Chapter 112
Interestingly, Sarin understood and responded to the names she called out. Yuri looked inside the door with a puzzled expression.
While the other dogs were quick to realize and remained silent, knowing that their owner wanted to spend time alone with Sarin, the last clueless dog barked.
Asking to be recognized, very timidly.
Even in distinguishing that barking sound from the other dogs, Yuri found Sarin fascinating.
She would smile broadly as if asking when she cried, but her eyes would lower when she looked at Owen. Whether it was amusing or not, Owen looked at Sarin with affectionate, folded eyes.
“It seems like you like her.”
Animals couldn’t be unaware of kindness and favors without expecting anything in return.
The dogs, always sensitive from only dealing with those who hid their claws beside Owen, naturally followed Sarin, who was only kind. Sarin, who used to sit half-judgingly in the yard, hugged and hugged the dogs that licked her face one after another, and finally stopped crying.
Feeling like the entire Eden City had moved to her front yard was indescribable.
Thunk.
Owen’s finger lightly tapped. Pink, who had been the most enthusiastic about cuddling with Sarin, flinched for a moment and then approached Owen.
He reached out and stroked the dog’s head.
“…Because Owen likes me, does that mean you like me too?”
Sarin also liked these lovely three dogs.
She continued to not meet Owen’s gaze. So, burying her face in the warm fur of the dogs and hugging them, she turned away from him. It was so Owen-like of her to have undergone surgery when she wasn’t around. But that had hurt her too much.
It was regrettable that she couldn’t be there for Owen and Hayan when they were having a hard time. It was when Sarin couldn’t even remember what she had said.
At that moment, as shoulders were grabbed, the gaze changed instantly. Putting his hand in her armpit as she tried to sit down, Owen lifted her up again.
“Owen?”
“I like Miss Sarin. You just said that.”
“Ah… I like you too.”
Sarin said with eyes that had become red from crying. Owen’s face twisted strangely. He furrowed his eyebrows as if he didn’t know what expression to make.
He likes her. It’s definitely not just her imagination.
That was essential to her life, and she had to have it. By any means necessary.
Sarin wasn’t concerned even with Owen’s expression. His feelings couldn’t change. This man liked her.
Maybe that’s…
“No?”
Sarin interjected, placing her hand on Owen’s chest. The end of her question had an air of certainty.
He couldn’t say anything. For some reason, his lower body felt itchy. The fact that she was touching his skin, and maybe, that the scarred area that had been so pitifully tender underneath it all felt itchy too.
“If it’s hard to say, you don’t have to.”
I know that.
As he stared blankly, Sarin felt her face itching.
“…If I have those feelings, they’re only for you.”
The emotions he could feel were simple.
It’s something she doesn’t want to lose, so she has to have it. By any means necessary.
It was much simpler than the complicated emotions Sarin had mentioned.
Sarin smiled softly at Owen’s response with a flushed face.
“I want to show you good things, I don’t want to hurt you, and I want to do what you want. That’s what liking you means to me. That’s what I decided.”
Sarin concluded in an affectionate tone. And she deeply breathed in the smell of her hometown, which could be the last night. Now, the moment she might leave had come.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. Help me pack up.”
And she urged Owen, who didn’t respond.
There was nothing taken to Eden City. She never thought the journey would be this long. Leading Owen back to the room, Sarin had already taken everything out of the house, leaving only useless things.
The useless things were albums filled with her memories or childhood belongings.
Only very late did Owen’s thick lips open. As she struggled to pull out a book on the top shelf, he helped and said.
“There’s nothing to pack. Let’s hurry and go see Hayan…”
Who could have expected to meet him like this in her old house?
Sarin flicked away the dust. Through the swirling dust, Owen was still looking at her. His eyes couldn’t be defined by any word. It just felt like looking at something very precious and beautiful, making her cheeks flush for no reason. A childish book slipped from her hands.
A photo fell out from between the pages of the opened book.
Before Sarin could bend down, Owen picked it up first. It was a picture of herself and her sister from their childhood, wearing pajamas and leaning against the wall, using each other’s heads as pillows, sleeping soundly.
“It was here.”
Sarin accepted the photo from him. There was a small window above, and below it were two uncomfortable children sleeping. It was a photo taken roughly with a disposable camera because there was no proper camera.
So, apart from special occasions, there were hardly any photos from her childhood. The albums were also simple. Sarin extended the hand holding the photo towards Owen to show him and smiled.
She took Owen’s hand and led him to the small storage room where they spent their childhood.
“It’s the same, isn’t it?”
Sarin pointed to the wall under the small window. The old scribbles in the photo were still there on the wall. Inside, they could faintly see the light from the other room shining through the half-opened door.
At that time, the window was the only place where they could see outside from a height much higher than they could reach. The children who used to sit below it and doze off were nowhere to be found now.
Sarin and Owen went there together.
“Sit down.”
Then she took a seat where she used to sit in her childhood. Owen obediently sat down where Sarin indicated.
They sat silently for a while, and somewhere, the sound of the wind could be heard.
“The wind leaks through the window because the house is old. It used to scare me when I was young. My sister and I used to lean against the wall like this, holding hands and enduring the night.”
Their joined hands were warm.
It was the first time she had entered this room since her sister died.
“Actually, the sound of screams or the voice of an angry man was scarier than the sound of the wind.”
She was afraid of being exposed to the ruthless violence of whoever opened the door at any time.
They held hands and looked at each other, guarding each other while looking at the door. In the eyes of the exhausted mother, it seemed that their bond looked so good. That’s what the presence of the photo showed.
Throughout her conversation, Owen was looking at her. But that’s not what she really wanted to show.
Sarin pointed ahead with the hand that wasn’t holding his. Only then did he look beyond the door.
The moonlight reflected off the window cast light on the shadows on the opposite wall. It was a light, square light, just the size of the window.
“Someday, let’s leave this house. It’s really… Let’s leave here. Let’s go over there.”
Beyond the light, there seemed to be a life even brighter than this small window. They held hands and made that promise.
Looking at the photo reminded her of that time.
As Sarin stared at the reflected light in silence, Owen’s thumb gently caressed the back of her hand.
“It’s similar to where I was. There was a window where I was too.”
It was not a window but just a hole. It was a very small hole that even a child couldn’t climb up with his strength alone.
Every time the wind blew through the small hole, making Owen crouch with the dogs.
“It looked just like you.”
Sarin looked away from the wall and looked at Owen. His eyes were always fixed on her. They faced each other while listening to the wind blowing through the small gap between the window and the wall.
“It was a very beautiful window.”
Her cloudy eyes gently folded like her words spewed out. Owen could only nod at Sarin’s answer as she looked at him. It was the only color he could see. It was the most vivid color Owen had ever seen since he was born.
It couldn’t be anything but beautiful.
Sarin moved closer to him and leaned her head against his sturdy arm.
The warmth from the hand she held made her eyes close involuntarily. The aftermath of sleep was clearly hitting her late.
“I’ll take a nap for a moment. Then… I’ll tidy up…”
Her voice gradually faded away. Owen listened attentively to Sarin’s words until the end. And with a heavy breath, the last words found him.
“Let’s… go home.”
“Yeah, let’s go home.”
He replied firmly.
Her breathing joined the sound of the wind. The warmth clinging to his arm made his eyes close for a moment too.
