Date Me! - Chapter 61

A short while later, Juwon arrived at the apartment, parked his car in the parking lot, and slowly got out to take the elevator.

Juwon got off on the 24th floor, opened the front door, entered the house, and threw his jacket onto the sofa.

Loosening his tie, Juwon went to the liquor cabinet next to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of whiskey.

Then he poured it into a straight glass and downed it in one gulp.

The strong scent of alcohol filled his throat.

Juwon poured another glass, drank it, put down the glass, and picked up his phone.

He found Min Suji’s name, which he hadn’t pressed in 3 years, and called her.

After a few rings, Suji answered the phone.

“H-hello?”

Suji’s voice on the phone was filled with bewilderment.

Juwon took off his tie from his neck, placed it on the table, and spoke.

“What are you trying to do?”

“……”

Suji was silent on the other end of the line.

“Answer me. What are you trying to do now?”

Suji let out a deep sigh and then spoke.

“Juwon. Do you know you’re calling me for the first time in 3 years?”

“Just answer the question.”

At Juwon’s cold energy, Suji was once again at a loss for words.

Then a moment later, she spoke in a sharp voice.

“Why? Did that adorable girlfriend of yours say something to you?”

Juwon slowly raised his hand to brush back his bangs.

“What on earth did she tattle to make you call after 3 years?”

Juwon smirked and put his hands in his pockets.

“Min Suji. You’ve changed a lot in 3 years, haven’t you?”

“What?”

“How did Min Suji, who used to be the epitome of refinement, become so vulgar?”

“What did you say?”

Suji’s voice immediately rose.

“Since your memory seems to have gotten worse, I’ll tell you again. Don’t cross the line. Not anymore.”

Suji remained silent for a while before finally speaking.

“You really… are too much.”

At those words, Juwon let out a short sigh.

“I’m too much? Isn’t it too much that you deliberately emphasized your existence, which is just my past, to my girlfriend?”

“……”

“I’m retracting my statement about giving you an eye greeting if we run into each other again. I hope we don’t see each other again.”

Before Suji could respond, Juwon hung up the phone.

Suji closed her eyes and clutched her chest.

The words ‘just my past’ mercilessly stabbed her heart.

She threw her phone, covered her face, and tears began to fall.

She felt so hurt and miserable.

She had never been treated like this in her entire life…

The fact that it was none other than Juwon who made her feel this wretched for the first time…

Wiping away her tears and biting her lip hard at the unbelievable reality, Suji glared into space.

The image of Juwon’s girlfriend came to mind.

How dare that mere cute-looking girl do this to me…

Biting her lip hard once again, tears of anger flowed down Suji’s face.

* * *

Ina, lying in bed, tossed and turned.

An hour had passed since she went to bed, but sleep wouldn’t come.

When she closed her eyes, Min Suji appeared, and the words Suji had said kept coming to mind.

Although Ina fully believed in the sincerity Juwon had shown in the car, when she thought of Min Suji, a strange uneasiness crept up.

Turning to the other side again, Ina recalled the time when she and Juwon had asked each other how many people they had dated.

At that time, Juwon said he had dated two people.

To think that one of them was such an impressive woman…

And that impressive woman still had lingering feelings for Juwon…

Suddenly, she realized what kind of man Juwon was.

Even in middle school, there were quite a few girls who liked Juwon…

It was clear how many girls must have approached him during the 13 years they hadn’t seen each other.

For even such a goddess-like woman to come looking for him again, unable to forget him for 3 years…

Once again realizing how incredibly charming her man was, Ina let out a deep sigh.

She had a feeling that it would be difficult to fall asleep tonight.

* * *

Fortunately, time passed without any special incidents, and Thursday came again.

Today, Ina didn’t have to work overtime, but Juwon did.

While reorganizing the contents of the afternoon meeting, Ina received a message from Juwon.

“Miss Seo Ina, how about staying at my place tonight?”

Ina was about to smile at Juwon’s polite message when another one came in.

“It’s the day the housekeeper comes, so she probably prepared side dishes. Would you like to have dinner first and rest? I’ll come as soon as I finish work.”

After thinking for a moment, Ina replied that she understood.

“And there’s a package Juhee sent on the living room table. She said it’s a gift for us, so open it.”

“A gift?”

“Yes. She said she sent a couple gift as a return for the baby clothes you bought. Go ahead and open it.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“I’ll try to finish work as quickly as possible. But it’ll probably be 9 o’clock before I can leave, so have dinner and watch TV or something.”

“Okay. Got it.”

Ina leisurely finished her work and slowly got up from her seat when it was time to leave.

After taking the bus and getting off in front of Juwon’s apartment, Ina stopped by the mart to buy some fruits and snacks. Carrying the plastic bag, she went to the apartment’s main entrance and took out the access card from her handbag.

It was the card Juwon had given to Ina last Sunday.

