Clack—
The apartment’s front door opened. Ha Jun-seo placed a hand on Kim Min-seok’s shoulder and gently pushed him inside. Kim Min-seok glanced up at the two men standing like gatekeepers behind him, then trudged into the entryway. After taking off his shoes, he dashed into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.
“Seo Ha-yoon?”
“Ha-yoon?”
Voices filled with disbelief called out from beyond the door, followed by a soft knock.
“Ha-yoon? Ha-yoon-ah. Don’t tell me you actually ran into the bathroom?”
“That’s exactly what I did!”
Kim Min-seok shouted loudly, double-checking the lock to make sure it was secure. Then, sitting on the toilet lid, he buried his face in his hands. He could only sigh.
Bang! Bang!
“Seo Ha-yoon, what the hell are you doing? Do you think hiding in there will solve anything?”
“Ha-yoon, come on. We’re not going to eat you. We haven’t seen you in ages, and now you won’t even show your face?”
The two men coaxed and cajoled him from the other side of the door. Of course, if Choi Sang-hyuk decided to break it down, the door would come off its hinges in no time. Still, just having a barrier between them gave Kim Min-seok a sense of security and courage.
“What kind of people just drag someone off like this?! Do you have any idea how hard I worked at that job?! I finally made friends, got to know the regulars—! And all the money I’ve saved up is still in my motel room! That’s my hard-earned money!”
He yelled furiously at the door without an ounce of fear. Silence fell on the other side. Sensing an opportunity, Kim Min-seok knew he had to seize control of the situation. If he let himself get swept along by their pressure, there was no telling where they’d take him.
“Take me back! No, forget that—I’ll leave on my own! I’m going back, no matter what!”
Riding the momentum, he shouted at the top of his lungs, his breath coming out slightly ragged from the excitement.
Knock, knock—
This time, instead of banging, there was a soft, careful knock. Then, Ha Jun-seo’s gentle voice came through.
“Ha-yoon, I’ll call your workplace. I’ll tell them something urgent came up at home, and you had to leave for Seoul in a hurry. They won’t be too upset if they hear that. As for your motel, I’ll send someone to pack up all your things. You won’t lose a single cent of the money you worked so hard for. How’s that?”
“I don’t care about any of that! Just let me go!”
Silence fell again. Then, suddenly—
Bang!
A loud crash slammed against the door, as if someone were about to break it down. Kim Min-seok, who had been pressing close to the door to listen, was so startled that he lost his balance and fell backward onto the floor.
“Quit messing around and open the door, Seo Ha-yoon. Do you think I drove twelve hours back and forth just to stare at a fucking bathroom door?”
Choi Sang-hyuk growled, his voice laced with fury. The sheer intensity of his anger made Kim Min-seok instinctively shrink back.
The doorknob rattled violently. Kim Min-seok, feeling like the protagonist of a horror movie, scrambled backward on his butt.
“Don’t come in! If you do…! If you do…!”
“If I do, then what?”
Choi Sang-hyuk’s voice dropped to a quiet, threatening tone. Kim Min-seok immediately went silent, his mouth clamping shut. His eyes darted around desperately, but he had nothing to threaten them with. He felt pathetic.
“I… I’ll piss right here! So get away, now!”
He shouted, his face burning with humiliation. The absurdity of his statement left the men outside momentarily speechless.
“…So you’ll come out after you pee?”
Ha Jun-seo asked, his voice betraying the effort it took to hold back laughter.
“I’ll come out on my own, so just go away! I don’t want you guys hearing anything, so get lost!”
Riding the wave of his embarrassment, Kim Min-seok yelled even louder. Then, cautiously, he approached the bathroom door and pressed his ear against it. There was silence at first, followed by the faint sound of movement retreating. He exhaled heavily and slumped to the floor.
For a while, he simply sat there, catching his breath. Eventually, he sluggishly got up and lifted the toilet lid. The Americano he drank earlier had caught up with him, making his need to relieve himself very real. As he did his business, a long sigh escaped his lips—he felt utterly pathetic.
After finishing, he flushed the toilet and moved to the sink, turning on the water. He took his time washing his hands meticulously, scrubbing between his fingers and under his nails, even rubbing along the creases of his palms. It was a flimsy attempt to stall for time. But no matter how thoroughly he washed, at the end of the day, it was just handwashing.
