“I really hate this so much.”

He didn’t want to let go.

As Tae Un’s lips parted from Ba Ha’s, regret burst from his mouth. As the time he really had to leave drew closer, he furrowed his brow and buried his face in her shoulder.

Like someone who wanted to hold on for as long as they had to be apart.

Ding-!

[ Vice Chairman, I’ve arrived. ]

At Joon’s seemingly hurried message, only a sigh escaped Tae Un’s lips, and Ba Ha also hugged him tightly again, trying to ease the regret.

“Go safely. I’ll wait for you.”

“I’ll be back before the weekend. Don’t make any plans. Understand?”

“Yes. I understand.”

Ba Ha held Tae Un’s hand and walked with him until he got in the car, and as the car carrying Joon and Tae Un drove away, Ba Ha waved her hand.

Now that he wouldn’t be by her side for a few days as she commuted alone, unable to feel Tae Un’s warmth during that time, Ba Ha already felt empty.

“What should I do.”

She thought she was always used to waiting.

Waiting for someone was not easy for Ba Ha, but she thought it was something she could endure, something she could struggle through.

Ba Ha stood in that spot until his car was out of sight, staring at where he had departed and murmured.

“I miss you already.”

[This is the timeline separator]

It had been a while.

At the thought of going home alone after work for the first time in a long time, Ba Ha didn’t want to go home and considered contacting Roo Mi because she wanted to go home late, but as if knowing her feelings, she ended up staying late at the company with Doo Na due to overtime work that came up.

[ Did you leave work? ] [ No. It seems the company was worried I might be bored waiting for Tae Un. I got overtime duty. ] [ I should go quickly and finish your overtime for you. Finish up before it gets later and go home safely. ] [ Okay. Don’t worry. ]

Ba Ha burst out laughing as she exchanged messages with Tae Un, reminded of when she first met him.

There were times when communicating with him wasn’t always pleasant, and times when she gradually looked forward to his messages.

Remembering those times, Ba Ha’s mouth corners refused to turn down as she held her phone.

“Senior, shall we get some late-night snacks? I’m hungry.”

“Should we? It’s already gotten so late. What do you want to eat, Doo Na? Let’s go out and buy something together.”

“Really? Yay!”

Outside, it was already getting dark.

Excited at the thought of late-night snacks, Doo Na clung tightly to Ba Ha’s arm. If I had a younger sister, wouldn’t it feel like this? Finding Doo Na adorable, Ba Ha took her, who was clinging tightly to her arm, and headed to the first floor together.

“Who are they whispering about again? It’s scary every time they whisper like that now. Don’t you think so, senior?”

As if reminded of Hi Ra, Doo Na spoke with a face that seemed to give her chills, shuddering.

“Yeah…”

It was Lee Han.

She could tell just from the silhouette visible in the distance.

Who the subject of those whispers was.

Where her gaze fell, Lee Han was standing, unable to enter the company, and employees passing through the lobby would glance at him once and whisper.

“…”

It was a habit.

Just a habit she couldn’t let go of.

Seeing him, Ba Ha habitually began to scan Lee Han with her eyes. Unlike when he used to come to meet her, she was surprised to see Lee Han barely covering himself, and as she looked around his surroundings, she saw that even Dae Sik wasn’t by his side.

“Doo Na, I’m really sorry. I’ll be right back. Do you want to buy what you want to eat and go up first?”

“Okay. Senior, nothing bad is going to happen, right?”

“No. It won’t. Go up first. I’m sorry.”

Her body reacted first.

As soon as Ba Ha saw Lee Han, her body moved first. After apologizing to Doo Na, she ran towards Lee Han, grabbed his hand, and left the company.

“Follow me.”

She didn’t think it through.

Her body moved first, worried that he might become the subject of gossip again for coming without even covering himself. Ba Ha ran with him, looking for a place to talk in hiding.

“Haa… O-oppa! What are you doing now? Why did you come like this? Are you crazy?”

Ba Ha roughly let go of his wrist that she had been holding as she caught her breath from running while hiding with Lee Han in a deserted alley behind the company.

“Ba… Ha.”

I was happy to see you even like this.

Even seeing Ba Ha who was roughly pushing him away and spewing harsh words, Lee Han’s face gradually spread into a relieved smile, feeling as if she was worried about him, like they had returned to the past.

