When he opened his eyes, he found the space next to him empty.
Was this the infamous Dine and Dash? [1] Last night, as they shared intimate moments, he felt an emotional connection between them, with occasional exchanges of questions and answers that seemed to draw them closer. He believed they were growing more connected, but now it felt as though it had all been just a figment of his imagination.
"What is this? An envelope of cash?"
Being left alone was bad enough, but seeing the envelope of money she left behind made him feel strange. Was this what that weirdo from the app wanted? It couldn't be payment for services, could it? If he had known this would happen, he would have read the entire conversation.
Originally, he had planned to tell the truth in the morning — that Dohyun wasn't the man she was supposed to meet from the app, and that the man named Windmill seemed strange, so he played a prank. But now that she was gone, he had no way to contact her. At least she could have left her contact information.
He opened the nightstand drawer.
"...Ha."
And yet, she managed to take the pizza-scented condom with her.
He could understand that there might be a reason for the cash envelope, but the most infuriating part was something else. Even in her groggy morning state, Gaeul had kept her wits about her enough to reserve her first kiss for her boyfriend, fiercely guarding her lips.
"So what does that make of what I did?"
Seo Dohyun, who was 32 years old last year, had already met Gaeul before. Last night, he reunited with her under the pseudonym Gyeoul.
He was on his way back after a meeting in Gangwon-do. He had been asked to bring his immature younger cousin, who always tried to avoid gatherings with the family elders. Since it was on the way, he gladly agreed to pick her up.
And that day, Dohyun received his first kiss from Gaeul at the guesthouse where he went to pick up his cousin.
So, it was an accident. There was no better way to describe that situation. Up until then, he had always felt uncomfortable when women tried to kiss him, so he never did. But at that time, he must have lost his mind.
Now that he thought about it, Gaeul was wearing something like a university T-shirt back then. Since she said she was 28 the night before, she could either be a student who started university late or a graduate with a charmingly cute personality. Should he contact his cousin to ask for her contact information?
“...Is there any point in contacting someone who hit it and quit it?” [2]
No wonder he thought he had seen her somewhere before when she pouted her lips.
He ran a hand through his hair in annoyance and headed to the bathroom.
・・・・・
Dohyun looked at Assistant Manager Lee with a complicated expression.
When he selected him, there was something oddly appealing about his impression, and now he finally understood why. Lee Gajun had a strange resemblance to Lee Gaeul. It felt like discovering the subtle overlap between siblings, where one resembled their mother and the other their father, but still shared some features in common.
“Team Leader, is something wrong?”
“…It’s nothing. Just finish what you were doing.”
Now that he was aware of it, they seemed even more alike.
He was starting to think he might be losing his mind. No matter how small the world was, how could he accidentally end up kissing someone he met by chance on the way to pick up a cousin, then meet that same person again for a one-night stand at a hotel, only to find out she was related to one of his subordinates? At this point, such coincidences were bordering on delusional.
He felt like drinking, but there was no one he particularly wanted to drink with. Maybe, since Lee Gajun resembled Lee Gaeul, he could try having a drink with him. The thought crossed his mind.
“Assistant Manager Lee.”
“Yes?”
“How about grabbing a light drink with me tomorrow evening?”
“Oh, I’d like that.”
Lee Gaeul, Lee Gajun.
Of all things, their names differed by just one character.
"Come to think of it, I heard that Assistant Manager Lee lives with his younger sister. It can't be easy living with an adult sister — his patience must be amazing. If I had to live with my brother... just imagining it is horrifying."
"I asked out of curiosity, and he said it’s worth it, considering the housing prices in Seoul."
"That makes sense."
"What's even funnier is that Assistant Manager Lee graduated from Balhae University, and his younger sister goes to Chunchoo University, so the atmosphere at home during the rivalry games is apparently crazy. Isn’t that hilarious? How did members of the same family end up at such different universities?”
・・・・・
While drinking together, he should also bring up the story about Assistant Manager Lee's younger sister that the female employees were discussing earlier today.
