<CHAPTER 2>
Click, click.
The rhythmic sound of high heels echoed through the café.
A beautiful woman came into view.
Her ponytail suited her perfectly.
Her clear, milky-white skin complemented her high, well-defined nose and large eyes.
Everyone in the coffee shop turned their attention toward her.
Just looking at her made my shoulders instinctively straighten with pride.
She was my girlfriend, Gu Hye-jin.
Swoosh.
With a smooth, graceful movement, she took the seat across from me.
“Was there a lot of traffic?”
“No.”
“Were you busy?”
“No.”
Her tone was colder than usual.
“I have something to say!”
“……??”
The moment she sat down, Hye-jin stared at me with an indifferent gaze before finally opening her mouth.
It was a look I had been seeing more and more often lately.
“Let’s end things.”
The bombshell suddenly dropped from her lips.
“You weren’t seriously planning on continuing to date me, were you?”
Her icy follow-up question was practically a confirmation.
“…….”
She was absolutely right.
We were no longer people who belonged together.
To someone like me, who had become an unemployed bum, she was far too good.
Unlike me, she was a full-time employee at one of the top ten conglomerates in the country.
“……Yeah.”
It was a fact I had unconsciously kept denying.
But there was no denying reality anymore.
“It’s our last time together, so at least eat before you go. And this is your birthday present, even if I’m late.”
I hurriedly pulled a gift box from my bag.
Her birthday had been a few days ago.
But because of her busy schedule, I hadn’t been able to give it to her.
“Forget it. Sell that and use the money to pay off your debts.”
“Hye-jin!”
“What? Are you embarrassed? You should be. It’s embarrassing to be your age and still not have a car or a home. I’m just glad you finally realized it.”
My body trembled.
She had taken another swipe at my pride.
And right in front of my girlfriend, my fists clenched tightly.
“I hate pathetic, clingy people. You know that, right? Delete my number. And don’t get drunk and call me like some pathetic loser. Have some pride. If you have even a shred of conscience left.”
She drove one dagger after another into me until my heart felt shredded to pieces.
She didn’t just cross a river I could never hope to cross.
She jumped across it and went sailing far beyond me.
“It was fun while it lasted.”
The one sentence she tossed out as consolation was utterly devastating.
“Honestly, oppa, you’re not the kind of guy who falls short wherever you go. I mean, just find a woman who’s on your level and live well.”
Was that supposed to be a compliment?
Or an insult disguised as consolation?
Her words became a razor-sharp spear and plunged straight into the center of my heart.
I stared silently at Hye-jin’s cold expression.
Even with my busy schedule, I had done my best—for my company and for the woman I loved.
I thought that if I lived that way, I would never be betrayed.
That was what all the older people in my life had advised me, too.
But it had all been a lie.
On the very same day, both my company and my woman abandoned me.
Even the coworkers who had shared meals with me acted no differently.
I remembered the looks on their faces when I stormed out of the director’s office after confronting Go Dong-yeol.
Every single one of them avoided my eyes.
They were the very same people who had been asking me to grab a meal or a drink with them just moments before.
Their lightning-fast abandonment crushed me.
And just a few hours later, my girlfriend treated me no differently.
I…… had no money and no connections!
“I hate to say this, but I’m going to give you one last piece of advice for your own sake. Actually, oppa, you were only the third guy I was keeping on the back burner.”
“……??”
“So think of it as a good thing. You were always neglecting me because you were busy working part-time jobs and pretending you weren’t struggling, weren’t you?”
My hurt feelings ignited into anger.
Then, for some reason, my heart suddenly went cold.
We had spent several years together as lovers.
The memories of all that time flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern, then scattered like dust.
Riiiiiing.
Hye-jin’s phone began to ring.
As though she had been waiting for it, she immediately checked her smartphone.
Her eyes sparkled, and delight spread across her face.
Soon, a gentle smile slowly bloomed at the corners of her lips.
She turned away and answered the call.
“Senior~”
It was that sweet voice I had believed, until only a few days ago, was meant only for me.
“Have you arrived?”
Her coy, affectionate tone was exactly the same.
“…….”
She called the person on the other end “senior.”
But the emotion in Hye-jin’s voice was anything but ordinary.
A pain stabbed through my chest.
My entire body tingled with agony.
“I’ll come down.”
Before she had even finished speaking, Hye-jin rose from her seat.
Click, click.
Without sparing me even a single indifferent glance, she walked away.
Gulp, gulp.
I drained the ice water in my cup without stopping to breathe.
My throat felt numb from the cold.
Yeah.
That was the whole story of what had happened to me on this supposedly “lucky” day.
But then……
“Want me to tell you a little secret for attracting good fortune?”
“……??”
“If you make a lot of money, don’t stuff yourself until your belly bursts like some greedy pig. Out of every ten things you get, always give one to someone else. That’s how you keep receiving blessings for the rest of your life.”
“…….”
A secret to attracting good fortune?
It wasn’t exactly some grand secret.
The old woman whispered softly, as though she was embarrassed to even call something like that a secret.
“Don’t let your spirits sink…… This old lady will give you some strength.”
Could she perhaps be…… G-God?
I suppressed the laugh that almost escaped me.
“Get a good night’s sleep and wake up. Something good will happen. A lucky…….”
The old woman continued encouraging me recklessly, as though she had decided not to think too much about it.
Even if they were only empty words, I was grateful.
She wasn’t someone I had ever seen among my relatives.
