Off Leash

The man asked with an easy smile. Hae-soo, who couldn't for the life of her remember his name, lowered her eyes with an apologetic look.

"Thank you. Congratulations to you, too, on passing. Um, your name was…"

"Oh, I'm Jae-joon. Yoo Jae-joon."

The man introduced himself cheerfully, without a trace of offense, and glanced around the cluttered room.

"Looks like we were the only two who made it out of that group of five."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I don't see anyone else no matter how hard I look. Anyway, it's nice to know at least one person here. I was about to lose my mind from the awkwardness. Oh, go ahead and sit."

Jae-joon warmly offered her a seat. The chairs in the training room were nearly full, so Hae-soo gave a light nod and sat down.

"Oh, right. They said we get our employee badges tomorrow—did you hear? Not the temporary ones, actual badges with our photos on them. Ah, I'm so excited. Have you done an internship before, Hae-soo? This is my first."

"Oh, mine too."

"I see. Well, let's lean on each other for these two months, first-timers together. Let's work hard so we both make it to the new-hire orientation next year."

Hae-soo sat through the orientation, chatting with the easygoing Jae-joon about this and that regarding the internship.

It ended at three in the afternoon. On the phone she'd kept buried in her bag the whole time, there was a message from Yeol.

Her fingertips tingled. What would we do, meeting up? What would we talk about? Half thrilled and half nervous, she sent a reply saying she'd just finished. Jae-joon, who was getting up from his seat, asked out of the blue,

"Do you happen to have plans afterward?"

"Yes. I'm supposed to meet a friend for a bit."

"Aw, that's a shame. I wanted to chat some more."

She parted ways with Jae-joon—his mouth corners drooping in a pout—promising to see him on her first real day of work. Right on cue, her phone rang. It was Yeol.

"Yes?"

— Where are you?

"I'm in the basement training room right now."

— Want me to come get you?

"No, I'll come to you. Where in the department store?"

The answer came back: the valet lounge. Hae-soo hung up and hurried along, sketching a mental map of the department store. The interior was so vast and labyrinthine that she took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. Her heart raced. It took a full ten minutes after the call ended before she finally found the spot Yeol had described.

The moment she stepped into the second basement level, into the space reserved for VIPs, she spotted Yeol sitting on a black leather sofa, flipping through a magazine. His expressionless face seemed faintly cold.

Hae-soo approached, steadying her ragged breathing. At the click-clack of her heels, he lazily raised his head.

"There you are."

His cool eyes softened into a gentle curve. Seeing that made her even more breathless than the run up the stairs had. Yeol uncrossed his long legs and rose from his seat. When he took her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world, her lungs felt ready to burst.

"Let's go."

He strode out of the valet lounge. Hae-soo, unable to shake off the hand holding hers, was simply dragged along. A flat, low-slung sports car—ugly and strange-looking in her eyes—lifted its door skyward to greet its owner, like a beetle she could never find charming. It looked ready to flap its wings and take off at any moment.

"Watch your head."

Yeol pushed her into the passenger seat, closed the door, and circled around the front of the car to the driver's side. With a click, the last door shut, and an engine growl like a beast's low rumble faded to a purr.

Hae-soo tugged at her seatbelt, painfully aware of the precarious silence between them. The moment she was fumbling to fasten the buckle, she let out a small "Ah—" and lost her grip on it. He had kissed her, ambush-style.

It wasn't a kiss that lingered and deepened; it pressed down once, hard, a split-second kiss that didn't so much as permit her the chance to push him away.

"I missed you."

At the end of it, Yeol touched his nose to hers and smiled. Heat bloomed across her face. What would we do, meeting up. What would we talk about. Every one of those worries was rendered useless in that instant.

Ah.

Hae-soo groaned and buried her face in both hands.

It was still too early for dinner. As Yeol pulled out of the department store parking lot, he asked,

"Want to see a movie?"

Hae-soo nodded quickly. A movie was the safest possible date course, and besides, it seemed wise to go somewhere with plenty of people around.

Her lips kept going dry in the fraught atmosphere, as if something might happen at any moment. Yeol glanced at her, chuckled softly, and held out his right palm.

"Hand."

"Huh?"

"Give me your hand."

Why would I give you my—

Before she could even ask, Yeol snatched up her left hand. She was just widening her eyes at him—what is he doing?—when their fingers interlocked, gear-like, one by one. He drew their clasped hands toward him and pressed his lips to the back of her hand. Hae-soo flinched and pulled against the arm he'd captured.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"What have you been up to?"

