Chapter 48: Lethal

The subway doors opened, and dozens of people, accompanied by a wave of humid air, poured out.
The crowd, squeezing up the stairs and emerging outside, let out sweet-scented breaths and scattered into the darkness of the city.

“Do you have any plans after this?”

Yu Dojin asked, placing a can of soda against Yu Garyeon’s cheek as she sat on a bench in the station, massaging her temples.
Yu Garyeon, who had flinched at the cool sensation, soon looked up at the grinning Yu Dojin with a smile and shook her head.

“Then let’s have dinner before you go. I’ll make a feast to thank you for coming today.”

As if in response, Han Yeoreum, who was gulping down her drink beside Yu Garyeon, let out a puff of steam from her nose.

“P-Please come! I’ll make whatever you want, unni…!”

Yu Garyeon chuckled, took out a tissue, and wiped the drink stain from Han Yeoreum’s mouth.
Then, she shook her head and spoke.

“I’d love to go, but I’m not feeling well today.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a sigh from Han Yeoreum tickled Yu Garyeon’s nose.

“I’m sorry, I’ll definitely go next time.”
“Are you really not feeling well? You barely ate lunch.”
“Yes, a little… Ah, it’s nothing serious. I just feel a little dizzy from being in a crowded place after a long time.”

Yu Garyeon replied to Yu Dojin, who was looking at her with worried eyes, and stood up.

“Then I’ll be going now. I have to go to work again tomorrow.”
“Really?”

Yu Dojin stood up beside Yu Garyeon and continued.

“Then I’ll walk you home.”
“No, you don’t have to do that…”
“…That’s just an excuse. I want to talk a little more, is that okay?”

At his shy whisper, Yu Garyeon silently turned her head and swept back her hair.

“No?”

Yu Garyeon shook her head ever so slightly. Yu Dojin, watching her, turned around and spoke to Han Yeoreum.
“I’ll walk her home, so you go ahead.”
“Don’t mind me, just walk her home safely!”

Han Yeoreum, who had been bobbing her head up and down like a woodpecker at Yu Dojin’s words, hesitantly waved her hand at Yu Garyeon, who had turned to look at her.

“You must have really won her over, huh?”

Yu Dojin said playfully after confirming that Han Yeoreum had disappeared.
Yu Garyeon tilted her head with an innocent expression and spoke.

“What do you mean?”

However, it was difficult to hide the laughter that had mixed with her voice.

“She’s a completely different person.”
“What is?”
“Stop being coy and tell me. Let me have some fun too.”
“I didn’t say much.”

Yu Garyeon giggled and stretched.

“I just told her to contact me if oppa bothers her.”
“No one’s on my side.”
“I know, right?”

The sound of the man and woman’s chuckles spread through the darkening alley. Their faint laughter soon became the wind, gently rustling the leaves of the surrounding trees.

“Help me a lot.”

Yu Dojin said.

“How?”
“As an adult.”
“Aren’t you taking on too much of a loss?”
“It’s suffocating if there are only adults around.”
“That’s true.”

Yu Garyeon brushed off a leaf that had landed on her shoulder and spoke.

“So she’ll know too. Because it’s a fact that everyone knows.”
“Was it a pointless thing to do?”
“I don’t know.”

Yu Garyeon turned her gaze to the hand that had stroked her back last night. It was a rough and calloused-looking hand.

“Still, if it were me, I think I would have been incredibly spoiled. Even though I know I shouldn’t.”
“Is that so?”

They walked in silence for a long time.
As only the pebbles at their feet tumbled with a clicking sound, a raindrop falling from the sky made them speak again.

“Do you have an umbrella?”
“No.”

They widened their strides and started running. The raindrops, which had been falling one or two at a time, had now turned into a downpour, making a loud noise.

“…I can’t run anymore.”

Yu Garyeon, who had been stumbling, collapsed into a gazebo in a small park in front of an apartment complex.

“There was no mention of rain in the forecast.”

