Chapter 84
“Why?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
She felt a lump in her throat at his kind face saying she would understand if she followed him. Even though she was chewing something soft, it didn’t go down properly. Sarin quickly lowered her gaze and tried to focus on the food in front of her.
It was still hard to look at Owen. Everything she did, even eating consciously, every action was scrutinized. In the end, she couldn’t even finish half of her meal.
“Aren’t you eating?”
After finishing his business and reaching out to pat the dog’s head, Owen’s eyes met Sarin’s. His eyes narrowed slightly. Owen took the half-eaten omelet plate that Sarin had put down and picked up the fork she had left.
“You didn’t finish eating. Eat what’s left.”
Surprised by Sarin’s words, Owen calmly put what was left into his mouth.
“I usually eat everything Sarin eats. Why?”
It was a sign known only to each other, and Sarin was at a loss. Seeing his shaking eyes, she smiled awkwardly, thinking it was her fault, and Owen, who seemed to enjoy it, finally ate up the leftover omelet that Sarin had eaten.
“Still…”
With a cloudy voice, Sarin thought to herself that she shouldn’t leave anything next time. As she got up to go back to the room to brush her teeth again, Owen spoke behind her.
“Dress warmly when you come out.”
Where are they going that he’s telling her to dress warmly?
Sarin sighed as she squeezed toothpaste onto her toothbrush and put it in her mouth.
“Why are you eating that, why?”
It felt like he threw a stone at her when she woke up clear-headed in the morning. Her face was fully reflected in the mirror.
She felt unusually brave last night. She felt embarrassed at what she said in front of the scary man, but strangely, she didn’t feel regretful.
She wet the hand towel with cold water and pressed it against her cheek. Even after a while, the heat didn’t seem to dissipate easily.
Despite Owen’s suggestion to dress warmly, the weather outside the hotel was pleasant, like a spring day. The season of ice melting was approaching. Sarin wondered if she had put on the scarf for no reason and fiddled with the frayed end.
“Are you hot?”
As Owen peeled off a candy and put it into Sarin’s mouth, he asked again while peeling his own candy.
His face was serious, even though it was a joke. Sarin couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly as she sucked on the candy, surprisingly expressionless for a moment, considering she might have misunderstood.
He bent down slowly. He was so close that it seemed like he might kiss her, so she closed her eyes tightly. But what met her was their ends touching each other.
“I get cold easily.”
Owen said from right in front of her.
The ends of the sticks they were bumping against each other moved slightly every time he opened his mouth. When Sarin opened her eyes, the man was still bending over in the same position. After hesitating for a moment, Sarin quickly took off the muffler from her neck.
His quiet waiting seemed like a silent urging, so she wrapped the muffler around Owen’s pale neck as if giving it to him.
After tying a simple knot and lightly pressing the spot with her palm, Owen finally straightened up, satisfied. She didn’t know why his face reminded her of Hayan. She remembered how Owen’s gaze had persistently followed her when she tied Hayan’s muffler at the hospital.
She thought it might be her misconception, but she quickly shook her head.
“Why?”
As they sat in the car without moving, Owen asked calmly while she tried to shake off distracting thoughts.
“No, it’s nothing. I just had a different thought.”
It was absurd that Owen, who demanded exactly what she had given to the child, was asking for it. Even if she thought about it herself, it was an unreasonable delusion. As Sarin hurriedly got into the car, Owen calmly climbed into the seat next to her.
The car started moving somewhere. As they crossed the bridge connected to the lake, she remembered what had happened here and her body stiffened instinctively.
“You seem scared.”
Owen grabbed Sarin’s cold hand. It wasn’t the kind of fear she felt when water flooded her throat and she was dragged in helplessly. The instinct to save this man eventually brought her here.
“I once borrowed money from scary people and they threatened to sell or kill me if I fell behind on even a little bit of interest.”
It was more terrifying than when they threatened to break my legs and immediately sell me off if I fell behind on the debt. And what scared her the most was Owen’s indifferent attitude towards such matters. She felt uneasy thinking about the days he had lived.
“I see.”
