Despite leaving in the morning, the traffic was backed up — probably because it was the weekend. After crawling through the congested roads, we finally arrived at our destination only after parking in a nearby lot.
“……Here?”
“Yeah.”
Following Cha Jae-woo to the place he’d led me to, I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.
Cha Jae-woo, for his part, nodded with a perfectly composed expression, as if wondering what the problem was. That alone was enough to draw a hollow laugh out of me.
No wonder the road had felt so familiar the whole way here. I grabbed Cha Jae-woo’s arm as he moved to lead the way into the building and protested.
“This is the manhwa café we used to go to all the time in high school.”
“Yeah.”
Cha Jae-woo nodded without a hint of resistance, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d been had.
There was a manhwa café near my place too — I had no idea why we’d come all the way out here for this. And that wasn’t my only question.
“Weren’t you looking for inspiration? So why a manhwa café?”
“That song you said was your favorite — the one I made before — I got the inspiration from manhwa.”
Cha Jae-woo answered casually, and the words stopped me cold. It hadn’t even occurred to me that inspiration could come from something like that.
Then again, Cha Jae-woo was a genius, so it wasn’t strange wherever he found his inspiration. Caught off guard, I fell silent, and Cha Jae-woo stared at me.
His gaze seemed to ask whether I was refusing to go in. I let out a sigh and eventually nodded.
“……Fine, let’s go.”
We’d pushed through gridlocked roads to get here — I couldn’t turn around now. Besides, whether it was watching a movie, a play, or going to a manhwa café, it all came down to spending time.
At least the destination is in Seoul.
If he’d suggested driving out somewhere scenic in the middle of nowhere, I would have been far more exhausted. It’s lucky we’re staying within Seoul. Thinking that, I followed Cha Jae-woo into the manhwa café.
Since it had been operating since our high school days, the interior could not, even generously, be called modern. Still, it seemed clean enough — they must have kept up with maintenance consistently.
“Please head to Room 16.”
It was the weekend and the area had many schools nearby, so the café was bustling with students who had come to play games or read manhwa. It was lucky there was exactly one room left — otherwise we might have had to wait in line at a manhwa café, of all places.
“Hey, isn’t this room way too small?”
I felt a little embarrassed for complaining again, but this time even Cha Jae-woo agreed with me — though with a sigh laced into his reply.
“……It’s insanely cramped.”
The room the staff had assigned us to was so narrow that even an ordinary adult would have to duck just to get inside, let alone two grown men with decent builds.
The ceiling was low enough that lying down seemed like the only real option, and the space itself was so tight that there was absolutely no way three people could fit.
Since we’d been told there was only one room left, we had to decide — stay and read here, or go out and find somewhere else.
Staying would probably leave me with a stiff neck, but the thought of driving through gridlocked streets to hunt down another manhwa café felt equally bleak.
Cha Jae-woo seemed to have reached a similar conclusion, brow creased deeply as he asked.
“Are we going to try somewhere else?”
“I don’t know — wouldn’t other places be about the same?”
If we went somewhere else and it turned out to be just as cramped or fully booked, that would be a disaster.
Neither of us had forgotten it was the weekend, so we decided not to take the risk and went to pick out some manhwa. After debating for a bit, I spotted the next volume of a webtoon I used to love and grabbed it.
“……Ha, this is actually fun to read again after so long.”
Honestly, I’d been a little thrown off at first — a manhwa café, out of nowhere? — but maybe it was the novelty of coming back after a while. It was surprisingly enjoyable.
Before I knew it, I had read all five volumes without moving from my spot.
Working at a library naturally gave me plenty of exposure to books, but since I mainly read regular novels and essays, it had been a genuinely long time since I’d picked up a manhwa.
Thinking I might go home and reinstall a webtoon app, I grabbed the next volume and started reading.
The original purpose of coming here — to find inspiration for Cha Jae-woo — had long since been wiped from my mind.
It wasn’t something I could help with anyway, so I figured he could handle it himself and left him to it, letting myself get absorbed in the volume in front of me.
Then a scene came up that I absolutely could not keep to myself, and without thinking, I turned toward him. It was just too good not to show Cha Jae-woo.
“Hey, this part is so good. You should see this too——”
But when I turned without thinking, Cha Jae-woo was right in front of me. He must have been turning to reach for the next volume at exactly the same moment — his cheek and my lips collided.
“……”
“……”
It was less of a touch and more of a collision. It genuinely felt less like a tingle and more like accidentally pressing my lips against a wall.
Even so, because it had happened at such an unexpected moment, neither Cha Jae-woo nor I said a word for a beat.
I’d been so absorbed in the manhwa that I’d completely forgotten — this room was particularly narrow.
Two grown men of decent build lying side by side would fill it to capacity, so it was only natural that turning halfway around would mean bumping into the person beside you. It was the fault of both of us for moving at the same time without accounting for that.
And yet, knowing that didn’t stop my face from burning. Of course it didn’t — I was the same person who had nearly jumped out of my skin earlier in the car just from a brush of hands.
If he sees my face turning red right now, it’s truly over, I thought, and forced myself to revisit the resolve I’d made in the car.
