episode_0049

Evening time.

When I went to the room to take the kids to the restaurant, I felt a slightly different atmosphere than usual.

In that order: Ran, Yuna, Jina, and Yeseul.

Even though four people were gathered in one room, there was silence in the room.

Everyone was just sitting on their respective beds as if thinking about something.

Among them, Yeseul, who was the only one who came out of the yacht to talk, seemed to be trying to lighten the mood somehow, but didn’t seem to get any response.

The reason was clear to anyone.

This was because Sujin, who was supposed to be in the room with them, could not be seen.

“What about Sujin?”

“I don’t know. It disappeared before I knew it, so I thought about going to look for it…”

Yuna, who had been speaking up to that point, slowly turned her eyes towards Ran.

There, Ran, with the same gloomy face, was tilting his head.

He probably wanted to go find Ran too, but he seemed to have remembered what I said before.

If Yuna had helped her here, everything she had done so far could have been in vain, so it was a very good thing that she stopped Yuna from trying to find Sujin.

“Is there something else I don’t know about?”

“uh.”

“Can you tell me? Sujin’s condition was strange all day today, and if she was in pain…”

“It’s not like that, so you don’t have to worry.”

I told Yuna, who spoke as if she had been waiting for me to come, to be at ease.

However, Yuna did not seem at all relieved by my words.

“You can’t even talk to me?”

“Uh. I’m sorry. All I can do is tell you to keep being patient and wait.”

In response to Jina’s words, I repeated the same words I had told others.

No matter what kind of strange behavior Sujin shows, don’t approach her hastily and just keep an eye on her.

There is no way this story can be understood through common sense.

It’s not that I don’t know it, but I can’t help it.

This is her own problem that no one can help with.

“I will look for Sujin. You guys go to the restaurant first.”

“…Can I trust you?”

Jina’s anxious eyes.

And that seemed to represent the feelings of everyone here.

“I promise. One day, when all the problems are resolved, I will tell you everything that I have been hiding from you.”

“Promise, please.”

Ran got off the bed, trudged over, and gave me his little finger.

Ran has the power to listen to people’s hearts.

Making a promise with her was only possible if you had the will to keep it.

“Yes. I promise.”

“…”

“So, please listen to mom and wait until your brother comes. Ran is a good kid, so you can listen to her, right?”

Nod.

Ran’s tiny fingers are less than half the size of mine.

I really thought about it as I faced it.

I will tell you the whole truth someday.

**

Sometimes, people with high sensitivity compare the night sea to an abyss.

Looking at the darkness so thick that I couldn’t tell where the bottom was, I was fully convinced.

If Sujin were looking at the sea now, she would have called it that.

The beach sea, which was clear and beautiful during the day, has gone somewhere, and what is in front of you is a huge anglerfish waiting for someone to approach you in a dark world.

If you take even a single step into that place without realizing it, you will be swept away and will never be able to return to the original world.

The waves that reached my ankles felt scary for no reason.

Shoot.

Sujin’s heart was shaking endlessly as she faced the abyss that seemed as if she would sink if she lost her balance even once.

“It was my first time.”

Now the number has increased to 8, but in the beginning, there were only 3 people in the share house, including my brother and myself.

I was happy.

I can’t ask for anything more than this.

Chaeyeon is pretty and kind, and her caring brother. A wealthy family with no shortage of anything.

In it, Sujin also tried hard to be an ideal younger sister.

When did her ideal and perfect nest that was created like that start to creak?

One by one, the younger siblings came in and started living together.

The quiet house began to become noisy.

I left the room I was sleeping in with my brother and started sleeping separately.

I started to skip the greetings I used to face each morning every morning.

When I opened my eyes, Sujin had changed from a precious little sister to just one of the many people living with me.

As the meaning of being the first younger sister faded, Sujin became nothing.

As the youngest with aphasia like Ran, she was not born with the attributes of needing care and attention, nor was she an identical twin who looked exactly alike like Hayun and Younha.

Moreover, as I found out later, the two children were born with a special constitution that was completely opposite of good luck and bad luck.

