Yi Soo watched as Ji Ho drove away with Yoo Mi in his car.

They were too far away to hear their conversation, but Yoo Mi smiled brightly the whole time while Ji Ho remained expressionless.

5:00 PM.

There were more people than ever at the main gate.

“Oh my, isn’t that Seo Ji Ho? Who’s the woman next to him?”

“Isn’t that Jung Yoo Mi, the goddess of the dance department?”

“Looks like they’re leaving together. Are they dating?”

“They’re a perfect couple. They look good together.”

Yi Soo listened indifferently to the chatter, but snorted at the word “goddess” of the dance department.

‘So Yoo Mi is even being called a goddess now.’

It couldn’t have taken more than 3 minutes from when they met until they got in the car.

In that short time, Ji Ho had instantly drawn everyone’s attention.

Even after the car disappeared, curiosity and comments about the woman with Ji Ho continued.

Yi Soo felt like she had gotten a preview of a situation she would face someday.

Lost in thought, Aera ran up and tapped Yi Soo on the shoulder.

“Yi Soo, let’s go.”

**

The movie was thrilling and exciting throughout its 2-hour running time.

It was past 9 o’clock when Yi Soo parted ways with Aera after dinner.

After seeing Aera off to the subway station, Yi Soo hesitated whether to contact Ji Ho.

If she met him now, it would be past 10 o’clock.

Wouldn’t it be better to contact him so late that he wouldn’t even think of coming?

As she walked to the bus stop estimating the time, a bus heading to her neighborhood whizzed past Yi Soo.

The bus stop was about 20 meters away.

Thinking she’d have to wait a long time if she missed that bus due to the long intervals, Yi Soo instinctively started running.

Even though there was no particular reason to hurry.

It was an action that overlooked her physical condition, where she had been groaning even when going down stairs due to muscle pain from hiking.

As Yi Soo was running, her body suddenly floated in the air for a moment before her center of gravity shifted forward and she slammed onto the asphalt ground.

“Ahhh!”

A scream burst out involuntarily.

“Oh no, what should we do.”

“That must really hurt.”

People at the bus stop made sympathetic comments as they looked at Yi Soo.

It was a situation where one couldn’t help but wince at how badly she had fallen.

‘Wow. I feel like crying more from embarrassment than pain.’

Yi Soo barely managed to raise her upper body by placing her hands on the ground.

Despite wanting to just dust herself off and stand up, her legs wouldn’t cooperate.

As soon as she managed to stand, she frantically waved at a passing taxi.

Her only thought was to quickly disappear from this place.

As soon as she plopped into the taxi, Yi Soo let out a long sigh of relief.

As the embarrassment faded, she felt a strong pain from her injured leg.

Looking at her leg, she saw that her pants were torn and blood was visible through the gap.

‘This is really too much. I definitely can’t meet Ji Ho today.’

Yi Soo took out her phone and texted Ji Ho.

−Ji Ho, let’s meet another time. Sorry for contacting you so late.

She had written a long, detailed message but deleted it all and sent a brief one instead.

−Did something happen?

A reply came immediately.

As she looked down at the screen wondering how to reply, Ji Ho called.

“Hello.”

“I’m on my way home.”

The call ended abruptly.

What did he mean by okay?

Yi Soo took the phone away from her ear and checked the screen again to make sure the call had really ended.

She wondered if he was angry, but she wasn’t in the mood to call him back and soothe him now.

The pain was getting worse as time passed, making her wonder if she had fractured a bone.

In the end, taking a taxi. If she had just gotten in nicely from the start, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt like this.

‘Why did I run for no reason?’

She was in pain, but she scrunched up her face in frustration at the situation.

After about 20 minutes, Yi Soo got off in front of her house and limped as she walked.

The fact that she could walk meant her bones probably weren’t broken.

The pain from the bruises and abrasions was quite sharp and throbbing.

Her beige pants were ruined with blood soaking through.

Just imagining the pain she would have to endure while disinfecting this made her face contort.

As Yi Soo was walking while looking down at her miserable knee, a large shadow approached from behind her.

“Yi Soo,”

“Oh? Seo Ji Ho……”

Yi Soo quickly turned her head.

She felt embarrassment before happiness.

To show this state again.

“What happened to your leg? Did you fall?”

Ji Ho knelt down on the ground with a surprised face and examined Yi Soo’s injured leg.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”

“Why would I go to the hospital for something like this? I can just disinfect it and put a band-aid on at home.”

Yi Soo spoke casually to Ji Ho who was asking with a worried face.

“Can you walk?”

Ji Ho asked as he stretched his legs and stood up.

“Of course. My bones are fine.”

Yi Soo wanted to get home quickly and rest, but Ji Ho didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving.

Yi Soo hesitated, unsure what to do.

“But why did you come? I said let’s meet another time.”

“I felt bad about how we parted this morning. I wanted to see your face and talk. But now……”

She couldn’t keep standing on the street with torn pants and a bloody leg.

There were no cafes open at this hour either.

Above all, it was unreasonable to go anywhere in this state.

“Then…… let’s go to my place. We can talk at home.”

She didn’t want to invite Ji Ho to her home like this.

But her leg hurt too much and she was too tired to consider everything.

“Ah……”

Ji Ho hesitated to say he would go to a woman’s home alone at this hour, but he also felt bad about leaving the injured Yi Soo.

Seeing Ji Ho hesitate, Yi Soo spoke again.

“It’s okay. Let’s go in. I can’t stand for long right now.”

“Then…… I’ll just check on your injury and leave right away.”

**

Ji Ho felt a bit dazed as he unexpectedly ended up at Yi Soo’s home.

