The Pace of Love
“No. We just ran into each other on the way here.”
As curious gazes converged on him, Sangho met them with blunt firmness, and Hayun pouted in response.
“Say that with such a straight face and it makes me look like I was lying or something.”
“That wasn't what I meant.”
“Then give me some medicine too. I slept with the air conditioning on all night, and my throat feels scratchy. Pretty please, Sangho?”
She had clearly read the flicker of discomfort on Sangho's face—his glance flicking toward Minju—and yet Hayun played innocent, clinging to him with her trademark shameless aegyo.
Just as Sangho opened his mouth to refuse, Moon Yeol came tumbling into the filming site, out of breath, evidently having slept in. Whether he'd been drinking late into the night or not, his haggard face crowned with a bird's-nest of hair was quite the sight.
“Ah, I'm so sorry! I'm late. Ugh, my stomach…….”
Moon Yeol tossed the jacket he was carrying over the back of the sofa and wedged himself between Sangho and Minju without so much as an apology. Suddenly pushed away from Minju, Sangho's brow creased.
“By the way, why is everyone so down in the dumps? Oh, right—Minju! Are you feeling any better? I was seriously so worried I almost cried while drinking last night, I swear!”
There was no malice in it whatsoever—but neither was there a shred of tact. At his oblivious remark, the room's attention scattered once again.
Moon Yeol turned his body toward Minju, waiting expectantly for an answer. As his warmth washed over her on the narrow sofa, Minju flinched and hunched her shoulders.
“……I'm fine.”
She answered with a faint smile, but her fingers fidgeted anxiously where they were clasped in her lap. The conversation she'd been about to have with Sangho was already lost.
“Let's go grab a coffee later. I scouted out a café on the way here yesterday—great atmosphere. You're in, right?”
It was a one-sided invitation that left no room for refusal. His boisterous enthusiasm, performing for the crowd, felt to Minju not like flattering attention but like a heavy weight pressing down on her shoulders.
“……I'm still not feeling well, so I think I should rest today. I'm sorry.”
Minju forced up the corners of her mouth and managed to turn him down.
“Oh, really? Too bad, but we can always do the date another time. It's not like today's the only day. Hahaha!”
Had it truly never occurred to him that Minju might refuse? Moon Yeol flashed a moment of bewilderment, then promptly burst into awkward laughter to paper over his embarrassment.
Just then, the Love Coach swept into the disarrayed atmosphere. With a sunny smile concealing a razor-sharp insight beneath, she began to speak.
“Now, everyone, please turn your attention here. This morning's mission is about matching each other's pace of life.”
The monitor displayed a quiet stone-wall lane and a boulevard lined with plane trees.
“Love is a joining of burning temperatures, yes—but in the end, it is also a long, long walk in which two people learn to match the rhythm of their different footsteps.”
The Love Coach's words sent a heavy ripple through the depths of Minju's heart.
The girl she used to be, always demanding her own pace, sulking over every mismatched stride with a partner.
Seokjun, who had always adjusted his stride to match hers, had one day vanished into the distance without a word of warning. Had she simply become impossible to endure?
As the memories surfaced—of being left behind, floundering alone in sorrow—the inside of Minju's mouth turned bitter.
The mission itself was simple: paired with partners chosen by lottery, the contestants would travel a course using various means of transport.
First at the starting line was the two-seater bicycle team—Minju and Do-yun.
The two smiled at each other. Perhaps because each had someone else in their heart, there was no awkwardness between them as partners.
When Minju wobbled as she climbed onto the bicycle, Do-yun steadied her with a firm arm. At the sight, envious murmurs rippled through the onlookers.
“What is this, you two? A tandem bike and matching couple outfits?”
Jeans and a white T-shirt. They'd only dressed according to the notice calling for comfortable, active wear—but the result was that she and Do-yun had ended up in matching couples' outfits all the same.
Watching Do-yun blush to the tips of his ears, Minju stole a glance at Seolhee.
And sure enough, Seolhee was pouting with her arms crossed, the very picture of displeasure.
