CWFH 04

Chapter 04

The fact that Jian had entered the auction meant that he had claimed me, basically saying that no other guy was allowed to touch me.

And sure enough, after Jian called out his bid, the two male students who had been fiercely competing immediately shut their mouths.

Huh? Hey, you two, are you really giving up on me here? I don’t want to get involved with that delinquent!

Dayeon desperately tried to send the two boys a message with her eyes, but they pretended not to notice and looked away.

<“Any higher bids? Then the one-day date with Han Dayeon has been sold to Lee Jian for 120,000 won. Going once, going twice, sold!”>

And just like that, the auction for a one-day date with Dayeon was won by Jian.

“Hey, Han Dayeon! Stay behind after this. I bought the date ticket.”

“Sorry, but I have to go to my academy today. Maybe next time.”

After that, Dayeon avoided him whenever she could. Fortunately—or perhaps it was a blessing in disguise—her family suddenly moved to a faraway place because of her parents’ circumstances.

She transferred schools so abruptly that the entire process was completed within a single day, and she never had a chance to run into Jian again.

And then, more than twelve years later, she met him again today.

As the long-forgotten memory resurfaced, a hollow laugh escaped Dayeon’s lips.

“Are you kidding me? You’re seriously bringing up something that happened at our high school festival?”

“Either way, I paid the money back then, so I need to get what I paid for, even if it’s now.”

Dayeon didn’t want to have this kind of childish conversation when she was already in her thirties.

She couldn’t even remember exactly how much he had paid back then, but she felt like she wanted to just throw the money at him and tell him to take it and get lost.

“Let’s just drop it. If you really feel cheated, I’ll pay you back.”

She muttered to herself, thinking that he couldn’t possibly have paid that much as a high school student.

“It wasn’t that much money anyway.”

“Who said I wanted the money?”

Jian raised one eyebrow.

“It was a one-day date ticket. So we should go on that date now, right?”

A hollow “Huh” escaped Dayeon’s mouth as she stared at him.

“But we’re not eighteen anymore. We’re adults now. So shouldn’t we have an adult kind of date?”

What the hell was this crazy bastard talking about?

“We can’t exactly eat hamburgers at this age and go to a karaoke room together to sing songs, can we?”

Jian raised one corner of his mouth and said,

“You and I are both thirty. Aren’t we?”

Dayeon stared at him with a completely dumbfounded expression.

“What do you mean by an adult kind of date?”

“I think you understood what I meant. Do I really need to explain it?”

Jian crossed his arms and looked down at Dayeon with an intrigued expression.

In Dayeon’s mind, images of liquor bottles, glittering entertainment establishment signs, and tacky neon motel signs flashed through her head.

“I don’t want to hear that crap! And I don’t want to argue with you over some stupid prank from our school days either. If you’re so upset about losing your money, I’ll pay you back. I’ll even add interest, so don’t worry.”

After snapping at him, Dayeon turned around and went to the entrance to put on her shoes.

Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, Jian spoke to her back.

“I clearly told you I’m not taking the money. I want that one-day date.”

Dayeon clenched her jaw and tried to suppress her anger at the sound of Jian’s voice behind her before leaving the apartment.

After Dayeon left, Jian was alone in the house.

He twirled Dayeon’s business card around his fingertips and gave a small smirk.

“Han Dayeon.”

He never thought he’d get to say that name again.

It was strange no matter how much he thought about it.

How had he managed to meet her again like this?

When Dayeon disappeared back then, it had happened so suddenly.

It was only three days after he had bought the date ticket through the date auction at the school festival.

When he couldn’t see Dayeon at school, he went to her classroom.

He had been planning to complain that he had spent a fortune on the date ticket, only to have her run off without paying him back.

Or perhaps he had even been scheming about using that as an excuse to increase the number of dates they would have.

But even after standing at the back door of the classroom and looking around, he couldn’t see Dayeon anywhere.

“Hey, where’s Han Dayeon?”

“She transferred to another school.”

“Transferred?”

When he asked the student sitting near the back door, he received the absurd answer that she had transferred.

And that same day, when he went home, his father stormed into the house in a furious state.

“Honey! That bastard Han Sang-cheol ran away.”

“What?”

“He fled in the middle of the night, that bastard!”

Han Sang-cheol was Dayeon’s father.

Jian didn’t know what had happened between their fathers, but he found out that Dayeon’s entire family had moved away overnight without telling anyone.

Dayeon had disappeared just like smoke.

After Dayeon vanished, Jian couldn’t understand why he had suddenly become so listless or why everything irritated him.

He didn’t understand why his chest hurt for no reason, either.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he remembered that night when the rain had poured down and Dayeon’s prim, delicate face came to mind.

