LNMBU 03

Chapter : 03

“Ah…….”

It was the first time they had been face-to-face this close since they had sat together studying when she was in middle school.

His handsome face looked as though it had been sculpted, and for some reason, her heart fluttered uneasily.

“Yes, I’ve been doing well too. How have you been, Oppa……?”

Rrrrr— Rrrrr—

Just then, a loud ringtone rang through the elevator, interrupting Nayeon.

Narin quickly tapped her phone and held it to her ear.

“Hello? Yeah, I’m on my way now!”

In the quiet elevator, only Narin’s voice echoed loudly as she spoke on the phone, apparently with a friend.

Nayeon took her eyes off Jaehyuk and looked down at the floor again.

“…….”

With both hands tucked into his trouser pockets, Jaehyuk stood quietly. Nayeon noticed one of his sneakers twitch slightly beside her shoes.

“Me? Of course I dressed up to the max. You’re definitely getting ready properly today too, right? By the way, how are the guys coming today? If they’re not any good, I’m just going home.”

Ding—

The elevator arrived on the first floor.

“Oh! Oppa, I’ll go ahead. Bye, sis! Guys, I’m about to get in a taxi. How many of you have gathered?”

Narin hurriedly said goodbye to Jaehyuk and Nayeon before quickly walking away.

As Narin headed toward the main entrance, she looked excited at the prospect of the blind date.

Jaehyuk stepped out of the elevator first, and Nayeon followed behind him.

It was only then, as she walked after him, that Nayeon raised her head.

“Your younger sister has changed so much that I almost didn’t recognize her…….”

Jaehyuk, who had been walking with both hands in his pockets, suddenly stopped and turned around.

“You haven’t changed at all.”

Nayeon nearly bumped into his back. She hurriedly stopped and looked up at him.

His calm gaze quietly looked down at her, his eyes deep like a lake.

Their eyes met at such a close distance that she suddenly became nervous, and her lips went dry.

“Ah, yes. I suppose not. Haha…….”

Unable to keep looking into his eyes, she lowered her gaze.

‘When he says I haven’t changed at all, he probably doesn’t mean that in a good way…… I used to walk around with this same bob haircut and round glasses, after all.’

Jaehyuk’s gaze gradually traveled down from her face, swept over her body, and then returned to her face.

“You should eat more.”

Apparently, he was looking at her skinny arms and legs and her flat chest, giving her the impression of a body more suited to an elementary school student.

Embarrassed, Nayeon awkwardly smoothed down her bangs.

She wanted to leave now.

Being alone with him was uncomfortable. She was so awkward and nervous.

She wanted to disappear from his sight.

When she had been a student, she was young enough that she could brush off looking like this. But now that she was an adult, she didn’t want him to see that she was still exactly the same.

She turned to the right, intending to pass him and subtly signal that she wanted to leave.

But he took one step to the right and blocked her path.

What?

Startled, she raised her head, only to find Jaehyuk looking straight down at her.

“When I was in medical school.”

His low, deep voice flowed softly into her ears.

“I used to come here from time to time during every vacation.”

He tilted his head slightly to the side.

“But I never saw you?”

Nayeon fumbled for an answer to Jaehyuk’s question.

“Ah, well…… I was busy going to academies even during vacation. Narin said she saw you occasionally, Oppa. I guess we just never happened to run into each other. Haha…….”

Unlike Narin, who had happened to encounter him by chance, Nayeon had never seen Jaehyuk even once. That seemed to be what he was asking about.

“Well, I’ll be going now.”

Nayeon gave him a slight bow.

She was embarrassed. Even though they had met again after so long, she was still exactly the same. And standing beside her younger sister, who had dressed up to the fullest, only made the contrast even more obvious.

With her confidence plummeting, Nayeon hurried her steps as though trying to escape.

“What about school?”

Jaehyuk’s next question made her stop just as she was about to open the main entrance door.

“Yes?”

“Where did you go?”

Jaehyuk walked over at an unhurried pace and pushed open the glass door of the main entrance for her.

“If you got tutoring from me, you should’ve gotten into a good school.”

Nayeon pushed her glasses up and tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Your sister didn’t study, but you worked hard.”

She saw Jaehyuk’s dry expression as he looked down at her with his head slightly tilted.

“That’s true. My sister wasn’t really interested in studying…… I went to Yeonseo University.”

As the older boy who had tutored her, he must have been curious about which university his neighbor’s younger sister had attended.

“You worked hard.”

“Thank you.”

A blunt compliment about one of the country’s prestigious universities came her way.

She answered modestly, but Nayeon felt strangely uncomfortable.

‘I guess those are the only things he wants to ask me about…….’

