CH 71.2

Woo-hyun was a busy man, day and night. If he came to see her in the meantime, he would have barely slept. As if that thought was correct, his face was quite haggard. However, his eyes were clear and reassuring.

It had been a long time since they faced each other like this. Yoo-hwa, who had been hesitating without knowing what to say, opened her mouth.

“Thank you for taking me home. See you later.”

It was an oddly simple goodbye that she thought about for a long time.

Fortunately, Woo-hyun seemed to have understood what it meant. That she didn’t intend to tell him to come inside, and that she hoped they would separate here.

Woo-hyun stared at Yoo-hwa with his eyes lowered. He didn’t have anything to say, nor did he look like he was thinking about anything. After keeping silent as if he were holding on to time and stretching it, he finally opened his mouth.

“I’ll come back tomorrow.”

It was a goodbye that wasn’t as light as it seemed.

“… Yeah.”

Yoo-hwa barely managed to answer as she choked on her emotions, then turned around and entered the password. After that, she opened the door with the key in her pocket and went inside. She could feel Woo-hyun’s gaze until the door closed.

Thud.

The door closed, but Yoo-hwa did not enter the house and leaned against the door. Unlike how she casually came inside, she couldn’t take a step.

She needed some time alone to think. She didn’t want to bring Woo-hyun home yet.

Unlike those thoughts, her body was stuck to the door and did not move.

This would be the closest place to the outside world, and Woo-hyun.

Leaning against the door, Yoo-hwa quietly leaned her ear against the door and listened.

She couldn’t hear the footsteps moving away.

She was faintly relieved by that fact.

***

She woke up at the feeling of brightness outside, and the fresh air of dawn surged through the window. She checked the time with half-closed eyes, and it was a little past 6 in the morning. She turned and tossed for a long time because she couldn’t sleep, and when she did fall asleep, she woke up right away. As she raised her torso, the white duvet was stained blue in the dawn light.

She met Woo-hyun yesterday.

As she stared blankly at the fact she thoughtlessly realized, she felt nervous. Yoo-hwa swept the blanket with the palm of her hand. The dry and cold sensation of the blue-colored duvet, which resembled the sea, was clearly conveyed through her skin. She felt strange because it had been a long time since she had experienced this.

Yoo-hwa left the bed when the light of dawn retreated, and the white light came in. Since the morning had come, she headed to the bathroom without hesitation because she thought she couldn’t dawdle anymore. She took a quick shower and dried her hair with the hair dryer, but she didn’t know what to do now.

She opened and closed the cabinet and looked at her phone once. There were two text messages on the phone.

[I will pay you tomorrow for the work you did until now. Thank you for your hard work.]

Although she didn’t save it, she knew who it was because she had memorized her boss’ phone number.

[I hope you live well.]

It was a number she was seeing for the first time, but it seemed to be Seong-woo for some reason.

A child who cared about her and kept glancing at her, saying that she overlapped with his own sister who committed suicide.

Yoo-hwa pondered and responded to Seong-woo.

[I’m fine. I’ll be fine, so don’t worry.]

After sending it, she got up. She changed clothes and thought about simply going to the mart. She felt strange, as if there was a wind on her mind, and her heart was pounding, so she couldn’t stay at home at all. And with great timing, her fridge was also empty.

Grabbing the notepad where she wrote milk, cereal, kimchi, etc., and her wallet, Yoo-hwa opened the door and her heart almost dropped.

She saw Woo-hyun leaning against the railing of the hallway, where the hazy morning sun was hitting, with his arms crossed. Although he was more exhausted, he was quietly looking at her with even clearer eyes. Unlike Yoo-hwa, who almost fainted in surprise, Woo-hyun wasn’t surprised at all, as if he had heard her coming out, and gazed at her.

Without realizing that her mouth was open, Yoo-hwa glanced at Woo-hyun up and down. The dirty knee, the black jacket, and the shoes she saw yesterday.

He looked exactly the same as yesterday.

Come to think of it, while leaning against the door last night, she hadn’t heard Woo-hyun’s footsteps moving away until she got up. She thought she hadn’t heard the sound of him moving away because he was good at hiding his presence, but he didn’t seem to have moved from here from the beginning.

“… You didn’t leave?”

“I couldn’t.”

The returning voice was hoarse. Yoo-hwa swallowed dry and stared at Woo-hyun, and then dropped her gaze to the floor.

“Then aren’t you going to sleep?”

“I can’t.”

“…”

“Because I can’t wake up.”

She stopped breathing as he said he couldn’t sleep because he was afraid of it being a dream.

She was the same.

Unlike what she was thinking, her mouth blurted out something different.

“I was on my way to the grocery store.”

At that, Woo-hyun looked at his wristwatch.

“It’s still early for business.”

When she checked her phone after hearing Woo-hyun’s words, it was a little over seven o’clock in the morning. She came out of the house unaware of the time because it was bright.

Because when she was at home, her heart fluttered.

And Woo-hyun kept fluttering in the wind of her heart.

“That’s right. I see. I came out without even knowing it.”

Yoo-hwa replied with a calm expression.

“Are you… Are you going to stay here?”

It was only after she said it that she realized her question was strange.

“Yeah.”

But Woo-hyun answered the strange question as if it was something obvious.

“Because this is the place closest to you.”