Yu In remained frozen in place, as if rooted to the spot.

Her rapidly blinking eyes had been fixed on a small piece of paper, reading and rereading the few words printed there over and over.

Wondering if she had read it wrong, if she had misunderstood.

But the neatly printed letters remained exactly as she had first seen them, no matter how many times she looked.

Director of Illang Entertainment. Next to it, boldly printed, three characters of a name.

“Ha……”

Yu In let out a dejected sigh and leaned her head against the hallway wall. Her lost gaze wandered aimlessly through the air.

Yu In was in an even greater state of shock than when she had seen the man who appeared like a savior earlier today. To think that the person who had been helping her all this time was a director at her elder sister’s agency.

Now she began to understand the man’s actions that had seemed so suspicious and strange before, one by one.

Letting her sleep defensively in the car when drunk, using her phone as an excuse to call her out and oddly interrogate her in detail, his strangely familiar and friendly attitude when dealing with her.

Ha. Another incredulous sigh escaped Yu In’s lips.

“……Did he know everything?”

Those were clearly the actions of someone who knew that Yu In was Nam Yu Jin’s younger sister.

It seemed he knew that and had no qualms about brazenly crossing the boundaries she had drawn.

He was just helping out and showing kindness to a family member of one of the agency’s actors, while she had put up a wall of thorns and warned him not to do anything. How much must he have inwardly laughed after hearing that.

Yu In buried her face, now even more deeply flushed, in her hands.

Amidst feeling truly embarrassed and mortified, she recalled the man’s words before leaving. That he had something to say, so she must contact him.

She couldn’t grasp why he wanted her to contact him.

Was it really because a thank you wasn’t enough? Was he upset by the things Yu In had said and wanted to give her a piece of his mind?

As she pondered his suspicious intentions, just then, the skin where the man’s cool temperature had briefly brushed past seemed to burn especially hot, as if on fire, and she found herself touching her cheek.

“Nam Yu In! What are you doing here?”

A woman wearing a cap pulled low and a mask covering her entire face shouted, making the hallway walls ring loudly.

Yu In, who had been touching her face with a dazed look, flinched and turned around at the loud voice.

“Is the bathroom here? I came out because you were taking so long, but why do you look so out of it?”

“……Elder sister.”

“Why are you touching your face? Did something happen?”

Yu Jin strode over and began busily scanning Yu In’s body with her eyes, the only part of her exposed.

Yu In, who had stiffened slightly, mumbled while discreetly rolling the business card she had been tightly gripping into her palm, out of sight.

“My stomach……my stomach hurts.”

“Your stomach?”

“Yeah. I went to the bathroom but suddenly it started hurting so I was resting.”

Yu In was speaking without knowing why she had to lie. She just felt like she should, after reflexively hiding the business card the man had given her.

“How does it hurt? Should we go to the hospital? You barely ate anything, why would your stomach hurt?”

Yu Jin, who had seriously entered worry mode at her younger sister’s claim of pain, gently rubbed Yu In’s stomach, which didn’t seem to have eaten much.

You’re right, Yu In murmured almost inaudibly, adding more force to her clenched fist.

Then some part of her heart also felt crumpled up, unable to be smoothed out, like the crinkled paper.

After barely managing to placate her elder sister who was insisting they should at least go to the emergency room, they left the restaurant and Yu Jin, who had come alone without her manager, led the way to the parking lot saying she would take her home.

Then Yu In was shocked to see a bright cobalt blue sports car parked there, and went into a state of panic when it started with a loud growl.

Nam Yu Jin, who liked anything flashy and showy, was unable to hide her instinct to stand out in everything like this.

“When did you buy this car?”

“Recently. The schedule for this drama was so intense, I was really stressed. I couldn’t resist splurging on something.”

“But……to buy a car.”

“Why? Want me to buy you one too?”

“No. I don’t even have a license, what would I do with a car?”

“You could get one.”

“I don’t want to.”

She was still a student so she didn’t need one, and if she got a license, Yu Jin would definitely saddle her with an expensive car that only suited her own tastes.

While Yu In understood her elder sister’s desire to do everything for her, she had to completely block off any possibilities with Nam Yu Jin who didn’t know moderation.

Yu In glanced sharply at her elder sister before turning her gaze out the window. As she meaninglessly watched the cars passing by, she suddenly recalled the business card she had hastily stuffed away.

And the worries she had been having earlier tagged along.

Then, despite her reason saying she didn’t want to, an old woman’s concern kept nagging that the “something to say” might be related to her elder sister.