If he had been formally invited, it would have been a situation where he’d feel nervous and excited, but now, supporting the limping Yi Soo, he had no time to feel such things.

“The bathroom is that way, so wash your hands and sit on the sofa. I’ll change my clothes and come out.”

Being in pain, she had no余裕 to worry about various things.

Yi Soo naturally told Ji Ho the location of the bathroom and went into her room.

The injured skin and pants were stuck together, so she had to endure considerable pain even when taking off her pants.

After removing her pants, the wound looked even more miserable.

Yi Soo sighed in frustration, changed into short pants, and washed her hands.

She came out to the living room and took out the first aid kit, placing it on the living room table.

“I’ll do it for you. Sit down.”

Ji Ho took out disinfectant and moist bandages from the first aid kit.

“I can do it myself……”

She didn’t want to show her face contorted in pain from the wound.

She felt like she might scream the moment the disinfectant touched the wound.

Should she bite down on a handkerchief or something?

Ji Ho took out a stick with disinfectant on it.

The disinfectant touches the wound.

Every time it grazed the wound, Yi Soo gritted her teeth to avoid making a sound.

Her fists clenched involuntarily.

“Does it sting?”

Ji Ho sighed lightly as he carefully applied the medicine, looking at Yi Soo in pain.

“Yeah. A little.”

Ji Ho’s hand moved calmly again.

“It must hurt a lot.”

“Yeah…… It stings so much.”

She could no longer keep up the lie that it was just a little pain.

Ji Ho blew gently on the wound where he had applied the disinfectant.

Yi Soo squeezed her eyes shut at the strange feeling that was both stinging and ticklish.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No.”

As the disinfectant dried, Ji Ho cut the moist bandage to fit the size of the wound.

As he applied it to Yi Soo’s knee, he asked.

“How did you get hurt?”

Ji Ho looked at Yi Soo as he cleaned up the used disinfectant stick and bandage packaging.

“I fell while running to catch the bus.”

Yi Soo felt somehow embarrassed even as she said it.

“I still have muscle pain from hiking yesterday.”

She added a word that sounded like an excuse.

“Did you run because you wanted to see me quickly?”

“Huh?”

It took a few seconds for Yi Soo to understand what Ji Ho meant as he asked with a chuckle.

She was about to say that wasn’t the case, but stopped herself.

If that were true, she would have taken a taxi from the start.

It felt awkward just sitting there after the wound treatment was finished.

“Do you want something to drink?”

Yi Soo asked as she stood up unsteadily.

She felt she should at least offer a drink since a guest had come.

“It’s okay. Just sit down.”

Ji Ho grabbed Yi Soo’s wrist as she stood and made her sit back down on the sofa.

The two sat side by side on the sofa.

Ji Ho turned his upper body towards Yi Soo.

“I came because I wanted to talk to you. And I missed you.”

A gentle hand affectionately brushed away Yi Soo’s fallen hair.

That hand softly caressed her face and cupped it.

Whenever they were this close.

Yi Soo always felt overwhelmed because her heart was beating too fast and her face was flushing too red.

She felt a bit short of breath as well.

“I’m sorry about this morning. No matter what, I shouldn’t have gotten off like that, but I didn’t expect you to come suddenly in the morning, so I didn’t have time to talk to you beforehand. Because I had to talk in a hurry, I ended up……”

“Are you so uncomfortable being with me that you had to run away like that?”

The image of Yi Soo smiling and chatting comfortably with Dong Woo came to mind.

“It’s not because of you, but because people who see you also see me next to you.”

An exasperated sigh escaped Ji Ho’s lips.

“Yi Soo, I want to see you whenever I miss you, I want you to only look at me, and when I see you with other men, I feel so jealous I could go crazy.”

His intense gaze fixed on Yi Soo.

“It seems hard to pretend not to like you and hold back while being conscious of others’ eyes.”

Yi Soo swallowed dryly.

He was saying it was difficult to meet secretly without others knowing.

“I want you to always be by my side. I don’t like seeing other people next to you.”

To think that the great Seo Ji Ho was jealous.

Should she be happy about this?

‘You’re the one who drove off with another woman, why am I the one hearing this?’

Yi Soo thought that she should be the one feeling jealous, not Ji Ho.

Where did all of Ji Ho’s usual confidence and composure go, saying he felt so jealous he could go crazy just because she went to a cafe with Dong Woo?

As she listened, she couldn’t help but laugh a little at how absurd it sounded.

Yi Soo spoke gently, as if soothing an upset child.

“Then…… just keep it a secret at school, if nowhere else. Okay?”

“Haa……”

To ask to keep it secret only at school, where they spend the most time.

He had come to persuade Yi Soo, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of changing her mind.

A long silence followed Ji Ho’s sigh.

Yi Soo was pressing her lips together tightly and avoiding his gaze.

Ji Ho ran his hand through his hair, looking frustrated.

“Alright. I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you.”

Yi Soo smiled slightly at Ji Ho’s reluctant words.

The mature Ji Ho suddenly seemed like a child.

“It’s late. Go home now.”

Yi Soo looked at the clock on the wall.

It was 11 o’clock.

“Okay. Get some rest since you’re hurt.”

Ji Ho stood up.

“I won’t see you out. Be careful on your way.”

Yi Soo stood at the entrance to say goodbye.

Ji Ho approached with a slight smile, cupped Yi Soo’s cheek, and softly kissed her.

“Good night. I’ll come pick you up in the morning.”

Leaving Yi Soo standing there with wide eyes in surprise, Ji Ho turned and left without lingering.

Click.

The sound of the front door closing and the lock turning was heard.

Only then did Yi Soo’s tension finally release.

Yi Soo took a deep breath, pressing her palm against her pounding heart.