The wind blew softly. The scent of wild roses resonated, making the tip of my nose tingle.
The sunset sky was drawing in the curtain of night.
Night was coming again.
The wound I thought had healed reopened. I thought my entanglement with him had ended in the past, but Joo Seolhyeon’s memory had settled in the deepest part of my unconscious, not letting me go. Just by glimpsing his memories, anger and sorrow toward him crawled up from the depths as if it had happened only yesterday.
“Hyung.”
Should I kill him again?
When I placed my hand over Joo Seolhyeon’s throat, I flinched at a familiar voice.
“Garam.”
Reading the wavelength of someone I’d imprinted with was as natural as breathing, so I had thought Yang Garam might follow me. But being caught by him in a moment when I’d felt the urge to kill left me unable to hide my embarrassment.
“What are you doing here…”
“What was that memory just now?”
I bit my tongue mid-sentence.
“…What memory?”
I was asking Yang Garam, but my blood had already frozen cold as if I’d already heard his answer. Yang Garam was barely holding back something that seemed about to burst. As the emotions pouring from him intensified, my heart, which had harmonized with his, also beat faster. Even I hadn’t expected that not only emotions but also memories could be transmitted to the imprinted subject.
“I saw everything.”
Yes, he must have seen. How I was treated in front of Joo Seolhyeon, and what kind of relationship we had.
As soon as I acknowledged it, wretchedness washed over me. Yang Garam knew that I liked Joo Seolhyeon, but he didn’t know that our relationship was this one-sided. A self-deprecating smile naturally appeared on my lips, thinking about what he must have thought seeing me begging for love from Joo Seolhyeon.
“So, do you regret imprinting with me?”
It was truly a miserable thing to say, even by my standards.
My heart stung and my eyes grew hot. Yang Garam’s expression crumbled at that moment. He approached me and carefully reached out his hand.
“Did you think I would be angry if you treated me like trash too?”
Yang Garam smiled painfully while wiping my eyes, which weren’t even shedding tears, with his thumb.
“What can I do? I still like you so much I could go crazy, and you’re more precious to me than my own life.”
“…”
Only then did I see his emotions pouring out transparently. Earlier, I was too confused to properly read his emotions, but the magnitude of the affection Yang Garam showed me hadn’t changed. It was still like looking at a deep sea, impossible to fathom its depth.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you had with Joo Seolhyeon in the future. I’ll kill anyone who hurts you, whoever they might be.”
I was finding comfort in Yang Garam’s whisper as he embraced me, but I doubted my ears for a moment at the content that didn’t match his gentle voice.
“Kill them?”
“What should we do about this?”
Looking at Yang Garam, who avoided my question and mentioned Joo Seolhyeon with an innocent expression, I gave him a look asking if he was serious, and Yang Garam nodded and waited for my answer like a well-trained dog. I escaped from his arms and shielded Joo Seolhyeon from Yang Garam’s gaze.
“Not yet.”
I just saved his life, he shouldn’t die.
“Tell me whenever you change your mind.”
“Do you talk about such things as casually as choosing a menu at a restaurant?”
“Menus should be chosen carefully. It’s what you’re eating. But when taking out trash, that kind of consideration is wasted. Trash doesn’t become not-trash just because you worry about it.”
It seemed Joo Seolhyeon no longer appeared as a person in Yang Garam’s eyes.
Instead of correcting his thinking, I fell into contemplation about what to do with Joo Seolhyeon now.
“They’ll think Joo Seolhyeon is dead, so we can’t take him home.”
As long as Joo Seolhyeon held clues about the villain who killed my sibling, the priority was to hide his existence from those who tried to kill him. If they found out he was alive, he would become their target again.
“Do you need a place to hide him?”
Yang Garam asked, having inferred the situation from my soliloquy, and I nodded. In fact, our current location was also dangerous. The culprit might appear at the scene to confirm if Joo Seolhyeon was dead.
“How about asking Jeong Se-eun?”
“Seyeon hyung’s sister?”
“Her place is quite remote.”
Yang Garam’s words were all correct, but I was taken aback by how naturally he mentioned Jeong Se-eun.
“When did you two become close?”
I wasn’t sure of Jeong Se-eun’s exact age, but she was a high school student, not much younger than Yang Garam who had just turned twenty. I thought they might have become close when Yang Garam persistently followed Jeong Se-eun while looking for me.
“Is that jealousy?”
I’d just said it casually, but shooting stars showered in Yang Garam’s eyes. Seeing his face immersed in emotion, I couldn’t bring myself to flatly deny it.
“Never mind, just tell me Jeong Se-eun’s number.”
I took out my phone, trying to gloss over it. Yang Garam tilted his head at my words.
“Why would I have her number?”
“Then why did you bring her up if you don’t even have her number?”
“We can ask Seyeon hyung.”
“…”
That means we’d have to let Jeong Seyeon know about this too.
Of course, if we asked Jeong Se-eun, it would inevitably reach Jeong Seyeon’s ears, but asking her directly and going through Jeong Seyeon carried completely different weights.
“Alright.”
