Beep. Beep. Tinkle-tinkle.

No matter how loudly the alarm clock rang, Arum still kept on dreaming. She briefly opened her eyes at the surrounding noise and then closed her eyes again, with her body and soul still separated from each other.

“Hey, Arum Yang!”

Somebody shook her hard, but her senses remained numb.

“I saw you opening your eyes. Get up!”

‘Who could it be?’

That voice was familiar to Arum.

It was a familiar voice, but she didn’t care.

The more she thought about it, the more her head became a mess.

But it faded like a distant dream due to her dull senses.

She was absorbed in doing some shopping in her dream.

A latest model TV set, refrigerator, coffee machine, water purifier and oven.

Bed and sofa. For the first time in her life, she kept choosing what she really wanted to have.

Was it the day when she was preparing her trousseau three years ago?

She spent 10 million won on buying all the furnishings for her wedding!

She heard things again the moment the man’s face was about to become visible.

“Arum?”

“Ugh?” she replied inadvertently while continuing shopping. Her bridegroom Konsu was smiling at her.

At that moment, she opened her eyes.

Arum frowned at the brightness of the fluorescent light.

It was noisy around her, with someone sticking out his face, and she had a hangover.

‘I wish I didn’t drink too much.’

It was too late, though.

When she opened her eyes a little, she saw Jina.

‘Am I still in the bar?’

Nope. She clearly paid for drinks with her own credit card and left.

‘Where am I now? Who am I?’

She couldn’t figure out anything. She only recognized Jina.

“What the heck? Did I sleep at your house? I think I blacked out then, right?”

But her friend slapped her on the back with her palm. “Are you crazy? You must be crazy.”

Curling up like a cicada larva, Arum replied, “What the hell are you talking about? I’m not crazy.”

“Just look at how out of shape you are now! ‘You’re crazy’ is all over your face. Just look at it!”

When Jina kindly turned her around, she saw that there was a large full-sized mirror at her back.

Swollen eyes? Obviously, she drank too much.

Tangled hair? She could wash it clean.

Foamy saliva mark on her mouth?

Everybody had it when they were seniors in high school.

And police uniforms?

What the heck? Police?

Astonished, Arum looked around. Clearly, she was in the police station. Policemen were busy doing their duties.

‘Damn it! I’m in the police station!’

She looked at them with a bit of admiration and awe. How could they take care of a drunk citizen like her when they were snowed under work?

Jina made her aware of the reality. She suddenly raised her finger and pointed somewhere. Aurm found a policeman walking up to her.

“He’s in charge of your case.”

Hearing that, Arum tried to fix her tangled hair and tie it into order. But she had no band. Jina noticed and quickly picked up a yellow rubber band on the floor.

She tied her hair in a ponytail. She couldn’t see the policeman as her hair blocked her view.

“Hey, do I look good? How about my hair?” asked Aurm.

“Are you having a blind date? You criminal!” replied Jina coldly.

Without paying any attention to their bickering, the policeman approached.

“Have you come to your senses?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“I wish you had been more careful. You should apologize to that person over there, not to me.”

With a cute look on his face, the kind policeman pointed at a man.

“Oh, I see.”

Arum looked at the man with the most polite expression on her face.

Her eyes met his. He was puckering up his face at the moment. He was a handsome guy, whose casual knitwear and loafer shoes made him look good. When he was seated, he looked like he had a standard Korean man’s height, but he was much taller when he stood up.

But he felt familiar to her.

‘Where did I see him? Do I know him?’

Before she could pursue that train of thought, the policeman left the place, saying, “Try to initiate some good conversation.”

Arum was still tilting her head.

Instead of Arum who couldn’t figure out what had happened at all, it was Jina who made a desperate appeal to him.

“Look! She got completely drunk last night. How could she steal anything? Hey, Arum Yang, where did you tell your substitute driver to go last night?”

Where?

Arum narrowed her eyes to focus only for a moment, but she felt a pit in her stomach.

Damned hangover, let alone migraine!

“Did you clearly tell the driver about your destination?”

“Yes, I did. I told him to take me to Green Villa in Yonsinnae.”

What? Green Villa?

Suddenly, Arum shut her mouth. No way!

“Hey, did I really go to Green Villa?” She suddenly became sober and came to her senses.

Her hangover and migraine were only excuses.

“Me?” There was no point of asking that question.

She couldn’t believe it. She felt that she had completely forgotten him and erased him from her mind. But it turned out that it was only her wishful thinking.

