The writing on the business card-sized paper was chillingly indeed Eun Soo’s handwriting.

Her teeth chattered from the shock of witnessing the childishly brilliant trace from her lovesick moth days.

Not knowing how long ago it was from that she still had it, Eun Soo tore the wish coupon to shreds right before her eyes.

Watching the paper pieces flutter like dust without blinking an eye, Joo Han pulled out another identical paper.

“That’s a copy. The original is here.”

“You crazy bastard, really…!”

Eun Soo tried to snatch it, but Joo Han was faster. He quickly showed the damned wish coupon in front of Eun Soo’s eyes and then put it in his pants pocket.

If it had been in his shirt pocket, she might have tried to lunge for it, but Eun Soo, unable to reach for his pants pocket, fumed.

“Are you insane? What are you trying to do!”

“Seeing your panic, it seems you remember what it is.”

“…”

She didn’t want to remember, but she did. It was something she gave on their 100th day of dating.

Honestly, she wasn’t the type to care about anniversaries, and since they had been friends for years before becoming lovers, she wasn’t well-adjusted to the situation and tried to just let it pass, but Joo Han was so disappointed that she hastily drew and handed it over.

So when was that? That was when she was twenty-two…!

“Do you want to bring out something like that at twenty-seven?”

“There was no expiration date. It’s worth not throwing it away.”

“Are you joking? Are you crazy?”

“I’m not joking. I’m not crazy.”

Joo Han’s eyes were as serious as his words. The slightly upturned corners of his mouth were annoying.

“I’ll use it now. This.”

Staring at Joo Han with eyes that had lost words, Eun Soo took a deep breath. Her head, which had been burning hot with bewilderment and embarrassment, finally cooled down.

“Hey, Kim Joo Han.”

Joo Han flinched at her chilled expression.

“Talking nonsense, fighting, anyone would think you and I are good friends?”

“…”

Joo Han’s instincts sent a bright red warning. The things he had learned and engraved about Eun Soo over their long acquaintance had not been erased even with time passing.

When Eun Soo had that look in her eyes…

“Get out.”

First, he had to run away to survive.

“Are you not leaving?”

“I’m leaving.”

Joo Han obediently got up from his seat. Then, quickly heading towards the door, he said,

“I’ll call you.”

What call, if you do I’ll kill you.

Eun Soo seemed to have said something like that, but Joo Han pretended not to hear and quickly closed the door. Then he left the building and got into his car.

“Phew…”

Though he tried not to show it, his neck and shoulders were stiff from being tense the whole time facing Eun Soo. Joo Han slowly massaged the nape of his neck with one hand and fell into thought.

When he encountered Eun Soo at the funeral home, he thought he was seeing things.

Since his father had passed away in a sudden traffic accident, he had flown in from America as soon as he heard the news, without time to adjust to the time difference, in the middle of holding a three-day funeral, so it wouldn’t have been strange to see things even with his eyes open.

Given the place, they couldn’t have a long conversation. After exchanging a few obvious words like wishing for the deceased’s peace and thanking her, Eun Soo left. That’s why it felt even more unreal.

He thought he would never see her again.

Even if they did happen to meet, he thought it would be after a very long time had passed. He had never even imagined meeting like this in such a place after just a year.

But a few days after the funeral, Eun Soo called. It was around 2 AM, that implicitly forbidden time for ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends.

‘Hey. Kim Joo Han, how… how could you do that?’

He wondered what she was talking about at first, but with her drunken, slurred pronunciation, Eun Soo said something even more surprising.

‘That CEO Kim Kyung Hoon was your father, how… how could you never mention that once, and let me find out at the funeral…’

Dumbfounded, when he asked if she knew his father, Eun Soo said,

‘Of course I know him. I personally interviewed him for a feature article before, for .’

He didn’t know how to respond right away. Eun Soo’s words didn’t sink in immediately.

To Joo Han, his father was someone he hadn’t seen since he was 13. Through occasional news he heard, he knew he had opened a fairly large vintage furniture shop somewhere in Seochon, but he tried not to consciously pay attention.

So he never thought to tell Eun Soo either.

Whether Joo Han answered or not, Eun Soo continued her drunken rambling.

‘Fine. Now I’ve quit everything – interviews, the magazine, everything. I’m unemployed, you know. I became unemployed because of you, you know?’

While he was wondering if he could ask why it was because of him, Eun Soo continued on her own.

‘That damn Team Leader Gye… telling me to hurry up and go interview. To go and dig around. It hasn’t even been a week since the funeral, is she human? No, that’s not human. I said it didn’t seem right… but she told me to do it if I’m told, why do I always refuse, who does she think she is, so annoying…’

It was pure rambling, but Joo Han understood the gist of it.

These were news he had already heard. That people in the industry and collectors were all curious. What would happen to that suddenly lost its CEO, what would happen to the collections there.

It seemed like Eun Soo’s personality would have made her refuse to pry into anything with the bereaved in this situation, no matter whose situation it was. But he thought she might have refused even more adamantly because it was her ex-boyfriend’s situation.

Coming to the funeral must have been a difficult decision made out of moral obligation, so she wouldn’t have wanted to meet again for an interview.

