Chapter 8
Ah… Is that it?
Come to think of it, she could understand why Doyoung might have been offended.
He had gone out of his way to show her kindness, only for her to turn around and offer to repay him with money.
Seeing how serious Doyoung looked, Danbi proposed a compromise.
“Then let’s split the housework.”
Doyoung’s gaze fell on Danbi’s two fists, clenched tightly in front of her. The determination in her expression made it clear that she was unwilling to keep being a burden to him.
In the end, a faint smile escaped from the corners of his lips.
“I do it because I have a lot of free time. If I get busy, you’ll naturally have to do your share, too.”
“Of course. Obviously. But what do you mean by getting busy? Did you get a job, Senior?”
“A job… I suppose you could call it that.”
“Hm? Why are you being so vague?”
Danbi tilted her head in confusion, but Doyoung merely gave a bitter smile and kept his lips firmly shut.
“Oh, right! You heard about the alumni gathering this weekend, didn’t you?”
Her attempt to change the subject loosened the tension that had been stretched taut between them.
“I heard.”
“Are you going too, Senior?”
“What about you?”
“Huh?”
“I asked if you’re going.”
“I’m just planning to drop by for a little while. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen some of my classmates.”
Doyoung rested his chin on the arm he had propped against the table and thought for a moment.
“Hmm.”
Moon Doyoung had once been the most talked-about person on campus, practically setting the university ablaze wherever he went.
Whenever he showed up at the central library, everyone would flock there with their major textbooks in tow, even during festival season.
Danbi had even heard that professors had suffered headaches throughout the course-registration adjustment period because so many students wanted to take the same general-education classes as him.
This time, too, she suspected the alumni gathering had been arranged so hastily because word had spread that Moon Doyoung had returned to Korea.
“Then I’ll go, too.”
But what was that supposed to mean?
It sounded almost as though he were saying, If you’re going, then I’ll go, too.
Danbi blinked slowly, wondering what exactly he meant by that.
Doyoung didn’t answer. He simply continued eating until he had emptied his bowl.
Come on… I’m just imagining things. This is what happens when I get too full of myself. There’s no way that’s what he meant.
Danbi quickly erased her foolish expression and picked up her spoon again.
“This is strange. Why can’t I find it?”
It was the weekend, and Danbi had slept in as late as she could before finally getting up.
Feeling that she was being far too carefree for someone living under another person’s roof, she came out into the living room.
She at least had enough conscience to want to clean the house before Doyoung came out of his room.
But before she could put that determination into action, she ran into an unexpected problem.
“What are you looking for so frantically?”
Doyoung had emerged from his room at the sound of her rummaging around.
“I was going to clean, but I can’t find any cleaning supplies. They’re not on the balcony or in any of the other rooms, either.”
Danbi scratched the back of her neck with an awkward smile, looking like someone who had been caught stealing food.
Whenever she came home from work, the entire house was always spotless, without so much as a speck of dust.
Apparently, someone cleaned diligently every day, but the only cleaning equipment she had ever seen was the robot vacuum busily traversing the living room.
“You don’t need to. A housekeeper comes during the day on weekdays and cleans.”
“Ohhh… So that’s what it was.”
“She said she prefers using her own cleaning tools, so I don’t keep any here.”
I need to at least pretend I’m useful so they don’t suddenly kick me out.
With nothing left to do, Danbi stood forlornly in the middle of the living room, only her eyes darting around.
“Then… is there anything I can do?”
Doyoung poured himself a glass of cold water and gazed at her.
“Are you bored?”
It wasn’t so much that she was bored. She just felt awkward standing around doing nothing.
“If you’re really that bored, pick out some clothes for me.”
“What clothes?”
“For the alumni gathering. It’s tonight, isn’t it?”
Oh.
So he wanted her to choose what he should wear to the alumni gathering.
“Would that help? If there’s anything troublesome you need to do, just ask me. Feel free to put me to work.”
“This is the most troublesome thing I have to deal with right now.”
“Then of course I’ll do it.”
Delighted that she had finally been given something she could contribute, Danbi nodded enthusiastically.
Doyoung gestured for her to follow him and headed toward the master bedroom.
It was the first time she had entered his room despite the two of them living under the same roof.
For some reason, she felt both nervous and excited.
The closer she got to his room, one step at a time, the faster her pulse seemed to beat.
“Are you going to keep standing there?”
Danbi had stopped at the threshold, hesitating as though she couldn’t decide whether to enter.
Her fingers fidgeted for no reason, as if she were standing before some forbidden place.
“Come closer and take a look.”
Doyoung opened the wardrobe wide and began rummaging through his clothes.
Danbi slowly stepped into the room.
Just like its owner, the space contained only the furniture that was absolutely necessary, and the bedding was perfectly arranged.
Sunlight streamed through the gap in the blackout curtains.
The pleasant scent that had gradually become familiar to her filled the room.
A strange, illicit thrill lingered in her chest, as though she were getting a glimpse into his private life.
“Sit here and make yourself comfortable.”
As though he could see straight through Danbi’s thoughts, Doyoung pulled out the desk chair and tapped it twice.
“Ah, okay.”
Every time the hem of Doyoung’s clothes brushed past her as he moved within a meter of her, Danbi felt as though her mind were going blank.
Doyoung took several shirts from the wardrobe and held them against himself.
“How about this?”
“You look great.”
“And this?”
“It suits you.”
“Maybe this one would be better.”
“Anything looks good on you, Senior.”
