Final EP. Year

Her breath tickled my ear. The heat in that exhalation was definitely hotter than the soju in her glass.

I raised my hand and rubbed my ear, feeling the dampness. Perhaps it seemed like I had heard something I shouldn’t have, because her face wasn’t very bright.

“You startled me.”

At my curt voice, the cracks in her face smoothed back to normal.

“So, what’s your answer?”

“To what? Oh, the earring?”

I looked again at her twitching palm.

Reflected in the moonlight, it shimmered, showing off its beauty.

Her palm rose to just below her nose.

As if forcing food on someone, she moved her palm up and down, urging me to act.

“But, isn’t this too sudden?”

“What do you mean by sudden?”

“I mean, isn’t it strange to ask someone you’ve just met to do something like this?”

“It’s not like we’re meeting for the first time.”

She was referring to our previous encounter.

I frowned as if I’d been asked something obvious in the course of business.

“That’s not the point. I’m asking why you’re acting so familiar with someone you barely know.”

“Because I want to get closer.”

The attack came without warning.

Speechless, I poured soju into my glass.

The harshness of the soju going down my throat didn’t dispel my embarrassment.

“You’re very direct.”

“I’m tired of hiding things and speaking subtly.”

She gave a bitter smile, as if there was a story behind it.

Then she moved her hand again.

“So, will you put it on for me?”

The earring shimmered.

“…It doesn’t seem like I have a choice to refuse.”

In fact, I didn’t even feel like refusing.

I carefully picked it up from her palm.

“You’re quick on the uptake.”

She smiled.

We looked at each other.

Closer than ever before.

Reddish lips and sparkling ruby eyes.

Hair as black as the night and sharply gleaming eyes.

All of it combined to make this woman, the woman in front of me, attractive.

Yes, the kind of allure that would make you turn around without thinking if you met her on a path you couldn’t refuse.

She grinned, showing her teeth.

It was a very refreshing smile.

“Why? Am I so beautiful that you’ve lost your words?”

I didn’t bother to say that her smile reflected in the moonlight was so beautiful that I was momentarily lost in thought.

My flushed face and ears were probably answering for me.

“It’s not good to brag too much.”

I grumbled and picked up the earring.

Carefully, as if handling a precious object, I brought the end of it to her ear.

Our faces got even closer.

Guided by the faint light, I was able to hook the earring on.

There were a few slips along the way, but she didn’t show it.

“……..”

The moment I was drawn to her as if possessed suddenly turned into shyness and overwhelmed me.

I subtly distanced myself, and she, satisfied, returned to her original position.

She rested her arm on the table and propped up her chin.

Then she turned her head slightly, and the earring swung back and forth.

“By the way.”

“Hmm?”

“Were you serious about what you said earlier?”

“What are you referring to?”

She downed her drink without a toast.

“About wanting to get closer.”

She was a little tipsy. I went straight for it without backing down.

“Of course.”

“Doesn’t it seem strange?”

I repeated what she had said earlier.

“What does?”

“We’ve only met a few times. But, why?”

She tilted her head as if she really didn’t understand and crossed her legs.

Her elastic thighs stood out beneath her dress.

“I guess so.”

I couldn’t say no, so I vaguely agreed.

“Then is there another reason you’re reluctant? Ah, is it because this kind of meeting feels unnatural?”

“That’s right.”

“But you need to meet to form a connection. So you don’t like this kind of meeting. Then what kind of meeting do you think is not strange?”

“Um… working together at the same company, or something.”

“But isn’t that just a series of chance encounters? It seems like the only difference is the location.”

It was a situation where I had to say something.

But I was just gaping like a goldfish.

I couldn’t think of anything to refute her words.

The claims that ‘this kind of meeting is unnatural’ and ‘meeting strangers is strange’ were, in fact, flimsy even in my own mind.

Moreover, the inexplicable familiarity and friendliness I felt from her were also undermining my own arguments.

“That’s how meetings are.”

She said with the ease of a martial arts master who had attained enlightenment.

Leaning back as far as she could on the backrest, she even showed off her skills by spinning around on one leg of the chair.

“You meet people by chance at unexpected times, and you get to know their faces.

As you see their faces, an impression of that person remains, and you start talking to them.

The more you talk, the more the initial impression is painted over, like adding ink to a drawing, and it becomes new.

Experiencing new events together, looking at certain scenery together,

Showing each other your flaws and empathizing, comforting each other.

Sometimes leisurely tilting a glass of wine. Getting to know each other deeply, and keeping each other in your heart.”

The spinning chair stopped.

She leaned forward, putting all four legs of the chair back on the ground.

“When someone is kept in your heart, they become a treasure that you wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Like starlight, like moonlight.”

Not like the illusion of falling in love at first sight, but falling for the years spent together.

She mumbled inaudibly.

The soju bottle tilted. The last of the alcohol flowed out of it, which had been tilted to its limit, to fill the glass.

She lifted the glass as if snatching it.

Like before, she overlapped the glass with the moonlight.

“All of this is coincidence.”

She drank with a “Kheu-” sound.

“When coincidence continues, it becomes necessity.”

“When necessity is connected, it becomes destiny.”

“A destiny that has been connected across worlds and times.”

She slammed the glass down on the table, and the objects on the table momentarily floated into the air with a thud.

I call it ‘Yeon (Fate)’. “

She turned her body, saying something cryptic.

She slowly faded away as if sinking into the darkness.

“I don’t really understand.”

I said to her back.

Was she unhappy with my answer?

She stopped walking, turned around, and raised her hand.

“What are you doing?”

When I asked, seeing the shape of her hand, she smiled.

“What else? I’m expressing a mountain.”

“No, that’s a fu….”

“Let’s meet again next time. So that coincidence becomes Yeon.”

Before I could even come to my senses from the sudden curse, she disappeared into the darkness.