“Ha… Oppa, what brings you here? What about Dae Sik oppa? Did you tell him before coming? No, if you had told him, you wouldn’t have been able to come. Oppa, what were you thinking…!”

Throughout her speech, Ba Ha was busy turning her head around repeatedly, lowering her voice that was unknowingly getting louder, in case someone might recognize them.

She was afraid of repeating the same thing again.

She hoped no one would get hurt by the same thing again.

She hoped this wouldn’t reach Tae Un’s ears.

“I just came alone. This much is… fine. Ba Ha.”

“Don’t… lie!”

Her nerves were getting increasingly frayed.

Ba Ha spat out her heated feelings at his words, and now she hated him so much for trying to keep shaking her.

She had wished and wished

To walk outside together with him not all bundled up.

There were times when she imagined holding hands with him while making eye contact in a bright space.

“You never came out like this when meeting me.”

His words that this much was fine pierced Ba Ha’s heart.

What did he mean by fine?

It wasn’t fine.

Because even after breaking up, this dark alley without a single light was the only place allowed to us.

Ba Ha looked at him and spat out irritably.

“I’m… sorry.”

Lee Han spoke in a voice that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, as if deflated by Ba Ha’s voice that seemed really angry.

“Ha… Oppa, can’t you stop saying sorry? If you knew you’d be sorry to me in this situation, you shouldn’t have come. So why did you come here?”

“You know… Ba Ha.”

Lee Han took Ba Ha’s hand.

He took her hand with trembling fingers, and even in the alley without a single light, Ba Ha could tell.

That his eyes were becoming moist.

“…”

Ba Ha’s heart ached more and more as she faced Lee Han like this. So she wished he would just stop. So she wished he would understand her feelings.

She wished he would let go of her as she was trying to move towards happiness now.

“It’s almost your birthday soon. We’ve never been apart on your birthday… So…”

“Oppa, why are you remembering my birthday? Don’t you know we’re not that kind of relationship anymore?”

“Ba Ha…”

She spoke more harshly.

Ba Ha deliberately chose only words that would hurt him. She pushed him away more cruelly, hoping he would let go of his lingering feelings seeing herself like this.

“We need to stop now. You know that.”

This was the best she could do.

It was a matter of inflicting wounds, and inflicting more, so that new flesh could grow there, so she spoke more harshly.

Because he was a foolish person who would get an even bigger wound later if she accepted him even a little, Ba Ha hoped that now, this moment of having to hurt him, would truly be the last.

She hoped this moment of glaring sharply and spitting out sharp words would be the last.

“Ba Ha. An article will be released tomorrow.”

“Please! Stop talking about that article! Oppa, I’m having such a hard time! Every time you do this, I feel like I’m going crazy remembering how you hurt me!”

It came back to her again.

The day she first spoke of breaking up while inflicting wounds.

The days she cried every day from the wounds he gave her.

How could he say those words from that day without missing a single letter?

Though she felt sorry for him as he spoke with such a pitiful expression, on the other hand she hated him so much. Hearing his words, the wounds he had given her rose up again and painfully shook Ba Ha.

Ba Ha finally glared at him while crying out with tears falling.

“I’m really going to end it. It’s over now. When the breakup article comes out, it’s really over. Then we can go back to how we were before.”

“No, we can’t go back now. Whether the breakup article comes out or not, it has nothing to do with me anymore. Because we’re over too.”

“I… said I would undo everything!”

“Even if you undo everything, it doesn’t undo the hurt you caused me.”

It was cold.

After the crying out came coldness. In the eyes with tears flowing as she looked at him, no emotion could be found.

It had cooled completely.

It was just empty coldness to the point where it would have been better if anger had filled Ba Ha’s eyes instead.

“Ba Ha, please…”

At Ba Ha’s final words, Lee Han froze and let go of her hand that he had been holding.

The answer he thought was best

Came back as the worst.

I regret it. All those words I spat out trying to hurt you.

“Oppa, I’m going.”

It was the same farewell words to him who couldn’t let go of his lingering feelings, and it was waiting, but it was Ba Ha’s farewell courtesy that she could give.

It was the farewell courtesy given by Ba Ha who left first to conclude not one or two years, but the time we had lived.

So that he, who was still trapped in that time and couldn’t escape, could safely conclude it.

It was waiting for him, with whom she had spent her whole life.

“Don’t come looking for me anymore.”