Yu Suhyeon (1)
I never imagined I'd run into Yu Suhyeon here. And of all the ways we could have crossed paths again, it had to be like this.
"You're Nurse Yu Suhyeon, right?"
"Yes, that's me. But how do you know my name?"
"I asked the other nurse who came in later that day."
"..."
Was she about to turn that back on me — ask why I'd even bothered to find out her name?
"I'm sorry about back then. You were a patient, and I said something completely out of line..."
So she at least had a basic sense of decency.
I glanced at her. Her hair was down, and she was in regular clothes instead of her uniform, which was why I hadn't recognized her right away. Looking at her again, she really was a rare beauty. Unlike that day, when she'd been wound tight with hysteria, her eyes had a human warmth to them now. It only made her more attractive.
It wouldn't be easy. But if I could take what had just happened and turn it into a reason to see her again...
"Well... I guess that other nurse must have put in a good word for me."
"She did. I really shouldn't have..."
"Don't worry about it. If I'd wanted to make an issue of it, I would have done it a long time ago."
"That's not what I meant..."
I'd been pissed off at the time, but I had no intention of dredging it up now. Suhyeon, though, was still hung up on that day. And if that was the case, there was no reason not to use it. Whether now or later, I had no plans to take it up with the hospital. But I needed to act like the personal grudge hadn't quite faded.
"Then what did you mean?"
"..."
I kept my tone as indifferent as I could.
I couldn't know what she really thought of me. For all I knew, she still saw me as some problem patient from a while back.
But if she had any sense of human decency, she wouldn't brush off someone who'd just helped her — someone she'd once wronged — quite so easily.
And if she does, I just won't see her again. No loss.
The silence stretched between us. If I left it alone, she'd just keep standing there, hesitating. Well. I was the guy here. Someone had to do something.
"I didn't realize you were a high school student."
"Huh?"
Right. I'd forgotten I was wearing my school uniform. I hoped I didn't look like some scruffy kid.
"Ah — I haven't graduated yet, but I'm twenty. I repeated a year because of baseball."
"Baseball?"
"Yeah. I haven't graduated, but I got drafted. I'll be playing pro ball starting next year."
"Ah..."
Bringing up that I was a high schooler out of nowhere had thrown her a little, but it actually worked in my favor. At the very least, it proved I wasn't some random thug off the street like that tattooed pig who'd just walked off.
"You came with someone, didn't you? Are you sure you should be standing out here? It's cold."
"My friend just went to pick up some medicine. It felt weird sitting in there alone..."
"Is she coming back soon?"
"Sorry? I think so, but... why?"
"Well, after what just happened — and this place is pretty out of the way, isn't it? I mean..."
I made my intention clear enough, while still circling around it a little.
"I'm fine. I come here all the time. That's the first time anything like that has ever happened."
Her tone had softened, just a little.
A guy she'd just met camping out to "protect" a woman sitting alone was pretty close to looking like an idiot. But what we'd already been through together gave it some legitimacy.
"That's a relief, then."
I bowed my head in a polite goodbye.
"Thank you so much for today."
She returned the gesture, matching me. Anyone watching would have said there was nothing more between us.
Hmm. So the drama-style let me thank you properly, we should meet again wasn't happening. I'd been hoping, just a little. Oh well.
"Can I get your number?"
"What?!"
She reacted like she hadn't seen that coming at all. Honestly, I was having a hard time keeping my own expression in check.
It was always a long shot, but given everything I'd seen of Yu Suhyeon so far, getting her number was going to be especially tough. Then again, I couldn't think of anything else to try. If this was where things ended with her? Fine. No harm done.
I pulled out my phone as casually as I could. The last thing I needed was to look like a man who'd just steeled himself for some grand confession.
"I... um..."
"Ah, a phone number's a bit much, huh? It's just that I don't really do social media..."
People these days mostly did the Instagram follow-back thing, but I'd never even made an account.
"..."
She typed her number into my phone. Honestly, I was pretty surprised myself.
"I'll text you soon. Oh — my name's Lee Junseong."
No way she remembered my name. I said my last goodbye and turned around.
"Why are you standing outside?"
"Me? It just felt stuffy in there."
"Hmmm..."
Suhyeon's friend had come back, and she was looking at her with a knowing glint in her eye.
"That's our Suhyeon. Getting hit on by high schoolers now, huh?"
"What? It's not like that."
"Sure it isn't... Ooh, even from behind he looks pretty handsome."
"I don't know. If you're back, let's just go inside."
Kim Hyojin, Suhyeon's friend, had the kind of looks that turned heads wherever she went. Of course, the real reason the two of them were so close was Hyojin's easy, outgoing personality.
Hyojin hadn't been gone that long. They settled into a nice restaurant and could have fallen into easy conversation, but Suhyeon just kept fidgeting with her phone.
Lee Junseong... he comes right up when you search him.
