THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU

The second call lasted even shorter than the first. Straight to voicemail. No ringing, no electronic trill of hope, just the immediate, flat tone of a digital dead end.Nari stared at the screen of her phone, her brows knitting together as the reflection of the faculty lounge’s fluorescent lights gleamed off the glass. "Okay… now you’re doing too much," she whispered to the empty room.She lowered the phone slowly, exhaling a long, shaky breath through her nose. She dragged a hand through her hair, which was pulled into a professional, unforgiving bun that felt a little too tight today. The room suddenly felt smaller, the silence louder. It was as if the walls of the Geography Department had quietly leaned in to watch her spiral, mocking the woman who prided herself on being the most composed lecturer at the university.He wouldn’t just disappear. Not Ren.Ren was the constant. Ren was the man who knew her sleep schedule better than her own mother. He was the one who sent her messages at 3:00 AM when she was grading papers, reminding her that her worth wasn't tied to her productivity. He was the person she had never seen, yet the only person who truly saw her.A knock didn’t come. The door simply burst open with the kind of violence only a best friend could justify.“Nari, if you’re pacing like a divorced aunt again, I’m legally allowed to intervene. ”Nari turned sharply, her "Professor Kim" mask sliding into place a second too late. “Yena, can you not just "Her words cut off as Yena leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, eyes scanning her from head to toe with exaggerated suspicion. Yena was the antithesis of the department: colorful, loud, and entirely unimpressed by academic prestige.“…Oh,” Yena said slowly, straightening. “It’s worse than I thought.” “What is?” Nari asked, smoothing out the invisible wrinkles in her pencil skirt.“You look like someone who hasn’t been texted back. And not just by anyone. By The One.”Nari blinked, her heart skipping a beat she refused to acknowledge. She scoffed, turning back to her desk and shuffling a stack of syllabi that were already perfectly aligned. “I always look like this. It’s called being a professional, Yena. You should try it sometime.” “Liar,” Yena shot back immediately. She walked into the room, her heels clicking rhythmically on the linoleum before she flopped dramatically onto the small velvet sofa in the corner. “This is your ‘I’m fine’ face. Which, for the record, is very different from your ‘he hasn’t texted me back and I’m about to lose my mind but I refuse to admit its face. The jaw is tighter. The eyes are twitchier. It’s very unbecoming for a woman of your… stature.” “I am not losing my mind.” “Mhm.” “I’m not.”“Nari, you’ve checked your phone seventeen times since I walked into the building, let alone this room. I saw you through the glass partition. You looked like you were waiting for a heart transplant notification.” “…It has not been that long,” Nari muttered, though her hand instinctively reached for her pocket.Yena was faster. She lunged, snatching the phone off the desk before Nari could stop her.“Give it back, Yena! That’s a violation of everything!” “Nope.” Yena held the phone high, already swiping. She knew the passcode; they had no secrets, or at least, that was the rule Yena enforced. “Let’s see. The man. The myth. The provider of the soft life. Ah, the 'Butterfly' app. Honestly, the name of this chat platform is so saccharine it makes my teeth ache.”“Yena ”“Last message…” Yena’s voice shifted, dropping into a dramatic, velvety imitation of what she imagined a romantic lead would sound like. “Eat properly today. And don’t skip lunch again, Butterfly. I’ll know if you’ve been living on iced Americanos and spite.” Yena paused, her expression softening into something genuinely surprised. She looked up at Nari, who was currently trying to melt into the floorboards.“Oh, you’re in deep,” Yena whispered. “Nari, this isn't just a digital fling. This man is out here worried about your blood sugar.” Nari lunged for the phone, snatching it back with a glare that had no real heat behind it. She clutched it to her chest as if it were a holy relic. “I told you to stop reading our chats. It’s private.”