“……”
At first, she thought she’d seen wrong. No matter how drunk she was, mistaking the man in front of her eyes for someone else was truly difficult.
“You do know who I am, right?”
The man who came closer slowly lowered his body and gently stroked Hyedam’s hair.
“I wondered where you were going so excitedly, and you’re doing this here?”
Unlike how he spoke to her in a stiff tone without any emotion, the hand touching the sleeping Hyedam’s hair and face was careful, and his voice had completely changed as well.
The new character who turned the company upside down. The son of the owner family and marketing team leader. A person whose every move becomes gossip and creates countless words. Younger than Hyedam. Perfect background. Someone who would already have the finest things even if you wanted to give him a gift. A person it’s hard to think of as cute.
Instinctively, Seoyun straightened her body and moved a little away from them. She thought it was just light dating advice, but if the other person is Leo Lewis…… In an instant, Hyedam’s worries and difficulties were felt painfully. There’s no modern Cinderella like this Cinderella.
This really has no answer? Have I watched too many dramas and movies? Even if the Lewis family, knowing about their relationship, appeared with a bundle of money saying “Leave his side immediately,” she felt she would acknowledge that the Lewis family could do that.
What if they told him to be satisfied with being a hidden lover instead of breaking up? Various makjang drama plots came to mind. Not a single one would benefit Hyedam.
“Hyedam-ah, are you done having fun?”
At Leo’s words, Hyedam seemed to answer something, but Seoyun, standing a little away, couldn’t hear Hyedam’s response. They’d been together just moments ago, but now she was suddenly excluded, and it was Hyedam and Leo’s world unfolding with just the two of them.
“Okay, let’s go home now.”
Neither Leo, who sat up the uncomfortably lying Hyedam and took off the coat he was wearing to put it on Hyedam, nor Hyedam, who was being attended to by him, had any awkwardness at all.
Seoyun, who watched Leo carefully button up the large coat on Hyedam and then stand up carrying the thoroughly drunk Hyedam, couldn’t say anything. Leo, whose eyes met with Seoyun who couldn’t hide her bewildered heart, only left the words “When you go down there’s a black car, so take that and go back,” and left just like that.
A conspicuous man who suddenly appeared carried another man out, and Seoyun, left behind all alone, lowered her head at people’s gazes directed at her and picked up her bag.
Having learned too many facts she didn’t need to know, it seemed she’d have to have a third round by herself at home today.
* * *
One of the self-reproaches you do the day after drinking alcohol.
If I drink again, I’m a dog. A dog.
“Whatever, I’ll just be a dog. They say a dog’s fate is a comfortable fate.”
Since work hours had already passed, being late was confirmed, and in a situation where it was just a difference between being an hour late or two hours late, Hyedam didn’t hurry at all. Hyedam, who had been rubbing his stomach with one hand because of his upset insides, staggered away from the bed, and cold air wrapped around his body.
How did he crawl into the house and how did he take off his clothes? He rubbed his pitiful body wearing nothing but underwear with his hands.
“Hera. Were there any calls from the company?”
—No, there weren’t.
“They don’t even know I’m not at work? I don’t even know Leo’s schedule today. How many times did the alarm go off today?”
—There are no alarms designated for today.
“What are you talking about? There are four.”
—You canceled all the alarms scheduled for today yesterday evening.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed he’d rambled a bit while drinking with Seoyun at the bar, but after that there were no memories that came to mind. It seemed like his remaining homing instinct brought him home well……
“I did?”
—No.
“What?”
No matter how much he drank, he couldn’t believe he’d committed the bizarre act of even canceling his alarms, but at Hera’s answer that it wasn’t him who canceled them, Hyedam’s footsteps heading to the bathroom stopped. Now that he thought about it, the door lock was broken. How did I get into the house?
—Please ask a question I can understand.
“The door lock was broken.”
—It was replaced with a new door lock. The password is the same number you used before, XXXXXX. Since it’s a product that also has fingerprint recognition, please register your fingerprint.
“When?”
—Door lock replacement was completed yesterday at 4:32 PM.
“By whom?”
—That is a question I cannot understand.
“What the hell happened.”
As he conversed with Hera, Hyedam’s headache worsened, and he headed not to the bathroom but to the refrigerator. Let’s first drink some cold water and think things through carefully.
