Gyu-eul didn’t feel ashamed of her family background or upbringing, but she was well aware of her position.

She was also certain about the people she associated with and those she didn’t. She must have realized it when she accidentally overheard Min-jae and his mother talking one day.

“Min-jae, you’re not dating that girl named Dan Gyu-eul again, are you?”
“No, we’re just friends.”
“Don’t get carried away just because she’s pretty. You shouldn’t get involved with kids who grew up like that. Do you know how cruel and malicious they can be?”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you date someone like that and she decides to get pregnant, what will you do? Your life will be ruined.”
“What are you saying, Mom? It’s not like that at all. Gyu-eul is nice. Stop it.”
“Good, keep thinking like that. Just keep her around as a poor friend.”
“I already am.”

Recalling that distant past, Gyu-eul bit her lip.

It was about time to forget. But why did it hurt so much just to think about it?

She appreciated Min-jae’s words that defended her, but still…

I’m not a pitiful or unfortunate person.

I have no intention of trapping a guy with pregnancy at all.

Gyu-eul turned around the café and went to the corner of the parking lot behind the hill. Under the secluded shade, her old Porter was parked.

She drove the Porter out of the café, gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying not to think about Min-jae and his crush.

It was foolish to be hurt alone when she couldn’t even express her feelings to ‘friend’ Min-jae.

Instead of turning on the air conditioning, she rolled down all the windows and headed home while listening to her favorite song.

“When our hands hold tight, I feel your warmth, and I smile as I fall asleep again today…”

It was a song by singer Si-young.

Humming the lyrics, she entered the countryside road. Listening to her favorite song made her feel a little better.

As she arrived near her house, it was dark all around. Gyu-eul parked her car in a vacant lot a little away from the house and sat there for a while, lost in thought.

At some point, a message arrived with a ping.

[Did you get home okay? 11:15 PM]

It was a message from Min-jae.

Gyu-eul hesitated to reply that she had arrived safely, but then paused and clicked on the link to the post Min-jae had sent her.

It was a post featuring pictures of Min-jae. The praise for him overflowed.

Suddenly, her friend felt even farther away.

He wasn’t just good-looking in my eyes; he must look good to others too.

As she stared at the comments for a while, Gyu-eul tilted her head.

Comments:
“Why are there so many hidden gems in Korea lately? That composer for Si-young’s songs from a few days ago is just as handsome. I’m so happy!”

Someone mentioned a regular guy, the one who composed Si-young’s songs.

Is he good-looking?

Having just listened to Si-young’s song, Gyu-eul felt intrigued and clicked on the post.

The first photo she saw was of a man taken from a distance.

Even though the man was wearing a hat and a mask, his long limbs and broad shoulders made his silhouette quite impressive.

Even without seeing his face, his physique was striking.

Gyu-eul carefully scrolled through the post.

The comments praised him as an alpha male who possessed both looks and talent.

Comments:
Comment 1: “This guy apparently composed almost all the hits for Hot & Geek and Si-young. He did most of the hits for Reflection and UIK too.”
⤷ “Yeah, he’s the dedicated composer for UIK.”
⤷ “He wrote all those songs? Wow, the royalties must be insane. Isn’t this the saying? Nobody knows me, but I have loads of money lol.”
Comment 2: “If it were me, I’d debut with that face.”
⤷ “I work in that field, and this guy is known for not wanting to show his face. He’s been getting tons of offers but doesn’t care.”

Gyu-eul felt he looked handsome even just from his silhouette and continued scrolling down.

When she saw the picture of him with his face visible, she gasped.

“Wow…”

The man sitting loosely against a railing looked like he was drawn.

The light from the streetlamp highlighted his high nose, and his delicate features stood out even in the darkness. The shadow of his slightly lowered eyelashes was pretty, too.

It was an atmosphere that was hard to describe as just being handsome.

His appearance drew her gaze strangely. There were several more pictures of him smoking a cigarette, and even his side profile was perfect.

But he also looked familiar. Where had she seen him before?

…She must have seen him somewhere.

As she tried to recall, Gyu-eul eventually pushed his image out of her mind and put her phone in her pocket.

As soon as she got out of the truck, a hot, grassy smell filled the air. Only then did she feel like she had returned to her world after being immersed in the world of beautiful people on the screen.

The dirt path was still muddy from the rain yesterday.

Carefully walking through the muddy path, she noticed a sleek sports car parked haphazardly under a big tree in the distance.

What’s a sports car doing in this countryside?

Is it a friend of Hyung-woo? Did he borrow it?

Gyu-eul’s cousin, Geum Hyung-woo, had many friends with poor backgrounds.

They mostly dealt with coins and online gambling, and among them, there were many car-poor people who lived only for today. It wasn’t uncommon for those friends’ cars to be parked nearby.

Ignoring the sports car, Gyu-eul walked briskly toward her house, but she stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she entered the yard.

There was a dark silhouette lying near the old pavilion by the front door.

Since this was a remote mountain area with only a few small houses clustered together, there weren’t particularly any walls or gates. An unwelcome guest was in her open yard.

Beyond her vision, which had adjusted to the darkness, she could see a man’s bare feet covered in mud. His training pants were splattered with dirt, and his hair was a mess; everything about him looked disheveled.

…Is he a beggar?

The man was completely still, as if he were asleep or dead.

Whether he was a beggar or a robber was frightening. Especially since this place was rather deserted. The scariest thing at midnight wasn’t ghosts but rather an unidentified person.

Thinking that, Gyu-eul noticed a bulging shape on the man’s pants, which looked like a weapon.

‘…Did he put something like a weapon in his pocket?’

Even in the darkness, the bulge on his right thigh was noticeable.

The shape that bulged out over his thigh looked like a club.

In movies, police would unfold a baton and swing it around; it looked like that kind of weapon.

[Gyu-eul’s imagination conjured up an eerie headline: “In her late 20s, a strawberry farmer found dead under mysterious circumstances.”]

Feeling a chill, she took out her phone. She was thinking of calling 112.

Just as Gyu-eul was carefully trying to move away, the phone started ringing.

Ding ding, ding ding. Ding ding, ding ding.

It was a call from Min-jae.

Startled, Gyu-eul froze in place. At the same time, she heard movement behind her.

“…What?”

A sleepy voice echoed through the darkness. Gyu-eul grabbed any stick nearby, turning boldly to face the sound.

Only then did she realize it was a household cordless grass trimmer, but it didn’t matter.

As long as it looked like a weapon that could inflict damage.

Amidst it all, the phone continued to ring, and the stranger slowly sat up.

His unkempt hair hung over his forehead. Because of that, his features were harder to see, making him look even more intimidating.

With a pale face, Gyu-eul clutched the grass trimmer.

“Don’t come any closer! I’m someone who might do something crazy if I get angry!”