Chapter 191 - Small Cues

Ye Rim looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. She looked terrible, and it took a while to get her hair and makeup done. 

In the meantime, Ye Rim was thinking about how to thank Dae Won for everything he did and also make clear the limits of her personal life and career. In fact, when she was younger she made a mistake by not having the maturity to differentiate between private and professional life. But today she knew the difference and was sure that she didn't want to give up everything because of fame.

As she took the bag off the furniture next to the sink, she noticed something strange glued to the leather of her brand new bag. Yes, the one that ended up costing her 'a donation' to the Ji Hyeon Foundation. Reaching out to check, Ye Rim realized that it was a flower petal, more precisely the petal of an astromelia, white with brownish spots. Ye Rim knew this because she knew a lot about flowers. And because the singer had recently seen similar astromelia at Ji Hyeon's tomb. It was the flowers that Jun took to his sister the day they met there.

The memory gave her a strange feeling, but she could not put a finger on the reason.

Returning to the living room, Ye Rim found Dae Won returning from the kitchen with two cups of coffee. 'Wow, did he have an espresso machine in the kitchen or what?' she wondered, accepting the drink. 

Sitting on the couch while he sat in an armchair, Ye Rim sipped the hot drink for a moment and then said,

"Oppa, when I decided it seemed like a good idea to come by, as strange as it seems now. But I am crazy and I may have made a poor impression for showing up without an invitation to your house."

"It wouldn't be the first time and in fact, I'm grateful," he said with a smile on his lips. His look, however, looked thoughtful. "In fact, your arrival was something I didn't know I was expecting. Please, do not worry. Let's say that fate did the best."

"Ahh, well," she laughed, relaxing. "I was regretting it."

In fact, the strange way in which Dae Won said this seemed fatalistic and Ye Rim still did not understand what he meant by that. She didn't know if he wanted her to ask, or was just sad about something. "Oppa, when I saw your message, I was elated. I felt that our last conversation could have driven us away or left us with a rift. And that is why I came. I don't want misunderstandings to grow between us. And also…" She showed the gift package beside her, "For some time I'd like to start expressing my gratitude for our friendship."

Taking the gift carefully, she offered it to Dae Won. He showed no surprise as he saw the package all the time, but he looked down for a moment gracefully, and his cheeks took on a slight pink tinge. 

"Ye Rim ..." he admonished, although only the tone of his voice showed it. "You shouldn't have. It wasn't necessary at all."

"Well, I don't usually think material goods can replace feeling, but I thought we had at least a symbol of our friendship," she explained, also a little embarrassed.

The conversation proceeded as Ye Rim planned, explaining her points to a silent Dae Won. She could see that he didn't agree with her opinion from the way he looked at her, stern and judgmental, but that didn't stop Ye Rim from explaining what she felt and what she would do. He did not interrupt her even once, until Ye Rim realized that he was repeating herself and also digressing, and fell silent, with a nervous laugh,

"Oppa, don't do this! Say something!"

"Ye Rim, I think you are confused and perhaps scared by the actual possibilities of grandiosity. It requires a lot of responsibility. You have the potential, but you are also afraid. I think you should think about whether you are about to abandon a bright future for a romance just because you are too terrified. But ... I kind of expected that. That you give up. May you create a new excuse," he said, looking away at the end.

Ye Rim gaped at what he heard. Sincerity and delicacy were present, even if the words were direct and caused doubts and reflections. But then Dae Won turned to her again and smiled,

"But count on me, Ye Rim. Whatever your eventual decision is. If you have regrets just know that I will be here to take care of you. I will be here to look after you," he repeated, placing the empty cup on the table. "But I have a long commitment in a little while, so I'll take you home."

"Oh, don't worry! I'll call a taxi!" Ye Rim stood up, always surprised as he was a gentleman in all situations.

"I must insist. So I have the excuse to spend more time with you," Dae Won quietly replied. However, she felt that the previous tension had returned, and when he excused himself to get his coat and wallet, Ye Rim felt uneasy. 

Time seemed to pass slowly as she looked at the beautiful decoration of the house, waiting for Dae Won to be ready. Ye Rim knew he was being condescending, but was pleased that he was no longer angry with her.