There’s porridge in the refrigerator, so make sure to eat it, and you’re on vacation for 3 days starting today, so rest well.
Hyedam, who was about to open the refrigerator, stared for a long time at the paper stuck at his eye level. No matter how many times he read it, the content of the writing didn’t change, and when he opened the refrigerator, he could see several small plastic containers lined up in a row.
Hyedam, who closed the refrigerator door, looked at the attached paper again.
Hyedam, who opened the refrigerator door once more, took out several plastic containers and put them on the sink. Instead of labels, paper with neat handwriting describing what the contents were was attached to the lids.
It’s the same handwriting as the writing on the paper attached to the refrigerator. A person who could say such things to him. A person who could come and go in this house freely without permission. It’s not Junseok’s handwriting.
Hyedam, who thought of the one and only person who could fix the door lock as he pleased and control his vacation as he wished, sat down right there.
“Hera, tell me about the messages and call records that came to me from 9 PM last night.”
—Ondal-nim sent 52 messages and made 32 calls.
That bastard Ondal, what did he do again……
First, it means I don’t have to go to work, so first I should wash up, fill my stomach, and should I contact Team Leader Seoyun? Or not? That bastard didn’t say anything weird to Team Leader-nim, did he?
Since sitting crouched down and holding his head wouldn’t make what had already happened go away, Hyedam, who washed his face roughly, slowly got up supporting himself on his knees.
After washing up cleanly and heating up and eating the prepared porridge, Hyedam fiddled with his cell phone. Who should he contact? Hyedam, who had been hesitating between two contacts, Ondal and Secretary-nim, contacted not Leo but Robert, and after confirming with him that it was vacation, he turned off his cell phone without any regrets.
The 3-day vacation passed in an instant. He went to good restaurants with Junseok, and true to his resolution to exercise, he dabbled in something called exercise at the place where Junseok worked out. He slept endlessly even though he kept sleeping, and since he hadn’t seen Leo’s face for several days and hadn’t received any contact from him, Hyedam felt for the first time in a while like he’d escaped from him.
Although work would start again by picking him up when he returned from going to England for a personal schedule, a hum naturally flowed from Hyedam’s mouth, having spent a proper vacation-like vacation for once.
It was good that he left in a hurry, because as he got closer to the airport, the road became more congested, and Hyedam, who almost missed the plane’s arrival time, hurried his steps.
“Year-end is year-end. Many people leaving, many people coming in.”
The faces of those who came to the airport with family or lovers or friends were all full of joy. It was also this year that he first saw people holding parties to enjoy Christmas or exchanging gifts, but year-end travel? Hyedam, who felt the situation and atmosphere he hadn’t enjoyed himself, felt loneliness on one hand.
When he was very young and his parents were alive, he traveled, but now that much time had passed, he could only find those traces by looking at the remaining photos rather than memories. Should he try traveling alone? Although he was used to being alone and thought he’d done many things by himself, there were more things he hadn’t done.
Since going to Grandmother’s house wasn’t true travel, it seemed not bad to take a vacation as Seoyun advised or as Junseok said and travel abroad alone for 2-3 weeks. He could just make a passport, and his English wasn’t that poor either. When there are interpreters, what problem would language be? It’s all about making up one’s mind, but making up that mind was difficult.
If he was going to travel for a long time, he’d need a big carrier too, and since he wasn’t going to suffer, the accommodation should be decent, right? Since it would be boring to play around like a bum too much, he should do a few tours. For tours, Europe would be good, but for doing nothing and playing around, wouldn’t Southeast Asia be good?
Standing in front of the departure hall, Hyedam thought through things related to travel one by one in his head. When should I go? Since many people travel during the school vacation season and airfare and accommodation are expensive, I should avoid vacation, so after March then?
As more thoughts came and his head became complicated, Hyedam took out his tablet from his bag. At the information, photos, and videos pouring out just by searching the four words “overseas travel,” Hyedam shut his mouth tight. Why does something easy for others feel difficult only to him?
But isn’t it time for Leo to come out?
“Do you want to go on a trip?”
Hyedam, who was organizing his tablet to put it in his bag, had to cough profusely, choking at someone’s words as they hugged him from behind.
