From 9 AM to 2 PM, attend major and general education lectures. Have a late 30-minute lunch.

From 3 PM to 6 PM, work on school assignments and study for exams. From 7 PM to 10 PM, give private lessons.

Arriving home, have a simple dinner and go to bed.

Out of the 7 days a week, 5 days generally follow this kind of schedule.

Unless you’re a failure at course registration, what fool would take a 9 AM major class, but for Na Eun, morning classes that maximize her time usage were precious.

Because for her, whose goal was to graduate next fall, both time and credits were valuable.

She, who had to unwillingly take a short leave of absence 3 years ago after a major event, wanted to graduate quickly more than anything.

That way she could get a job faster.

Na Eun, who had to move from a high-class detached house in the center of Seoul to a small apartment on the outskirts of the city just months after her father passed away, had run with all her might for the past 3 years, quickly adapting to reality.

Perhaps thanks to the financial education her parents had insisted on since she was young, saving money and earning a living on her own was tough but not unfamiliar.

Soo Hyun, her mother, would sometimes show a regretful expression, saying if she had known it would be like this, she would have indulged her more when she was younger, but Na Eun would always shake her head vigorously in denial.

Not a single thing her parents taught her was wrong.

After losing almost all of the company’s management rights and stocks, and liquidating the small amount of remaining assets, her mother started a small publishing company to take responsibility for the family’s livelihood in place of her late father.

Saying she had worked in that industry before marriage, Soo Hyun comforted her daughter, telling her to endure and wait a bit, and although it wouldn’t be like before, it wouldn’t be as difficult as it was now.

At those times, Na Eun wanted to tell her mom that she didn’t want to be more of a burden, but she tried hard to hold it in.

The mother and daughter who loved each other knew well what words would hurt each other.

Now, the family of only two came to cherish each other more preciously.

Perhaps because she had the experience of studying fiercely during her high school days, earning scholarships at university wasn’t very difficult.

Tuition through scholarships, living expenses through part-time jobs. And if there was any left over, into a savings account.

Because the ultimate goal of this busy life was to quickly contribute to the family’s livelihood through early employment, Na Eun focused terrifyingly on her own tasks without looking around.

Thanks to that, she couldn’t make many university friends, but she still built a network of acquaintances to the point of exchanging greetings in passing.

It was thanks to that she was set up on a blind date even in the midst of her busy schedule.

As she replied ‘okay’ to the message from her department classmate and trudged along, her stomach let out a small growl.

I’m hungry. Should I make something to eat when I get home?

Arriving at her destination, she opened the old studio’s iron door and stepped inside.

Dormitories were inconvenient for combining private lessons late into the night, and the house she lived in with her mom was quite far from the university, so in her second year, she found the cheapest room possible and signed the contract.

It was a place vulnerable to safety, without even a common door lock and instead using a latch to open and close the outer door, but she had insisted it would be fine since the inside had a solid locking mechanism, barely persuading her mom to secure this shelter.

But today, there was a guest who had arrived first.

“I thought it wasn’t our house for a moment.”

From the moment she saw the lights on in the house, she had guessed, but upon discovering Sun Jin sitting in the middle of the studio in the most comfortable position, munching on snacks, she let out a laugh.

Na Eun took off her shoes, familiarly placed her bag in the corner, and plopped down next to Sun Jin.

Sun Jin, wearing comfortable training clothes and a face without a hint of makeup as if it were her own home, placed a white plastic bag on the table.

“I said I was buying chicken. Didn’t you read it?”

“Ah. I just saw it now.”

Na Eun picked up her phone and only then checked the message that had come to her.

She changed into comfortable clothes, roughly tied up her short hair, and ripped open the plastic bag Sun Jin had bought.

“You didn’t have dinner, right?”

“Yeah. What about Seung Joo?”

“She finished work so she’ll be here soon.”

Although they would never know exactly what that work entailed, the three of them could now ask and answer each other about their affairs without hesitation to the point of having that kind of relationship.

After Na Eun started living alone, the two of them who suddenly visited as if it were their own house had now become sufficiently familiar.

After her father passed away and they moved, it was only after flailing about (Na Eun described themselves like that at the time) and having a fit of crying for several months that this stable bond was formed.

As soon as the wooden chopsticks, plastic gloves, and cups to pour the cola in were prepared, the flimsy outer door swung open with a bang and the sound of keys jangling could be heard.

“Amazing. How do you arrive right on time to eat?”

“No matter how I think about it, the door here is too flimsy. In this day and age, opening the door with a key.”

Seung Joo, who entered bringing the cold air from outside as she took off her outer clothing, grumbled like that towards Na Eun who was laughing, saying she had the luck to eat.

The words she heard when she got a place to live alone and gave each of them two spare keys had continued for over a year. Na Eun pretended not to hear and handed wooden chopsticks to Seung Joo, but Sun Jin, who was next to her, added.

“But you really need to be careful, don’t you? Can’t you just tell the landlord and have them install a door lock?”

“And where would that money come from? And don’t worry about my safety. I have a really strong bodyguard, you know.”

Na Eun joked, putting on plastic gloves and picking up a piece of fried chicken.

