It was when I was alternating my gaze between the laptop on the desk and the front while listening to the monotonous voice coming through the microphone.

Yoo In’s eyes momentarily shifted to the side as the screen of the cell phone placed next to the laptop silently lit up.

[Yoo In. You’re going to the library today too, right?]

The message sent by Ji Han appeared at the top of the screen and was about to disappear when the next message arrived.

[I’ll save your seat, so when class ends, go to Reading Room 2…]

The end was cut off and not visible, but it was easy enough to guess the content. Since it was exam period, he was saying he’d go to the library first after his class ended earlier to save a seat.

Yoo In glanced at the professor who was passionately lecturing, then launched the PC messenger she had closed and briefly replied to Ji Han.

[Can’t go today.]

As soon as she sent it, the 1 next to the speech bubble disappeared and the other person’s bubbles arrived in succession.

The content was all the same. ‘Why?’

Yoo In quietly pressed the keyboard to write that she had something to do, and habitually chewed her lip as she closed the messenger.

Today was the day of the appointment she had agreed to when the man said they needed to talk in person rather than on the phone, which made her anxious from the start.

It was finally the day to resolve the uneasiness left by the man who had transformed from a question mark to her sister’s agency director, but she couldn’t help feeling tense about having to deal with an uncomfortable person, and her palms kept sweating.

Yoo In turned over the phone with its incessantly flashing screen and started to focus on the lecture again, rubbing her hands on her skirt.

20 minutes before class ended.

Buzz buzz.

When the sound of the cell phone ringing echoed loudly in the classroom, everyone’s eyes turned to one spot, and the protagonist of those gazes, Yoo In, opened her eyes wide and quickly grabbed the ringing phone.

“Ahem.”

Yoo In slightly bowed her head, looking at the professor who expressed his displeasure with a cough at the intrusive noise, then glanced at the device in her hand and frowned.

[I’ll wait in front of the Central Library.]

It was a message from Do Ki Yeon.

At the professor’s words signaling the end of class, Yoo In roughly shoved her laptop into her bag and darted out of the classroom.

Was ‘I’ll pick you up’ supposed to mean waiting inside the campus? Why? Even she, studying Korean literature, didn’t know when that phrase had come to mean that.

Unable to send the message asking him to wait in the car, she started sprinting as soon as she left the Humanities building.

“Huff… ha!”

It was about 10 minutes after she was out of breath that she spotted the man who said he’d wait in front of the library, of all places crowded with people and many watching eyes.

Yoo In stopped abruptly, keeping some distance from him.

The man was standing under the large cherry blossom branch that cast a shadow over his head, indifferently watching the petals scattering in the slow spring breeze.

Perhaps due to the suddenly risen temperature, he had his dark navy jacket draped over his arm, and his appearance with a white shirt and tightly knotted tie was like an angle from a spring fashion magazine.

“…”

While watching the man from a few meters away, countless female students passing by were checking him out.

But the man, who didn’t give a single glance, just stared into space. Like someone with no interest in anything in the world.

Yoo In couldn’t take her eyes off him. Strangely, her heart was fluttering and tingling, like she might cough.

She kept staring for a while like that. Until he discovered her as he turned his head after checking his watch by shaking his left wrist.

And then a fresh smile was painted over his empty face. Dazzlingly bright.

“…Ah.”

Feeling a sudden electric shock at her toes, Yoo In quickly inhaled and started approaching him as if someone was pulling her.

When she finally got close enough for the picturesque smile to fill her eyes, the man spoke in a low voice.

“Ms. Yoo In.”

“…Hello.”

The man squinted his eyes and smiled at her awkwardly bowing head.

His cool gaze quickly swept Yoo In from head to toe as she stood stiffly, seeming nervous.

Then with a deeper smile, he asked.

“Did you have a good lecture?”

Yoo In nodded slightly while blankly looking up at his perfect smile.

Meeting the man inside the school felt awkward and utterly unfamiliar.

