Lady Spring

“Who is it?”

Saeun closed the door to her room where Wooyoung was and opened the front door to find a man she saw on TV. She also recognized him from the cover of the Strawberry Fields’ albums. He was wearing dark sunglasses, so she couldn’t see his eyes at all, but she could imagine them to be unfriendly. The man looked down at her coldly and asked,

“Where is Wooyoung?”

Blinking rapidly, Saeun took a step back. The man was so tall that he almost reached the door. To her surprise, two more men, smaller than the first, followed him inside. The second man tipped his head towards her, but the other two barely looked at her. It was clear they were ignoring her. 

Without even asking for her permission, the tall man headed towards her room.

“That idiot got into a stupid fight…”

The tallest man grumbled angrily as he entered the room where Wooyoung was. He quickly began to help Wooyoung stand. The other two men helped lift Wooyoung, so he could be carried on the tallest guy’s back. They were all acting like she didn’t exist. They behaved as if they weren’t standing in the middle of HER apartment. 

Feeling awkward and unable to do anything, Saeun murmured to get their attention.

“Umm…”

The young-looking guy, who was the only one to acknowledge her, approached her. He had a neat ponytail that reached his shoulders. Because he was wearing pumpkin colored sunglasses, she could see his kind eyes. He gave her a pleasant smile and nodded to her.

“How do you know our Wooyoung?”

Well, he asked her to date him, and she refused? But it seemed ridiculous to explain their relationship this way. Saeun was now beginning to think Wooyoung asked her out because he was confused from his fever. Yes, this definitely made more sense. He was probably delirious when he asked.

Saeun laughed at herself secretly and replied, 

“We went to the same high school 10 years ago. A few days ago, we met by accident on the street. I think it was… Thursday evening? He said he had nowhere else to go, so I let him stay here.”

“Oh, I see.”

He looked at her as if he didn’t believe her. After studying Saeun for a long while, he smiled and offered her an envelope.

“Well, this is to thank you for taking care of Wooyoung for the last few days. Please don’t think too much about it. It’s just because we are so grateful to you for helping our friend.”

Saeun stared at the envelope before looking up at the man again. He seemed to be used to a situation like this, and it made her feel sick. 

“Is this… money? You’re giving me money?”

The other two men were carrying Wooyoung out the door. The man standing in front of her glanced at them before grabbing her arm and putting the envelope in her hands. 

“I’m telling you that this isn’t a big deal. Just think of it as a rent payment Wooyoung should’ve paid for staying here. If he went to a hotel, he would’ve had to pay for it, right? It’s just like that.”

Rent? Hotel? Did they think she let Wooyoung stay in her place to get rent from of him? Or to extort money from him because he was a star? Saeun began to feel nauseous. She yanked her hands back and dropped the envelope on the floor. Based on how heavy it was, there had to be quite a lot of money inside.

“I didn’t do this to get paid. Just get out.”

She took a step back in disgust. The guy picked up the envelope awkwardly and turned towards the door again.

“Umm, I really didn’t mean anything bad by it. Wooyoung looks sick, so you probably had to take care of him, so we just wanted to thank you.”

“I said I don’t want it. Get out!”

When she screamed, the man scratched his head and turned away. He looked back several times before finally leaving her place. When the  front door closed behind them, Saeun ran to lock the door. She leaned against it and murmured,

“Bastards!”

She felt like crying. Money… She didn’t bring Wooyoung here for money. Saeun wished she could’ve told them she had plenty of money herself. She wished she could’ve kept Wooyoung comfortable in a larger and nicer house and bought him expensive clothes.

“Jerks…”

She slid down to the floor and buried her face on her knees. Her home suddenly felt too quiet. She could hear the tic toc of the clock and even her own breaths.

“Idiot.”

Wooyoung has been here for only three days, so how could she have gotten so dependent on him? She was such an idiot for falling for him. She was never going to see him again, so what was she going to do? Those people thought she was after his money, so what was there to do?

Saeun needed to forget about him. The last three days… The last 72 hours. They didn’t mean anything. She lived most of her life without him, so she could do the same for the rest of her life. 

But for some reason, she knew her life was never going to be the same.