And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I felt strangely close to her.
She was the old woman I had run into on the alleyway while staggering home, completely drunk.
There was no doubt that she was a stranger.
I couldn’t even tell whether this was a dream or reality.
“Go on now……. And I put a few good things in there for you, so keep your spirits up. No matter what happens, don’t forget that you’re a big bear.”
“T-Thank you.”
I didn’t care if my failed life was nothing more than a ridiculous dream.
“A few good things?”
I still couldn’t understand what she meant.
The old woman appearing out of nowhere and treating me this way was even more bewildering.
Still, I bowed my head politely.
This situation had zero sense of reality and felt exactly like a dream, but I was a man who knew how to show proper respect.
“I’m so sorry…….”
Who was she, anyway, and why did she keep apologizing to me?
Maybe we should start by introducing ourselves to each other……
“Life is short. Go out there and have some fun before you return…….”
The old woman left me with nothing but cryptic words until the very end.
Come to think of it, the corners of her eyes were moist.
What was that look in her eyes?
They were filled with pity and sorrow.
No matter how I looked at her, I had never met this woman before.
So why……?
Scuff, scuff.
While I struggled to connect my broken thoughts, the old woman in her flower-patterned rubber shoes disappeared down the alley.
I wanted to stop her and ask at least one question, but for some reason, I couldn’t get a single word out.
And then……
“……!!”
She vanished completely, without even leaving a shadow behind.
It was as if darkness had swallowed her, and then she simply disappeared.
“……Was I visited by a ghost?”
But she wasn’t a ghost.
Even now, when I thought back on it, every event of that day remained vividly etched in my memory.
“……A lucky day, my ass…….”
—
“Argh!!”
I jolted awake.
Thud!
Without even opening my eyes, I kicked away the blanket tangled around my feet.
The moment I woke up, every miserable event from the previous day came rushing back to me.
Even the tiniest details.
“Yeah! Go ahead and leave. Go. I may be broke, but I’m not without my pride!”
I vented my frustration toward the ceiling.
Gu Hye-jin had torn my last shred of pride to pieces and stomped all over it.
She had been my junior in the university’s business administration department.
I had met her after returning to university following my military service, when we were assigned to the same group for a liberal arts class.
Gu Hye-jin had been popular from the very first day I saw her.
She was, quite literally, the ultimate social butterfly.
She had a small face and great proportions.
On top of that, she was strikingly beautiful.
She had the kind of charm that naturally drew people toward her even when she was doing absolutely nothing.
With looks that went far beyond the ordinary, she was the kind of woman every man naturally found attractive.
And when she turned on her charms, the men around her completely lost their minds.
At first, I hadn’t paid her any attention.
She was pretty.
That was the extent of my interest.
Given my family circumstances, I simply didn’t have the luxury of dreaming about romance.
I was too busy desperately trying to squeeze out enough time for part-time jobs.
For someone like me, Gu Hye-jin—the beautiful, lively girl whom countless men pursued—was completely out of my league.
But that was exactly where things took an unexpected turn.
Because I showed no interest in her, she became interested in me instead.
She would pout whenever I failed to react to her and began showing an obvious curiosity toward me.
Apparently, her attraction to the “bad boy” type had been triggered.
She showed interest in me several times.
I noticed the signals, but I deliberately ignored them.
In the end, it didn’t take long for the little fox to win me over.
I was a man, after all.
There was no way I could resist when a fox was determined to seduce me.
It had been a drinking gathering with some of my juniors, the first one I’d attended in a long time.
She happened to be there, too.
She sat right beside me and kept calling me “Senior, Senior” over and over.
Pressing herself close to me……
I got drunk without even putting up a fight.
I fell completely under the spell of her seductive, intoxicating gaze as she deliberately came after me.
A man who can resist being bewitched by a fox isn’t much of a man.
Even now, those had been some of the happiest days of my life.
And those happy days had ended yesterday.
They had met a glorious, spectacular end that could never be repeated.
“Thanks for everything. ……Live well.”
I murmured the words I hadn’t been able to say yesterday.
I wasn’t petty enough to curse her.
If anything, it was more my fault for trusting her and falling for her.
I had been happy with her.
She had been a beautiful girlfriend overflowing with affection and charm.
It had been a blessing during the passionate days of my youth.
“Guess I’m unemployed starting today. What the hell am I supposed to live on now……?”
My future looked utterly hopeless.
I had walked out after coolly handing in my resignation, but the road ahead looked bleak.
I was even afraid to open my eyes.
I never imagined I would have to face the kind of economic crisis my parents had endured during the IMF crisis.
Fwoosh!
“Huh??”
I felt dazzling sunlight against my closed eyelids.
This was strange.
I lived in a semi-basement room in a rented townhouse.
The window, which was only halfway above ground level, was always kept shut.
On top of that, I kept blackout curtains drawn twenty-four hours a day.
I had chosen that arrangement because I didn’t want to become something for people passing through the alley to stare at.
But……
This was a bright, radiant light that could never possibly come through my semi-basement window.
The warmth resting against my eyelids spread across my face.
It was sunlight filled with a comforting heat.
I suddenly opened my eyes.
“……??”
The first thing I saw was cheap ceiling wallpaper patterned with a grid.
It looked unfamiliar, yet somehow strangely familiar.
What was even stranger was that it resembled the rooftop room where I had lived on my own and shared everything with my roommates back in high school……
“Gaaaaah!”
