Almost Lover

Chapter 4 - Apologies and Mysteries

"Minjoo-ssi," he began. Minjoo uncomfortably shifted in her seat. "I'm sorry for all the things I've done to you back then. I'm sorry I don't remember you," he said then looked down at his hands as he tapped his thumbs against each other. "Do you harbor any resentment toward me?" he asked.

Minjoo slowly shook her head. She was either lying about not hating Youngwoo or was now admitting that all the words and acts of hatred she had said and shown toward Youngwoo before were just a part of an elaborate dramatic scheme to catch his attention.

"You don't? So then are you in love with me?" Youngwoo asked. Indeed, blatant narcissism and nauseating vanity ran in the Lee family.

Minjoo's eyes flew wide open. "Say what?"

"Do you love me?" Youngwoo repeated. I smiled to myself. This is getting interesting, I thought.

Minjoo snorted. "Now, why would I love you?"

Youngwoo didn't reply, and we sat there in silence for a while, waiting for our food, staring at spaces other than our faces. Just as I felt my stomach growl, the waiter came with our dishes. A fancily garnished yellow fin chutoro roll for me, an equally well-presented Kobe beef Bulgogi and brown rice for Minjoo, and...

What? RAMYUN for Lee Youngwoo? What the heck?

"You came to this fancy restaurant just to order ramyun?" I commented with sarcasm.

"What? They make the best ramyun. It's first class," Youngwoo said before digging into his steaming hot soup. I smiled to myself. I now realized that Youngwoo was somewhat... special with a more or less borderline personality.

We ate in silence for a while; Minjoo and I were enjoying our high-priced dishes and Youngwoo was savoring his "first class," albeit cheap, ramyun.

When we finished our food, Minjoo excused herself to go to the restroom and pulled me along to go with her, leaving Youngwoo all by himself at the table.

"Minjoo, wasn't it too rude for us to leave him by himself?" I asked when we reached the restroom.

"It doesn't matter. He's been rude to us many times before," Minjoo replied before going to a stall.

When we both came out to wash our hands, Minjoo said, "Do you know why he's acting a little weird?"

"Weird? You mean nice?" I asked.

"Yeah, nice is a synonym for weird if you're Lee Youngwoo," she said. "Anyways, I think he's threatened by you, Sunmi."

"Huh? What do you mean threatened by me?" I asked while wiping my hands dry.

"I could see it on his face. The way he looked at you. He seemed uneasy. I think maybe he's annoyed that somebody could actually stand up to him, and now he can never step all over me because you are there to protect me, just like last night."

"Oh, you think so?" I asked, amused by the idea.

Minjoo gave me a very cheerful nod.

"Then, I guess that's a good thing, right?" I added before we went back to our table.

I felt Youngwoo's eyes studying us curiously as we sat back on our seats, but I pretended I was not aware. I wondered what was going on in his mind right now. He was still eating his second bowl of ramyun, and it seemed like he had been thinking a lot with every bite he took. After a while, I heard him clear his throat. This throat-clearing was really starting to get on my nerves. I looked up and saw him look at me, wiping his mouth with his napkin, and then back to Minjoo before he leaned on the backrest of his chair. "I want to make it clear that... uh..." he said, squinting at me and Minjoo, "unconventional dating is not allowed in my company."