“Isn’t the professor’s son making a fuss in advance because he hates his father remarrying? He just turned twenty, and no matter how adult he is, he’s still young, so of course he wouldn’t like getting a new mom.”

 

As soon as Yiseo spilled about what happened yesterday in the lab, the graduate students—whose lives were gray—gathered one by one around this rare bit of excitement, each adding their own comment.

 

“No way. But I heard the mom already remarried.”

 

“Since the mom remarried, maybe he wants his dad to stay single and focus only on him.”

 

“Who acts like that at twenty these days? He’s not ten.”

 

“I heard his body is really weak, and he couldn’t even attend school properly, so maybe that’s why.”

 

“Oh, right. The son’s photo on the professor’s desk was taken in middle school. The kid looked under ten, but it was apparently from when he was fifteen.”

 

“The one where he’s in a wheelchair?”

 

“Yeah. I think they said some kind of paralysis left him unable to use his legs….”

 

The more they talked, the more the professor’s son in the graduate students’ minds turned into a frail, pretty boy who’d blow away in the wind. 

 

They shook their heads.

 

“Jiyeon unnie must be worried. Even if she marries the professor, she wouldn’t want to nurse his sick son. Why’s she getting married instead of just dating? It’s not her first time.”

 

The words popped out like concern, but there was a barb in them. Yiseo quickly countered.

 

“The professor proposed marriage, not Jiyeon unnie. You know her personality, senior—why say that?”

 

The senior, who’d been subtly sarcastic, frowned at Yiseo’s retort. 

 

Fortunately, others agreed with Yiseo and moved the conversation along.

 

“Yeah. You know your noona’s personality—why act like that?”

 

“True, the one making a fuss is the professor, not unnie.”

 

“Anyway, unnie’s coming soon, so everyone scatter.”

 

As soon as someone said that, they all checked their watches and returned to their seats as if nothing had happened. 

 

And sure enough, not long after, a middle-aged woman with both hands full of stuff—Jiyeon—entered the lab.

 

“Yiseo. I’m heading to the storage—can you help?”

 

Yiseo nodded, took some of the load from Jiyeon’s hands, and left the lab. 

 

Once they reached the storage, Jiyeon, who’d been silently organizing at first, cautiously brought up the main point.

 

“…How was yesterday?”

 

“How was it? I called right away to say I delivered the flower basket you gave me.”

 

“No, I was just wondering how the professor or Dowon reacted….”

 

At Jiyeon’s tone, which was filled with utter dejection, Yiseo swallowed a sigh. 

 

Though she was a senior from the undergraduate program with a much earlier enrollment year, Jiyeon was merely in a position of doing office assistant part-time work in the lab out of the professor’s kindness. 

 

She had said that after living as a housewife and getting divorced, she had searched for a job and barely made it this far.

 

Nowadays, everyone called her ‘unnie’ or ‘noona,’ but until the professor got furious once, everyone had called her ‘ajumma’ (Madam)  and made her silently clean the lab or studio without a word.

 

She was a kind person, but timid and very mindful of others’ gazes.

 

“The professor didn’t say anything in particular?”

 

“Uh-huh. Well, he’s always been a man of few words anyway…”

 

Yiseo truly wondered why the two of them didn’t talk much while dating. 

 

So what on earth did they do when they were together?

 

To Yiseo, whose dating cells had all died after entering graduate school, Jiyeon was incomprehensible. 

 

In fact, it didn’t seem like her dating cells had been particularly alive even during undergrad. Yiseo thought about her last relationship from roughly 5 or 6 years ago and then gave up.

 

Aside from a few times she dated as a freshman swept up in the atmosphere, Yiseo’s dating experience was zero.

 

“I picked flowers with almost no scent on purpose because Dowon is frail and sensitive…. Did he like them?”

 

“…”

 

Frail and sensitive.

 

Yiseo recalled the twenty-year-old she had to crane her neck way up to look at and fell silent for a moment.

 

‘Sensitive…? He did seem that way, but frail…?’

 

At first glance, honestly, he looked like someone who worked out. He was so tall and built.

 

Perhaps inheriting only the good points from his parents’ looks, he was even more handsome than the professor’s famously attractive younger days. 

 

He wasn’t without some youthful corners as befitting a twenty-year-old, but his eyes were so sharp that he didn’t look that young.

 

His personality was definitely that of a child, though.

 

Yiseo recalled the young man who kept glaring at her and inwardly clicked her tongue. 

 

However, since she honestly didn’t want to scare Jiyeon by describing the situation at the time, Yiseo chose her words carefully.