Just then, a hypothesis that flashed through her mind for an instant shook Yu In’s thoughts.

The protagonist of the gossip that never failed to appear whenever her elder sister talked about her. The very person who supposedly parachuted in one day, completely turned the company upside down to suit his tastes, and then got an ultra-fast promotion.

Yu In swallowed hard, hoping it wasn’t true, then asked her elder sister.

“Elder sister, you know. That director you mentioned earlier.”

“Yeah. What about him?”

“That director……how old did you say he was?”

Yu Jin furrowed her brow slightly at the random question, but quickly smoothed it out and replied nonchalantly.

“Thirty-one.”

With an ominous feeling that the man she had just met also looked to be about that age, she asked again.

“His, his name?”

“Name? Do Ki Yeon. Why are you suddenly asking?”

“Ah……it’s nothing. I was just curious.”

“Why are you curious about that? You’re faking being sick, aren’t you.”

“No. It’s real.”

Yu In scrunched up her face, pretending to be in pain as much as possible, to her elder sister who was narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

Trying to act in front of an actress, she felt like she was suffocating from self-loathing.

Fortunately, Yu Jin soon withdrew her dubious gaze and said they should stop by a pharmacy on the way, and Yu In quickly agreed before whipping her head towards the window.

Then the frustration she had been holding back welled up like the tide.

Realizing without needing to think further that the director her elder sister had mentioned and the man she had met were the same person, Yu In felt dizzy.

Biting her lip, she debated whether to tell her elder sister or not, and before she knew it they were in front of the pharmacy to buy medicine, and just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, they had already arrived in front of their house and it was time to get out.

“Go up quickly, take the medicine and go to sleep. Say hi to Mom and Dad for me.”

“Are you leaving right away?”

“Yeah. If Mom sees me she’ll nag again.”

Yu Jin waved her thin, dry arm as if annoyed.

Nodding in understanding, Yu In hesitated briefly before getting out of the car, but ended up not saying anything as she stepped out.

She stood still in that spot, not moving an inch until the loud exhaust faded into the distance, watching with eyes full of complexity until the blue rear end of the car disappeared completely from view.

****

During the weekend after the business card incident, Yu In picked up her phone to call her elder sister several times, only to put it back down.

There was one reason she couldn’t easily speak up.

To talk about the man, she would have to start with when, where and how they met, and then Yu Jin would not only hear her younger sister’s circumstances, but would also certainly call in Jae Hee, who had left Yu In in that state, as well as Ji Han, to lecture them.

Then of course, even her friends who hadn’t known anything would find out the facts Yu In had been hiding, and in addition to Yu Jin, the aftermath from her friends would all fall on Yu In as well.

She really wanted to decline becoming so troublesome, bothersome and cumbersome.

The thoughts that wouldn’t stop continued in a string – as she woke up in the morning after the weekend where she couldn’t do anything and got ready for school, on the subway to school, and even as she finished her afternoon classes and went to have dinner with Ji Han.

“Yu In, what do you want to eat? Anything you’re craving?”

“……”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to eat pork cutlet last time? We couldn’t go then, should we try going now?”

“……”

“Nam Yu In?”

Yu In jumped as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have at the sound of her name being called.

Having mulled it over too much all weekend, she suddenly heard an overlapping low, slightly husky voice with a similar intonation.

Ji Han’s eyes, which had widened in surprise at Yu In’s excessive reaction, floated with puzzlement.

“Why are you so startled?”

“Huh? Oh? It’s nothing. Why did you call me?”

“I kept asking what you want to eat. You weren’t answering, and then you got scared like you’d seen a ghost when I called your name. Why, are the kids in your department spreading weird rumors again?”

Ji Han asked with a frown on his delicate features.

Unfounded rumors surrounding Yu In, who had continued her “voluntary loner” lifestyle for 4 years by her own will, would die down only to spread again without a chance to settle.

It was understandable, since she didn’t have any notable interactions with anyone, whether it was department events or classmates or seniors, yet she was close with Jae Hee, the star of the theater department, and Ji Han, who went by the nickname “pre-modern idol” – in others’ eyes, that was an eyesore and an unsightly sight, which was the prevailing public opinion.

Yu In, who couldn’t help but be aware of the baseless talk that followed her, no longer paid much attention to it as long as it wasn’t about Nam Yu Jin, but Ji Han always seemed to be concerned and would ask occasionally.

Yu In shook her head vigorously, indicating that wasn’t it, and said:

“No……um, Ji Han.”

“Yeah. Tell me.”

