The Divorced Man Has Returned

#13. Today is definitely a day…!

“Inwook-ah.”

“Huh?”

I was contemplating in my head what kind of training I should have done at home today if I hadn’t had an appointment with Harin.

“Do you have to go home right now?”

“No. Anything?”

Of course, she remembered that it was the day she had to go home and do some upper body exercises, but she decided not to hang on to it.

Such excessive sincerity. This life I wanted to reject.

“Then would you like to walk a little to my house?”

“Your house?”

You are talking about the old in-laws.

Certainly in this location, Harin’s house was less than 20 minutes on foot.

That’s it. What.

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

Harin smiled.

We walked along the slightly hilly stone wall path.

Is your body telling you that it’s spring?

White plum blossoms were blooming on the trees along the street.

“It’s pretty. Is not it.”

“That’s right.”

I watched this flower bloom and wither as many times as the number of springs I greeted with you.

But the flowers are still beautiful, and you are pretty too.

Harina.

In the beginning of her relationship with her, she always took her home along this road.

[Am I really okay? Inwook?]

[No. Dangerous.]

[It takes less than 10 minutes from my house, and there are quite a few people on the street?]

[I’m dangerous, not you.]

Harin smiled as if she was asking what it was.

[Why are you in danger?]

[It’s dangerous because I’m afraid I’ll regret seeing you even a little more on the way home.]

[What is that~]

She was the one who didn’t seem to dislike me.

Slowly and slowly, the memories of her childhood came to mind.

“What are you thinking?”

Is it because I was too drowsy by myself?

Harin tilted her head and looked up at me.

“No. Just. Old thoughts.”

“You didn’t listen to me.”

She spoke to me in a slightly slurred tone.

“Oh. Sorry.”

He spoke to me, but it seems I forgot to listen.

“What did you say?”

“It’s not a big deal. What were you thinking in the past?”

Memories of dating you.

I can’t answer this way.

“Oh. There are plum trees like this in our town.”

“Yes?”

For some reason, she had a questionable expression on her face.

Um… Am I that unreliable?

I couldn’t figure out why he was making such an expression.

“Yes. It’s right in front of our house.”

It was a lie.

But she thought that Harin, who had never been to our house and had never told us about it, could not know about it.

Harin opened her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s right~ I’ll definitely do it later. Want see.”

“Uh… Yeah. Okay. Come see.”

I feel suspicious, but I don’t really care.

We had no plans yet to bring her into our house.

We, who were walking side by side, turned to the road leading to Harin’s house.

It was a quiet alley unlike the bright street a while ago.

The sound of our footsteps was particularly loud.

“Everyone is here.”

A fine concrete wall signaled that she had arrived in front of her house.

“Here you are. It’s huge.”

This is the part where you have to pretend to be surprised.

It was because the gate was too high to be convincing.

She was satisfied with my reaction.

“Ah, what. Not to that extent.”

I was the one who had already looked at her slightly raised corners of the mouth, contrary to her humble words.

“Yes. Harina. Hurry up and see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thank you for getting me this far.”

Do you have something to say?

Harin looked at me without turning her back on me.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“Ah… no. I will go in.”

Only then did she grab the doorknob.

“Goodbye. Inwook-ah.”

“Yes. See you at the academy. Harina.”

After confirming that she was going in, I went back to the same way I had come to get on the bus.

I felt exhausted as I sat on the bus seat.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

* *

When I got home, I checked my cell phone and there was a call from an unknown number.

But the strange thing was that it was marked as having received this call.

6:53. It was time to be with Harin, but I don’t remember answering the phone, so I wondered what had happened.

Hmm… Was it something Harin got when I was away for a while?

From n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲

No. But then, why didn’t you tell me that you were on the phone?

As I came out of the bathroom, I remembered a scene where she looked down at my phone with a serious expression.

I picked up my phone again and dialed an unknown number left in the call log.

[Hello.]

It appears that it is clearly connected, but there is no sound.

[Hello?]

[Choi Inwook.]

Familiar voice.

It was a poem.

So, does that mean that Harin received a call from Sihwa?

[Sorry for not answering the phone a while ago.]

[Why didn’t I get it?]

[I was out for a while.]

Sihwa did not answer for a while.

[With whom?]

[My pair. With Harin.]

[…Yes?]

She didn’t look very good in her mood.

