Their visual connection was abruptly interrupted when Ho Min-jong finished picking up the items on the floor.  He straightened up.  Kang Seulgi's boyfriend towered over her… the top of her head barely reaching his upper lip.  Seulgi’s eyes broke contact with Joohyun’s and sought Ho Min-jong’s instead. Seulgi’s expression morphed. The girl's eyes softened as she spoke to her lover. 

“Don’t go…” Seulgi’s voice had a pleasant reverberation, as though her tone had undergone technical adjustments so that each word was a lyric in a painful acapella.  She reached out to scoop Ho Min-jong’s neck.  Caressing his nape tenderly, she begged, “Let me figure things out.  Don’t leave...”

Ho Min-jong moved away, rejecting her touch ruthlessly.  And his reply was even more cruel.  “There is nothing to figure out, Seulgi!  You love art, I get that... but your ing artistry will not feed us!  You fancy yourself as an artist and you will starve with your fantasies!  I keep telling you to get a real job—”

“I’ve been trying,” she answered quietly.  “Have I not been trying?”

“NOT HARD ENOUGH!” Ho Min-jong screamed in Seulgi’s face. 

Seulgi wanted to scream as well. It showed.  Her face was red.  She was controlling an outburst so badly the veins in exposed themselves.  But still, she tried to calmly persuade the man she loved.  “Then I will.  Okay?  I'll look for a job. I will try harder.  Ho Min-jong, stay.  STAY WITH ME. Please...”

“It’s too late.” Ho Min-jong stepped back before she could touch him again. “I cannot be with you anymore. I don’t know where you’re going from here but I hope it’s somewhere safe.  I hope it’s somewhere where you can live a decent life.” He took a deep breath. “I hope it’s somewhere we won’t meet ever again.  Goodbye, Seulgi.”

Ho Min-jong faced the other way carrying his loot bags with the logo of “MONG GUK SUPERMARKET The More You Buy, The More You Save!” The man was about to proceed with abandoning the girlfriend he had just dumped when he noticed Joohyun standing in the hallway.  Ho Min-jong’s steps slowed down, his lip curled in a smirk as he walked over to where Joohyun stood her ground.

Ho Min-jong paused.  He was a hulk compared to Joohyun's tiny frame so he had to look down at her to boldly sneer, “You like watching? Huh?”  He extended his thick neck and nodded his closely shaven head.  “The are you looking at?”

It was the worst possible time for this dude to act like an .  Joohyun had absolutely zero tolerance for ery at this point. 

“I want to enter my apartment but you’re blocking my way," Joohyun said serenely, totally unintimidated.  "You don’t want to be looked at...?” Joohyun stepped closer… and when she’s within spitting distance, that’s when she screeched, “THEN GET THE OUT OF MY WAY!” And with that— Joohyun slugged the man hard enough that he almost toppled over.  Joohyun’s leg deliberately hit one of the bags Ho Min-jong was holding so that the latter lost his grip of the handle... AGAIN.  The contents of the bag spilled on the floor once more.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Ho Min-jong screamed from behind.  “COME BACK HERE, YOU — YAH!”

Joohyun could hear the booming voice but she did not spare a glance.  On her way to the door of her unit, she passed by Seulgi whose eyes were following Joohyun’s movements...

Joohyun’s pace slowed down and she stopped when they were face to face. 

Joohyun had thought that her neighbor was good-looking.  She was wrong.  Up-close when flaws could have been more identifiable, Kang Seulgi was way better-looking.  Her eyes, gorgeous.  Her nose... lips... and shape of face, remarkable.  Her skin... ridiculous.  The lady possessed movie star looks.  An idol’s appeal.

The way Kang Seulgi stared at her made Joohyun self-conscious.  She made Joohyun feel like she should have combed her shoulder-length hair.  That she should have changed her tattered shirt.  She had washed her face but perhaps she should have put on lip gloss at the very least...

Wait, what?  She stopped herself right there.  What was I thinking?  Joohyun gave Seulgi a nasty stink-eye instead and borrowed Ho Min-jong’s obnoxious remark. “The are you looking at?” 

Joohyun waited for the beautiful sad lady to move.