“No.”

 

The man wearing sunglasses sat motionless across from the empty seat where the guest had left. 

 

He remained there until night fell, and the door rattled open as his lover entered.

 

“Honey. What brings you all the way here? You said you hate coming here.”

 

The woman scurried in, placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, and lightly kissed his cheek. Then, noticing the water glass on the table, she asked.

 

“Did you have a guest? You said there were no reservations today.”

 

“Old customer.”

 

“Aha. Judging by your expression, the guest didn’t listen again?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then why does our honey’s face look like this?”

 

The man pulled the woman’s hand to him, kissed it, and murmured. 

 

On her ring finger sparkled the ring they had chosen together.

 

“He said he was curious, so I offered to tell him the cause, but he said no.”

 

“Wow. What a weird guest. Then why did he come?”

 

“He wasn’t curious about the cause—he was curious if it could be resolved.”

 

“So? What did you say?”

 

At the woman’s question, the man hesitated. But soon he answered casually.

 

“I said it’s possible.”

 

“Liar. Do I not know you? It’s impossible to resolve, yet you said it’s possible. You.”

 

The man chuckled and nodded at his giggling lover’s laughter.

 

“Yeah. You’re right. I really hated that guest. I was hoping things would go wrong this time…”

 

“He didn’t fall for your trick?”

 

“Yeah. He said he’d just live with the problem.”

 

When the man told Dowon that instead of curing that mental illness-like thing, his body would weaken again, Dowon immediately refused. 

 

And he asked if his mental illness was permanent otherwise, and the man said yes.

 

After that, Dowon left right away. 

 

As if all his curiosities had been resolved.

 

“Wow. Is he some guest possessed by a low-quality ghost or something?”

 

“No, just a crazy bastard.”

 

The man frowned, recalling Dowon’s voice that had sounded almost refreshed. He knew instinctively. 

 

From the start, that guy had no intention of solving the problem.

 

He seemed to have decided to live with his crazy head attached, after hearing that trying to make his gone-mad head a bit normal just to stick even more disgustingly to the woman currently attached to him would weaken his body.

 

Whether he believed that while he couldn’t hide his crazy body from that woman, he could hide his crazy head, or whatever.

 

“Every time we meet, he’s a freshly insane bastard, but I’m not exactly sane either for giving him chances every time.”

 

“Wrinkly. Honey, if you hate it that much, don’t take him as a customer.”

 

At the touch pressing hard on the furrowed brow, the man relaxed his expression. The woman patted the man’s head as if he’d done well.

 

The man pulled his lover’s waist into a hug and buried his head.

 

Who would want to meet that crazy bastard every time, even if he’s a man?

 

But fate was a tangled ball of thread. The man met that crazy bastard every time and had to give him chances every time. 

 

That way, he could meet this woman every time.

 

Since nothing was more important to the man than this woman, it was unavoidable.

 

Probably the same for that crazy bastard, but the man didn’t particularly want to consider that crazy bastard’s position.

 

🦋

 

“I don’t like you. Dowon. Still, do you want to date me?”

 

In front of the convenience store trash can in the university district at dawn, where hardly anyone passes by, Yiseo asked Dowon that.

 

“Huh? Shall we date? If we date once, will you stop following me around?”

 

She wasn’t drunk. She had drunk, but since she had work tomorrow anyway, it wasn’t to the point of blacking out.

 

It was just that Dowon’s appearance that day was a bit tough for Yiseo. 

 

Even though it wasn’t the first or second time.

 

After Yiseo directly rejected Dowon, he didn’t follow her home, but whenever Yiseo was on campus, he always hung around nearby, using his father as an excuse.

 

Yiseo went to work almost every day, so in fact, he popped up unannounced in Yiseo’s daily life almost every day.

 

She couldn’t be that mean to a kid who clung, saying he liked her, so instead of saying a word, she just ignored him. 

 

Thinking he’d give up eventually.

 

But even after the semester started, Dowon steadily visited not his own school but Yiseo’s, stamping his presence on her. 

 

Almost every day.

 

A kid who kept talking and chasing to the point where ignoring was hard.

 

Yiseo didn’t hate Dowon, who hung around just to get a glance from her. She just wondered why he was like that. 

 

Even up to today.

 

“The youngest in the next department is dating a kid, isn’t it too much of a fuss? Honestly, while pretending to hide it, she was subtly bragging.”

 

Yiseo had simply realized anew that there are no secrets in the world.

