Even after Friday's meeting ended and the weekend passed, the university carried on as if nothing had happened.
By Monday morning, Yeon-ju was sitting in a classroom again.
On Friday evening, eight strangers had sat around one table, talking.
One of them had directly asked Su-yeon if it was okay to text the upperclassman she liked.
Even after seeing that, Su-yeon had said, 'We haven't even started yet.'
After pulling something like that.
The professor said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world,
"You remember the group project I mentioned last time, right?"
Yeon-ju returned to reality.
Huge letters appeared on the screen at the front of the classroom.
Market Analysis Project
A small groan came from the seat beside her.
"Oh."
Yeon-ju made the same sound inwardly.
The professor didn't care in the slightest.
"Decide which company you'll analyze by the end of this week, and next week, bring in your reasons for choosing it and your plan for collecting data."
The sound of laptop keyboards began coming from all around the room.
Yeon-ju opened her file too.
There were four people in her group.
One of her major classmates, whom she'd first become close with after starting school.
One female classmate she'd spoken to a few times in class.
And one male classmate she'd exchanged only a few words with so far.
Group projects were strange.
You suddenly had to create a single finished product with someone whose name you'd known only since yesterday.
"Want to talk for a minute after class?"
Her classmate beside her whispered.
Yeon-ju nodded.
"Yeah."
"Where?"
"The student union building?"
"It's way too crowded there these days."
"The library?"
"We can't talk there."
True.
Four people couldn't hold a meeting if they were only allowed to whisper.
Yeon-ju made a note in the corner of her screen.
Decide on a meeting place.
The professor's explanation continued.
Sources of data.
Presentation format.
Grading criteria.
Yeon-ju took notes quickly.
Then she looked at what she was writing and almost chuckled.
Date.
Goal.
Things to check.
Roles.
It wasn't all that different from organizing ILY's counseling records.
'When you look at it this way, everything's pretty similar.'
When people gathered to do something, it ultimately came down to organizing who would do what.
Yeon-ju focused on the lecture again.
After class, the four of them gathered briefly at the back of the classroom.
"What company should we do?"
That was the first question anyone asked.
No one answered.
Yeon-ju waited with her laptop in her arms.
The male classmate spoke.
"If we pick a really big company, there'll probably be a lot of data."
"But everyone else will probably pick one too."
"That's true."
"What about a cafe?"
Yeon-ju's classmate asked.
"A franchise?"
"Yeah."
"That could work."
The conversation gradually continued.
In the end, they decided not to choose one today. Each of them would find two or three candidates and they'd decide at their next meeting.
The problem was the next meeting.
"Wednesday, during our free period?"
"Works for me."
"Me too."
Yeon-ju checked her class schedule too.
"I'm good too."
"What about the location?"
Silence again.
Just then, she heard two male students up front, who were packing their bags, talking.
They were students from the same major.
"Hey, let's go there."
"Where?"
"The cafe next to the central library."
"Oh, that place?"
The other guy laughed.
"You're not going there for coffee."
"Why not? I can drink coffee too."
"You're going to look at the girl by the window."
Yeon-ju zipped up her bag without giving it much thought.
But one of her group members across from her pricked up her ears.
"What are they talking about?"
Yeon-ju found herself paying a little more attention too.
The guys' voices weren't especially quiet.
"Think she'll be there today too?"
"She's there almost every day."
"Not every day."
"She is whenever she doesn't have class."
"How do you know that?"
A brief silence.
The friend beside him burst out laughing.
"You're kind of scary."
"What? She's famous."
"What's famous?"
Another student joined in.
The first guy spoke as if he'd been waiting for someone to ask.
"There's someone who always sits by the window there."
"Who?"
"A seriously beautiful girl."
"That doesn't tell me much."
"The one who uses a laptop."
"Oh."
The other guy seemed to know exactly who he meant.
"Not long hair, but hair that comes down to her shoulders?"
