Chapter 7

Even so, seeing the building lit up brightly, she got out of the car with the paper bag full of bread in hand.

Right then.

One by one, the lights that had been on inside the company started to go out, until finally, the entire building was dark.

“Huh?”

She froze on the spot, staring at Jooheon’s company building that had suddenly gone pitch black.

A moment later, a man came out of the building and locked the door behind him.

He turned around, spotted Ayeon, and tilted his head.

“Oh, who are you?”

“I’m here to see the CEO…”

He studied her carefully.

She must have seemed like an unusual visitor to be looking for the CEO at such a late hour.

She had never seen this employee before.

And judging by his expression, he had no idea who she was either.

That was a relief.

“He wasn’t in the office at all today. I heard he went out for external meetings and then headed home afterward.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Is it something urgent?”

She quickly hid the paper bag behind her back.

“No. Nothing.”

“Alright then.”

With a puzzled look, the man got into the last remaining car in the parking lot.

She too hurried back to her car, started the engine, and drove away quickly.

While waiting at a red light on the main road, she pressed her forehead and fell into thought.

Jooheon had told her he’d returned to the office and planned to work through the night.

The fact that he had forgotten what day it was and hadn’t mentioned anything about it didn’t really matter.

If anything, she almost felt guilty, thinking of how she might have acted the same way one day.

That aside, what mattered to her was why the building was empty if he was supposed to be working overnight.

Maybe he had finished up early somewhere else and gone home.

Yes, that must be it.

She glanced at the bread and coffee beside her, feeling a little silly for acting differently than usual.

She brushed it off and kept driving.

Still, something didn’t sit right.

He had clearly said he returned to the office, but that man had spoken as if he hadn’t seen Jooheon all day.

The company wasn’t that big, so it would be hard not to notice if the CEO came and went.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t impossible.

Or maybe Jooheon had said he was at the office when in fact he was working somewhere else.

One of those explanations had to be the truth.

If not, it meant Jooheon had lied to her.

But it didn’t take her long to dismiss that thought.

He was someone who had no reason to lie to her.

At least, the Jooheon she knew was that kind of person.

Then maybe there was some circumstance she didn’t know about.

“Yeah, it must be something like that…”

She decided to think of it that way.

Running a business was different from academic work. Anything could happen.

Even so, the uneasy feeling in her chest couldn’t be explained away. She tried to calm herself.

At that moment.

Honk!

Startled by the sound of the horn from the car behind her, she hit the accelerator.

She hadn’t even noticed the light had turned green.

“Ha…”

Her heart started to beat unsteadily, though she wasn’t sure if it was because of the horn or the strange unease.

She drove for a while without thinking, then pulled over to the side of the road.

She had been driving aimlessly like someone who had lost their destination.

She was heading in the opposite direction from home, going even farther away.

Flustered, she grabbed one of the many coffees she’d bought and took a sip, then turned on the navigation.

She needed to get home and rest.

Back to Forest One, where Jooheon would probably be.

* * *

“Han Nayul? Han Nayul?”

While taking attendance, Ayeon called the name again when she got no response, then looked up to check.

There was still no answer, so she closed the attendance sheet.

Although the system had electronic check-ins, she preferred to do roll call for the first month of the semester to memorize her students’ names and faces.

Her class had a high attendance rate.

Almost no one missed the first class, so she wondered if this student had changed courses or taken a leave of absence. She tilted her head slightly and opened her book.

Today’s lecture was a liberal arts class held in the Fine Arts building.

It was a bit far from the social sciences buildings, in a secluded area, but it wasn’t unfamiliar since Jooheon had spent his undergraduate years there.

The scent of paint lingering in the air hadn’t changed a bit. She breathed it in as she began her lecture.

“Carl Gustav Jung laid the foundation for what you now know as MBTI. He developed analytical psychology, studied the human inner world, and created detailed maps to understand it…”

She was deep into her lecture when someone suddenly threw the classroom door open.

All eyes turned toward the intruder.

It was a student with long hair partially dyed brown, pale skin, striking features that almost looked foreign, and a unique sense of fashion.

Her slightly defiant air made her stand out even more. On top of that, bursting into a quiet lecture hall like that made everyone stare at her.

She strode confidently to an empty seat, unfazed by the attention, as if other students’ stares meant nothing to her.

She sat down without a hint of apology for disrupting the lecture and pulled out a tablet, placing it on her desk.

Ayeon tapped the podium to bring the students’ focus back to her.

She didn’t like the interruption.

“Let’s continue. Look at the screen.”

“Yes!”

Some students answered loudly, making her smile faintly.

“He said that life is a journey to find oneself.”

Just as she got the rhythm of the lecture back, someone shot their hand into the air.

She looked toward the student.

It was the latecomer.

“What…”

She started to ask what it was, then frowned slightly at the sight of the student’s wrist.

Perhaps it was the morning sunlight streaming into the classroom.

The light caught on the bracelet around the student’s wrist, making it gleam.

Ayeon stepped to the side to avoid the glare.

“What is it? Do you have a question?”

“I just came in, so who exactly are you talking about?”

Her cheeky gaze made Ayeon let out a small, incredulous laugh as she pointed at the screen.

“It’s all written here. Carl Gustav Jung. If you listen, you can figure it out from the context, or even just glance at the slide. But if you still can’t follow, try coming to class a little earlier next time.”

At her firm tone, the latecomer lifted one corner of her mouth.

“Seems like saying ‘Carl Gustav Jung’ once is too much trouble for you.”

She then scrunched her brow slightly and muttered, almost to herself, “No wonder you’re still just a lecturer.”

But her voice carried clearly through the quiet room.

“She’s not a professor?”

“Do you know how few actual professors teach liberal arts classes? Didn’t you know?”

“Who cares if she’s a lecturer. As long as the class is fun and the grades are good.”

The students began to whisper.

The latecomer kept breaking the flow of the class.

And the way they differentiated between professors and lecturers pricked at Ayeon more than she wanted to admit.

Still, she had to continue.

She tapped the podium again.

“Quiet.”

Her classes were popular, but that didn’t mean every student was model behavior.

She knew all too well there was every type of student imaginable, but just when she thought she’d gotten used to handling them, something always caught her off guard again.

She tried her best to keep the atmosphere steady and stay composed, just as she always did.

Eventually, she wrapped up the lecture without any more disruptions, and the students cheerfully called out, “Thank you, professor!” as they left.

Once about half of them were gone, the latecomer strode between the empty desks toward her.

“I came to check in for attendance.”

“Your name?”

“Han Nayul.”

“Han Nayul…”

Flipping through the attendance sheet, she paused.

The name sounded familiar.