Although the tteokbokki seemed to be cooling down, Soo Young thought it would be fine since he said he doesn’t like hot food anyway, and leisurely entered the high-end apartment complex where Woo Jin lived.

Just as she was getting off the elevator, suddenly the front door opened and that person who was called the representative came out. Seeing Soo Young, he brightened up and exclaimed.

“Oh? Joo Young!”

Who’s Joo Young… Soo Young awkwardly smiled and replied.

“It’s Soo Young. Kim, Soo, Young.”

“Ah, Soo Young, Soo Young. I misspoke. I apologize.”

He replied good-naturedly while looking at his wristwatch.

“You came early today? If you’re not busy, would you like to have a quick chat with me over there?”

“Huh? Ah, sure…”

The tteokbokki was likely not just cooling but getting soggy, but she couldn’t refuse because of the tteokbokki, so she got back on the elevator she had just gotten off, following Ji Hyun.

Sitting down on a park bench in front of the apartment, Ji Hyun took out an energy drink from his briefcase and handed it to her.

“Would you like one? It’s delicious.”

“Oh! This is what my grandmother always gave me when I visited as a child. I can’t believe it’s still around!”

“Yes. It works wonders when you’re feeling low on energy.”

“Do you ever feel low on energy?”

“Well, I always feel drained after meeting with the landlord…”

Somehow understanding that feeling without needing further explanation, Soo Young didn’t ask any more. He opened the drink and gulped it down, then soon smiled and said:

“I heard you had ramen with Woo Jin yesterday?”

“Huh? Ah, yes…”

She suddenly worried about being scolded for feeding him such food, but Ji Hyun said something unexpected.

“Are you okay? Did you get burned?”

“Huh? How did you know I got burned?”

The one who asked was even more surprised and asked back in an astonished voice.

“Oh, so you did get burned? Woo Jin said he thought you might have. Are you alright?”

Before going home yesterday, Woo Jin had nonchalantly said to her,
handing her a t-shirt, that she could change if she wanted since the broth might have splashed. When Soo Young said it was fine, he said okay and turned away, which surprised her a little.

Though his words were rough, from the slippers to the clothes, he unexpectedly had a delicate side. But she thought he didn’t know about the burn.

“Does he have some kind of sixth sense…”

Seeing Soo Young muttering to herself, Ji Hyun said smoothly:

“He seems very observant, doesn’t he? He’s actually quite smart. It’s just not obvious because of his temperament. But really, is the burn okay?”

“I got burned a little. Just a little. It felt better after a night.”

“Did you put any medicine on it? As a woman’s body… I’ll apologize on his behalf. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, didn’t you hear? It was my fault. I carelessly held the ramen bowl up to him.”

“Ah, is that so? Woo Jin didn’t give me the details… Anyway, I’m sorry.”

As Ji Hyun kept apologizing with drooping eyes, Soo Young awkwardly smiled and rubbed her stomach.

“Ah, it’s really not that bad… I can’t show you either…”

At that, he followed her hand movement with his gaze, briefly looking down and then up again, and said carefully:

“Um… if you’re not having lunch before coming, would you like to have lunch with Woo Jin? I eat dinner with him, but I can’t really take care of breakfast and lunch.”

“But will Seol Woo Jin agree to that? To be honest, it was really hard just to get him to eat ramen with me yesterday.”

“He’s very shy with strangers. But he told you to keep coming and even ate with you… How did you manage that in just four days? Please tell me your secret.”

He was genuinely curious. Soo Young had accomplished in just a few days what even family couldn’t do. How was that possible?

Ji Hyun was utterly amazed, but Soo Young replied rather calmly.

“Well, maybe it’s because of my beauty?”

At Soo Young’s words, Ji Hyun looked dumbfounded for a moment before bursting into laughter. But still, just in case, he asked:

“You know Woo Jin’s situation… right?”

He wondered if she might think Woo Jin could see a little. Anyone who saw that eye contact would have no doubt that he was looking at the other person.

However, Soo Young didn’t seem to think so, answering with a serious face:

“I watched some YouTube videos, and they said that visually impaired people can roughly guess appearances by voice too. They even did experiments and it was pretty accurate.”

“…You even looked that up?”

“Ah, yes…”

As Ji Hyun’s voice became calm, Soo Young glanced at him for a moment, wondering if she had done something wrong.

But Ji Hyun just stared intently at her face for a while before smiling gently.

Though not as much as the landlord, this man was also very handsome.
Eyes, nose, mouth – not a single feature was out of place. Judging by how he put up with the landlord’s temper, he seemed to have amazing patience too.

“Then, you’ll have lunch together from now on, right? If Woo Jin says no, you don’t need to force yourself too much.”