"That's her."
"I've seen her too."
Yeon-ju's hand stopped.
Hair that came down to her shoulders.
A beautiful girl.
A laptop.
Someone who was constantly typing something.
One person came to mind.
Yeon-ju immediately dismissed it.
'Surely not.'
There wasn't just one pretty person at school.
And there were even more college students who used laptops.
But the guys continued talking.
"I'm telling you, she's the reason that cafe does so well."
"That's a bit much."
"I'm serious. The window seats fill up first because of her."
"The owner should put her on the payroll."
"As a promotional model."
"Does she know?"
"Who knows?"
One of Yeon-ju's group members laughed.
"Guys really will talk about anything."
Yeon-ju laughed too.
"Seriously."
But for some reason, she couldn't get one person out of her head.
Jo Hyun-ah.
She often used her laptop in the club room too.
Neat clothes.
Straight hair that fell to her shoulders.
And a face that was obviously beautiful.
'It can't be.'
Yeon-ju thought it over once more.
But then one of her group members said,
"The cafe next to the central library would be a good place to meet, though."
"Oh."
Yeon-ju looked up.
"Are there plenty of seats?"
"I went once, and it was nice. Lots of outlets too."
Another group member spoke.
"Then should we meet there?"
"Wednesday?"
"Yeah."
Yeon-ju nodded.
"Sounds good."
She had to prepare for the project anyway.
She also had to find some company candidates.
And she still had about an hour and a half of free time today.
Stopping by the cafe to do a little research wouldn't be a bad idea.
Definitely.
She was not going because she was curious who sat by the window.
Probably.
The cafe next to the central library was bigger than Yeon-ju had expected.
The windows were so wide that the inside was clearly visible from outside.
Yeon-ju slowed her steps a little as she headed toward the entrance.
The window seat.
Someone was there.
One person.
She was sitting with a laptop open in front of her.
She stood out even from a distance.
The afternoon sunlight streamed through the glass, stretching across the table.
The woman seemed barely aware of the light, looking only at her screen.
She rested her chin lightly on one hand and read the screen for several seconds.
Then she suddenly placed both hands on the keyboard.
She typed quickly.
And stopped again.
Thought.
Deleted.
Wrote again.
Without realizing it, Yeon-ju slowed down.
'Wow.'
She could understand why the guys had talked about her that way.
With a little exaggeration, she looked like she belonged in a painting.
The window.
The laptop.
The sunlight.
And a striking face.
The fact that she seemed completely unaware of anyone looking her way only drew the eye more.
Yeon-ju took a few more steps forward.
The woman's profile came into sharper focus.
Straight hair falling to her shoulders.
Familiar clothes.
Familiar facial features.
Yeon-ju narrowed her eyes.
'Wait.'
One step.
Two steps.
And then.
"...It really is her."
It was Jo Hyun-ah.
Yeon-ju stopped for a moment in front of the cafe entrance.
The person she'd suspected was actually there.
For a moment, she wondered whether to just go in or not.
Hyun-ah was focused.
If Yeon-ju spoke to her for no reason, she might be interrupting.
But she had to go into the cafe anyway.
Yeon-ju opened the door.
Jingle.
A small bell rang.
Hyun-ah didn't look up.
Yeon-ju ordered a drink at the counter.
After taking her number tag, she slowly looked around as if searching for a seat.
There were empty seats.
She had no reason to go over to Hyun-ah.
But.
It felt strange to come all this way and pretend she hadn't seen her.
Yeon-ju carefully made her way toward the window.
The closer she got, the more of the laptop screen she could see.
Long sentences.
Lines broken into short bits, like dialogue.
Then another long sentence.
It didn't look like an assignment.
Yeon-ju stopped a little distance from the table.
"Hyun-ah."
The keyboard stopped.
Hyun-ah looked up.
It was the same face Yeon-ju saw in the club room every day.
And yet, maybe because she was sitting by the window, she seemed like a slightly different person.