[Because this is my number. Save it. I was just calling.]

[Ah. Yes. Okay.]

It seems that the business is over, but Sihwa did not hang up the phone.

[…Hello?]

[…I want to meet you outside too.]

It felt as if the desire to win was triggered in a strange part.

[Yoo Shihwa. I’m telling you in case you misunderstand me. I met Harin today because it was related to the pair activities to the last…]

[So you’re saying no?]

…If you ask a question like that, what do you do when you answer it?

In fact, there was absolutely nothing that shouldn’t be done.

In the past life, the evening time is training. Dungeon on the weekend.

I used to go round and round with this routine, but in this life, I plan to only do that as much as I really need to.

All that was left was me, the time.

[It’s not like that…]

[Then what’s the matter?]

When I hesitated and couldn’t answer, Sihwa nailed her as cool as her personality.

[Saturday 6 o’clock. See you in front of Hongdae.]

After those words, the ringing tone was cut off.

What is it? Did you really quit?

I had that kind of personality in my previous life, but it seems that I was more reckless when I was an academy student.

The screen indicating that the call was disconnected was dyed red.

…To be honest, it didn’t matter if I refused.

Like Harin, there was no reason to meet like this, and I could say that I was too busy to use any excuses.

But the reason I can’t refuse poetry is…

It’s probably because she listened to her recent situation after my divorce with her.

After the ceremony with Jena, I came to Seoul and heard the news of Sihwa.

Her downfall, who stood at the forefront more than anyone else and pacified her hunter world with me, came as a shock.

Thorough self-management. It was a poem that had maintained an overwhelming career.

I couldn’t help but feel guilty about the fact that she too had left her hunter circle not long after I went into hiding.

Because I believed that he would leave me and shine brightly in a higher place.

…I ruined her life.

Of course, she would not know anything in this life.

If you had known, you wouldn’t have treated me so favorably.

I thought that there was no way for her to look at a man who told a terrible lie and spent her life in hell.

Ha…

I took a deep breath and looked out the window.

…Of course, I know that the poem of my previous life and the poem of this life are different people, but I wished that the poem would be happy nonetheless.

If she pleases me with a trivial request to make time for the weekend.

I still don’t know what her true meaning is, but first, I wrote down my appointment with Sihwa on my calendar and found two unread messages.

The first was Harin.

[Did you go home well?]

The contents were plain, but her name saved as ‘Lifetime Fair Youn Ha-rin♥’ This did not really fit well.

After replying that it went well, I checked the following message.

It felt like it was sent to a large number of people as a whole rather than something sent to me.

[This is the Deforme Manager Hwang Tae-soo! We plan to hold a welcome party for the incoming freshmen, so be sure to attend! Existing students know that they are just bastards who have nothing to do, so please come out. Even if you don’t attend, it’s N bread. I warned you. The date and time is 6pm after the end of the academy class on Friday! It will come in trouble!]

With. Even if I didn’t attend, I thought that the club atmosphere might have been bloodier than I thought it would be N bread.

Because I said I was doing it on Friday… Today is Thursday. You mean tomorrow?

To be honest, I thought it would be cumbersome and tiring to hang out with many people, but the club was a little different.

Because Jena was there.

Sihwa and Harin paid too much attention to me, whereas Yena was rather cold to me, so I felt difficult for Jena.

I wanted to share her story with her even if I couldn’t get to know her.

In fact, maybe Jena suffered from memory loss in her previous life and was born as a different person and became the owner of a co-worker cafe?

Even as I was thinking about it, I shook my head.

“No. This is a different world from where I was.”

My way of thinking about her constantly trying to force her into her previous life was strange.

Anyway, I will definitely get to know Jena tomorrow. I made a promise and closed my eyes early.

* *

It was really embarrassing for me to take classes.

I felt sorry for the teacher who gave a heated lecture about the types and characteristics of level 1 and level 2 monsters, but I already knew everything. It was something I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter at all.

Today was full of theory classes, so unfortunately time did not pass.

I stared blankly at the blackboard and waited eagerly for the class to be over. As soon as class was over, I headed to the club room.

[Deforme]

…The name is cool, but nothing of the activity.

I really liked it.

I took a deep breath just in case Jena came before me.

Okay. Today is a must…!

“What are you doing? Not going in.”

… Jena was looking at me with pitiful eyes as I was holding her doorknob.