Defective Banana - Chapter 49
Not only were there letters, but the box was also stuffed full of gifts — from hair ties to waterproof aprons for working.
Ara carefully unfolded each letter, postcard, and note, reading them one by one.
[Unnie, I loved your paintings. You still haven’t forgotten oppa, right? Please get in touch soon. Oppa’s been waiting a lot for you. We all cheer for your love so much. Fighting!]
She bit her lip, moved by the heartfelt messages as she kept reading.
[Ara unnie! Please reunite with Seohyuk oppa and have a beautiful love. We’re all rooting for you!]
She read through many more letters. But when she noticed repeated mentions in the letters about a “promise place” where they wanted her to show up, she felt curious and nervous.
Summoning her courage, she finally installed the social media app they mentioned.
Even after creating an account, she had no clue what to do next. After searching and spending a long time figuring things out step by step, she finally found the account named “Kang Seohyuk.”
Among the posts he left, she saw a recent one he kept repeating.
[Every month, on the 1st, at 1 PM. I’ll always be waiting there.]
Scrolling further, she found more posts, all promising he’d wait for her — and she covered her mouth with her hand, eyes wide.
[June 1st, 1 PM. I miss you. Please come there for sure.]
[May 1st, 1 PM. Come see me. I’ll be waiting there.]
[April 1st, 1 PM. I’ll be waiting at that place where we promised to come together again.]
Her eyes burned.
Tears welled up so fast her vision blurred and the words melted away.
She’d heard from the rice cake granny that he’d stopped by a few times, but never imagined he’d been desperately waiting for her every month for over a year.
A wave of guilt and emotion crashed over her. She wanted to run straight to him and throw herself into his broad arms. She truly missed him so much.
“Ah, you silly idiot.”
Biting her lower lip, Ara clumsily typed a comment on the very top post titled “Monthly Promise.”
[This is Baek Ara. On May 1st at 1 PM, this time, I’ll be waiting there.]
Not long after she posted, replies flooded in.
[Whoa, the person herself showed up!]
[Unnie, waiting for you made oppa into just bones, T_T]
[Wow, people are gonna swarm everywhere again haha]
[Oppa!!! Emergency!! Reply quickly! Why no words?!]
The supportive comments poured in nonstop, and communities, YouTube, and SNS lit up again, buzzing about their upcoming reunion.
[Actor Kang Seohyuk to reunite with his lover, video footage inside]
[Breaking: Kang Seohyuk’s lover has returned.]
***
In the early morning, Seohyuk’s phone beside his bed kept ringing. Half-asleep, he reached out blindly, grabbed the phone, and answered without checking who was calling.
“Uh… hello? Who’s this?”
“Hey, Seohyuk! Why are you answering so late? We were worried!”
“Ah, hyung, it’s the middle of the night here. Why?”
“Dude, haven’t you checked SNS?”
“No, why?”
Seohyuk had no idea Ara had commented on his posts. He had deleted his SNS before leaving Korea.
He hadn’t wanted to leave traces behind or risk leaving messages saying he was waiting, fearing he might end up going back.
After all, he’d fought so hard to become a top star — he wanted to give himself a break, physically and mentally, somewhere no one knew him, to gather himself and come back renewed.
He wanted to be truly alone before meeting her again, looking better than ever.
Despite Seungbok’s insistent voice, Seohyuk, still half-asleep, closed his eyes again and laid the phone on his cheek, letting all his strength go slack.
Unaware of this, Seungbok excitedly kept talking.
“Seohyuk! That woman — she just commented on your post!”
“Who? Why? What did she say…?”
“Hey! Baek Ara! She said she’ll be waiting for you on May 1st at the place you always go!”
“What?”
Seohyuk sat up straight, running his messy hair through his fingers as he stammered,
“Uh, uh… Hyung, okay. Can you send me a screenshot of that post?”
A moment later, a screenshot arrived from his manager.
[This is Baek Ara. On May 1st, 1 PM, this time I’ll be waiting there.]
“Ara…”
His heart felt like it would burst. Not just his heart — his head too. With the Korean time zone, May 1st was fast approaching.
He needed to check flights immediately, but a typhoon had been raging where he was since last night, making everything worse.
Typing quickly on his phone, the news was grim. All passenger flights were canceled due to strong winds and storms.
“Damn!”
If he waited for the typhoon to pass before leaving, he’d be way late for the appointment.
“Sh1t… what do I do…”
He realized his only option was to drive through the storm to a neighboring country’s airport and catch a flight there.
If he drove nonstop, it would take a full day. The flight itself would take about 12 hours at least.
If the timing worked out, he might still make it in time.
After searching, he found a flight leaving at 4:30 PM on April 30th. No matter what, he had to get there before the meeting.
Seohyuk immediately booked the ticket, reinstalled SNS, and hurriedly packed his bag.
Since he only needed one suitcase, it didn’t take long. Usually, he liked to be neat, but now there was no time to care. He stuffed everything he saw into the suitcase.
Then, he woke the hotel owner who had fallen asleep and checked out.
Having stayed for a long time, Seohyuk had become friendly with the owner and told him about the woman he was waiting for.
Hearing the urgency, the owner sincerely wished him luck and even gave him two teaspoons displayed at the hotel as a quick gift.
He told Seohyuk to come back with her next time, too. Seohyuk tossed his suitcase into the rental car and started driving.
He drove nonstop toward the neighboring country — only stopping for gas, no sleep — for 18 hours straight.
After a long, tough drive, he arrived at the airport with three hours to spare before boarding. Relieved he wasn’t late, he checked in and sat down, taking a deep breath.
“Phew…”
His eyes were dry and burning from concentrating on the unfamiliar roads for so long. He closed them to rest for a moment.
But exhaustion took over, and he accidentally dozed off. Suddenly waking with a start, Seohyuk checked the time.
5 PM.
The plane had already left 30 minutes ago.
“Sh1t!”
A stream of curses flew out.
“Goddamn useless bastard!”
Panicking, he rushed to a gate attendant to confirm if the flight to Korea had really left. Surprisingly, the attendant said a sudden inspection delayed it by two hours.
“Ha… ah…”
His legs nearly gave out.
He was lucky not to miss the plane, but now there was a new problem.
With the flight leaving at 6:30 PM here, accounting for an 8-hour time difference, he wouldn’t land in Korea until past midnight.
Adding travel time from Incheon Airport to Ganghwa Island, he’d be very late.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Seohyuk jumped back into SNS.
He wanted to tell her he’d be late but couldn’t find her comment among the flood of replies.
He searched for “Baek Ara” and tried profiles, but there were too many with the same name.
He stopped, confused, then clicked through profiles, but none of the photos matched her.
Desperate, Seohyuk posted a new message on his account.
[Ara, I’m boarding a plane now. Sorry, but I’ll probably be late for our appointment. Let’s meet at 3 PM instead. I’ll get there by then no matter what.]
Comments poured in below.
Before he could even check if Ara had replied, the comments scrolled by so fast he couldn’t keep up and gave up on SNS for a moment.
He boarded the plane right on time, sat down, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
Please don’t let me be late.
Even if I am, please wait for me.
He prayed to every god he knew, over and over.