Chapter 122
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Drip… drip….
The sound of raindrops bouncing off the umbrella and trickling down could be heard.
Ha Seorim walked side by side with Lee Seungho beneath the small folding umbrella, matching his stride.
“……”
“……”
Neither of them said a word.
Seorim had nothing in particular to talk about, and Lee Seungho seemed to realize that, so he made no effort to start a conversation.
Only the splashing of their footsteps could be heard amid the silence.
“……”
Ha Seorim glanced at Lee Seungho walking beside her.
It was an unexpected walk together.
To be honest, she hadn’t expected him to help her so readily.
“Ah, there it is.”
The place he brought her to was a convenience store.
He held the umbrella over her all the way to the front of a small shop located away from the cafeteria.
If he had offered to take her all the way home, that would actually have been more burdensome.
“……Welcome.”
Ha Seorim pushed open the glass door and entered the convenience store. Along with the jingling sound, a greeting heavy with annoyance reached her ears.
‘What a waste of money….’
Ha Seorim gripped the wallet in her pocket with trembling hands.
There was nothing she could do.
Since she had to buy one anyway after losing her umbrella, she decided to think of it as a necessary expense.
That made her feel a little better.
“?”
Ha Seorim blinked blankly.
Umbrellas were usually placed near the entrance, but she couldn’t see one anywhere.
She walked around the convenience store, but still couldn’t find one.
“…Do you happen to have any umbrellas?”
Ha Seorim asked the part-timer.
The part-timer, who had been looking at his phone, raised his head. When he saw her, his eyes fluttered in surprise.
“Ah, yes, yes. We don’t sell umbrellas.”
His cheeks flushed slightly as he nodded quickly.
“Uh… Then what about disposable raincoats? You don’t have those, either?”
“No, I’m sorry. We don’t have those, either.”
“Ah….”
This was an unforeseen complication.
A short groan escaped Ha Seorim’s lips.
“Thank you.”
There weren’t any, so what else could she do?
She was terribly unlucky, but she couldn’t complain to the part-timer.
Ha Seorim held back a sigh and walked out of the convenience store.
“What about an umbrella?”
“…They don’t sell them.”
“…Really? Maybe because it’s a small store…?”
It seemed he hadn’t left and had been waiting out front.
“Want to try another convenience store?”
“It’s okay.”
Ha Seorim lightly shook her head from side to side.
Besides this one, the nearest convenience store was quite a walk away.
It wasn’t somewhere she could simply head to in this rainy weather.
“I can just run by myself from here. It’s not that far to my house.”
“Really? Then I’ll take you home.”
“…What?”
“You said it wasn’t far.”
Lee Seungho opened his umbrella and held it out.
“…No, I just feel bad.”
That was what she said.
But the truth was a little different.
Moreover, she felt uncomfortable with the idea of having someone else take her home.
It wasn’t exactly a place she could proudly show off.
“…Even so, running there right now would be a bit much.”
“……”
Ha Seorim fell silent.
That was true. It was still raining heavily. No matter how quickly she ran, her clothes would end up damp.
“I’m only saying this because if you catch a cold and miss work next week, it’ll make things harder for me.”
Lee Seungho urged her to hurry and held the umbrella out farther.
Ha Seorim stepped beneath it, unable to refuse.
“Which way?”
“That way.”
Following the road and winding through the inner alleys, they arrived at a small house.
“Here?”
“…Yes.”
Ha Seorim suddenly felt embarrassed.
It was a little shabby at a glance.
Whether he badmouthed her or not was completely irrelevant.
She simply hated showing him this place at all.
Ha Seorim quickly said goodbye.
“Thank you for bringing me home.”
“It’s fine.”
He lightly waved his hand as if it were nothing.
“See you next week.”
Lee Seungho immediately turned around.
That was all.
He turned his back so cleanly that it was almost surprising. He didn’t pester her or anything.
The more she thought about it, the stranger he was….
Rustle, rustle——
The moment Ha Seorim opened the front door, a bizarre object caught her eye.
A black shape moved across the floor.
Countless joints writhed and undulated as it moved.
“Eek…!!”
The moment Ha Seorim saw it, she instinctively ran back outside.
She fled without even caring that she was getting rained on.
“Wh-What is it?”
At her scream, Lee Seungho stopped and turned around.
“A b-bug… There’s a bug inside…!”
Ha Seorim pointed toward the house with a tearful expression.
……
“Tsk….”
Whoosh——
Lee Seungho narrowed his brows as he flushed the toilet.
Judging by his expression, he seemed to have found it disgusting, too.
“It’s done.”
“Phew…….”
At his declaration, Ha Seorim finally relaxed the tension she had been holding.
Lee Seungho gave a dry laugh as he looked at her.
His gaze held a hint of surprise that she was afraid of bugs.
“……Wh-Why? They’re disgusting.”