He seemed like an intruder who had snuck into a hidden secret place and shouldn’t be here, but at the same time, he fit in so well under this cherry blossom that it felt dissonant.

“The whole campus is full of cherry trees. Do you like cherry blossoms, Ms. Yoo In?”

This time Yoo In shook her head. At the same time, the man suddenly reached out his arm, and Yoo In’s round eyes followed.

As he removed a pink petal from the top of her head and carelessly sent it fluttering to the ground, he said.

“It suits you well though. But you don’t like it.”

The man laughed languidly as he muttered softly to himself.

Realizing they had been thinking the same thing, Yoo In was overcome by a strange feeling of her solar plexus tingling even more than before and her cheeks burning hot, and she quickly averted her gaze.

Then her eyes met directly with the group who had been admiring his impressive figure behind the man’s back.

The mysterious air bubble that had been enveloping the two of them until just now burst with a pop, and Yoo In frowned.

“But why are you here?”

“I thought it would be convenient to get familiar with the area and find you.”

The man casually replied without minding anything, but Yoo In’s expression darkened further.

“Can we leave quickly?”

“Are you uncomfortable?”

At the gentle question, Yoo In raised only her eyes, tinged with anxiety, to look at the man.

What discomfort was he asking about? The person Do Ki Yeon? Or those useless concerns she was worrying about?

While Yoo In chewed her lip and briefly pondered her answer, the man moved a few steps. Then his broad shoulders and back blocked her entire view.

As if protecting Yoo In from them.

“…Director?”

When she called out as if asking why he was acting that way, he said playfully with a faint smile.

“You’re not even a company employee, so why am I ‘Director’?”

“What?”

“You just called me ‘Director’ a moment ago.”

Looking at the firm shoulder line, unable to immediately catch up with the topic that had jumped too far, Yoo In opened her eyes like a rabbit.

The man chuckled at her wide eyes, then looked around as if checking directions before gently pushing Yoo In’s back and starting to move forward.

Unaware of her own body moving, Yoo In asked the man.

“Then… what should I call you?”

“You can call me by name like I do, or whatever.”

The lingering impression left by his fading words was strange, but Yoo In didn’t notice and glanced up at the man as she asked back.

“Your name?”

“You know my name now.”

At the casually thrown words, Yoo In’s eyes narrowed slightly.

She stared intently for a long time, trying to figure out if this man was really telling her to call him by name when addressing him, and what his intention was, but there was no harvest at all.

“…I’ll just call you Director.”

“Hmm. Do you by any chance have plans to become an employee in the near future?”

Yoo In looked at the man with a dumbfounded face. Does he dislike being called Director that much?

It was clearly written on his business card, and her sister called him Director too, so she was bewildered why he was acting this way only with her.

“No.”

The man raised his straight eyebrows as he looked down at Yoo In, seemingly finding her resolute tone a bit unexpected.

“Why? The industry pays quite well.”

“I don’t like that industry.”

Don’t like this industry, huh. The man who impassively repeated the pronunciation removed his hand that had been resting on the small of Yoo In’s back.

Only then realizing the cool touch that had been there, Yoo In alternated looking at her back and the man with furrowed brows.

In response, the man lifted just the corners of his mouth as he opened the passenger door of a glossy black sedan that was now parked in the lot they had arrived at.

“Get in.”

“Where are we going?”

“A good place to talk.”

The man smiled slightly as if to say he had no other intentions.

****

The interior of the man’s car, which she was riding in for the second time already, felt as neat and sophisticated as its owner.

The interior with a faint leather seat smell seemed almost new with hardly any signs of use.

The man, who she only saw through the car, didn’t bring up any particular topic, and Yoo In, who ended up being cautious in turn, also kept her mouth shut and just looked at the street trees passing by outside the window.

The silence that had filled the quiet car was broken after the man’s car stopped in front of a building surrounded by dark colored bricks.

“Ms. Yoo In.”

