The problem was whether Seonwook, still not fully recovered, could stab it in accurately and swiftly.
Actually, he didn’t even need to hit the eye—just the threat of aiming for it would be enough to scare anyone.
Seonwook slowly inched his hand closer to his pocket, tensing his body to spring up if needed.
When the beanie flipped through the notebook and tossed it aside, Seonwook relaxed.
“What’s this inside? Take off your jacket.”
The caterpillar man pulled down the zipper of Seonwook’s padded jacket and shook the collar of the jersey underneath.
“Oh, is this limited edition too?”
“No, just… it’s pretty. Wow, this is some real vintage.”
Seonwook took off the padded jacket, and the caterpillar man examined the jersey.
“Take it off.”
“Uh… now?”
“Yeah, now. You gonna take it off tomorrow? Next week? Next month?”
“……”
Under the jersey, he was bare-chested. Seonwook hesitated for a moment before slowly unzipping it. As he removed the jersey, his skin, exposed to the cold air, tensed up, and goosebumps rose.
The caterpillar man snatched the jersey and checked the label on the nape. The other two were spreading out the clothes from Seonwook’s backpack, examining each piece.
“What are you doing?”
A low voice suddenly cut through the air. Everyone froze and turned toward the sound. A man stood not far away.
“Just hanging out.”
The caterpillar man replied with a smirk.
The man took a few steps closer.
“Three against one? Isn’t that a bit cowardly?”
The man’s voice echoed through the underpass, soft and composed.
“What’s it to—”
The caterpillar man suddenly stopped mid-sentence and took a step back.
“Isn’t that Director Hwang?”
Someone whispered. Instantly, the caterpillar man’s group turned and hurried away.
Seonwook watched their retreating backs, then turned his head back toward the man.
The man called “Director Hwang” remained standing in place, watching the caterpillar man’s group disappear.
The man seemed to be made of straight, clean lines—his face, his body, even the suit and coat he wore.
He looked like a meticulously maintained garden, where everything was perfectly in place.
And his face was like a flower Seonwook had never seen before, blooming in the center of that perfect garden.
A flower…
In a dazzling garden.
A dazzling flower.
Seonwook murmured to himself, his jaw trembling from the cold, but his heart was pounding, burning hot.
When the man’s gaze met Seonwook’s, their eyes locked.
Seonwook sucked hard on the inside of his mouth, tasting the faint metallic tang of blood. Strangely, it tasted sweet.
The man’s eyes, which had been scanning Seonwook’s face, slowly slid down to his bare torso.
There was no noticeable change in his expression, but Seonwook was sure he saw it—the slight tremor in the man’s eyelids, the subtle movement of his throat as he swallowed.
A gust of wind swept past, and goosebumps rose around Seonwook’s nipples. The man’s eyes remained fixed on Seonwook’s bruised, naked body.
As Seonwook straightened his back and puffed out his chest slightly toward the man, the man flinched, looking back at Seonwook’s face before lowering his head.
“Is this yours?”
The man looked down at the skateboard near his feet.
“Yes.”
As soon as Seonwook answered, the man nudged the board with his foot.
The board rolled toward Seonwook, stopping neatly against his scattered backpack.
A kind dog.
An old dog.
Seonwook stared at the board, and words formed in his mind.
A dog that walked out of a perfect garden.
With flower pollen on its nose…
Seonwook, who had been staring blankly, suddenly looked up. The man had already turned and was climbing the stairs.
“Hey!”
Seonwook called out belatedly, scrambling to his feet, but the man didn’t look back and disappeared up the stairs.
Seonwook remained kneeling, staring at the spot where the man had vanished. Then he quickly picked up the notebook from the ground and pulled out the pencil.
***
I saw a dazzling garden
A dazzling flower blooming in the garden
Board, you
Like a kind old dog
Came back to me and sat down
Flower pollen on your nose
From the dazzling garden
The dazzling flower
Dazzling pollen
Board, your name is now
Dazzling
Dazzling
***
Seonwook sat on the cold ground, scribbling on the second page of the notebook with his trembling hand. It was the first poem he had written since deciding to write poetry. He had finally written a poem in the notebook he had stolen for that very purpose.
And he had done it so quickly, so effortlessly. The result was satisfying—it actually looked like a poem.
It felt like divine inspiration.
That god must have been the god of art, descending to earth in the name of that beautiful man, “Director Hwang.”
A sense of accomplishment mixed with an excitement he had never felt before raced through Seonwook’s body like a pinball, leaving trails of thrill in its wake.
Still feeling his pounding heart, Seonwook opened the first page of the notebook.
Leaf
Art
Love
Labor
He stared at the four words written in the center of the page, then circled “Art.”
Next to it, he drew an arrow and wrote “Director Hwang?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