It was her body that made her not forget her former fiancé.

A year ago, Green Villa was the house where she made a home with her fiancé, Konsu. That was also the place she boarded at for five years. Anyway, she never revealed it to anybody after she broke off her engagement with him.

What if she won the lottery?

She would use all the money to buy that villa and smash it excitedly.

What if she came into power? She would remove the administrative district that held jurisdiction over that villa. She wouldn’t care even if the people got upset.

For that villa served as hell to her all along.

Anyway, obviously she went to that place under the influence of alcohol.

Arum felt pitiful about herself.

Come to think of it, she felt she was miserable, pathetic and pitiful, as if she were the heroine of a melodrama.

Yes, her behavior last night was not weird at all. Was it a crime? Nope.

Aurm was staring at Jina, with whom she was on close terms for the past ten years.

‘How could you know my sublime love?’

And then she cast a glance at the man.

‘Hey, I think I pressed the doorbell of your house and acted like a drunkard. Granted that, how could you report me to the police? Do you know anything about love?’

She became more and more confident.

She also became convinced that she was innocent. She didn’t want to be treated as a criminal on a false charge.

Staring at Jina with a confident face, Arum said, “Do you think it was wrong that I visited Green Villa? I could go there!”

The man responded suddenly, “Yeah, you could!” He spoke in a calm voice. It looked like he was a man of good understanding and generosity.

‘He’s got a good character as a man!’

She instantly felt her case would be quickly closed. She wanted to get out of the police box as soon as possible. She wanted to take a shower and then go to a coffee shop.

“Did you say it was your former boyfriend’s house?” That man smiled at her and added, “Oh, I see.”

To put it correctly, it was a matrimonial home, and not solely his.

But Arum just smiled without responding.

Knowing the ins and outs of Arum’s situation, Jina’s jaws dropped.

‘What an idiot! She cannot make heads or tails of it.’

Jina strongly signaled her to beg for his forgiveness, but to no avail.

Arum opened her mouth, “Yes, it’s the matrimonial home. Look at its space. It’s too big for one man, but good enough for a couple. Are you living alone there? Heating bill is too high. Have you changed the boiler?”

But he reacted coldly.

He even snorted at her question.

Arum felt bad.

“Well, you may be right,” he said sarcastically.

Losing her temper, she was about to retort when he cut in, “Still, you should not have broken into my house.”

Breaking into his house?

That wording reminded one of a heinous criminal who killed or injured men and robbed them.

Arum could hardly believe her ears when he used that wording. She tried to calm down.

She asked rationally, “Did I trespass? Me?”

At that moment, the policeman brought a laptop.

It contained a clip about Arum’s behavior last night, videotaped by the CCTV installed at Green Villa from various angles. As the device was recently upgraded, the quality of the video was in UHD.

In the video clip, Arum looked completely wasted.

After getting off a taxi driven by a chauffeur, she opened Green Villa’s main gate. She took off her heels at the gate and began to walk up the stairs while stumbling, with her long hair shaken out loose.

Click, click, click.

The lights attached with automatic sensors on the stairs were turned on one after another as she walked up.

Let’s watch the CCTV footage in front of Villa No. 302.

When she arrived there, Arum had pressed the password on the lock pompously. She must have heard some sharp sound of error on it. She inputted the password for several times before taking out a key from her bag. When the key didn’t work, she bawled and wailed.

“Hey!” She kicked the door and pushed herself against it.

Finally, she examined the sticker glued to the door and called somebody.

Most likely, she had called a locksmith.

She even fell asleep while she was waiting for the locksmith.

When he arrived, she bowed to him politely.

While watching her behavior last night, Arum felt distressed. Now she began to trace her memory clearly.

She remembered she had said, “I really can’t recall the password you gave me at that time. You changed it at that time. The lock here is wrong, so change it.”

Scrutinizing her from head to foot, the locksmith got down to work. Though he did it quickly, she fell asleep again. Finally, the front door was opened. She presented her credit card to pay for his service.

“I don’t accept card.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Taking out several notes from her wallet, she asked, “How much did you say? I don’t have enough cash. Wait a minute.”

“Hey, since I know you, let me take the cash. Just wire the remaining balance into my account.”

“Thanks.” Bowing to him politely once again, she went into the room.

The screening of the CCTV footage ended there.

Feigning ignorance, however, Aurm talked back, “Yesterday? Did I do that?” But nobody seemed to believe her. Even her friend Jina didn’t.

