Chapter 5

“What am I supposed to do without you?! I’ll die from the pain if I don’t have you, Ju-ha! Don’t go. Please… You’re the only family I have! Aren’t you? Sniff.”

“Die?”

At Raine’s sorrowful cry, he looked even more cynical.

“I was afraid I’d have to look at that face for the rest of my life, but that sounds like a good idea.”

Raine was speechless as she stared blankly at him.

“Why don’t you just die? You’re alone anyway, so there’s no one who’d be sad even if you died, right?”

Looking at Raine, whose face was covered in tears and snot, Ju-ha ground his teeth as though he was disgusted.

“Never show up in front of me again. And don’t go around telling people that we know each other. If you even try to bother me, I won’t let you off.”

After leaving Raine with that cruel warning, Ju-ha walked out without looking back.

Bang!

The sound of the front door slamming shut seemed to Raine like a declaration that their relationship had been severed forever.

And so, their relationship came to an end.

Raine didn’t know how many days she spent suffering from the sense of loss.

She cried, and cried, and cried some more for a very long time.

Raine had always been cheerful and friendly despite being overweight, so she had always had plenty of people around her.

But the shock of being betrayed had a profound effect on her.

Her depression and lethargy began to worsen.

Raine started avoiding people.

Her circumstances changed in an instant.

Before long, she lost her job.

In just a few months, the career she had built over the years became worthless.

Once she lost her job, financial difficulties followed.

She had no savings because she had spent everything supporting Ju-ha. And because her depression and lethargy had become so severe that she couldn’t even work, it was only natural that things would reach this point.

But Raine no longer cared.

What good was a company job when she was hurting so badly she could die at any moment?

With nowhere else to go, all Raine could do was suffer in the officetel where she had once lived with Ju-ha.

“The rent is overdue by an amount equivalent to the deposit. And since the contract is ending soon, the landlord says you need to move out.”

One day, a real estate agent came to deliver a message from the landlord.

Instead of asking when she would pay the overdue rent or whether she intended to renew the contract, they had suddenly told her to vacate the property.

Raine was bewildered.

“Overdue rent? And if the rent was overdue, why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

The real estate agent spoke to the landlord again and shook his head.

“Apparently, he went abroad and just came back. When he checked, he said not a single rent payment had come in.”

“That can’t be true.”

“That’s strange. Then please check your payment records.”

At those words, Raine hurriedly checked the withdrawal records from the account she used to pay the rent.

“My God.”

It seemed Ju-ha’s betrayal wasn’t over yet.

Raine, you’re busy working several jobs. Wouldn’t it be too much trouble to worry about things like paying the rent too? I’ll take care of all those little things, so just install your digital certificate on my phone.

When they had first moved into the officetel, Ju-ha had definitely said that.

And Raine had willingly done as he asked.

Ha… This is ridiculous. If he didn’t have enough money, he could have told me. How could he do something like this…?

The realization that Ju-ha had deceived her from the very beginning made the back of her head throb.

No, then he could at least have told me when he left.

In a hurry, Raine sold some of the stocks she had bought little by little in the past. She planned to use the money to pay part of the overdue rent and try to extend the lease.

“I’m sorry, sir. I only found out about this so suddenly.”

The real estate agent, who had contacted the landlord, immediately waved his hands.

“No, no. That won’t work. Even if you pay all the overdue rent, the landlord says he won’t renew the contract unless you can provide the deposit.”

But the real estate agent knew that Raine had been living with a man, so he tried to be a little more understanding of her situation.

“He says he feels sorry for you, so he’ll give you one month. In the meantime, either find another place or bring the deposit.”

Raine sold all her remaining stocks.

But all she had left was enough money for a few months of rent. It was nowhere near enough for the deposit on an officetel in the middle of the city.

Should I contact Ju-ha?

Raine wanted to believe that the Kim Ju-ha from the past had only acted that way because he had desperately needed money.

Now that he was a star, perhaps she could get at least some of it back.

Even if his feelings had changed and he had left her, if he thought about all the effort and affection Raine had given him…

Paying the deposit for another officetel shouldn’t be that difficult for him.

Kim Ju-ha was now a top star, after all, and money was pouring in.

“I’m only asking him to return some of the money I spent on him all those years. I’m not even asking for all of it, am I?”

After hesitating for a long time, Raine finally gathered her courage and called Ju-ha.

—The phone is turned off…

All that tension had been for nothing.

The call didn’t even go through.

“…Phew.”

Raine checked her financial situation again.

After getting a tiny rooftop room, she would have only 800,000 won left in her bank account.

“Should I go find Ju-ha in person?”

Raine muttered to herself, but soon bit her lip and gave up.

The expression on his face when he had warned her not to bother him was still deeply etched into her mind.

“He won’t even answer my calls. I doubt meeting him face-to-face would change anything…”

In the end, Raine hurriedly packed up her belongings and moved into a shabby rooftop room in a run-down neighborhood.

The fact that cockroaches swarmed throughout the rooftop room was horrifying, but with the money she had, she had no choice.

All Raine had to move was one bag of clothes and a box of miscellaneous household items.

Ju-ha had already taken all of his belongings.

He had even taken the Armani suit he had bought in advance with Raine’s money, dreaming of the day he would stand under the spotlight at the Grand Bell Awards.

Whenever things got difficult, Ju-ha used to put it on and imagine himself walking onto the Grand Bell Awards stage, using that dream to encourage himself.

