[Why didn't you come to school today?]
The light in Dohyeon's eyes was fierce as he stared down at his phone. The person who hadn't even checked the message he'd sent eight hours ago had kept their phone turned off from morning until now.
After confirming the screen had gone dark, Dohyeon tilted his head back and pressed firmly on his closed eyelids.
He had returned home late last night and, without even properly adjusting to the time difference, had to come straight to school for the start of the semester.
Despite his accumulated fatigue, he had left home early deliberately so he could go to school with the person he'd just tried to contact on the messenger app, but the plan had fallen through.
Because, of all things, his grandfather had left home around the same time and offered to drive him all the way to school.
Releasing a shallow sigh and opening his eyes simultaneously, Dohyeon swept his gaze over the classroom, his eyes betraying his boredom.
Until last year, when classes were replaced with self-study, it seemed like about a third of the students would mess around, but now, perhaps because they were third-years with the college entrance exam not far off, everyone was diligently studying on their own even without being told.
Dohyeon's attention shifted back to his phone.
'Could they be sick somewhere?'
Around this time last year, they'd caught a summer cold and been out of it for a while.
'Are they groaning in pain all alone again?'
Irritation briefly flashed across his face as he pinched and flicked the fabric of his school uniform shirt.
'Anyway, they really know how to make me worry sick.'
[I'm going home.]
Having sent one more message that bordered on a notification and set his phone down, Dohyeon fixed a ferocious gaze on the wall clock.
Thirty minutes passed like that, and the bell rang signaling the end of the class he'd been waiting for. Dohyeon hurriedly prepared to leave school.
"Hey! I Dohyeon!"
Dohyeon's movement halted as he grabbed his bag and headed for the back door.
A thunderous shout from outside reverberated through the classroom via the open window. The voice was so loud that those who hadn't yet left the classroom turned to the windowsides in unison as if they'd made a promise.
"Who is that?"
Murmuring voices were heard here and there. Dohyeon immediately recognized the owner of the familiar voice calling his name and leaned against the window.
Jin Saebom.
The person he'd been waiting to hear from until just moments ago entered his vision. She had been absent and hadn't answered his messages all day, so he'd thought she might be sick somewhere, but fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
'But….'
Hey, I Dohyeon?
Dohyeon burst into a short laugh. It was the expression of someone watching a cat wave around a cotton swab.
Right now, Dohyeon was in a third-floor classroom, and Saebom was standing in the pathway directly below it, visible from the classroom.
Quietly taking in the face he was seeing for the first time in three weeks, he tilted his head slightly.
He couldn't be sure from this distance, but the face before him seemed a bit thinner. The moment he thought he needed to see her up close, Dohyeon straightened his body from where he'd been leaning against the window.
"Dohyeon! Listen up!"
Dohyeon's foot, which had been about to change direction, stopped again.
She's getting more and more cocky—
He was waiting to see what she was going to say.
"I!"
"…."
"I'm transferring today!"
The smile vanished from Dohyeon's face in an instant.
"…What?"
"It was absolutely disgusting meeting you!"
"Wait a minute…."
"Let's never see each other again in this life!"
What is this, what the—
"Hey! Jin Saebom!"
As if she couldn't hear Dohyeon's urgent cry, Saebom left him with a final farewell.
"Eat well and live well!"
Saebom turned around just like that and began running forward without looking back.
Panting, she slipped out the school gate and quickly climbed into her father's car, which was waiting for her.
"Dad, hurry up and go."
"Why are you in such a rush? Did you say all your goodbyes?"
"Yeah. I did, so just start driving already."
Only after putting some distance from the school did Saebom check behind her. She could see Dohyeon, who had run out past the school gate, standing far away.
'…Why did he follow me out?'
It wasn't a distance he could catch up from. Even knowing that, Saebom couldn't tear her eyes away from him, tense without realizing it.
Dohyeon's face, which had been watching the receding car with a dumbfounded expression, seemed to slowly crumple, and then his expression vanished entirely.
No, rather than that, he looked more like a child who'd had something snatched from his hands.
