Chapter 158 – Episode 158 – Her X Her X Her (7)
“Hmm hmm~. Heung heu heung~ heu heung~.”
Sunday morning.
With a bright smile, Ye-hwa arrived at the studio, opened the door, and stepped inside.
Happiness.
Ye-hwa had been incredibly happy lately. Or rather, to be precise, she had been since three days ago.
Thursday at lunchtime.
When she had accidentally bumped into Chun Jin-hyun on the street, she had thought it was just an unlucky day. Seeing his face only reminded her of the unbelievable scene of him cheating and the pain he had caused her dear friend, Su-jeong.
However, meeting him had actually turned out to be incredibly fortunate.
He was still a bad guy, but if she had to say whether meeting him that day was good or bad, it was definitely ‘good.’
The diffuser he had given her performed beyond her imagination.
Thanks to it, Ye-hwa’s composing work had made great progress.
Her blocked inspiration had burst forth, and her work speed had increased dramatically. The peace of mind was a bonus. Even after finishing work, she didn’t feel very tired.
Recently, she had even received a request to create the BGM for her favorite manga, and she really wanted to deliver a great result. It seemed like she would be able to produce something beyond her expectations.
Happy emotions bloomed within her.
After setting up her laptop, Ye-hwa took out the diffuser, which she had carefully wrapped in a towel and placed in her handbag.
“Ah…”
As soon as she removed the towel, a subtle fragrance tickled her nose.
Sniff sniff.
A mesmerizing scent even from a distance.
Ye-hwa buried her nose in the diffuser and took a deep breath.
Ssshh.
“Haaa…”
It felt as if her brain was clearing up.
The fog in front of her eyes lifted.
Every time she smelled it, Chun Jin-hyun’s face still came to mind, but even without his face, the fragrance itself was incredibly captivating.
She wanted to keep smelling it.
She wanted to keep smelling it continuously.
“Okay. Hoo~, let’s focus today too.”
The period she had set for herself. The period for challenging herself with composing.
She wanted to achieve meaningful results within that time, and it seemed like she would be able to do it if she kept going like this.
Tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
Click click.
Wearing her headphones, she worked in various directions. Her eyes were unwavering, and her concentration did not falter.
Ye-hwa’s work, accompanied by the subtle fragrance, was truly unstoppable.
– Beep beep! Beep beep!
“Ah.”
Ye-hwa, startled by the alarm, looked at the time displayed in the bottom right corner of her laptop and smiled.
12:30 PM.
Lunchtime was approaching.
Feeling proud that she had focused without wasting a single moment, Ye-hwa picked up the diffuser again and took a deep breath.
Sniff sniff. Ssshh.
“Haaa…”
The fragrance filled her brain, and with a satisfied smile, Ye-hwa closed the studio door and went for a walk nearby.
Hmm.
What should I eat~.
Ye-hwa, humming a tune in her head as she strolled, wore a bright smile on her face.
Her face was already radiant, and with her smile, the gazes of the men passing by naturally turned towards her.
While attracting widespread attention on the street, Ye-hwa entered a Japanese restaurant.
Hwedupbap!
I’m craving hwedupbap today!
After filling her stomach with a generous serving of hwedupbap, two pieces of sushi, and some tempura, Ye-hwa returned to the studio with a satisfied expression.
Of course, she didn’t forget to buy a suitable sports drink at the convenience store on her way back.
“Ah, Luna Pui-rin is so cute…”
After taking a short break to watch some manga, Ye-hwa put her headphones back on and focused again, not losing her pleased smile.
Placing the diffuser that Chun Jin-hyun had given her next to her was essential.
“Okay. Let’s do our best.”
She set an alarm for 6:30 PM.
This fragrance filled her mind.
With the fragrance, Ye-hwa moved her fingers and fixed her gaze on the monitor. She worked with outstanding concentration.
However.
“Huh…?”
Why was it?
She couldn’t concentrate as much as before.
Her peace of mind had disappeared, and her happiness had decreased.
The frequency of inspiration had also significantly reduced.
“What is it…?”
Ye-hwa tilted her head and tried to concentrate again.
She could concentrate to some extent, but the gap from before was too big.
It was lacking.
Something was lacking.
It was severely lacking.
Just as she thought that, Ye-hwa suddenly sniffed the air in the studio.
“Huh…”
Once more.
Sniff sniff.
“Ah.”
It wasn’t a mistake.
For the past three days, Ye-hwa’s studio had been filled with Chun Jin-hyun’s scent.
But now, it wasn’t.
Ye-hwa picked up the diffuser next to her laptop.
Ssshh.
She buried her nose in it, deeply inhaling the scent coming from the diffuser.
“…”
However, there was no scent coming from the diffuser.
[Effect duration: 3 days.]
The phrase she had seen when she opened the box suddenly came to mind.
Three days had passed.
The diffuser no longer emitted any fragrance.
Chun Jin-hyun’s scent was gone.
Ye-hwa’s pupils shook violently.
******
“Hmm… it just looks like a plant model? This is a diffuser?”
“It really had a scent.”
“That’s amazing. You said you got it from that friend?”
“Yeah, Chun Jin-hyun gave it to me.”
Wednesday afternoon.
Two people were talking in the president’s office at Maelsoft.
Sitting in front of the authoritative desk in the president’s office was Jang Chan-gyu, Ye-hwa’s father, and sitting on the guest sofa was Jang Ye-hwa, sighing.
‘As expected, even Dad doesn’t know.’
Ye-hwa lamented inwardly.
To be honest, she had guessed it. That her father wouldn’t know.
No matter how successful and respectable her father was, what could she do if he wasn’t interested in diffusers in the first place?
Having a lot of information about society and knowing about diffusers were different things. It couldn’t be helped.
