Inside a packed Daehak-ro pub, filled with noisy and boisterous guests.

From speakers attached to the corners of gray cement walls, a popular girl group’s song blasts loudly while part-time workers scurry about with trays without a moment’s rest.

The table where the three sat was in a relatively quiet and secluded corner, but the atmosphere wasn’t entirely gloomy.

“So what, what am I supposed to do!”

“Who said you should do anything? Forget it. Just shut up and drink.”

“Ah~ how annoying. You shut up.”

“Stop cursing. It’s vulgar.”

“Since when have I ever lived such a pure life? Hey, cut out that pathetic act. It’s ruining the taste of the alcohol.”

Yoo In watched the two bickering before her with ease, smiling slightly.

After parting with Ki Yeon like that, Yoo In had sat alone for a long time. The excuse about friends she’d made to send him off urgently wasn’t real, so she should have gone home, but her melancholy feelings made her steps heavy, unable to go anywhere.

Thankfully, Jae Hee came running at just one word asking where she was. Along with Ji Han, who had just finished exams.

The noisy indoor space crowded with people wasn’t to Yoo In’s taste, but having those who diluted her aversion beside her made it bearable.

“Have you decided on a company?”

“Oh, well.”

“You’ve decided? Where?”

At the conversation that followed, Yoo In, who had been blankly staring at her glass, slowly raised her head.

Her gaze met Ji Han’s, who had been watching Yoo In. The eyes shadowed under his pulled-down baseball cap seemed to be glancing around nervously for some reason.

As she stared blankly with a face flushed red from drinking a bit, Ji Han awkwardly averted his gaze and said,

“It’s not completely decided yet.”

“What? Then you’ve half decided? Is two-timing a habit for you?”

“Hey, watch your mouth now. No. If I sign the contract, I just won’t see you anymore. Han Jae Hee, you’re no help in life as always.”

Ji Han, who had momentarily seemed awkward, skillfully hid his change and threw some popcorn from the basic side dishes at the giggling Jae Hee.

Yoo In wasn’t focusing on the conversation enough to catch his subtle reaction. She was a bit drunk, and also because of someone occupying her thoughts.

“Then you have decided? Ask your sister. Check the contract terms carefully too.”

“Oh, I already talked with noona.”

“Mm. Good job.”

Yoo In nodded halfheartedly and sipped her beer.

Unlike Yoo In’s curiosity that was roughly satisfied, Jae Hee showed great interest and asked Ji Han again.

“Which company did you decide to contract with?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Later? Why? Oh! Don’t tell me. Did they tell you not to disclose it?”

“Well, something like that.”

“Wow! Really? Are they going to use that for marketing? Like ‘Former famous campus model from Sunhyundae~’ or something?”

Yoo In listened to Ji Han’s gentle baritone voice answering Jae Hee’s questions patiently despite finding her annoying, while recalling Ki Yeon’s retreating figure as he left the park.

Though she had sent a message saying she met friends, he hadn’t replied or even read it after several hours.

His frightfully flushed face, slightly off-focus gaze, and hurried steps. The vague ripples spreading from him raised worries, created concerns, and caused anxieties.

Unsure if it was her heart or head throbbing, Yoo In drained the liquid left in her glass.

“Nam Yoo In, what are you doing? Don’t drink so hastily.”

“Yeah. Your face is already red.”

“…I’m fine.”

Yoo In found this side of herself unfamiliar.

She was afraid of this feeling of wanting to know more about Ki Yeon than anyone else, of this thing that kept growing no matter how much she tried to suppress it.

Having never experienced the inevitable secondary sensations that come with holding someone deep in one’s heart, Yoo In was scared from the start.

Yet she was so curious about him. Uncontrollably, unbearably, greatly.

The man who always seemed skillful and relaxed like a sailboat drifting freely probably wouldn’t face such difficulties.

“Hey guys.”

“Yeah, what?”

“Tell us, Yoo In.”

Ji Han, who was about to raise his soju glass, put it down, and Jae Hee, who had just slurped some steamed egg, looked at Yoo In smiling hazily with unfocused eyes.

“I… think it’s too difficult.”

“Huh? What is? Is there something difficult even for the smart Nam Yoo In?”

“I… find that person difficult.”

“…”

The two friends who understood who Yoo In meant by ‘that person’ were silent for a moment.

The face that used to shine purely, untainted by anything, darkened gloomily. The gesture of downing the shallow alcohol between harshly bitten lips looked quite upset.

Jae Hee glanced sidelong at Ji Han, who was taking deep breaths with his mouth tightly shut. She felt sorry for the friend who had said he would hide his true feelings and remain just a friend as he had until now, but also found him bothersome.

At this rate, she didn’t know when he might get excited and rush in without distinguishing between Director Lee or Nam Yoo In’s boyfriend.

“What’s so difficult?”

The emotionless question that came after a long while flowed from Ji Han.

“Just, everything related to that person. I like him so much… but it’s equally hard. Is all dating like this?”

