After Story 31

After leaving the PC-bang, Jiyu separated from her friend. There were about four hours until the appointed time. She went home and opened her closet. She took out a two-piece dress that she had packaged in plastic wrap so that it wouldn’t get dusty. She would usually never wear something like this on an occasion with friends, but she had to today. She kept recalling Han Haneul’s smiling face, filled with vitality. Before she could talk about who was right and wrong, she did not want to lose out. Her pride did not allow that. The center of this group was always her after all.

She even redid her makeup and got ready. She only put in this kind of effort when she was being introduced to a man.

After getting a call from her friend, she left her house. She went to Hongdae and entered the bar she always went to. She could feel the men sitting near the entrance giving her glances. From the way they looked at her for quite a while, today’s makeup and styling were her best choice ever.

“What the heck? You went full out, huh?”

“You didn’t double-time us, did you?”

Her friends said a word each. Jiyu waved her hand in the air in denial.

They had some beer and talked for a while.

“Haneul and Yeonjoo are going to be a little late.”

“That’s rare. They always come first.”

Jiyu kept giving glances at the entrance of the bar as she listened to her friends. She consoled herself by thinking that there was no need to mind, but it was no use. She kept thinking about when Haneul would be coming, and how she would be dressed.

“This is on the house; it’s from the owner.”

A pretty neat-looking waiter left a gorgonzola pizza on their table. As they were regulars who visited frequently ever since this bar opened business, they were acquainted with the owner.

“He’s pretty cute.”

“I don’t like his style.”

“Sure you don’t. That’s why you dated that bandit-looking boyfriend of yours.”

As they were laughing and chatting, a friend sitting opposite her looked at the entrance with a strange gaze. Jiyu also turned around. Two women were coming in as they pushed their waving hair behind their shoulders. One of them was Yeonjoo. So, that made the other one Haneul?

“Sorry we’re late. We had some work to do,” Haneul said hello and sat down.

The table became quiet as though they had never been chatting and laughing at all. Everyone was busy exchanging gazes with each other. It was no wonder. Haneul’s impression had totally changed after all. The disparity was even more dramatic than looking at her photos. She looked like a totally different person.

Whether it was the way she naturally crossed her legs, her straightened back and shoulders, or the slightly raised chin, her very sitting position had changed.

“We’re lacking glasses.” Haneul raised her hand.

A waiter walking by came over.

“Please give us two more glasses. Also, can we have two more wet wipes?”

“Yes, please wait just a moment.”

Haneul thanked him with a smile.

“So, how’s everyone doing?” Haneul asked her friends. Everyone’s eyes were on her.

Jiyu also looked at Haneul in a daze before collecting herself. She didn’t call her here just to admire the changed Han Haneul.

“I’ve been doing well. How about you?”

“I’ve been having a busy time doing all sorts of things. But hey, Jiyu. You’ve put effort into your appearance today. You’re so pretty.” Haneul blinked her two large eyes.

Jiyu almost thanked her in a daze. Her eyes were just that attention-grabbing and bewitching. She couldn’t believe that they were the same cloudy eyes she saw two months ago.

“Miji, you did your hair, huh? It looks good on you. Did you finally find the hair shop of your life?”

“Y-yeah. The director I met this time really looks out for me.”

“That’s good. I liked your previous hairstyle too, but the current one suits you much more.”

“Really?” Miji grinned.

The girl who would disdain Haneul every once in a while was now acting like a docile puppy. If it was just a while ago, they would have ignored Haneul’s words even if she said such a thing, not that she ever would.

Jiyu thought that this was the time to change the topic. However, Haneul’s words were faster.

“Haera, did you solve the issue with your scholarship?”

“Yeah. I talked to a professor about it and resolved it.”

“Then are you going to get support?”

“Yeah. I was really worried about it for a while, but now I’m at ease.”

“That’s great. Now I guess you don’t have to worry about it. Haera, you were always smart, so you could’ve aimed for a full scholarship. I just think you were unlucky this time.”

“No way. I’m not that good.”

“Why do you say that? Is there anyone else here who gets a scholarship apart from you? I’m sure you’ll get it next time. If you do, I’ll buy you food to celebrate.”

Haneul exchanged words with each person while looking into their eyes. While she spoke, not a single other person said a thing. They just kept staring at Haneul’s lips, which were especially red today and so bewitching.

Bewitching my ass, Jiyu quickly fixed her thinking. This was peculiar. When she looked at Haneul’s smile, the sense of hostility within her disappeared without a trace. Instead, she was gripped with the desire to talk to her even more. She was originally planning to lead the atmosphere and ask her about the cosmetics in a rebuking tone, but not a single thing went her way. It felt like she was participating in Han Haneul’s talk show as a guest.

Her friends would chat with Haneul whenever she gave them the chance and then become quiet after their turn was up. There was no end to the conversation. Everything went smoothly like a delicately designed spring watch.

While her glass was emptied and refilled, Jiyu wasn’t able to say a single thing. The two-piece dress that she put so much effort into wearing wasn’t even brought to topic. Instead, Haneul’s clothes became the hot issue.

“It’s a cheap off-brand. I had to go to Busan once and I found some clothes to my liking at an underground shopping center, so I bought them there.”

“That blouse looks pretty expensive.”

“Oh, this? It only cost me 20,000 won. And the pants, 10 thousand. Brand-name clothes are definitely good, but the trend these days is to emphasize your own style. Brand-name clothes have such a strong identity, so it’s easy to look weird once you start mixing and matching, but for these kinds of clothes, there’s also the advantage that they’re plain enough to be mixed and matched without difficulty.” Haneul stood up.

