‘A Meeting Written in the Stars’

“…Excuse me?”

The one who asked back dumbfoundedly wasn’t the man staggering from the alcohol, but Hanna.

And for good reason—those two words, “My company,” were entirely too short to gauge his intent.

Did he mean he was the other man’s associate, or was he pretending to be hers…?

Hanna tried to turn back toward the man, but he preemptively pulled her shoulder flush against his chest and added, “Hey. I said she’s with me.”

“Ah, your company~ Your company~”

Despite his rather sharp tone, the drunken man just giggled repeatedly.

He had likely noticed it was a lie, but that didn’t matter much to Beomgyo.

Tilting his chin crookedly, he tightened his grip on the man’s forearm even further and added, “Now that you understand, you should let go.”

The man, whose arm felt as if it might snap from the sheer grip strength, released Hanna’s wrist as if shaking her off, but this time he swung a fist upward.

“You motherf*cker…!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. This guy is completely wasted, totally wasted. Please excuse us.”

If his friends hadn’t rushed across the sandy beach at that exact moment to hastily grab the man’s arms, a fight would have undoubtedly broken out.

Staring intently at the man who screamed a string of curses while being dragged away by his friends, Hanna only hurriedly spun around after sensing the hand retreating from her shoulder.

“Thank you for helping me…”

She quickly folded her waist into a polite bow and stood up, but she couldn’t bring herself to raise her head.

The moment her back had brushed against his chest earlier, she had felt something hard right behind her waist.

Was his claiming to be her company purely out of goodwill, or had he approached with another motive altogether…?

Unable to erase her underlying distrust, Hanna instinctively glanced down at the man’s waistline.

Just as Hanna flinched at the stark, prominent contour outlined against his black pants, the man’s large hand abruptly thrust forward, blocking her vision.

“What are you looking at? A kid shouldn’t be so bold.”

“…Huh? No, that’s not what I…!”

In an instant, Hanna was mortified to find herself branded as a woman who sneaked a peek at a man’s lower body.

In the midst of her panic, she couldn’t very well demand to know if he was the one sporting an erection right now, so she merely let her lips part and close soundlessly, prompting the man to let out a smirk.

Feeling unjustly accused, Hanna snapped her head up, but the moment she saw the man’s face, her tongue tied up in utter absurdity.

Her gaze flowed continuously from his sharply defined brows and high-bridged nose down to the masculine, angular jawline beneath his neat lips.

How can a person look like this…?

The where Hanna had been employed didn’t just sell flowers. Men and women alike—people who looked like flowers—were treated as commodities, so the place was crawling with beautiful and stunning individuals.

Yet the man before her exuded an aura she had never witnessed even there.

How should she put it? Rather than simply being handsome… he felt like a real man.

“Hand over the camera.”

“What?”

Hanna, who had been staring blankly while searching for words to describe him, formed a stupid expression at the sudden demand.

Belatedly looking down at his hand still extended toward her, she pulled the camera tightly to her chest and raised eyes full of wariness.

“You want me to give it to you? Why?”

Casting a pathetic look downward as if wondering if she thought he would actually steal such a piece of junk, Beomgyo’s lips parted slowly.

“You have a Seoul accent, aren’t you here on a trip?”

“It’s not exactly a trip… but it’s true I came from Seoul…”

“Anyway. Did you come all this way just to take pictures of the sea?”

So, what those words meant was that he was offering to take a picture of her.

When Hanna merely blinked her wide, round eyes at the strange man’s abrupt kindness, he withdrew his hand as if he had nothing to lose.

“Well, suit yourself.”

There seemed to be no hidden motive to the man who habitually reached his empty hand toward his inner jacket pocket before faintly knitting his brows.

If he really just intended to take a photo… After a brief hesitation, Hanna suddenly thrust the camera out in front of him.

“Then just one photo, please.”

As Beomgyo took it in stride, she began to take one, then two steps backward toward the crashing waves. Before long, she stopped at a reasonable distance, hovering awkwardly as if extremely self-conscious.

Realizing that was her signal that she was ready, Beomgyo lifted the camera—which was as tiny as her hands—only to freeze.

The camera model, with half the paint peeled off the logo, looked terribly familiar.

It was identical to the birthday present his father had bought for his younger sister by taking out a high-interest daily loan, after she had pestered him for months because of some sudden whim to own a camera.

No wonder it felt so damn irritating, whether it was a coincidence or what…

Knitting his brows faintly, Beomgyo framed Hanna within the small screen. Just as he was about to press the shutter, the focus locked, and the woman’s pale face—specifically her exceptionally red rims around her eyes—pierced through the low resolution.

So what she had been furiously wiping away with her sleeve wasn’t snot, but tears.

Becoming curious about something so trivial, Beomgyo narrowed his eyes.

