Ding-a-ling−!

“Welcome.”

“Roo Mi! I’m here!”

Kang Roo Mi.

Just as they say having even one friend you can lean on in life means you’ve succeeded, Ba Ha had such a friend in Roo Mi.

Roo Mi was Ba Ha’s longtime friend from before she entered the Taesan family. Among Ba Ha’s few friends, she was the only one who knew everything about Ba Ha’s relationship with Taesan and her situation with Lee Han. She was always there for Ba Ha whenever she had troubles.

“Hah…… you!”

As soon as Roo Mi spotted Ba Ha, she let out a sigh. Seeing this, Ba Ha felt sorry for worrying Roo Mi again, so she deliberately smiled cutely as if nothing was wrong.

Upon Ba Ha’s arrival, Roo Mi quickly ran to the store entrance and locked the door, taking advantage of the moment when there were no customers.

To focus entirely on listening to Ba Ha’s story.

“You……! Come here! You crazy girl.”

Thump! Thump!

As soon as Roo Mi locked the store door, she turned around and charged at Ba Ha. She mercilessly hit Ba Ha’s back, who was grinning broadly. Even while being hit, Ba Ha couldn’t stop the laughter from escaping.

“Aaah! I’m sorry! It hurts……!”

Ba Ha felt very sorry for making Roo Mi worry, but she was glad that there was at least one person who cared about her.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone? Why didn’t you read my KakaoTalk messages? Is your phone just for show? Do you have any idea how shocked I was when I saw the news?”

At Ba Ha’s words of pain, Roo Mi stopped hitting her and spoke in an angry voice. But when Ba Ha saw Roo Mi’s face full of concern despite the angry tone, she felt choked up and her throat began to tighten.

“I’m…… sorry. Roo Mi.”

“Hah…… So how much did you cry? You’re not okay, right? Don’t give me that useless ‘I’m fine’ crap. I won’t believe it.”

She wanted to hear it.

She didn’t want to say she was fine.

There was no way she could be fine.

She wasn’t okay.

It hurt so much, and right now she just wanted to be held in someone’s arms and cry her heart out. At Roo Mi’s question that felt like it was tearing her heart apart, Ba Ha’s emotions quickly welled up.

Ba Ha’s smile gradually faded, and the tears that had filled her eyes finally spilled over. Ba Ha burrowed into Roo Mi’s arms beside her and sobbed endlessly.

“Sob…… I’m not okay. That bastard. He’s a real bastard.”

“Hah…… That’s right. Cry. Don’t go cry alone somewhere, just cry here.”

“Roo Mi, it hurts…… It hurts so much. It hurts like I’m dying……”

Roo Mi hugged Ba Ha as she fell into her arms and patted her back.

She wished Ba Ha would just cry her heart out like this in her arms and be done with it. She wished the tears would stop flowing from Ba Ha’s eyes now, and that she would stop hurting.

She was a woman who had been hurt too much in life.

Roo Mi’s heart ached with pity whenever she thought of Ba Ha.

“Roo Mi…… Sob. He’s not answering…… Elder brother’s not answering his phone.”

“Hah……”

“I think it’s really over. I guess…… it is. Sniff……”

Ba Ha cried and cried out loud in Roo Mi’s arms, muttering as if pouring out her grievances.

The continued ringing tone over the unanswered phone felt like another fatal blow to Ba Ha. It seemed to be telling her that the breakup with him, which she had been denying and denying, was now a fact she had to accept, and it made her heart ache.

How could he end it all at once?

Does the time we spent together mean nothing to elder brother?

Ba Ha hated Lee Han, who had been her whole world.

“I don’t…… want to. I don’t want to. Sob…… Roo Mi, I don’t want to break up. Elder brother shouldn’t do this to me. Right?!”

“Hah……”

As Roo Mi watched Ba Ha wailing endlessly, deep sighs kept escaping her lips.

Ba Ha still couldn’t accept it. No, she wasn’t ready to accept it, and she didn’t want to accept it.

The sudden breakup with him and the sudden admission of his scandal.

All of it.

It felt like if she acknowledged and accepted the breakup with him, all the time she had spent with him would disappear.

Ba Ha didn’t want to admit it because it felt like her whole world would really disappear.

“Have you cried it all out?”

“Uh…… yeah. I’ve cried it all out.”

The trembling that had been transmitted through Roo Mi’s hand for a while gradually subsided. Ba Ha emerged from Roo Mi’s arms, wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and smiled faintly.

“Ba Ha, can you tell me now? If you can’t, you don’t have to. I can pretty much guess.”

Roo Mi carefully asked Ba Ha, whose eyelids and nose tip had turned bright red as if to show that she had cried out all her emotions.

“Actually…… I haven’t heard anything either. Just ‘Let’s break up. There will be news articles.’ That’s all.”

Ba Ha looked at Roo Mi with eyes still wet from tears that hadn’t dried yet and grinned, but that smile didn’t fool Roo Mi.

