DPLO Chapter 8

As I stayed still like that, a moment eventually came when I could no longer bear it. I quietly left the house and took the elevator down. Since it was already late at night, I didn’t go far. I simply sat on a random bench and looked around at the lit up apartments within the complex.

While I was wallowing in self pity alone, my phone vibrated briefly. I was disappointed to find it was a message from Han Jio, not Kang Euihyun. He had sent a gifticon for a delivery app, telling me to eat something if I got hungry while studying at night. 

Han Jio always wanted to give me something. It seemed as though that was the only way he knew how to get on a girl’s good side. I typed “Thank you,” but then deleted it. The cursor blinked, urging me to respond.

What I desperately needed right now was Kang Euihyun, but the criticism Yoo Dokyeom had hurled at me earlier was still lodged firmly in my chest. His question asking if I was using my dead mother to gain sympathy. It was a truth I had recognized myself for three years, yet I had no immunity against hearing it from someone else.

So, instead of calling Kang Euihyun to whine, I sent a message to Han Jio.

[Want to eat together?]

Without waiting for a reply, I sent him my apartment address. This was the first time I was meeting Han Jio so far from university. For the first time, I broke the promise I had made to myself, which was that I would only call him out on weekdays during school hours.

 I hid the fingers that wanted to press Kang Euihyun’s contact in my pocket.

Our meeting spot was the pavilion in front of Building 201. Since my home was in Building 207, I considered this a bit of strategic thinking on my part. No matter how lonely I felt, I wasn’t so foolish as to let a man I barely knew straight into my home.

Even as I comforted myself with that thought, I recalled the news stories of countless men who turned into stalkers after breaking up with their partners. Kang Euihyun might scold me severely if he found out. Well, if it got his attention in any way, it would be a good thing for me.

Han Jio arrived carrying pizza. Despite being called out suddenly at 11 PM, he didn’t show a hint of annoyance and smiled brightly. Then again, I would spring out of bed even in my sleep if Kang Euihyun called. Perhaps that was why every time I looked at Han Jio, it felt like looking in a mirror at my own reflection when I looked at Kang Euihyun.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m okay.”

Still, Han Jio draped a blanket over my lap. He seemed to view this impulsive rendezvous as a midnight picnic. I was happy because I now had a reason not to go back inside, and Han Jio was happy to eat pizza with me, so I didn’t feel guilty.

“When do your exams end?”

“I have them for a full week. Until next Friday afternoon.”

“That’s late…”

Han Jio muttered listlessly as he poured cola into a paper cup.

“What are you doing after exams?”

The intention behind the question was obvious. He probably wanted to go somewhere over the weekend. The point I agonized over for a short while wasn’t whether I wanted to go out with Han Jio, but whether Kang Euihyun would be going on a date with Jeong Sujin.

…He definitely would. By then, they might have finished the some phase and started officially dating. My shoulders slumped as I imagined myself aimlessly wandering the cafe in front of my house. I felt even more powerless knowing there wasn’t anything I could do regarding the relationship between Kang Euihyun and Jeong Sujin.

“I don’t really have any plans.”

“Then do you want to go see an exhibition with me? There’s one at the Ttukseom Museum of Art that looks interesting.”

Han Jio hadn’t even touched the pizza yet. I nodded generously for the sake of the nervous man. Upon hearing the permission, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

Just then, the phone beside me vibrated. As soon as the name ‘Euihyun Oppa♥’ appeared on the screen, I pressed the button to silence it and flipped the phone face down. Han Jio gave me a puzzled look, but I ignored it and just ate the pizza.

I didn’t want to be so mean as to ignore a call from the man I had loved my whole life in front of a man who was trying so hard to impress me. After all, Han Jio was the person who had bought pizza and come to find me because I was lonely. I had a duty to show him basic human decency.

“There’s this professor in my department who gives the exact same questions every year. But last year, he suddenly changed all the questions. I heard the seniors were in an uproar because they all failed the exam.”

Listening to Han Jio’s story, I cast my gaze across the pond. It was just a coincidence. I only looked because the sound of urgent footsteps echoed through the quiet complex.

However, I had a gut feeling about who those footsteps belonged to. My nerves, which had been honed for years toward only one person, reacted again, sensing it might be related to the call that had just come in.

Passing through the shadows cast by the trees, a man emerged under the light of a streetlamp. He stopped the moment our eyes met. He looked at me as if relieved, catching his breath, then noticed Han Jio eating pizza beside me. The rapid rise and fall of his chest stopped.