“…”

“I want to know everything. I wish there was nothing I didn’t know… I want to comfort him. But he won’t let me. That, it hurts. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Ah. As expected! Yoon Ji Han.”

Yoo In, who had been quietly getting drunk alone without her friends knowing, smiled with cheeks that had turned rosy like a well-ripened peach as a deep blush spread involuntarily.

As Yoo In fumbled for her glass to drink more beer, Ji Han handed her a glass of ice water and roughly rubbed his face with one hand.

Jae Hee, who had been watching this anxiously, leaned forward and spoke quietly.

“Hey. Turn off your feelings. Got it?”

“What.”

“What else? Nam Yoo In’s love life. Just listen.”

“…Hah.”

“Look how she’s lost weight from heartache because of you. You can at least do that much.”

“I got it, so be quiet.”

Even after hearing the curt reply, Jae Hee couldn’t shake off her suspicions and stared at Ji Han with searching eyes for a long time.

Coldly ignoring Jae Hee’s gaze, he looked anxiously at Yoo In, who was listlessly shaking her head, unable to overcome the effects of the beer she had drunk so far.

Even though she was so close, she seemed far out of reach, saying she was struggling and finding it difficult because of another man.

Ji Han felt like the feelings he had treasured and cherished were being torn apart and chipped away. This wasn’t the ending he had imagined. He had wanted to keep her by his side forever, to care for her and protect her with devotion for a long time.

Not to send her off to someone else so futilely like this.

“Yoo In. Are you sleepy?”

“…Hm? No. Ah, a little.”

Her eyelids, half-closed with drowsiness, blink gently.

Her lower lip, which she habitually bites, is swollen red, and her white skin has flushed with red fever blossoms here and there.

Ji Han looked at the nodding Yoo In without asking further. Instead, he sat close beside her and offered his shoulder for her to lean on comfortably. Her small head quickly settled in as if it belonged there.

Watching this, Jae Hee clicked her tongue softly.

“You really are devoted.”

“What. Let’s just finish this and go. We need to get Yoo In home soon.”

“Okay. Oh, hey. Yoo In’s head is falling. Hold her properly.”

Before Ki Yeon appeared, this composition was natural for them. Ji Han occasionally caring for Yoo In who had dozed off leaning on him, and Jae Hee giggling that it looked like a young dad and taking pictures, things like that.

The two exchanged everyday conversation, bickering as they passed the remaining beer and soju back and forth.

Before long, the drinks they had ordered were showing their bottoms, but the two friends were in the middle of seriously discussing their future plans and each other’s futures.

Yoo In’s phone started ringing noisily next to her water glass. Sudden silence fell, and two gazes fixed on the screen.

The name that appeared on the screen was ‘Director Do Ki Yeon’ in neat, honest letters.

“Um… Yoo In’s phone, it’s the director?”

“…”

“Shouldn’t we wake Yoo In? Yoo In. Your phone—”

“Forget it. Why wake a sleeping person? She can contact him later.”

“From what I heard earlier, it seems like there’s something between them, it’s better to resolve it quickly. Ah, wake her up soon.”

Ji Han listlessly brushed away Jae Hee’s arm waving in front of his face.

“Leave her be. If he made Yoo In worry, he should get some back too.”

“Well, well. Should you be saying that? Didn’t I tell you not to interfere with Yoo In’s relationship!”

While the two were lightly arguing, the vibration suddenly stopped. But after a few seconds, it started ringing again.

“Yoo In. Nam Yoo In! Wake up, you have a call from the director!”

Despite Ji Han’s restraint, Jae Hee finally stretched across to shake Yoo In’s body.

At that, the delicate eyelids that had been peacefully sleeping even amidst the noisy interior twitched and slowly opened.

Her drowsy face looked dazed, as if she had forgotten she was asleep. After sluggishly surveying her surroundings, Yoo In eventually raised her body that had been leaning.

“Did I… fall asleep?”

“Yeah. But that’s not important. The director keeps calling. Oh, it stopped again.”

Yoo In, who had rubbed her eyes hard, covered with fatigue from enduring exam period and layers of stress, checked her phone.

Still not fully emerged from the low-quality sleep of just a few minutes, she blankly looked at the screen already showing several missed calls, then startled at the device vibrating again.

It was Ki Yeon.

“Hello?”

Even to her own ears, her thin voice sounded dry with tiredness.

As she cleared her throat, rummaging through her parched mouth, there was no sound from the other end, which was strange.

−…

“Director?”

−… Where are you, Nam Yoo In.

A gloomy voice stripped of emotion came through very low.

She was intimidated for just a moment, but her still jumbled and hazy mind couldn’t properly interpret his cold reaction and answered dully.

“I’m at a pub. Why? Did you finish work?”

−… Why? What do you mean by that.

“Pardon?”

A long, cold sigh came through, felt even across the phone. Before Yoo In, who didn’t understand this unfamiliar silence with him, could say anything, Ki Yeon spoke first.

−Never mind, forget it. Where are you?

“Here… near the school.”

−Wait.

With that curt word that felt callous, Ki Yeon ended the call on his own.