“Baek Jin Cheol.”

Jin Cheol, who was leaving work in a disheveled state, was startled by a sudden presence as he passed through the company’s main gate and ended up falling hard on his bottom.

“Ah, ow.”

Groaning as he got up, Jin Cheol finally realized that the person who had appeared before him was someone he knew.

“Hong Mi So.”

Mi So was looking at Jin Cheol with an expressionless face. Getting up, Jin Cheol scratched the back of his head with his right hand while rubbing his sore bottom with his left hand, letting out a soft sigh.

“How did you get here?”

“We haven’t resolved anything yet.”

Mi So looked at Jin Cheol with furrowed brows.

“I didn’t get any answer. You just left and haven’t contacted me since.”

Jin Cheol bit his lip hard. What’s the point of doing anything now?

“Back then, Elder Sister Seol Ah said it.”

Jin Cheol stumbled over his words.

“If you were going to say something, you wouldn’t have run away.”

“Then what about my position?”

With arms crossed, Mi So glared at Jin Cheol.

“My kiss was stolen. You were fine with kissing me when you liked it, but suddenly ran away. What? If you were going to say that, you wouldn’t have run away?”

Jin Cheol lowered his gaze.

What should I say to make it right? It was a relationship that ended anyway.

“Did you have even a little bit of remorse? Or were you just a selfish jerk, unlike how you seem?”

“Yeah.”

The past had to be left behind. As long as there was a reason that couldn’t be spoken.

“I’m a selfish jerk.”

It wasn’t that Jin Cheol disliked Mi So. There was another reason why he had suddenly moved away in high school.

However.

He mustn’t get involved with her. Because that’s what he promised. Because that was truly the path to do right by her.

“I’m sorry. Please let me go.”

Saying you’re a selfish jerk and then pleading, what’s with that? Mi So smirked. If you really want to act selfish, at least do it with a strong attitude like Han Seung Jun.

You still look anxious without me.

“I can’t do that.”

“Mi So.”

“I’m not moving a single step from here until you tell me the reason. So do as you please. Go home or whatever.”

At first, she had no intention of clinging to him like this.

She simply didn’t want to lose Jin Cheol again after meeting him by chance, and wanted to hear the reason even now.

But as he kept avoiding giving a reason, she became stubborn.

Jin Cheol couldn’t bring himself to walk past Mi So, who stood there as if to say she would do as she said.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he stood with his head bowed.

“I’m sorry.”

Mi So stood silently with her back turned to Jin Cheol.

“Yeah, it’s all my fault. I…”

“I don’t want to hear that. I want you to tell me the truth!”

Mi So shouted.

“Why I had to be suddenly shunned like that. What I did wrong. If not that, then what happened. Please tell me.”

Jin Cheol only shook his head.

Mi So looked at Jin Cheol silently for a moment, then widened her eyes with a realization.

If it’s that. Perhaps.

“Did you meet my mother?”

Jin Cheol’s body trembled.

Mi So grabbed Jin Cheol’s shoulder as if she had hit the mark.

“Tell me. Did you meet my mother?!”

“N-no. No, I didn’t.”

“Look me in the eye and say it.”

Jin Cheol met Mi So’s gaze, but his eyes were shaking pathetically.

A thin sigh escaped Mi So’s lips.

“Ha.”

Mi So’s mother was the very person who had raised her to be more refined than anyone else. She had no doubt that she herself was a very cultured and intelligent person.

But Mi So knew.

How much vanity she was brimming with.

Since elementary school, Mi So’s mother had been meeting with teachers at school, trying to reign over Mi So with so-called “skirt wind”.

She decided which friends Mi So could hang out with and made sure she didn’t befriend those who were poor or had flaws.

At first, Mi So thought her mother was right, but gradually felt suffocated. The friends her mother wanted her to hang out with were all boring. When they met, they did the same things.

They always bragged about what they had, compared with each other, regretted what they didn’t have, and said they should buy it together next time. That was it.

The next time they met, they would bring what they bought and brag about it again. It was a repetition.

Mi So gradually began secretly meeting other friends and getting into other activities behind her mother’s back. Amidst such conflicts, Mi So entered high school and met Jin Cheol.

Jin Cheol was different from Mi So in many ways. He wasn’t the type her mother wanted her to be with, but he showed a completely different side from her mother who always pressured and confined her, saying “you have to do this”.

Mi So gradually felt at ease with Jin Cheol, who said she could do whatever she wanted.

When Mi So was having a hard time, if her mother nagged all night, Jin Cheol lent his shoulder all night so she could talk. Mi So had never met a friend like this before.

“My mother met you and told you to break up with me? That’s why you suddenly ran away, right?”

“N-no, that’s not it.”

Jin Cheol shook his head, his face turning bright red.

He really can’t lie well.

Mi So smirked.

After being betrayed by Jin Cheol, she realized that her way had been wrong. Yes, mom was right. I should meet someone on my level.

