Chapter 149: Christmas is Already Over [R-18]

As if granting her wish, the ringing tone stretched to its limit before a sharp beep signaled the switch to voicemail.

“The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave a message after the…”

“…”

The call went unanswered. Her fingertips trembled, but she couldn’t let go of the phone.

Unable to bear the weight on her heart, she pressed her lips together, her cold fingers slowly tracing the screen.

Ah, so Christmas is really over now.

Once today ended, everyone’s lights would go out. Like a street stripped of its brilliant decorations, she felt her own heart being dyed in darkness.

She was still curled up on the floor, feeling as if the yellow linoleum would collapse and swallow her whole, when it happened.

Bzzzz—

“…!”

A vibration. The phone in her hand trembled, the sound sharp in the quiet room.

The name on the screen was:

[Rio]

Her eyes widened.

With no time to even catch her breath, her finger slid across the screen. Her hand moved first, and the vibration stopped.

“…Hey, what the hell—”

The voice that pierced her ear was not his usual leisurely, playful tone.

“Kang Seojin, is that you?”

It was an impatient, urgent, and somewhat cracked voice.

He had called so suddenly, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t her.

But it was real.

It was Rio.

“…Yeah.”

Unsure how to answer, the single syllable came a beat too late. But it was soaked more deeply with meaning than a hundred words could ever be.

“Ah, damn it.”

He let out a sound that was somewhere between a curse and a sigh.

She’d answered the call on pure reflex, without a single thought of what to say. A brief silence fell between them, but she didn’t mind it.

Because on the other end of this unbroken line, he was there.

Seojin quietly pressed her lips together and held the phone closer to her ear. She wanted to hear more of his voice.

Her heart felt like it was about to explode.

“…Rio.”

At that one word, he was momentarily speechless.

The sound of his name, spoken by Seojin. The two familiar syllables, though low and quiet, struck his ear with piercing clarity.

“Are you… doing well?”

She never thought she would be able to ask him such a thing. For him, who had everything to the point of being a nuisance, the answer was a given.

The question, which she’d asked while trying her best to sound normal, was foolish.

Seojin felt ridiculous and closed her mouth. The lack of a reply made her wonder if he, too, found her absurd.

But now that she was hearing his voice again, the woman named Kang Seojin was overcome with greed.

The heart that had intended only to listen now wanted to speak, and the lips that had intended to speak now let out a sob.

“…Ugh…”

She tried to hold it back, but a short moan escaped her lips, immediately followed by a flood of tears.

It finally overflowed, and she ended up showing him this pathetic side of herself after all this time.

“I… I tried, but it’s not working… I miss you so much…”

Seojin’s sobs continued.

After a few wretched cries, her voice emerged again, raw and pained. The burst of emotion had robbed her of all rational thought.

“Why… ugh, why did you call me…?”

The line was still connected, but she couldn’t hear his voice, and a wave of sorrow washed over her. The words came out like a childish complaint.

“If I see this… and misunderstand…”

If you keep calling me like this…

When I’m nothing to you anymore, what am I supposed to do if I start thinking I’m special all by myself…

On the other end of the line, Rio could only curse under his breath, unable to form a reply.

The moment he heard her crying, his bewildered expression was overcome by a sudden fury. He had already started moving the instant he confirmed it was her, ruthlessly pushing his way through the party’s crowd.

The hem of his dark suit swayed. He could hear someone calling his name, but the sound didn’t register.

He headed straight for the parking garage.

In the cold night air, the light of his smart key blinked, illuminating his car. Even then, her small, trembling voice continued to echo from his phone.

Rio opened the car door, threw himself into the driver’s seat, and pressed the phone to his ear, clenching his jaw.

“Kang Seojin.”

His brow furrowed.

It was Christmas night, teeming with people. If he left now, when would he reach her?

“—Stop crying.”

He rested his arm on the steering wheel, struggling to find the right words.

“If you miss me, then come to me. Right now.”

He shifted the gear, and Rio’s car shot forward, cutting through the streets.

The heart of Seoul was a sea of traffic in the middle of the night, congested with the year-end holiday rush along Gangbuk Boulevard. But his car weaved between lanes, picking up speed.

“You don’t know why I called?”

Once Rio decided to go to her, he didn’t hesitate or waver for a second.