Of course, he had worn it exactly once at the actual awards ceremony.

“If he’d just left some things behind after using them once.”

Then she could at least sell them now and use the money while she was desperate.

“How can a person take absolutely everything?”

The more she grumbled, the more her shoulders drooped.

“I guess I don’t need a moving company.”

Raine soon forced herself to look on the bright side.

“Yeah. This is when a minimalist lifestyle comes in handy.”

While hurriedly sorting through her few remaining belongings, Raine discovered the cell phone Ju-ha used to have tucked deep inside a drawer.

“Oh, so that’s why I couldn’t reach him.”

She looked at the phone for a moment before pouting.

“Then he must be using a different number.”

She charged the phone and turned it on.

All the records inside had been erased.

The email account Ju-ha used and all of his social media accounts had also been deleted.

But the phone number was still active.

Since the phone was registered under Lee Raine’s name, Ju-ha wouldn’t have been able to cancel it.

Once again, she felt a bitter pang.

“If you weren’t using it anymore, you could have at least told me. The basic monthly fee is expensive too…”

Unable to suppress the sigh that escaped her, Raine checked the bill.

The phone bill was overdue, and it looked like the service was about to be suspended.

Raine opened her own email account on the phone.

Even the emails she and Ju-ha had exchanged while they were dating had all been deleted.

Raine was reminded once again that Ju-ha knew all of her internet-related passwords.

In other words, it had been an easy matter for Kim Ju-ha to erase all the email records between them.

And that wasn’t all.

Raine once again realized that there wasn’t a single trace of her time with him left on the phone she carried around either.

The photos, messages, call history—

Everything was gone.

The reason Ju-ha had casually taken her phone from her on the day they broke up had been to erase every trace of their relationship.

“I thought he was only deleting things from his own phone.”

She looked at the two phones with a heavy heart, then desperately tried to find something positive again.

Well, at least he didn’t empty my bank account. He had my digital certificate too.

In truth, she felt as though she would die if she didn’t force herself to look for something positive.

In any case, Raine now had no way of knowing anything about Ju-ha.

She had no idea where he lived or how to contact him.

Every path that could lead her back to him had been cut off.

“Yeah. I’m starting a new life now. Clean and simple.”

Raine decided to shake off her attachment to the past as though she had no regrets.

And immediately after moving into the rooftop room, she tried to find a new job.

I survived when my family, which had been doing so well, went bankrupt when I was around ten. Surely I can survive going bankrupt a second time.

At least she had no debts.

Raine thought that all she needed to do was work hard and start over.

But finding a job after losing one wasn’t easy.

The position Raine had left had already been filled by someone else.

She even looked for part-time jobs, but there weren’t many places willing to hire an overweight woman.

Even when she passed the résumé screening, it was obvious during the interviews that they didn’t like the way she looked.

[With that huge body, she’s going to knock over all the customers.]

[Good grief. How does someone even live looking like that? And she actually asked whether lunch was provided?]

After the interviews, she overheard the voices of those people who had apparently left their decency at home.

They had been whispering among themselves, but Raine happened to hear some of it.

It hurt.

Reality was far more serious and miserable than she had imagined.

Even so, after continuing her job search, she finally managed to find another job.

Raine was depressed and exhausted from everything that had happened, but she fought against her negative emotions, forcing herself to smile and socialize with the people around her.

Lee Raine really tried to live diligently.

But when things weren’t going well, apparently they could go really wrong.

The job she had barely managed to secure went bankrupt not long afterward.

Her salary went unpaid, and the company representative disappeared.

It was utterly devastating.

“Ah… What did I do to deserve this kind of life?”

Raine lost all motivation to work.

Now she shut herself away in the shabby rooftop room crawling with bugs.

She didn’t want to go outside, and she became afraid of people.

She survived day after day on ramen.

But even hiding away in a rooftop room had its limits.

Ju-ha had left in October, and when summer arrived the following year, a terrifying heat engulfed the rooftop room.

Raine had lived like a shut-in for quite some time, but she couldn’t beat the heat of the rooftop room.

If I stay here any longer, I’m going to turn into a steamed sweet potato.

She had to go outside.

And then, a little while later—

Raine stopped in front of a large television inside an electronics store.

She was immediately filled with regret.

I should have just stayed in that rooftop room, even if it meant turning into a steamed sweet potato.

Then I wouldn’t have had to see Ju-ha’s face.

Kim Ju-ha was smiling brightly while wearing an even finer Armani suit than the one he had worn at the Grand Bell Awards.

As Raine stared at him, a sudden surge of anger rose inside her.

She couldn’t live like this anymore.

The result of all her devotion and hard work was simply too miserable.

She couldn’t understand why she was supposed to keep living.

Raine decided she had to end everything and went up to the rooftop of the building.

Actually, she had wanted to leave a suicide note in the building where Kim Ju-ha’s agency was located, saying, This is how wronged I have been for eight years, and then jump from there.

But H/N Entertainment, the agency where he was signed, wasn’t open to the general public.

So, unfortunately, Raine had no choice but to choose the building across from it.

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the tightly closed curtains and the gentle glow of a mood lamp that was the only light in the room.

“……”

Where am I?

Raine carefully looked around.

Then she realized that she was lying on a soft, comfortable bed, covered only by a thin blanket, without a single thread of clothing on her body.

She slowly lowered her eyes.

An arm belonging to a man with well-developed, balanced muscles was resting across her waist.