Chapter 11 - At First Sight

Sun Ha picked up the unsightly marked paper. She wondered what to do for a moment before she walked towards the elevator where the man was standing alone.

“Excuse me,” she said.

The man turned around.

When their gazes met, Sun Ha had to stop her jaw from dropping as she got a good look at him. However, it was still easy to tell just how surprised she was by his appearance from how her pupils dilated.

Like a young girl who envied the beauty of celebrities, Sun Ha couldn’t properly control her expression even though she was 25 years old.

The man was simply that tall and handsome. The iron-grey suit he was wearing wrapped around his body in a perfect fit, with no crease or flaw, constraining his obvious muscles.

‘Just who is he?’ she thought.

If there was a teacher like him in her university, the campus would have already been abuzz about how attractive he looked. However, he also didn’t seem like a student either. At a glance, he looked to be in his late twenties.

Even as she realized his attractiveness was on a level hard to find, Sun Ha was further surprised by his unique image.

Though he had a strong, manly build, his sharp facial features foreshadowed a personality that was not friendly. His eyes were a deep black, and they looked down and inside her. His gaze had a very cold aura, unfitting for the summer weather. To top it off, his sleek nose bridge and smooth, closed lips made sure that none of his facial features made him look easygoing.

More than anything, he had the clear image of someone mysterious and profound. Though his eyes looked like a wild animal’s, the way he had moved had shown a grace and dignity that made him look sharp and intelligent.

The number of thoughts and emotions she had from just a single glance at his face was so overwhelming that Sun Ha couldn’t help but unconsciously take a step back, even though she wasn’t that close to him.

She was quite flustered and quickly took her eyes off of him. The survey paper and its clear shoe print stamp quietly wavered in her vision. A strange sensation came to her as if something had suddenly stabbed her in the heart.

‘No way… did I just fall in love at first sight?’

As it was the first time she had experienced this emotion, it was difficult for her to grasp what exactly she was feeling. However, one thing she knew for sure was that the sound of her heart beating inside of her chest was very loud and strong.

In her adolescence, she’d had a crush on someone which only lasted for a short time. Also, even though it hadn’t ended well, she still had experience with romance, but she’d never fallen for someone just for their looks.

Though it was true that the man in front of her looked so amazing that anyone would fall for him right away, Sun Ha felt it very strange that her heart was beating so loudly for someone she had just met.

She was very skeptical of romance after breaking up with Kyung Min, and she had never met any many that interested her since then. More than anything, she didn’t have the luxury to fall in love or go out with anyone.

Yet now she found her heart racing for a man, which hadn’t happened for a long time. It was just then, a moment too late, that Sun Ha realized that she was extremely weak to visually appealing people.

“What is it?” the man asked.

She wasn’t some naive little kid, and yet she had fallen in love at first sight. Was that really possible for her?

No, beyond whether it was possible or not, she just felt… embarrassed for some reason. She felt like she’d become materialistic and very easy to please.

“Excuse me,” the man said.

“Yes?” Sun Ha’s shoulders visibly flinched as she came back to her senses and looked up at him. The man was now staring at her with an even more annoyed gaze than before.

“What is it that you want to say to me?”

Sun Ha realized she’d done something absurd by calling out to the man first and then ignoring his answer because she’d been overwhelmed. Trying her best to calm her still rapidly thumping heart, Sun Ha finally told him what she’d meant to in the first place, “You stepped on this as you were going… I guess you didn’t notice.”

As she spoke, Sun Ha showed him the survey with its clear shoe print. Only a very dense person wouldn’t have noticed that they’d stepped on a piece of paper when walking on an otherwise clean floor, and the man didn’t seem to have a dense personality at all. He had definitely noticed but hadn’t broken his stride, but Sun Ha hadn’t called out to him to start a fight, so her expression stayed gentle.

However, the man must have perceived that she was someone that wanted to pick a fight over a single piece of paper because he said, “How much do I need to give you.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll pay for the damage, so just tell me the amount you need.”

It was what finally made Sun Ha’s mouth open agape in shock. His overly materialistic words matched so well with his arrogant expression that it felt like it was an actor from a movie’s contrived dialogue.

She thought he was deluded because of how he reacted. Telling her not to bother him, since he’d pay anything to compensate her for damaging a single piece of paper? She couldn’t understand the logic at all. Plus, he was more handsome than most of the actors who would say such lines.

“I just need 100 won in order to go to the photocopy room and make a new copy. Do you have 100 won in change?”

She intentionally asked for change since he looked like someone who would have plenty of cash notes but not a single coin jingling around in his pocket. As the man realized what she was up to, his brows furrowed.

Sun Ha just continued in a calm voice, “I was the one who accidentally dropped it on the floor after all. I didn’t call you just to ask you to repay the damage or to vent my anger at you. This paper is a survey paper I need to fill out from other students as part of my liberal studies. It was the very last one and I only need one more person to fill it out… Normally, I couldn’t really ask you to fill out the survey when the paper has gotten dirty like this..”

Sun Ha looked up at him with clear, serene eyes, as if to say “right?” with her expression.