This time, the woman’s long hair was disheveled by the harsh sea breeze. Tucking her strands behind her ear and habitually biting her plump lower lip, the woman kept glancing over here, seemingly finding it strange that the shutter hadn’t clicked yet.

The moment her eyes locked directly with his through the screen, blue veins popped up on the back of Beomgyo’s hand.

“Aren’t you going to take it?”

Click. The sound of the shutter echoed the split second Hanna finished speaking.

Blinking hard after the unannounced flash flared, Hanna wore a dazed expression.

“It shook. Again.”

Smirking faintly at her frozen, awkward posture, Beomgyo focused the camera once more and spoke.

“I-It’s fine. Please give it back.”

However, Hanna on the screen approached him rapidly first.

“Thank you.”

Quickly returning to her spot to take the camera back, she bowed her head and looked down at the captured photo.

The picture on the screen was not only blurry, but it had also perfectly captured her stupid expression.

But it didn’t matter. She hadn’t intended to take a pretty picture in the first place. The only reason Hanna had handed him the camera was because of Yeji.

Because she couldn’t abandon the hope that she might still be alive. Look at this, you. I actually went all the way to Busan thinking you were dead. Because of that foolish lingering attachment that perhaps she might share such a conversation with Yeji over a bowl of bland rice soup…

Hanna tightly gripped the camera in her hand, desperately swallowing down the surge of emotion.

Beomgyo, who had been silently looking down at her with both hands shoved into his pants pockets, suddenly parted his firmly closed lips.

“Do you really have company?”

Asking if she really had company—was he worried?

Hanna thought as she stared straight into Beomgyo’s gray eyes.

In truth, whatever his intent, her answer was already decided, yet the reason she hesitated was because the man before her felt uniquely like an adult.

Not just some mediocre grown-up who had simply aged, but a truly decent adult…

Since he was someone who hadn’t ignored a difficult situation, helped her, and even took care to give a stranger a photo to remember her trip by, she didn’t want to lie to him.

What a joke. Given her current plight, there was no greater hypocrisy than this.

“Yes… I have company.”

Letting out a dry, hollow laugh, Hanna murmured her somewhat delayed response.

Fortunately, the man didn’t press any further.

He merely nodded slowly, leaving a casual piece of advice before turning around.

“Busan’s sea is filthy. Go inside early before more fruit flies swarm you.”

Watching his retreating back quietly recede just as quietly as he had approached, Hanna pulled a business card from her coat pocket so as not to forget her purpose for coming all this way.

It was the exact card Yeji had carelessly tossed in when packing her bag.

In fact, the reason Hanna had been lingering by the beach until this hour was that she was waiting for the dead of night.

To be precise, the hour when the night streets grew loud.

Because only then could she meet the man said to be Yeji’s older brother.

<Beom-gyo CEO: Club Heaven. Seo>

Slowly reading down the name of the older brother Yeji had once mentioned on the card in her hand, Hanna raised her head again.

Subsequently confirming that the man from moments ago had vanished without a trace, she tightly crumpled the stiff paper.

Taking a taxi to the bustling district, Hanna walked and walked along the street lined with bars and clubs.

Whether it was Seoul or the provinces, there seemed to be little difference in these entertainment districts. Passing through the crowds of people staggering under the influence of alcohol, Hanna meticulously scanned the densely packed neon signs one by one.

Then, finally spotting the building that was her destination, she brought her steps to a halt.

<Club Heaven>

Staring for a moment at the neon sign shifting into a spectrum of colors, Hanna dropped her head and confirmed that the logo on the club’s sign matched the one on the business card.

Earlier in the evening, right when she arrived in Songjeong, she had already tried calling the number on the card once.

No matter if he was Yeji’s older brother, he was a stranger to her, so she couldn’t just blindly show up.

Thus, she had tried to make contact first to set up a separate meeting, but only a cold, automated recording flowed from the receiver.

[-The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and dial again.]

She couldn’t tell if he had changed his number in the meantime or if the number was wrong from the start. Of course, unable to just turn back now, Hanna had stubbornly made her way all the way here.

Yet, facing a club far larger in scale than she had anticipated, Hanna’s shoulders shrank back considerably.

When she had frantically boarded the train and fled Seoul, she hadn’t possessed a concrete plan.

The situation was chaotic, but looking back, it felt as though she had simply wanted to run far away using Yeji’s will as an excuse.

Having fled because she lacked the courage to correct the truth of Yeji’s death, she hoped someone else would resolve her ambiguous guilt instead.

The ‘someone else’ Hanna had in mind was precisely Yeji’s older brother.

“Seo Beomgyo…”

Just as she was staring at the club entrance where people were filtering in and out while softly murmuring his name, a man in a clean, sharp suit approached Hanna’s side.