episode_0016

Han Seong-jin’s eyes were focused on Lee Yu-ri and Gong Young-bae, who were talking very passionately.

The moment she saw that, Sooyeon Choi’s heart sank.

Because of the distance, I had no idea what the two were talking about, but it was clear that they were having a conversation.

And very actively.

Choi Soo-yeon clenched her fists and trembled, threatening to bleed her palms.

‘When I sent a message like that, the response was very dry… What, are you talking so hard to Yuri Lee? This is really… too much…’

How hard did you try to win Gong Young-bae’s heart?

When she was with Gong Young-bae, she took off her mask as Choi Soo-yeon, a girl from the 1980s, and showed her true self.

In order to overcome the unbridgeable gap between them and their childhood friend of over 10 years, Lee Yu-ri tried hard to get over Gong Young-bae.

I worked out really hard because I was afraid of being compared to Jeong Eun-ji in terms of body size.

I looked into a lot of dating courses to find things that Gong Young-bae would like, and there was no information that I didn’t look for, including cafes, alleys, and restaurants with good atmosphere.

Nevertheless, after receiving Gong Young-bae’s reply, there was no way to know what he thought of himself.

Still, I thought that Gong Young-bae would look at me at least once when I was making such an effort to show off my presence, and in fact, we even went to a cafe together a few times.

However, he did not appear as active as Gong Young-bae, who is currently talking to Lee Yu-ri.

It just feels like we’re only continuing a minimal relationship.

Although I was heartbroken and saddened by that attitude, I tried to think that one day I would be able to push away Yu-ri Lee and Eun-ji Jeong and take Gong Young-bae’s side…

‘In the end, are you saying this is your heart?’

I haven’t seen Gong Young-bae hanging around with Lee Yu-ri for the past few weeks, so I thought I had an opportunity.

Did you feel burdened by sending messages too often?

Or maybe I just didn’t like Gong Young-bae?

From the beginning, did Gong Young-bae have no other women in mind besides Lee Yu-ri?

‘No matter how hard I struggled… in the end, only Yuri Lee was important…?’

Choi Su-yeon barely suppressed the urge to cry, biting her lip and looking away.

Then, he saw Han Seong-jin with a gloomy expression right next to him.

‘Ah… Now that I think about it…’

I had a strong feeling that Han Seong-jin liked Yu-ri Lee.

So, is Han Seong-jin feeling the same way as he is right now? As a loser?

“Let’s go somewhere else first.”

“…… Yes.”

Seeing Han Seong-jin speaking with a dark expression, Choi Soo-yeon felt sympathy for the same illness.

Together, the two headed to the uninhabited rooftop, locked the door, and sat down on the floor without saying anything first, leaning their backs against the wall.

Sooyeon Choi pretended nothing was wrong and offered words of comfort first.

“Seongjin senior, I’m sorry. I think Senior Yuri has more feelings for Senior Youngbae rather than Senior Senior Seongjin.”

“Sure. I decided to quit smoking and shake off my daily activities in order to somehow make myself look good. Was I making a useless effort?”

The words of Han Seong-jin, who sighed lightly, seemed to apply to Choi Su-yeon as well.

He hugged Sooyeon Choi by pulling her knees to his chest and answered by burying his face in his knees.

“It’s useless… no. I only know what my senior was like before through hearsay… but I still think he is much better now than what I heard in the rumors.”

“Haha, thank you for the comfort.”

“It is also the junior’s responsibility to comfort a heartbroken senior.”

“I heard that you are one of the 2nd graders in our department, and you are much kinder than I expected. Gong Youngbae That idiot should have known this about you.”

“That’s what I said! How hard have I tried to become a woman who is not lacking in my own way… huh?”

Choi Su-yeon, who was excitedly talking about understanding her situation, stopped talking when she felt something strange.

“Seongjin senior…? What does that mean? Why does the story about senior Youngbae come up here?”

“Why did you come out? You like Gong Young-bae.”

“!!!!!”

“Look at the facial expression. Whenever I’m bored at my part-time job, he pretends not to be and subtly brings up the topic of Gong Young-bae and asks me various questions. Did you think I’m not stupid and wouldn’t know that?”

Soo-yeon Choi was so embarrassed that she suddenly woke up, her pupils felt an earthquake, and even her voice began to tremble.

“Oh, no, how do you do that… No, that’s not it! I really didn’t show it…”

“It seemed like he was making an effort, but I was getting lazy. Even if you fool everyone else, you can’t fool me.”

“That… uh… ah…”

Choi Su-yeon, who was looking for an excuse with her mouth open, soon gave up and sat down on the pavement, leaning her back against the rooftop door.

“Ha… I’ve never heard of a senior being quick-witted… That’s right. I had this senior, Youngbae, in mind. But when I saw Senior Youngbae and Senior Yuri at the restaurant earlier… I guess all the efforts I’ve made so far didn’t require much attention from Senior Youngbae.”

“I have to give you back exactly what you said to me. I don’t know exactly what kind of person you are, but Ji-ah… uh… I’m sorry for swearing at your friend. You looked much better than Jeong Ji-ah.”

