and sure enough, it was.
Moreover, she has a firm stubbornness and pride in her own world.
This is a level where there is no room for conversation or compromise.
"One of my younger siblings might tackle me, but since she just entered college and is living alone, I'll be able to dodge her."
"The second sister?"
"Oh! You remember?"
They say that among Ms. Kim Seo-yeon's daughters, the second is 22 and a college sophomore, the third is 20 and a college freshman, and the fourth is a high school freshman.
I suppose she's talking about the second sister.
"Ah... There's enough space, so it's not like I can't do it, but..."
Scratch...! Scratch...! Scratch...!
"You're saving a human life! Inspiration is life to an artist! What greater good deed is there than saving a person?"
I scratch my head, feeling troubled.
The grounds for refusal have weakened.
In the first place, I don't spend much time in my semi-basement room except on weekends.
Sleeping is the problem, but if the room were small, I'd say no because it's too small, but it's a semi-basement, so it's spacious.
'It's better for my mental health to be around someone than to be overly quiet. I felt that during my military service.'
Besides, it's true that I'm lonely living in Seoul, too.
It's nice to be with a friend.
In the army, being with various types of people helped me adapt to the sadness of losing my grandmother quite quickly.
But it feels too one-sided.
It hurts my pride to just be pushed around.
"If you grant my request, I'll grant your wish, Tae-yang."
"Wish? My wish? What wish?"
Quick-witted Seo Mi-na seemed to have grasped my intention of wanting a 'give and take'.
"I'll provide unlimited delivery food. So you can feel a successful life in advance."
A few hours ago, I devoured the dessert from Cafe Beatrice in an instant.
Seeing that, Mi-na wondered if I was starving,
And I told her about the life of a commoner who buys cheap groceries in bulk to save on food costs.
At the same time, I said my dream was to order delivery food for all three meals a day once I made a lot of money.
Seo Mi-na remembered that and presented it as a card that fit like a puzzle at the decisive moment.
"An offer I can't refuse. I'll talk to the landlord, so feel free to use this place as much as you want."
Clap!
I immediately offered a handshake to seal the deal.
To me, three meals of delivery food a day was more impactful than a Ferrari Panamera.
You have to be humble with your dreams to be happy.
"Your mother was really that happy?"
"Yeah, I had a hard time stopping her from coming over."
"If she knew that friend was a man, she'd probably faint."
"She might like it even more?"
"Why?"
"I'll tell you later."
The next day, before I could meet the landlord, Mi-na had already negotiated to pay extra while she stayed here.
And two days later, her noisy luggage arrived in my semi-basement room.
There was a lot of luggage. She even bought a desk specifically for Mi-na.
So, she adamantly refused her mother's excited offer to help and called some men instead.
There was nothing for me to help with.
Because Mi-na organized and arranged everything from one to ten herself, saying she had to do it according to her own feel.
"Shouldn't we buy an air purifier?"
"Are you ashamed of your own smell, Tae-yang?"
"I'm proud of it, though."
"We should only touch the bare minimum. The smell of this room is the source of my work."
Because the humidity could ruin the work, Mi-na bought a dehumidifier. A very expensive one.
And she bought moisture absorbers and silica gel to put in the storage drawers for the artwork.
If I were to add more, maybe installing metal shelves for storing work and a work light?
She firmly refused anything more, saying it could ruin the vintage retro vibe of the semi-basement.
'Wow... Living with a beautiful, wealthy female college student for her graduation project... Honestly, at this point, how could I not have expectations?'
Now that everything was set up, it wasn't bad.
It felt like my semi-basement room, where I used to just come home from work and sleep like a log, had become a real art space.
And it was an art space for a gorgeous, stunningly beautiful female college student with a great figure.
But my fantasy expectations were shattered mercilessly after sleeping one night.
'Wow, fuck, there really is no other weirdo like her.'
The life of an artist was closer to a horror movie than a fantasy.
"What are you doing staring at the wall?"
"This bastard is mocking me, saying my work is trash."
She, who had begun working on her project in earnest, frequently talked to objects.
"Did you wash your hair? How long are you going to keep up that state?"
"I washed it. It's a pain to dry. If I touch it any more, everything I've planned in my head will fly away."
She washes well.
She just doesn't dress up.
"You didn't go mute, did you?"
",,,,,"
"Can't you hear me?"
Shake...! Shake...!
If her concentration goes up even further from there, she starts a vow of silence.
"Haaaa...! Just a little more...!"
Tremble...!
"....."
Most of the works she created while struggling like that were ripped apart or destroyed.
Occasionally, when she entered the completion stage, hand tremors would break out due to a dopamine explosion, making her look like a junkie.
'The future of our country's art world is bright. That's not fake madness, that's real madness.'
I was worried. I wondered if she might actually faint like that.
But honestly, it didn't cause me any inconvenience.
More accurately, it would be correct to say that I didn't feel that way.