“I told you to marry him already, yet here we are. Six months of talking and you still haven't sent him a picture of your face? You’re a masochist.” Nari turned away, her thumb tracing the edge of the phone. The warmth in her cheeks was becoming a permanent fixture. “It’s not funny, Yena. It’s... it's safe. He doesn't know I'm Professor Kim, to the disappointment of the Kim family. He doesn't know I have a mother who checks my weight every Sunday. To him, I’m just a woman who likes maps and old poetry.”Yena’s expression softened properly now. She got up and placed a hand on Nari’s shoulder. “…He hasn’t replied today?” Nari hesitated, the weight of the silence from the other side of the screen finally feeling heavy. She shook her head. “And he’s not picking up the voice-chat. He always says something in the morning. Even if it’s just a period or an emoji to let me know he’s awake.” “Maybe he’s just busy,” Yena offered. “The man has a job, presumably. Maybe he’s a spy. Or an underwater welder.” “He always says something,” Nari repeated, her voice small.That was the problem. Ren was not an "exceptional" kind of person. He was a man of discipline, of routine. In the six months since they’d met on the anonymous platform, he had been the most consistent thing in her life. More consistent than her father, more reliable than her tenure track.Suddenly, the phone in her hand buzzed. The vibration felt like an electric shock. Both women froze. Nari’s heart did something violent and unnecessary against her ribs as she looked down.Incoming Message.Yena gasped like she’d just witnessed a proposal. “OPEN IT!” “I know” “WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE, READ THE WORDS!” Nari turned away, her back to Yena, pressing the phone close to her face. It wasn't just a text. It was a voice-memo request. She hit accept and pressed the phone to her ear, her eyes fluttering shut.“...Hello?” she whispered.A pause. A static-filled silence that lasted only a second but felt like an eternity.Then“Hey, Butterfly.”The tension in her chest unraveled so quickly it almost made her dizzy. His voice was low, slightly raspy, as if he hadn't slept, but it carried that familiar, grounding warmth that always made her feel like she was coming home. “You disappeared,” she said, the words coming out before she could soften them into something more dignified.There was a quiet exhale on the other end. Then a low, familiar chuckle. “Missed me that much?”Nari pressed her lips together, her heart betraying her immediately. “No.” “Liar.” “I called you twice,” she insisted, her voice dropping.“I know. I saw. I was… tied up in a meeting that I couldn't walk out of. Trust me, I was looking at my phone the whole time, imagining you scowling at your screen.”Nari frowned, though a small smile was already fighting its way onto her face. “…And you’re laughing? You think it's funny that I was worried?” “I think you sound cute when you’re annoyed,” he cut in smoothly. “Did you eat? And don’t lie to me, Nari. I know the tone of your voice when you’re hungry.”“...Yes,” she lied.“Liar,” he said again, though there was no bite in it. “There’s a delivery arriving at your faculty building in ten minutes. Eat it. All of it. Don't share it with that chaotic friend of yours.”Nari’s eyes widened. She looked at Yena, who was currently mouthing WHAT IS HE SAYING while doing a little dance. “Ren, you can't just send food to my work. I told you, I don't want people asking questions.” “Then eat it in your office with the door locked,” he said, his voice dropping, becoming more intimate. “I didn’t like going that long without talking to you either. My day was… messy. You’re the only thing I wanted to deal with today.”Nari’s anger dissolved completely, replaced by a heat that had nothing to do with embarrassment. She felt seen. Even through a screen, across a city, she felt like this man was holding her.“…You’re very annoying,” she muttered, her voice barely a breath.“Yeah?” “…Yes.”“But you’re still smiling.”Nari blinked, glancing at her reflection in the dark window of her office. He was right. She was beaming. “I’m not smiling.” “Mm. Whatever you say, Butterfly. I have to go back in. My… colleagues are looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. I’ll text you tonight?” “Okay,” she said softly.“And Nari?” “Yes?” “Don't call me Babycakes again unless you mean it. It’s dangerous for my health.”Nari froze, her face turning a shade of red that was surely medically concerning. “That that was a typo! I told you!”His quiet laugh slipped through the phone one last time, satisfied and deep. “Talk to you later.”The line went dead.Nari stood there for a long moment, the silence of the room no longer feeling oppressive. It felt full.Behind her, Yena fell backwards onto the sofa in silent, violent shock. “He sent food? He called you Butterfly? Nari, if you don’t marry this man, I am going to find his IP address and marry him myself.”Nari didn't answer. She just looked at her phone, her thumb tracing the last message.The silence of the morning was gone, replaced with something warm. Familiar. And as she looked at the clock, realizing her first lecture was about to start, she felt a surge of confidence she hadn't felt in weeks.She had no idea that the "messy" day Ren had described was only just beginning. And she had no idea that in less than an hour, the man behind that voice would be sitting in the third row of her classroom, watching her with the same intensity she felt through the phone.