“I’m sorry,” said Arum. She couldn’t raise her head.

It seemed that guy, whose villa she broke into, was not finished yet.

“I’ve got another evidence with me. Can you take a look?”

No, no!

But she had no other choice but to watch his cell phone full of her own pictures.

The look of her sleeping on the sofa was bizarre, and her meticulous make-up was a mess.

She felt ashamed, but at the same time she got upset at the fact that he took pictures of her lousy behavior secretly.

“Don’t you think this is a violation of portrait rights?”

She lost her temper, but she should have refrained from it.

The policeman intervened, “We call this an evidence. As he reported this incident to us right away, we took measures to preserve the scene as it was, but he did have the right to take the photos just in case, which was good.”

Now, Arum realized that all the people had turned their backs against her, including her long-time friend Jina.

Crossing his arms, the guy moved his legs and stared at Arum.

She felt a prick in her heart.

If she could have her own way, she wanted to have a big argument with him. But she couldn’t because of that hard evidence.

The guy asked the policeman for the next move while looking at her, “What should I do about her now?”

With a smile, the policeman answered, “I recommend both of you to resolve the matter amiably.”

“Absolutely. I’m so sorry. Do you think I went to your place on purpose? Damned alcohol, these nasty drinking habits of mine are to blame…”

In recent years, she had never acted more subserviently than now.

The policeman tried to cajole him into settling the matter with her, “Why don’t you take into account each other’s position and settle the matter smoothly? Arum Han, don’t forget to wire the remaining balance of 300,000 won to the locksmith’s account.”

“Sure, can I do it now?” she asked, taking out her cell phone.

But the policeman gestured her not to do so. Her priority was to settle the case, not to pay the locksmith.

The guy was not persuaded by the policeman and Arum.

He presented conditions for the settlement.

“You have to pay for the cleaning, including quarantine. If you know any cleaning company, you can contact it. You shouldn’t clean by yourself. Please contact a professional cleaning company.”

Why should I pay for the cleaning work?

She felt his condition was unfair.

“Why should I pay for it? I think it’s unfair for me to pay for the quarantine expenses.” she asked, widening her eyes. How could he tell her to pay for quarantine expenses just because she slept on his sofa briefly? She got upset.

But the guy showed her a picture in his smartphone. She couldn’t identify what it was, but it looked disgusting. It looked like food waste.

“Didn’t you notice your vomit here? Do you want me to clean it?”

Astonished to see that, Arum closed her mouth with both hands.

‘Was it true that I vomited?’

She was so embarrassed that she did not know what to do.

The photos taken vividly told the truth about what she had last night.

She just felt ashamed to answer.

“So, do you want me to clean it?” he repeatedly asked her like a stalker.

“No, no, let me take care of it.”

After hearing her reply, he showed her another photo.

“Look here! You also vomited in front of my front door.”

“No way!” Arum desperately rejected.

How could a superb woman like Arum collapse because of alcohol? It was a terrible day.

“Well, you can confirm it in the CCTV footage.”

His face was like that of a ten-year-old boy who kept at the argument tenaciously.

“Okay, let me wrap it up at this point. Can you settle for my request?” Then, he pretended to dust his hands off as if he were forgiving her generously.

Arum felt offended.

‘Well, I know I did something wrong, but you can’t make me lose my dignity! So what?’

She really wanted to talk like that, but refrained.

“So, what else do you want me to do?” asked Arum rather arrogantly, raising her head.

“By the way, I deducted what you took from my refrigerator,” said the man.

“Oh my…’ Arum instantly lowered her head.

“You really ate a lot of food from there. You even touched a white pottery…”

“I do remember the pottery! I didn’t drink alcohol in it.”

It was a poor excuse, of course.

“Well, you opened a bottle inside the pottery. It was a quality home-made liquor worth 380,000 won.”

“I really didn’t drink it.”

She vaguely recalled a pottery bottle. As it was too heavy, she put it back into the refrigerator.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t charge you for that.”

Arum bowed to him quickly. She was too ashamed to express her thanks to him.

The man then stood up, without appreciating her thanks.

At that moment a middle-aged policeman, who was watching them at a distance, approached him, holding a book.

“Hojoon Lee, you must be the geomancy expert, right?”

The guy’s name was Hojoon Lee.

“Yes, that’s correct.” He gently smiled when the police officer recognized him.

Arum, who had quick eyes for learning things, detected the police officer’s hypocrisy.

‘He’s different on the inside and the outside.’