When handing her the main entrance access card, Juwon had said:

She could come anytime she wanted to see him, 24 hours a day.

He said any time of the day was fine, even dawn, and when Ina asked “Dawn?”, he said she could even sneak in at dawn and pounce on him while he was sleeping, which made Ina’s jaw drop.

When Ina asked how he could say such things without changing his expression, Juwon had replied with a smirk:

Hadn’t he told her he was a man full of desire?

At those words, Ina’s face had turned bright red.

Thinking about that day again, Ina’s face flushed as she shook her head and tapped the access card.

After the door opened, Ina took the elevator and pressed the 24th floor.

Looking at her phone, it was just past 7:20 PM.

Thinking she should have a light dinner and then do the dishes, the elevator had already arrived at the 24th floor.

Although it felt a bit strange to go to the house alone without Juwon, Ina stepped out of the elevator with a flutter of excitement, feeling like a newlywed waiting for her husband.

And just as she turned right to go to Juwon’s apartment 2402, Ina saw her.

Min Suji, leaning against the front door of Juwon’s house.

Suji, who had been looking at the floor with a troubled expression, turned her head towards Ina at the sound of footsteps.

The two women’s eyes met immediately.

“……”

As Ina stared at Suji with a frozen expression, Suji also moved away from the door and gazed at Ina with cold eyes.

Soon, blue flames ignited in their eyes as they looked at each other.

“How did you…”

Ina approached a few steps and opened her mouth first, but the words got stuck in her throat and didn’t come out completely.

“I was waiting for Juwon, but Ina came instead?”

Suji said with a chilly smile.

At that smile, something welled up inside Ina.

Ina took another step forward and opened her mouth.

“I asked the wrong question. Why are you here?”

At Ina’s voice, which had risen a tone, Suji looked straight at her and said,

“Why do you think I came? To see Juwon, of course.”

At those brazen words, Ina looked at Suji with a dumbfounded expression when suddenly the door of the neighboring apartment 2401 opened and a middle-aged woman came out.

The woman, holding a cute Pomeranian in one arm, was startled to see the two women standing in front of apartment 2402.

Startled by its owner, the Pomeranian in her arms started barking sharply.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

“Mary. Shh! It’s okay.”

The woman cautioned the dog and quickly scanned Ina and Suji with her eyes.

‘I’m sure a handsome bachelor as good-looking as Nam Jin oppa lives next door, but why are there two women standing here?’

The woman looked at them curiously, finding both women extremely pretty no matter which way she looked. Then she put on an elegant smile and moved on.

After the woman left, silence fell between the two.

After a moment, Suji spoke first.

“Why don’t we stop this and have a cup of coffee?”

Ina stared at Suji’s face.

The words ‘Why should I have coffee with you?’ rose to her throat.

But sending her away like this felt unpleasant and somehow unsettling.

Ina let out a short sigh and then said to Suji,

“Let’s go down. There’s a coffee shop on the first floor.”

The scent of coffee wafted gently from the mug.

Ina silently watched as Suji crossed one leg and lifted her coffee cup.

Regardless of the current situation, the woman before her was still exceptionally attractive.

With a beautiful and sophisticated face, wearing clothes that accentuated her fantastic figure,

she was the type that no man out of ten would refuse, or rather, would be the object of desire for all men.

Knowing that such a woman still had lingering feelings for Juwon had been unsettling, and now she even came to his house…

Along with an unpleasant feeling, her head started to throb.

Ina bit the soft flesh inside her mouth, then looked straight at Suji and asked,

“What did you intend to do by coming to see Juwon?”

Suji, who had been drinking coffee, put down her cup leisurely and looked at Ina.

Then she smiled and uncrossed her legs.

“Do you know what people around me said most often when I was dating Juwon?”

“Why should I know such a thing?”

At Ina’s words, Suji chuckled and then spoke as if it didn’t matter.

“They asked if he was really that good. They said honey dripped from my eyes when I looked at Juwon. Even after seeing him, I still missed him, and when he wasn’t in sight, I was anxious. Those were days when I was so happy and it felt like a dream that this man was mine.”

Ha… Ina let out a deep sigh involuntarily.

Why am I sitting here listening to this story?

But as if oblivious to Ina’s feelings, Suji continued speaking.

“But… I guess the temperature of our affection for each other was a bit different. I gave 100 percent, but Juwon gave about 70 percent? That remaining 30 percent made me feel disappointed, so I threw tantrums at Juwon and got angry… Eventually, I got tired first and said let’s break up.”

Ina pressed her lips tightly at Juwon’s past love story that she didn’t want to know.

As Suji reached for her coffee cup, her hand trembled slightly.

After taking a sip of coffee, Suji slowly put the cup down again.

“But now that I think about it, maybe that 70 percent I felt was actually 100 percent for Juwon.”

Suji stared into Ina’s eyes as she spoke.