But now that she knew the truth, the one who was really not up to par was not Jin Cheol, but Mi So’s mother.

“Okay, even if it’s not, that’s fine. But if that’s not the reason, there’s no reason for us not to see each other, right?”

It was a strangely deceptive statement, but Jin Cheol was too flustered to notice the meaning behind those words.

Seeing Jin Cheol nod his head like a fool, Mi So gently lifted the corners of her mouth.

*

‘He’s really waiting for that.’

Seung Jun was looking at Jin Cheol and Mi So through the window with one corner of his mouth raised.

In principle, a superior should not readily divulge the means to contact a subordinate employee.

But as he listened to Mi So’s voice on the sudden call, Seung Jun felt his emotions intensify as if hearing another voice within himself.

– Mr. Han Seung Jun, you don’t know because you haven’t experienced it. The person I was seeing normally suddenly ran away. If that problem isn’t resolved, I can’t be freed from my guilt. I need to hear that it wasn’t because of me!

– You don’t know this feeling, Mr. Han Seung Jun. I’ve always lived a life forced upon me by someone. In fear that if I don’t live that way, I might die. But do you know who freed me from that? It’s Jin Cheol. Only Jin Cheol loved me for who I am!

– Now that I’ve met Jin Cheol, I realize. That my life until now has been a lie. I can only be my true self when I’m by his side. You probably don’t know this feeling, Mr. Seung Jun!

The reason Mi So’s words kept bothering Seung Jun was because she kept making definitive judgments about him, saying things like “you don’t know because you haven’t experienced it”, “do you even know”, “you probably don’t know this feeling”.

I know. I know exactly what that feeling is, you…

He wanted to grab her and shout. If he could, he wanted to vent for an hour, two hours, about his relationship with Seol Ah.

But he couldn’t do that, so he ended up saying this in a tone of surrender.

– Wait in front of the JK headquarters building. I can’t tell you the time. If you have the will, we’ll meet someday. That’s all I can say.

If her feelings were deep, she would wait all day. If not, she would stay for a bit and leave. And if it wasn’t even that much, she wouldn’t come at all.

But she really came. She even came in the morning to wait for Jin Cheol.

As it happened, it was a day he went to work early, and he arrived even earlier than her, so he didn’t meet her. He ate at the company cafeteria, so he didn’t go outside the building.

After finishing overtime, he finally met her as he left the building. Seung Jun, who had been silently watching, blinked his eyes as he felt his heart ache for no reason.

‘They seem to have no problem on that side.’

If the relationship was one-sided or looked dangerous, Seung Jun would have no reason to bring them back together. But Seung Jun could clearly feel it. Both of them were shaken.

Sometimes a moment dominates memory.

The most memorable moments for that person remain vivid as if they happened yesterday, even after a long time has passed.

Seung Jun felt the excitement of that memory from the two of them.

‘Don’t resent me too much. The one who ran away must have had their reasons, but it feels really shitty for the one who was abandoned. So you’ll have to bear that. And in the long run, it won’t be bad for you either.’

After saying words that Jin Cheol couldn’t hear, Seung Jun slowly turned his body.

Just then, as if on cue, his cell phone rang.

“I understand. Good work.”

After hanging up, he suddenly felt hot blood coursing through his whole body. Now it was beginning.

‘I’m in no position to meddle in someone else’s love life right now.’

A relationship that had become twisted and tangled. A relationship where he didn’t know where to start unraveling it was before his eyes.

Will it get a little better if home gets closer? No, what if it gets even more tangled? That possibility wasn’t zero either.

It was funny. The one who ran away was the other person, but why did it seem like he was the one suffering more? While the other person easily drew the line. Why was he the one fretting over that line?

Work was easier in comparison. Do it if you can, don’t if you can’t. Push forward with your own assertions, and if it doesn’t seem right, you can quit. And not many people dared to go against what Seung Jun did.

‘Yeah, let’s think of it as work. The path will reveal itself as I go along. If not, there will be a sign.’

Seung Jun had a particularly excellent sense for that sort of thing. That’s why no one opposed him becoming the vice president.

Arriving at the prepared house, Seung Jun lay diagonally in the small, cozy space. Looking at the moon visible through the wide window, he unknowingly smiled.

Is Yu Seol Ah looking at that moon right now?

My son would be looking at it too.

Thinking about it, he felt as comfortable as if he had truly come home. It was an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“Mom, the black bean noodles we ate earlier were really delicious. Let’s go again later.”

“Okay.”

“Should we bring Sir with us next time?”

The voices of Seol Ah and Yu Min could be heard entering the hallway. Seung Jun abruptly sat up.

“Sir doesn’t eat that kind of thing. Let’s go again, just the two of us.”

He eats it, why wouldn’t he eat black bean noodles? Seung Jun rubbed his chest, feeling like he was boiling inside.