Her mother was the same.
Since both of her parents weren’t very interested in that kind of thing, they were using the products she had recommended for diffusers, shampoos, and such.
Ye-hwa sighed deeply.
In response to her sigh, Jang Chan-gyu opened his mouth.
“Was the scent that good?”
“Huh? Uh, uh-huh. It was amazing…”
The image of Chun Jin-hyun suddenly flashed in her mind, and Ye-hwa paused her words, as if she was being asked if she liked Chun Jin-hyun that much.
Jang Chan-gyu, who didn’t think much of it, nodded.
“Hmm. Well, I’ll ask my friends too. Honestly, I don’t know much about it.”
“Okay. I understand. Thank you. Then, I’ll go now.”
“Alright. Be careful, and you should go out and meet people more often.”
Tsk.
There it is again, that same old thing.
She thought he wouldn’t bring it up these days, but he had been waiting for an opportunity. Ye-hwa pouted and replied to her father.
She had been feeling a little lonely lately, for some reason.
“Ugh. Okay.”
“You always just say okay.”
“Then I didn’t know! Happy now?”
“Oh my, you’re so stubborn…”
Jang Chan-gyu sighed and looked at his daughter.
Honestly, even though he had brought up the topic of dating, Jang Chan-gyu wasn’t too worried. Objectively speaking, his daughter was a girl that anyone would want.
Honestly, he sometimes felt relieved by her iron wall rather than her getting involved with a bad guy and having a bad experience. Well, it would be good for her to date, but…
There would be a time for everything.
“Anyway. I’m really going now. And! Before you talk about my dating life, you should put on sunscreen first, Dad. You tanned your skin so much in Cambodia.”
“You sound exactly like your mother.”
“It’s because you never listen no matter how many times I tell you. What happened to the sunscreen I gave you last time?”
“I put it on, but it still happens.”
His daughter’s nagging was fierce. Jang Chan-gyu quickly changed the subject.
“Honey, should I buy you lunch later?”
“It’s okay~.”
“Take the souvenirs with you.”
“Ah, right. Thanks.”
Jang Ye-hwa left the office with the gift bag. Jang Chan-gyu watched his daughter leave.
“I didn’t expect her to come looking for me because of a perfume.”
Ah, it wasn’t perfume, it was a diffuser. Anyway, it was the same thing.
Well, I’ll just post it in the group chat.
Jang Chan-gyu thought as he uploaded a picture to the company chat and the group chats he was in.
But, honestly, there wasn’t anyone he thought would know.
******
“Haa…”
She got into her car and started the engine.
She had come all the way to her father’s office, which was almost a 30-minute drive, just to show him the item, but as expected, it was fruitless.
“Ugh. What am I doing, really.”
Ever since the diffuser’s scent had disappeared on Sunday, Jang Ye-hwa’s mind had been a mess.
In a way, she had just returned to normal.
She had always worked well without the diffuser before.
But once she had tasted that overwhelming concentration, stability, happiness, inspiration, and above all, that scent.
She wanted to smell that fatal scent again.
She thought she would be able to forget it after sleeping for one night. However, the more time passed, the more her longing for the scent grew.
No matter how deeply she buried her nose in the diffuser and took a deep breath, the scent that had been there before had disappeared as if it were a lie.
She wanted to smell the scent again.
She wanted to concentrate more.
Ye-hwa was trying to find out which company made this product through this plant model she had.
But no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find it.
‘It doesn’t exist?’
Yes.
It just didn’t exist.
Not only on the internet, but even when she asked her acquaintances, no one knew about it.
She had even signed up for community sites she never went to and asked around in various galleries.
But it was all in vain.
“Do I really have to ask him directly…?”
To be honest, there was a very simple way.
Chun Jin-hyun.
Probably the man who used that scent as a perfume.
If she asked the man who had given her the diffuser, he would surely know where it was from.
However.
[He has a lot of diffusers at home.]
[Don’t ask for more later. It’s very precious.]
[Ha, I won’t.]
“Ah, really…”
Ye-hwa grabbed her head.
How could she ask after saying that!
It wasn’t just about asking for more, but even asking for the product name felt wrong.
Her attitude towards him had been quite prickly. After treating him like that, now she was asking about the diffuser because it was good?
That was the epitome of hypocrisy.
“Haa.”
Jang Ye-hwa sighed again.
“Su-jeong is also a bit of a problem…”
Su-jeong lived with Chun Jin-hyun. If she asked Su-jeong, there was a high chance she would know, but she hadn’t properly reconciled with her yet.
It felt awkward to bring up the diffuser story in that atmosphere.
So, she had tried to find out on her own, but she had failed.
Beep-
Clunk-
She parked her car in the garage and closed the door.
The entire six-story villa she could see was owned by Jang Ye-hwa.
Ye-hwa, who had a building that anyone would envy and could live without worry for the rest of her life, was now restless because of a single diffuser.
After parking, Ye-hwa closed the garage and walked towards the studio.
She entered the studio, set up her laptop, and habitually placed the diffuser next to it.
No fragrance wafted out.
Feeling thirsty and disappointed, Ye-hwa started working.
One hour, two hours…
She tried to concentrate, but she couldn’t achieve the same trance-like concentration as before. She felt a bit tired, and her inspiration was blocked.
Ye-hwa picked up the diffuser.
Ssshh.
However, even when she buried her nose deeply in the plant-shaped diffuser and took a deep breath, she couldn’t feel even a hint of fragrance anymore.
“Hoo.”
Ye-hwa, feeling disappointed, smacked her lips and started packing her bag.
She put in her laptop and the diffuser.
‘I guess it won’t work.’
Ye-hwa picked up her bag and left the studio.
Her steps were headed towards Cafe Delia.