 

She never flaunted the fact that Dowon was chasing her around at university; on the contrary, she even made up excuses to hide it, but it seemed someone found even that irritating.

 

“That makes sense. Isn’t it…, no, isn’t it a huge mismatch in status? That guy next door is the son of a golden-spoon professor. I heard he’s been after her since high school—that’s practically a crime, isn’t it? I had no idea she was that kind of person.”

 

Most of what they said was wrong. 

 

Moreover, her first meeting with Dowon had clearly been after his graduation ceremony.

 

But the part about there being nothing objectively better about Yiseo compared to Dowon was true. 

 

Yiseo found it a bit absurd that she couldn’t run out into the hallway and refute what they were saying so freely.

 

“Wow. If he started pursuing her when they were kids, isn’t that what it was, gaslighting? Isn’t that scary? That girl. The professor next door is pretty naive, sure, but would he really just stand by and watch that happen?”

 

But in reality, Yiseo hadn’t started anything.

 

Far from seducing him first as they claimed, she had never even approached him or spoken to him first. 

 

In fact, she had treated him even more coldly out of fear of hearing such talk, but it seemed to have been useless. 

 

After all, in people’s eyes, it was just a young, accomplished young master chasing after a woman who wasn’t even in his league.

 

Realizing that, everything felt a bit futile.

 

No matter what Yiseo did, Dowon would chase her, and people would look at them strangely.

 

If they were actually dating, at least she wouldn’t feel so wronged.

 

Feeling wronged, Yiseo drank alone for the first time in a while, blankly mulling over what had gone wrong and where. 

 

Wondering what on earth she should have done differently.

 

Yeah. If only she had accepted Dowon’s confession back then….

 

Then, as people said, they would have been a mismatched couple anyway. They might have broken up after a short while, and that would have been the end. 

 

Maybe rejecting him had only provoked a young man’s stubbornness and led to this.

 

While lost in such thoughts, she bought a few more cans of beer at the convenience store and was trudging out when she ran into Dowon, who seemed to have been waiting for her.

 

The young master who was born too perfectly and made her the target of criticism.

 

“I really don’t like you. Is that okay with you?”

 

At that moment, the clothes she had thrown on carelessly looked shabby, and there wasn’t a trace of makeup on her face. 

 

In her hand, a rustling pay-per-bag trash bag clinked with the cans inside.

 

Yiseo found the smell of alcohol coming from her body a bit funny. She thought it was a sight that could cool even a thousand-year love.

 

However, Dowon snatched the envelope dangling precariously from Yiseo’s fingertips and answered. 

 

So clearly that there could be no mistake for anything else.

 

“Yes.”

 

Standing close, a shadow fell over her head. She looked up, but Dowon’s face wasn’t clearly visible. 

 

The light leaking from the convenience store overlapped with the nearby billboard lights, distorting her vision a bit. 

 

When she raised her hand to rub her eyes, Dowon grabbed her hand and pulled it down.

 

Suddenly meeting his eyes, she got goosebumps for a moment, but before she could think any further, Dowon pulled her into a hug.

 

“I’ll like you more. I can do better. Noona doesn’t have to do anything. Just, just stay still and accept it.”

 

The words in her ear were so innocent that Yiseo quickly forgot the chill she had felt momentarily. 

 

Maybe the alcohol had made her sense of crisis go a bit off.

 

In fact, not just the sense of crisis, but her sense of reality was also lacking.

 

That’s why she had impulsively shouted to meet just once like this.

 

Dowon drove each word into Yiseo’s ear, who was blankly nestled in his arms, as if chewing on them.

 

“It’s okay to regret it, but don’t change your words. Absolutely not.”

 

Well. You’ll be the one regretting it. Look at me now. Do you like this?

 

Yiseo was in an exhausted state without even the strength to push away Dowon, who was hugging her. She just leaned her forehead on Dowon’s shoulder and muttered bitterly.

 

“Yeah… Let’s see how far this goes. You.”

 

How long would this young, privileged young master chase after her, saying he liked her?

 

It probably wouldn’t be long. 

 

Up until now, she figured he had been stubbornly pursuing her because she hadn’t fallen into his hands, but once they dated, that stubbornness would disappear quickly, she thought.

 

Rather than wasting time chasing her for no reason, dating once, realizing it was nothing special, and leaving might be better for both Dowon and Yiseo.

 

Maybe he’d quit in just a few days.

 

…That’s what Yiseo thought at the time.