Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Chapter 67

“You’re wrong. It is part of your efforts for separation to throw away your past memories and stuff related to him. You have to dispose of such stuff to prepare for your next lover. Isn’t it the same as when you go to a restaurant? You can accept the next customer after you clean the table, right? Separation is the same. I did make huge efforts, though I made many trials and errors.”

“Oh, I didn’t make that kind of effort at all, and didn’t even think about it. I just focused on how to continue our love forever. I didn’t think about the art of separating well.”

“I told you feng shui interior was the same. You are supposed to throw away your old furniture first to buy a new one.”

At that moment, his phone buzzed, but it seemed he wouldn’t answer it because of Arum.

“Just take it.”

“Let me call back later.”

His phone was disconnected for a moment.

But his phone buzzed again.

“It looks like an urgent call. Take it quick.”

Prodded by Arum, he answered the phone in the end.

“I’m alright. Dinner in the evening? I’m afraid I can’t.”

It seemed somebody was asking to have dinner with him.

Arum signaled X with her fingers to him, indicating he didn’t need to care about her.

In fact, Hojoon and Arum agreed to have dinner together, but it wasn’t fixed yet.

“Really? Hold on a minute.”

After he hung up the phone, Hojoon looked gloomy.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Let’s postpone our dinner until next time.”

He felt sorry.

“I’m fine. Seriously. We’re going to have more time for dinner in the future.”

He gave her a ride to her house and then left.

Arum felt great as it was the first time she came back home early in a long time, though she left the office only one hour ago.

As every staff was pressed very hard to finish their articles on time, they had to work all night almost everyday.

But she left the office early on the excuse of outside duty.

Complete freedom from work! She was freed from duty in a long time!

She cleaned her body with clear water. Though she didn’t use any special body cleaning cream, she felt refreshed. Drying her wet hair, she thought, ‘Can I get this same feeling if I get rid of all this stuff in my small room?’

So far, she spent her daily life in a gloomy mood. Though she laughed, she still felt lonely deep inside before going to sleep. But she took pains not to face it. She was tired of endlessly waiting for Konsu.

She felt really good in a long time.

She seemed to forget something, but she couldn’t recall.

‘Let me enjoy a can of beer and watch all the TV soap operas I downloaded to watch for later.’

She opened the refrigerator.

“Huh?” She left two cans of beer there. She felt the urge to go out for a drink.

‘Why don’t you go out?’ she thought to herself.

Though she didn’t want to do anything back home, she was different today. She wanted to go out and walk.

Changinto in a long blue dress, she put on a pair of sleepers.

She felt that the evening breeze was really cool that night.

It was the perfect cool evening breeze right before the hot summer.

She bought four cans of beer for 10,000 won at a convenience store. Holding a bag of potato chips and dried beef as a side dish, she headed back home.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed.

“Good god! Konsu!”

She forgot the dinner appointment with Konsu completely.

Now, she realized that it was because she forgot that appointment that she felt so refreshed.

It was a surprising discovery for her.

Catching her breath, she answered the phone.

“Konsu?” she called him calmly.

“I just found out that I can’t make the appointment at that restaurant this evening. What should I do?” Konsu said.

He didn’t realize at all that Arum had already forgotten the appointment.

Arum felt sorry for Konsu who was agonized because of the restaurant reservation.

She didn’t feel up to going to see him at all.

“Sorry. I’ve got a meeting this evening. I was going to call you anyway.”

“Really? Can I wait?”

“No, you don’t have to. I’m not sure when the meeting will be over.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ve got something to confess to you.”

She felt a bad feeling when she heard how heavy Konsu’s voice was.

“I’m sorry. I can’t really make it today,” she refused his request.

“Got it. How about tomorrow?”

“Sure, let’s meet tomorrow. I’m going to attend the meeting now. Sorry.”

After she hung up the phone quickly, her heart pounded.

It was the first time she broke an appointment since she met him again. It was always Konsu who was late or forgot the appointment. As she was in his shoes now, she realized one lesson: Namely, the reason for one’s forgetting the appointment or being late was just because one was not considerate about the other party, to say the least.

She had never been suspicious of Konsu.

She understood that when he was late, he had some reason, and when he forgot the appointment, he had some other important work to do.

‘In the end, that was a white life!’

How could he forget the appointment if he really missed her or if he was so excited to see her?

Only now did she realize the object of her love clearly.

She just missed herself in her 20s when she loved Konsu. She couldn’t forget herself at that time when she intensely loved him.

She burst into laughter when she concluded that Konsu was not her lover anymore.

Was her love for Konsu supposed to end like this?

When she felt someone she thought she loved up to now disappeared, she felt tranquility in her mind.

Was this the kind of emptying one’s mind that Hojoon mentioned?

While she was on her way home, she just focused on one thing.

‘It was good that I didn’t see Konsu today.’

She felt for the first time in a long time that her house was really cozy.

Korea was a heaven for soap operas on TV. She had not yet watched the soap operas she had downloaded, but she saw a TV ad on the release of another soap opera on a popular TV channel today.

“Starting today?”

Opening the second beer can, she lamented, “There are too many interesting soap operas on TV. How can I date a man when I have to watch all these exciting soap operas? Dang it!”

She was a great fan of TV soap operas. Was it because of the soap operas that the young generation didn’t want to get married? The main women characters were so good at dating men.

Watching them on TV, male viewers mostly complained, “Where can you find such a man in the real world? So unrealistic.”

But female viewers were already aware of the truth.

“We know that, man. Do you think we women want to watch a soap opera in which those miserable men of 170 cm heights are worried about their monthly rent?”

They know they can’t find such an ideal male model in the real world. And so, the reason why they watch it was because such a male character can only be found in it.

Arum was no exception. She got carried away by the attraction of the firefighter Namju, tall and handsome, in the soap opera she was watching. Namju knew what was burning by simply looking at the flames. Even though he was fighting to put out fire, he had fair skin. His colleagues couldn’t even find the pores on his body.

“Looks like he’s taking care of his skin very well. Awesome!”

And he had never a strand of hair burned by the fire.

Arum touched her messy hair.

“I think I have to have my hair treated this weekend.”

At that moment, she heard the doorbell ringing.

“Who is it?”

Arum couldn’t figure out who it was.

“Konsu? No way.”

Since she told him she would be late, he couldn’t have come to her house.

Could he?

There was a possibility that he would.

Did he watch her buy beer at the convenience store? He might have noticed that she lied.

“What should I do?”

The doorbell rang again.

“Who is it? Wait a moment!”

She checked out the intercom monitor. Fortunately, it was Hojoon.

“What?”

She hurriedly rushed to the front door and opened it

“What’s the matter with you?”

Obviously, Hojoon came running to her house. He was upset.

“Why didn’t you answer my phone?”

“Oh, that’s because…”

She turned off the phone for fear that Konsu might call her. She wanted to have a full rest.

“What’s up?” she asked, looking at his face carefully.

Without listening to her, he demanded, “What the heck did you do to Yuyoung?”

“What do you mean?”

She felt that she was falsely blamed.