YHTI 05

Chapter: 05

Yoonseul abruptly raised her head and looked at Igeon.

At some point, his large frame had turned toward her.

“Ah, hello.”

Yoonseul was quite surprised that he recognized her.

It had already been three years since they had filmed a short movie together as part of a group project, and he had graduated that same year.

They had had no connection since then.

The reason she remembered him so vividly was simply because his appearance was so striking that he stood out wherever he went.

“It’s been a while.”

After the brief greeting, there was nothing more to say, and an suffocating silence settled over them.

Why was the elevator so slow, too…?

Only then did she remember that the Humanities Building elevator was notorious for being slow and jolting whenever it stopped.

Please, just hurry up and go up.

She kept praying inwardly.

Then, with a loud clunk, the elevator shook violently.

At that moment, the heavy sound of the iron door of the locked psychiatric ward closing overlapped in Yoonseul’s ears.

In an instant, the blood throughout her body turned cold.

It became difficult to breathe, as if all the oxygen around her had suddenly evaporated.

“Haa… Haa… Ha…”

Yoonseul gasped for breath before collapsing onto the floor.

“Min Yoonseul, are you okay?”

Igeon approached her and lowered himself to her level as he asked.

Realizing that Yoonseul was in no condition to answer properly, he supported her and helped her out of the elevator.

After seating Yoonseul on a bench by the window, he hurriedly took the handkerchief from his breast pocket and unfolded it.

He gently covered her nose and mouth with it, then placed her hand over the handkerchief.

Afterward, he carefully placed his own hand over hers as a second layer.

It probably wouldn’t have much medical effect, but it could provide psychological reassurance.

Igeon lifted Yoonseul’s chin as she continued gasping for breath and met her eyes.

In a calm and clear voice, he said,

“When you raise your head, breathe in through your nose. When you lower it, slowly breathe out through your mouth.”

Igeon checked the time on his wristwatch and slowly nodded his head up and down, and Yoonseul matched her breathing to his.

“You’re doing well.”

At the gentle voice that came like encouragement, Yoonseul’s anxiety gradually began to subside.

As the fear of suffocating at any moment faded, she became aware of the feel of the fine fabric and the warmth of his body passing through her hand.

Yoonseul lowered her head and removed the hand that had been resting over the handkerchief.

Naturally, his hand fell away as well.

“I think I’m okay now. Thank you.”

Just as she thanked him and tried to stand, he draped his suit jacket over her shoulders.

“Stay like this for a moment. It looks like you were really startled.”

Touched by his consideration, Yoonseul gave a small nod.

The warmth that had seeped into the back of her hand still remained.

“I really am okay now.”

“You don’t think you need to go to the hospital?”

“It’s not that serious.”

“Okay. There’s color back in your face now.”

The more they talked, the more Yoonseul thought he was such a gentle man, and she naturally stood up.

“Thank you for helping me today.”

After handing his jacket back to him, she bowed and hurriedly started walking away.

Then Igeon’s voice came from behind her.

“Min Yoonseul.”

When Yoonseul turned around, he quickly closed the distance between them with several long strides.

Just as she was thinking again about how big his build really was, a completely unexpected question came flying at her.

“Are you still writing?”

“Yes…”

“Take this.”

Yoonseul accepted his business card, feeling completely bewildered.

She had never expected him to ask about her writing.

“I really liked your writing back then. Did you know?”

Yoonseul’s eyes widened.

In all her life, it was the first time someone had so openly told her that they liked her writing.

But that wasn’t all.

“Send me anything. Whatever you have.”

She had just been given the opportunity to submit her work to Dipflix, the world’s largest OTT platform, which would one day have hundreds of millions of subscribers.

I can’t believe this.

Even as she headed toward the classroom, Yoonseul held the business card tightly in her hand, afraid that she might accidentally drop it.

Igeon gazed absentmindedly at Yoonseul’s retreating figure before belatedly turning his attention away at the sound of people approaching.

Min Yoonseul.

A woman he had met when he was a fourth-year law student had completely changed his life.

Because of her, after graduating from university, he boarded a plane to the United States instead of entering the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

She had made him willingly throw away the smooth path that awaited him after passing the bar examination.

