She woke up with the worst hangover since her first college party. She realized she had consumed all the 4 bottles of soju she brought home yesterday after work. She rubbed her temples and checked the time. It was 6 in the morning. What time did she even sleep? She remembered the lunch, her last day in the office and buying the alcohol but after that, she doesn't remember much.
She sat there in bed staring blankly in front of her. She checked her phone for new messages, there were a lot of missed calls since yesterday. After the lunch, she could not get the courage to talk to Jeong Hyeok. She was confused and guilty so she put her phone in Do Not Disturb mode so she won't hear the calls nor receive notifications of messages.
She carried on and checked the messages then. It was as expected from Yi Soo asking if her work is done and if they could see each other again before the graduation rites. She left the messages on read and decided to respond to it later.
She sighed as she opened the messages from Jeong Hyeok. She started with the ones he sent to her during lunch until the afternoon. Mostly checking on her, if she has already ate, if she is busy or if he could call her later. But after a while he stopped messaging until one message at 11:12pm, "You're probably sleeping now. I need to talk to you tomorrow morning, I'll go to your house before my shift in the coffee shop. I could drive you to work. I could not sleep because of that call, Se Ri...Please talk to me tomorrow. I'll wait."
Call? Did they talk yesterday? She could not remember so she checked her call logs. There was a 5 minute call probably 30 min before his message. If she could not remember it, she probably drunk called him. Did she tell him last night?
She sent him a message, "I don't have work, Jeong Hyeok... are you still going here? I just woke up, I'm not sure if I could leave the house today, my head hurts so bad."
"I'm here already." he replied as soon as he received the text.
Seri decided to call him. What if her brothers see him or worse, what if her father sees him? What if he decides to knock on their door and ask for her?
She is not yet ready for that kind of confrontation yet.
"Hello?" she said as he answered her call. She is still blank on what she told him on the phone last night so she waited for him to say anything but he remained silent. "How long have you been there outside, Jeong Hyeok?" she asked.
"I woke up at 5 am and I could not go back to sleep so I took the bus here."
"Why didn't you call me?"
"Because I knew you would still be sleeping."
"What would you have done if I slept until the afternoon?" she said in frustration as she realized he would have waited there without assurance. She stood up and started changing into a sweater and a pair of leggings. She tied her hair in a bun and grabbed her car keys.
"You better wait for me there."
—-
He sighed as he realized he has pissed her off. A few minutes later, he saw the gates of her house opening and her car heading out. He was standing at the exact spot where she first kissed him so he hid himself in the corner as he waited for her. She stopped the car in front of him so he opened the passenger side and climbed inside the car.
He noticed her puffy eyes and her hair in a messy bun as she drive without saying anything.
"Seri..." he called her. She did not respond and just kept on driving. "Seri, stop the car. We need to talk."
"I'm dropping you off to work." she simply said not even looking at him, dismissing his attempt to talk.
"Seri... why won't you talk to me?" He noticed how her eyes kept on blinking, he knew something was wrong and that she is fighting her tears.