Hyun-ah blinked once.
"Yeon-ju?"
"Hi."
"What brings you here?"
"A project."
Yeon-ju lifted her bag slightly.
"I was looking for a seat..."
Hyun-ah glanced around.
Then she pointed to the chair across from her.
"Want to sit here?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Yeon-ju hesitated, then pulled out the chair.
"Then I'll just stay for a bit."
"Make yourself comfortable."
Hyun-ah looked back at her laptop screen.
Yeon-ju set down her bag.
Just then, the buzzer for her drink went off.
When she returned with her drink, Hyun-ah was typing again.
Yeon-ju sat across from her and took out her laptop.
For a while, neither of them said anything.
Hyun-ah worked on her own thing.
Yeon-ju searched for information for the group project.
Strangely, it wasn't awkward.
There was always someone talking in the club room.
Su-yeon teasing someone.
Yeon-ju asking questions.
Do-hee appearing for a moment and then disappearing.
But now the two of them were sitting across from each other, each looking only at her own screen.
It wasn't bad.
Yeon-ju typed a few company names into the search bar.
Market share.
Recent performance.
Core businesses.
As she skimmed the information, she heard a sigh from beside her.
It was very quiet.
Yeon-ju looked up.
Hyun-ah was staring at her screen with a slight crease between her brows.
Then she dragged across the sentence she'd just written.
Delete.
Yeon-ju asked,
"Having trouble writing it?"
Hyun-ah looked up.
"What?"
"Oh."
Yeon-ju suddenly felt self-conscious.
"You kept writing and then deleting it."
Hyun-ah glanced at the screen.
"I got a little stuck."
"Is it an assignment?"
"No."
"Then..."
Hyun-ah turned her laptop screen just slightly toward Yeon-ju.
"A script."
Yeon-ju's eyes widened.
"You're really writing a TV drama script?"
"I'm still practicing."
"Still."
Yeon-ju stole a glance at the screen.
Character names.
Short lines of dialogue.
Scene descriptions.
It definitely wasn't an assignment.
"You told me before that you wanted to become a TV writer."
"You remembered."
"Yeah."
Hyun-ah turned the screen back toward herself.
"So I write a little whenever I have free time."
"Do you come here often?"
"Yeah."
Yeon-ju closed her mouth.
Hyun-ah narrowed her eyes.
"Why?"
"It's nothing."
"What is it?"
Yeon-ju fidgeted with the straw in her cup.
Could she say it?
The conversation she'd overheard in the classroom a little while ago came back to her.
She might embarrass Hyun-ah for no reason.
But apparently, her expression had given too much away.
Hyun-ah said,
"You heard something, didn't you?"
Yeon-ju's eyes widened.
"How did you know?"
"People usually look like that when they do."
"What kind of look is it?"
"The look of someone who wants to say something but is wondering whether they should."
Yeon-ju thought briefly of Su-yeon.
'Why is she good at reading people too when she isn't even a psychology major?'
In the end, she said carefully,
"Did you know you're famous here?"
Hyun-ah's expression barely changed.
"For what?"
Yeon-ju grew even more flustered.
"Um... because of you."
"Because of me?"
"Yeah."
Hyun-ah thought for a few seconds.
Then she said,
"Oh."
She was so calm about it.
Yeon-ju asked,
"You know?"
"Sort of."
"Really?"
"A friend told me."
Yeon-ju lowered her voice for no reason.
"That male students come here to see you..."
"I heard that too."
"And that you're the reason the cafe's sales are so high."
Hyun-ah smiled a little for the first time.
"That's the first I've heard of that."
"They were joking."
"That's a relief. I was wondering if I should ask for a salary."
Yeon-ju laughed.
Hyun-ah seemed more unfazed than she'd expected.
"Doesn't it bother you?"
Hyun-ah didn't answer right away.
She ran a finger once along the edge of her laptop.