Kim Min-seok sat back down on the closed toilet lid. Hiding out in this tiny bathroom could only buy him so much time. Outside, the two men were probably waiting with burning eyes, impatient for his return. He had run away for three months, but in the end, nothing had been resolved—he was right back where he started.
“Get a grip, Seo Ha-yoon.”
He murmured to himself, giving his cheeks a few light slaps.
Lately, Kim Min-seok had been calling himself Seo Ha-yoon. At first, it felt strange, unnatural even. But after wearing the name tag and working under that alias for so long, he had grown used to it.
Gripping the doorknob, he took several deep breaths. Even now, he had no idea what he was going to say once he stepped outside. But at this point, there was no use in overthinking it. He just had to face them head-on.
Clack—
The moment he stepped out, he spotted the two men standing side by side a short distance away, arms crossed. He had expected to hear them moving away, maybe settling on the living room sofa, but no—they had stayed put.
Feeling awkward, Kim Min-seok’s eyes darted around nervously.
“You’ve picked up a habit of rolling your eyes now,” Ha Jun-seo said with a chuckle.
Choi Sang-hyuk jerked his chin toward the living room sofa. A silent command—sit down.
Kim Min-seok cautiously walked toward the living room sofa. After a brief hesitation, he chose to sit on the single-seater instead of the larger one.
The two men finally entered the living room. Since only one long sofa remained, they naturally sat down side by side. Kim Min-seok found himself completely exposed to their unwavering gazes. His throat went dry, and he swallowed hard.
“Alright. Let’s start with why you ran away.”
Choi Sang-hyuk wasted no time, throwing out the question without giving him a chance to think. It felt like a sneak attack.
Kim Min-seok gulped and opened his mouth, but the words wouldn’t come out easily.
“Uh… well… I mean… back then…”
He kept stammering, spouting nothing but useless filler words. Choi Sang-hyuk’s brow twitched upward.
As Kim Min-seok glanced at his face, a fleeting thought crossed his mind—He really is much better looking in person than in pictures.
“Did you pick up a stuttering habit while you were in Busan? Cut the bullshit and just say why you ran away.”
Choi Sang-hyuk’s reprimand came sharp and cold.
Before he realized it, Kim Min-seok had pressed his legs together like a scolded schoolboy, placing his hands neatly on his thighs. His fists clenched so tightly that his nails dug painfully into his palms. A cold sweat had already formed between his fingers. This is seriously awful.
“Ha-yoon, we’re not blaming you for running away,” Ha Jun-seo said in a much softer tone. “We just want to understand why you felt like you had to. That way, we can prevent something like this from happening again.”
His gentle approach worked—at least enough to unglue Kim Min-seok’s lips. After a few shaky breaths, he finally spoke.
“I… I was caught between you two, but I always thought that it wasn’t my responsibility. That everything was Seo Ha-yoon’s fault. So I didn’t have to do anything. I could just go on as I was.”
He let out a bitter chuckle.
“But then I found out I was Seo Ha-yoon. And that meant it was my responsibility. That I was the one stuck between you two, and it was my problem to fix.”
Once he started talking, the words flowed out more easily than he expected. If he had come this far, he might as well be honest. Even if he couldn’t fully express the complicated mess of emotions inside him, he’d at least try.
“I used to think Seo Ha-yoon was a terrible person,” he admitted. “He took so much from Sang-hyuk, but still cheated like it was nothing. And he treated Jun-seo horribly. I couldn’t understand someone like that at all.”
His voice wavered slightly.
“But then, I started dreaming. And in those dreams… I saw Seo Ha-yoon’s memories.”
Kim Min-seok hesitated. He sneaked a glance at Ha Jun-seo before lowering his head.
“Seo Ha-yoon loved Sang-hyuk,” he said quietly. “The last thing Seo Chang-seop threatened him with… was exposing his affair with Jun-seo. Seo Ha-yoon had handled every other threat like it was nothing. But that—that was the one thing he couldn’t endure.”
His fingers curled into his lap.
“He thought it would be better to die with Seo Chang-seop than have that secret come out. Even as he fell… he was calling Sang-hyuk’s name. So at the very least… there’s no doubt that he loved you.”
The room fell into silence.
As he spoke, Kim Min-seok realized something—he was still far from becoming Seo Ha-yoon. He still felt like an outsider, a third party looking in from the outside.
