Chapter 53
“How did you come here? I heard you were hurt.”
I asked, wrapping my trembling hands around each other. My right hand was tingling with numbness.
It seemed like what Ichang said wasn’t a lie.
Yugyeom drove skillfully, but it was evident that he was tensed all over. Occasionally, he would furrow his brow.
If he couldn’t hide his pain even under his usual facade, then it must be severe.
It was difficult to imagine how messed up his condition could be beneath his stoic demeanor.
“Who said that?”
“I met Ichang.”
The sedan entered the driveway. Emotions lingered on Yugyeom’s face as the spotlight from the entrance spilled over his unfamiliar features.
Below the bridge, the panorama of Hong Kong Island surrounding Victoria Harbour unfolded like a picture-perfect scene. It felt like we were passing through the center of the Milky Way.
“It’s nothing. I can’t believe I couldn’t even drive.”
A low chuckle mixed with his voice floated in through the lowered window.
As the wind seeped through the now-dried clothes, the blood in my veins cooled down.
Yugyeom picked up his phone from the console box and pressed the call button. The call connected immediately without the usual dial tone.
“Boss.”
It wasn’t difficult to guess who the other person was. If it was the boss of Utopia, he would have called him father, so it must be Baek Hawon.
Although my gaze was fixed outside the window, my attention was entirely on Yugyeom.
The wind drowned out the voice on the other end of the phone, making it impossible to eavesdrop.
“Don’t worry. Miss is safe.”
I tensed up, gripping my hand against my chin.
“Can I at least hear his voice?”
As if my gaze could pierce through, I felt it rise sharply. My head turned in pursuit of the sensation.
“Don’t be like that. We’re on the same side.”
In the darkness of the car, his pupils, slightly dilated, were as dark as the night sky filled with clouds.
His voice was laced with a soft chuckle. In contrast, his gaze was intense.
“I hoped Miss would be safe too.”
My heart pounded uncontrollably for reasons unknown. Without realizing it, I averted my eyes.
His reddened eyes seemed to be crying, making it seem like his tears were directed at me.
There was nothing particularly special in the following words exchanged. After a few words, Yugyeom hung up the phone and pulled over beside the railing on the bridge.
I got out of the car following him, without turning off the ignition.
The cold wind blew, causing my hair to flutter and obstruct my view. My mind was filled with the sound of the wind.
I gazed aimlessly at his back as he walked ahead. But it was only for a moment.
Yugyeom stopped walking and silently stepped aside.
On the other side of the bridge, several dark figures were visible. Among them, there was a man with distinctive features. Even from this distance, his presence was clear, as if he had been painted with black ink several times over.
It felt like our gazes briefly met. I walked past Yugyeom as if I were possessed, walking for quite a while before stopping.
The wind from behind pushed against my back.
The direction to run was clear. There were no crossroads; all I had to do was walk along the railing.
But in the end, I couldn’t take a step forward and turned my body around.
“…,”
Without hesitation, our eyes met.
Yugyeom’s expression stiffened as our eyes met. His glamorous face looked wilted like a withered flower.
He stood frozen for a few seconds, as if he had forgotten something.
The wind reached me through him, and emotions I had tried to forget rushed back in.
As if realizing something belatedly, he turned his head. He stumbled, grabbing onto the railing. The hand covering his mouth was noticeably trembling.
Yugyeom, who seemed like he was about to collapse, turned around.
I stared blankly at his unfamiliar back. But as his back gradually moved farther away, I snapped back to reality.
Without hesitation, my body moved first.
Yugyeom always felt like a puzzle that didn’t fit with me.
There were too many pieces, and I didn’t know where it went wrong, but my nerves were on edge the whole time.
I had doubts that the picture I was seeing was entirely wrong, a suspicion that floated to the surface time and time again but never dared to touch.
But today felt different somehow. I was puzzled with every moment.
As if he were someone else.
It wasn’t until I saw his back that I realized the reason for that sense of dissonance.
That the moments that initially felt sensitive were behind a solid mask.
If I could reach it, it would only be now.
The reason behind the confident steps was etched beneath my feet. With each step, I walked faster. I didn’t stop, I ran.
