Chapter 10 - You Really are the Worst

Act 2 – To Keep Him In Her Mind

Sun Ha walked up a slightly inclined path in the sweltering heat. The asphalt was hot beneath her shoes, and she had beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She was walking, her expression blank, when she passed two female students. They were talking amongst themselves about how summer vacation should start sooner.

Sun Ha looked over her shoulder at the two girls. They were holding designer handbags that everyone in the nation would recognize. Their stiletto heels were even more reflective than their bags, and the girls walked down the street with stuck-up attitudes, their heels clicking against the ground. Sun Ha turned her gaze forward once again and did her best to quickly move on.

Unlike Sun Ha, who was huffing and puffing from the heat and the incline of the path, the two girls walked downhill with light steps.

“You brought your car, right?” one asked the other.

The second girl replied, “Yeah. Dad said that if I cause another crash by driving improperly, he’ll take my car away and won’t buy me a new one ever again, so I have to be careful.”

“Turn on the air conditioning as soon as we get in, please. Ugh, it’s just way too hot. I just want it to be summer break already so I can go on vacation.”

“Family holiday trip? Or with your boyfriend?”

“I’m going to both of them. Ji Hoon and I plan to go to Bali, so we have to buy a ticket ahead of time and…”

They were excitedly chattering away about what they were going to do during the holidays.

Hearing their high-pitched laughter from behind her, Sun Ha pushed her sweaty hair behind her ear and smiled faintly. When holidays began, Sun Ha would take up even more part-time jobs and work tirelessly, so unlike those girls, she didn’t particularly look forward to the end of the semester.

Those girls would drive cars they owned to school instead of taking the bus. Plus, they would go on holiday trips without worrying about the cost at all. Even though Sun Ha’s world was completely different from theirs, she didn’t even entertain the thought of jealousy towards them.

Sun Ha’s arduous lifestyle was nothing like the leisurely life those girls had. She could barely survive day-to-day on her income. When her pay was delayed, she didn’t even have enough money to take the bus. Instead, she would walk all the way from her college to her remote village, leaving her feet bruised and painful. She couldn’t even dream of going on vacation in Korea, let alone a trip overseas.

However, if she were to allow herself the luxury of feeling jealous, the reason why she felt that way was not for that kind of materialistic reason.

A student once complained about being late for school because their mother didn’t wake them up in time. Another told a boring story about how they went to their grandparent’s home. They lazed about for the weekend before returning home in their father’s car, their mother wrapping up the huge amount of side dishes their grandparents had given them to fill the fridge.

Sun Ha heard stories about people’s families way too often. The words would flow carelessly from their mouths as if they never realized just how precious normal daily life with a family could be. It made Sun Ha’s heart sting with pain; she was just so jealous of them.

Sun Ha stepped inside a newly-built campus building. It had been designed by a famous architect, and the moment she entered, a cool and pleasant feeling wrapped around her. It wasn’t the air conditioning but rather the unique properties of the building. With the heavy, hot air moving away from her body, her bad mood somewhat lifted.

Sun Ha pulled out the folder she’d wedged under her right arm. Papers were sticking out of it erratically, and she tried to tidy them up. As she did, one small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to land quietly on the floor; it was the very last survey form.

She had taken a liberal arts class that semester called “Modern Society and the Consciousness of Value.” The professor’s lectures weren’t amazing, and the class’s subject didn’t interest her that much. However, Sun Ha had become quite good friends with the students she had been matched up with for group projects, so she actually enjoyed her time in class.

The other students in her group didn’t look at her with prejudice. Instead, they treated her very favorably. It may have only been because there wasn’t anyone that already knew her in the class, but in any case, Sun Ha was able to take that particular class with a much lighter heart.

For their group assignment, Sun Ha had taken on the responsibility of going around the school campus and getting students to fill out a simple survey.

No one in the group had wanted to walk around in the hot, humid weather politely greeting strangers. However, someone had to do it. Everyone had been tense and hoping they wouldn’t be picked, so Sun Ha, as the oldest of the group, had volunteered for it.

However, waves of regret washed over her now that she was doing it.

She would sweat profusely the moment she left a building, and it was tiring to grab the attention of unfriendly students and convince them to do a survey. The more stressed she was, the more students declined to do the survey, which only served to stress her out even more.

Even though Sun Ha knew they had their reasons for declining, she still wondered if she should bother being extra friendly to all these people who were mistreating her. Thankfully though, she only had one more survey to get completed and she would be finished.

She had planned to tidy up the papers in the folder before picking up the fallen survey. However, in that short amount of time, a black leather shoe suddenly appeared and landed right in the middle of the clear white paper as if to stamp it for official purposes.

“…” Sun Ha’s expression became dazed as she stared at the paper and the clear shoe print it now had. She knew that the owner of that particularly high-class-looking leather shoe must have noticed they had stepped on the paper. However, their long legs kept on walking without hesitation, and they didn’t look back even once.

Sun Ha turned her gaze to the shoe’s owner. The man was tall, his body well proportioned. Even from the back, his wide, athletic shoulders and his clean black suit gave off a powerful impression.