From the moment he woke up in the hospital, Kim Min-seok’s short life had revolved around only two men. Those two were his entire world. So it was only natural that they kept surfacing in his mind.
Sitting in the café, Kim Min-seok watched the sun setting over the ocean. He remained there until the sea was swallowed by darkness before finally getting up. Wandering aimlessly around the bustling streets near the beach, he eventually came across a row of motels. He chose the cleanest one, which looked like it had been recently renovated, and walked in.
He paid for ten days in cash. For a moment, he worried that the staff might find it suspicious, but the employee handed over the key without any sign of concern, as if it was nothing unusual.
It turned out to be a good choice. The room was spotless and modern, even equipped with a computer in one corner. Since he had no phone and couldn’t look anything up, he was grateful for the computer. He immediately turned it on and accessed a job search website.
He set the search location to Haeundae, Busan. Since he had come all the way down to Busan, he didn’t want to leave Haeundae.
A long list of jobs appeared. Surprisingly, there were quite a few openings. He scanned through them, looking for something he could do. High school graduate, no work experience—a fatal résumé. Still, there were a few places willing to hire him, mostly restaurants and cafés in Haeundae.
Should he apply right away…? Or, since he was already at the beach and had money, should he take a few days to relax and enjoy the ocean?
He felt grateful for the money that allowed him the luxury of such a choice. Leaving the job postings open, he opened a new tab. After hesitating for a moment, he typed in Choi Sang-hyuk’s name.
“…Oh?”
Kim Min-seok’s eyes widened at the search results.
A photo and profile of Choi Sang-hyuk were displayed prominently on the screen. He was the CEO of a savings bank that specialized in private loans.
There weren’t any related news articles—just his profile. But regardless, his status was undeniably legitimate.
“So all that talk about him being some gangster was just bullshit?”
Kim Min-seok muttered to himself, staring at Choi Sang-hyuk’s picture. Thinking about it, if the man had been just some low-level thug, he wouldn’t have worked so tirelessly from morning until night.
“Unexpected… really unexpected.”
Still mumbling to himself, Kim Min-seok opened another tab and searched for Ha Jun-seo’s name. Just like before, a flood of photos, profiles, and articles appeared.
He placed the two profile pages side by side and stared at them for a while before letting out a quiet sigh.
After all that effort to run away from them, here he was, looking at their faces. It made him feel pathetically foolish.
And when he thought about it, the way he had left was just as pathetic. Running away without a word—wasn’t that the most cowardly thing he could have done? Shouldn’t he have left with confidence, declaring that he was going to live on his own?
But the truth was, he had never had that kind of courage.
To be honest, he didn’t want to leave them. He liked Choi Sang-hyuk. He liked Ha Jun-seo.
Even in the dream, Seo Ha-yoon had loved Choi Sang-hyuk and liked Ha Jun-seo.
He had cursed Seo Ha-yoon for keeping both men on a string, yet now, he was in no position to judge.
In the end, he was no different. He had no face to see them again. The mere thought of them asking him to choose between them had scared him so much that he had chosen to run away instead.
Kim Min-seok left both of their profiles open on the screen, then crawled onto the bed and hugged a pillow. Lying alone in a motel room after abandoning the warmth of their arms felt unbearably lonely and miserable. Every fiber of his being ached to run back to them right this second.
But morally, he just couldn’t.
As long as he was Seo Ha-yoon, he had to cleanly sort out these relationships. Whether he chose one of them or neither of them, he had to make a decision. Until he was ready to do that, staying away like this was the best course of action.
***
Honestly speaking, Seo Ha-yoon’s face was the type that granted an automatic pass in job interviews. It wasn’t easy to find a part-timer with his level of looks.
Kim Min-seok was hired on the spot at the first place he applied and started working that very day. They even said he could be hired as a full-time employee, but he declined and opted for a part-time position instead. If he became a full-time employee, he would be registered for the four major insurances, and that would undoubtedly put him on Choi Sang-hyuk’s radar.