The wind that collided shattered into pieces.
My hot skin touched his outstretched hand, and I grabbed it tightly.
His body leaned toward me. The moonlight filtered through his hair, swaying like waves.
“…Yugyeom.”
The name spat out of my mouth stung my tongue as it passed.
I had thought about it countless times.
What should I say?
What should I say to change your end?
“Yugyeom.”
How could I make you happy?
As if questioning myself and making a resolution, I called him again.
My heartbeats echoed louder than the wind. It felt like it could burst at any moment, choking even my breath.
Suppressing the overwhelming breath, I gripped his wrist even tighter, afraid it might slip away.
“I… I wasn’t sincere.”
My voice choked with emotion, my eyes burning hot. The heat dissipated into the wind and returned, repeating the cycle.
“I never thought of you that way.”
Each word squeezed out like a painful confession.
Yugyeom seemed to almost stop breathing. There was no breath. His gaze strangely avoided mine.
He gently pulled away his hand from my dry lips.
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
An empty smile appeared on his lips. His shoulders trembled like hands dropped into the void.
“Go. To your brother.”
Yugyeom took a step back.
“You have to go. So that I can…”
I closed the distance as he stepped back, this time holding onto his hand desperately rather than his wrist.
Breath stopped as the wind blew.
Our gazes collided.
“I can erase you.”
Yugyeom didn’t pull away from my hand. His warm fingers clasped mine like a lifeline.
The voice and gaze were cold, but the touch was as hot as a sunset someday. I couldn’t tell which was the real temperature.
His grip on my hand tightened, as if feeling the pulsating vein beneath it, like wrapping around the throat, his grasp became desperate.
“By killing you, forever like that…”
The fading voice became almost a whisper.
The long wind parted his hair as it scattered. The lowered pupils were deeper than the sea flowing beneath the legs.
It might have been an illusion. But I was clearly locked within it.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have felt suffocated like this.
A laughter mixed with self-reproach escaped.
“I wish I could erase everything completely.”
Both you and I. Yet, such dreamlike wishes never come true.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
His gaze, unwavering and intense, made my head go blank.
And so, I could speak.
“There wasn’t a shred of sincerity in the words I said that day. I never thought of you as dirty.”
“…”
“I… I was selfish, so… that’s why…”
My breath faltered, words ceased on their own. I closed my eyes tightly, alternating between inhaling deeply and exhaling. The world around us spun as if we stood at the center of a storm. I felt dizzy, as if I might fall over at any moment.
I held onto Yugyeom’s hand tightly enough for the veins on the back of my hand to bulge. I had to endure, even like this.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know why.
Like in a movie where two people fall in love at first sight, from the very beginning, it was deeply embedded in my heart, not just a fantasy on the pages.
The more I turned the pages, the more I learned about your life, the clearer my heart became.
I wished for your happiness.
“I know I’m terrible like this. Still, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you.”
Words overflowed like blood rushing through veins, turning into tears like a flood.
“So please…”
But instead of crying, I closed my trembling eyes and smiled.
Because your face was crying. Though no tears flowed, it might have been a delusion brought on by arrogance.
Because what spread on your white face somehow seemed like sadness.
“Please don’t die.”
So I couldn’t cry. It was my selfish and futile desire. I wished you wouldn’t cry.
The wind continued in silence. Cold and bleak. Like the black line drawn between that shining city and us.
“It wasn’t sincere?”
The sigh that fell like a whisper wasn’t a question directed at me.
It was a reminder to myself. Emotions, whether faint laughter or anger, mixed together.
Yugyeom took a step closer. The meaningless distance crumbled.
“Then what about love?”
A whirlwind of thoughts overwhelmed me. I finally realized his hand on my face, enveloping my cheeks.
Tap. Our foreheads touched. I couldn’t distinguish whose warmth was boiling so intensely.
Amidst the sweet scent that surged like waves, our breaths mingled.
I faced the figure reflected in the light-colored pupils.
“Was that not sincere either?”
The distorted images of you and me.
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Editor : Red
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is Sid. I hope you liked it<3
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