"I can't stop people from looking."
"Even so."
"I'd hate it if they kept trying to talk to me or followed me."
Hyun-ah said it matter-of-factly.
"If they just look and leave, I try not to care."
Yeon-ju nodded.
Hyun-ah added,
"I used to think about switching cafes."
"But you still keep coming here?"
"It's the most comfortable."
"Why?"
Hyun-ah answered as if it were obvious.
"There are lots of outlets."
Yeon-ju was quiet for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
Hyun-ah laughed along with her.
"Is that important?"
"I can't write if my laptop battery dies."
"Other cafes have outlets too."
"This one has them by the window."
Yeon-ju looked under the table.
There really was an outlet.
"...That's perfect."
"Right?"
Hyun-ah looked satisfied.
Yeon-ju thought about it.
The male students came to see the beauty by the window.
And the beauty sat by the window because of the outlet.
It was a somewhat anticlimactic truth.
Yeon-ju went back to searching for project data.
Hyun-ah returned to her script.
About ten minutes later, this time Yeon-ju sighed.
Hyun-ah asked,
"Having trouble?"
Yeon-ju turned her screen toward her.
"We have to choose a company candidate, but they all look the same."
"What kind of assignment is it?"
"Market analysis."
Yeon-ju explained the candidates she'd looked into so far.
A franchise cafe.
A cosmetics brand.
A delivery platform.
A clothing company.
Hyun-ah looked at the screen and asked,
"Which one seems easiest to do, Yeon-ju?"
"The easiest one?"
"Yeah."
Yeon-ju thought for a moment.
"The one with the most data?"
"Then why not do that one?"
"But I feel like it wouldn't be interesting if it's a company everyone picks."
"It's an assignment. Do you need it to be interesting too?"
"...A little."
Hyun-ah smiled.
"Then find one with plenty of data that you're curious about."
It sounded simple.
Yeon-ju looked over the candidate list again.
Then, without thinking, she glanced around the cafe.
"Would a cafe work?"
"Why?"
"After hearing you talk about this place."
Yeon-ju smiled as she spoke.
"People don't come to cafes just for coffee, right?"
Hyun-ah's hand, which had been resting on the keyboard, stopped.
Yeon-ju continued.
"They might come for the seating, to study, or because of the atmosphere."
Hyun-ah said,
"They might come to see someone."
"That would be kind of weird to analyze."
"There are all sorts of reasons in a market, aren't there?"
Yeon-ju thought about it briefly.
It made sense.
It wasn't just about looking at the product, but also at why people chose that place.
Yeon-ju wrote one line in her notes.
Reasons for visiting a cafe / location / spatial experience
Hyun-ah saw it and asked,
"Did you think of something?"
"A little."
"Then coming here today wasn't a waste."
Yeon-ju nodded.
"I guess not."
Then she suddenly remembered something.
"Hyun-ah."
"Yeah?"
"Does watching people help you when you write?"
"Watching people?"
"At ILY, you really..."
Yeon-ju searched for the right word.
"You think of things like scenes, don't you?"
Hyun-ah looked at Yeon-ju for a moment.
"Do I?"
"Yeah."
Yeon-ju thought back to preparing the four-on-four meeting.
Seating.
Conversation topics.
The flow.
Who sat where, and when someone would switch seats.
"I wondered if it was because you write TV dramas."
Hyun-ah thought for a moment.
"I'm not sure which came first."
"Which one?"
"Whether I write because I naturally see the relationships between people that way."
Hyun-ah's fingers rested lightly on the keyboard.
"Or whether writing made me start seeing the relationships between people that way."
Yeon-ju listened quietly.
"It could be both."
"I guess so."
Hyun-ah looked at the screen as she spoke.
"One conversation can change the mood."
She typed a line.
"A relationship can change because someone answered a little late."
She stopped again.
"I find things like that interesting."
As Yeon-ju listened, she asked,
"Is that why you said ILY was fun?"