He said as he stood up from the bench. As he stood, Soo Young also got up.

“Yes.”

“Looks like it’s tteokbokki today. The smell is killer.”

“Oh no! You can smell it? They wrapped it up tightly…”

“Yes. Your bag must be permeated with the smell. Enjoy it with Woo Jin. He’ll probably like it, since it’s been a long time since he’s had something like that.”

As Ji Hyun got up, Soo Young also stood and gave a slight bow. Watching her hurriedly enter the apartment entrance, Ji Hyun smiled languidly.

– Strange woman. She’s concerning.

Woo Jin had said to Ji Hyun, who was amazed that he ate ramen with Soo Young.

Someone who concerns him… It seemed like he could hear the sound of a crack forming somewhere in the shell Woo Jin had enclosed himself in.

[This is the timeline separator]

Soo Young poured the tteokbokki onto a large plate and waited for Woo Jin to come out. She thought he might come out smelling the tteokbokki, just as he had with the ramen smell.

But even after 10 minutes, there was no sign of movement from his room. Soo Young cautiously approached the door and started pacing back and forth.

It felt awkward to knock and call him out just to eat tteokbokki. It would be perfect if he just came out on his own.

After pacing back and forth about five times, suddenly the door flung open and he spoke irritably:

“What?”

“Huh? Ah, nothing…”

Soo Young unconsciously gulped at the sight of his protruding collarbone and unexpectedly firm chest visible through the wide V-neck sweater.

His body… seems even better than I thought.

“What is it?”

At his cold words, she shook her head slightly as if trying to come to her senses and muttered:

“Nothing, I was just wondering if you hadn’t had lunch, maybe we could eat tteokbokki together.”

“I don’t want to.”

As he was about to go back into the room, Soo Young lightly grabbed his arm and then quickly let go, saying:

“It’s really delicious! I brought it all the way from the library, struggling just to eat it with you, Seol Woo Jin.”

Honestly, it wasn’t that hard, but to make a show of it, she deliberately tapped her arms with her fists as if to let him hear.

Woo Jin turned his body, which had been at a 45-degree angle, back towards her and looked down.

Amidst the wavering air between the light, her scent was softly spreading. Where had he smelled this scent before?

“Why did you want to eat with me?”

Soo Young opened her eyes wide and spoke, wondering if there needed to be a reason for wanting to eat together.

“Because I want to eat together.”

“But why?”

“To be honest…”

Ah, I guess there needs to be a reason for this too, she thought, and quickly started racking her brain.

Honestly, even before the representative mentioned it, she had thought she should eat lunch with him from now on. She hadn’t thought about why.

“I can’t eat alone! My mom leaves early in the morning so I skip breakfast, and since I come here after being at the library, I’m really hungry when I get here, but if I have to eat alone again, I’ll end up fasting all day! Couldn’t you eat with me for the sake of employee welfare?”

How pathetic, how pathetic. As she spoke, she realized she was buying and offering the food with her own money, yet she had to beg like this for him to eat it.

However, being such a perceptive person, she quickly laughed out loud, worried that he might read these thoughts.

“It’s strange.”

He said, furrowing his brow.

“What?”

“Your laugh.”

Oh no… Should I have just laughed normally like “Hahaha”? If I had done that, he probably would have said it was even stranger.

Woo Jin slowly closed the door and walked past her towards the kitchen. He went exactly to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

Soo Young quickly came to the opposite side, scooped some tteokbokki onto a small plate for him, and said:

“There’s a fork on your right, Seol Woo Jin, and water on your left. Thank you for eating with me.”

After making an unnecessary thanks, Soo Young quickly scooped some tteokbokki onto her own plate and took a bite.

As expected, it had gotten soggy. It wasn’t inedible, but it would have been several times more delicious if eaten right away.

Worried that he might complain about the taste after she had begged him to eat, she looked at Woo Jin with concerned eyes, but he was chewing the tteokbokki without saying anything.

No, why are lips eating tteokbokki so sexy? Especially the way he slightly licked his red lips with his tongue to avoid spilling the sauce looked somewhat obscene.

As all the somewhat risque scenes from the webtoons she had been reading flashed through her mind, Soo Young, her ears turning red, lowered her head deeply in case he might notice. What’s wrong with you, Kim Soo Young? Get a grip!

“It’s too soggy, right? I shouldn’t have bought it.”

To hide her bad thoughts, she apologized pretending to be nice, and Woo Jin replied calmly:

“It’s delicious.”

“What?”

“It’s more delicious than the lunchbox. Buy it again.”

Though his voice was dry as could be, somehow the words seemed to bloom with flowers. Soft, white lily-of-the-valley.

