The Journalist's Dilemma

Resignation

Concluding my internal pep-talk, Cho's knuckles came down on my door three times. I took my time putting on perfume and grabbing my bag before lingering to look through the peephole. Of course, in a manner I'd expect from him, he stood with his head bowed, one hand in his pant pocket, and the other on the frame. I threw open the door and brushed past him before turning around to lock it, "You're here early."

"Don't you know? Being fashionably late isn't vogue anymore."

"Oh?" I responded, dropping my key in my purse and walking down the hall without him.

I hurried ahead to secure a table tucked away at the farthest end of the restaurant, for the sole purpose of being unheard if he decided to speak about the unfortunate circumstances surrounding our date. The moment we sat down, and our waiter came painfully slowly waltzing over, I almost begged him for a glass of red wine. Somehow vexing me, Mr. Cho asked for the same thing. He drank and let out a satisfied "ah" after clicking his tongue.

"Sour and bitter," he followed up with a scrunched nose.

I offered a scoff.

He gave me a queer look, "What?"

I took a sip before answering, biding my time to think of something other than "I am attracted to you but also afraid of you so I'm going to pretend I don't like you to protect myself."

"Cabernets are almost always sour and bitter. Why did you order it?" I criticized, not looking at him. He leaned back into his own space and took a deep breath.

"Well, we seem to be running into each other a lot. You obviously don't want my company but now I have the upper hand. You may have seen my genitals, I don't know. So, to even out the playing field some more, I wanted to order the same drink to get to know your taste a little better."

The way he delivered this strange admission was comical. I tried to hide my amusement, but it was too late, he had witnessed it forming on my lips. Startled, he leaned in again.

"Wait. Did you really?"

"No, no." I shook my head, "Regrettably, I did see a portion of your friend's."

"That's not very pleasant..." he looked away grimacing at the mental image produced, then argued "But you shouldn't have been peeping."

I looked around nervously and matched his posture over the table, speaking so fast my words almost jumbled together "—I wasn't peeping, I meant to see what you both looked like so I could avoid you if need be. But here we are."

Cho paused and rubbed his chin for a moment.

"Why would you want to avoid us? I'm lost..." he inquired, appearing genuinely confused. I appreciated him taking my admission at face value. He didn't even consider that it could be a recently generated excuse or entertain ideas of me being a liar, as I would've expected him to. In that moment I actually thought about giving him a break, but swiftly decided against it.

"The way you speak about women is deplorable. It's borderline predatory, Mr. Cho."

He looked down at his glass, perhaps self-reflecting in the wine.

"Oh... I suppose you're right about that. I'm sorry for offending you."

I laughed. Whatever his goal was, by apologizing, I wasn't going to buy it.

I pinched the neck of my wine glass and sighed, "You should apologize to Ji-eun, not me."

"Wow... you really were eavesdropping..."

"Unintentionally, I assure you. Now you know why a girl like me was compelled to do such a dirty thing."

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably and looked away, "I feel a little embarrassed now..."