Pretending not to care, yet unable to tear her eyes away—it seemed she did have feelings for Do-yun after all.
Minju suppressed a laugh and pushed down hard on the pedals.
Once the ride was over, the two settled onto a bench beneath a row of plane trees shimmering with brilliant young-green leaves. Minju handed the panting Do-yun a cold bottle of water.
“Good work out there, Do-yun. Here, drink this.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Do-yun drained half the bottle in one go. Wiping away the droplets trailing down his throat, he glanced around briefly, then leaned in close toward Minju.
“Um, Minju…… did I maybe do something to upset Seolhee?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Our eyes met just now, and she looked away.”
Knowing how close Minju and Seolhee were, Do-yun wasted no time pouring out his troubles at this chance to confide in someone.
Amused that he alone—the very subject of Seolhee's jealousy—was clueless, Minju held back a laugh and said,
“It's not that you did anything wrong. It's just that we seem too close, that's all.”
“Then should I go explain myself?”
Do-yun ran a flustered hand through his tousled hair.
Minju disliked meddling in other people's affairs, but the sight of his clumsy sincerity, wandering lost without finding its rightful owner, kept tugging at her heart.
“Do-yun, Seolhee likes men who are straightforward. Instead of making excuses about misunderstandings, just show her clearly how you feel. Tell her you were sorry the two of you couldn't ride together.”
“Thank you. I'll do exactly what you said, Minju.”
Like a traveler finding a signpost in a fog of confusion, a smile of relief bloomed across Do-yun's face.
At that very moment, a heavy silence hung inside the classic horse-drawn carriage that had entered the park.
Paired with Sangho, whom she had no interest in, Seonyeong had nothing to say and stared blankly at the scenery passing outside the window.
Every nerve in her was strung tight over what conversation might be passing between her partner Seokjun and Hayun—when a low murmur of laughter drifted in from somewhere nearby.
As Seonyeong turned toward the sound, her eyes landed on Do-yun and Minju, laughing together in easy warmth.
Look at her, giddy as anything.
A CEO of an investment firm, a director of an animal hospital—she had capable men eating out of her hand, and now she was flashing that coy little smile at a younger man too? Irritation surged up in Seonyeong's chest.
Wherever she went, Seonyeong had always been the center of the story. Dazzling looks and a stunning figure, a respectable job at a major corporation, parents who were professors at a famous university—she was lacking in nothing.
She'd joined Love Camp to grow her social media following and take the measure of her own popularity, not—as the other contestants did—out of any desperate search for a husband.
But the moment she laid eyes on Kwon Seokjun, her mind had changed.
He was the tallest of any man she'd ever dated, overwhelmingly handsome, and above all, brilliantly capable. His blunt manner gave her slight pause, but he was her ideal type to the letter.
Seonyeong had charged straight at him from the very first meeting.
And yet the eye-smiles and aegyo that had never once failed her had no effect on Seokjun whatsoever.
Talking to him felt like talking to a massive log.
Still, there was no such word as quit in Seonyeong's dictionary. Not once had she failed to win over a man she'd set her sights on.
Except that the unreadable Kwon Seokjun's gaze kept drifting, again and again, toward Seo Minju—blatantly, and more than once.
For the first time in her life, an unfamiliar, ominous flame swept through Seonyeong's chest.
Forcing herself to appear composed, she suddenly asked Sangho, who sat at the reins,
“Sangho, are you planning to make a move on Minju?”
Sangho, who had been driving the carriage while staring straight ahead, turned his head slowly toward her.
“Why do you ask, all of a sudden?”
The dry rebuttal came back at her, as if to say—what business was that of hers?
Seonyeong frowned, visibly frustrated by his lukewarm attitude.
“Because it's driving me crazy. This is no time for you to be lounging around, Sangho. With someone charging in that openly right beside you, if you just stand by and watch, she'll be stolen away before you know it.”
Seonyeong clicked her tongue as if out of concern for Sangho—but in truth, her gaze had gone not to Do-yun laughing with Minju, but to Seokjun, watching that scene with a face like a gathering storm.