Is this person’s personality good or bad?

[This is the timeline separator]

As soon as the clock struck 4, she heard the sound of a door opening as she was putting on her bag.

“Are you leaving?”

At Woo Jin’s question, Soo Young answered nonchalantly.

“Yes. It’s 4 o’clock.”

Wondering if he was possibly trying to see her off, she stared at him blankly, but he said nothing. Leaning against the doorframe, he looked somewhat like a child who had lost his mother at an amusement park.

“Should I stay longer?”

When Soo Young asked quietly, Woo Jin’s amber eyes flickered as he looked in her direction.

“…Coffee…”

He mumbled softly, and Soo Young perked up her ears and asked:

“Pardon?”

“Make me coffee. Iced,”

Saying this, Woo Jin was startled. What am I saying now? Am I holding back someone who was about to leave?

[This is the timeline separator]

An unintended tea time occurred between the two. Sitting across from each other at the table, they were both silently sipping their coffee without much conversation.

“Do you like coffee?”

After a while, Soo Young carefully asked.

“No.”

It was an unexpected answer.

“Then why do you drink it?”

“To stay awake.”

“Are you sleepy?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you just sleep?”

“Then I can’t sleep at night.”

“Do you have insomnia?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah I see…”

For Soo Young, who falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow, it was an incomprehensible condition.

Is he so slim because he can’t sleep? But if you can’t sleep, your skin should be dark and dull, yet his skin is like porcelain. What’s with this inconsistency?

Above all, to be sitting here drinking coffee with such a prickly man… it was truly remarkable progress.

Most of all, sitting face to face like this and looking at that face seemed to naturally purify her eyes.

For Woo Jin as well, this situation of sitting with her like this felt unbelievable. Holding back a woman who was about to leave work, what is this…

However, he was grateful that she didn’t think strangely of him and spoke to him calmly. Her pleasant low voice was comfortable and nice.

“Oh right, thank you for the slippers.”

Soo Young belatedly expressed her thanks. To her gratitude, Woo Jin deliberately responded more gruffly.

“Seol Ji Hyun bought them. I don’t know anything about it.”

Don’t know, indeed. He had directly shown the size of her foot with his hand and asked for it.

To order slippers of this size. And to buy ones that stick to the sole so they don’t slip off.

Since he couldn’t see, he didn’t know what pattern or color they were, but the shape and feel when he touched them were satisfactory. Even the band attached to the heel.

“Do they… fit well?”

When he asked with some hesitation, Soo Young replied with a smile in her voice.

“They feel like custom-made slippers. How did you buy ones that fit so perfectly?”

“I felt them last time, remember?”

Watching him explain how he knew the size when he said he didn’t know anything about it, she laughed silently.

“But Seol Ji Hyun, Seol Woo Jin… How come you have the same surname? Seol isn’t a common surname…”

“We’re cousins. Seol Ji Hyun is two years older.”

Then he’s the elder, but he speaks informally to his elder and throws such terrible tantrums… She felt like falling for the representative’s character once again.

“You…”

As Woo Jin was about to say something but closed his mouth, Soo Young quickly opened hers instead.

“What about me?”

“Is your original job a housekeeper? You seem young…”

“Of course not. I graduated two years ago, and I’m currently preparing for employment.”

“For 3 years?”

“I originally taught kids at an academy. As a part-time instructor. But my mom kept telling me to get a proper job, so I belatedly took the TOEIC and all, but maybe because my scores weren’t good, I kept getting rejected at the document screening stage.”

“What kind of work do you want to do?”

What kind of work do I want to do. This part always tripped her up. What do I want to do?

“You don’t have anything you want to do?”

“Just, vaguely, I thought I wanted to become a writer.”

“A writer?”

Woo Jin’s expression became quite serious.

“Why do you want to become a writer?”

“It’s just that writing down my thoughts and having others read them is so appealing… I used to write a lot of novels in middle and high school too. In notebooks. My friends would pass them around to read and write their impressions at the back of the notebook… I had so many fans.”

“You don’t write now?”

“I don’t know how to become a writer, and since my major is Korean education, I guess I naturally went down the path of education.”

“Writing has nothing to do with your major. You can write even if you majored in mathematics.”

“I know. I guess I just didn’t have the opportunity…”

“You probably didn’t look for it. Opportunities come to those who seek them.”

His words were right, but being constantly hit with facts was subtly upsetting. Who can’t talk? It was her turn to attack now.

“What do you do in your room all day, Seol Woo Jin? Do you practice poses in front of the mirror?”

“…I don’t have a mirror.”

“Oh…”

It was meant to be a decisive attack, but it fell flat in one blow.