Chapter 13

Before heading to the date, Cha Gyuhan received strict, earnest instructions from his matchmaking coordinator.

“Please tone down talking about your friend. Please? Seriously. Actually, don’t just tone it down—don’t say a single word about him. At all.”

Cha Gyuhan—who had previously despaired that he wouldn’t even be able to talk about him because they’d cut ties—smacked his lips as he thought of his excessively fast emotional rebound and the fact that his friendship with Gong Jio had become so visibly tight again.

Can’t I say just one sentence? He picked out my clothes and cologne today.

Even in the eyes of Cha Gyuhan—whose entire fashion philosophy consisted of dress shirts and matching suits bought straight off the mannequin—his reflection today looked exceptionally dashing. On top of that, the cologne smelled fantastic. None of the perfumes Gong Jio showed him had appealed to his taste, so he had ended up buying the exact same one Jio wore. Jio had assured him it was a great choice, saying that in his eyes, it suited Gyuhan best. While Gyuhan thought having a friend with such impeccable taste ought to earn him bonus points on a date, he promised not to mention Gong Jio just to put his coordinator at ease.

Arriving twenty minutes before the meeting time, he drained an Iced Americano in three gulps right at his table and ordered another. With a flutter of excitement, he waited for the person who might truly turn out to be his destined partner this time. Cha Gyuhan, who loved destiny (or more accurately, was completely obsessed with it), closed his eyes and counted to eight. If he opened his eyes on eight and she appeared right in his field of vision, it was destiny—a bet he placed half in jest and half in earnest (though honestly, mostly in earnest).

One, two…

Believing that if she truly appeared while plenty of time remained before their appointment, it would mark a wonderfully auspicious start, Cha Gyuhan began to count.

Six, seven, eight…!

With a silent yell, he snapped his eyes wide open.

“What are you doing?”

Thud, thud.

Along with two steady footsteps, three slender fingers came to rest lightly on the white tablecloth.

One hand was shoved in his pocket, and his legs, standing at a slight angle, were long enough that tracing them from his shoes up to his waist seemed to take an eternity. Gyuhan’s gaze traveled all the way up from the bottom to look into his face.

“Sleeping before a blind date? Couldn’t sleep because you were fluttering with excitement?”

“What the hell. It’s just you, Gong Jio.”

Spotting the familiar face, Gyuhan muttered in a deflated voice and slumped heavily against his chair. He began to slide straight downward. Just before the back of his head could hit the backrest, Gong Jio caught it with an open palm.

“What a waste after getting it styled.”

Tsk.

The click of his tongue was exceptionally sharp. Even with the exact same sound, there was something about Gong Jio’s that felt cutting as a razor’s edge. Setting aside the ruined hair, running into such an unexpected person here was fascinating. Gyuhan asked, resting the back of his head against Gong Jio’s palm. “What brings you here?”

“I come often. Nice view, hygienic, quiet, and the coffee’s good.”

“Is it good? Beats me. Just tastes like overpriced coffee.”

Gyuhan, whose absolute favorite brew was the canned coffee sold at convenience stores, grumbled under his breath, “The atmosphere is nice anyway, isn’t it?”

“Well… that’s true.”

It was indeed the perfect spot for a first meeting. Just as he said, it was quiet, and the generous spacing between tables was great too.

“You really do have great taste. Can I use that line? Telling her it’s clean, quiet, and the coffee’s delicious,” Gyuhan asked with a broad grin.

Gong Jio stared down at him silently.

Having started working at an early age, Gyuhan rarely wore his bangs down, but today he had lowered them. Unlike when he first registered with the matchmaking agency, he was now properly in his mid-to-late thirties, which was likely why. Gong Jio watched Gyuhan, then poked his forehead with a finger and pushed him back.

“Do whatever you want.”

The advice regarding the hairstyle had come from him. Recommending this venue and bringing him here beforehand to check it out had also been him. The cologne was something he had picked out, and the clothes were what he had chosen as well. Gong Jio scanned Gyuhan with an inscrutable, calm, expressionless face, his mind turning.

Naturally, inside his head, he was fucking Gyuhan. The table was the exact right size to bend Gyuhan over flat. Or he could force him onto his knees on top of the table and make him take his cock into his mouth. Whether the height worked or not was hardly an issue; he could just break the table legs. What mattered was making him suck it, and what mattered even more was that this had to end as nothing more than his imagination.

“Oh? I think she’s here. Hey, she’s here.”

Naturally, Gyuhan had no idea what was occurring inside Gong Jio’s head. He was merely tensing up at the sight of the well-dressed woman who appeared behind him.

