Chapter 118.1

Chapter 118.1

“……Sir??”

“Huh. Good to see you, Miran. Wow, you’ve really grown up. If I’d passed you on the street, I might not have recognized you.”

It was Park Jeongseok, her homeroom teacher from third grade, the lifelong bachelor who still occasionally asked after Juran. His once jet black hair was now threaded with gray, but his thoughtful eyes and warm, easy smile were unchanged.

“Hello, sir. What brings you here…?”

Just then, Juran, who had been leaning against the head of the bed reading, closed her book and greeted him calmly.

“You’re here, sir.”

Miran’s head snapped around. She looked back and forth between Juran and Jeongseok, her face full of confusion, then asked,

“……Sir?”

“Mhm. He’s the owner of the publishing company I work for.”

Juran had gotten a job as an accountant at a small start up publishing house around the time Miran entered middle school. More than ten years had passed since then, and it had grown into a fairly large company specializing in educational materials and children’s book series.

Miran narrowed her eyes, studying Jeongseok, who was smiling awkwardly, and Juran, whose cheeks were faintly flushed. The puzzle pieces scattered everywhere suddenly snapped into place.

Once a year, the company anniversary dinner menu?

Sweet and sour pork and jjajangmyeon.

Juran’s favorite food when eating out?

Sweet and sour pork and jjajangmyeon.

What were the odds of that kind of coincidence.

Never making her work overtime, yet insisting on regular health checkups.

A man famous for being tightfisted, yet handing over an expensive fifty thousand won phone card when an employee’s daughter, not even the employee herself, was going abroad for language training.

Miran spoke up, suspicion plain in her eyes.

“You two… since when—”

Just then the hospital room door opened and André came in. Once the brief flurry of introductions passed, Jeongseok took off his suit jacket and naturally sat down in the chair beside the bed.

“Juran. If Miran stays at the hospital all day, she’ll get worn out. I’ll take over in the evening.”

Juran could not hide her flustered expression as she shot him a look. It seemed she had not expected him to reveal their relationship so openly in front of Miran.

Miran muttered timidly,

“I’m really fine…”

At that moment, André lightly pulled her toward him and asked,

“Have you eaten dinner?”

Miran kept her gaze fixed on Juran and Jeongseok and shook her head absentmindedly.

Seeing that, Juran bit her lip, hesitated, then nodded toward Miran.

“Miran. You go have dinner with André, then go home and get some rest. Come back tomorrow morning.”

“What? You want me to leave you alone at the hospital?”

“Why would I be alone? Jeongseok is here.”

That one calm sentence from Juran settled everything.

With André’s hand pressed against her back, Miran found herself ushered out of the room without really realizing it. After putting her in the car and driving out of the hospital, he asked,

“What do you want for dinner?”

Miran stared blankly out the window, then answered a beat late after catching sight of a passing sign.

“…Budae jjigae.”

André pulled the car to a stop in front of a small, shabby budae jjigae restaurant in Hannam dong.

Miran asked, puzzled,

“How do you know a place like this?”

“I came here once a long time ago with some KATUSA soldiers.”

She rarely skipped meals, but after barely eating anything the day before, the hunger hit her all at once.

The budae jjigae she ate without much expectation turned out to be better than she thought. After quickly finishing a full bowl of rice, Miran asked André,

“Don’t you think, too, that those two aren’t just ordinary acquaintances?”

He nodded.

Why had she never once thought that Juran could be seeing someone? Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed like they had been together for quite a while.

For over ten years, Juran had kept it a secret that the publishing company president was the very same lifelong bachelor homeroom teacher from back then.

‘Was I getting in the way of their relationship?’

Miran’s thoughts spun noisily in her head.

After dinner, André quietly drove her all the way to Yongin. She had been half lost in thought until he turned off the engine and opened the passenger door, and only then did she startle at the sound of his voice.

“I’ll come pick you up in the morning.”

“You really don’t have to…”

She murmured as she took his offered hand and stepped out of the car.

“Sleep well.”

He said it in a low, steady voice, then squeezed her hand firmly once before letting go and turning away. Perhaps because his retreating figure looked especially distant, her chest tightened strangely every time he turned like that.

“André!”

When she called his name without thinking, he paused with his hand on the driver’s door handle and looked back.

Biting down on her lower lip and lowering her gaze slightly, Miran blurted out,

“Thank you for today.”

André’s lips curved into a beautiful smile.

“My pleasure. I love you, Miran. See you tomorrow.”

“That’s so sudden…”

Miran muttered with her face burning red, her head dipping low. She heard a low laugh by her ear, and then, with the sound of the engine, the black sedan pulled away.

Miran stood there for a long while, as if rooted to the spot, just as she had in New York. She had the inexplicable feeling that André might be watching her through the rearview mirror.