Chapter 5: A Half-Hearted Yes
1003 Words
By
Femina Ashik
That night, Min-ji could not stop thinking about the girl who had confessed to Ji-hoon.
She kept telling herself it was nothing. It was only something she had happened to see. Ji-hoon had rejected the girl gently, and that should have been the end of it. Still, the scene stayed in her mind longer than she wanted. She found herself replaying the way he had stood there, calm and unreadable, while the girl struggled to find her words.
By the time she returned to her dorm room, her thoughts were still scattered.
Her roommates were already there, talking casually as they folded clothes and arranged things on the shelves. The room was warm with the sound of their voices, but Min-ji stayed quiet as she sat on her bed and pulled her phone from her bag.
One of her friends noticed at once.
“You’ve been strange since you got back,” she said. “What happened?”
Min-ji looked up. “Nothing happened.”
Her friend narrowed her eyes. “That answer always means something happened.”
Before Min-ji could respond, the others turned the conversation toward love. One of them was speaking about a boy from another class, another was complaining about how difficult relationships were, and soon the room was filled with teasing laughter.
“So,” one of them said, leaning back on her chair, “What about you, Min-ji? Are you ever going to fall in love?”
Min-ji gave a small, dry laugh. “No.”
“Not even a little?”
“There is no one.”
That answer made her roommates laugh louder.
One of them shook her head. “You say that as if you’re above love.”
“Maybe she is,” another said. “Maybe Min-ji is going to become a saint.”
Min-ji frowned. “Stop saying strange things.”
So-young, who had been watching all of this with amusement, turned toward Min-ji with a knowing smile. “Yes, yes. Our Min-ji doesn’t need to find a boyfriend.”
Min-ji glanced at her. “Why are you saying it like that?”
So-young only smiled more. “Because with her beauty, handsome guys will be lining up behind her soon enough.”
The room burst into laughter.
Min-ji’s face warmed instantly. “So-young.”
“What?” So-young said innocently. “I’m just saying the truth.”
“You should be quiet.”
“But it is true.”
Min-ji rolled her eyes and looked away, though she could feel the teasing in the room settling around her like warm noise. She tried to act annoyed, but some part of her mind was still elsewhere, still stuck on Ji-hoon and that quiet moment from earlier.
Before the conversation could go further, her phone rang.
Min-ji glanced at the screen and saw her mother’s name.
She answered at once. “Hello?”
Her mother’s voice came through clearly and warmly. “Min-ji, we’re coming to Seoul tomorrow.”
Min-ji sat up a little. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Your father has woek there, and we’ve also been invited to dinner by some family friends.”
Min-ji frowned slightly. “Family friends?”
“Yes,” her mother said. “They want to meet you too. So dress nicely and come with us.”
Min-ji’s expression changed at once. “I don’t want to come to dinner.”
Her roommates looked over at her, suddenly interested again, but she lowered her voice and turned slightly away.
Her mother paused on the other end of the call. “Why not?”
“I just want to meet you and dad alone,” Min-ji said. “You don’t have to ask me to join them.”
Her mother’s tone became firmer. “You shouldn’t speak like that. They are our family friends. We should respect their invitation.”
Min-ji sighed quietly.
She did not want to argue, and she also did not want to go. The idea of sitting at a family dinner with strangers felt exhausting after the day she had already had.
Still, she knew her mother would not accept refusal easily.
After a moment, she said, “Okay.”
But even she could hear the half-hearted way it came out.
Her mother seemed to notice too, though she did not push further. “Wear something proper,” she reminded her. “We will see you tomorrow.”
Min-ji murmured her agreement and ended the call.
For a moment, she simply sat there with the phone in her hand.
The room had become quieter now. Her roommates had returned to their own conversations, but So-young was still watching her with a small, curious smile.
“What now?” So-young asked.
Min-ji leaned back against the bed and let out a slow breath. “My parents are coming to Seoul.”
So-young’s eyes widened. “And?”
“And they want me to go to dinner with some family friends.”
So-young looked at her for a second, then smiled in a way that made Min-ji suspicious. “That sounds interesting.”
“It does not.”
So-young only laughed softly, but Min-ji could see the thought behind her expression. She knew So-young was already filing the information away, turning it over in her mind for later teasing.
Min-ji was too tired to care.
She looked down at her phone again, but her thoughts did not stay on her family for long. The memory of Ji-hoon returned quietly, as if it had been waiting in the corner of her mind all along.
The girl who confessed.
Ji-hoon’s calm voice.
The way he had rejected her without hesitation.
Min-ji wondered what that meant, though she did not say it aloud.
Then, more quietly, she wondered whether Ji-hoon ever thought about her the way she thought about him.
The thought made her uneasy.
She turned her face away and tried not to let anyone notice how distracted she had become all over again.
- Writer
