Chapter 9

Arum always blamed herself for her stupid brain. With memory power like this, she could have been admitted to Seoul National University, the best in Korea.

‘He’s a ghost!’

Indeed, Konsu was stuck in her memory like a ghost. As if she saw a real ghost, she waved her hand while turning on the car engine.

She wished her past memories would be gone forever.

She suddenly felt miserable, even though she confidently told her juniors in the lecture hall to forget all their past memories related to their lovers.

‘I’m just like them. I’m only better at theory than at practice.’

And then she turned on the engine.

Suddenly, she heard a strange noise from the engine. The engine, which was supposed to splutter strongly, wouldn’t turn on.

“Oh, my god!”

As she forgot to turn off the interior lights inside the car, the battery was discharged completely. Like it or not, she had to spend another three hours with the ghost of Konsu because of the discharged battery.

‘I would never take a car to a festival place. I would never have my car serviced on my way back from work on Friday. Nothing has worked out smoothly for me since I met Konsu.’

She couldn’t vent her anger even though she cursed at him all along.

As she felt stuffy inside the car, she got out and waited for a local service car.

“Why are you causing trouble like this?”

She kicked its wheel out of anger.

‘I went to Green Villa because of you. And you caused me so much trouble today.’

She just hated everything. When she was about to kick the wheel again, she heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, Ms. Trash Can?”

Good heavens!

Stunned, she almost sprained her ankle. When she was about to fall because of losing her balance, somebody held her shoulders.

It was Hojoon, the geomancy expert she met before.

“Why are you surprised? Did you curse at me?”

“Are you a student here?” asked Arum all of a sudden.

“I just stopped by to see a professor briefly.”

“Did you graduate from this college?”

Was he an alumna?

“Nope, the professor moved to this school.”

“Oh, I see.”

Nodding her head, she recalled what Hojoon had said.

“By the way, did you say I am a trash can?”

She couldn’t understand it until today.

“I heard your lecture. You did very well. As you underwent painful experiences, you gave them very mature advice.”

Did he hear my lecture?

She blushed at that. It was as if she washed her dirty linen in public when her life was messed up because of her former boyfriend.

Indeed, it was a pretty ill-fated relationship with Hojoon.

She felt dizzy at the moment. She vowed that she would never see Hojoon again.

“What’s the matter with you now? Did the tires go flat?”

Obviously, he saw her kicking the wheel hard.

“No, the battery was discharged. I called for a service car, but was told to wait as the service was backed up a lot.”

“Really? Wait a minute.”

Then he pulled over his car next to hers, which he parked in the rear of the parking lot.

And he appeared with booster cables to jump start her car.

“Let me make your car engine turn on first. You can take your car to a nearby service center.”

He skillfully connected the batteries of the two cars with the jumper cables.

“Now, start the engine.”

She got on her car quickly and turned on the engine.

Vroommm. The engine spluttered strongly.

“The engine is back on!”

When she got off the car, her face glowed with excitement. It was the moment when her ill-fated relationship with him turned into some sort of good relationship.

“Thanks for your help all the time.”

“You’re welcome. Please let me know as soon as you arrange a cleaning company for the cleaning service of my house.”

“Sure, I’ll let you know after I check it out.”

“Bye for now.”

“If you are available, can you dine with me? I know this area very well,” said Arum.

She had some sense of honor. She felt compelled to treat him to a meal, to say the least.

“Oh, I’ve got an appointment. How about next time?”

Then he left first.

She suddenly felt awkward because she felt she went overboard while being impatient to treat him.

She hurriedly got out of the campus where the ghost of Konsu was haunting her.

***

A wine bar with jazz music playing.

Gasping for breath, Jina came in. Sitting alone in the bar, Arum looked askance at her.

“I kept you waiting for long, right? My manager is crazy these days. He wouldn’t let me leave the office,” Jina grumbled about her boss.

“How come you’re treating me to wine?”

“Sis, I received a lecture fee. Hey, we’re members of the society. Why can’t we have wine? You like this place, don’t you?”

“Of course, especially when you are treated by seniors like now,” Jina said while greeting a part-timer in the bar with a nod.

“Are you guys dating? I’m touched, man,” quipped Arum.

Jina seemed embarrassed at Arum’s teasing.

“Enjoy the beauty of the world! Don’t try to look at things critically like you usually do. Greeting him? Yeah, because I’m a regular here,” responded Jina.

But Arum was suspicious because she took pains to be eloquent. She stared at Jina with a sharp look, as if she already read Jina’s mind.

“Doesn’t he look handsome?”

In the end, Jina revealed her genuine feelings about the part-timer.

“You must be crazy! You didn’t date a guy for a long time. He looks like a college student. Do you want to pay for his tuition? Did he finish his military service?” asked Arum.

Though Jina had preference for guys younger than her, he looked like a boy.

“He’s not a part-timer. He is the owner of this jazz bar.”

“Really?”

At Jina’s reminder that the part-timer was the owner, Arum, who was grumbling, looked at him once again. When she had a closer look at him, it seemed his face had some sort of elegance.

‘Is money glued to his face?’

Though she hated the secular side of her so much, any salaried man barely making ends meet would envy him.

After all, Jina and Arum kept gossiping about men, drinking wine.

Rich men and poor men.

Handsome men and ugly men.

Both giggled, cracking jokes that even ugly men liked pretty women.

Jina mentioned about something her colleague had told her several days ago.

“According to him, men automatically turn their eyes when a slender and tall girl passes by. And women on the street are asking themselves what kind of men they’re looking at.”

“In your case, which man are you looking at?” Jina asked.

What kind of man were women looking at on the streets?

“Well, I don’t look at men,” said Arum.

“Neither do I. There are no men worth looking at,” said Jina.

Women also looked at women. Pretty women. Women with great bodies. Stylish women.

And then they keep comparing such women with themselves.

My face, my body and my style.

The ideal type of men to all women were those handsome guys that they could watch on TV or screens. They were romantic, rich, and loved only one woman.

When Arum was in high school, girls following entertainers had no boyfriends because they lived in a fantasy world. But those girls who dated men early found their partners in the real world.

What mattered to them was their partners’ realistic asset, namely: money.

“Arum, are you looking for a man’s money alone? You’re not romantic at all,” Jina, who liked money more than Arum, said this textbook phrase.

“You’ll know if you break up an engagement. You have no other choice but to talk about money. I would have gotten married if Konsu had bought a house. Don’t you think so?” Arum asked back strongly.

Some men in their 30s at the next table looked furtively at Jina and Arum and then drank again. Without caring about others around them, Jina and Arum argued over money and men late into the night. At the end of their talk, they mentioned Konsu again.

“I think it was good that you broke off the engagement with Konsu. He was good as a lover, but he was not a man to marry.”

“I think I have to immigrate if I don’t want to hear about him. We’ve been talking about that guy all day long. Let’s stop it.”

“You asked to stop it, stop it, but it’s you who is continuing to talk about him. Yeah, your relationship with Konsu will end when either of you get married.”

Arum instantly gulped down a cup of wine on her table. Its burning and bitter taste burst inside her mouth.

At that moment, Jina suddenly asked Arum:

“Are you going if Konsu gets married?”