A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 17
Inside the café, where the quiet sound of music flowed, I nervously chewed on my straw.
“Hey, Hee-jae!”
From behind, I heard Ju-young’s voice. As I quickly turned my head, I saw Ju-young waving happily and approaching me. She, who always stuck with her short bob, now had hair that had grown long enough to reach her waist.
In this physically impossible situation, I once again realized that two years had disappeared from me.
I could feel it to the point where my bones ached bitterly.
“How long has it been? I was so surprised when I suddenly got a message from you.”
Ju-young was a classmate from my department. I, who had almost no friends, would at least exchange news with her from time to time.
She was the only person my father allowed me to be associated with, since Ju-young’s biological father was an executive at a large corporation.
Ju-young asks as she sits down after ordering coffee.
“Have you been in Korea the whole time?”
“Uh-huh…”
I nodded slightly, then slowly lifted my eyes in response to the sudden question.
“I thought you went abroad to study.”
“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Study abroad? What in the world is she talking about?
“You took a leave of absence to go study abroad, didn’t you?”
“Did I say I was going abroad to study…?”
“Don’t you remember bumping into me at the department office?”
Ju-young sipped her coffee. As fragments of my past memory brushed by, I bit down hard on my lower lip.
Should I tell her that I lost my memory? We’re not that close to be sharing such complicated truths.
But still.
If she’s going to ask about my past, wouldn’t it be better to just tell the truth?
She’ll notice something strange anyway after a bit of conversation.
“So, the thing is…”
I shook my head, adding that I really don’t remember.
“What…?”
I gulped, swallowing dryly.
Then, I started to explain what had happened to me. Just like how I had mentally organized and replayed it over and over to get the sequence right.
“They say I got married to Kang Yeol-Jin. And on top of that, I’m pregnant…”
I added, asking how that could even be possible. Ju-young sighed as if she finally understood.
“If your memory cuts off around that time… it makes sense that you’d be really confused right now.”
So much has changed. Your father passed away, and you looked so worn out, I was on edge just watching you.
Ju-young stirred her coffee with a spoon, looking unsure of what to do.
“At least it’s a relief that he’s by your side, right?”
I stood there, frozen, stopping everything I was doing. Saying it’s a relief that Kang Yeol-Jin is by my side? That’s an absolutely impossible statement.
Anyone from my department should know what kind of relationship I had with Kang Yeol-Jin.
You saw it too, how he acted barbarically towards those who came at me every day, how he offered a protection that was borderline violent.
“But, when you said you were getting married to Kang Yeol-Jin, you really looked so happy.”
I was super worried, too, but seeing your face then, I thought maybe I could trust him with you.
Back then, you looked like someone who had the whole world. But how did the car accident happen? I was so shocked. Is the baby okay?
Even amidst the torrent of questions pouring out like a fountain, I was still stuck on just one thing.
“…I really looked happy?”
It feels like the whole world is lying to me.
“Yeah… I know it must seem really strange from your perspective, especially since you don’t remember the past.”
“Well, considering everything that happened between you two…”
I could feel Ju-young looking closely at my face. I bit my lower lip hard.
“I’m telling you, you guys were really such a good couple. Kang Yeol-Jin doted on you so much…
Every day after class, he would come pick you up, worrying constantly that you’d get knocked over by the wind or melt away in the rain.”
Ju-young kept talking in front of me, but nothing she said was registering in my ears.
All my attention was drawn to the tightness pulling at my stomach since a moment ago.
It was happening again.
Again, my stomach was pulling like this. As if some kind of sensor was going off.
No way…
I flinched and sharply turned my head. Beyond the café’s glass window, I saw a large, foreign
SUV parked outside.
By the car, a man with his hair blowing in the wind stood there, right next to a vehicle roughly tuned, just as you’d expect from him.
