Side Story 1: Unaccustomed
Chapter 3
I had fallen asleep late and was worried I wouldn’t wake up in time, but I woke up earlier than expected. And my mind was surprisingly clear, as if it had been washed clean. I quickly got ready to go out.
And then, I sat on the bed, waiting for Woo to come, but I couldn’t stand the boredom and opened the door.
‘I’ll just go up to the fourth floor.’
Usually, Woo would come to my room every morning, but it wasn’t unheard of for me to go to his. We hadn’t set any rules, after all.
When I reached the fourth floor, the grandfather clock was striking 8 a.m. He usually came to my room around 8:10, so I thought I would just wait for a bit.
“…Why isn’t he coming out?”
But no matter how long I waited in front of his room, there was no sign of him. I knocked on the door a few times, but there was no answer.
Was he still asleep? Or was he sick? I was about to call out his name again when…
“What are you doing?”
A strange voice spoke from behind me.
I turned around, and a man with gray hair, his clothes loosely draped over his body, was looking down at me with sharp eyes that seemed familiar.
I just stared at the tall man, speechless, and he looked at me, then at Woo’s room, and said something unexpected,
“Are you looking for the owner of this room? I saw him going down to the restaurant earlier.”
“What? Earlier?”
He nodded.
“Blond hair, pretty handsome guy, right?”
It was definitely him, based on his description.
He went to the restaurant? He went down without me? Why?
“Are you sure he went to the restaurant?”
“Well… I think so.”
The man shrugged at my interrogative tone. I frowned at his vague answer and thanked him.
“Thank you for letting me know. Then I’ll be going.”
I turned around and went down the stairs, assuming Woo was on the third floor.
‘Had they missed each other?’
There was no reason for them to miss each other, but that was the only explanation I could come up with. He had never gone anywhere without me before.
But when I went back down to the third floor, Woo was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m telling you, I saw him going to the restaurant.”
I was searching the empty hallway when I heard the gray-haired man’s voice again. He had come down to the third floor, and he was smiling brightly.
“Let’s go down together. I was just about to head to the restaurant myself.”
“…Okay.”
There was nothing else I could do. I went down to the restaurant with the gray-haired man, unable to shake the uneasy feeling.
“Master Woo?”
And then, something funny happened. As the gray-haired man had said, I saw Woo as soon as I entered the restaurant.
“Sue.”
He was just leaving the restaurant, and he called out my name, his face filled with surprise. That much was fine. The problem was the person clinging to his side.
‘It’s the woman who made a scene yesterday.’
It was the woman who had twisted her ankle on the stairs last night, the woman who was now smiling mysteriously.
I ignored the woman, who was staring at me with a smirk, and asked Woo,
“When did you come down?”
“I came down to the restaurant earlier. Around 7.”
“Why?”
He hesitated for a moment, as if he was trying to gather his thoughts. And then, he said,
“I told you last night at dinner. Didn’t you hear me?”
“…What did you say?”
“I said I had something to do in the morning and wouldn’t be able to have breakfast with you.”
“….”
I swallowed, feeling the air suddenly grow heavy. So that was what he had been trying to say. I had thought it wasn’t important and just ignored him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
I confessed. Woo chuckled.
“I figured.”
His voice didn’t sound accusing. I was relieved and relaxed a little.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”
“Yes, of course. The food here is good.”
“…Then that’s good. But what did you have to do so early in the morning?”
“….”
He didn’t answer my casual question for a long time. I asked again, my face puzzled, “Is something wrong?” And then, I finally heard his voice,
“I have something… to do.”
But even that wasn’t a proper answer.
“Sorry, Sue.”
He apologized for no reason, and I saw that face again. The emotionless, indifferent face, with a smile that seemed almost mechanical. It was a face I had seen all my life, and yet, I felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
“What do you…”
“Let’s go, Woo.”
I missed my chance to ask him.
“I promised to repay you, remember? I found some good tea leaves yesterday. Let’s have some together.”
The red-haired woman, who had been clinging to Woo’s side, linked her arm with his and pulled him away.
I looked at the woman, who was staring at me with a smirk, and then at Woo, who was being dragged away by her. But Woo, as if it was nothing, just smiled his emotionless smile and said goodbye,
“Come to the back of the inn after breakfast. I’ll be waiting.”
And then, he and she disappeared from sight. And then, the high-pitched voice of the person we had forgotten about,
“Ah, did you get dumped?”
marked the end of the farce.
***
Strange.
This was strange.
But I didn’t know what exactly was strange, and I didn’t even know what I was eating as I stabbed my plate with my knife.
But strange was strange.
‘I have something… to do.’