But ironically, Min Yoonseul herself had absolutely no idea about any of this.

“It’s nice to see you again.”

Handing her his business card had been an impulsive act.

But he had no regrets.

He simply wanted to see her writing again as soon as possible—and perhaps see her again, too.

After meeting Igeon, Yoonseul headed straight to a café after her lecture ended.

She needed to write a piece to send to him.

She took a seat at a laptop table by the window and immediately immersed herself in her work.

At the short vibration of her phone, Yoonseul stopped typing and checked it with an expressionless face.

[Don’t push yourself too hard, our Seul. Come home early ♥]

[You too, Taekyung ♥]

She didn’t even have time to be disgusted by the heart emoji, so Yoonseul replied in one second and went straight back to typing.

After about two hours, she saved her work to both a USB drive and the cloud.

Then she left early so that Sara could take her laptop and smash it that evening.

As usual, Yoonseul left her laptop on her desk and headed to the bathroom.

When she came out after taking a shower, the laptop was gone, just as she had expected.

About an hour later, Sara appeared carrying the laptop, which had been damaged so badly that it was difficult to recognize what it had once been.

“What should I do about this? I took it with me because I had something to do for a little while, but it got broken. I was in a minor accident.”

When Yoonseul stared at her coldly without much reaction, Sara instead raised her voice indignantly.

“Are you seriously not even going to ask if I got hurt when I told you I had an accident?”

“You weren’t hurt?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. But your laptop is completely wrecked. What are we going to do about that?”

When Yoonseul obediently asked, Sara seemed to think her lie had worked, and her tone softened considerably.

Apparently, she was relieved because Yoonseul seemed to believe everything she said.

Yoonseul stared straight into those despicable eyes before opening her mouth.

“What else can you do? You have to buy me a new one.”

“What? Why should I?”

Yoonseul thought Sara had made this decision entirely on her own.

It didn’t fit Junghee’s meticulous personality.

It was more accurate to assume that Junghee had simply coaxed Yoonseul into helping clean up the mess after everything happened.

So Yoonseul decided to test the waters.

“You broke it, so isn’t that obvious? If you don’t want to, I’ll tell Mom right now.”

“I’ll buy it! I’ll buy it, okay?”

Sara screamed.

Just as Yoonseul had expected.

Judging from how she was having a fit, it was obvious that she didn’t want Junghee to hear about this.

In that case, I’ll make sure to milk this properly.

“Give me your card. I need to work on my script right away, so I’ll go out and buy a new one now.”

Although Sara had said she would buy one, the moment Yoonseul actually asked for her card, her face twisted horribly with irritation.

After graduating from the Department of Film and Theater, Sara had repeatedly failed acting auditions and was making money through minor acting gigs and modeling jobs.

She must be pretty upset about having to spend that hard-earned money on a laptop for me.

“Just buy something reasonable.”

Sara’s fingertips trembled as she handed over the card.

Yoonseul snatched it from her and immediately left the house, heading to an electronics store.

“Give me the highest-spec model among the 14-inch ones.”

[1,987,000 won]

The moment the employee handed her the payment receipt, her phone began vibrating like crazy.

Yoonseul casually ignored it.

Instead of going home, she went to a nearby café and leisurely drank her tea before finally answering Sara’s persistent calls.

Hey! Are you crazy? It cost almost two million won!

“Is it expensive? I bought the one the employee recommended as the best.”

You stupid idiot. You got completely ripped off like some sucker.

“The employee said I should buy a good one if I wanted to use it for a long time.”

Ah, whatever. Go return it right now and exchange it for the cheapest one.

“Huh? But I already opened the box.”

What? Aaargh! This is so annoying!

Click.

The call ended.

“I’ll put it to good use, Sister.”

The corners of Yoonseul’s lips curved into a satisfied smile.

One month later.

The winning entries of the competitions hosted by DBS Broadcasting Station and Hansan Media were announced two days apart, one after another, drawing widespread attention.

[DBS Drama Competition Grand Prize: 〈Insomnia〉 – Min Sara]

[Hansan Media Storytelling Competition Grand Prize: 〈Insomnia〉 – Min Yoonseul]

When works with the same title simultaneously appeared among the winning entries of two different competitions, the industry began to quietly stir.