Two-way prospect inks deal with the defending champions. Height: 6'2". Drafted out of high school.
On her screen was a photo of Lee Junseong from the day he'd signed with the Seoul Dragons.
Six-two? I thought he was taller than that.
"Why are you glued to your phone?"
Hyojin had been touching up her makeup and glanced over.
"Just catching up on messages."
"Popular as ever."
Suhyeon normally considered it rude to sit on her phone in front of a friend. It had been a long time since she'd been this distracted by something other than the person sitting across from her.
God... I just let him lead me around the whole time, didn't I? And he's twenty. He's so much younger than me.
At twenty-six, Suhyeon found it pathetic that she'd spent the entire encounter being steered around by a twenty-year-old guy, even if it had only been for a few minutes.
He's polite, and just looking at him, he's pretty handsome. But...
No woman wanted to look easy, but Suhyeon had a deeper aversion to casual flings in general. And even though she was still young, she'd started thinking it was about time she found a man she could actually plan a future with.
"What have you been doing this whole time?"
"Huh?"
"You're just sitting there zoning out. You okay? If you're tired, we can head out."
Hyojin snapped her out of it.
"No, I'm fine. Hey, Hyojin — didn't Hyeona say she dated a baseball player?"
"She did, yeah. Why the sudden interest? You don't even like baseball."
"No reason. My family are big fans, and they were talking about it before I left, so it just came to mind."
Her family had been cheering for the same team for decades — the Seoul Dragons. But Suhyeon was such a baseball outsider that even after seeing Junseong's article and photo, she hadn't made the connection to her family's team.
"Well... they didn't really date, they just saw each other for a bit. The guy Hyeona met was a total piece of trash."
"Oh my god, really?"
"Yeah. Guys who play sports professionally spend their whole lives up until they turn adult living in all-male dorms, so a lot of them treat women like they're nothing."
"But you dated that basketball player for a long time."
"Seunghyeon's different. He was polite from the start, thoughtful, just a genuinely good person. You can tell from the very first meeting, you know?"
"Is that right?"
He was polite too. And he seemed... kind of mature, actually.
"But I think if two people like each other, that's all that matters. And once you get old, it's not like you'll get another chance to casually date an athlete."
"Come on, I couldn't do that."
Suhyeon waved her off, laughing.
"Overthinking every little thing doesn't magically make a good guy show up. And while we're on the subject — Suhyeon, you've never even dated a guy who plays sports, have you?"
"I haven't, but why?"
"Once you try it, you can never forget it. Their physiques are on a completely different level to begin with, and then in bed, they just... hoo..."
"Hey! What are you even—"
Hyojin had suddenly veered into something filthy, and Suhyeon's face went red.
"Don't play innocent. You think you'd be any different? Once a woman gets a taste of that, she never forgets it. A man who's so much bigger and harder than you, pinning you down, that feeling of your whole body being completely overwhelmed..."
"Okay, okay, stop..."
Suhyeon scrambled to shut the topic down.
Junseong had no idea that, without meaning to, this woman was doing him an enormous favor.
Never forget it? Hmm...
Suddenly she was thinking about that day at the hospital. The incident her easygoing coworker had covered for. She'd been terrified the whole time that something she'd done in a fit of anger was going to blow up.
It had fizzled out in the end, and today she'd run into him by chance and gotten a clear answer that he wasn't going to make an issue of it... but she still couldn't quite believe it had just been a natural physical reaction.
They were practically strangers meeting for the first time today, and yet Junseong's build, his large hands, and that day at the hospital all came flooding back at once. She was embarrassed.
"Wow. Your face is red just from that?"
"Huh?"
"I didn't know my friend was such a little girl."
"...Whatever."
Suhyeon looked away.
There was no way in hell she was going to admit she'd blushed thinking about the body of a twenty-year-old who was six years younger than her.
"Oh? He texted."
After finishing dinner with her close friend, Suhyeon took a taxi home. She showered, went into her room, and found a message from Lee Junseong waiting.
"He must actually be interested, right? He's definitely going to ask to meet again soon. Hmm..."
A woman who pursued serious relationships and generally hated men's advances had decided, just this once, to try something different.
"Still. Next time, I can't let him lead me around like today."
Regardless of where this went, she'd already made up her mind. The next time they met, she was going to show this younger guy what an older woman was. What a working adult was.
Her reply came sooner than I expected. We set a date just as fast. That was a surprise.
Her texts had a slightly snippier edge than when we'd talked face to face... but nothing I couldn't work with.
I had about a month. After that, I'd be leaving the country for two months for spring training camp.
A two-month gap with a woman like Yu Suhyeon was dangerous. I knew perfectly well how much attention a young, beautiful woman attracted.
I still didn't know much about her, but the odds of Suhyeon agreeing to a purely physical arrangement were basically zero. Getting her into bed even once without a hitch was going to be hard enough. But... I had to find a way.