Feeling as if she had been pricked by that look, Ha Seorim argued back.
What had he thought of her all this time?
“No, I thought you’d catch it without even blinking. This is pretty unexpected.”
“……”
Just hearing him say it made goosebumps rise on Ha Seorim’s skin.
How could anyone do something like that when it was so disgusting?
‘…Come to think of it.’
Ha Seorim realized something she had forgotten.
She had inadvertently brought Lee Seungho inside her house.
“……”
It was better than she had expected.
She was talking about having someone else in her house.
It wasn’t as if she felt completely comfortable.
She was still uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as bad as she had expected. It was fairly uneventful.
Or was it because Lee Seungho was reacting so casually…?
“Since you’re here anyway, have something to eat before you go.”
That was why she was able to say something like that.
Ha Seorim stopped Lee Seungho as he picked up his bag and started to stand.
Besides, wouldn’t it seem as if she had called him over just to make him do some work before sending him away?
“It’s okay.”
“Then at least have some juice before you go.”
She had borrowed his umbrella, and he had even caught the bug for her. If she didn’t do at least this much, she would feel uncomfortable.
In any case, living indebted to others wasn’t in her nature.
“Sure, then.”
Perhaps that worked, because Lee Seungho awkwardly sat back down.
“Make yourself comfortable. There’s no one else here anyway.”
Ha Seorim said that as she walked toward the kitchen.
Her younger brother had gone out to study with a friend, her father was at work, and her mother was at the hospital.
For various reasons, she was alone in the house right now.
“Ah, there’s an electric mat, so turn it on. It’ll keep you warm.”
“This one?”
“Not that one.”
Ha Seorim turned around.
He was the kind of person who seemed low-maintenance but was unexpectedly troublesome.
Ha Seorim turned on the electric mat and spread a blanket over it.
“It’s cold, so get under the blanket.”
“Oh….”
Lee Seungho’s face relaxed slightly, as if the warmth were melting the cold from his body.
“Do you like maesil tea?”
“I do.”
It was a relief that he liked it.
Otherwise, she had no other drink to offer him and would have had to go out and buy something.
“Uh… This is the one you used at the festival performance, right?”
Lee Seungho asked as he looked at the bass propped against the living-room wall.
He was curious about it, but he didn’t touch it.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Ha Seorim nodded as she poured in the maesil syrup.
It was the only musical instrument she owned in the first place.
“…Come to think of it, I have a video of the festival performance. Want me to send it to you, too?”
Lee Seungho examined the bass from this angle and that before suddenly asking her that.
“A video?”
“Yeah, Nuri asked me to film it, so I have one. Didn’t she tell you?”
“…I only just found out that it was filmed.”
Had she really asked him to do that?
Come to think of it, Lee Seungho had said that his career path was related to filming.
Ji Nuri talked about the counseling club so much that Seorim was a little confused, but if she remembered correctly, that was probably right.
“I’ll send it to you later.”
“…I’d appreciate that.”
She had been too focused on the performance to think about filming it.
Looking back at the performance she had given would be valuable material.
“Here.”
Ha Seorim set the cups down on the low table.
Steam rose gently from them.
Since she had brewed it hot, it would be perfect for the chilly weather.
“Oh….”
Slurp.
Lee Seungho took a sip, then let out a small exclamation as if it suited his taste.
“It’s good. Did your mother make this?”
“No, I did.”
“Huh? You?”
“Buying it is expensive. With the money it would cost to buy one or two bottles at the market, I can make a whole jar of this.”
The method wasn’t difficult.
The process was just a little bothersome.
“Oh….”
Lee Seungho nodded and took another sip.
“Is it okay?”
“Yeah, it’s tasty.”
“……”
Ha Seorim watched him with a proud smile.
She had thought it tasted good when she sampled it herself, but that had only been her personal evaluation.
Her father said everything tasted good, while her younger brother said everything tasted bad, so someone else’s opinion felt precious.
“……”
Ha Seorim also took a sip of the maesil tea after him.
She could feel the warmth slide down her throat.
“Mm.”
I made it myself, but it really is good.
“…?”
Ring-a-ling, ring, ring-a-ling—
Just as their tea time had continued for a while, a ringtone rang from Lee Seungho’s pocket.
He fumbled around and took out his phone.
“……Ah.”
A short sigh escaped him.
Lee Seungho’s expression abruptly stiffened as he looked down at the screen.
It was the expression of someone who had just remembered something he had forgotten.
“…Hello?”
He cautiously answered the phone.
— Where are you?
The voice sounded sullen, with a subtle anger mixed into it.
The voice on the other end belonged to none other than Shin Ayoung.
— Today is exercise day. You didn’t forget, did you?
“…No, the thing is….”
Lee Seungho’s forehead grew damp.
“……”
Ha Seorim watched him and shook her head inwardly.
He really was careless.
Still, she had received his help, so…
Maybe she should help him a little.
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