Her pants wrapped around her long legs, and her loose-fit khaki blouse with the top button undone and the neck right above it created an inexplicable sense of harmony. If Haneul didn’t mention the price, she would’ve thought that this was taken straight off a display case somewhere.

“She’s a total model, isn’t she?” Yeonjoo said, looking proud.

Jiyu suddenly felt like the two-piece dress she was wearing was stuffy. She felt embarrassed about the clothes she boasted about. She lost her confidence and her shoulders drooped. Meanwhile, Haneul walked around the table like a little mischievous girl. She didn’t feel like showing off at all. She seemed to have precisely discerned the atmosphere and played along with it.

This was strange. No matter how much her appearance and attitude changed, Han Haneul was always Han Haneul, the girl who always circled around them. The girls here should not be accepting of the fact that she was becoming their center, but no one stopped her. In fact, they seemed to give room for her and were waiting for her to speak to them.

Something fundamental seemed to have changed. Jiyu even felt that she was a totally different person pretending to be Han Haneul, to the point that she was reminded of the word doppelgänger from fantasy. It was an absurd situation, something that couldn’t be explained with logic.

The girl who had no charms about her, the girl who they thought it was a miracle she found a boyfriend at all, could change so much?

“Hey, can you still drink?” Haneul raised her hand in the air and waved.

The neat-looking waiter from before quickly rushed over. Jiyu could tell in an instant that he wasn’t trying to be kind to do well in his job but to look good in front of the girl in front of him.

“Can we have some draft beer and a bottle of soju?”

Receiving the order, the part-timer didn’t go back to the counter right away and circled around Haneul before walking off.

Jiyu put her knees together and sealed her lips. This was a terribly uncomfortable occasion for her. Jungyeon, who called Haneul before, seemed to feel the same as she was just rummaging through the salad.

“Jiyu, are you uncomfortable somewhere?” Haneul asked. The gazes of her friends, who were all fixed on Haneul, naturally came over to her.

Why was it that she was suddenly feeling like she was doing her first presentation in college? The eyes of the friends she had been with for years felt so unfamiliar like she met them in an unfamiliar lecture room. She had to say that it was nothing much and that they should just keep drinking, but she found it hard to do so.

“No, nothing,” she barely uttered. She lacked any kind of lead in this conversation at all.

Changing the topic was out of reach, and even just refreshing the atmosphere was impossible for her. Jiyu even found Haneul scary when she looked at her worriedly. She never thought that things would play out like this when she left her house. Her friends were supposed to snap out at Haneul and say that they were disappointed. They looked angry after all. She was planning to step up and mediate if Haneul made things heavy. She just thought she had to decide whether to accept Haneul or push her away in that process, but the conversation went in a completely different direction from what she expected.

She walked over proudly and enraptured all of their hearts before starting to lead everything, whether it was conversations, ordering, or what to do next. That was supposed to be Jiyu’s job. That was supposed to be her position.

However, she was deprived of it. No, Haneul took it away so naturally to the point that it was shameful to call it ‘deprived,’ without a single conflict or dispute.

“So you dropped out of college?”

Every conversation started revolving around Han Haneul. They eventually talked about how she produced aroma oils and was in charge of promoting it.

The friend started looking at their phones. After seeing Haneul’s complete change, they treated Haneul in a more friendly manner than ever. They were becoming tightly-knitted, to the point where Jiyu had no room to go in at all. Whether it was talking about a good restaurant, the conflict she had with her boyfriend, or her new nail art, everything Jiyu said seemed insignificant compared to what Haneul said.

“But how did you start doing things like that? You never had any knowledge in that regard,” Jungeyon interrupted, as though intending to steal the spotlight that was focused on Haneul.

“I was lucky.”

“Luck? It’s curious that someone who was learning baking suddenly started working with a cosmetics company. There’s that change of style too. Oh yeah, didn’t you break up with your boyfriend as well? You know, the one that was a little older.”

“Jungyeon, there’s no need to be so roundabout in saying gold digger.”

Jungyeon was flustered instead when the counter was so strong.

Haneul then continued to say things about how she started this job and what she prepared. By the time she finished, Jungyeon was no longer able to even rummage through the salad.

Haneul poured some beer and soju into her glass. She covered the lip of the glass with some tissue and turned it 360 degrees once before placing the wet tissue in front of Jungyeon.

“Throwing this is usually the way to go, but that will make cleaning harder.”

After that, Haneul gulped down her glass in one go. The girl who used to sip on a single glass of soju was now drinking beer bombs by the glass.

“I’ll stop drinking here for today. I’m going to leave now. What will you do, Yeonjoo?”

“I’ll go with you.”

The two of them stood up with their bags.

“I really feel relieved that you all haven’t changed. Well, this isn’t so bad. Let’s meet up every once in a while and talk about meaningless stuff. I think that’s the best for our relationship.”

Haneul was turning around, but she suddenly went to Jungyeon as though she forgot something.

“And also, Jungyeon. You better watch your mouth next time. I’m quite persistent and petty. I’ll look over it for today to celebrate making things even, but if you say something like that next time….” Haneul grabbed Jungyeon’s cheek and slightly pulled on it instead of finishing her words.

Jungyeon grabbed her cheek like she had been slapped.

“How cute,” Haneul said as she tapped on Jungyeon’s head.

Jiyu exchanged gazes with Haneul, who left the store. Haneul smiled without a word and that was the end. Jiyu looked at the tissue soaked in alcohol that Haneul left behind.

That’s all you amount to me — Haneul seemed to be whispering to her.