Episode 6

It was just another early morning commute, but a strange sense of déjà vu crawled up Sohee’s spine. As she breathlessly climbed the steep hill of the slum neighborhood, she realized the source of the déjà vu only when she neared her home.

“Why is the light on in the house?”

The rooftop room, which should have been dark due to the electricity being cut off, was brightly lit. In a neighborhood where the dim, flickering streetlight was the only source of light, the bright light spilling out of the single window stood out starkly.

It had been so long since she had seen the room lit up that it felt unfamiliar, almost surreal. A chilling sense of fear quickly followed.

“Who on earth…?”

Sohee, treading carefully up the stairs to the rooftop room, noticed that the yellow overdue notice plastered all over the door was cleanly gone. She had given up on removing it long ago, so someone else had done it.

Who, why, and for what reason would someone bother to take down such a stubbornly adhesive notice? Moreover, the fact that the light was on inside meant that the unpaid electricity bill had been taken care of. The puzzling questions kept growing larger.

At that moment, Sohee sensed a small movement inside the house. She thought about running away dozens of times, but the strange curiosity about who had gone so far as to pay her electricity bill kept her rooted in place.

As she strained her hearing, focusing all her attention on her good left ear, someone suddenly swung the door open. Startled, Sohee froze, unable to even scream.

A large, tall shadow, backlit by the fluorescent light, loomed over her. Before she could even tilt her head up to look at him, she recognized the intruder by the scent of cologne that had been lingering like a phantom at the tip of her nose for the past week.

“You almost hurt my feelings.”

“What?”

“I thought you ran away since you weren’t answering your phone.”

Gye Wonho grinned widely, stretching out his long arms to pull her into a tight embrace. This time, it wasn’t just a shadow; the intense scent of his cologne completely overwhelmed her senses.

“Oh…”

Sohee was pulled helplessly into his embrace, her face buried between the folds of his coat. Her pale forehead and cheeks brushed against the stiff fabric of his shirt, and eventually, her face was pressed firmly against his solid chest.

Sohee’s eyes darted around in confusion as she found herself suddenly enveloped in Gye Wonho’s arms. The heavy scent of his body mingled with the cologne, and his warm, broad chest felt overpowering. She blinked rapidly, trying to steady her breath, but her mind was in turmoil.

Why did he suddenly show up like this, without any notice, and hug me?

The trembling wouldn’t stop, and perhaps it was because his arms wrapped around her back were so large and firm. Feeling her mouth go dry, Sohee finally managed to speak.

“…Excuse me.”

As she struggled to break free from his grip, Sohee suddenly became self-conscious about what he might notice about her. After working all day in a nightclub, certain things inevitably clung to her—traces of cigarette smoke and alcohol, the remnants of revelry.

She had come straight home after work, and with him holding her so closely, he might have picked up on these scents too. The thought made her feel embarrassed and anxious.

“Ah, sir, could you please let me go…?”

Sohee’s voice trembled as she tried once more to push him away. Ironically, Gye Wonho only tightened his hold on her.

“Just stay still for a moment.”

His voice was calm as he rested his chin on her shoulder and slipped his hand into the pocket of her coat.

“Huh!”

Sohee gasped as his large hand naturally rummaged through the narrow pocket. The biting cold outside had long been forgotten; her body, where he touched, and her tightening throat felt unbearably hot.

After a moment, Gye Wonho released her and pulled out an old model cell phone with a black screen, waving it in front of her face.

“If you’re already acting like this, it’ll be a problem. Just because you’re cute doesn’t mean I can keep letting things slide, you know.”

Sohee took a step back from Gye Wonho, rubbing her cold hand against her flushed cheek as she stared blankly at the familiar object in his hand. It was her cell phone that he had pulled out from her coat. She was certain that it had some battery left when she left the nightclub, but now it seemed to have temporarily run out of power and turned off.

He had only embraced her to check the phone in her pocket…

It seemed that he must have called her while she was on her way home. Since public transportation had stopped running by the time she got off work, it took her quite a while to walk home.

He probably got suspicious because the phone had been off for so long. He might have thought she had run off, leaving behind all that debt.

But when exactly did he come to her place?

“I didn’t turn it off on purpose… It often shuts down in winter, and I didn’t notice it on the way home.”

It was all true, but Sohee felt like she was lying to him. Her voice grew smaller as she added this non-excuse of an excuse.

“I didn’t expect you to call at this hour…”

It was well past midnight, so technically, it was Thursday. The thought made her heart sink.

If it had been Manager Kim, he might have slapped her for not answering and then turned the place upside down. So, she couldn’t let her guard down around this man either. For all she knew, the inside of her home could be a complete mess after he had been in there. Maybe that was even why he took her keys in the first place.

“I’ll call whenever I want, so make sure you pick up on time, alright?”

His tone was like someone gently coaxing a child, but the warning in his words was heavier than any harsh scolding.

“…Yes. I won’t do it again.”

“Quick to repent, I like that,” he said with a crooked smile, a smile that gave nothing away. Then, Gye Wonho turned on her phone.

“Let’s see just how outdated this phone is.”

The old model took a while to power up. The black screen slowly lit up with the manufacturer’s logo, casting a blue light that sharply outlined his chiseled features.

Sohee’s gaze was caught, unable to look away from his face. Her eyes lingered on his well-defined nose and then on his half-closed, languid eyes.

His eyelashes are really long…

Sohee thought absentmindedly, but then her eyes collided with a hot and intense gaze that shot straight back at her.

His eyes, framed by light brown irises, held a certain clarity that made her feel uneasy. A wave of tension washed over her, making the back of her neck tingle with cold.

“Why… are you staring at me like that?”

How long had he been watching her? As Sohee anxiously bit her lip, trying to endure the silence, he suddenly curved his lips into a smile.

“Why? Got something to hide? You’re acting all nervous.”

He teased, and then abruptly, he grabbed Sohee’s right hand, which had been trembling slightly.

“Oh…!”

He pressed her thumb firmly against the bottom of the phone. Soon, the fingerprint lock was released, and the default background screen appeared.

The current date and time popped up, followed by five missed calls from an unknown number. That must be his number.

As Gye Wonho let go of her hand, Sohee rubbed her burning fingers as if they’d been scalded. He casually scrolled through her phone contacts, his expression indifferent.

Most of the contacts were tutoring students, their parents, people she met through part-time jobs, and a few of her college peers.

“Seo Jihoon?”

He asked while flipping through the photos attached to Seo Jihoon’s profile, which appeared a few times in the call history. Wondering what had piqued his interest, Sohee quickly responded.

“He’s a sunbae from school… We talk often because he helped me find a job.”

“Hmm.”

With a vague reaction, he nodded absentmindedly and then moved his fingers to open the photo gallery. The gallery contained mostly pictures of assignments, notes, overdue bill notices, and tutoring materials. There weren’t many photos, and soon, the last picture in the gallery appeared.

Gye Wonho tilted his head slightly and let out a small, incredulous laugh. Then, with two thick fingers, he tapped the screen lazily.

“Do you like cats?”

He asked while looking at a picture of a sleeping ginger cat. It was a stray that had wandered onto the rooftop one day and fallen asleep, and Sohee had taken a photo of it.

Even Sohee had forgotten about that picture, as she didn’t often look through her gallery.

“There was something like this attached to the key too,” he added.

With her cheeks flushing, Sohee remembered the cat keychain he had taken and replied softly.

“…Yes, I like them.”

“Of course you’d like something that looks just like you,” he remarked with a sarcastic smirk.