High on You (Choi Do Il x Oh In Joo - Little Women 작은 아씨들)

27

In-joo woke up the next morning due to her door almost collapsing on the floor of her bedroom.
"Unni! Unni, open up! We need to talk." In-joo questioned all her life decisions so far, like... why did she say yes to her sisters about staying at her apartment? She clearly remembered how lonely she had felt at the beginning, but she had started to enjoy her alone time, and she desperately wanted it back now that privacy was no longer an option what with In-kyung banging on her door on a Sunday morning, the cat sneaking up on her at the worst possible timing, In-hye calling out for her because she couldn't find the can opener, and whatnot. The only person who let her breathe was Jong-ho.
"What, what?!" In-joo screamed, and her sister twisted the doorknob.
"Oh, I didn't realize I could open it myself," she said as she let herself in uninvited. She looked at In-joo who had her head buried in the middle of her sea of pillows, and then she lay beside her, one elbow bent and head propped up on her hand.
"Unni. Unni, you left early last night..." she started, as if trying to push In-joo to explain for herself. In-kyung pouted her lower lip when she realized that In-joo wouldn't play that game.
"Just ask your question, In-kyung-ah."
"Questions, you mean." She rolled her eyes and started counting with her fingers. "First of all, who works extra hours on a day like that? Especially if your girlfriend was one of the people who helped organize it? Second, did you know Do-il-ssi would be there? Third, you danced quite a lot last night for someone who has a boyfriend, unni. Fourth-"
"Wo! Slow down. I don't even remember what you asked first."
"I don't remember either."
"Gosh you're unbelievable." In-joo sighed and finally revealed her face. She moved her hair out of the way, she rubbed her eyes and propped herself up. "Was it something regarding Du-joon-ah?"
"Ah, yes. Did he really work extra hours?"
"How do you know?"
"He stopped by the table last night and talked to In-hye about it. He was looking for you. Didn't he send you a text or anything?"
"No, I didn't receive anything. Not yet, at least. He might be considerate enough to understand that a person at 8 on a Sunday morning after having spent an entire night at a Ball might want to sleep in a little."
"But anyway, is it true?"
"It is, he told me that last night. We had to meet up around opening time, and he called to tell me he wouldn't be able to make it. The hotel had some troubles with rooms and reservations."
"Ugh... he really left you there on the alt- I mean the staircase. Thank goodness Do-il-ssi arrived." She lifted her eyebrows repeatedly and winked at In-joo. "Did you know he had been invited?"
"Of course I knew. Every guest staying in one of the hotel suites gets an invitation."
"You guys had fun, right?"
In-joo couldn't stand the interrogatory anymore, so she got up and went right inside the bathroom.
"Unni," the reporter continued, talking to the closed door, "did you two... by any remote chance...?"
"Oh for goodness' sake, In-kyung-ah, no we did not. Stop it." In-joo's voice was muffled by the wood of the door and the water already running inside the shower.
"Why did you leave so early, though? You guys were having lots of fun together, and you didn't look one bit tired, then you disappeared for five minutes and came back white as a sheet of paper and exhausted?"
"I was just really, really tired. Nothing else."
In-kyung wasn't convinced, but she didn't say anything else.

In-joo had just got out of the shower when she heard her phone ringing and realized she had left it on her bedside table. She didn't think her sister would still be in her room, but she chose to peek outside the bathroom before barging in, in case she'd still be there, looking for explanations she didn't have nor would want to share if she did. She wasn't.
In-joo walked out with her bathrobe on and picked up her phone. "Oh, Du-joon-ah."
"Hi, did I wake you up?" In-joo rolled her eyes at the memory of her sister.
"No, someone else did, though, and it wasn't fun, trust me."
"Who dared disturb your dreams?" his tone was ironic, but the receptionist's agenda was another.
"My sister, In-kyung. You met her last night?"
"Oh, yes. Right, right." In-kyung had sneaked up on him like a panther the night before. Honest to her reporter nature, she had gotten to know him a little until her boyfriend, or husband – Du-joon wasn't sure -, had called her to tell her they should have gone home.
"Uhm..." Du-joon continued, "I don't know what to say about last night, I'm sorry In-j-"
"No worries, really," the girl quickly interjected.
"No, I mean it. It was a very important night for you, and I missed it. Completely."
"It was just a Ball, Du-joon-ah. Don't stress over it. If you really want to experience something similar, I can book a dinner table at the next charity event I'll go to."
"It's not the experience. It's the experience with you. That had to do with something you collaborated on. I'm sorry I missed it."
In-joo didn't know how to answer to all that honesty, and after a couple of seconds spent in religious silence, she just accepted his apology.
"In-hye told me a friend helped you get home safe?"
"Yes, I was very tired and... it was very kind of them to accompany me."
Du-joon's heart felt like it was tearing itself apart, muscle fiber after muscle fiber. It wasn't just the fact that she didn't tell him a name, but the fact that she deliberately used "them" to make it gender-neutral that made him sad. He had an idea of who had taken her home, and it definitely wasn't a woman. He wasn't planning on forcing her to tell him anything, though. She would do it on her own terms sooner or later, he trusted her that much.
"I feel better knowing that there are people out there watching over you, In-joo-ah."
In-joo stomach clenched at his words because he had been nothing but exquisite and perfect, and here she was omitting facts that shouldn't even need to be omitted. Why did she feel so... dirty? Like she had to scrub every inch of her skin every time she talked to Du-joon and thoughts of Do-il crept up instead? Why couldn't she just admit out loud to him that Do-il as well was important to her? A person could care about two or more other people, right? There was no taboo about it. The fact that In-joo was completely ignoring, though, was the nature of said "care" she felt.
"I'm happy too. It hasn't always been like that."