At her words, Seung Joo and Sun Jin closed their mouths.

It’s because I, as the team leader, failed to do my part that you got caught up in this incident.

So no matter how long it takes in the future, I will take responsibility for your personal safety.

Thinking about it again, it doesn’t seem like something that psychopath team leader would say, but that promise he made directly to Na Eun has been kept without issue until now.

Seo Hee Won protecting a civilian? Might as well say a dog walks on two legs.

When she first heard it, that’s all she could think, but Na Eun instead nonchalantly accepted the favor, as if asking, “Is that a witness protection program or something?”

She even said she felt more at ease with that than being protected by her friends.

Anyway, the two of them, whose obsession with Na Eun’s safety had worsened after that incident, naturally didn’t object.

Although Seo Hee Won was a nutcase, a thug, and a promiscuous person, at least he wasn’t someone who would harm a civilian who had suffered this much from getting involved in their affairs.

And as expected, Seo Hee Won kept his word like an iron wall and guaranteed Na Eun’s safety behind the scenes.

Now that it’s been exactly 3 years since then, honestly, other thoughts are starting to come to mind.

“You eat the chicken leg.”

“Wow. Is this how you confess your love?”

“Shut up, I’ll just eat it.”

“Ah, get lost.”

She thought they would become a bit more mature at twenty-three, but in reality, their conversations aren’t much different from when they first met at seventeen.

The only thing that’s changed is that now they can legally open a few cans of beer and drink it without it being a rebellion.

As they bickered and shared the chicken, Sun Jin glanced at Na Eun’s phone that kept ringing behind her, gesturing with her chin.

“Na Eun, you keep getting something.”

“Ah. One sec.”

Since one hand is already wearing a plastic glove covered in grease, she can only reply with one hand.

Placing her phone on the table where they were eating chicken, she tapped the screen with her other hand’s fingers, and the two friends who unintentionally saw the contents widened their eyes in surprise.

Sun Jin asked in astonishment.

“You’re getting set up with someone?”

“Yeah. A kid from the same department talked about it, so I said I’d give it a try.”

Finishing her contact by thanking the person who relayed the basic information about the male counterpart, Na Eun answered nonchalantly and put her phone back in its place.

In the meantime, Seung Joo and Sun Jin exchanged glances.

They both had flustered expressions, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say. Na Eun smiled slightly.

“I want to try meeting someone now, too.”

“…Is it okay?”

“Well, to be honest, it’s not completely okay.”

At Sun Jin’s cautious question, Na Eun’s gaze drifted into the air as she became lost in thought.

She doesn’t want to lie and say everything is fine now.

The scars still remain, and she now has a hard time with tall people looking down at her.

The eyes that rolled her on the ground that day and trampled her like a bug were all above her.

Even now, when she closes her eyes, the feeling of being sprawled out on the high floor of that abandoned building vividly comes back to her, sometimes giving her goosebumps.

She can no longer eat her favorite pasta. Strangely, if she eats it, she ends up vomiting.

After forcing herself to eat it before to prove to herself that she was okay and suffering greatly, she hasn’t challenged it since.

Na Eun habitually wiggled her left pinky finger, which now doesn’t move well according to her will.

The dull feeling, as if it were someone else’s hand or as if it were anesthetized, always reminded her that what happened 3 years ago was not a dream.

Picking up a piece of chicken, she continued in a monotonous tone.

“I can’t live in fear forever. I don’t want to live alone for the rest of my life either.”

“……”

“It’s my own challenge. They say love is forgotten with love, right?”

She laughed, quoting a common saying she had heard.

Of course, the first love she had wasn’t love. To be exact, it was only love on her part.

The end of it was such a terrible nightmare that she was even embarrassed to call it her first relationship, a sweet term.

Seung Joo and Sun Jin’s expressions darkened in an instant, and the atmosphere sank.

They knew they were the reason their friend’s first love had turned into such a nightmare.

But Na Eun, reading her friends’ thoughts, lightly hit Seung Joo’s shoulder with her own as she sat next to her.

“Don’t think strange thoughts again. Don’t talk about this anymore, okay?”

“……”

“Let’s talk comfortably now. It’s not your fault, and it’s not my fault either. It’s all because of those bad guys. That’s right, and we agreed to think that way.”

It was a problem they had already concluded 3 years ago, hugging each other and crying one day.

Not wanting to have an awkward atmosphere with these kids again because of this, Na Eun deliberately spoke more casually.

“I’m not okay yet, but I really want to be okay now. I’m trying to do that, so support me.”

“……”

“Okay?”

“Alright.”

“…I’ll support you, then.”

When she begged like a child, her friends, although with slightly dark expressions, readily supported her challenge.

Although it was like bowing down in defeat, she laughed with a good feeling, and Seung Joo asked her.

“But does Seo Hee Won know about that?”

Na Eun tilted her head at the sudden, out-of-the-blue question.

“Does he need to know?”

Towards Na Eun, who was purely curious as to why she mentioned a completely unrelated third party, Seung Joo and Sun Jin briefly exchanged glances, unable to say anything more.