The Girl Who Knew the Code

Unlike Lee-kyung, who hated the very thought of getting soaked in the rain, she had grown up often caught out in it, and her body answered before she did.

"Want to go out?"

A faint crease between his brows, Lee-kyung shook his head.

"No."

"Tch."

Won-young was starting to get hungry.

"Grilled pork belly and soju on a rainy day—now that would be heaven."

She had said it for him to hear, but he only stayed bent over his work, perfectly unbothered. Disappointed, Won-young pushed her lips out.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"I have no interest in hauling you home on my back after you pass out from soju in the middle of the afternoon."

"......"

The refusal was so flat it took the wind right out of her. And was that really the picture of her stuck in his head—passing out on soju in broad daylight and riding home on his back? A few times, back when she was young and foolish. He still remembered that?

You've got a long memory for grudges, Ryu Lee-kyung.

"Seonbae."

"If you're going to keep interrupting me, go wait outside. You're starting to get on my nerves."

She glared at him with everything she had, then clamped her mouth shut.

What Won-young truly wanted to know was Lee-kyung's history with women. Over the years they had talked on the phone now and then, but she had never once heard him say he was seeing anyone. Even back when they were dating, though, he had always felt like a man with a great deal hidden—the sort who hated anyone digging at the same question, hated being clung to and pressed.

Ji-an, of course, had let a few things about his private life slip.

Gangwon. The sea. Surfing. Somehow the perfect conditions for meeting a woman. There might well have been someone who brushed past him, or someone he had burned hot with. The thought left her a little low. It was ridiculous to feel this way after she herself had dated five other people, but she couldn't help her heart turning small and mean.

Still, no matter how many times she turned it over, she arrived at the same certainty: right now, there was no woman Lee-kyung liked. A man with his temperament would never have let her stay here day after day if there were. He was that conservative when it came to love. In the days when they had loved each other at their fiercest, he had even objected hard to her spending time with the guys in their year. He hadn't gone so far as to keep her on a leash, but he had never bothered to hide that he was jealous of her being with other men—and his own dealings with women had been just as clean. Won-young let out a deflated little laugh.

Right. If it's like this, there really isn't anyone. He said he spent all day in the studio, so there wouldn't have been some woman latching onto him out on the street, either. Word that he was handsome had probably made the rounds of the whole neighborhood, but one look at that prickly personality and they all would have run.

She was alone in the middle of that glorious private victory, already toasting a win she hadn't earned, when the keypad at the front door chimed and someone opened it with easy familiarity and stepped inside.

Startled, Won-young turned to Lee-kyung.

"What? Who is that?"

His eyes stayed on the painting, not on her.

"You're still here?"

"I asked who. Someone who knows your studio code when even I don't—"

Her face gone tight with urgency, Won-young blinked and waited for his answer. He still didn't look at her.

"Oh Se-hyung."

"Ah. So today's a lesson day. You could have told me sooner. I'll wait in the living room, then. If you're not hungry now, let's eat later. You'll have pork belly with me, won't you?"

"......"

"Yeah?"

Silence hung between them. Won-young stared straight at Lee-kyung, and at the end of it he gave her the answer she wanted.

"Fine."

Thank you, seonbae.

In that moment, through the gap of the open door, an unfamiliar face appeared. Oh Se-hyung—whom she had been utterly certain was a man—stepped in wearing leggings that laid every line of her figure bare and a short T-shirt.

"Ugh, it's hot. I came straight from working out and I'm melting. Oh? Teacher, you've got a guest? Who's this?"

Perfectly calm in the middle of Won-young's bewilderment, Lee-kyung looked at her and made the introduction.

"Say hello. This is Noh Won-young. My junior."

Won-young nearly bowed, then, seeing at a glance that Se-hyung looked a good deal younger than she was, settled for a short wave. She did not feel particularly pleased about any of it.

"Hello. Oh Se-hyung?"

"You know my name? Don't tell me Teacher talked about me."

Won-young answered at once. She wanted that assumption cut down before it could grow.

"No. I didn't hear it from seonbae. I heard it from his little sister. We're friends."

"Aha. Well, either way, nice to meet you. Anyone can see I'm way younger, so you don't have to be formal with me."

"Sorry?"

"I'm twenty-one this year. How old are you, unni?"

Won-young shot a look at Lee-kyung. This shameless little kid was only twenty-one?

No matter how I look at it, that body makes you the unni. Why do kids these days grow like this?

The strength went out of her round eyes, and they drooped.

"......Thirty."

Right. I'm thirty.

Oh Se-hyung, grinning so wide she looked as if she had swallowed a capital E, worked that generous mouth in a way that matched her wide-open image perfectly.

"Mm, thirty. You've still got a baby face, though, unni."

Won-young had no intention of losing.

"I get that a lot."

"Unni. Your last name isn't Rudolph, is it?"

"What?"

"Do you pull a sleigh, too?"

"......"

"Your nose, unni."

Only then did Won-young remember the red dot stamped on the tip of her nose.

Oh, for the love of—making a first impression looking like this. Hey, Ryu Lee-kyung. Why didn't you tell me? You should have sent me to the bathroom to wipe it off. If I forgot, you of all people should have said something.

......God. I'm going to lose my mind.

"Pfft—"

Lee-kyung, who had been listening to the two of them, burst out laughing. The sight of him only stoked Won-young's anger higher.

You're laughing? Now?

She bolted for the bathroom to scrub the red dot away.

She dragged in a long breath. Not even in a dream had she imagined that Oh Se-hyung was a woman. Her mood sank and sank until her vision went soft at the edges. Shoved outside like a stranger, Won-young sat on the living-room sofa and fiddled with her phone.

She counted how long it had been since Se-hyung went into the studio, pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead, then shot up from the couch.

......What kind of lesson runs this long?

When Lee-kyung still didn't come out, she ended up standing blankly before the open door.

"Seonbae, when are you finished? How long am I supposed to wait?"

He flicked the water from his brush and looked at her, face as blunt as ever.

"A while longer."

"Which is how long?"

"Two more hours."

"What? Then you should have said so from the start! If it's going to be like this, I'll go wait at Ji-an's flower shop."

"Do that."

Wearing that dry look of his, he stepped up to Se-hyung's piece. Without a flicker of self-consciousness, Lee-kyung closed his hand around her right hand and laid fresh paint over the picture in her place.

"Try it like this."

The posture was nearly one that might gather Oh Se-hyung into his arms from behind at any second. Remembering the heat she used to feel at her own back, the way it had filled her chest, Won-young felt her face catch fire. The instant she saw Se-hyung wearing the very expression she herself once had, her chest flared hot.

Won-young made a point of slamming the front door even harder.