‘I promised to repay you, remember? I found some good tea leaves yesterday. Let’s have some together.’
Of course, it was possible.
He could have had something personal to do, and he could have accepted a reward from someone he had helped.
But I wasn’t used to this kind of situation. Him not having breakfast with me, him not answering my questions properly, him having tea with a woman I had never met before.
This had never happened since we had started our journey. Everything felt strange, like a dream. My mind, which had been clear for once, was quickly becoming a tangled mess again.
“Are you going to eat your plate out of frustration?”
“!”
I was startled by the unfamiliar voice and looked up. The owner of the voice was sitting across from me, his head resting on his hand, a playful expression on his face. It was the gray-haired man I had seen earlier. I stared at him blankly for a moment, then asked,
“When did you sit down?”
“Huh? I’ve been here the whole time. I even asked if I could sit here.”
“Ah… Did you…?”
“Hmm.”
The man shrugged, as if he found it amusing. But he didn’t seem to mind, and he continued talking while I was trying to remember,
“You’re from far away, aren’t you?”
“….”
“Where are you from?”
“….”
“I’m Pel. What’s your name?”
“….”
“Why aren’t you answering? Are you sulking because you got dumped?”
“Oh, seriously…!”
I had tried my best to ignore him, but I had fallen for his provocation and lost. I put down my knife and said clearly,
“I didn’t get dumped. So stop talking.”
I glared at him, and he lowered his head. I thought he would quiet down, but then his shoulders started shaking. He was laughing.
“If you didn’t get dumped, then does that mean you’re not even dating that guy?”
“…Yes, that’s right. Now, enjoy your meal.”
I was good at enduring annoyances. I smiled brightly and stood up, leaving my half-eaten bowl of porridge on the dish return counter and leaving the restaurant.
“You’re not going to tell me your name? Sue.”
But this man seemed to be good at making people even more annoyed. The man named Pel followed me relentlessly. I tried to ignore him, but he kept chattering next to me.
He was even trying to follow me to my room, so I finally gave up.
“Wait, how do you know my name is Sue?”
I stopped and looked up at him, and his eyes widened in surprise.
‘Are you stupid? You’re stalking me, how can I ignore you?’
“That blond guy, ‘Woo,’ called you that earlier.”
Ah, right.
I was the stupid one.
“Aren’t you hungry? You left more than half of your porridge. If you’re interested, how about…”
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?”
“We’re strangers, right?”
The man tilted his head, his face innocent, at my cold words.
“Hmm, are we?”
“‘Are we?’ No, we’re not. We’re strangers.”
“If you say so.”
I chuckled, baffled by his nonchalant answer. I knew this wouldn’t end here, so I asked him directly,
“Why are you doing this?”
“What?”
“Why are you following me?”
The man’s expression softened a little.
“Because… I’m in love with you.”
I finally looked into the eyes of the man who called himself Pel. Unlike his sharp eyes, which seemed like they could steal my money at any moment, his deep-set gray eyes were filled with a genuine emotion.
“…Liar.”
Yes, a liar who was trying to scam me.
“What? What did you say?”
“Don’t talk to me, you scammer.”
I said, and then I scurried into my room and locked the door. I leaned against the door, trying to calm my pounding heart.
“…Phew, I almost fell for it again.”
I took a deep breath, and my tension eased. A bitter chuckle escaped my lips.
I had almost fallen for this kind of trick a couple of times before. Sudden confessions of love, then attempts to steal my money.
At first, I had genuinely believed their feelings and had seriously considered how to reject them, but Woo had told me they were all scammers and advised me to ignore them.
I had initially thought he was being paranoid. But it turned out they really were all scammers. I had found out when I saw their wanted posters in the next town.
So I wouldn’t be fooled anymore.
It was just bad luck that I had run into another scammer in this town.
‘I’ll just wait it out here.’
Woo had said he would be waiting for her behind the inn, so she decided to wait in her room until the man named Pel was gone.
She passed the time by re-tying her hair, fixing her makeup, and choosing earrings to wear.
‘I wonder if he’s waiting for me downstairs now.’
She had left the restaurant so early that she wasn’t sure if Woo was already waiting behind the inn or not.
‘…He might be having tea with someone else.’
She grimaced, a random thought crossing her mind.
Anyway, if he was waiting, it would be better to call him from here, so she forced open the stiff window, just like she had done yesterday.
The moment the window opened, the window frame slammed against the wall with a loud bang. She didn’t flinch this time, she had already experienced it.
…Because something even more shocking was waiting for her below.
“…It’s that woman.”
Woo was under the old tree, as expected. With the red-haired woman he had left the restaurant with.