06. The First Meeting
She took a taxi to the meeting location.
Two days ago, she had conveyed her desire to meet the writer through her agency’s CEO, and they had sent back the time and place. It was Lee-yeon’s firm decision to refuse the CEO’s offer to accompany her and instead come alone.
“So a place like this exists in Seoul……”
Lee-yeon removed the sunglasses that had been covering half of her face and slowly looked around.
If she turned around, Namsan Tower was visible in the distance.
When she saw it while riding up in the taxi, it was just an ordinary neighborhood clustered with charming houses, but to think such a traditional Hanok was hidden at the end of that road.
The reason she felt it was hidden was due to the way the dense trees and steep rocks completely encircled the house. It felt as if she had come to visit a hermitage deep within the mountains.
“…….”
The main gate was wide open as if welcoming a guest.
However, Lee-yeon couldn’t bring herself to take a step forward and simply stood there, staring at the gate. Gently biting her lip before letting it go, she repeatedly pressed her fingertips together.
Only after realizing that she would be terribly late for her appointment if she kept this up was she finally able to move.
Carefully walking up the stone steps and crossing the threshold, a path paved with red earth and black pebbles came into view.
Likely the path leading to the main house. Wild brier and cherry bushes stood along the wall, and beneath them, shepherd’s purse and violets were blooming in small clusters. It felt as if she could hear the sound of water flowing somewhere. Peep, peep— the call of a nuthatch, a sound she hadn’t heard in a long time.
If it were the usual Lee-yeon, she would have been instantly captivated by this serene landscape. Feeling it a waste to just pass by, she might have stood in one spot to gaze at it for a long time. Perhaps she would have even pulled out her phone—which she wasn’t very good at operating—and tried to take a picture.
But today, she didn’t have that kind of luxury.
Gripping the handle of the bag in her hand tightly, she walked looking only straight ahead. She was in such a tense state that she didn’t even realize she was barely breathing.
It was close to a state of panic. She might look fine on the outside, but her composure had long since shattered.
If the fact that she suffered from motion sickness in the taxi—something she never usually experienced—explained anything, it was just how tense she was. Tooth marks repeatedly formed on her parched lips.
<Lee-yeon. Hyeong-seok at least.>
<I’ll CEO. Don’t be fine. worry,>
<But Could about? be changed……? do has it mind plan talk the to what writer you your>
<There I I’ll absolutely after ask. back. get is must something tell you>
Lee-yeon had stayed awake for practically two whole days.
Ever since she read the script, the moment she closed her eyes, events of the past would arise, making it utterly impossible to sleep.
Whenever she had a spare moment, the gears inside her head wound backward. As she dwelled on the scenes that arose, she was taken to older memories, to even earlier scenes. And when that happened, she would eventually return to the beginning.
The first scene of the scenario. To that beautiful field where Yeon-hwa and San had met for the very first time.
“Ah……”
When the main house finally appeared, a shiver ran through her entire body. Because pink peonies tightly surrounded the building topped with elegant roof tiles.
And then, the rectangular stepping stone entered her field of vision.
The moment she saw the man’s dress shoes neatly placed atop it, her heart tightened painfully. At the exact same time a pair of worn, tattered shoes from her memory overlapped with them.
<San. I The What are completely did do gave on ones out. soles the these with worn you you?>
<It’s I If everyone fine. got new ones, question the them. wear where will>
<No Surely…… because dirt if is isn’t it it? just know of on one smudge some them. this, would you>
<……>
San, who treasured the flower she had subtly embroidered on the inside of the shoes as if it were a piece of gold.
Recalling how he insisted on having it embroidered on the inside because it would get dirty if placed on the outside brought a faint smile to her face.
<Should I So a and anywhere. bird can embroider fly next off them time? wear you>
<Do San, about are curious far? go not outside the to want world? you>
<I…… I’ve about don’t it. know. never really thought>
Before she could stop them, tears dropped rapidly, and Lee-yeon quickly wiped them away before stepping onto the foundation stone.
The size difference between the shoes she had shed side by side was substantial. It didn’t feel like it had been this much of a difference in the past.
Garnering the laughter that slipped out slightly, she stepped onto the wooden veranda and stood before the octagonal lattice paper door.
Inside this room……
The hand she raised to knock trembled so violently that she had to hold it with her other hand. Her fingertips were stiff as if frozen.
While massaging them for a moment, she thought. If the person waiting inside was truly San, what words should she utter first? What kind of expression should she wear?
She had practiced this and that throughout the sleepless night, but standing in front of this door, she couldn’t remember a single thing.
I’m sorry.
That was the only word that arose in her mind, which had blanched like a blank sheet of paper.
Because even saying that she had missed him terribly all this time felt shameless, it felt as though that was the only thing she could say.
“Phew……”
Lee-yeon knocked on the door, before she could even fully soothe her anxiously beating heart.