Doyoung gave her an incredulous look and let out a hollow laugh.
Only then did Danbi realize what she had just said.
She immediately covered her mouth with both hands.
Surely he hadn’t asked her to choose his clothes just to hear compliments like that.
Finally coming to her senses, she stood up and threw herself into the task as though she were a professional personal shopper.
“If it looks like you tried too hard, it can actually end up looking tacky. So I think something more natural would be better…”
She rummaged through the clothes hanging in his wardrobe until she found a shirt that struck the right balance between casual and formal.
Danbi pulled out a beige China-collar shirt and draped it over Doyoung’s shoulders.
“This one. This is it. It’s perfect.”
“What about the pants?”
Doyoung took out several pairs of slacks and spread them across the bed.
After pondering for a while, Danbi pointed to a pair of cotton slacks that were a shade darker than the shirt.
“How about a tone-on-tone look?”
Doyoung looked at Danbi, who was putting so much enthusiasm into the task, and lifted the corners of his lips.
When he raised one hand, Danbi happily smiled and clapped her palm against his.
“Do you like it?”
At that very moment, Doyoung’s large hand, with its thick knuckles, slipped between her fingers.
He interlaced their hands completely and flashed her a grin.
The sudden contact of their skin made Danbi’s heart contract.
She felt as though she had forgotten how to breathe.
They were less than a foot apart.
“Thank you.”
Sunlight streaming through the window shimmered across Doyoung’s face.
Danbi awkwardly pulled up the corners of her lips.
“It was nothing,” she murmured quietly.
“I-I should go get ready, too.”
“Want to go together?”
“I’m meeting Hyunseo. We said we’d go together.”
“That short-haired friend?”
“I told you, your memory is amazing, Senior. I’ll see you at the alumni gathering later.”
Danbi staggered out of the room like someone whose circuits had malfunctioned.
Doyoung watched her retreating back and, unable to hide his lingering disappointment, ran his thumb over his lips.
He let out a self-deprecating chuckle and muttered to himself.
“What the hell am I doing?”
Hong Danbi was still incapable of hiding her feelings properly.
And he, too, was no different from before, his emotions gently stirred by every word she said and every tiny movement she made.
The College of Business and Economics alumni gathering was being held at a hotel sky lounge overlooking the Han River.
Since it wasn’t a university-wide alumni event, most of the attendees were relatively young graduates who had come simply to socialize and reconnect.
Danbi and Hyunseo approached the round table where their classmates had gathered.
Several familiar faces greeted them, along with a barrage of teasing remarks.
“How long has it been? You disappeared from every class gathering after graduation.”
“Hong Danbi! I heard you joined Truffle Networks. Looks like your life is finally turning around!”
“I heard you got scammed in a real-estate deal. How come you look even brighter than before?”
Hyunseo, the source of that particular rumor, was startled and immediately glanced at Danbi.
She pressed her index finger firmly against her lips.
“Can you guys shut up?”
“You should be the one shutting up! Just how far did you spread the rumors?”
Danbi poked Hyunseo in the side and scolded her.
Hyunseo lowered the corners of her eyes and pretended to smack her own mouth. Then she gave Danbi an apologetic smile and mouthed, Sorry.
“I’ve always told you. Your loose lips are your biggest problem.”
“I’ll take a vow of silence from now on.”
“You? I’d like to see that.”
They took their seats around the table and caught up with their classmates after such a long time apart.
Hyunseo skillfully kept the conversation going, and before long, the table had become lively with nostalgic stories and laughter.
They chatted as freely as if they had attended class together only yesterday.
“Do you remember freshman orientation? Donghyun sprawled out on the floor of the bar and threw a fit, saying he wouldn’t go home unless Hyunseo accepted his confession.”
“Oh, right! That was such a nightmare. The owner kept giving us dirty looks, and the seniors were whispering and snickering at us. He was the definition of a nuisance.”
“Don’t tell me you pulled something like that at the new employee welcome party, too?”
Donghyun, who had fallen for Hyunseo at first sight during freshman orientation and pursued her with remarkable enthusiasm, turned beet red.
He laughed heartily, saying that it was all in the past now, but he couldn’t hide the awkward glances he kept stealing toward Hyunseo.
That was when it happened.
A commotion began at the entrance to the lounge.
The classmates sitting at Danbi’s table chimed in one after another, wondering who had arrived to cause such a stir.
Then, the person who emerged through the crowd was none other than Moon Doyoung.
“He’s here. He actually came. How can he possibly look exactly the same? I guess I’m the only one who’s aged.”
Hyunseo leaned toward Danbi and whispered in her ear.
“I know…”
Doyoung was smiling brightly as he greeted familiar faces.
It was as though someone had installed fluorescent lights behind him, bathing him in a halo of light. Even surrounded by a crowd, his appearance made him stand out as if he were the only person in the room.
It was a face Danbi saw every day.
He was someone who had been in the same house with her only a few hours ago.
And yet, seeing him here made him feel strangely unfamiliar.
Danbi moistened her dry lips with the cocktail in her hand as she slowly looked Doyoung up and down.
Seeing him appear in the shirt and slacks she had personally chosen for him filled her with an indescribably strange feeling.
A wave of regret suddenly washed over her, and she bit down gently on her lower lip.
If I’d known this would happen, I never should have put so much effort into choosing his clothes.
I should’ve told him an oversized T-shirt and shorts would be perfect and even brought out a pair of three-stripe slippers to complete the look.