‘Hey! What are you going to do? How are you going to take responsibility! I need to get paid to make deposits and pay off loans, damn…! No, wait. Who are you to take responsibility for me? What are you?’

Eun Soo, who had been shouting loudly, suddenly added in a calm tone as if she were a different person,

‘Don’t misunderstand. I was taught to attend funerals even if not weddings, and especially for parents, I felt I had to go, that’s all.’

‘I know. Thank you.’

He was barely able to give that answer. After hearing Joo Han’s words, Eun Soo was quiet for a long time and then said,

‘If you and I were friends, if we had stayed friends… I could have comforted you more.’

Joo Han couldn’t say anything.

No words came from the other end of the phone either. Very faintly, something that might have been breathing or wind could be heard.

Unable to hang up first, he listened to the silence, and only much later realized that Eun Soo on the other end had fallen asleep, swallowing a bitter laugh.

Still, just in case, maybe just in case Eun Soo’s voice might be heard again, he hesitated and struggled to press the end call button.

That night, of course, he couldn’t sleep a wink.

After days of agonizing, Joo Han came to his own conclusion.

Maybe they could become friends again.

Just like when they first became close, if they met often, acted naturally, talked about trivial things, and shared their daily lives appropriately.

Seeing her today, it seemed Eun Soo didn’t remember that phone call at all, and it didn’t look like she would easily cooperate with his scheme, but Joo Han had no intention of giving up easily.

Thinking of the childish wish coupon in his pocket, a faint smile appeared and disappeared on Joo Han’s lips.

[This is the timeline separator]

…How did I end up here?

Eun Soo looked up at the building in front of her and let out a deep sigh.

[I just have one question. Is this desk really worth about 300,000 won?]

Joo Han, who had visited Ki Woo’s film promotion company and left, cautiously contacted her again a few days later. She had resolved to ignore him, but the content was impossible to ignore, so after some deliberation, she ended up replying.

[Who said that? I think there’s a 0 missing at the end.] [One of the employees said they’d take it at that price. Said there are some scratch marks on the corner too.] [That much can be fixed by lightly sanding and oiling. That kind of flaw isn’t the issue, do you even know who designed that?] [I don’t. Did you do it?] [Neither you nor I were even born in the 50s!]

Irritated by his confident answer despite not knowing, and suspecting that someone was clearly trying to take advantage of him, she couldn’t refuse Joo Han’s request to come and take a look.

“Thanks for coming. Sorry to bother you.”

Joo Han said as he opened the tightly closed door.

He said was temporarily closed until the new CEO, Joo Han, roughly finished sorting out legal documents and taking over.

“Let’s go in.”

Eun Soo followed Joo Han into the building she had visited once before.

The building appeared to be 2 stories from the front, but as you went around to the back of the building, the ground sloped down revealing a basement floor, making it look like 3 stories in total. Add to that the rooftop occupying about half of the roof, it was effectively using four floors.

“The first floor and half of the second are showrooms, there are some items in the basement storage too. It’s quite empty since we haven’t restocked, but…”

“Okay. You just want me to check if this roughly matches, right?”

Eun Soo spoke while looking at the thick documents Joo Han handed over. Joo Han nodded.

“Actually, this is internal confidential information, but Director Jang, who’s been working here almost since the beginning… seems to view me as an intruder. It seems he thought he would naturally become the CEO if my father wasn’t here.”

As Eun Soo went around from the first floor collection to the second floor and back down to the basement, Joo Han followed behind, quietly adding explanations.

“He told me not to meddle when I don’t know anything and hand it over to him. If I don’t like that, he said he’d have to teach the CEO how to do the job, so he wants a raise, but the conditions are ridiculous… Anyway, that’s why I can’t trust the documents I received from him now.”

“Seems right.”

Eun Soo turned to look at Joo Han after looking around briefly.

“Seems right that he’s treating you like a clueless intruder.”

The document format itself wasn’t well organized to begin with, and there wasn’t much that could be properly understood through those documents. Eun Soo muttered as if talking to herself.

“Seems the CEO had an eye for objects but not for people. Looking at how he couldn’t keep even one employee trustworthy enough to entrust these treasures to.”

She said it out of pity, but worried it might have sounded too harsh, Eun Soo checked his reaction. Joo Han smiled bitterly.

“Right. It looks that way to me too, that’s why I stepped up to take charge.”

Joo Han pulled up a visible chair and sat down. Eun Soo also perched on a yellow fabric chair that caught her eye among the chairs placed around.

Joo Han said,

“Actually, I looked up the article you wrote.”

He couldn’t quite believe that Eun Soo said she had met his father, so he searched for it.

But there really was an article about his father and with Eun Soo’s name on it. Along with a photo of his father smiling pleasantly against the backdrop of a place that was practically his entire life.

In the interview, which would probably be about one or two pages in print, not very long, his father’s love and passion for vintage furniture was packed tightly. These were stories he had never directly shared, but somehow it felt like he could hear his father’s voice.

“When I heard about his death and got on the plane, I was thinking of settling things as quickly as possible and going back. But…”

“You learned about the effort the CEO put into creating and couldn’t carelessly dispose of it, something like that?”

“No.”

Joo Han’s answer was a bit unexpected, making Eun Soo’s eyes widen slightly.