Hyun-ah looked up.
It was what she'd said when Yeon-ju was considering joining the club in the club room.
That it was more fun than she expected once you joined.
"That's part of it."
"Because it's like watching a drama unfold in real life?"
Hyun-ah laughed.
"That makes me sound like a bad person."
"Why?"
"It sounds like I see people's love lives as entertainment."
"Oh."
"I don't like that."
Hyun-ah said it firmly.
"It's just..."
After thinking for a moment, she continued.
"I find it interesting that people don't move according to their own intentions."
Yeon-ju blinked.
"Even though you like making plans?"
"Exactly."
Hyun-ah laughed.
"If everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be interesting."
Yeon-ju thought back to the last meeting.
The seating arrangement had been wrong from the start.
The topics they'd prepared hadn't come up at the right time.
They'd ended up switching seats unexpectedly.
Woo-jin had suddenly gotten a meeting scheduled too.
Even so, Hyun-ah had kept changing the plan.
"You don't really hate it when plans go wrong?"
Hyun-ah's hand stopped.
Only for a moment.
"Other people's plans? No."
Yeon-ju didn't understand the answer right away.
"Other people's plans?"
Hyun-ah was already looking at the screen again.
"Yeah."
Then she added as if it were nothing,
"My own might be different."
Yeon-ju didn't ask any further.
But the words lingered strangely in her ears.
After about an hour, Yeon-ju had narrowed the company candidates down to three.
One of them was an actual cafe brand.
She also organized the information she would send to her group members.
In the meantime, Hyun-ah had written several pages and deleted about half of them.
Yeon-ju watched her and asked,
"Do you normally delete this much when you write?"
"I do."
"You've deleted a ton since earlier."
"When I don't like something."
"Don't you feel bad deleting it?"
"I hate leaving a sentence that doesn't fit even more."
Yeon-ju thought about that for a moment.
They were a little alike.
Yeon-ju hated having her data all jumbled up.
Hyun-ah seemed to hate it when a scene strayed from the flow she'd envisioned.
"You and I are kind of alike."
Hyun-ah looked up.
"How?"
"We both hate things that aren't organized."
Hyun-ah looked at Yeon-ju's screen.
There was a chart for each company candidate.
Company name.
Amount of data.
Pros.
Cons.
Analyzable areas.
Hyun-ah smiled.
"We really are."
"But I can't write."
"I can't do market analysis either."
"Isn't that obvious? You're not a business administration major."
"It's not like everyone in Korean literature can write."
Yeon-ju nodded.
True.
The two of them looked at their respective screens again.
By then, there were fewer people in the cafe.
As the sun dipped, the light by the window grew fainter too.
Yeon-ju suddenly thought of what she'd seen before entering the cafe.
The person sitting by the window, tapping away at her laptop.
From a distance, she'd really looked like a scene from a painting.
Up close, though.
She was someone who repeatedly wrote and deleted sentences.
Someone who insisted on this seat because of the outlet.
Someone who talked about cafes with a junior worried about her assignment.
She was just Jo Hyun-ah.
"Hyun-ah."
"Yeah?"
"Can I work on my assignment here again next time?"
Hyun-ah looked up.
"You don't need my permission."
"I mean, if you're here, can I sit with you again?"
Hyun-ah looked at Yeon-ju for a moment.
Then she smiled.
"Of course."
"I won't bother you."
"You weren't much of a bother today."
Yeon-ju nodded.
Then she looked back at her laptop screen.
For a while, the only sound between them was the tapping of keyboards.
Yeon-ju organized the data for her group project.
Hyun-ah wrote dialogue for characters whose names Yeon-ju didn't even know yet.
Before long, the cafe lights had replaced the sunset glow at the window seat.
Yeon-ju pressed Save.
Across from her, the sound of the keyboard continued.
They didn't talk anymore.
Even so, it wasn't awkward.
8. The Person by the Window — End.