But there was no other option. I sighed and called Jeong Seyeon. I was concerned he might be busy preparing dinner at this hour, but contrary to my worries, Jeong Seyeon answered the phone before the ringtone had even repeated a few times.
The call ended quickly. He accepted everything at my request without even hearing the whole story, and less than a minute after hanging up, Jeong Se-eun appeared at the scene. Unlike before, dressed in casual clothes as it was the weekend, Jeong Se-eun looked over me, Yang Garam, and Joo Seolhyeon, then lightly clicked her tongue.
“I just need to take the person lying here, right?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Se-eun.”
“I’m only doing this because it’s oppa’s request.”
Jeong Se-eun gave me a slight glare with a prim face as she grabbed the arm of the lying Joo Seolhyeon, adding:
“And wait here for a bit. I’ll be back soon.”
I don’t know what she heard from Jeong Seyeon, but I thought we had parted on good terms, yet she seemed to harbor hostility again.
And a moment later, I understood why Jeong Se-eun didn’t look kindly at me and Yang Garam when she returned and said:
“Oppa has no sense. Fooling around with another man, what’s so pretty about him that I have to escort him home?”
It wasn’t directed at us specifically, but it was too loud to be a soliloquy.
I smiled awkwardly, and Yang Garam, obliviously wearing a proud face, earned a glare from Jeong Se-eun. Thanks to her, we were able to arrive at a destination that would normally take an hour in just a few seconds. I had experienced it before, but it was still an impressively practical ability that warranted admiration.
“Thanks for the comfortable trip. Are you heading back home now?”
“Surely you’re not planning to send me away after I brought you all the way to your house?”
“Ah, sorry. Want to stay for dinner?”
“That’s a given.”
She glanced at Yang Garam, then gestured for me to lend her my ear. Yang Garam folded his arms as if asking what was going on, and Jeong Se-eun whispered to me.
“Let me live in this house too.”
This didn’t even require a second thought.
“No way.”
“Why not? Don’t you know about give and take? If one person left, another should come in.”
Watching the upset Jeong Se-eun, I firmly shook my head.
“Why would you want to live in a house full of men? Seyeon hyung wouldn’t allow it.”
“That’s why I’m asking you, oppa.”
“What’s not possible is not possible.”
Yang Garam seemed to have caught on despite the whispering, making a face of disgust.
“Tch. So old-fashioned.”
Jeong Se-eun didn’t seem to have high expectations as she didn’t press further. But she was clearly sulking, her protruding lips showing no signs of returning to normal.
“Instead, come visit often. That’s fine.”
I said this partly because I felt responsible for her constantly singing “oppa, oppa,” and Jeong Se-eun’s face immediately brightened.
“No taking that back, okay? You heard him, right?”
Seeing Jeong Se-eun smiling while meticulously establishing Yang Garam as a witness, I couldn’t help but smile, wondering if she was really that pleased.
“Let’s go inside. Seyeon hyung will be waiting.”
Jeong Se-eun sat in the place where Joo Seolhyeon should have been, naturally ate her meal, and made sure to eat dessert too. Then she stayed in the living room until late at night. When she insisted on staying overnight, I rejected it on the grounds that she had school the next day and forcibly sent her home.
And that night.
In my dreams, I encountered the remnants of memories that had transferred from Joo Seolhyeon.
* * *
“Oppa, you’re here?”
Joo Seolhyeon left home and immediately rushed to his lover. Jin Sohyeon, who had been waiting for him at the hotel, didn’t hide her disappointment when he appeared empty-handed.
“What’s this? You said you were going to terminate the contract today.”
“I tried, but he wasn’t so easy to deal with.”
“Really? Well, there’s nothing we can do then. You tried to resolve it peacefully, but it was them who were tactless, right?”
Jin Sohyeon sat on the sofa with her arms crossed, crossing one leg over the other. Having just showered and wearing only a bathrobe, her white thighs were fully exposed. Joo Seolhyeon’s eyes fixed on her legs. The monster-like man who had been floating in his head all day was instantly forgotten, and only primal desires boiled up.
“Of course, whose words would I listen to but yours?”
Joo Seolhyeon swallowed the saliva pooled in his mouth and answered, and Jin Sohyeon smiled wryly and unfolded her arms.
“Still, I’ll reward you for your efforts.”
Untying her bathrobe, she got up from her seat and climbed onto the bed, stretching her hand toward Joo Seolhyeon.
“It’s your reward. Come here, oppa.”
It might have seemed strange that Jin Sohyeon, who as a devout Catholic refused even kisses in the name of preserving her pre-marital chastity, was suddenly provoking him, but Joo Seolhyeon was already beyond rational judgment. He rushed to the bed and just as he was about to climb on top of her, his eyes widened at the electric shock that coursed through his entire body. Jin Sohyeon had attacked him.
“Why…?”
Joo Seolhyeon, who had defenseless taken her attack, looked at Jin Sohyeon in disbelief, but his body, which had already begun to collapse, couldn’t fully capture her in his sight.
“What a fool.”
The faint scornful laughter that reached his ears before he lost consciousness was all that remained of the memory.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
