Chapter 43
Chapter 43. Oppa, Where Are You Going?
Deep within the seclusion of Sia’s lair, she was pouring immense, relentless effort into a clandestine undertaking she kept entirely to herself.
People frequently used the expression “grinding yourself down to the bone” in a figurative sense, but at this particular moment, she was literally carving away at a piece of her very own skeletal structure.
All of this was to craft another piece of jewelry to present to Minjun. Having already completed the counterpart blade that mirrored the one she had previously handed him, she had moved on to fashioning personal ornaments.
During her younger days as a hatchling, she used to casually string together jewels scattered across her cavernous home, treating the craft almost like a child playing pretend. Carving personal adornments out of her actual bones rather than raw gems, however, was an entirely different matter, proving quite challenging even with her innate abilities.
Furthermore, because these creations were intended for the person dearest to her heart, she insisted that every detail be far more flawless than anything she had ever produced before.
She spent consecutive days fretting over the shapes and patterns for the ring, ear studs, and chain pendant, obsessing over the precise techniques needed to sculpt them. As far as her exacting standards were concerned, there was still a massive amount of progress left to make.
“Time to take a brief breather.”
Releasing a wide, tired yawn, she pressed her face deep into one of Minjun’s discarded shirts resting on the desk surface. Virtually none of his natural fragrance remained clinging to the fabric, yet burying herself in it nevertheless brought a touch of relief to her exhaustion.
‘Perhaps I ought to ask him if he has any other worn-out garments to spare.’
If she brought it up, though, what sort of pretext could she offer to justify the request?
As various thoughts drifted through her mind, Sia took a seat before her laptop screen. Upon waking the device, the initial sight that met her gaze was the collection of Minjun’s boyhood snapshots she had stealthily transferred to her drive during her previous stay at his parents’ house.
Regardless of how frequently she browsed through the files, he looked utterly precious, and the sight never grew old.
‘How on earth could Oppa have been so adorable and handsome even as a little boy?’
She had gazed upon these exact images the previous day and the day before that, yet her fondness for them never dwindled in the slightest. It was identical to how one could eat a daily bowl of cooked rice without ever growing weary of its taste.
After spending considerable time swooning over Minjun’s portraits and setting another favorite capture as her new desktop background, she navigated into a different directory.
These items were not lifted from Minjun’s family albums; instead, they were glimpses of him she had painstakingly uncovered through relentless personal searches across the vast corners of the web.
An outsider might wonder how anyone could dig up so many visual records of an ordinary citizen, but Minjun had regularly participated in commercial shoots as a youth. Beyond posing for numerous print and screen campaigns, he had occasionally taken on minor child acting gigs, meaning digital footprints from his past inevitably lingered across old forums and databases.
Granted, his catalog of roles remained relatively modest, and since his parents had never provided her with a comprehensive filmography, uncovering each piece had been quite an ordeal. Even so, Sia’s boundless devotion toward Minjun had turned every seemingly impossible search into a reality.
She repeatedly streamed brief snippets of television serials in which Minjun portrayed background characters, ran through old promotional commercials he starred in, and marveled over old marketing banners featuring his younger face.
It had turned into one of the greatest pleasures of her daily existence.
Only after combing through various archives once more and successfully unearthing several earlier shots of Minjun that had somehow evaded her prior sweeps, saving every single file with care, did she finally prepare to return to her crafting.
Right when she was preparing to lift her tools once more, her phone chimed with an incoming call from Minjun.
The very instant the melody began playing, she cast her implements aside and picked up without hesitation.
“Oppaaa! How have you been? I’ve missed you to death after being apart for more than seven whole days.”
[I missed you as well. But hey, we’re scheduled to hang out the day after tomorrow, aren’t we?]
“We are! Have you figured out any plans for where we should go?”
[I actually looked around yesterday, and I found a café with a nice atmosphere and really good bread. It looks like the kind of place you’d like too. What do you think?]
“I’d love that!”
For over ten minutes, they indulged in the affectionate, tender exchange typical of any deeply enamored couple.
“Sia, I think I have to hang up now.”
[Why? Are you going to a gate? Or training?]
Sia had naturally presumed his exit was tied to one of those standard duties, but neither turned out to be the case.
[You know that… appointment I mentioned before. The one I made with Mom and that noona…]
“Ah.”
The radiant grin that had illuminated Sia’s expression up until that moment completely turned to stone.
Minjun had previously informed her that a gathering involving Go Yuna had been arranged, yet Sia had deliberately refrained from inquiring about the exact timing or location. Finding out specific details would only have soured her temper prematurely.
[Nothing’s going to happen, so don’t worry too much. I’ll call you again as soon as it’s over.]
“Okay.”
She brought the call to an abrupt close, that single piece of news completely shattering what had started off as a delightful afternoon.
A fierce urge within her wanted to dash straight to where they were gathering and employ stealth spells to monitor Minjun and Yuna together. Paradoxically, another part of her vehemently resisted the thought. Watching that woman try to entice Minjun right before her eyes felt like a surefire way to send her fury soaring completely out of control.