Knock, knock. When there was no response and she raised her hand once more, a short answer of “Yes” was heard from inside. However, from that alone, it was difficult to distinguish whether it was San’s voice or not.
Before opening the door, Lee-yeon fumbled with the corners of her mouth with her fingertips. Because she didn’t know what kind of expression she was making right now.
Wanting to show a look that wasn’t unsightly if possible, she even lightly pressed down on the corners of her stiff mouth.
Screeech— Through the opening door crack, pale sunlight pierced in first.
Lee-yeon’s gaze extended along the long fragment of sunlight and gradually moved upward.
And finally, she faced the face of the one she had been waiting for.
“Welcome, Lee-yeon.”
“……!”
“You’re a bit late.”
But he…… was not San.
Geon-woo was watching silently.
At Lee-yeon, who was unable to hide her disappointed look and had been staring down only at the business card he gave her for a while now.
Wondering just how many lines were written on that small piece of paper for her to read and re-read it.
What could she be thinking inside?
He didn’t possess the talent to discern the intentions of someone who hadn’t even locked eyes properly with him yet. Therefore, Geon-woo decided to leisurely appreciate her until she was ready.
Things like her loosely curled eyelashes or her plump lips that she kept biting.
The tips of her unpolished fingernails were rounded, a circular wrist bone protruded sharply on her wrist that was as slender as a midwinter tree branch, and her slumped shoulders were exceedingly fragile even though they were covered by her clothes.
Has she even eaten anything? She probably couldn’t eat anything because she was tense.
The face he had glimpsed briefly when she opened the door and entered earlier was past white, blanched to a pale blue. The trembling look in her eyes upon discovering him and her ragged breathing were enough to make the viewer feel anxious themselves.
What would it have been better if he had been the image she imagined? Would she have smiled brightly for him?
Among Model Lee-yeon’s photos, there was a noticeable absence of her smiling.
He had wondered whether the advertisers desired that or if she simply couldn’t smile well, and seeing her like this, the weight shifts toward the latter.
“Excuse me…… Executive Director Guk Geon-woo?”
As if calling a name once was such a difficult thing. She raised her head, breaking the ice very carefully.
It was a moment that brought to mind a poem written by a certain poet. It was an eye contact that made one realize the meaning of that ticklish verse—that before someone called their name, they were merely nothing.
He felt a shudder far more heavy than he had imagined.
“How is my name? Does it suit me well?”
“Pardon?”
“As for age, I am three years older than you, Lee-yeon.”
“Ah…… Yes……”
Flicker, flicker— her face as she tried to grasp the intention behind the words she had just heard looked remarkably innocent.
“And unless you have intentions of joining our company in the future, just call me by name.”
Nodding with a dazed expression and setting down the business card she had been clutching tightly, she soon straightened her waist.
It seemed she was trying to act resolute belatedly, but unfortunately, the moment she opened her mouth, a knock was heard.
“I’ll serve the refreshments.”
Her posture as she quietly lowered her eyes until the server finished setting the table was beautiful.
Naturally receiving the bow of the server who politely bent their waist, appreciating the fragrance first before drinking the tea, and quietly setting down the teacup after taking a single sip. Everything was as natural as flowing water.
Geon-woo stared blankly at that elegant figure before following suit to appreciate the tea himself. However, it was merely hot and astringent, which wasn’t to his taste.
“Guk Geon-woo.”
Unless it was that voice, which sounded as though the fragrance of tea clung to it.
“First, there is one thing I’d like to ask. What kind of relationship…… do you have with the person who wrote that script?”
Pupils of an ambiguous color, resembling either unripe fruit or autumn leaves that had just begun to change color, looked straight at him with clarity. They were pupils that deeply nudged at something he had managed to lock away quietly.
Quietly gritting his molars, she added in a firm tone:
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t say that you wrote it yourself. It would be a waste of time for both of us.”
The tearful look in her eyes that had been visible through the door crack was now gone without a trace. Her warning that things like lies wouldn’t work so don’t even try was quite sharp.
Should he be disappointed at her looking at him as if he were a stranger, or should he be glad that his prediction hit the mark?
Unless she truly possessed some sort of mystical ability, it was impossible for her to pierce through to the truth the moment she faced him. Yet, confronting this exact moment, he realizes that he had held onto a bit of hope anyway.
Geon-woo curled the hand he had placed atop his lap into a fist. Only after rubbing the side of his index finger with his thumb and barely swallowing a laugh could he let out an ordinary voice.
“I like it.”
“……Pardon?”
“To the point where I’d want to waste time, no matter how much.”
The incredibly beautiful pupils tremble with confusion.
During the gap where lips that felt as though they would taste sweet if bitten into a single mouthful parted softly, he had to leave a slight pause to catch and tie down his gaze, which was being dragged along helplessly.
“Lee-yeon. What do you think of me?”
You shouldn’t be shaken already, Yeon-hwa.
This is only the beginning.
