Ina’s eyes widened at the man’s words.

“Huh? How do you know… my name?”

The man laughed again at Ina’s expression, as if she had seen a ghost.

Ina, who had been blankly staring at his smiling face, suddenly furrowed her brows and stared at the man intently.

After staring at the man for a while, Ina’s eyes suddenly widened and became round.

“Huh? Ho… Could it be?”

Ina gaped at the man in disbelief.

“Could it be… Ju… Juwon?”

When Ina asked in a surprised voice, the man shrugged his shoulders.

If it was Juwon, he was the twin brother of Ina’s close friend Juhee from middle school.

“Gasp.”

The surprised Ina brought her hand to her mouth, touched her split lip, and then quickly lowered her hand with an ‘ouch’.

At the same time, Juwon reached out and grabbed Ina’s chin, slightly lifting it up.

When Ina looked at him with startled eyes at the sudden touch, Juwon frowned.

“Let’s go to the pharmacy first.”

Before Ina could even answer, Juwon grabbed her hand and swiftly walked away.

“Huh? Hey! Wait!”

Ina shouted, but Juwon walked with long strides and Ina was practically dragged along by his large steps.

Following behind him, Juwon’s back was so tall that Ina had to look way up to see his head, and his shoulders were incredibly broad.

Above all, Juwon’s hand that was pulling Ina with a strong force was large and warm.

‘Wow. When did he get so big? He’s practically become a grown man.’

Even while being dragged along, Ina was impressed by Juwon’s back.

Soon they arrived at the pharmacy and Juwon opened the door, striding inside.

“Please give me some ointment for this wound.”

Juwon pointed to Ina’s lip and spoke to the pharmacist.

The middle-aged male pharmacist looked at Ina’s lip wound and Juwon alternately through his glasses.

Thinking Juwon was the one who caused the wound, the pharmacist’s gaze was not friendly, and Ina, noticing this, was startled and waved her hands.

“No! It wasn’t him who hit me!”

Ina shouted as if screaming, and the pharmacist and Juwon looked at her simultaneously.

“I didn’t say anything though?”

The pharmacist said nonchalantly and handed over the ointment and cotton swabs.

Ina was about to take out her wallet in embarrassment, but Juwon offered the money first.

“Huh? I should be paying though?”

At Ina’s words, Juwon silently picked up the ointment and cotton swabs and gestured with his head to go out.

Ina bowed her head to the pharmacist and immediately followed Juwon out of the pharmacy.

“Um… here, take this. I should be paying for the medicine.”

When Ina held out a 10,000 won bill, Juwon looked down at her with an expressionless face.

“Buy me a drink.”

“Pardon?”

Ina blinked and asked back.

“I said buy me a drink.”

“A drink?”

“Yeah. I originally had a drinking appointment. At that bar earlier.”

Ina remembered seeing Juwon in front of the bar where she had been with Jeonghun earlier.

“Really? What should I do, I’m so sorry. You should hurry and go.”

At Ina’s words, Juwon was about to say something when his cell phone rang.

“Just a moment.”

Juwon raised his hand to tell her to wait and answered the phone.

“Hello? Oh, no. Something suddenly came up. Yeah. So I don’t think I can make it.”

The surprised Ina was about to tell him to hurry and go, but Juwon put his foot down.

“Yeah. It’s important. I’ll talk to you later. Please tell the others for me. Okay. Alright. I’m hanging up.”

As soon as he hung up, Ina said in surprise,

“No. Why aren’t you going? Hurry and go. I’m fine, so just go.”

“Would you just go if you were me?”

At Juwon’s words, Ina was at a loss for words for a moment and then opened her mouth again.

“Okay. Juwon. It’s been a long time, and I’m really embarrassed and sorry to show you this side of me. But while I appreciate you worrying about me, you don’t have to break your appointment. So hurry and go.”

Juwon stared at Ina without a word for a moment, then sighed shortly and spoke.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed or sorry about. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know he was that kind of person when you met him.”

“Still…”

Ina looked at the ground and bit her lip hard.

“It wasn’t a very important appointment. They’re friends I see often, so we can drink another time. So you don’t have to feel so sorry.”

Still, Ina had an apologetic expression, so Juwon laughed.

“I told you to stop feeling sorry. Let’s not stand here, let’s go. Let’s have a drink.”

Juwon grabbed Ina’s arm and headed towards a bar.

“Are you good at drinking?”

After entering a nearby bar and sitting down, Juwon asked while opening the menu.

“Drinking? Well… I drink moderately.”

“You were coming out of the bar earlier, but you didn’t drink much there?”

Ina remembered making eye contact with Juwon in front of the bar a little while ago.

“No… I just went along with the mood a bit but didn’t drink much.”

“Really? Then let’s just have one drink and go.”

Juwon raised his hand and ordered a bottle of soju and fish cake soup from the waiter.

A moment later, Juwon took out a cotton swab, dipped it in the ointment, and gestured for Ina to come closer.

Ina, startled for a moment, quickly held out her hand.

“No, give it to me. I’ll do it.”

But Juwon just stared at Ina without moving.

“Should I move to the side, or will you come closer?”

Ina made a clicking sound with her tongue and reluctantly brought her face closer.

Juwon gently rubbed the end of Ina’s left lip with the cotton swab, applying the ointment.

When Ina unknowingly grimaced at the stinging pain, Juwon, who had been staring at her, sighed briefly and gently applied the ointment again.

Ina suddenly felt embarrassed and thought this was the ultimate humiliation.

She thought it was the epitome of humiliation to show the scene of fighting with her drunken boyfriend to her friend’s twin brother whom she was meeting after 13 years.