The police station instantly turned into a popular author’s meeting with fans. Those making a noise at a distance came close to Hojoon.

The middle-aged police officer presented a book and said, “Can you sign your autograph here for me?”

The book was called .

The moment she looked at the book, Arum recalled his name.

Ah! Geomancy master Hojoon Lee!

He was the very man who appeared in an educational TV program to lecture about the geomancy of making money and hitting the gold mine. He was popular. Arum read an interview piece about him a month ago on the occasion of his new book.

While he was getting Hojoon’s autograph, the police officer said, “I feel it awkward seeing you here. It’s better for you not to come to a police station.”

“I know. This is the first time that I came here.”

“Really?”

“I mean, it’s the first time I that I’ve come here because of my personal affairs. I once visited a local police station to check out the geomancy of its chief’s office.”

“Oh, did you meet such a police chief?”

“Yes, he was promoted to a position in the police headquarters later.”

Hojoon felt proud of it. Those officers who gathered around him began to gossip about him.

The middle-aged officer got more interested because he was on the waiting list of promotions.

“Wow, you’re great! What’s the secret?”

“In fact, places like a police station or courthouse related to lawsuits are avoided by geomancy talkers. You’re sick and tired of criminals, right?”

While saying that, Hojoon’s eyes met with Arum’s.

He continued, “By the way, I hear there were an unusually high number of incidents in every place that the police chief was assigned to. As a result, he was promoted many years later than his peers, so this time he desperately asked for my help because if he failed to get promoted this time, his juniors would overtake him.”

Arum enjoyed a New Yorker-looking Hojoon explaining to him kindly.

Though he talked to her coldly, he reeled off a story pleasantly to the public.

“So, what’s the secret of his promotion?” asked the middle-aged officer.

It seemed that he was anxious to get a promotion as soon as possible.

“I asked him to put a small statue of Guan Yu in front of his office.”

“You mean that famous General Guan Yu appearing in the History of the Three Kingdoms, right?”

“Yes. As the police chief’s life was like those of the main characters of the Three Kingdoms, he allegedly put the statue there immediately. Though this is something unfamiliar in our country, I heard the story from my friend Mark in Hong Kong. He said there were several statues of Guan Yu inside the police stations there. Guan Yu signified power and martial arts. There is a shrine that pays tribute to Guan Yu in our country.”

“Aha~”

Arum found herself indulged in Hojoon’s lecture on geomancy.

He continued, “Guan Yu symbolizes martial arts and power in Hong Kong, China and our country. A symbol of power. I hear that Hong Kong policemen pray before the statue of Guan Yu before going into action. They pray like, ‘Give us power to crack down on criminals!’ Guan Yu is kind of a patron saint, so they try to create power through the statue. What would happen if anybody set up such a statue inside the police station?”

“Oh, no! We’ll receive a flurry of civil complaints.”

The other police officer seconded, “Right! They will complain it’s superstition or a ghost, asking for the immediate removal of such a statute.”

Arum kept nodding. That was true, because geomancy was superstition.

Did he read her beautiful mind? He was now speaking passionately.

“By the way, why don’t you believe in superstitions?”

Arum felt a sting in her heart.

“Why don’t you believe in superstitions? Isn’t it okay if crimes are decreasing, and policemen are not injured thanks to superstitions?”

His argument was kind of persuasive.

“Geomancy is not superstition. It’s science. These days, geography can be measured by electromagnetic waves and magnetic fields. The effects of geomancy are proven by specific data. Do you want a strong police? Then, put a miniature statue of Guan Yu on your table. Your place will turn into a propitious spot.”

Wow!

There were cheers and applause among them.

He was very charismatic. His lecture, which started with his signing his autographs, seemed to have moved their minds. They would recognize the images of Guan Yu on the internet.

Arum felt interested in this eccentric guy.

‘Was geomancy so attractive?’

What if the geomancy expert she had met three years ago for the first time in her life was this man?

Arum still gnashed her teeth at the thought of that geomancy expert she met on that day.

It was three months ago before her marriage that Arum met geomancy expert Paekhoon.

It was during a lecture session titled ‘Geomancy Interior for the Newly Weds’ held at the cultural center of a department store that she met him. The lecture was a four-part series.

The old lecturer with grey hair coached those soon-to-be-married couples not only about geomancy, but also about the wisdom of marriage.

“Newlywed life? Wonderful. My wife was so beautiful back then, much more beautiful than you here. I was looking forward to the marriage date. You know why? Because I wanted to sleep with her. That’s my only thinking back then.”