Since he wasn’t in urgent need of money, he kept his working hours short. For now, he treated this time as his personal social adaptation training—working just enough to get used to society without overdoing it to the point of exhaustion.
Apart from the first few days, the job wasn’t difficult. The manager and other employees were all friendly, and even when he fumbled through tasks due to inexperience, they were patient and understanding. Of course, their kindness and leniency were probably influenced by Seo Ha-yoon’s dazzling appearance.
At first, he only worked behind the counter preparing drinks, but once he started handling customers, his looks began to shine in full force.
Every day, he received notes with phone numbers along with customers’ credit cards. Bold young women would outright ask for his number or his name. At first, he stammered awkwardly through these encounters, but he quickly learned how to handle them with a polite smile. His social adaptation was progressing smoothly.
After work, Kim Min-seok would go around Haeundae, searching for well-known restaurants to eat at. He would take strolls along the beach to digest his meals, or sit in ocean-view cafés, sipping coffee and watching people pass by. Maybe it was because he had so much time to sit and reflect while gazing at the sea, but he could feel himself growing more at ease, more stable.
Even the fact that he was Seo Ha-yoon—he was slowly starting to accept it.
But not everything was good.
He had rented a monthly room at the motel he first stayed in, and there were no major inconveniences in living there. The real problem was the deep loneliness that crept in at night.
In Kim Min-seok’s life, there had only ever been those two men. And for Seo Ha-yoon, it had been the same.
With them, he had everything. Without them, he had nothing.
Every night, as he lay alone in bed, he finally understood what it meant to be consumed by loneliness.
“…It’ll get better with time.”
Kim Min-seok lay on his side in the pitch-dark room, hugging his pillow tightly, murmuring to himself. But no matter what he told himself, he couldn’t do anything about the loneliness gnawing at his chest. More than once, he found himself hoping that those two men would come looking for him. And yet, at the same time, he was firm in his resolve never to be caught.
Time passed both slowly and quickly.
Before he knew it, he had received his first paycheck. To celebrate, he held a beer party all by himself in his motel room. He had grown close to some of the regular customers at the café, chatting with them casually. Every day, he exchanged silent nods with a dog that often strolled along the beach. He even made small talk with the kind auntie who ran his favorite restaurant. Little by little, Kim Min-seok was settling into life in Haeundae.
Of course, he hadn’t fully put down roots. Further inland, there was a bustling officetel district. He had checked out a few small officetels, wanting to rent a place of his own, but he never went through with any contracts. If he leased a place under Seo Ha-yoon’s name, Choi Sang-hyuk would surely catch wind of it. Because of that, he remained stuck in his rented motel room. The café had offered multiple times to hire him as a full-time employee, but he had to decline for the same reason.
Kim Min-seok knew the truth—he couldn’t live in this transient state forever. But he still lacked the courage to face those two men. More than that, he couldn’t bring himself to choose between them. The thought of being forced to make a decision between the two was so unbearable that he would rather endure the solitude of his so-called independence.
It was pathetic when he really thought about it. It hadn’t even been that long since he woke up in the hospital. The time he spent with those two men was incredibly short—so short that, if anything, he had spent more time alone in Haeundae than with them. Then why was he still hesitating between the two? How could he act as if he had fallen into some deep, dramatic love in such a short time?
Could it be that Seo Ha-yoon’s emotions had transferred to him? Was that why he couldn’t let go of either Choi Sang-hyuk or Ha Jun-seo?
Maybe. It was possible. After all, Kim Min-seok was nothing more than a personality created by Seo Ha-yoon. It made sense that he would be influenced by the original.
“Still, two-timing is just wrong. You fucking player.”
Kim Min-seok muttered under his breath, directing the words both at himself and at whatever remnants of Seo Ha-yoon might still exist within him.
And then he thought—this loneliness was his burden to bear.