“You don’t have to think too deeply about it. He was just trash.”

As if reading her mind, Juwon blurted out, and Ina looked at him with surprised eyes.

Juwon threw the cotton swab in the trash can and handed the ointment and cotton swabs to Ina.

“It won’t scar, but apply the ointment well. Until it heals.”

While feeling both embarrassed and grateful, Juwon poured water into a glass and handed it to Ina.

As she took the glass of water, Ina glanced at Juwon.

Did he always have this kind side to him?

She tried to vaguely recall her memories from 13 years ago, but Juwon continued.

“When our eyes met in front of the bar, I felt like you weren’t a stranger. Then I saw that guy dragging you away. …I should have recognized it was you sooner.”

At Juwon’s self-deprecating words, Ina looked at him with surprised eyes, and then the waiter brought the soju and fish cake soup.

Juwon silently opened the soju bottle, poured a glass for Ina, and then poured one for himself.

Juwon picked up his glass and looked at Ina, so she also picked up her glass.

Juwon downed his glass, and Ina also swallowed the soju down her throat in one shot.

The taste of soju felt unusually bitter, just like her current mood.

“If I ask why you dated a guy like that, it’ll only make you feel worse, so I’ll ask a different question. You won’t see him anymore, right?”

Ina nodded firmly at Juwon’s question as he stared at her.

“Yeah. Of course.”

Juwon poured more soju into Ina’s glass and said,

“But that guy, he doesn’t seem like he’ll let go easily from what I saw earlier.”

Ina silently stared at her glass of soju, then drank it and put the glass down.

“It already ended earlier. If he contacts me or comes to find me, I’ll really report him to the police.”

Juwon looked at Ina for a moment, then handed her his cell phone.

When Ina looked at him quizzically, Juwon said, “Number.”

“Oh. Number.”

Ina typed in her number and handed it back, and Juwon pressed the call button. Soon, Ina’s cell phone rang.

Juwon saved Ina’s number, and Ina quickly saved Juwon’s number too.

“Where’s your company? What time do you get off work?”

“Me? It’s near Yeoksam Station and around 6:30. Why?”

“I’m near Samsung Station.”

“What? Really?”

Ina looked at Juwon with surprised eyes.

“Oh my gosh… We were living so close but how have we not seen each other once?”

“He knows where you live too, right?”

“Huh? He knows but he’s never been inside my place.”

At Ina’s words, Juwon looked at her with a surprised expression.

“Why?”

“From what I saw earlier, his obsession is no joke, so I’m surprised you managed to not let him into your house.”

At Juwon’s words, the past days flashed by like a panorama.

When they had been dating for a month, Jeonghun wanted to go to Ina’s place where she lived alone, but Ina politely refused, saying she would invite him when they got married.

Jeonghun of course kept insisting, saying they would get married anyway, but he soon gave up due to Ina’s adamant attitude.

But that became the starting point, and Jeonghun began to openly show his obsession and started suspecting whether Ina was letting other men into her house besides him.

“Blocking his number is easy, but that guy will definitely wait for you after work in front of your company or house and cause a scene, whether it’s with tears or threats.”

At Juwon’s words, Ina’s expression darkened again as she stared at her glass.

In fact, she had been worrying about how Jeonghun would act tomorrow, but she was trying not to show it in front of Juwon.

But as Juwon said, Park Jeonghun was more than capable of doing that.

Today, he left as if chased away, shocked by Ina’s breakup announcement, but tomorrow, which was a weekend, he would definitely start calling from the morning and come to her house.

But if Ina didn’t meet him, he would certainly come to her company.

If he came to her company, she couldn’t imagine what kind of scene he would cause, and just imagining it made her head start to hurt even though it hadn’t happened yet.

“One week. I’ll take you home for just one week, so wait for me in front of your company. Send me the company location in a text.”

“Huh?”

Ina blinked, unable to understand what he meant, and looked at Juwon.

“I said I’ll take you home for just one week. Where do you live?”

“Uh… what?”

When Ina asked back in a loud voice without realizing it, the people sitting at the next table looked at her.

Ina quickly covered her mouth and bowed her head, saying sorry.

Looking at her, Juwon poured more soju into the glasses.

“Juwon.”

Ina called Juwon’s name, lowering her head and whispering.

When Juwon looked at her while bringing the glass of soju to his mouth, Ina shook her head slightly and spoke.

“Why would you take me home? I’m already dying of embarrassment for showing you that side of me earlier.”

“As I said before, you have no reason to be embarrassed. That jerk who uses violence against women should be the one embarrassed.”

“Still… how can I drag you further into this mess?”

“I’m already ankle-deep in it. You can’t handle this alone. If I wasn’t there earlier, he would have dragged you away.”

At those words, Ina bit the inside of her cheek and lowered her head.

“You don’t have to think too hard about it. That guy might wait for you after work and harass you, so I’ll take you home for about a week. If nothing happens during that time, then that’s fortunate.”

Ina raised her head and looked at Juwon.

Still, she felt embarrassed and sorry to readily accept his offer.

“If Lee Juhee was in this situation… wouldn’t you do the same for her as I’m doing for you?”

At Juwon’s words spoken with a serious gaze, Ina’s eyes widened.

Juhee? If Juhee went through the same thing as me?

No way! That should never happen!

If someone hurt Ina’s other half, her friend Juhee, Ina would chase them to the ends of the earth to get revenge.

Ina, whose heart was moved by the appropriate example Juwon presented, was lost in thought for a moment.

And soon, as if she had made up her mind, she raised her head and looked at Juwon.

“Juwon. Thank you for offering to help first. Then… I’ll shamelessly accept your kindness. Thank you so much.”

Juwon smiled in response.