Honestly, it felt like I had encountered an interesting spectacle in my boring semi-basement life.
Besides, doesn't she provide delivery food for breakfast and dinner on weekdays, and three meals a day on holidays?
However, there was just one difficult point.
"Are you sleeping? Sleeping?"
Seo Mi-na is mostly alone while working and barely speaks.
Then, at the point when it's past 11:30 at night, when I turn off the lights to sleep, she starts running her mouth.
She pours out her daily quota from then on.
"Not sleeping... Why..."
For about three days, I just ignored her and slept, but I stopped because it was not only pitiful to hear her muttering alone next to me, but also terrifying.
Furthermore, as I responded to her evening conversations, her conversations with objects decreased, so at some point, I started to accept it warmly.
'What is she going to talk about today? If it's an old story, it might get long. I'd rather it be gossip about her family; then I'd just have to react.'
The topics of her chatter are diverse.
It's called chatting, but in reality, it's me listening almost unilaterally rather than having a conversation.
So, the topic of chatter Mi-na brought up today was,
"Actually, I heard quite a bit of the conversation you and Myeong-ho-hyung had at the cafe?"
It was the story of the day we reunited.
"It was nothing special. Like I said before, Myeong-ho-hyung said your aura was amazing, Mi-na. So he keeps asking me if I'm still in contact with you these days."
Not a bad topic.
Having estimated how to react, I launched a preemptive strike so the conversation wouldn't get too long.
"I'm not interested in that, and I don't remember it. What I listened to with interest were the stories that started from the name Min Seon-a."
I almost let out a sigh of "Ah...!" for a moment.
Not only was it an unexpected topic, but since she had already heard everything back then, I felt something fishy about her bringing it up now.
"Was she your girlfriend?"
As expected.
I could feel Seo Mi-na's curiosity, which was close to madness, in the rising end of her sentence as if she were probing.
"If you heard it, you'd know. Myeong-ho-hyung introduced a junior, we contacted each other for a short time, and it didn't work out. That's it. There's nothing else."
Anyway, isn't she the Mi-na who said she liked me back in high school?
The fact that we are friends again like this must mean she still has feelings for me.
Honestly, I'm the same.
In that position, I was confident, so I told her exactly what happened.
"Why did that woman ask to be introduced to you? Even if she's Myeong-ho-hyung's junior, it doesn't seem like there would be any reason for you to meet separately. Don't you think Myeong-ho-hyung would have made a spot for you to meet together?"
Myeong-ho-hyung, who graduated from college last year, currently holds a position at the place where I work, that is, at Myeong-ho-hyung's father's logistics company.
Because of that, Myeong-ho-hyung's name comes up a lot in my conversations with Mi-na.
I suspect Mi-na feels uncomfortable calling him Mr. Myeong-ho or Senior Myeong-ho.
Anyway, Mi-na had perfectly grasped the person named Yoo Myeong-ho in a short period,
And she asked a sharp question accordingly.
"Curious? Want to know?"
"Yes! Hurry up and answer! Don't stall! That makes me even more curious!"
I acted cocky.
And the reason was,
"By chance, Min Seon-a saw a photo of me and hyung together on Myeong-ho-hyung's phone. Apparently, she liked my looks and physique that much? So she asked to be introduced."
Because it's a part where I can feel pride in my own way.
They say Min Seon-a was popular back in school, and is popular now in college.
Wouldn't it be worth bragging that such a woman liked my looks and made the first move?
"Ack!!"
I, who had answered while acting cocky and even crossing my arms, screamed in an instant.
"You are handsome. The country bumpkin vibe from high school is gone, and you've become the complete package."
"That hurts!"
Mi-na had pinched my cheek as if she were pulling it.
"You're this handsome and tall, so why didn't it work out? Especially since the woman made the first move?"
Then she even raised her upper body slightly, turned toward me, and asked aggressively.
"How can a relationship between a man and a woman be formed just by that? Look at me. Living in a semi-basement, warehouse management assistant. No parents. It's natural, right?"
I closed my eyes indifferently and revealed in detail why I was dumped like a dog by Min Seon-a.
Of course, Min Seon-a didn't want to be the bad guy, so she didn't say it directly and beat around the bush. But in the end, that was the gist of it.
"Why not? I'm living with you like this, aren't I?"
I thought it would end roughly around here,
But Mi-na came at me even more persistently.
"That's because you're abnormal."
"Abnormal or not, it's the truth, isn't it."
"You really are something, admitting to that."
I played my trump card. I thought Mi-na would throw a fit if I called her abnormal.
But my energy drained away instead because of her cool admission.
"So, you didn't date, and you were dumped?"
Still, I thought it was a timing where I could end the conversation if I maintained silence appropriately.
But Mi-na had no intention of doing so,
"Then did you have sex with her?"
She threw the line that made my vision go dark the most since our reunion.