Yu Dojin said, lifting Yu Garyeon’s head, which had been resting on the bench, and placing it on his thigh.
Yu Garyeon, who had been letting out faint breaths while leaning on Yu Dojin’s thigh, suddenly sat up and moved to a corner of the gazebo as if fleeing.

“Why?”
“Ah, no… I was just worried my wet hair would get your pants wet, oppa.”
“I don’t mind.”

Yu Dojin said, patting his thigh.
Yu Garyeon stared at his thigh for a moment, gulping, then shook her head from side to side and sat down across from him.

“My back hurts from lying down at an angle.”
“I didn’t think of that.”

Yu Garyeon, as if fanning herself, shook her head with a flustered gesture, trying to get the raindrops out of her hair. Yu Dojin, watching her, slowly spoke.

“It’s been a while.”

At those words, one of Yu Garyeon’s eyebrows shot up. She seemed to be pondering what Yu Dojin meant.

“Sitting face-to-face with you like this. Don’t you remember? We used to do it often when we were assistant instructors at the art academy.”
“…How could I forget?”
“You seemed to be thinking for a long time for someone who remembers.”
“You’re being mischievous.”

Yu Garyeon chuckled awkwardly, looked up at the ceiling, and spoke.

“Because, it’s not just one or two things. There are many things that are ‘a long time’ for us, oppa.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, sitting face-to-face, having a proper conversation, going out to play, joking around… it’s all been a long time.”

She was speaking to the wind. Hoping that the wind, carrying her words, would float away and reach her past self.

“It’s fresh and nice.”

And Yu Dojin intercepted those words.

“You’re being cheap.”
“It’s your fault for only realizing it now.”
“Really.”

Yu Garyeon, who had lowered her head, her voice trailing off, moved her lips for a moment, then spoke very slowly, in a small voice, as if she didn’t want him to hear.

“It’s more than I deserve, really.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

As Yu Dojin asked back with a puzzled expression, Yu Garyeon smiled bitterly and said.

“It’s better if you don’t know. You’ll definitely come to hate me.”
“That won’t happen.”
“You’ll think I’m weird.”
“I’m weird too, so it’s okay.”
“Then, if I ask you not to pay attention to other women from now on, can you do that for me?”

A strong wind brushed past Yu Dojin’s face.
The vines hanging from the pillars trembled, looking down at the two of them.

“If that’s what you want.”

Yu Dojin’s eyes, as he said that, were shining with a prudent light.
He took a deep breath and continued in a subdued voice.

“Still, I still—”
“Why?”

Yu Garyeon cut him off with a sharp tone. Her face was hidden by the long brim of her hat.

“It’s strange. I’m not your girlfriend. You clearly said you don’t have feelings for me. We’ve just returned to being friends and started talking… Why are you agreeing to such an unreasonable request so easily?”

Yu Dojin recalled the stormy night. There, where the cold waves foamed and churned, he had rejected her confession.
He had looked her in the eye and clearly, very clearly, told her he had no feelings for her.

“It seems a little pathetic to say this now, but.”

He said slowly, feeling a little absurd himself.

“That feeling, it seems it can grow in less than a week.”

He glanced at the palm that had stroked her slender back that night and continued.

“It’s just a few words, but I keep thinking about them, and then it leads back to the memories of that day, and your face comes to mind, and all the sensations I felt in my palm come back to life, and I want to talk to you right away, and I want to see you, but I can’t, so I just keep thinking about it out of disappointment, and then it just grew at some point.”

At that moment, with a flash of lightning, the whole world was bathed in a pure white light. Perhaps my feelings for her were born in a similar way.
A trivial incident made me aware of her, and as I became aware, I was dyed in her colors at some point, and finally, I wanted to shout it out, like this thunder that is now echoing.

Yu Dojin lifted his head, suppressing his pounding heart, which felt like it would explode at any moment. And then he saw it.
A single drop of water, which he had vowed never to let fall again, streaming down her cheek.