It wasn’t because he had a crazy idea that Assistant Manager Lee’s younger sister, who went to Chunchoo University, might be Lee Gaeul. He was simply curious about the existence of his younger sister who lived with his subordinate. After all, being an only child, he never experienced having siblings.
Of course, there was still a very slim chance that it could be Lee Gaeul.
・・・・・
The next day, Lee Gajun walked into the bar with a resolute expression, as though he’d made up his mind to drink to death on a weekday evening.
"Boss, three bottles of Chum Churum (soju), please." [3]
“Three bottles from the start? Are you planning to go all out?”
“Why? Team Leader, are you scared?”
“We have work tomorrow, so let’s drink in moderation.”
As they slowly drank, various stories were exchanged, and the conversation naturally drifted to family matters.
“So, Team Leader, you're an only child. I didn’t know that.”
“I heard you have a younger sister, Assistant Manager Lee.”
“Yes, I have one younger sister. I’m a bit envious of you for being an only child. Growing up, I was always fighting with my sister. When we were kids, we’d argue over who would get both chicken drumsticks even though we could’ve just shared one each. And even now, we still bicker while living together.”
From what he heard, they just seemed like an ordinary brother and sister.
Right, how could Lee Gajun's younger sister be Lee Gaeul? If someone wrote this in a novel, they'd be criticised for it being too far-fetched. It seemed like his mind was still a bit clouded from the weekend's fling, leading him to entertain strange fantasies.
“Oh, now that I think of it, Lee Gaeul seemed sick all weekend. I wonder if she’s feeling better now.”
Gajun emptied his glass and murmured to himself.
Clink.
Dohyun set down his soju glass.
“Is your sister’s name Gaeul?”
“Yes.”
A flash of resolve crossed his face.
“Assistant Manager Lee.”
“Yes?”
“I think we should order three more bottles.”
A look of confusion appeared on Gajun’s face.
"I’m certain, just a moment ago, you said we should drink moderately because we have work tomorrow…”
"Why, are you scared?"
Dohyun crooked the corner of his mouth into a slight smirk and added.
"Isn't it common to drink around two bottles each with a meal?"
"...Let's order three bottles."
It was Lee Gaeul again.
He couldn’t stand this anymore. The owner of that name, which has been relentlessly following him, was Lee Gaeul again. He needed to see her face in person to feel at ease.
・・・・・
Assistant Manager Lee wasn't very good at holding his liquor.
"Team Leader, could you please take me home? I’ve even forgotten my passcode... sniff, sniff…”
On any other day, Dohyun might have regretted drinking with him. But today, for some reason, he felt oddly relieved.
Dohyun supported Gajun as they made their way to the old apartment where he lived with his younger sister. He helped him up to the sixth floor and knocked on the door. Lee Gaeul, Gajun's younger sister, answered the door wearing silver-framed glasses and a face mask. He didn't need to look any further to recognise her — he could tell it was her just by her eyes.
Assistant Manager Lee’s younger sister was indeed Lee Gaeul.
Moreover, she was wearing her Chunchoo University club T-shirt and those pyjama pants with a hole in them — the same outfit she had on when they ran into each other at the beach last summer.
She hadn't seemed to recognise him at the hotel, but this time, her expression suggested she did.
Her glasses had changed from horn-rimmed frames to silver ones. The horn-rimmed frames had been cuter. Her brother said she hadn’t been feeling well, but maybe it was because Dohyun had pushed her too hard that day. She seemed to be doing fine now.
He stood in the entryway, watching her quietly. It seemed Gaeul recognised him but had no intention of acknowledging it. That made sense; to her, he was just a one-night stand.
“Excuse me.”
He couldn’t resist teasing her.
"Your brother is throwing up on the living room floor."
Startled, Gaeul spun around with wide eyes, looking like a frightened rabbit.
At that moment, he noticed a faint kiss mark lingering on the nape of her pale neck. It was what he had left behind.
Ah, he was hard again.
"I must have seen wrong. Thanks for your help."
Before she could notice his erection, Dohyun quickly closed the door.
He went straight to the elevator and descended to the lower floor, strangely unable to wipe the smile off his face until he got into his car.
