The Department Blind Date Invitation
“Wow, we really almost screwed up big time…. Barely scraped through safe on the practical investment. They’re saying the deadline’s now.”
Claiming they had thoroughly broken the jinx right from the start of the semester, the two of them let out long sighs of relief. Once the tension eased, talk of what had happened over the break and updates on each other’s lives flowed naturally. In the process, Ji-eum found herself spilling about the events in Bupyeong. Of course, she couldn’t bring herself to recount every last detail—that she had started the app because of Seung-jo, or everything that had happened with Jemulpo Puppy.
“But don’t you have a photo of that Incheon-loving guy? I’m dying to know what he looks like.”
“A photo? Nothing like that. I didn’t give him one, and he didn’t give me one either…. We don’t even know each other’s names, you know.”
“You don’t even know his name? How is that possible?”
Na-hee declared she couldn’t understand it. How had Ji-eum managed to hold back her curiosity? Ji-eum explained that that was precisely the charm of Thumping Planet, then her eyes grew briefly distant and wistful. Yeah… that part really was nice….
“Then what style is he? Like Ma Seung-jo’s style?”
“Hey—wh-why is Seung-jo coming up all of a sudden….”
The casually tossed remark made Ji-eum flinch. For a moment it felt as if her feelings had been found out. She remembered the suspicion-filled look in Na-hee’s eyes when she had first introduced Seung-jo. After insisting over and over that he was just a friend from high school, she had only barely managed to clear herself of suspicion.
Her feelings for Seung-jo were only just starting to settle, so hiding them a little longer would be enough. Ji-eum poked at the last of the yuja tea at the bottom of her cup with her straw, composing her scattered expression.
“Why? Isn’t that exactly your type? The juicy slender type.”
Huk. The “slender type” had become one of her ideal conditions because of Seung-jo, so she startled again, her gaze wandering into empty air.
“Then what type is he? At least describe him. What’s he look like?”
Jemulpo Puppy’s appearance, huh….
“Just… he’s really tall… his arms are insanely thick… and his chest muscles bulge out in a way that’s pretty noticeable….”
As she carefully pieced the memories together and spoke, Na-hee’s eyes went round as saucers and she dropped her phone onto the table with a thud.
“You saw his chest? Why—why? Why were you looking there?”
Well… because that man had left his outerwear in the car and walked around in just his suit even in the cold weather. Thanks to that, the firm chest muscles under the clinging shirt had been blatantly visible, and her eyes had kept drifting there whether she wanted them to or not.
“H-his chest is that impressive? His body must be seriously good.”
It was, honestly. Ji-eum nodded along with a soft “mm-hmm,” calling his form up even more clearly in her mind.
“…….”
Jemulpo Puppy was a man where everything stood out—not just his chest. From a height that looked like he would never have to look up at anyone, all the way to his manly face. It was a little overwhelming, but undeniably impressive. The fact that she still remembered it so vividly said everything.
“Huk…. Keep going. Don’t you dare tell me you just ate together. What else happened?”
“Huh? Um…. We ate…. Then some busking suddenly started so we watched that for a bit… went to the arcade and killed some zombies and also….”
“What? You hung out for ages! Did the two of you drink, by any chance?”
How did she know? Ji-eum hadn’t even mentioned that far, yet Na-hee guessed it with eerie accuracy, leaving Ji-eum gaping as she confessed.
“Just one glass of draft beer and a little soju….”
“……!”
She shouldn’t have said it. The moment the conversation reached this point, Ji-eum regretted it too late.
Na-hee was the type who immersed herself even more deeply than the people involved whenever she sensed the faintest vibe of a budding romance. She had consumed every romance drama imaginable and even binge-watched entire seasons of failed dating shows that scraped 0 percent ratings. Her wild imaginings made no exception for real-life couples.
“Just the two of you… drinking…?”
Na-hee’s eyes, which had gone blank like cloudy pollack, gradually began to sparkle with intrigue.
“There’s definitely something here! What did you talk about while you drank? And after you drank? My heart’s pounding…. Hurry up and tell me.”