Only after his figure had completely disappeared from her sight did Saebom turn her gaze forward.
Saebom chewed over that unfamiliar expression on Dohyeon's face, the last one she had seen, for a long time, and only after completely leaving the neighborhood she'd grown fond of after living there for over a year did she sever the chain of her thoughts.
"Live well, you jerk."
Contrary to the shout that had sounded like she was getting everything off her chest, her low voice was steeped in regret and sorrow.
Saebom rested her chin on her hand and looked out the car window, then closed her eyes against the pouring sunlight so bright it was blinding.
It was an August afternoon with unusually strong sunlight. Saebom bid a unilateral farewell to the great tribulation that had rolled into her peaceful daily life of its own accord.
That day's events remained as one of the biggest incidents of Saebom's life, one that could be counted on three fingers.
It was something she would recall without fail whenever the season of strong sunlight came around.
And so, ten summers passed.
* * *
Ten years later.
Around the time the beautiful sky dyed with sunset was gradually losing its light and beginning to turn to darkness, Saebom visited a craft beer pub near her company with Iseo, a college classmate.
"Straighten your shoulders, Bbom. Why are you so depressed? It's not like you got fired because you're incompetent. How could you beat the executive director's nephew who was deliberately pushed in through connections?"
Saebom gave a bitter smile at Iseo's comforting words.
There are times in life like that. A year where nothing you do works out, where incidents and accidents never cease—a year of continuous misfortune, large and small, as if you'd been cursed. It seemed this year was exactly that kind of year for Saebom.
Saebom's first misfortune began early this year when a new manager took over a vacant position.
["You think you can keep getting paid working like this? Won't you get your act together?"]
Not only would he fly into hysterics depending on his mood, but he was also someone who committed all sorts of abuses of authority, such as using his position to shift the blame for his own mistakes onto his team members.
As a result, two employees fell ill due to stress and resigned in succession.
Though she had worked at the company for nearly four years, Saebom determined there was no longer any vision there and decided to change jobs.
The place she wanted to join was TS Electronics, the company she had applied to as her first choice when preparing for employment but had failed at the final stage. And Saebom had heard the news of her long-awaited acceptance.
Saebom immediately submitted her resignation and went through a one-month handover period. She had thought only a rosy path lay ahead of her now.
Until she received the call from the TS Electronics HR personnel canceling her employment.
Having suddenly become unemployed, Saebom couldn't contain her anger and went to the TS Electronics headquarters.
["We're sorry. There was a mistake on our end regarding the acceptance notification. We sincerely apologize."]
It was an unacceptable reason, but she couldn't press the flustered HR staff member any further. Because in Saebom's eyes, the person at fault was someone else entirely, and this woman was just a scapegoat.
The person before her was nothing more than a blameless 'Eul', just like Saebom.
In the end, Saebom asked her friend Iseo, who worked in the secretarial team at TS Electronics, to look into the situation. And she heard an absurd story.
["Hey, what are you going to do?"]
["Was it really a simple mistake?"]
["It's not that."]
["Then what?"]
["…"]
["What is it? It's okay, tell me."]
["…Apparently, the executive director's nephew caused some trouble and suddenly had to return to Korea, and he took the spot you were supposed to fill."]
The executive director's nephew had pushed aside Saebom, who was scheduled to join, and taken her position.
It was unjust, but there was nothing she could do, and in the end, Saebom became the biggest victim of this affair.
When Saebom leaned her slumped body onto the table with a face unable to hide her overwhelming depression, Iseo lightly patted her shoulder.
"They say there's a hole to crawl out of even if the sky falls."
"The problem is I can't even see a needle hole right now."
"Why~."
As if wondering if anyone might be listening, Iseo glanced around once and leaned over the table.
Her voice dropped low as if she were telling a secret.
"I heard Team Leader Mun Ugyeong made you a separate offer. If things work out and you can move to Marketing Team 1 where the team leader is, that would truly be a blessing in disguise."
Saebom silently chewed over the man's name that Iseo had brought to the surface, recalling his face.