“Whoa, she looks just like her photo. Doesn’t she, Jio?”

Gong Jio turned slowly to the side. As he lifted a hand to brush his hair aside, the approaching woman caught sight of this table and signaled with her eyes. Gyuhan immediately bowed deeply from the waist—a full ninety-degree angle.

“Welcome! Thank you so much for making the trip!”

With one hand tucked into his pocket, Gong Jio gave a curt nod. Gyuhan briskly hurried over to the woman’s side and pulled out her chair. The woman stole a glance at Gong Jio, who stood aloof without offering a single word of greeting. Gong Jio displayed his usual thoroughly shattered social skills. Jerking his head around, he tossed a farewell to Gyuhan.

“I’m off.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks.”

Gyuhan waved at Gong Jio’s retreating back and returned to his seat. Though they already knew each other’s names, exchanging introductions was the natural beginning of communication. Gyuhan offered his business card with an easy, affable grin.

“I’m Cha Gyuhan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Though he was smiling, his demeanor was unmistakably that of a salesman.

“I’m Lee Sohee. A pleasure to meet you. I don’t have a business card on me, unfortunately.”

And his counterpart received Gyuhan’s business card and set it down to the side.

“What would you like to drink?”

Faced with Gyuhan’s overly polite attitude, the previously expressionless Lee Sohee was slightly flustered. “An iced tea with an added espresso shot, please. Peach iced tea.”

“Excuse me, over here!”

His voice boomed through the cafe, so loud that even the softest sip of coffee might have otherwise been heard. Lee Sohee blinked, startled by the sheer vocal projection.

When the server arrived shortly after, Gyuhan repeated exactly what Lee Sohee had said and added, “Two glasses, please.”

Once the server stepped away, Gyuhan inhaled with a sharp hup, exhaled, grinned, and recited what he had prepared. “This place is famous for being quiet, having a great atmosphere, and serving delicious coffee, which is why I set our appointment here. Did you have any trouble finding your way?”

Way too… polite…

That was Lee Sohee’s assessment.

That hadn’t been her initial impression. Her initial impression had been immediate—Whoa. He looks like a gigolo who made a killing off wealthy older women. In his photo, his hair was swept up to reveal his forehead, leading her to assess him back then as someone who could pass for a famous, handsome trot singer. She had assumed he was so handsome because of heavy photo editing, but in person he looked even better. Yet before she could adjust her score for his real-life appearance, the man hit her with a ninety-degree bow, scrambled to pull out her chair, and bellowed in a thunderous voice. Everything was polite and not something to find fault with per se, but strangely enough, it made a person feel self-conscious.

To be precise, it was a little embarrassing…

Still, he is really handsome. If you’re that handsome, that much is forgivable.

Lee Sohee nodded to herself with that thought.

Of course, in addition to being handsome, the fact that he was in his late thirties—an age when things started creasing—yet had zero belly flab folding over his shirt hem above his belt was a massive plus, but it wasn’t enough to alter Lee Sohee’s original objective.

Lee Sohee maintained a steady silence until the ordered drinks arrived. Gyuhan grew anxious. Even though that electric zing of romantic intuition hadn’t struck him, he was still worried. He couldn’t afford to get any older. He was deeply concerned that his sperm would age. He didn’t want to make his future rabbit-like wife suffer. Now was the time to step up his game.

Growing impatient, Gyuhan babbled whatever came to mind. Unfortunately, the carefully curated conversation topics he possessed were few and far between. Extracting an entertaining topic from his paper-thin—or rather, nonexistent—cultural refinement, his pathetic memory for proper nouns, and his exceedingly simple daily routine, hobbies, and interests was practically impossible. Serving a multi-course omakase out of a flea’s liver would have been easier.

Ah, shit, I’m fucked. Can’t I use a Gong Jio lifeline?

As Gyuhan licked his parched lips while entertaining such useless thoughts, the ordered beverages fortunately arrived.

As if he had been waiting for this moment, Gyuhan picked up the glass and took a massive pull through the straw. The glass turned pale in an instant. Lee Sohee stared with wide eyes, and then, she realized the root of the inexplicably embarrassing feeling Cha Gyuhan evoked.

He’s like a dad…!

Gyuhan brought to mind the archetypal father who insisted that soaking one’s feet in a mountain stream while eating whole boiled chicken soup was the only true summer vacation, and who, once drunk, grew so loud and talkative that you would clutch your face in your hands and beg him to stop.

How could this be?

Lee Sohee was momentarily plunged into shock before quickly collecting herself.

