"I need to go there... Yeah, I need to go to the bank right now."
The frantic murmur that escaped Se Ah's lips reached Min Hyun's ears and put a subtle smile on his handsome face. She was about to dash when he made another attempt at placing his hand on her shoulder and said in an unusually calm voice,
"Where are you going, Miss Yoon? It's Sunday, the banks are closed today."
His sudden grip startled her but his words echoed in her head like a revelation. He was right, running around the city would not help her, and she had to pause and think rationally. Se Ah relaxed her stiff body and looked back at Min Hyun, whose face swiftly changed its expression from weirdly pleased to genuinely worried in a split second.
"I guess you're right. I'll call their customer support then."
The intern lead Miss Yoon inside the hotel lobby while she was nervously tapping through the bank app again. When her fingers finally reached the green call button, she cleared her throat and pressed it. An automatic machine message informed her that she was third in line and had to wait... Never in her life did she hate the generic waiting music so much as at that very moment. Her heart was thumping so hard, she was afraid it would explode, and while her body was shaking as if it was freezing, her face felt unbelievably hot; her current state was bringing back an unstoppable wave of unpleasant memories again.
'Look at you, Miss Yoon. Just yesterday you were smiling and enjoying yourself, and today you look like your soul is being sucked out of your body. Does not feel nice, does it?'
Min Hyun found Se Ah's current distress almost exhilarating. He did not like seeing her broken but if it helped him to keep her by his side even a little bit longer, he did not mind picking up her pieces, after all, he would be the one to glue them back together, so what was so bad about that?
A very articulate female voice greeted Se Ah through her phone and somehow, it made her anxiety soar again. She did not know what to say until Min Hyun's handsome face poped-up in front of hers and melted into a supportive smile. His lips mouthed "You need to speak, Miss Yoon", and as if charmed, Se Ah cleared her throat again, and answered,
"Yes, my bank account is empty, I would like to know what happened to my money, please."
"Could you please state your name and your ID number, please?"
Miss Yoon looked at Min Hyun who playfully closed his ears with his hands and stepped away from her chair, and when she finished the identification process, the customer support representative murmured something incomprehensible, and continued,
"From what I can see, there was a cash withdrawal from the credit card connected to this account. It happened today at 4 AM."
"What are you talking about?"
The words left her mouth on their own.
"Miss, have you perhaps lost your credit card? Or maybe it was stolen?"
Only when she heard those words did Se Ah realize that she haven't checked her wallet since Friday. She almost tore her bag open and took out a small pink cardholder from its inner pocket.
"It's... gone... It's not here."
"I beg your pardon?"
Se Ah emptied her bag on the chair next to her and shoved her hand inside it, trying to fish out anything that was still left inside, but there was nothing. She always kept that card in her cardholder and nobody but her knew about its existence. But what shocked her the most was the fact that the person who found or stole her card was able to guess its password.
She leaned back in the chair and covered her eyes with her cold hand. The world around her became meaningless, detached, blurred out, and even silent. She did not hear Lee Min Hyun who asked for her permission to gather her things back into her bag, and it was only when the support representative shouted her name in her ear that she finally got back to her senses and spoke again.
"I lost my credit card."
"In that case, you need to urgently close your account, we can do it over the phone. But you will have to come to one of our offices on Monday to finish some paperwork. Shall we do it now?"
"Does... Does this mean I cannot trace my money? Can the police do something about this?"
The other woman could only sigh.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but cash withdrawals are impossible to track down. If it was a bank transfer, then yes, but this... You can, of course, file a police report, but I'm afraid they will not be able to help you."
"... Alright. Let's close this account then."
When the closing procedure was over, Se Ah felt a strange sense of emptiness inside her body. Was she cursed or something? Why a sudden streak of unbelievably bad luck? Should she visit a shaman? That thought alone was laughable enough, she almost lost it. Her gaze was glued to the marble floor under her feet for quite a while, although empty, her body felt incredibly heavy, and she could not find any strength to stand up.
Lee Min Hyun, tired of watching her silent struggle, stood right before her, grabbed her lifeless body by the shoulders, and pressed it tightly to his chest, patting her soft loose hair with his hand. Why did he always have to be next to her in times like these? It was the second time he saw her in such dejection. It was menacing, almost as if he was what brought those afflictions upon her.
"Miss Yoon, I'm really sorry this happened to you. You must be devastated."
He stroked her head once again and his gentle touch made her heart waver again. At that very moment, did she really need another person's comfort or support? She used to struggle alone, away from everyone else because she could not afford to depend on anybody, she could not expose her exhausted, withered heart. Did she need someone to say they were sorry and that everything would be alright? Min Hyun did not say anything else. His form of comfort was his tight embrace and the gentle movements of his hand stroking her hair.
"Min Hyun, I'm tired, I want to go back to my room."
Se Ah pushed the guy away, freeing herself from his strong arms, then picked up her bag, and left, without looking back or saying anything else. Min Hyun watched her disappear behind the elevator doors, brushed his hair back, and smiled.
"See you soon, Yoon Se Ah."