Chapter 20: Chapter 20

She gnashed her teeth, watching Hojoon in the video.

Right after his lecture was over, there was another lecture. This time, it was not a lecture, but an interview footage.

“Ugh?”

The interviewee was grey-haired Paekhoon. She recognized his face as she heard his lecture at a department store three years ago.

At first she was to click another playlist as she felt Paekhoon’s lecture was wrongly put on the playlist.

In the video, Paekhoon said, “Hojoon Lee is my son. Initially I was opposed to his idea that he would carry on my family business.”

Though Paekhoon spoke in Korean, Arum could not understand what he was talking about at first. She just listened with a blank expression.

Paekhoon continued, “He studied architectural design in Korea and in France. He’s better than me now in terms of geomancy. I’m proud of him, who is devoted to publicizing geomancy to the general public with a young and fresh sense.”

Based on his remarks, the very geomancy consultant who insulted her by comparing her to a ‘trash can’ three years ago was none other than Hojoon Lee.

She was so shocked that she couldn’t move. Paekhoon’s interview sent a shiver through her body.

‘It was you who trapped me in the prison of ‘trash can’ for the past three years. Nobody would know how much my self-regard crumbled and how hard my life was all along.’

Even when Arum went to sleep, she experienced hallucinations like ‘You’re trash, you’re trash,’ and whenever she looked at a trash can on the street, she even felt herself identified with it.

“Was that bastard you?”

She gnashed her teeth in anger.

Aside from her disengagement with Konsu, she really hated that young geomancy consultant who made fun of her.

Of course, she overcame the hardship and recently gave a special lecture on her experiences about the sorrow of ‘trash can’ to her juniors at her alma mater.

‘I will certainly punish this bastard who shook the basis of my life!’

Nonetheless, she had to make sure he was the same guy who really made her life miserable at that time.

She discovered a photo from the email attachments three years ago. The geomancy master dressed in traditional Korean attire. It was certain that he was Hojoon Lee.

That photo was a group photo taken with the participants in the lecture series. The cultural center sent the photo to them. As Arum stormed out of the lecture hall at that time, she couldn’t receive one.

Never did she expect that this geomancy guy dressed in traditional Korean attire could turn into a guy dressed in expensive Italian handmade suit.

Somehow she felt he was an eloquent speaker, and he liked to meddle in others’ affairs, all indicative of the typical characteristics of geomancy consultants.

Arum sent the photo to her cell phone.

In the meantime, she was thinking about various titles of the feature story on geomancy.

‘Carrying on the family business, geomancy specialist Hojoon Lee of Mt. Jiri.”

What if this country field photo were revealed to the public?

She just felt great joy in thinking about that possibility.

Hojoon would actively cooperate to stop the release of his photo.

And certainly he would skip that tedious lecture on geomancy for her.

She picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

Hojoon answered it right away.

“What’s up?” said he in a cold voice.

“Oh, are you busy?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got something to show you.”

“Can you come to my house then?”

“What?”

“I don’t have time for the time being. If you can show it to me now, I can. Otherwise, it will be difficult. Can you do it now?’

“Oh, yes.”

After she hung up the phone, she headed for his house, Green Villa.

***

“Won’t you get out? Someone will be here soon.” Opening the front door for her, Hojoon asked her to go out.

“Let me see her face before I leave. Your girlfriend,” she said in an icy voice.

“O my…”

Soran moved around in his house comfortable as if it were her own. She laughed before the espresso coffee machine.

“Are you still using it?”

And then she picked a sugar case right beside it.

“Parrot sugar. Aren’t you fed up with this?”

Hojoon felt his pride was hurt.

“Get out now!”

“Why? I’m glad to see my stuff still here. Don’t you think I can claim this as my house with all this familiar stuff here like this?”

“Don’t misunderstand me. That’s not your stuff anymore.”

But she simply ignored his response. Like she used to always. And she approached him.

She wrapped her hands around his neck and looked him in the eye.

Hojoon almost held her waist with both hands, a sharp reminder of how dreadful it was to for one to remember someone’s body.

Soran, feeling he was trying to move his arms around her waist but stopped, made a smile.

“You’re still mine,” she said.

“…..”

“You can’t help it.”

She was about to kiss him, when Arum opened the front door and came in.

“Hey, geomancy master! Your door is open..ugh?”

Arum stopped at the spot after finding both inside.

‘Ugh? Did I come into a wrong house?’

At that moment Soran pushed off Hojoon and said, “Come on in. Are you here for an urgent matter?”

“No, no.”

What was more urgent than Soran stealing a kiss from him? Arum was ashamed of herself as she came her to bluff him with the photo

“You should have told me in advance you had a customer coming here. I know it’s an urgent matter,” Arum protested.

Soran said coquettishly like a female cat, “Nice to see you. You know me, right?”

Arum was embarrassed. She signalled to Hojoon for help. In the end, Hojoon stopped Soran.

“Get out now.”

“You can post my photo on your SNS if you want. This man is my one and only love.”

Arum was surprised by Soran’s offensive attitude. She felt as if she saw one scene of the craze soap opera her mother enjoyed watching.

“You said you were his girlfriend, right?” asked Soran.

“Hey, Soran!” he shouted.

And then he pulled her arms to her side.

“Stop it. I’ve got something to tell her. As an ex-girlfriend of yours, I have the right to say this. I really wish for your happiness more than anybody else. I want you to meet a good woman, and she is me. I know you better than any other woman, right?”

While watching her, Arum came to her senses. She felt hostile to this woman who was using her good feelings about him as a weapon against others. Her feelings were the type that could be appreciated only by a woman who begged her boyfriend for love for the reason that she loved him more than anybody else.

“Tell me,” said Arum as arrogantly as possible. She also raised her head. She tried her best to keep her voice stable and calm when speaking to Soran.

Hojoon was surprised by Arum’s response. It was the first time he heard her speaking in a resolute voice just like a reporter. Besides, her glittering eyes were as calm as ever.

“You chose the right man. Congrats!” Soran kept sneering.

“Well, I don’t think it’s something you have to congratulate me on. So, what do you want to say?”

When she felt she lost a war of nerves with Arum, Soran bit her lips and said, “You think I took away your boyfriend, right? No way, it’s you who broke up our relationship.”

“I understand you broke up.”

Arum’s heart was pounding hard. Her legs were shaking. In a crazy soap opera she watched before, the women getting on each other’s nerves were seen grabbing each other by the hair.

She flipped her hair back quickly just in case.

Sora continued,

“We’re not finished until I’m done. So, take him back to his original position after you use him well. He’s my man.”

That’s Soran’s main point.

‘Does this woman even regard a human being as a thing?’

“I think this is my place,” responded Arum, pointing at the seat right next to her.

Arum drove a wedge in Soran’s jealous eyes. It was her severe punishment of those who treated love with contempt.

Bang.

Soran went out after closing the door with a bang.

Arum sat down on the floor with a moan after she left.

Standing beside her, Hojoon was startled.

“How come you squat on the floor all the time when you can sit here on the sofa?”

Come to think of it, Arum didn’t yet take off her shoes.

“You should have told me in advance that you had a guest,” Arum said.

Taking off her shoes with complaint, Arum sat on the sofa in the living room.

“Give me some water.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself? You know my house well,” said Hojoon.

“Dang it. Can you bring it to me as the owner of this house?”

While she said that, he already brought a cup of water.

She gulped it down, but it was lukewarm.