A Lucky Day (1)
Click. Click.
The measured tap of high heels reached him first. Then he saw her—the beautiful woman for whom a high ponytail seemed made. Clear, porcelain skin; a finely balanced, high-bridged nose; large eyes. Every gaze in the café swung toward her at once. Just looking at her lifted his shoulders a little. Gu Hyejin. His girlfriend.
She sat opposite him with a soft, elegant motion.
“Traffic bad?”
“No.”
“Busy?”
“No.”
Her tone was colder than usual.
“I have something to say.”
“……?”
The moment she sat down she fixed him with an indifferent stare and opened her mouth. It was the look he had been seeing more and more lately.
“Let’s end it.”
The bombshell dropped without warning.
“You weren’t seriously planning to keep seeing me, were you?”
Her confirmation was ice-cold.
“…….”
She was right a hundred times over. They no longer belonged to the same world. A jobless bum like him was far beneath her. She worked at one of the top ten conglomerates; he did not match her at all.
“……Yeah.”
The truth he had been unconsciously denying. Reality he could no longer refuse.
“Since it’s the last time, at least eat something before you go. And—late, I know—your birthday present.”
He hurriedly pulled a gift box from his bag. Her birthday had been a few days earlier, but her packed schedule had kept him from giving it.
“Forget it. Sell it and pay off some of your debts, oppa.”
“Hyejin!”
“What? Embarrassed? Good. You should be embarrassed. Still no car, no house at your age—that’s shameful. Lucky you finally figured it out.”
His pride took scratch after scratch today. In front of his girlfriend his fists clenched tight.
“I hate clingy, pathetic stuff. You know that, right? Delete my number. And don’t get drunk and call me like some loser. Keep whatever scrap of pride you have left—if you still have a shred of conscience.”
She drove the blade in again and again until his heart hung in tatters. She didn’t just cross the river that could never be recrossed; she leaped far beyond it.
“It was fun while it lasted.”
The line she tossed out as comfort was devastating.
“Honestly, oppa, you’re not the type who falls short wherever you go. What I mean is—find a girl on your level and live well.”
Praise? Or a curse dressed as comfort?
Her words became a sharp spear that buried itself dead-center in his heart. He stared at Hyejin’s cold face. Even with his packed schedule he had done his best for the company and for the woman he loved. Live like that, he had believed, and no one would ever betray you. That was what the older generation always said. All of it had been a lie. On the same day both his company and his woman had discarded him. Even the coworkers who had shared meals with him were no different. After he stormed out of Go Dongyeol’s office and left the audit room, every colleague’s gaze slid away. The same people who, minutes earlier, had said “Let’s grab lunch” or “Let’s grab a drink.” Their lightning-fast cutting of ties crushed him. A few hours later his girlfriend’s attitude was exactly the same.
He had… neither money nor backing.
“Sorry to say this, but one last piece of advice for your own good. Truth is, oppa, you were only the third guy I was stringing along.”
“……?”
“So consider yourself lucky. While you were busy showing how broke you were with all those part-time jobs, you neglected me the whole time we were together. That’s a fact!”
Hurt flared past disappointment into pure rage—then, strangely, his heart went ice-cold in an instant. They had been lovers for years. Every memory of that time flickered past like a lantern show and scattered like dust.
Riiiiing—
Her phone rang. As if she had been waiting, Hyejin checked the screen. Her eyes sparkled; pleasure lit her face. A soft smile bloomed at the corners of her mouth. She turned away and answered.
“Sunbaenim~”
It was the same honeyed voice he had believed, until only days ago, was reserved for him alone.
“You’re here already?”
The coquettish drop in her tone was identical.
“…….”
She called the other person “sunbae,” yet the emotion in Hyejin’s voice was anything but ordinary. Pain bloomed in his chest. His whole body prickled with it.
“I’ll come down.”
She rose before the sentence even finished. Click. Click. Without a single glance back she walked away.
He drained the glass of ice water in one breathless gulp. His throat burned.
Yes. That was the full account of everything that had happened to him on this so-called lucky day.
And then…
“Want a little tip for receiving good fortune?”
“……?”
“When you make a lot of money, don’t gobble it all yourself like a pig until your belly bursts. Always set one out of ten aside for others. That’s how you keep receiving blessings until the day you die.”
“…….”
A tip? Nothing special about it. Who would even call that a secret technique? The old woman whispered it quietly.
“Don’t lose heart… This old granny will give you strength.”