Owen clicked his tongue with a frown. He had settled all of Sarin’s remaining debts when he brought the child from Korea. But he realized too late that he had to settle not with money, but with the people he had borrowed from.
“It was scarier than that time.”
She spoke honestly. The suffocating feeling she had when she wandered around looking for Owen in the water covered her heart again now that she had spoken her mind. Turning her head away from him, she looked out the window again.
Eden City was on the left, with a lake and a river on the right. Water from the dam above the lake flowed down to the river.
Watching the car ascend the road along the lake, Sarin soon realized they were heading to the dam.
“Ah…”
Sarin, watching the cars heading upstream towards the dam, let out a small sigh as if she had realized something.
She had read about it in her sister’s diary. It said that spring in Eden City begins with the release of water from the dam.
It was like an annual event that started when the ice on the lake began to melt. Many tourists come to Eden City at this time to see it, as it is written.
“It can be quite annoying to stay in the city.”
Along with evacuation drills, most of the people in Eden City go to watch the water release from the dam. There’s no point in staying in the city; you have to go to the air-raid shelters or evacuation centers.
Since Eden City is closest to the dam, there was always a crowd during this time, as those who didn’t like the drills preferred to watch the water release or take a tour.
“My sister said she had seen this event before.”
Since it was a kind of event held on the best weather day, the night in Eden City after the evacuation drills ended became festive.
“Really?”
“The sound of the water falling is like the sound of spring coming, so…”
“The sound of spring coming. That’s a fitting expression. In winter, the upper reaches of the dam freeze, so they don’t release water.”
The car, which had approached the dam, smoothly passed the area where there was a sign saying “Restricted access except for authorized personnel.” When the attendant saw the car, he immediately opened the door and let them in. Only Owen and his bodyguards’ cars remained inside.
Soon the car stopped at the entrance to the dam, and Owen got out first.
Despite being well-built, Sarin was afraid that this place might collapse.
The wind was quite cold, mocking her previous thought that it was warm.
After changing elevators for the second time, they arrived at the top of the dam. Looking down from above, which was over 100m high, it felt like her legs would give out on their own.
The wind blew harder. She hadn’t realized it was so high from a distance, and she felt dizzy. She could see people in the distance looking this way.
Owen, holding Sarin’s hand, took her to where there were eight sluice gates on the dam without hesitation.
“Oh, Owen.”
It was a sturdy place, but Sarin was afraid it might collapse.
She couldn’t even hear her own voice over the sound of the wind. At that moment, as if he had stopped walking like a lie, Owen’s footsteps stopped abruptly, and Sarin turned slightly to look at him.
“It’s too high here.”
It wasn’t just controlling people for no reason.
It might be okay to watch from below the dam, but to watch from directly above where the water is released? She was already breaking out in a cold sweat.
“It’ll be fun.”
She couldn’t trust him saying that with a face that didn’t show any sense of fun.
When she was about to say she couldn’t go any further, the sound of the sluice gates opening suddenly rang out sharply, as if right next to them. Sarin’s shoulders twitched unknowingly, and Owen’s grip on her hand tightened as his steps quickened.
Whoosssshhhh.
A tremendous amount of water poured down along with the white foam.
The water falling 100 meters below felt like a gigantic waterfall. The terror of the immense water made her body freeze, and she held onto Owen’s arm tightly. As the debris from the foam splashed up with the wind, she felt like she understood why he told her to dress warmly.
She shivered with fear and cold.
“You said it would be cold.”
“I-I’m scared. I can’t take a single step.”
Even if he said something right next to her, it was swallowed up by the sound of the falling water. Sarin didn’t know if her words reached Owen as she held onto him tightly. However, he understood, as he rewrapped the muffler around her neck and hugged her tightly.
Sarin cautiously buried her face in Owen’s chest.
She didn’t want to see the falling water. Although it felt like the loud sirens from the bustling city below were warning of evacuation, it might have been just a hallucination.
The front was obscured by steam and mist. After a while, Owen gently pulled Sarin away from his waist, making her look ahead again. What he was pointing to beyond the rushing water was Eden City.
A very small Eden City was visible at a glance. And above it, several pairs of rainbows were shining brightly.
“If you came to see this.”