Ji Han, wearing a thin lime-colored sweater that suited his fair skin well, stopped walking and stared intently at Yu In.

People passing by gave strange looks to the two who had suddenly stopped in the middle of the street.

Ji Han’s light eyes, which had been taking on an especially serious light lately, seemed to be saying he would listen to anything.

Looking at Ji Han with his tall stature and mild, gentle face, Yu In suddenly had the amusing thought that if a large dog became human, it would look like this, and ended up smiling slightly, forgetting what she was going to say.

“Why are you suddenly smiling in the middle of talking? You’re a bit strange today.”

As Ji Han tilted his head and kept asking what was wrong, Yu In pulled his arm and started walking again before opening her mouth.

“What do you do when you’re hesitating about something?”

“Hesitating? Like a dilemma?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? Do you have something you’re worried about? What is it?”

“No……I’m not saying I have something, I’m asking what you do.”

Ji Han looked at Yu In with narrowed eyes as if to say that’s the same thing, but when she hit the arm she was holding and told him to just answer, his gaze briefly went to empty space as if thinking before returning.

“I think it depends on what the dilemma is. Give me an example.”

“Hmm……like when you don’t want to go somewhere but feel like you should, but also feel like you shouldn’t.”

It was simple and vague, but also the most intuitive way to put it.

Ji Han shrugged his shoulders lightly and immediately gave an answer after hearing it.

“Then you should go. If you regret not going, it won’t feel like a clean ending, right?”

“Ah……”

“Unless going would cause me harm, I think it’s better to go.”

Watching Ji Han smile brightly as he spoke without any difficulty, Yu In felt the gloomy contemplation she had been doing all weekend clear up.

Hearing from someone else’s mouth what she had only thought about herself, it sounded like a clear answer.

There was no harm to herself in meeting that man. Rather, she kept receiving help from him so it was awkward and she didn’t want to get more entangled, but kept running into him which was burdensome and uncomfortable.

But if she ignored it like this, she would keep feeling uneasy whenever her elder sister talked about the director.

As Ji Han said, if she met him and heard what he had to say, she could make a clean end without necessarily having to tell her elder sister, so she came to the conclusion that this was the best option for now.

Yu In, feeling instantly relieved, grabbed Ji Han’s arm with both hands and looked up at him with eyes shining in admiration.

“You’re smart.”

“You’re just realizing that now?”

Ji Han, who had naturally made her release his captured arm, casually put his arm around her shoulders and whispered softly, lowering his head as if whispering in her ear.

“So how about we go to that pork cutlet place we gave up on last time because of the long wait?”

“Okay!”

As Yu In nodded her head several times with a brightened face, her tangled insides now relieved, Ji Han silently laughed with a look in his eyes like he was dying of cuteness.

Even as the large, warm hand roughly tousled her round head, Yu In paid no attention to the too-familiar touch and was looking up directions on her phone.

The Western-style restaurant they arrived at had a long wait line like before, but this time the two didn’t give up and were finally able to sit at a table after waiting for a long time.

Even after being seated, it took a while for their ordered food to come out, so various idle chatter flowed endlessly between the two.

“Jae Hee seems to be getting busier and busier.”

“Yeah.”

“These days it’s hard to even see her face.”

“It’s nice not having that noisy kid around.”

“Yoon Ji Han. You say that, but don’t you actually feel empty? You two are closer than I am with either of you.”

Ji Han frowned deeply as if to say what nonsense is this.

“Don’t say such creepy things. And there’s no such thing as who’s closer between us.”

His voice carried genuine annoyance, so Yu In laughed with a “puheuheuh” sound.

As more similar pointless chatter was exchanged, the food finally arrived. Ji Han cut the pork cutlet into small pieces and naturally switched plates with Yu In.

The two who had been starving due to the long wait ate silently for a while before Ji Han spoke first.

“Oh, right. Yu In, I have a meal voucher for SJ Hotel, let’s pick a date and go together.”

“SJ? Where did you get that?”

“I got it for working part-time during Lunar New Year, but I just found it in my drawer now.”

“Ah. Was that when you filmed with Jae Hee?”

“Yeah. You remember.”

Yu In, who had been chewing without much thought saying she knew, asked “What about Jae Hee?”, and Ji Han, smiling wryly, said “She’ll come too” as he drank some water.

Ji Han smiled back, his eyes curving, at Yu In who grinned brightly again saying that was good.

It was a pleasant evening, exactly one day before a week had passed since the man who called himself a director at Illang Entertainment had given Yu In his business card.