Yeol asked, utterly indifferent to her flustered state. With his remaining hand on the wheel and his eyes fixed straight ahead, he looked the picture of composure. He toyed with her captured hand so casually that Hae-soo, sheepish in contrast, felt ridiculous and small.

Am I the only one here who's embarrassed and jittery?

Hae-soo answered with deliberate nonchalance.

"Oh, you know. Laundry, cleaning, looked up some reviews from people who got hired at Seomoon Department Store…"

"Doesn't sound like you did much."

"Yeah, well."

"Then why did you say no when I asked to meet?"

She couldn't bring herself to say it was because her lips hadn't fully healed. Yeol pressed—"Hmm?"—but Hae-soo kept her mouth firmly shut. As if to say no more questions, she whipped her head to the right, and the back of her hand in his grip stung sharply.

"Agh—!"

"Don't turn your head that way. All I can see is the back of it."

She turned back with an incredulous look to find the man grinning, his teeth having just nipped her thin skin.

"There. That's the face I wanted to see."

"…"

"Didn't you miss me?"

"…Are you always like this?"

"'Like this' doesn't tell me much. Be specific."

Have you always been this shameless?

Have you always been this high-handed?

Have you always been this good at bewitching people?

Have you always been this much of a slick little snake…

"Never mind."

Her mind was a jumble. Forgetting his warning, Hae-soo turned her head to the right again without thinking. The back of her hand stung once more, like a spanking.

"Stop messing around and let go of my hand. It's dangerous—you're driving."

"If you know it's dangerous, quit squirming and hold still."

Yeol showed absolutely no intention of releasing her hand. Hae-soo resigned herself and let the tension drain from her arm. She could probably work the interlocked fingers free if she really tried, but was holding hands really worth making a fuss over? And if a pointless struggle made his hand slip on the wheel, things could genuinely get dangerous.

She was stacking up excuses like these, staring stiffly ahead, when a sign announcing the highway entrance drifted into view. The belated realization flickered through her that they seemed to be getting quite far from Seomoon Department Store.

"Wait, where exactly are we going?"

"To see a movie. Forgot already?"

Right. But there are movie theaters absolutely everywhere—shouldn't we have arrived by now?

She found it more than a little strange, but for someone like Hae-soo, whose world ran on buses and subways between home and school, there was nothing to do but stay quiet. She knew the subway map inside and out, but roads like these were another matter entirely. What good was offering directions about something she knew nothing about?

Well, whatever was at the end of this road would be a movie theater, she reasoned, and settled lazily into watching the scenery pass. It was shortly after that that the two large syllables of Seoul slipped by overhead.

"Was that just… a tollgate?"

"Yeah, it was."

Yeol grinned. They were on a highway, where U-turns were forbidden.

More than an hour of driving brought them to a drive-in theater on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province. The first film screened at eight, after sundown.

Yeol bought the tickets and parked toward one side of the lot. She'd expected it to be empty, given how early they were, but three cars had already claimed their spots.

He mentioned there was a large lake nearby, laid out nicely for a stroll, along with several restaurants and cafes where you could take in the view. As it turned out, the whole area was a well-known tourist destination.

"A walk's probably too much. Want to grab a cafe?"

Having killed the engine, Yeol asked with a glance toward her legs. Hae-soo wiggled her toes inside her heels and shrugged.

"It's not a marathon. A walk is fine."

She felt like she'd been tricked, yet paradoxically, she wasn't displeased. Flying down the wide-open highway had been exhilarating in its own way, and splitting snacks at the rest stop had been fun too. And besides, they were here to see a movie in the end, so she couldn't say she'd been entirely swindled. Her heart was surprisingly generous today.

"Your feet are going to hurt."

"These heels are comfortable. I bet that team manager really picked them out with care back then."

"Wow. Our manager Yun—I should tell his mother and get him a special promotion."

Trading jokes, Hae-soo followed Yeol out of the car. The sun beat down fairly hot, but it wasn't enough to keep her from walking.

A wind that had raced across the lake cooled the midday heat. As she gazed at the blue ripples in the distance, Yeol—who had somehow drawn close without her noticing—quietly took her hand. She looked up at him blankly, and feeling her gaze, he tilted his head down toward her.

"What is it?"