“Okay. Oppa. If that’s how you feel…”
‘Yeah. It’s selfish of me to want Yoo Hyun Oppa to be by my side like this. Choi Arin, I can’t force this feeling on Oppa. Even feeling like tears are about to fall is selfish.’

Arin bit down hard on the tender flesh inside her mouth.

If Yoo Hyun didn’t want to see her, she couldn’t see him. That was how it had to be.

“Arin-ah, I won’t give up on you.”

Every time Yoo Hyun called her name, there had been a time when she felt good.

Just thinking about it made her smile.

Arin’s existence was the same for Yoo Hyun.

Life had changed for Yoo Hyun because of Choi Arin.

Suppressing the surging emotions, Yoo Hyun gritted his teeth and held back tears.

‘If it hurts this much, what should I do?’

Just spitting out the three characters of his name was painful. The sadness was so intense that it felt like his heart would tear apart, and his eyes grew warm with tears.

Watching Yoo Hyun turn red from his nose to the tip, Arin couldn’t say anything.

“So, leave me…”

Yoo Hyun abruptly turned his head away from Arin.

“Leave me alone. I’m begging you.”

“Oppa…”

“Don’t force your feelings on me. Don’t tell me to forget. If you can’t accept it… don’t do anything. The only thing you can do is pretend you didn’t see anything.”

She couldn’t hold on any longer.

For a long time, she couldn’t move from that spot.

“Oppa, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

With closed eyes due to remorse, tears flowed between her closed eyelids.

A few days later.

Arin and Yoo Hyun were in the same space, yet they were like people in different spaces.

Yoo Hyun pretended not to know Arin even when he saw her, and Arin endlessly stared at his back.

In this suffocating situation, there were people who were watching.

It was the members of Memorize, including Cheol-yong.

Although they didn’t say it out loud, it seemed like everyone guessed that something had happened between the two. Yet, no one directly asked about it.

“Then, I’ll go eat.”

It was late for a meal, but Arin picked up her wallet and stood up.

“Yes, please go and come back.”

Cheol-yong, who was arranging the products, responded to Arin’s words.

“While I’m gone, if Manager Kim comes, please take care of it.”

Yesterday evening, the glass on the right display shelf was broken, so they had sent it for repair. Manager Kim was from the repair company.

“Don’t worry and go. Enjoy your meal.”

After Yoo Hyun became indifferent, Arin’s life changed completely. Before, Yoo Hyun would see her off first and have lunch last.

At Memorize, all the products, including bread and desserts, came out before 12 noon. In the past, Yoo Hyun would have come upstairs after finishing his work, but now, he left silently around noon, before or after 12 o’clock.

Without Yoo Hyun, Arin couldn’t go on like before. When lunchtime approached, Arin sent the Memorize members first and gave them priority for rest time. Arin could only go out for lunch after everyone had finished eating lunch and the morning break was over.
“Since it’s a bit slow today, Boss, take a short break. Your face says it all.”

“Is it that obvious?”

Arin asked, petting Cheol-yong’s hardened cheek. Cheol-yong spoke with a concerned look.

“It’s to the point where you might collapse any moment. So, please take a comfortable break. If Manager Kim comes, I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, Mr. Cheol-yong.”

“I know everything the boss does for us.”

Cheol-yong smiled at himself. Arin shook hands with him gently.

“Then I’ll be back.”

As she stepped out of the store, the strong sunlight blinded her.

Arin had been pondering for days. The atmosphere in the store had become seriously tense. Disputes among the staff members had escalated to the point where the overall atmosphere in the store was in chaos.

It wasn’t unexpected in this situation, but it was much worse than anticipated.

‘The fact that Oppa was more hurt than I thought became a complication.’

It wasn’t just the sudden coldness from Yoo Hyun that was disappointing. The expression Yoo Hyun had when he shouted at her that day was still vivid.

‘He could do that. He’s capable of treating me like that. But…’

The problem was that due to her problems with Yoo Hyun, everyone, including Cheol-yong, Su-han, and even the part-time workers, was paying attention.

‘You can’t make people I work with be cautious forever…’

Memoria was created with the goal of making desserts that bring happiness when eaten. They believed that working joyfully and making desserts with a happy heart would convey happiness.

‘I want to convey happiness by eating our desserts, but if the store atmosphere is like this, it’s hard for the staff and even the customers to feel our sincerity.’

Arin felt tortured by the thought that she was destroying the identity of the store with her own hands.

“One of them has to stop.”

Memoria was Arin’s life. It was a place that provided the driving force for her to live like a human, and it was the place that gave her dreams. Deciding to leave Memoria was not an easy decision.

‘If the problem between Oppa and me could be resolved through conversation, it would be fine. But… it’s not. Since there’s no guarantee of when we’ll be able to resolve this, and I can’t let even the innocent employees suffer.’

Leaving Memoria was agonizing, but what was more important was that Memoria operated smoothly.