"I guess cute people are my type."
It seemed that he had fallen for his subordinate's younger sister.
・・・・・
Watching her pretend to be oblivious was quite a sight.
Every time they met, her eyes would linger on his face and then his body, never quite oblivious but also making no attempt to acknowledge him. Yet, instead of pretending to be out, she consistently opened the door for him. It was almost amusing.
He wondered if she would stop opening the door if he acknowledged her first. Maybe she would try to run away again, so he refrained from showing any sign of recognition. He figured that if they kept meeting like this, those haunting thoughts of her might start to fade.
But this cautious woman ended up revealing her identity to him within just three encounters. She finally showed her face so openly that it felt even more unnatural to pretend he didn’t know her.
"Um, I understand that you like me, but I prefer to remember that night as just a midsummer night's dream, a fleeting moment of pleasure..."
And there she was, already planning her escape again.
Her constant attempts to run were starting to annoy him. He had wanted to be content with just seeing her occasionally, but now she was trying to flee again? It was infuriating that she didn't remember taking his first kiss and was now trying to avoid him.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Because of her, he was barely managing his daily life. The mere mention of ‘Gaeul’ had him stirred up, like a dog in heat, his mind racing uncontrollably, while she was too busy hiding to take any responsibility for what she’d caused.
・・・・・
“Sleep with me three times and I’ll keep it a secret.”
So he came up with a flimsy excuse. The funny thing was, Gaeul actually agreed to it.
That’s right. To be honest, he just wanted to see her more. To be intimate again, and to kiss her again. If she still couldn’t remember that he was her first kiss, then he’d make sure her next ‘first’ kiss was his to claim. She’d taken his first kiss, so it only seemed fair.
In the meantime, it would be nice if they found some love along the way.
・・・・・
Even after finally giving her his contact information, he was rejected by Lee Gaeul again.
At this point, after being constantly rejected, Dohyun felt like he was nothing more than Lee Gaeul's personal soccer ball.
To even catch a glimpse of her again, he would have to drink with Assistant Manager Lee, but unfortunately, he was down with the flu. It seemed he had caught it from Cha Seonwoo. Ironically, the one who had spread the flu was perfectly healthy now, which only added to his frustration.
"Dohyun, I’ve brought some groceries. There’s nothing urgent at work, and I took some days off, so I’ll stay until your fever goes down."
“Just go. You’re giving me a headache.”
“If something happens to you, I’ll lose my job, you know? I’ll gladly give up a day off and my weekend as penance. This flu is really brutal.”
Dohyun sank back into the sofa, his brow furrowed in frustration. He covered his eyes with his hand and let out a heavy sigh.
“Hah… I need a drink.”
“You’ve gotten really close with Assistant Manager Lee lately. You turn down drinking invitations from others, but you always go out drinking with him. You’ve been drinking more often, and even now, you're craving alcohol. It seems like you might be showing early signs of alcoholism.”
"It’s not that I like drinking — there’s another reason. You don’t need to know."
“What? That sounds suspicious.”
And soon enough, Cha Seonwoo would find out what that 'other reason' was.
・・・・・
The voice on the other end of the line uttered something unbelievable.
[I’m… Seo Dohyun’s... situationship.]
Seonwoo looked at Dohyun in disbelief. Dohyun, who had been drying his hair with a towel, froze for a second. Then a faint smile spread across his face.
“Tell her to come over.”
“Huh?”
Dohyun usually hated having people over at his place. Seonwoo, his longest-standing friend, was an exception, but no one else had ever set foot inside.
“She said she’s my situationship.”
It was the first time Seonwoo had seen Seo Dohyun smile like that. It sent chills down his spine.
Dohyun took the phone from his hand.
“You heard that, right? He’ll send you the address.”
[No, it's fine as long as you’re okay.]
“It hurts. I’m dying. I just got diagnosed with a terminal illness. I might die soon, so if you’re my ‘situationship,’ shouldn’t you come to see me?”
‘Did he hear correctly? Is this actually Seo Dohyun’s conversation?’
