Chapter 51: Morning Porridge

The morning sunlight, clear and bright, illuminated a corner of the living room.

In the elegant and spacious living room, a tall and slender girl was lying on the sofa, one foot awkwardly dangling out, stepping onto the rug specially laid down for her.

Sullyoon slightly knitted her delicate brows, sleeping heavily. What she did not know was that just by closing her eyes for a moment, the entire night had quietly slipped away.

Waking up amidst a throbbing headache, Sullyoon rubbed her eyes. Her rebooting brain, though receiving visual information, was momentarily incapable of making corresponding judgments.

She glanced past the hanging spider plants and screen windows on the balcony, looking over at the equally towering modern apartment building opposite. After a long moment, her gradually recovering cognitive abilities drove her mind to recall the events of the previous night.

Oh no... getting dead drunk at Senior Mina's place, I've really messed up big time.

Looking down at the cashmere blanket thoughtfully draped over her stomach, the girl's heart grew warm at first, followed by a surging wave of heavy guilt.

The clock on the coffee table showed that it was barely past six in the morning, yet the living room was as impeccably clean as if nothing had happened the night before.

The neatly arranged fruit platter, the newly replaced tablecloth, the spotless floor, and the rug placed specifically beneath her feet...

Even her slippers, which she had somehow kicked off somewhere last night, were neatly set right beside her feet.

Just as she turned her head to search for Senior Myoui Mina, that gentle, graceful, and stunning figure emerged from the kitchen.

"You're awake? Come over and have some porridge."

Wearing oven mitts, Mina carried the heavy earthenware pot out and placed it on a mat on the dining table.

As the lid was lifted, the faint aroma drifting through the air left Sullyoon feeling an overwhelming emptiness in her stomach.

"Thank you for the trouble, Senior Mina," she said softly, getting up to sit across from her.

The twenty-seven-year-old senior wore her dark, glossy long hair down, and a pair of gold-rimmed round glasses rested on her bridge, adding an air of intellectual elegance and gentleness.

Over a clean, crisp white T-shirt, she wore a somewhat cute light pink apron.

Her wrists were delicate, and her slender fingers held a porcelain spoon, slowly stirring the porridge in the pot. Once it had cooled slightly, she scooped a full bowl for Sullyoon.

For some inexplicable reason, at that exact moment, Senior Mina gave off a mature, wife-like aura.

Sipping slowly at the lean meat porridge Mina had pushed toward her, the savory flavor quickly filled Sullyoon's stomach, and the hollow, hanging sensation caused by her hangover instantly melted away in the warmth of her senior's kindness.

"Is Senior Mina someone who drinks often?"

Purely out of curiosity, she couldn't shake the feeling that the senior before her wasn't as simple as she had previously imagined.

It felt... as though she held countless untold stories.

"Why do you think that? Is it because I woke up like nothing happened this morning?" Mina raised an eyebrow and explained, "I'm the type who gets drunk quickly, but also recovers just as fast."

Sullyoon gently shook her head. "I just thought this bowl of porridge is so perfectly suited for the morning after drinking, and it makes my stomach feel so warm. It feels as if senior's porridge was specially made for people who drink."

Mina let out a soft, amused chuckle and nodded slightly, scenes from the past resurfacing in her mind. "That's right. Because I used to take care of someone who drank often, I learned exactly what kind of porridge a drunk person needs most."

"Eh? Was there someone who needed Senior Mina's care? Could it be..."

The corners of her mouth ticked upward slightly, as if she had discovered a secret, eagerly awaiting Mina's answer.

"There used to be."

"I'm sorry," Sullyoon bit her lip, lowering her head to busy herself with eating. "Whew... this is really delicious."

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with sharing it."

Seeing that Sullyoon had finished most of her porridge, Mina proactively picked up the ladle and added more to her bowl.

"There was once a person whom I met as an inevitability of fate—an overwhelming trend that was never truly our own mutual desire. Can you understand what I mean by that?"

Sullyoon genuinely couldn't comprehend why artists, squeezing romance into their busy schedules, could speak of it with such a sense of fatalism in Mina's words.

She shook her head blankly, her delicate brows slightly furrowed. "It sounds as if two giant hands were forcing the two of you together..."

A strange yet inexplicably fitting metaphor.

"Something like that... So there was no emotional foundation at the start, and I was well aware of that. I know you don't believe in love growing simply from spending time together, but reality was just like that."

"Even though both of us were extremely busy, the bowl of porridge we shared together every morning was the only constant in our lives full of variables. To us, that bowl of porridge was like a lighthouse to a ship sailing alone on the vast ocean."

"No matter how terrible the day had been, we knew that the next day, there would be someone by our side, slowly sharing a bowl of porridge together."

"And so, we gradually found the courage and confidence to keep going."

Mina scooped a bowl for herself. Seemingly remembering some sorrowful memory, she paused, lowering the spoon she had been bringing to her mouth.

The scene painted by her senior gave off an overwhelming sense of mutual devotion through thick and thin.

Since their bond was so deep, why weren't they together now?

Harboring this question, Sullyoon opened her mouth to ask, but instantly felt it would be too intrusive, swallowing the words back down.

"Were you going to ask where he is now?"

"Um... but I was afraid of bringing up senior's painful memories, so I didn't dare ask."

The corners of Mina's lips twitched slightly, followed by a helpless, amused laugh. "I didn't expect you to care so much about my feelings."

"Don't worry, even though he seems far away from me, he's actually very close."

"It's just that both he and I need some time before we can become the most fitting versions of ourselves for one another."

"Oh... Ah?"

Lifting her head in a daze, feeling the direct gaze her senior directed at her, Sullyoon found her mind struggling to process it.

Though Sullyoon was certain Mina wasn't referring to her—after all, this was only her first time having porridge with her senior—a flurry of strange guesses refused to be suppressed.

It had that uncanny feeling of a protagonist in a television drama saying, "The one I love is worlds away, yet right before my eyes."

Noticing the embarrassment on the girl's face, Mina couldn't help but burst into a soft laugh. "What are you worrying about? I certainly don't mean you."

Sullyoon's cheeks flushed red instantly. She wanted to offer an explanation, but for a split second... she genuinely had thought that.

After all, among the girls Sullyoon knew, Senior Mina was indeed quite popular; there had even been a period when rumors circulated within the industry that she preferred women.

"Taken literally, he really is very close to me. Between him and me, it's simply a matter of time."

Mina spoke with confidence and certainty, her gaze drifting unconsciously toward the balcony.

Following her gaze out the window, Sullyoon once again thought of Xia Xing and his so-called fake girlfriend, and her mood soured all over again.

She felt a genuine sense of envy for Mina's calm poise in matters of the heart.

"Senior, although I still don't quite understand, I sincerely wish you both the best."

"When it comes to romance, I really need to work harder myself. I hope that one day, I can become as confident and resolute as you are, senior."