In fact, once she realized this, achieving her intended goal became somewhat easier. She too took in both sugar and caffeine simultaneously through the ashotchu, a popular Korean café drink that combines sweet fruit iced tea—usually peach—with a shot of espresso, to wake her body, then straightened her posture. Today was an important day not just for Cha Gyuhan, but for Lee Sohee as well.

“Cha Gyuhan-ssi.”

“Yes, Sohee-ssi.”

Gyuhan rested his hands flat on his thighs and sat in rigid, upright posture. Lee Sohee blinked. She had to steel her mind to erase an imaginary sense of deja vu she had never even experienced—a feeling that this was like a blind date taking place at an eighties live-music cafe by Paldang Dam.

“To be honest, I came here today because of money,” Lee Sohee admitted candidly, choosing not to deceive Gyuhan since he reminded her of a father.

“Excuse me?”

Gyuhan froze, his expression hardening, momentarily at a loss for words. When he held his tongue with a serious face, there was no man more handsome. However, the moment he leaned forward and lowered his voice to ask his question, that image shattered instantly.

“Did somebody run off with your money?”

A banner reading ‘We Collect Unpaid Debts’ flashed unbidden across Sohee’s mind.

Lee Sohee shook her head. “It’s not that. My parents said they would give me an allowance only if I at least pretend to get married.”

“And that’s why you went to a matchmaking agency…?” Gyuhan put on an expression of pity, murmuring an empathetic tsk-tsk, before lowering his voice again. “I’ve registered a few times, so I know this business pulls in good money. Meaning it’s pretty expensive. When you calculate this and that, isn’t there barely anything left over? Does that even leave you with a margin?”

“A margin… Ah, my allowance. Yes. Anyway, it’s still profitable. My family has plenty of money, and my parents paid the matchmaking fee.”

Because he lowered his voice to ask, Lee Sohee unconsciously leaned forward as well, whispering back. To anyone watching, they looked remarkably intimate.

“Anyway, I have zero intention of getting married, so I only need to show them I made an effort. Couldn’t we just get our stories straight and part ways early?”

“Gasp. That won’t do.”

“Pardon? Why?”

“To be honest, I’ve already reserved a dinner spot. Please, let’s at least share a meal before you go. This is a fated encounter too, after all.”

“Isn’t calling this fate a bit of a stretch?”

Struck by how undeniably true that was, Gyuhan found himself temporarily at a loss for words. Watching him clamp his mouth shut, Lee Sohee asked out of the blue, “You don’t seem particularly upset, though. You haven’t complained about wasting your time or burning through one of your allotted introduction chances. From what I heard, you were an exceptionally passionate person.”

That’s true.

But Gyuhan had known from the very moment he laid eyes on Lee Sohee.

There’s no spark.

Truth be told, saying such things at his age was something he deserved to be thrashed within an inch of his life for, but that was just how it was. He felt absolutely nothing.

Ah, is it because of that?

When pulling out the chair for Lee Sohee, he had caught the scent of her perfume, but it had stirred remarkably zero emotion in him. Of course, the fragrance was lovely. But it ended at just That smells nice. On the contrary, with Gong Jio, even though his body scent had changed after taking a bath, Gyuhan had kept leaning in with his nose…

As Gyuhan sat without replying, lost in the memory of leaning in with his nose rather than his ears, Lee Sohee sipped her coffee. She couldn’t contact the agency manager too quickly, so she needed to kill time by checking out an exhibition she wanted to see, stopping by a pop-up store… As she drafted her plans, a strange presence caught her attention, prompting her to shift her gaze. And then she spotted the ill-mannered, handsome man who had been standing next to her date just moments ago.

Hold on, just now.

He was looking over here.

Did we just make eye contact?

She had distinctly felt a prickling gaze on her, but when she looked up, the man was staring at his laptop. He was wearing glasses with lightly tinted lenses. Looking at his slightly furrowed brow, the hand propping up his temple, and his bitten lip, feeling his gaze must have been her imagination. He was so completely absorbed.

“…Cha Gyuhan-ssi.”

“Yes, Sohee-ssi! Ah, ah. I spaced out for a second. My apologies. No, please don’t think I was bored, because that’s definitely not it. How could that be? I was just wondering what to do about dinner later, whether to cancel it or go anyway since it’d be a shame to waste it, and well…”

“No, that’s fine.”

Lee Sohee tore her gaze away from Gong Jio and looked back at Gyuhan.

These people are entertaining.

The itinerary drafted in her mind began to be rewritten.

“Should we take a walk first?”

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