She tried to hide her bitterness, but it didn’t work on Roo Mi’s eyes, and seeing Ba Ha’s smile, Roo Mi’s anger rose at Lee Han’s rude behavior.

“What…… did you say? That f*cker. Bad bastard. He’s completely crazy. Don’t smile. It’s not funny, why are you smiling!”

There should be manners even in a breakup.

Two people who were in love, who had promised a lifetime together, could break up because they couldn’t always have the same feelings while doing this thing called love.

But knowing full well what he meant to Ba Ha, how could he end the time they had built up with just those words “Let’s break up” without any explanation?

If it were the usual Lee Han, if it were the Lee Han that Roo Mi knew, he wouldn’t have acted like this, so she really couldn’t understand his reason, but she didn’t want to know his thoughts or circumstances.

Because what mattered most to Roo Mi was Ba Ha.

“I’m okay now. I’ve become okay. Roo Mi.”

The words Ba Ha carefully offered while looking at her, who was angry to the tips of her hair, angered Roo Mi once again.

“Hah……”

“It’s okay. You’re here beside me, Roo Mi. You know I love you, right?”

“You know I don’t love you, right? Blow your nose, you fool.”

She was grateful.

Ba Ha was so grateful to Roo Mi for getting angry on her behalf that she clung to her arm, speaking in a nasal voice. Roo Mi chuckled and casually pulled out a tissue from the table and handed it over, and Ba Ha took the tissue without hiding her bitter smile and blew her nose with a loud snort.

“Here, drink this.”

While Ba Ha was blowing her nose, Roo Mi went to the kitchen and brought back some warm rooibos tea for Ba Ha.

Ba Ha, who had been crying for a while, looked at Roo Mi with an embarrassed grin and, taking her hands off the tissue, accepted the teacup Roo Mi handed her and cupped it in her hands.

“Hehe…… Thanks.”

It was warm. Ba Ha felt her excited emotions from crying gradually calming down with the warmth slowly transmitted through her hands.

“I’m sorry. Because of me, you even had to close the store……”

“What’s there to be sorry about for something like this? Who’s going to say anything? I’m the boss here!”

“Ooh~ Kang Roo Mi, you’re so cool~!”

When Ba Ha smiled brightly at Roo Mi’s playful words, Roo Mi also smiled brightly, meeting Ba Ha’s eyes.

Even though they had just made eye contact, somehow they seemed to understand.

What feelings they had for each other.

Bzzzz−!

Just as Ba Ha was slowly starting to calm down, her face suddenly hardened as she looked at the phone ringing incessantly beside her. Her brows furrowed gradually, and sighs kept escaping her lips.

“What? Who is it?”

“The…… chairman.”

Ba Ha just stared at her phone, ignoring the persistent vibration and not answering the call. The unanswered call soon ended, but as soon as it did, the tactless vibration started again, and Ba Ha finally answered the unwanted call reluctantly, crying.

Because she knew he was the type of person who would keep calling until she answered.

“Hello.”

− Why are you answering the phone so late?

“You should have stopped if I wasn’t answering. You know very well why I wasn’t answering.”

As soon as she answered the phone, Ba Ha heard Chairman Han clicking his tongue over the phone at her irritable words.

− Come in today.

“I can’t today. I don’t want to.”

− Come in when I tell you to.

“No, I can’t…… Hah…… Alright.”

She hated it.

As if they had marked some special day, everything was pestering Ba Ha. Despite her refusal, at Chairman Han’s insistence that she come in, Ba Ha let out a sigh.

The things she wanted to end clung to her so persistently, refusing to leave Ba Ha, while the things she wanted to last forever all left her.

“Hah…… Roo Mi, tell me honestly.”

“What?”

“Have I done something wrong lately? If there’s something I’ve done wrong, could you please tell me? So I can come to my senses.”

Ba Ha grabbed Roo Mi’s hand and asked gravely, furrowing her brow.

She wanted to know.

What on earth had she done wrong for the heavens to be so indifferent to her like this? It should have been time for things to go well by now, so why was it tormenting her like this?

“Why? What did he say?”

“He wants me to come in for a bit. Hah…… I hate it. The thought of setting foot in that awful house again.”

Ba Ha hated Chairman Han who reminded her that she was a member of the Taesan family just when she was about to forget. Every time she entered and left that house at his summons, the painful memories from that house engulfed Ba Ha again.

It was a house she didn’t want to go to anyway.

And she hated Chairman Han who was calling her on this day when she was out of her mind and struggling after breaking up with Lee Han.

A person she already disliked.

Today, she disliked him even more.

“Again? Want me to go with you? I’ll take you there.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll call you when I get there. You need to reopen the store. I’ll be back!”

Ba Ha let out a deep sigh and forcibly peeled her reluctant bottom off the chair and stood up.

“Why not let me take you?”

“No, really, it’s fine.”

Seeing Ba Ha shaking her head at her words, Roo Mi let out a deep sigh.

Who could break that stubborn will?

“Hah…… Alright. Make sure to call!”