Is she… some kind of god?
He barely swallowed the snort of laughter that rose.
“Get a good night’s sleep and wake up. Something good will happen. A lucky…”
She kept piling on encouragement whether he wanted it or not. Even if it was empty talk, he felt grateful. He had never seen this relative before, yet some unplaceable familiarity warmed him. He had been stumbling home drunk when the old woman appeared square in the alley. She was definitely a stranger. Dream or reality—he couldn’t tell.
“Go on now… And I tucked a few good things in for you, so stay strong. No matter what happens, never forget that you are the Great Bear.”
“Th-thank you.”
A failed life—even if the whole thing turned out to be a dog’s dream, he didn’t care. A few good things? He still didn’t understand. The old woman who had appeared out of nowhere and treated him this way left him more bewildered than anything. Still, he bowed his head. The situation felt zero-percent real, pure dream, but he was the type who kept his manners.
“This old granny is so very sorry…”
Who are you that you keep apologizing? At least introduce yourselves properly…
“Life is short. Go have fun…”
She left only more unreadable words. Now he noticed her eyes were wet. What was that look? It was packed full of pity and regret. No matter how he looked at her, this was the first time they had met. Why…
Shff, shff.
While his broken thoughts tried to reconnect, the old woman in flower-patterned rubber shoes vanished down the alley. He wanted to grab her and confirm even one thing, but his mouth simply would not open.
And then—
“……!!”
She disappeared without even a shadow. She seemed to sink into the darkness and was gone completely.
“……Did I get possessed by a ghost?”
But it was no ghost. Every event of the day remained sharp and clear no matter how many times he replayed it.
“……A lucky day… my ass…”
“Aargh!!”
He jolted awake. Thud. Still half-blind he kicked the blanket tangled around his feet. The second he opened his eyes the entire shit-stained day before came flooding back—every last petty detail.
“Fine! Go! Go ahead! I may be broke but I’ve still got pride!”
He spat the rage at the ceiling. Gu Hyejin, who had shredded and stomped the last of his self-respect. She had been a junior in the business-management department. After he finished military service and returned to school they had been put in the same team for a general-education class—that was how they met.
From the first day Gu Hyejin had been popular. A genuine nuclear socialite. Small face, excellent proportions, looks that turned heads. Even standing still she pulled people in. A visual that far outstripped ordinary people; any man would feel attraction. Add a little playfulness and the guys around her lost their minds.
At first he hadn’t even been interested. She’s pretty. That was the full extent of it. Family circumstances left no room to dream about dating; he was too busy carving out every possible hour of part-time work. To someone like him, Gu Hyejin—pretty, bouncing with energy, the object of every man’s pursuit—was an outrageous luxury.
The twist came right there. Because he showed no interest, she became the one who paid attention. She pouted at his non-reaction and grew curious. Classic “bad-boy” attraction. She signaled interest several times. He noticed, but ignored the signals. In the end the fox won. He was a man, after all. When a fox set out to bewitch him he had no defense.
It was a long-overdue drinking night with underclassmen. She joined. She sat right beside him and kept calling “Sunbaenim, sunbaenim,” pressed close… He got drunk without resistance. He fell for those deliberately seductive, sticky eyes. A man who doesn’t fall for a fox isn’t a man.
Even now those days felt happy. And yesterday those happy times ended for good—an extravagant finale that would never come again.
“Thanks… Live well.”
He muttered the words he hadn’t been able to say yesterday. No petty curses. The greater fault was his for trusting and loving her. He had been happy with her. A girlfriend overflowing with looks and charm—a blessing of vigorous youth.
“Starting today I’m unemployed. How the hell am I supposed to make a living now…”
The future looked blank. He had quit coolly, yet tomorrow was pitch-black. Even opening his eyes felt frightening. He had never imagined he would face the same IMF crisis his parents once endured.
Fwaaat—!
“Huh??”
Brilliant sunlight pressed against his closed lids. That was strange. His basement studio apartment in a monthly-rent row house always kept the half-sunken window locked, and blackout curtains drawn twenty-four hours a day. He never wanted to become a spectacle for people walking the alley. Yet this was light no basement window could ever deliver. Warmth settled on his face—sunlight full of actual heat. He snapped his eyes open.
“……?”
Cheap lattice-pattern wallpaper on the ceiling filled his vision. Unfamiliar yet somehow familiar. Weirdly similar to the rooftop room he had shared through high-school self-study days…
“Huuuh!”