Seonwoo’s confusion deepened. Maybe the fever had gotten so bad that Dohyun had finally lost it. They said that when a person suddenly changed, it was a sign they might be near death. Could he actually be dying from the flu Seonwoo had given him?
[It looks like you have a friend over.]
At those words, Dohyun’s gaze shifted to Seonwoo.
In Seo Dohyun’s eyes, the words 'If you don’t answer wisely, I’ll kill you' were written as clearly as if they were in plain sight. His usual stern expression and cold gaze hadn’t changed at all. It was hard to believe he’d changed in any way; Seo Dohyun was as he always was. In fact, if Seonwoo didn’t respond carefully now, he would likely die by his hand before the flu could even take him.
“Hey, hey. I’m heading out. Take care. Even if it feels like you’re dying, don’t actually die.”
Thus, Seo Dohyun invited his mysterious 'situationship' over to his house. A faint smile spread across his face as he pressed the ‘end call’ button.
“...Do you think the Chairman would be pleased to hear about this?”
"Don't get ahead of yourself. Hurry up and get out. I need to let my situationship in."
“Oh, right… Sure.”
Seonwoo left the house, still looking utterly baffled by it all.
・・・・・
And for a while, Seo Dohyun regretted his decision.
・・・・・
If he had known it would turn out like this, it would have been better not to have brought her into the house.
At first, he heard that she often argued with her older brother, so he thought she might be close in age to Assistant Manager Lee. Even though her face looked younger, these days, lots of people have baby faces. She said she was 27, which was quite young, but if it was Lee Gaeul, he thought maybe he could make it work.
“...She’s a senior?”
If his cousin was her senior, that made her at least a year younger than he had thought. That would mean she was 26 — an age gap he had usually never considered. Yet somehow, he was willing to, if Lee Gaeul could accept it.
Well, a ten-year difference wasn’t something one would normally come across, but it was not completely unheard of, was it? Regardless, it couldn’t be that extreme, right?
The seeds of ominous thoughts eventually sprouted.
“So… we’re ten years apart?”
“…Yeah.”
Ten years difference.
And Lee Gaeul hadn’t even graduated yet. She was practically still a kid.
"Wouldn't a ten-year age gap be difficult after all?"
"...I suppose that's true."
Even to him, this was beyond the realm of common sense.
"From now on, you don't have to worry about anything related to me. Your brother doesn’t need to know about this, and let’s pretend there’s no 'third night.' Just focus on your studies like always.”
This was the right way to handle it.
"I'll sort out my own feelings."
They weren’t dating anyway, and it wasn’t like they had any deep ties. Both of them could simply go back to their lives as if nothing had ever happened.
It had to be that way.
・・・・・
When he saw Assistant Manager Lee, Lee Gaeul came to mind.
How was Lee Gaeul doing? She was young, so she probably had the resilience to be fine. No, Lee Gaeul wouldn’t even need to recover. Because she didn’t like him enough for it to matter. It was better that it ended before it even began. For him to be acting this way over something that never started in the first place — now that was truly abnormal.
As Cha Seonwoo had said, it felt like he was an alcoholic. Some days he drank with Lee Gajun, and other days, he drank alone at home, searching for Lee Gaeul’s traces.
If he got to know Lee Gajun, he wondered if he could hear more about Lee Gaeul.
“Assistant Manager Lee, how about we start speaking more casually?”
"I'm more accustomed to formal speech so it might be challenging for me. Could you please start start first?"
“Well, let's do it that way.”
“By the way, Team Leader, do you have anyone around ten years younger than you who's a decent person?"
“Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking I might introduce my sister to someone nice before she ends up with the wrong guy. She seems a bit unsettled lately.”
Dohyun’s expression turned serious as he spoke.
“Let your family member handle her own love life. Even as her older brother, there’s only so much that Assistant Manager can control.”
“That’s true.”
“Let’s drink.”
“Alright.”
He even started to deliberately call for a driver twice each night.
After leaving the drunk Assistant Manager Lee at his doorstep, Dohyun would wait in the parking lot, smoking until the light in the living room of Lee Gaeul’s old apartment on the sixth floor went out. Only then would he call a driver for himself and head home.
