Life, Once Again!

Her life, his life, the repeated lives – he put those things aside for now and focused on feeling her warmth.

“It’s good,” she said.

Maru also replied ‘yeah’ in a small voice.

“Let’s go now.
I’ll give you a ride.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we go there.
It’s someone you know too.”

He got in her car.
The black mid-sized vehicle went on the road.
She kept repeating that he should wait to see who it was before parking her car on the side of the high street of Banpo-dong.
Her destination seemed to be a dessert café on the other side of the road.

“Are there many people inside?”

“I don’t see any.”

“Really?”

“Who’s there?”

“You’ll see once we get there.”

Maru got out of the car.
She walked with her hands locked above her head and didn’t seem flustered even when a couple approached her from the front.
She walked amongst the crowd with confidence that people wouldn’t recognize her.
There was not a single person who looked back at her among the people who walked past.
He found it puzzling.
How could they not recognize her when she was so pretty?

They entered the café.
A sweet scent that drowned the thick scent of coffee filled the store.

“Sorry, but we’re closed for the day,” said a woman wearing oven mitts.

The moment Maru heard that voice, he squinted and checked the face of the woman.
A familiar set of facial features could be seen below the white cooking hat that pressed down on her hair so that it didn’t drape down.
It was Chaerim.

“Unni, it’s me.”

“What, it was you? I didn’t recognize you because your eyes were covered by the cap.”

“It’s a pretty good disguise, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I didn’t recognize you at all.
Who’s the one next to you?”

“Unni, don’t you recognize him?”

She pointed at Maru with an exaggerated gesture as though she was a magician introducing the beauty next to her.
He smiled awkwardly and took a step forward.
Chaerim, who tilted her head, eventually widened her eyes.
The eyes that contained surprise changed into puzzlement and ultimately into an unrefined rage.

“That’s the guy you’re meeting?”

“Yep.”

“He’s the green frog on a white horse?”

“Yep.”

“You need to talk with me.
And you over there! You stay right where you are.”

Maybe it was a good thing that he wasn’t booted out of the store? Maru watched as Chaerim took Gaeul’s hands and went to the corner of the store.
He could predict what they were talking about.
Are you crazy?; why are you dating him again?; what do you like so much about the guy who dumped you?; he felt his neck straining from the occasional high-pitched, sharp voice.
He even felt that it would be better if she said that straight to his face instead.

A long sigh followed.
Chaerim brought Gaeul back like she was dragging a lost child to the lost child center.

“Hey, did you really get back together?”

“I told you, yes,” she replied.

Chaerin widened her eyes.
Her already big eyes became even bigger.

“Han Gaeul, I didn’t ask you.”

Gaeul would not lose out to anyone when it comes to audacity, but it seemed that she wasn’t able to win against Chaerim’s frosty gaze.
Maru gulped when the eyes of the two women landed on him.
He felt like he was being given a pressure interview.
One was urging him to speak, and the other was saying that she didn’t want to listen to it.
He heaved a sigh before speaking,

“I don’t plan to let her go now.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Can I trust you on that?”

“You can trust me on this.”

Chaerim twitched her lips before laughing in vain.
That was her expression of this absurd situation as well as her way of showing that she was doing her best to understand.

“It’s been a long time,” Maru said.

He was worried whether she would actually reply, but fortunately, Chaerim reached out her hand.

“I swore I would hit you when I saw you again.”

“You can if you want.”

“Then can you clench your teeth?”

From how her small but solid-looking fist looked tense, she seemed pretty serious about it.
If Gaeul didn’t intervene midway and told her to stop, she would probably have punched him for real.

“Unni.”

“Okay, fine.
I really can’t do anything about you, can I?”

Chaerim took off the cooking hat and smiled.

“It’s been a long time, Han Maru.”

“I’ve been doing well other than the fact that your current and ex-girlfriend over there came crying to me all the time.
Anyway, you definitely did change after you went to the military.
You look even more vicious than before.”

“It’s better than looking docile.”

“That way of speaking hasn’t changed though.”

Chaerim locked the door.
She also flipped the sign.

“Sit down for now.
I need to finish up.”

“I’ll help.”

Gaeul followed Chaerim behind the counter.
Maru docilely sat at a table.
He even locked his hands together and neatly placed them on his knees.
He felt like he had to.

“Hey, don’t stay still and mop the floor or something.”

“Of course, of course.”

Maru quickly got up and grabbed a mop.
He mopped with the mindset that he would not leave a speck of dust behind.
After a while, Chaerim took off her apron and came from behind the counter.
It seemed that she had finished.

“Well then.
Let’s have a listen, shall we? Just what happened between the two of you that made you two get back together after not contacting each other even once over these five years.”

She also added that she would shove him in the heated oven if it was nothing surprising.
It gave Maru the chills since it didn’t sound like a joke at all.
He looked at Gaeul once before starting to speak while thinking that he should speak slowly so that the oven had enough time to cool.

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