Even If It's Not Love

Yoo-hwa, who covered the back of her hand at the burning sensation, smiled as if it was a little ridiculous and leaned down to pick up her phone. The corner of her phone was slightly cracked. Such a crack wouldn’t make it a problem to use it, but she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

[Mom

Sin Woo-hyun]

The two saved names appeared on the screen as the contact button was pressed when it fell.

One was the person who made her live in this world, and the other was the person who gave her the confirmation that she was alive. Even if it was contradictory, they both made her live and, at the same time, made her want to die.

Her heart sank. Numerous thoughts poured down like rain as her memories barely quieted down.

“My daughter.”

Her mother’s voice.

“Noona.”

Yi-woon’s obsessive gaze.

“Noona, are you happy?”

Seong-woo’s hurtful question.

“Yoo-hwa.”

And even Woo-hyun’s sweet voice.

There was nothing that didn’t hurt in each of them.

As she was looking at the screen, her view turned dark. She saw her face when the screen turned off. There was pain on the tired face.

She wondered if this was the face Seong-woo mentioned his sister had just before she died.

That’s right. She really looked like she was going to die.

Yoo-hwa laughed as if it was ridiculous.

She thought she had swum very far, but she got back to square one. No, maybe she was going to an even more awful place. While having the illusion that she was going to a pretty good place.

Yoo-hwa raised her hand and, after pressing Woo-hyun’s name, she then pressed the delete button. Yoo-hwa didn’t move until her surroundings felt dark due to both the screen that had only her mother’s name now and the sensor light turning off. Her feet seemed to sink in.

***

It was similar to usual. After being published in a magazine as a delicious restaurant, there were a few more customers than usual and a lot of work. But even though the grandmother, whose nerves were already on edge, was even more nervous because of that, it was the same as usual.

She thought it would also be like that today. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was mistaken.

At first, a sharp scream was heard. It wasn’t a simple spill from a plate, someone bumping into someone, or a scream of being surprised for a moment; it was a sharp scream of someone seemingly finding something that shouldn’t be there. Then, there was silence. The familiar sound made her feel the hair on the back of her neck standing up in unison.

As she slowly raised her head, the first thing she saw was Seong-woo staring at her. Even after telling her that she was like his sister about to commit suicide, he glanced at her once in a while. Each time, Yoo-hwa silently did what she had to do while having the absurd thought that she should at least show the will to live. Then, Seong-woo would do his job as if nothing had happened.

But today’s gaze was different from that. His eyes were full of suspicion. Turning her head around, she saw the owner and the guests looking at her, and at the end of it, she saw a person standing by the door. The person pointing their finger at her with a shocked and astonished face was someone she knew.

“Yoo-hwa, I feel so bad when I look at you.”

The face of the kind lady, holding out a bag of groceries from the mart when she was going home,

“You bitch! You fucking whore! How dare you do that to my husband? This is why people say to never bite the hand that feeds you! Never! Oh god, oh god. You fucking bitch…”

and the face of the mart owner’s wife, spitting out curses like she was going to kill her and crying, flashed through her mind one after the other.

She stood there with her eyes open wide, a little more worn out and skinny than she remembered.

“Why are you here!”

She didn’t know what to do at the woman’s screams.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry, but other people are eating. I don’t know what’s going on, but go out for now and…”

The owner approached her and tried to take her outside.

“Let go! Do you know who she is, to let her inside? You don’t even check what kind of people your employees are when doing business? She’s Kim Beom-sik’s daughter! The daughter of that serial killer!”

The poisonous words poured out without a chance to stop them. The dark, gloomy poison melted the sound, creating a near-death silence. The stinging gaze of the people turned to Yoo-hwa in unison.

Maybe she was dying now.

That’s what Yoo-hwa thought, receiving that explicit gaze with no place to hide or a way to stop it. Because otherwise, her consciousness wouldn’t be fading, and she wouldn’t find it hard to breathe.

Gasp.

A buzzing sound spread here and there, starting with the sound of someone’s astonishment.

“That filthy bitch seduced my husband with her body and hit him in the head with a soju bottle! But what? Stop? You don’t know what happened, but you want me to leave? Just know that I saved this store! You seem to be the owner.”

The wife’s words continued. At that, the owner’s arm, which had been stopping her, dropped down.

Should she make an excuse?

What should she do?

She felt like she had to do something because the normal routine she had barely found was breaking apart.

But was there anything she could say to stop this situation?

“… Scary bitch.”

The grandmother, who was standing next to her, stepped back and threw a word. At her words, Yoo-hwa, who had opened her mouth slightly to say something, closed it. The extremely faint excuse that had risen in her head disappeared completely.