When she quickly turned her head at the languid voice after looking outside, the man with an expression that seemed like he might or might not smile, gestured with his eyes towards the door.

“Get out.”

“Ah… okay.”

Did I look like I didn’t know how to get out? Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, Yoo In quickly slung her bag over her shoulder and opened the car door to get out.

Then the man who had come around the hood gently pushed Yoo In’s back like before and went inside.

After passing through the entrance lined with large wooden planters, the desk in front spotted the two of them and guided them to go up to the second floor without any particular procedure, just greeting them.

Yoo In went up the stairs like a doll as the man led her, then walked along the corridor.

Then a hall with an antique atmosphere and a large chandelier appeared, and surprisingly, there was only one table in that spacious place.

As the dumbfounded Yoo In sat down in the chair pulled out by the employee, the man who casually draped his jacket over the chair also sat down across from Yoo In and said.

“I asked them to prepare some simple desserts, is there anything you want to eat?”

“No. I don’t need to eat.”

“Is rejection also a habit?”

“What?”

When Yoo In asked again because he had muttered too softly to hear well, the man slightly smiled and shook his head saying it was nothing, then checked his phone.

Yoo In who tilted her head also didn’t ask further and looked around the unfamiliar space.

Up close, the much more majestic chandelier and the fireplace installed on one wall, along with the antique frames decorated above it, gave the feeling of being in a medieval palace.

She had felt it from the hotel, but his choice of venues seemed quite extraordinary, and at the same time, as anxiety slowly rose about what kind of talk required coming to a place like this, Yoo In just gulped down the water that was prepared while rolling her eyes.

“Still no questions?”

“What?”

When her eyes widened at the suddenly thrown question and turned towards him, the man who had his chin resting on his hand sideways smiled slightly saying, Me.

Yoo In who had been slowly blinking her eyes only opened her mouth after finishing the water that was already showing the bottom.

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That I’m Nam Yoo Jin’s sister.”

The man slightly frowned one eye as if displeased, then let out a low hum.

“I know almost everything about Nam Yoo Jin, you see.”

It was an ambiguous answer. Is it natural to recognize the sister just because you know everything about Nam Yoo Jin?

Well, she also unintentionally knew when this man joined the company, how he worked, and how he became a director, so she skipped this question and moved on to the next.

“If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Every time I was about to, someone ran away.”

“…It seems like you had plenty of opportunities.”

“That’s why I did it then.”

The man who sat up straight answered half-heartedly. His eyebrow twitched. An attitude of ‘What’s the problem?’

Yoo In who was looking at the man who had suddenly become unruly slightly furrowed her brows.

“You just handed over a business card and left?”

“Was that a bit much? Actually, I didn’t think explaining who I was was very important.”

“Then what was important?”

When Yoo In felt the flow of conversation was strange was when she saw the man leaning forward as if now interested, unlike herself who was confused.

As he grinned and slightly opened his mouth to answer, a loud vibration sound echoed through the hall that had been quiet except for their voices.

“Ah… just a moment please.”

When Yoo In who had startled at the sudden noise asked for understanding, the man leisurely leaned back in his chair and nodded slightly as if to say it was fine.

Rummaging through the bag hanging on the chair, the screen that kept ringing without stopping showed the name of someone not very welcome at this moment.

Yoo In rejected the call and sent a message saying she would contact them later, then put the phone back in her bag.

And as she was adjusting her posture, a low voice came over.

“Boyfriend?”

“What? No.”

Yoo In who had reflexively answered made an uncomfortable expression.

Isn’t the question getting too personal? Even though he saw Yoo In exuding an obviously displeased air, the man who was undeterred crossed his arms and continued the questions.

“Or soon to be?”

“Not at all.”

“Then?”

“Just a friend. But why are you curious about that now?”

Though her thin voice was quite sharp, the man who had satisfied his curiosity just made a humming sound and said nothing.

After staring at Yoo In’s disgruntled face for a while, the man finally smiled with crinkled eyes.

“That’s what’s important to me.”