At 11 p.m. on the terrace of the Climax bar, Jisoo sipped her wine and asked, “Min-su, why are you so gentle with every woman?”
He tilted his head, and for half a second the light in his glass revealed a shift in his eyes.
Oh, did she notice?
What Falls Away Each Time He Smiles
Min-su was tender with everyone. Like a cracked pane of glass, his smile split at the perfect angle. He let his voice drop a note for female colleagues, and his casual touches toward female friends were so natural they became unnatural.
Men didn’t know him. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t interested in men. Even at company dinners, even during football screenings, he looked only in one direction: wherever women gathered.
First Shard: Hye-jin’s Memory
“He treated me like I was special,” Hye-jin (28, marketer) recalled of six months ago. Same company, different team. Every day Min-su left a Starbucks carrier on her desk. The drink was too hot; she burned her hand.
“Ah, sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“It’s fine. Thank you. Should I get it iced tomorrow?”
The exchange repeated for three weeks. Hye-jin slid in deeper. Min-su was never pushy. He even seemed to keep his distance. That made him more dangerous.
One Friday night, drunk, Hye-jin checked into a hotel near the office. Min-su was beside her.
“I’m okay alone.”
“…Really okay?”
That one second of silence—Hye-jin still remembers. Something lived inside it. Yet nothing happened. Min-su turned away at the door. The next morning she discovered the truth.
Second Shard: Seo-yeon’s Discovery
Seo-yeon (26, designer) believed she was Min-su’s “female best friend.” For two years he had told her she didn’t need a boyfriend.
“You’re special. If we dated, things would break.”
The words sounded sweet. A relationship that wouldn’t break—she wondered what that meant. One day she glimpsed his phone, an open KakaoTalk chat:
“Min-su, thanks again today. I’m glad we’ll meet tomorrow too.”
“Me too. Seeing you calms me.”
Sender: Ji-hye (30, planner). The same message had been sent to seven women.
Seo-yeon’s hands trembled. Min-su’s tenderness was mass-produced.
The Darkness Men Never Saw
Why did only women know Min-su? Because he was a meticulous engineer of desire. He calculated the exact temperature: never too easy, never too distant. Men never felt the calculation; they took his smile at face value. Women sensed it—that the smile seemed for me alone yet secretly pointed somewhere else.
Why We Crave This Hypocrisy
Psychologist Robert Greene wrote that people react most fiercely to uncertain relationships. Min-su’s allure lay here: he preserved the zone of maybe he likes me, maybe not. Women rushed to fill the gap.
“Surely I’m different?”
Such questions are addictive. We are more excited by the possibility of love than by love itself.
Final Night: What He Finally Revealed
On their last date, Jisoo saw the truth.
“I think I like too many people. That’s why I can’t truly have anyone.”
She understood then: Min-su’s tenderness was a defense mechanism. To love one person is to risk being wounded. So he scattered small pieces among many. No one could possess him completely, therefore no one could lose him completely.
There is a Min-su beside you now. The man only women know. When you received his smile, did you truly believe it was yours alone?