She looked at the cups on the coffee table, and thought she could at least take them into the kitchen. Maybe that was a little invasive, but what's the problem with a kitchen, isn't it? It's not like she's going up the stairs to enter the rooms or going to the office without supervision. 

Picking up the cups, she turned to go to the kitchen, which she imagined was the door right there. Of course, the singer might be a little curious about what the kitchen in a so impeccable house was like.

But she never took two steps towards the kitchen when she heard Dae Won's voice from the top of the stairs,

"There is no need, Ye Rim. I'm sure somebody's going to fix this later," he said, coming down calmly with a shoulder bag and coat.

"Oh! Well, okay, I just thought that…" again that strange feeling that his gaze seemed to weigh on her and each of her attitudes. But if so, it was probably because she gave in to an impulse and came to Dae Won's residence without warning. Or so she thought at the moment.

"Let's go?" she asked, seeing that he was ready.

Minutes later, they were driving through heavy traffic that very rainy morning in the musician's comfortable car. Dae Won asked some casual questions about her last show, and Ye Rim answered happily. They were standing in a small traffic jam when a scene caught Ye Rim's eye.

A little dog was leaning against the guardrail of the opposite lane, looking lost and abandoned. The runway, unlike the one they were on, had a normal flow, but the bug looked very disoriented and shivered with cold. On the other side of the track, a person in the heavy rain, holding an umbrella and a dog collar, waiting for an opportunity to cross and rescue the puppy. But it didn't seem like a simple task since it was not an intersection and the cars passed at high speed.

"Oh, look at that. That puppy will end up being run over!" she exclaimed, thinking of what to do. Dae Won looked away where she pointed to, and was silent for a moment. Ye Rim even thought, from the lack of comment and the impassive face he made, that he was not seeing or that he wasn't moved as she was, but then the musician opened the car door, and said,

"Wait here!" leaving before Ye Rim could even say anything. She gaped, as Dae Won had no qualms about abandoning the car in the traffic jam and jumping onto the track, in the rain, to rescue the animal.

He crossed the guardrail and took the small dog, which was docile. Then he boldly challenged the cars to cross over to the other side. 

Ye Rim started having a hard time seeing why the windows were fogging up quickly, and she found that Dae Won had left the driver's door slightly open, and the heater was off for some reason. The white fog washed over the glass before she could do anything. Following the dramatic rescue behind the glass, Ye Rim reached out to clear the fog, but stopped suddenly. Around it, especially in the back seat's windows, there were many marks, including some of what looked like the sole of a sports shoe.

'Wow', her eyes flickered for an instant trying to identify all those marks. 'Things have been rough around here ...' she concluded, but in fact she couldn't understand why everything was so stained and why a woman wearing sports shoes would have left marks in so many places on the glass. I definitely thought the brands were women's sneakers, due to their size and shape, despite not having seen any complete footprint. 

Ye Rim couldn't imagine Dae Won being the type of guy who had that kind of wild romance.

But if she didn't think about it, what would have happened there?

Dae Won was a stranger guy than she imagined at first, she concluded. She turned on the heater to clean the windows and stop seeing that, which disturbed her mind.

Dae Won opened the door suddenly, dripping from head to toe and Ye Rim was startled,

"OMO!"

Ignoring Ye Rim's reaction, he sat on the bench, wiping the water off his face with his hand and laughing happily,

"There! The poor thing is saved!"

She smiled and applauded. He had been really heroic, risking himself,

"You nutcase! With that horrible visibility, you could have been run over! And look how you are now!"

"But I had to try! And… this is the type of person I am." Dae Won said, looking lighter this time than in the morning so far. His gaze, however, shifted behind Ye Rim at the window, and the singer turned to see what it was. The steam was quickly gone, and one of the marks on the glass disappeared before their eyes.

"What?" she asked, although she knew that the mark was the reason he looked serious again. Why did that make her so apprehensive?

But horns pressed the car to move, and Dae Won proceeded, responding as he started the car and resumed driving, enigmatically,

"Just remember that."