Defective Banana - Chapter 42
Seohyuk was sprinting toward the Sang-Ah Mansion at full speed. Normally, he stuck to the main roads, but today, he cut through narrow alleys, taking every shortcut he knew.
He had to stop her. He had to win her heart back—no matter what.
The moment he reached Ara’s front door via the elevator, he rang the doorbell over and over.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong-ding-dong.
No sign of life inside. Panic started to crawl up his spine. He banged his fist against the door and shouted her name loud enough to shake the quiet hallway.
“Ara! Ara, it’s me! Please open the door!”
Still, no answer.
He rested his forehead against the door, sighing in pure despair, when the door across the hall swung open. Donghee stepped out, looking… not happy.
From the way she stared, clearly she’d been listening to the ruckus for a while.
“Hey, Kang Seohyuk! It’s too early for this noise,” she scolded.
Seohyuk whipped around.
“Oh! Mrs. Kim, have you seen Ara?”
“Don’t just yell here in the hall—come inside and talk.”
“No, talk later—have you seen her or not? I don’t think she’s home. Do you know where she went?”
Donghee sighed, clearly fed up with her son’s obsession.
“When I woke up, I saw a text from her. Just one line: Take care of yourself. I thought, ‘What the hell is this first thing in the morning?’ so I came out after washing up to talk to her. But then—she just rolled a suitcase into the elevator and left.”
“What? She left with a suitcase?” Seohyuk’s voice spiked.
Donghee shushed him with a finger to her lips.
“Lower your voice! The whole building can hear you. Oh—and I heard it was Ara who slapped you in that video, right?”
How the hell did she know that? Seohyuk racked his brain, trying to figure it out, but came up empty. He grabbed his head and stared at her.
“How do you even know that?”
“The pink jacket she was wearing? I gave her that. I recognized it right away in the clip. And that skinny frame—of course it was Ara. I guess she’s too embarrassed to see me right now.”
“Wait, your best friend left with all her stuff and you just let her walk away?”
Donghee’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
“You brat! She left before I could even stop her! What was I supposed to do, leap out the window? And after she slapped you across the face, you think I’d grab her and beg, ‘Ara, please don’t go’?”
Seohyuk rubbed his face hard with one hand, stepped closer, and asked in a lower voice.
“So what did you say to her?”
“Nothing big! Just—‘Was that really you in the video? Why’d you hit Seohyuk? And no matter how mad you are, you don’t go around hitting someone in the face like that.’ That’s it.”
Seohyuk sighed heavily and began defending her.
“Mrs. Kim… that’s a huge misunderstanding. I asked her to hit me. She didn’t do anything wrong. I begged her to just slap me once, so she did.”
Donghee’s face twisted.
“Why the hell would you ask her to do that? Wait—didn’t you once ask me to hit you too? Are you completely out of your mind?”
Her temper exploded. She smacked her son’s back repeatedly, loud enough to echo.
“Why do you keep asking innocent people to hit you? Huh? Are you insane? You’re gonna be the death of me! Wandering around doing idiotic things without a shred of shame! What the hell is wrong with your brain?”
Rubbing his sore back, Seohyuk asked through gritted teeth.
“It’s not my brain that’s the problem right now. So—where did Ara go?”
“How the hell would I know? Damn kid. And now I feel bad for what I said to her, thanks to you.”
When Donghee rolled up her sleeves like she was about to fight, Seohyuk held up his hands in surrender.
“Later. We’ll argue later. Ara’s not answering my calls—so can you call her? Ask where she is. Hurry.”
“After she stormed out because of you, you think she’ll answer my call?”
Still, Donghee pulled out her phone and dialed—truthfully, she was curious about Ara’s whereabouts too.
But the tinny voice from the speaker made them both freeze.
‘The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again.’
Donghee’s jaw dropped.
“Oh my god. She must’ve changed her number!”
Seohyuk frowned sharply.
“Are you sure you dialed the right one? Check again.”
“Look—see? It’s right. Damn… She doesn’t even have anywhere else to go…”
A sudden thought flashed through Seohyuk’s mind—maybe she’d gone to his place.
“Uh—Mom, I’m going.”
“Hey! Kang Seohyuk!”
But he was already sprinting out of the mansion.
In less than twenty minutes, he burst into his house, ran straight through the living room, and into her space.
“Ara! Ara!”
The dark, silent rooms gave no reply. She was nowhere.
“…Ara…”
He sank to the floor, running both hands through his hair—then his phone buzzed.
For a second, hope flared. Maybe it was her.
It wasn’t. It was his manager, Seungbok.
“Yeah, hyung?”
“Seohyuk! You at home right now?”
Something in his voice was urgent, almost panicked.
“Uh… why? What’s going on?”
“Dude. The community boards are blowing up.”
“Blowing up?”
“Yeah. They’re saying… you’re, uh… impotent.”
It felt like an invisible glass shield around him had shattered into a thousand pieces. He clamped a hand over his mouth to keep his voice steady.
“What… the hell are you talking about?”
“The rumor is you can’t get it up. Sounds insane, I know—but since you’ve never had a public dating rumor, people are buying it. It’s spreading like it’s a confirmed fact. What are you gonna do? This is getting big. But… you’re not, right?”
“Hyung… you seriously believe that crap?”
It felt like all the bl00d drained from his body. His vision blurred.
He gripped his hair hard, eyes shut tight. He’d always thought the best move in situations like this was to keep his mouth shut.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“By the way—you remember that woman in Busan who slapped you? Yeah, her info’s out now too. Name’s Baek Ara, she’s a painter, and someone even leaked her phone number. That is her, right?”
“What? No—seriously, who the hell is spreading this? Where’s this coming from?”
Now it all made sense. Ara must have left because of this. They had an agreement—if her personal information ever got exposed, they’d break up immediately.
The rumors didn’t hurt nearly as much as the fact that she was gone.
“The agency’s looking into it, but it seems like it started from an anonymous post. I’m on my way to your place, so stay put. Don’t go anywhere. The reporters are moving already, so don’t leave the house. Got it?”
“…Yeah. Got it.”
Seohyuk stayed slumped on the floor, yanking at his hair and cursing.
“Fvck… who the hell…?”
It felt like his head might explode.
***
Ara, meanwhile, had driven straight from the Sang-Ah Mansion to Ganghwa Island. She didn’t have a destination in mind—just… the place she’d lived as a child.
Her chest was tight, her mind a storm. She pulled into a quiet corner of the beach park parking lot and reclined her seat all the way back.
Eyes closed, she tried to calm her racing thoughts. It was like meditation—something she’d practiced for years.
She’d always believed she could get back up, no matter what hardships came. That belief had carried her this far, and it would carry her forward.
Get it together, Baek Ara.
She opened her eyes, powered on her phone, and went straight to her carrier’s app.
A few taps later, her number was changed.
The vibrations stopped. The car was silent again, as if time itself had paused.