Anyway, since they didn’t meet as promised, this should be fine. He decided to handle his feelings on his own, so for now, things would have to stay this way.
・・・・・
His sleep decreased. He often dreamt of the day she wandered around his house. Sometimes he wondered if he was wrong to invite her in, but it was already spilled water. Until she stopped appearing in his dreams, he would just have to follow her around while she explored his home.
・・・・・
He couldn't take it anymore.
After two weeks of living like this, it had become unbearable. If he didn’t catch even a glimpse of Lee Gaeul’s face, he felt like he might die. Honestly, it seemed like it would be easier on his mind to just jump off a bridge over the Han River right now. So, under a flimsy excuse he made up, he told Assistant Manager Lee something ridiculous and headed to their house.
Seeing Lee Gaeul again, she was still beautiful, adorable, and absolutely maddening. And somehow, that made her even more lovable.
Finding themselves trapped in a broken elevator felt like a blessing. He must really be insane to think that. Honestly, if it meant being stuck here with her, he wouldn’t mind staying forever. There was no way to escape — what could be better?
Up until then, he had never considered guys who dated women with a significant age difference as even human, and he had cut ties with anyone who deliberately sought out women five years younger or more, calling them crazy. But somehow, he ended up no different from those guys.
“I remember your first kiss.”
“...”
"If you’re that upset about not remembering, should we do it again here?"
"I’d like that."
She was beautiful. He would just have to be a crazy guy.
・・・・・
Did Lee Gaeul know?
He lamented that the same person took his first kiss, first experience, first relationship, and even his second first kiss — four instances of purity. But he also realised that she, too, was in a similar situation.
Wasn't her first kiss, first relationship, and first love all his as well? Now that things have come to this, he might as well consider the sex that day as both their first time. After all, what he had done before couldn’t even be compared to masturbation.
"But Seo Dohyun, I really don’t remember anything from that day. How did we even kiss?"
As Gaeul lay on the sofa eating a Melona, she paused and glanced up at Dohyun. Her wide, round eyes were both cute and infuriating.
In the end, Lee Gaeul couldn’t recall her true first kiss with him at all.
"That’s why we did it again."
"I’m not talking about the kiss we had again; I’m curious about the real first kiss."
"Figure it out yourself."
"Don’t be so petty. Oh, I just got another message from Lee Gajun. My brother gets really sensitive whenever I step outside these days. Today, I told him I was hanging out with Juhee and even sent him all kinds of forged documents and photos, but he still didn’t believe me. And then there’s the curfew he recently imposed; it’s just so weird."
She smiled faintly.
"Even so, it's been a long time since we've crossed all the lines. If he's going to act like this, it just makes me want to push further instead of letting it go. Right?"
“While we’re on the topic, come up and do it one more time.”
"...Again?"
"You’re the one who brought it up."
"What did I even do… Aheug."
Gaeul moaned as her chest was grabbed, locking eyes with Dohyun.
"So, who told you to look at me with those eyes?"
Peck.
He smiled and kissed her on the lips. A flush crept across Gaeul’s face.
True to her name, Gaeul had a knack for turning her face as red as autumn leaves.
"Then how should I look at someone I love? Oh, Seo Dohyun, your face is turning red. Is it because I said I love you?”
"Enough, take off your panties. I need to put it in right now.”
Dohyun grabbed the condom he had placed on one side of the sofa.
・・・・・
Lee Gaeul was always only satisfied when the flush on her face transferred to him.
Little did she know, in the endless autumn blooming within him, the entire world was already painted in its true colours.
Translator's Corner:
[1] Apparently, when used in the sexual context, the phrase "Dine and Dash" means to have sex with a woman and then leave right after you finish, like a one-night stand, but no overnight stay. (In this case, it's from his perspective, so he's saying she dashed after their intense night).
[2] This is slang for having a sexual encounter for physical gratification, and part company; 'to have a quickie one-night stand.'
[3] Chum Churum is a popular brand of soju from Korea.
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