“Every call I made to you was my lingering attachment. It’s not a misunderstanding. It’s that thing you like so much—love.”

The speeding alarm blared. The lights of the Christmas trees lining the streets flashed by. Through it all, he felt a desperate urgency.

In the time since his breakup with Seojin, Rio had lived all the more debauchedly.

His memories of going home were faint. He slept in hotel suites, in someone else’s house, or in unfamiliar beds he couldn’t even remember.

But today, her voice, her tears, had called him back to that place.

“So please, hurry up and come.”

With the phone still clutched in one hand, Seojin headed straight outside.

Her face was bare of makeup. Dark shadows pooled under her swollen, tear-streaked eyes, but she was trying to stop crying now.

To see him.

“Taxi…”

Oblivious to the cold, she rushed out of the narrow alley and flagged down the first taxi she saw. The fare would be expensive at this time of night, but there was no reason to hesitate.

Perhaps she had never allowed herself a single luxury because she had been saving it all for this very moment.

“How long will it take?”

“About… thirty minutes.”

Her heart was pounding in her ears.

As her sobs subsided and a quiet calm settled in her chest, she was filled with a single, trembling thought: she was going to see him.

Her exhausted body didn’t matter.

The nightscape of Seoul flowed past the car window. The thought that Rio, too, was somewhere out there, cutting through this same night to get to her, made everything else insignificant.

Whenever a wave of anxiety hit her, her short nails scratched at her thighs through the fabric of her pants.

“We’re here, miss.”

Seojin nodded, got out of the taxi, and looked up at the apartment building she thought she would never see again. She stood there blankly, numb to the biting cold.

“Rio, I’m…”

There was no need for words. Across the street.

Even as he drove recklessly, Rio’s eyes caught sight of that familiar figure.

Spotting her, he was in such a hurry that he couldn’t even be bothered to drive into the parking garage. He pulled over to the side of the road, and there they were, facing each other with a single traffic light between them.

“Yeah, I see you.”

Seojin gasped at his words.

She looked around, her expression a mixture of confusion and adoration.

But the woman who had run out into the cold winter night without so much as a long coat also looked pitifully frail.

“Rio…?” she murmured into the phone, while he cursed furiously in his head.

Fuck…

The reality of being stuck here, helpless before a single, damnably long red light while she stood right in front of him, was driving him insane.

Just as Rio was struggling to keep himself from bolting out of the car, the light finally—turned green.

“Kang Seojin!”

He called her name, and Seojin turned instinctively. Fresh tears welled in her swollen eyes.

Rio ran across the street to her. He threw one arm around her shoulder and wrapped the other around her waist, pulling her into a fierce, powerful embrace.

“What were you thinking, coming out in this weather without a coat!”

There were so many things he wanted to say, but right now, all he felt was concern for her.

His scolding was justified; in just that short time, her cheeks had grown cold, stained with fresh tears.

“Let’s go. Home.”

As he tried to hurry her along, Seojin quietly inhaled from within his arms.

That scent, that warmth. It was the one thing she couldn’t find anywhere else in the world.

“Just a little… can’t we stay like this a little longer…?”

Seojin buried her face in Rio’s shoulder, afraid it was all a dream that would shatter the moment she took a step. A tearful smile touched her lips as she sniffled.

It was her small indulgence.

In response, Rio stroked her back and took a slow breath. The warmth he had lost, the feelings he had tried to forget, surged up again, choking him.

The very fact that he had managed to live without her now felt disgusting.

Compared to this one woman, all the free days he had lived without regret were nothing but time to be thrown in the trash.

“Damn it… Kang Seojin.”

His arms tightened around her.

He held her as if to break her. The body he had let go, afraid he might genuinely kill her, had returned to him.

“I’m begging you, please let’s go inside…”

Rio cradled her head once, stroking her hair, then carefully pulled her along, still holding her in his arms.

They had drifted apart after a relationship that was like a swamp for them both. But now, they both knew they would never be separated again.

“…Okay.”

In the night air, the two of them stood there for a long while, until Seojin could fully accept that he was real, not a fantasy.

The Christmas lights illuminating the area around the building, the people passing by—none of it mattered now.

Only this reunion gave meaning to the time they had endured.

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Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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