Everyone made a hearty laugh at his witty remarks.

A characteristic of soon-to-be-married couples was that they were generous. Basically, they became so happy to the point that they might even feel sorry for their overflowing happiness.

“So, I got married. How happy we were! I think we lived together for about two months. I was so happy, really happy to be with her. But the problem was she wouldn’t go out of the house.”

This time, soon-to-be husbands only laughed.

“Hey, if you’re a man, you know that. Even if you are happy with your wife, you want to be left alone. For what? You can gamble, have drinks or meet other girls. As you have to be in the same house as your wife, it will drive you nuts.”

Aha~

Brides-to-be nodded their heads.

“I’m saying you grooms-to-be should live like that. These days, if you live like that, you’ll get divorced immediately. Yin and yang are so different from each other. In other words, males and females have different spaces of their own. I just wanted to explain that to you in a different way. Do you understand? If you feel frustrated even after you get married, just let me know through Kakao messenger. Let me tip you off on a good place.”

Konsu, Arum’s fiancé, responded favorably, laughing his head off.

When Arum gently asked him, ‘Do you feel the same way?’ Konsu said ambiguously, ‘Well, men are all the same.’

And on the day when geomancy expert Paekhoon was supposed to give the last lecture, a guy dressed in a traditional Josun-style robe came instead to deliver it.

It looked as if he was just ****** into the modern Korea from Josun, or old Korea. It was not just because he was dressed in traditional Korean robes.

Just like a typical Josun man, he let his braided hair down and put on traditional Korean leather shoes called taesahae.

“As my father flew to Germany urgently on a business trip, I had to come here in his place.”

The participants were surprised at seeing that he was a carbon copy of his father Paekhoon. His speaking tone and facial expressions, too, were exactly the same as his father’s.

As it turned out, they were supposed to have a question and answer session on that day.

He received questions in advance through the bulletin board of the website as well as the question paper placed on each participant’s desk.

Arum wrote down several questions on a piece of paper while waiting for Konsu.

‘Will he really not come here?’

Her quarrel with him last night bothered her. She would have to see him anyway. When she saw soon-to-be-married couples coming into the lecture hall, Arum became more impatient.

Afterward, the lecture began, and Arum was sitting alone.

The young geomancy lecturer said he started with a village school and continued studies by taking qualification exams. He briefly introduced himself, explaining that he was learning about fame and wealth, science of changes and geomancy from his father.

“Let me reply to your questions first. How do you want me to arrange the dining tables? You can just arrange them for the convenience of your dining.”

Suddenly, the soon-to-be-married couples looked disappointed.

“The basic of geomancy is the right functioning of your body. If you live in a leased house with a small space, just forget about the dining table. It’s better to use a sitting table. You can use it as a desk when you study, a dining table when you eat, and a refreshments table when you enjoy fruits.”

He looked like a pretty boring lecturer.

“Let’s assume your parents bought you a large house where you can place a big dining table. Then, buy a round table. Some say they prefer a rectangular table to a round table because the latter occupies a large space. But think of this! How long do you think your newlywed life will last?”

Now, the soon-to-be brides’ faces turned pale.

They couldn’t protest by shouting, ‘What the heck are you talking about!?’ They seemed to put up with his lecture just because he was geomancy expert Paekhoon’s son.

“If you buy a rectangular table, you should sit face to face with your spouse. But let’s assume you had a quarrel or you felt bad. In that case, you have to turn back not to see your spouse. Haven’t you done the same in your teens to avoid seeing your parents’ faces? If you buy a round table, you don’t have to do so. You don’t have to sit face to face with your spouse. You won’t feel bad because you can sit before the round table the way you want. What we hate the most in geomancy are corners. The murderous spirit is emitted from corners. So, buy a dining table that is as round as possible. Got it?”

While listening to his lecture, Arum took notes, though she felt bad. The contents of his lecture were the same as his father Paekhoon’s, but she just felt bad for some reason.

The young lecturer was about to reply to a second question. At that moment, she was calling Konsu.

“How long do you think you’ll take?”

But Konsu didn’t reply.

“Here is the second question. Why is it that I’m dating only a scam?”

Arum was astonished to hear that.

She submitted that question as she was upset about Konsu. Fortunately, she didn’t state her name. But she felt as if everybody was looking at her, since she was the only one sitting alone.

“The answer is simple,” said the young geomancy guy eloquently.