When I heard that, my first thought was that it was unfair rather than sad.

I can’t believe I can get my brother’s attention without any effort.

I wanted to change as much as I could if I could.

In the end, what does a person like me have?

She was neither talented in sports like Jin-ah, who was two years younger than her, nor did she have natural good looks and a soft heart like Yuna, her only older sister.

The self-evaluating person, Cha Soo-jin, was just a high school girl you could easily see anywhere who knew how to lighten the mood by telling lame jokes.

However, even that is so clumsy that the role is often taken over by someone else, like today.

It was natural for my brother’s interest to disappear.

Because there were many people around him who were much more special than the ordinary person like him.

The moon began to set.

The waves that had reached her ankles were now rising up to Sujin’s calves.

If I stayed like this, it was only a matter of time before it reached my waist.

‘…I have to come out.’

But for some reason, Sujin’s feet didn’t move as if they were heavy lead blocks.

I know why.

It was because I didn’t have the courage to go back to where other people were.

In a space where no one was paying attention to her, she didn’t have the confidence to laugh and talk like usual because she didn’t want to worry anyone.

The sea at night seems truly amazing.

There were times when it was scary enough to be likened to an abyss, but at times it gave a strange sense of security that could not be felt anywhere else.

Slap-slap-slap-

The waves regularly swept over her body and then down again.

In a dark world with no one and not a single light, she was the only one who made me feel that she was alive.

“Shall we leave soon?”

But Sujin did not forget.

Although it seems to bring peace on the outside, it is actually a hungry ghost that is ready to swallow her at any time.

And I’ll worry if you’re away for too long.

That wasn’t what she wanted. I just wanted to cool off for a moment, I wasn’t trying to be indulgent.

“Cha Soo-jin?”

“Oh, oppa!?”

Suddenly, a familiar voice reached my ears.

Because it was something she had never expected, Sujin unconsciously turned around and thought it was a mistake.

The moment her two feet, which were firmly supporting her, left the ground, the anglerfish that had been targeting her opened its huge mouth.

with a splash-!

I lost my balance and slipped.

The air surrounding her disappeared and in an instant, her body was submerged into the black sea.

‘Now, wait a minute!’

I desperately struggled with my arms and legs.

If you can come to your senses and stand up properly, there is no way you will sink.

But for some reason, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get out of the water.

As time passed, the rougher waves tried to drag her body deeper and deeper.

The last thing Sujin remembered, as her consciousness was gradually fading, was her brother jumping from the sandy beach into the sea where she was.

**

“…There are degrees of recklessness.”

I grumbled while wringing out the moisture from my soaked clothes.

What kind of person would think of going into the sea alone in the middle of the night like this?

If I had been even a little late in discovering it, I would have never been able to find it.

“…Was it really that difficult?”

I looked at Sujin lying on the bed.

Sujin, who was just as wet as me, was sleeping with a peaceful face.

Fortunately, no abnormalities were seen, perhaps because it was immediately rescued from the sea.

I sat at the bedside and brushed away Sujin’s damp hair.

The direct reason for her being driven to this point lies with me.

Was I being overly greedy?

She probably doesn’t want to go in this direction either.

“For now, I guess I’ll have to sleep here today.”

This room, where Sujin and I were staying, was a single room that we got after separately inquiring with the hotel.

If I took Soojin like this to a place where the kids were, I would make them worry for no reason, so I had no other choice. However, I can’t let him sleep in my room with another man.

-Let’s talk in detail tomorrow morning. Take a good rest today.

I put the note on the table for Sujin to see in case she woke up in the middle of the night, turned off the lights in the room, and went out.

“…Should we do this.”

I had made up my mind that I would not be shaken no matter what, but when I came face to face with someone struggling like that, I couldn’t help but worry.

Tiring.

At that moment, I heard a cheerful notification sound saying a text message had arrived.

[Come to the 7th floor lounge. Because I have a story to tell.]

It was a text from Han Chae-yeon that seemed to say that she already knew everything.