I felt a secret thrill upon discovering Kang Euihyun had been searching for me. Because I didn’t answer the phone, he didn’t know where I was and had been scouring the apartment complex. He would have visited my house already and perhaps checked the cafes I frequent.

“That person…”

Han Jio noticed Kang Euihyun too.

“You know him, right?”

Han Jio concluded, his gaze fixed on the man approaching.

“He’s the guy who was studying next to you when I gave you that note in the library.”

There was no need to give extra points to Han Jio’s memory. Kang Euihyun was the kind of person who left an impression after just one glance. Even in the university’s anonymous community, everyone knew exactly who ‘that guy from the Business building’ was.

Kang Euihyun’s steps entered the shade of the pavilion. A gaze that felt like it could pierce through me landed on my cheek. I calculated whether the distance was close enough for my voice to reach his ears before answering Han Jio.

“He’s a close friend of my brother.”

A brother’s friend. There was no expression that could define the relationship between Kang Euihyun and me more definitively. If Yoo Dokyeom hadn’t been in the middle, we wouldn’t have even crossed paths. It was an absolute stroke of luck for me that Kang Euihyun was my brother’s friend, and for Kang Euihyun… it was probably an unpleasant encounter that just saddled him with a nuisance.

“What are you doing here?”

Kang Euihyun asked as he reached the pavilion. The fact that he didn’t even greet Han Jio was far from his usual way of being moderately polite to everyone.

“Eating pizza with Jio Oppa.”

I explained the visible situation exactly as it was. Kang Euihyun’s gaze reluctantly shifted to Han Jio. A sense of reluctance clung to the two men as they bowed to each other.

“I talked to Dokyeom.”

Kang Euihyun brought up the reason he had come here at this hour.

“But when I went to your house, nobody was there.”

Because Han Jio was listening, Kang Euihyun chose his words carefully. However, it was impossible not to understand the hidden meaning.

An angry Yoo Dokyeom must have made it obvious he’d fought with his sister, and Kang Euihyun, who knew the Yoo siblings’ fighting habits well, would have immediately realized what had happened. Thus, worried that I was left alone, he had run around the apartment complex tonight searching for me.

And yet, the girl he worried about so much was peacefully eating pizza with some other guy. What was Kang Euihyun feeling? Was he angry? Or was he deflated? Or perhaps he felt relieved that he had found someone else to look after me.

“Would you like some pizza?”

Han Jio offered readily. He likely asked, expecting Kang Euihyun to refuse. After all, no one would want to suddenly intrude on a man and a woman and make things awkward for themselves.

“I’ll have some.”

However, Kang Euihyun perched himself down beside me. The way he reached for the pizza was so brazen, it was as if he had been part of the group all along. A flash of bewilderment crossed Han Jio’s face.

“Did you want pizza?”

Kang Euihyun asked me. Separate from the fact that I was very happy he had come to find me, I started to feel conscious of Han Jio.

“Just… I was bored.”

“You should have told me. I would have bought some. Have you been here this whole time? Without going anywhere else?”

Han Jio continued to be excluded from Kang Euihyun’s questions. At this point, I couldn’t help but feel an obligation to lead the conversation between the three of us.

“Yeah, I just took a walk here. Oppa, Jio Oppa is also at our university. He’s in the Math department.”

Kang Euihyun had known Han Jio’s face and contact information for a long time, but he pretended to be introduced. He was silently forcing us to greet each other as if meeting for the first time.

“Hello, I’m Kang Euihyun from the Business department.”

“I’m Han Jio from the Math department.”

Placed between two men, it was uncomfortable to openly look at only one person. I chewed and swallowed the pizza while staring only at the pond opposite us.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty five.”

“We’re the same age then.”

I suddenly remembered Kang Euihyun evaluating Han Jio as being too old. I wondered if that standard applied to himself as well. Whether he only intended to play the ‘oppa’ role for me, and if he would have seen me as a woman if I were twenty four like Jeong Sujin.

“Then shall we speak comfortably?”

Han Jio asked while sprinkling parmesan cheese powder over my pizza.

“Thank…”

“No.”

Before my thank you could even finish, a rejection flew in from beside me. It was a refusal so sharp it was embarrassing for the listener. Han Jio, who had been wiping his mouth with a tissue, paused and looked at the man beside me.

“We’re only seeing each other once today anyway.”