It took him several months to realize that he had fallen for her.

He had been such an idiot.

An idiot who hadn’t realized why she kept coming to mind or why he wanted so badly to see her face.

He never even got the chance to confess.

And just like that, Jian’s first love came to an end.

Jian looked at Dayeon’s business card and slowly ran his thumb over the printed letters of her name.

His touch was so careful, as if he were actually touching Dayeon herself.

“You’ve become even prettier, Han Dayeon.”

Jian murmured quietly to himself.

Her hair had grown longer, and perhaps because she’d lost weight, her face looked even smaller. Her waist had become so slender that it seemed he could pull her into his arms with one arm.

That thought reminded him of the old days, when he had held Dayeon’s cold body in his trembling arms.

His heartbeat suddenly quickened, and his chest began to tingle.

Jian leaned back against the sofa and tilted his head backward.

He brought Dayeon’s business card against his heart and said,

“I lost you so helplessly back then, but this time, I won’t let you go. Never.”

—We’re adults now. Shouldn’t we have an adult kind of date? You and I are both thirty. Aren’t we?—

“Crazy bastard.”

On the bus ride home, Dayeon recalled Jian’s words and cursed under her breath.

Except the curse accidentally came out loud.

The man sitting beside her flinched and glanced at Dayeon.

Then he quietly pulled his legs together.

Apparently, he thought she was cursing at him for sitting with his legs spread apart.

Anyway, Jian had shown signs of being a pervert even back in high school, and apparently nothing had changed.

Meeting Jian had brought back memories of that day she had buried deep in her mind, and Dayeon’s irritation meter shot upward.

—Your first kiss is your wish, huh? Just say the word anytime. I’m really damn good at kissing, you know.—

Remembering how that bastard had stolen her first kiss while she was barely conscious made her irritation flare up, and she clenched her fist.

How could he have ruined the first kiss that she was supposed to look back on and treasure for the rest of her life?

The first kiss Dayeon had imagined was never supposed to happen like that, in a place that smelled so musty.

It was supposed to happen somewhere beautiful, with cherry blossoms fluttering in the gentle breeze and her hair softly blowing in the wind.

She would close her eyes while feeling her heart pounding, and somewhere in the distance, she’d hear the delicate ringing of bells.

That was the beautiful scene she had imagined.

“Ugh, what a bastard.”

Once again, her thoughts accidentally came out of her mouth.

The man who had pulled his legs together glanced at Dayeon again, then quietly stood up and pressed the stop button.

Eventually, Dayeon got off the bus and reached home, but she stopped when she saw the car parked in the parking lot.

It belonged to Hyuna’s boyfriend.

It looked like Hyuna had brought her boyfriend over again.

Hyuna was Dayeon’s friend and roommate.

More precisely, Hyuna was the owner of the house, while Dayeon was the tenant.

Dayeon was staying at the jeonse apartment Hyuna had rented and paid her share of the living expenses.

Hyuna had been dating her boyfriend for a little over three months. She occasionally brought him home to cook together or watch TV, but lately, they had been having dates at home more and more often.

There had even been one time when Dayeon came home and opened the door, only to find the two of them hurriedly putting their clothes back on.

It had been unbelievably awkward.

She couldn’t exactly say, “Go ahead and finish what you were doing,” and simply close the door again.

And since they lived together, it wasn’t easy to tell them to go outside if they wanted to have a date.

After all, Hyuna was the owner of the house.

Dayeon turned around instead of going home and sat down on a bench at a nearby playground.

[I’m on my way home from work now. It’ll take about 30 minutes.]

Dayeon sent Hyuna a message saying she was on her way home.

She planned to wait outside for about thirty minutes and give the two of them time to clean things up.

[Okay.]

Hyuna sent back a short reply.

While Dayeon was sitting on the playground bench, her phone suddenly chimed with a text notification.

[Personnel Appointment Notice – Name: Han Dayeon / Department: Head of Development Strategy Office, Secretary’s Office (Position Change) / Effective Date: 2019. ○. ○.]

“Wow, look at the processing speed. It’s LTE-fast. When I applied for leave, it took them a whole week just to approve it!”

After receiving the personnel appointment notice, Dayeon took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Secretary? Whatever. I’ll give it a try. I shouldn’t keep thinking about the past. Let’s just erase it from my memory. Thinking about it will only shorten my life.”

Dayeon pressed her index finger firmly against her temple.

“Red sun! Forget it!”

“What are you talking about? Forget what? Why are you still out here instead of going inside?”

At the familiar male voice, Dayeon lifted her head.

A smile appeared on her face.