“Uh…. No, it wasn’t like that….”
Ji-eum broke into a cold sweat, unable to live up to Na-hee’s expectations.
“That’s… all?”
“What?”
“We drank moderately and came back up to Seoul…. That was the end.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah….”
Meeting those clear eyes, Na-hee straightened the upper body that had been leaning farther and farther forward, her expression cooling as if someone had poured cold water on her.
“Ha. You just drank with a big-chested muscular guy and that was it…?”
Nod, nod. That’s what she’d said.
“No way. You set up the next date, right? When are you meeting again?”
“…We’re not meeting anymore.”
No. To be precise, they couldn’t meet.
“Why?”
“I only saw him because I was bored during break. Just one day. That was it.”
Na-hee went blank as if she had lost the entire world, then dropped her head onto the table.
“Aigo, Lee Ji-eum. I thought you were finally escaping virgin territory, but this is how it ends…. Tsk. I was sure there was something….”
Watching Na-hee look so dejected, Ji-eum kept flicking away the face that kept trying to surface in her mind.
As dusk settled, Ji-eum sat through one more liberal arts class and slowly made her way off campus. The sky was not yet fully dark. To reach the officetel in the one-room village where she lived alone, she had to pass through the rodeo street lined with restaurants and bars.
Perhaps because the semester had just begun, the street was noisy and every shop she passed was packed. During the break the street had been pleasantly quiet, but those good times were clearly over. Ji-eum adjusted the heavy Peddler Bag on her shoulder and quickened her pace. Just then—zing, zing, ziiing…. The phone in her pocket vibrated in rapid succession.
What’s coming so much…. Ji-eum stopped for a moment and pulled out her phone.
Every single one was an ad. She had been meaning to clear them out on a proper day anyway. I’ll just deal with them all at once when I get home…. She was flicking rapidly through the scroll when her thumb stopped on a message from the class rep.
“…A group blind date?”
At first she had thought it was a message asking why she hadn’t come to the opening general meeting, but suddenly it was a group blind date. A group blind date meant a group mixer with another department.
She wasn’t even a freshman anymore—doing a group mixer at this point? Just thinking about it felt unbearably awkward. The word alone gave her a slight case of the creeps. And yet… and yet….
Staring down at the messages in a daze, Ji-eum felt her cheeks quietly warm. It really had been so long since someone from the department had thought of her and reached out separately like this.
She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it had started. From some day onward, Ji-eum had become alone inside the school. It had been different right after she entered. Classmates from the same department and seniors had approached her first, wanting to talk and get close.
But from some moment, everyone had suddenly grown distant. No one ever explained why. Mutual follows on SNS had cut off one by one, and even in lecture halls the glances had turned strange. It had been truly hard back then. Hurtful and frustrating.
Then taking a leave of absence for family matters had actually been a relief. The timing had lined up perfectly with Seung-jo heading off to the military.
Anyway, by the time Ji-eum returned to school, many of those classmates were already in their graduating year, and even for those who weren’t, their classes had diverged so they rarely crossed paths. Filling the empty space had been Park Na-hee, who had transferred around then and walked alone. Two loners banding together meant that even without much department life, there wasn’t particularly anything missing. Naturally, she had never once gone to a group blind date.
“Eum.”
Ji-eum took in the messages again. A group blind date… maybe she should go once. Na-hee must have gotten this message too, right? If Na-hee was going, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Her heart was tilting toward the positive when a shadow suddenly fell and the phone screen darkened.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
At the familiar voice, Ji-eum jerked her head up.
“Oh. Ma Seung-jo…!”
The face that had been wrapped in worry bloomed with open delight. Seung-jo looked exactly as he had when he had just returned from Europe the month before.
Brown hair that looked even brighter under the signboard lights, light-colored eyes, an eye shape that somehow still appeared kind even though it was slightly upturned….
Thanks to that pretty face, even a white T-shirt and black slacks—neat, simple clothes—made him shine. Plus that unique fabric-softener scent of his. Every bit of it was deeply familiar to Ji-eum.