Cha Jae-woo is no longer my lover. We’re nothing to each other. This guy is just a friend……
It had little effect, of course, so after a brief bout of forced coughing, I made myself act as if nothing had happened and opened the manhwa again.
“Look at this, look. You used to like this webtoon too, right?”
“……Yeah, I did.”
But it was already a lost cause. I was speaking in a stiff, robotic tone as though reading aloud from a textbook, and Cha Jae-woo stumbled over his words before turning his head away as if deliberately avoiding my gaze.
An awkward standoff stretched between us for a moment, and eventually Cha Jae-woo got up from his spot.
He left behind a manhwa he hadn’t even finished and went to pick out something else. I sat there feeling unnecessarily self-conscious and sucked up a long sip of the iced tea I’d ordered earlier.
Is this really something worth being so awkward about? — but then, thinking about the fact that this was twenty-year-old Cha Jae-woo, it made sense.
For me, we had dated for eight years before breaking up, so that was one thing — but for him, he had never even thought of anyone other than Kwon Tae-gyeong as a romantic possibility.
And on top of that, having been told that he and I had dated and broken up — and then having me accidentally press my lips to his cheek — it was only natural he wouldn’t know how to act.
I, for my part, couldn’t quite remember how I used to treat Cha Jae-woo when he was just a friend and not my lover.
Maybe I should try thinking back to high school.
The memories were hazy given how long ago it was, but I made an effort to think from the perspective of who I was back then, as a high schooler.
And honestly, looking at it that way, what had just happened wasn’t a big deal either. It was like two friends goofing around and bumping into each other — just move on.
Thinking of it that way, I felt a little better. Cha Jae-woo had no memory of us being together — so there was no point in me alone being hyperaware of him and tying myself in knots over nothing. That would just be pathetic.
With my thoughts quickly sorted, I lay back down and opened the manhwa again. Stop being ridiculous and just quietly read until it’s time to go.
I had a feeling Cha Jae-woo was thinking something similar to me — but he stayed away for quite a while.
I assumed he must be making a bathroom stop while he was at it and let it go, but even accounting for that, it was a notably long time.
“What on earth is he doing that he’s not back yet?”
Eventually, feeling restless, I slipped out of the room to look for him. Outside, there were all kinds of people — playing games, watching movies, playing board games.
But even scanning through all of them, I couldn’t spot Cha Jae-woo. Has he really gone to the bathroom and just not come back? I was about to head all the way outside when Cha Jae-woo returned right at that moment.
“Where did you go?”
“Had to make a quick call.”
“Oh, was it from your agency?”
“No. Park Woo-hyuk.”
Cha Jae-woo’s brow furrowed as if just thinking about it annoyed him. The Park Woo-hyuk he’d just mentioned was the head of Lacy, the songwriting team Cha Jae-woo belonged to.
He was the type of person who was bright and thick-skinned in the best way — he’d apparently gushed endlessly about falling for Cha Jae-woo’s portfolio at first sight. I’d met him in person only a handful of times, but he seemed to genuinely care about Cha Jae-woo.
Maybe that was why — even though Cha Jae-woo had initially been irritated by him and kept his guard up, calling him a nuisance, he eventually opened up to him in the end.
“I don’t get why he’s being such a pain.”
The problem was that with Cha Jae-woo having lost his memories now, all of that had been wiped away too.
Twenty-year-old Cha Jae-woo had only just joined the songwriting team, so he would still be at the stage before he’d opened up to Park Woo-hyuk. That was why he was reacting this way.
“Did you tell him about losing your memory in the accident?”
“Yeah. Just in case it affects the songwriting work. But I shouldn’t have.”
As we headed back to the room together, Cha Jae-woo’s brow pinched with what seemed like genuine annoyance.
And yet, watching him take off his shoes and fold himself into the cramped little room, there was no trace of the earlier awkwardness in his manner — which was privately a relief.
“He’s been calling nonstop since I told him about the accident.”
“That’s probably because he’s worried about you.”
“Tch, worried my ass. How many times has he even met me?”
I hesitated for a moment. I wondered if I should say something for Park Woo-hyuk’s sake — he might end up getting hurt by Cha Jae-woo’s walls, possibly twice over.
But I quickly realized that would be overstepping. My own relationship with Cha Jae-woo was nowhere near sorted out — who was I to go around helping anyone else?
“Right, I’m sure you’ll handle it fine.”
That was as far as I could go with Cha Jae-woo now that we were neither lovers nor friends. The rest was entirely up to him.
In the end, I lay back down and opened the manhwa again. To avoid making the same mistake as before, I resolved to quietly enjoy it on my own this time.
Cha Jae-woo also settled back into his spot and opened the new manhwa he’d brought.
But whether inspiration was coming to him in real time, the pace at which he turned the pages was painfully slow. Every time I glanced over, he was still on the same page.
At first I’d been conscious of him — but before long, I had turned all my attention back to the manhwa.
As I found out afterward, by the time I had finished seven volumes, Cha Jae-woo was still holding the same book he’d opened at the start.