“…Whatever. It isn’t as though I can turn back the clock anyway.”
She resolved to simply listen to Minjun’s explanation once the event concluded. For the time being, purely to safeguard her own composure, she decided to throw herself back into making the accessories.
Firm in that decision, she positioned herself back at the workstation and resumed carving.
Yet, despite her efforts to concentrate exclusively on shaping the raw material, the mental illusion of Minjun sitting alongside that woman kept flashing persistently through her thoughts, completely disrupting her focus.
“One of these days, I’m going to catch that fox bitch and—”
For a considerable stretch thereafter, the interior of Sia’s lair resounded with a stream of fiercely venomous profanities that Minjun had never once heard leave her lips.
‘…Is Sia genuinely furious?’
The drastic contrast in Sia’s demeanor before and after I mentioned the meetup with Yuna noona had been night and day.
Then again, sitting through this wasn’t appealing to me in the slightest either, and looking at the situation from Sia’s point of view made it seem vastly more irritating.
Pull yourself together, Yoon Minjun.
There was no predicting what might unfold today, meaning I had to stay thoroughly on guard. If I allowed Yuna noona even a millimeter of room to push boundaries, she, I—or perhaps the two of us together—could very well receive an express pass straight into the next world before the sun set.
Just as I was steeling my nerves, Mom walked out from the restroom, and together we made our way toward the Gangnam pasta venue chosen as the rendezvous point.
“My word, what a stroke of fate, isn’t it? Right, son? I assumed the entire household had settled permanently across the ocean in America. Who could have envisioned bumping into each other right in the heart of Seoul after a full two decades?”
“Seriously.”
That supposed miracle of fate has been handing your boy and his future bride an unending series of migraines lately.
Mom, remaining entirely oblivious to that hidden turmoil, happily reminisced about my earliest years and reeled off narrative after narrative regarding Yuna noona.
I could barely recall even a fraction of those childhood anecdotes, but listening to her recount them clarified one undeniable fact: back when we were little, Yuna noona and I genuinely behaved like inseparable siblings.
Needless to say, all of those bonds belonged firmly to a distant past.
The moment we walked through the doors of the dining establishment, Yuna noona and her mother, having arrived ahead of us, offered a cheerful reception.
“Oh my, unnie! How long has it been?”
“I know! Was the last time we saw each other about ten years ago?”
The two maternal figures immediately traded affectionate greetings first.
“Oh my, you grew up exactly the same as when you were little. Look at you, a complete young lady now.”
“My goodness, look how tall and handsome you are. Minjun, do you remember your auntie?”
Shortly after, Mom offered a doting welcome to Yuna noona, while Yuna noona’s mother greeted me with the same easy familiarity.
“Now that I see you, I remember. Have you been well?”
Catching sight of Yuna noona’s mother brought me sincere warmth as well. She had basically treated me like her own child during my tenderest years, leaving me with a natural sense of appreciation and happiness at seeing her again.
The true problem, however, lay with the other young woman present.
Yuna noona wore a vibrant, friendly smile, directing excessive cuteness toward my mother.
Every single gesture she made struck me as an active explosive that could detonate Sia’s volatile fury at any second, leaving me utterly rigid with tension. A single misstep here could easily blow away the tranquil normalcy I had worked so hard to preserve.
Following the initial pleasantries, we moved inside to take our seats, placed our meal selections, and launched into an extended chat. As was standard for such reunions, the opening conversation revolved naturally around the paths our lives had taken in recent times.
Just as I had gleaned from our earlier encounter, Yuna noona had hung up her hunter gear early on and was currently thriving as a flourishing culinary mogul. Her parents were likewise reportedly experiencing solid success managing ventures over in the United States.
“So, Yuna, what kind of restaurants are you running now?”
Mom appeared captivated by the concept of someone so youthful overseeing multiple dining brands and eagerly pressed for details.
“For now, I run a Korean restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, and a Chinese restaurant. The Korean and Japanese places are still small and haven’t been open very long. The Chinese restaurant… well, it feels a little embarrassing to say this myself, but it’s somewhat famous. It’s nearby, a place called Mirage Pavilion…”
“Oh my, that was your restaurant?”
Mom appeared visibly astounded upon discovering that the widely discussed dining destination, often highlighted across mainstream broadcasts, actually belonged to Yuna.
‘Mirage Pavilion, huh? Was that place really so famous?’
Setting aside the sheer stress Yuna noona caused me, pure objectivity forced me to acknowledge that her business acumen was exceptionally polished and her professional ascent undeniably impressive.
“Yes! If you come by with Minjun sometime, I’ll treat you to a huge meal!”
“But don’t you have to wait forever even with a reservation there?”
“The owner can always hold one table aside, so don’t worry, Mother!”
‘Mother?’
Hearing that specific honorific voiced by noona rather than Sia struck my ears with profound awkwardness. Pulled out of context, that title made Yuna noona come across as though she were already my mother’s daughter-in-law.