He seemed to tell Narin that she was pretty and ask about how she was doing, but with Nayeon, all he asked was whether she had studied hard and which university she went to.

‘As if…… he’s saying, “You’re not particularly interesting, so this is all I have to talk about with you.” Am I just being overly sensitive?’

What would it feel like to be praised as pretty by a man as perfect as Jaehyuk?

Nayeon found herself inexplicably jealous of Narin, who could talk to Jaehyuk so comfortably and had even been told she was pretty.

Handsome men, beautiful women…….

It was a world of its own.

Nayeon, who couldn’t comfortably fit in with people like them, wanted to disappear now.

Before her self-esteem could crumble any further.

Perhaps because it was early summer, bright sunlight poured dazzlingly through the open entrance from the morning onward.

Nayeon pushed up her thick glasses and squinted slightly against the sunlight.

Just as she was awkwardly preparing to say goodbye to Jaehyuk, he asked her another question in his low voice.

“Then, take care going…….”

“Where are you going right now?”

“Huh? Me? To the convenience store.”

Jaehyuk then strode over to the car parked right in front of the main entrance.

When he lifted the smart key, the luxury foreign car gave a beep.

“Get in.”

“What?”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

Jaehyuk gave a small nod toward the car.

She was a little flustered.

“No…… The convenience store is only a three-minute walk from here.”

“It’s on my way anyway, so get in.”

“I’m fine. There’s really no need for you to give me a ride…… You should just go on your way, Oppa.”

She was embarrassed to be beside someone as impressive as him while looking so shabby herself, and all she wanted was to get away from here quickly.

Jaehyuk strode around the hood of the car and opened the passenger-side door.

“Oppa, I’m really okay.”

But he simply held the open car door and stared straight at her.

Without blinking once. His expression remained blank.

“…….”

Is he planning to keep staring until I get in?

Nayeon didn’t know what to do and shifted her eyes back and forth.

Jaehyuk seemed more stubborn than she had expected.

Once he had decided to give her a ride, he seemed determined to do it, and he simply watched her with that unwavering gaze without saying another word.

Eventually, flustered, Nayeon walked toward the car, watching his reaction.

Only after she sat in the passenger seat did he close the door for her. Jaehyuk then walked around the hood again and got into the driver’s seat.

Click. The door closed, and the engine started.

There was silence inside the car.

Feeling awkward and out of place, Nayeon slightly lowered her head and said,

“Then, I’ll trouble you for a moment.”

Jaehyuk, sitting in the driver’s seat, slowly turned his head and quietly looked at Nayeon.

Just as she was about to flinch at his sudden gaze, he abruptly leaned his upper body toward her.

The distance between them suddenly closed in the blink of an eye.

“Gasp.”

She inhaled sharply in surprise, and her body stiffened.

The woody musk of his scent reached the tip of her nose, making Nayeon’s heart beat rapidly for no reason.

‘Why is he so close……?’

Jaehyuk’s handsome face was right in front of her.

But when he pulled the seat belt beside her toward him, Nayeon’s startled eyes finally stopped moving.

‘Ah…… He’s trying to fasten my seat belt. What a surprise.’

He had suddenly leaned close to her face without saying anything, so she had been startled.

“Why?”

“Ah, no. You just startled me.”

“What did?”

“You suddenly came so close…….”

“You’re not going to put your seat belt on?”

“No. Of course I am. Of course.”

She answered in a trembling voice before pressing her lips together.

The car slowly began to move.

Since they were still inside the apartment complex, Jaehyuk drove slowly and turned on some soft music.

Nayeon was looking straight ahead when she suddenly flinched, uncomfortable because the bandage wrapped tightly around her chest felt constricting.

At the sight of this, Jaehyuk briefly turned his head and looked at her.

After watching her quietly, his gaze slowly lowered.

“…….”

He stared at the phone and wallet resting on top of her pants, then reached out with his right hand and casually picked up Nayeon’s phone.

“……?”

Nayeon stared at Jaehyuk with wide eyes.

He glanced at the phone and murmured indifferently,

“You use a Sansun phone.”

“Yes. Don’t you use a Sansun phone too, Oppa?”

Jaehyuk then casually handed his phone to her.

Caught off guard, she accepted his white phone.

“You’re right. You use a Sansun phone too, Oppa.”

She examined it from several angles before handing it back to Jaehyuk. But he didn’t take it.

‘Why isn’t he taking it?’

Jaehyuk continued driving slowly, turning the steering wheel with his left hand. With his right hand, he held her phone and even pressed the screen to turn it on.

The wallpaper showed a photo she had taken at a café with her best friend, Hyesun, last time.

“……?”

What is he doing?

As Nayeon looked at him with a confused expression, Jaehyuk nodded toward the phone in her hand.

“Use that to call your phone.”