“It’s rude to say something like that to a broken woman.”

“Is it okay to do this to a broken man?”

The two made eye contact for a moment.

There was an indescribable atmosphere, and then Han Seong-jin burst into laughter first.

“Puhaha!”

“Why are you smiling?”

“We look ridiculous. The woman who liked each other and the man who liked each other were only seeing each other on their own, but we, who didn’t even know that, were on the rooftop, comforting each other’s wounds.”

“Of course. We looked funny, and Seongjin was really unexpected.”

“Why me.”

“Just… you said you heard a lot of rumors. I heard that Seongjin senior doesn’t care if he has a girlfriend or not, as long as he likes a girl, but now that I see him, he seems surprisingly pure.”

“Well, if it was in the past, the rumor isn’t completely wrong.”

“Wow… trash…”

Choi Soo-yeon, whose psychological distance from Han Seong-jin had already become quite close, criticized Han Seong-jin to her heart’s content.

She didn’t know that just a month ago, it would have been unthinkable for someone to say such a word to Han Seongjin.

“I told you. I don’t want to live like that anymore. So, isn’t that why I came up to the rooftop and was shaking with you?”

“Why am I in such a difficult situation.”

Choi Su-yeon and Han Seong-jin looked up at the jealously blue sky and grumbled.

Another moment of silence.

And this time, Han Seong-jin was the first to break the silence.

“Hey, Suyeon Choi.”

“Yes?”

“All the rehearsals for the date course you decided to look for ended up being useless.”

“Oh, I guess so. Too bad, senior.”

“So this is what happened…”

Han Seong-jin began to look directly into Choi Su-yeon’s eyes, and Choi Su-yeon also looked into his black eyes.

“Would you like to skip afternoon class as a way to vent your frustrations?”

#####

5th period after lunch.

The teacher in charge of the class, who was in class 3 of the 3rd grade, found two empty seats and tilted his head.

“What are those two empty seats? Is there anyone?”

“The front row here is Yuri Lee’s seat. I left early during lunch because I wasn’t feeling well. ”

“The window seat in the back is Seongjin Han… I don’t know where he is.”

“What? No, then it’s just Ding Dang? Holy crap… Okay. Let’s start class.”

#####

Surprisingly, Suyeon Choi quickly accepted my offer.

I became emotional because I saw with my own eyes that the man I liked was only interested in another woman.

Choi Soo-yeon and I, who had skipped afternoon classes, instead of the originally planned, famous date spot that requires a short subway ride, headed to Jinsu Station, a subway station near Jinsugyo Bridge.

Around Jinsu Station, there were many places to play, such as PC rooms, escape room cafes, PlayStation rooms, and DVD rooms. There were also arcades that are hard to find these days, and the streets were lined with street vendors selling all kinds of food, dessert cafes, and snack bars.

Me, nominally suffering from the pain of a broken heart… Choi Su-yeon, suffering from the real pain of a broken heart, walked together along the streets of Jinsu Station and shopped around in various stores.

“Wow! Senpai, are you really doing this to such a weak and helpless girl and not caring about her?!”

“He said he was confident in air hockey and told him to try his best…?”

Play air hockey in the arcade,

“Wow, the fish are really pretty. Why is this my first time coming to a place like this?”

Walk through the underground shopping mall selling ornamental fish,

“It’s just been our lunch hour, is that going on again?”

“What do you not know! A woman has a separate stomach for food and a separate stomach for dessert!”

Have snacks at a dessert shop.

We wandered around Jinsu Station doing things that exactly fit the meaning of the word ‘dang-daeng’.

There is no set course, no destination or where to go.

I just go where my feet take me and stop by wherever I see them.

Like typical delinquent students, we wasted all afternoon and it wasn’t until it was time for our academy classes to end that we sat down on a bench on a nearby walking path and leaned back.

“In the end, there was no such thing as a planned date course rehearsal that I mentioned at the beginning. It wasn’t a famous place, it was just a subway station near the academy.”

“Still, it was nice to go out with you like this.”

Suyeon Choi’s body, which had been stretching at my words, momentarily stopped.

Then he smiled and nudged me with his elbow.

“What is it? What is it? Just because you were broken-hearted, are you now picking on a woman who was also broken-hearted? Isn’t the recovery too fast?”

“Did it sound like that? I just wanted to do something, but I wondered if you might feel the same way as me.”

“Hmm~ Senior, do you ever use mind reading?”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have gone through something like today, right? I want it, mind reading.”

“Phew, that’s right.”

“Anyway, thank you for going along with my urge to hang out together.”

Choi Soo-yeon’s gaze and mine crossed in the air once again.

Choi Soo-yeon looked away while trimming her unique side ponytail.

“What is it? It tickles. And ‘he got along with me’… Well, that’s not really the case.”

“Oh, really? Is this something you did voluntarily? So are we that much closer now?”

Suyeon Choi looked at me again and laughed at my joke.

“Senior, it’s strange as expected.”