"So you're running away again."
Jiwoo turned around with a start. Tae-hyung was leaning against the open door, his arms crossed, his face as black as thunder. She pressed the envelope in her hands close to her chest, trembling. He was supposed to return tomorrow. What was he doing here in the company late at night?
"I..." she swallowed. "I don't know what you mean. What are you doing he—?"
"That's a resignation letter, isn't it?" he interrupted, nodding at the envelope. "You're about to put that on my table. Are you resigning?"
She bit her lip. "W-well, I—"
"You're running away again."
"I'm not—"
"Then why are you resigning?"
He wasn't giving her time to think, she realized anxiously. He wasn't giving her a chance to come-up with a lie.
Summing up the little bit of courage she had, she lifted her chin and said as coldly as she could,"I thought it was time for a career change."
"Bullshit," he snapped and she winced."You've only been in the company for what? Three months? You're running away from me again, Jiwoo."
She shook her head furiously. "I told you. I'm not—"
She stopped talking when Tae-hyung straightened and stormed towards her. He ripped the envelope from her hands and she gasped. Tossing it aside, he leaned in, caging her with his hands on the desk behind her.
"Step back," she whispered, pushing at his chest.
"I won't allow it," he muttered bitterly. "I finally found you and I fucking won't allow you to disappear from my life again."
She stopped struggling and blinked up at him.
"I searched for you. When you didn't show up in the library, I searched for you."
Her eyes went wide.
He looked for her? Tae-hyung looked for her?
"I didn't know what school you went to. All I knew was your name. It was the only clue I had. "
Her... her name?
No.
Jiwoo stared at him with dawning horror.
No way.
No, no, no—
***************
Jiwoo Jeon.
Jiwoo stared at her name beneath Tae-hyung's on the library card. Then she smiled. Soon, if she was lucky, if she'd ever got the chance to confess to him and he'd fall for her, her name would be Jiwoo Kim.
She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from squealing. Her crush on him was only a week old but she was already sure of her future with him. Then her humor disappeared as her gaze moved around the library cards she'd filled. With a start, she realized what this must look like to another person's eyes and cringed.
Maybe she shouldn't write her real name. It was embarrassing to be caught stalking Tae-hyung plus she'd die if she got found out by someone who knew her.
So she erased her last name and put the word Kang instead.
Then she grinned.
Good thing the librarian was old and her eyes weren't the same anymore.
Nodding quietly to herself, feeling pleased with her smart plan, she handed the books to the librarian and had them checked out.
***************
"You didn't," Tae-hyung muttered in a pissed tone when the silence stretched. "Please tell me you didn't."
"I-I-I'm sorry," she breathed.
"God," he sighed. "God, I thought your parents divorced when I saw your resume and saw that you've changed your last name."
He looked so forlorn that she couldn't help but touch his cheek. "Tae-hyung..."
But she was quick to jerk it back when he glared at her again. "When you ran out of the library and never came back, I went to all the schools in the city where the girls wear white button-ups and blue skirts to search for you," he said, his voice rising with every word. "With your fake name. I asked around if they knew a Jiwoo Kang! Do you know how many schools there were that had uniforms like that?"
She slowly shook her head and watched his face go hard.
"Six. Six fucking schools. It would have been easy if I'd seen you with your blazer or school necktie or ribbon but damn it, why'd you have to remove them whenever you were in the library?"
"I-It was stuffy and warm in the lib," she reasoned. "And I hated wearing the school ribbon."
"I asked around those six schools. Fucking hell, everyday after class, even after the school year ended, I went to those schools because I was desperate to find you."
"Why?" she asked, tears springing up her eyes, hope springing up in her chest. "Why did you look for me?"
But she already knew the answer before he even said it. She was just too angry, too bitter and self-protective to see it clearly before. But now, with her eyes and her heart opening to him with his revelation, she now knew why.
It was the reason he searched for her.
It was the reason he relentlessly pursued her.
It was the reason he never gave up on asking her those questions.
"It's because I love you, Jiwoo."