Even though he knew that, Woo-hyun went to check on Yoo-hwa once a day, looking at her for a long time. If he did so, he would be able to hold out during that time. Even as he turned around and took heavy steps, he endured the night thinking that he would be able to see her the next morning.

He thought this was the process of parting that he had to deal with. If things went on like this, he thought he would be able to part ways with Yoo-hwa. One day, like she did.

That day, he was looking at the fish store across the street where Yoo-hwa worked. At night, the interior of the store was illuminated by the lighting, and even if it wasn’t clearly, he could see Yoo-hwa’s outline as she was working.

Whenever he saw Yoo-hwa, he stopped breathing to focus on her. Then, when she was blocked from view, the whole world seemed to change darkly. He seemed like a crazy person so he thought a peal of forced laughter would come out, but it didn’t.

Despite knowing that the passers-by were glancing at him standing on the side of the road, he stayed for a while before turning around and stopping when he saw a familiar face across the street.

The face of the woman who entered the store was familiar. He had a very bad feeling. Rummaging through his memories, he had seen her face in a picture from a document related to Yoo-hwa.

It came to his mind that she went to and from the police station after being embroiled in a scandal with the owner of the mart, and that she left the gositel where she was staying after being treated harshly by the owner’s wife. He clearly remembered it, because the mart owner was killed by Kim Yi-woon in an accident disguised as a hit-and-run.

Woo-hyun walked quickly. He wanted to stop her because it was the normal life Yoo-hwa wanted so much, but he was blocked by a four-lane road. After waiting a long time for the signal, when he crossed the crossroads and entered the store, everything was already over.

Most of the people in the store were looking at one side of the kitchen. There, Yoo-hwa was looking down with an empty face. She even had a faint resignation that she knew this would happen, as if this contempt could not hurt her.

The ordinary life she had just found had been ruined… Why couldn’t she make a face that reflected that?

He was angry, but his voice was terribly low.

“Kim Yoo-hwa.”

Despite calling her, Yoo-hwa acted like someone with her ears covered. She said she would quit her job and went out the back door of the store. As he unconsciously went after her, he was held by a male employee.

“Only authorized personnel can come in here.”

“Move.”

“Leave before I call the police.”

Suddenly, Yoo-hwa had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen, and even the mart owner’s wife had slammed the door. He didn’t want to waste his time in a useless scuffle, so he pushed the male employee out of his way and stepped outside. It wasn’t hard to find Yoo-hwa, but the situation was a mess.

She was leaning weakly against the wall of the dark alley, and on the other side, the mart owner’s wife was walking towards her with an angry expression.

Without a second thought, his body moved first. He pulled Yoo-hwa, placed her behind him, and drove the owner’s wife away with a few words. Woo-hyun’s lips twisted as he watched the woman fleeing without looking back.

Her life had been trampled on by such irrelevant people.

And he…

An old sense of guilt arose in his mind and stabbed him in the heart as if it was something new.

Woo-hyun turned around, clenching his teeth so hard that his jaw protruded.

“… Let go of me.”

Yoo-hwa spoke to him first. Even though he felt his heart drop at her words, the warmth he felt through her skin was appallingly good. Feeling the contradictory sensation all over his body, Woo-hyun wished foolishly that time would stop like this.

But he had no choice but to release his hand, and Yoo-hwa collapsed to the ground. When Yoo-hwa looked at him, her face, which had been expressionless the whole time, suddenly became distorted.

Woo-hyun looked at her silently.

He thought he was parting ways with her. Unlike Yoo-hwa, who had been prepared for their breakup for a long time, when he broke up with her so suddenly, he was left with lingering feelings. So, he thought he just needed to act a little more foolishly.

But he had never parted with her from the beginning.

His mind became a mess. At the same time, his lips moved on their own. The words he had in his heart flowed from his lips.

He had never…

“… I thought.”

Loved her…

“Because I never did it, I never learned it.”

Properly.

“I don’t know what to do. Other than hovering like this.”

He didn’t know what he was saying, and he didn’t know what he was thinking. There was nothing he could do but spit out the words as they came to him.

“… I won’t wither.”

So,

“Don’t wither, you too.”

He begged her to endure his life, which was like a wasteland that no one had ever survived.

“That’s enough for me.”

He begged. He hoped that at least one of his words got to her. That his words would stop Yoo-hwa, who was about to turn around.

After standing firmly for a long time, Yoo-hwa’s lower lip trembled. Her eyes filled with water due to the shock, and Yoo-hwa’s expression broke as she burst into tears.

“… Don’t abandon me.”

Those words drowned the world in tears.

She had no idea of the hundreds of times he regretted turning away from her.

“Because I’m scared…”

The fact that he thought of her, who would be lonely and scared, with a casual expression.

How much he wanted to tear himself to pieces for doing that.

Woo-hyun quickly stretched out his arms and embraced Yoo-hwa with all his might. He wanted to embrace Yoo-hwa, who was complaining of loneliness, as quickly as possible.