 

“The kid, um, seemed a bit flustered. Honestly, if a stranger who suddenly says they work with his father shows up carrying such a huge flower basket, anyone would be flustered, right?”

 

“Ah…. Should I have ordered a smaller one…”

 

“No, no. The size of the basket probably wasn’t the issue. Besides, he misunderstood me as the professor’s lover, so the kid looked at the professor like he was some kind of thief.”

 

At those words, the flustered Jiyeon fidgeted anxiously. Yiseo hurriedly continued.

 

“But! The professor didn’t seem to dislike the idea of meeting someone. In my opinion, if unnie is really dating the professor, he wouldn’t dislike it that much… wouldn’t he…?”

 

“Really?”

 

“Of course… Probably… Honestly, he didn’t even look like the type to follow his dad around…”

 

Yiseo tried hard to instill hope in Jiyeon. 

 

Though his personality seemed bad, he didn’t strike her as the type to be particularly affectionate, even with his own parents. 

 

He probably wouldn’t make a big fuss about his father’s remarriage.

 

Independent to the point where it felt like he lived as if he were the only one in the world….

 

‘Well, with that face and that family, even with that personality, plenty of people would stick to him. Here I am, a beggar worrying about a rich man’s problems.’

 

Yiseo shook the boy’s face—someone she thought she’d never see again—out of her mind.

 

And that thought of hers would be shattered exactly three hours later.

 

🦋

 

The head held high bowed deeply.

 

“I’m sorry about yesterday.”

 

“Uh, um… Yeah.”

 

Yiseo looked back and forth with bewildered eyes between Dowon, who was apologizing, and the professor standing beside him. 

 

Even the professor looked flustered, as if it wasn’t something he had ordered.

 

“It’s, it’s fine. That can happen. I showed up out of the blue, so you must’ve been startled too….”

 

“No. Still, I was harsh with my words. I’m sorry.”

 

The boy bowed politely. 

 

Well, truthfully, calling him a boy felt a bit off—he was quite grown. 

 

Yiseo waved her hands at the twenty-year-old young man, known in the department as a frail(?) pretty boy(?).

 

“No, no. I’m glad the misunderstanding is cleared up.”

 

As Yiseo smiled awkwardly to lighten the mood, Dowon, who had been staring down at her, belatedly lifted the corners of his mouth. His smile was somewhat stiff.

 

Of course, he must feel uncomfortable too. 

 

Seeing him again like this, he didn’t seem like he had such a bad personality….

 

‘Was he just sensitive that day? Oh, right, he said his mother didn’t come to the graduation. That could explain it. Coming right away to apologize shows he’s not fundamentally a bad kid.’

 

Yiseo brushed away the last bit of lingering resentment and said,

 

“Professor, I’m really fine. I’ve received the apology. Can I head out now? It’s almost mealtime, so you should have something delicious with your son.”

 

Just as Yiseo, smiling brightly, subtly stepped back, the professor caught her with an embarrassed laugh.

 

“I was going to suggest that, but Dowon told me to eat with Jiyeon. Could this assistant have something tasty with Dowon and show him around campus? It’s fine if you come back a bit later in the afternoon.”

 

“…”

 

No graduate student can flatly refuse a professor’s proposal.

 

Yiseo felt anything but good, yet she nodded yes and left the office with Dowon in tow.

 

The campus during break was so empty you could hardly spot a soul.

 

It was an environment that showed zero sympathy for Yiseo’s wish to disappear silently into a reasonably noisy crowd.

 

In the end, Yiseo broke the excruciating silence.

 

“Anything you feel like eating? Or anything you can’t eat? Since it’s break, there’s almost nothing open on campus, so we’ll have to go off-campus.”

 

“Anything is fine.”

 

The hardest menu item of all—anything—had appeared.

 

Yiseo stole a glance at Dowon, who seemed to have stiffened up since earlier, and forced a smile.

 

Right. He must feel awkward, too. Am I the only one?

 

“There’s a donburi place nearby. How about there? Something like this…”

 

She looked up the shop on her phone and showed it to Dowon.

 

The moment she stepped closer to show him the screen, Dowon flinched, then leaned toward her and fixed his eyes on the phone.

 

“…Can’t we go somewhere else?”

 

His voice sounded way too close—like a whisper right in her ear.

 

Yiseo needlessly rubbed her ear and took a half-step back.

 

But the instant she moved, Dowon naturally caught the wrist holding the phone, as if the screen were hard to see.

 

Yet something felt…

 

“Sorry. I’m tall, so places with fixed seats feel too cramped. Noona.”

 

Looking straight into her eyes and smiling, the young man felt, to Yiseo, just a little ticklish.

 

…Something about this kid—he’s unnecessarily sweet.