‘If Sia saw this…’
The mere possibility chilled my spine, yet I was forced to let the comment pass without comment. Stirring up a commotion or acting defensive would only make the situation look even more suspicious.
Before long, our orders of pasta arrived at the table, and the ongoing banter flowed uninterrupted as we began eating. While the establishment supposedly held quite the reputation for culinary excellence, my mounting anxiety dulled my senses to the point where the food carried virtually no discernible flavor.
“This takes me back. Unnie, remember how whenever we went out to eat after filming, nine times out of ten we’d always end up at a Chinese restaurant?”
When Yuna’s mother brought up those ancient routines, Mom chimed in with immediate agreement, clearly holding just as vivid a recollection of those days.
“That’s right! Do you two remember?”
“A little?”
My personal recollection was hazy at best, but Yuna noona evidently remembered everything with sharp clarity.
“Yes! It almost felt weird if we didn’t eat jajangmyeon. Even if the adults suggested something else, Minjun and I always begged to have jajangmyeon.”
Because my age had been so tender back then, most events remained clouded, yet I distinctly remembered being so totally captivated by noodles in black bean paste that “obsessed” was the only term fitting enough to describe it.
Nowadays, my enthusiasm for the dish had cooled considerably.
“I was looking through an old album recently and found a picture I took of you two eating jajangmyeon.”
Yuna noona’s mother retrieved the snapshot to let everyone see. In the print, we looked like utter toddlers, thick dark bean sauce smeared messily across our cheeks, flashing wide, innocent beams directly toward the lens the instant we noticed the camera.
Mom fell into deep nostalgia while gazing at those childhood portraits, then spoke up abruptly as another memory struck her.
“That reminds me. I don’t remember exactly when it was, but once, when Yuna saw Minjun enjoying his jajangmyeon at a Chinese restaurant, she said she was going to grow up and open a huge Chinese restaurant so she could feed him as much jajangmyeon as he wanted.”
‘…Did she?’
I carried zero recollection of any such promise, but seeing how readily Yuna’s mother nodded along, it was clear that the exchange had truly occurred.
‘Wait just a moment. Then could the real motivation behind her opening that Chinese establishment actually be…’
The instant that train of logic locked into place, my eyes snapped shut in sheer involuntary dread.
No. That had to be an absurd coincidence.
If this wasn’t purely accidental, the underlying reality was frankly terrifying to contemplate.
“Yuna, do you remember saying that?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve heard about it too. Wow, I really said that?”
Faced with Mom’s inquiry, Yuna noona wore a look of utter amazement, professing complete amnesia regarding the claim.
“You really never know how life will turn out, do you, Minjun?”
She shifted her gaze directly toward me as she delivered the phrase.
“…Was it really a coincidence?”
“Hm?”
“No, nothing. I’m just surprised too.”
The thought had been meant to stay locked within my own skull, but the mutter slipped past my lips unintended.
I could only hope noona hadn’t caught the murmur clearly.
“Then noona, just to make sure, was owning a Chinese restaurant really your dream ever since you were little?”
“Come on, of course not. I told you, I don’t really remember that time either.”
Yuna noona let out a soft chuckle while shaking her head dismissively.
“My dad runs businesses, I like food, and hunter work paid well but never suited me. I also had an injury, so I retired. One thing led to another, and this is where I ended up.”
I desperately wished for her words to be completely sincere, yet an uncomfortable seed of doubt continued to gnaw persistently at the back of my thoughts.
“Why? Would you like it if that really was the reason?”
“N-No!”
Her sudden, teasing jab took me entirely unawares, causing me to stutter out an answer.
If I hadn’t already been committed to an actual girlfriend, this dynamic was practically tailored to invite widespread misinterpretation.
Thank heavens Sia wasn’t physically present to witness this exchange.
Both mothers evidently found my flustered reaction utterly amusing, breaking out into bright laughter the moment my words stumbled out.
“Why are you getting so flustered? It’s all just childhood stories.”
“Exactly. Kids can say things like that. Besides, Minjun, you have a girlfriend now, don’t you?”
I could hardly explain to either of them that having that very girlfriend was the exact reason I felt so dangerously cornered.
Awkwardly abashed, I dipped my gaze toward the table, while Yuna noona let out a quiet giggle at my discomfiture.
“Then what about you, Yuna? Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No.”
This time, a modest look crossed Yuna noona’s features as she lightly gestured no in response to Mom’s inquiry.
“My last relationship was back in high school.”
“Really? That’s surprising. A girl like you must have had plenty of men interested in her.”
“There were, but… I was so busy with work that unfortunately it didn’t seem like I was in a situation where I could date.”
I found it hard to believe that assertion wholeheartedly, given the peculiar forwardness she had displayed during our recent run-in.
Why did this persistent suspicion keep warning me that noona was spinning a falsehood? Right at that exact instant, my phone started ringing with a call from Sia.
Comments for chapter "Chapter 43"
MANGA DISCUSSION
Madara Info
Madara stands as a beacon for those desiring to craft a captivating online comic and manga reading platform on WordPress
For custom work request, please send email to wpstylish(at)gmail(dot)com