Chapter 6
By the time they parted, Byeol had been forced to hand over both her address and phone number to the man who insisted on claiming damages.
This is robbery. Actual robbery.
After taking a shower, Byeol sniffed herself.
Thankfully, the fishy smell was gone, replaced by the faint scent of grapefruit cleanser.
Pulling the blanket up to the tip of her nose, she stared at the ceiling in deep thought.
She could understand why he refused to accept her apology.
After all, it had been a matter of a man’s pride.
“There’s no way he’d seriously sue me for damages… right?”
No one could have predicted that Seo Woo-hyun’s company would purchase the Parapara Hotel for redevelopment.
She had never imagined South Korea could feel so small.
Nor had she expected that the man she’d met on that blind date had been the wrong person.
And there was more.
Even when she had majored in journalism, convinced that reporting was her calling, she never imagined she’d put down her pen so easily.
Life was nothing but one exception after another.
People said positive thinking invited happiness.
It sounded old-fashioned and cliché, but all she could do now was hope things wouldn’t get any worse.
And, if possible…
She hoped she would never get tangled up with Seo Woo-hyun again.
The day they first met…
…had become the anniversary of Chae-i’s death.
Rain had fallen before dawn.
She vaguely remembered hearing it.
With it came suffocating guilt and damp despair.
<What Drove Her to Suicide?>
The number of views an online article received depended on how sensational its headline was.
No matter how much she told herself she’d only wanted to speak up for Chae-i…
Nothing could be undone.
“Unni… I’ll just try to forget.
But if I can’t…
I’ll kill him myself.
I’ll take care of him, and then you can write your article.”
Chae-i smiled despite the bruises that still hadn’t faded.
She had been younger than Byeol, yet far more mature—someone Byeol had relied on like both a junior colleague and a little sister.
After a company dinner, Chae-i had been attacked on her way home.
The perpetrator had stalked her movements for months.
He followed her into the apartment where she lived alone, assaulted her there, then practically kidnapped her.
He forced her into his car and committed the crime at a highway rest stop outside the city.
When the police asked why she hadn’t resisted…
She answered that she hadn’t wanted to die.
She had been terrified he’d snap her neck.
His grip had already broken one of her fingers.
She thought…
Next would be my neck.
But in the end…
Money won.
The man showed up with five lawyers in tow, insisting over and over that he had been too drunk to remember anything.
Ultimately, the only conviction was unlawful entry, accepted under diminished responsibility.
The court ruled that the perpetrator was deeply remorseful…
And that the victim hadn’t resisted at the time.
That was the entire judgment.
Byeol had been furious.
She was sick of a world controlled by money and power.
If the justice spoken of by the law betrayed the truth…
Then she’d make sure public opinion shamed him instead.
So she exposed everything that had happened to Min Chae-i.
But what came back…
…was endless hatred accusing Chae-i of being a gold digger.
Words too filthy to repeat became knives and sickles, tearing her apart.
It’s all my fault.
Every time Byeol closed her eyes, she saw the grieving family.
Their desperate sobs.
They resented heaven.
The world.
Their country.
People…
And finally…
Lee Byeol.
Holding Seo Woo-hyun’s hand that day hadn’t been a mistake.
She simply wanted someone—just one person—to look at her without pointing fingers.
She longed for another person’s warmth.
But she never wanted it to last.
Relationships like cheap disposable hand warmers…
Warm for only a moment before cooling completely.
She only needed that fleeting warmth—
The kind you desperately miss once in a while…
Only to forget again before long.
It was well past midnight when she heard her parents returning after closing the restaurant.
Because they’d skipped dinner while working, they always ate after coming home.
The sounds made her chest tighten.
Yet her parents always said they were happiest on days like this.
The hungrier they were…
The better business had been.
As they took out the few side dishes they had left and reheated yesterday’s stew, every movement carried quiet relief.
Byeol curled deeper beneath her blanket.
After resigning from her job and moving to Samcheok, she’d gotten rid of her smartphone and moved the living room TV into her bedroom.
Knowing too much only brought pain.
Knowing less brought happiness.
Once she’d realized that…
She could never go back.
Perhaps because it was raining, the bed against the wall felt icy.
She curled into herself.
She hugged her pillow.
But the goosebumps across her skin refused to disappear.
Shivering once, she thought of disposable hand warmers.
Then she laughed to herself.
What she needed tonight wasn’t a hand warmer.
It was an electric heating blanket.
So…
Was Seo Woo-hyun really just another disposable hand warmer?
Clunk.
Woo-hyun threw back the blanket and shook his head while staring at the ceiling with sleepy eyes.
The sea wind had been stronger than he’d expected.
Strong enough to rattle the windows.
Was that why he’d had such a strange dream?
Or maybe…
There was bad feng shui in this room.
Running a hand through his sweat-soaked hair, he climbed out of bed.
The woman from his dream…
…had been Lee Byeol.
Exactly as she’d looked that night.
Reeking of alcohol.
“Buy lots of hand warmers.
Around October, I think.
Wrap them in old towels and leave them around town.
They can save a few lives during winter.
I can’t realistically donate huge amounts of money…
But I also can’t sleep peacefully while doing nothing.
So that’s the compromise I came up with.
My own way of proving…
that I’m actually a kind person.”
She emptied her glass in one gulp without so much as a grimace.
She drank so effortlessly that he’d wondered whether she’d secretly filled it with sugar water.
“No one is truly heartless.
Everyone hurts.
They just endure it quietly…
Don’t they?”
Curiously…
They hadn’t been sitting face-to-face.
Instead, they’d sat side by side, watching the restaurant owner cook.
It was a narrow bar.
The menu consisted only of Appetizer No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3.
There weren’t many drinks either.
And “Appetizer No. 1” wasn’t even a fixed dish.
Groups of women received spicy sweet stir-fried dishes.
Male customers got hearty stews.
Their table…
Received a rolled omelet stuffed with cheese and spicy Cheongyang peppers.
It fascinated him.
How could the owner read every customer’s tastes so accurately?
The omelet carried the unmistakable touch of a master.
The low ceiling made the place feel unexpectedly cozy.
It had been…
A strangely comforting experience.
Impulsiveness wasn’t in Seo Woo-hyun’s nature.
Yet that day, he’d acted on impulse over and over.
Pulling her hand away from the bottle when she tried ordering another drink…
Kissing her…
Looking into her eyes as though asking permission…
Pulling her closer when her inviting lips parted slightly…
Every bit of it had been impulse.
And what remained after all those impulses…
Was regret.
Even after chugging an entire bottle of cold water…
His mind remained a mess.
“Just… a little more…”
“A little more… what?”
Wait.
Was that… my line?
Remembering how embarrassingly husky his own voice had sounded, Woo-hyun buried his face in his hands.
His face burned.
This early in the morning.
“It’s… a little hard…”
How hot had things gotten that night?
Her body had been lighter than he’d expected.
Slimmer.
Smaller.
“So… she was about this size…”
He bent one arm, unconsciously measuring the size of her body—
Then froze in horror.
“Damn it!”
First she invaded his dreams and ruined his sleep.
Now she was trying to ruin his real life too?
No way.
It was only a three-night, four-day business trip.
After washing up, Woo-hyun changed into workout clothes, put on his earbuds, and left the resort.
The concierge staff immediately greeted him politely as he stepped out of the elevator.
To them, Seo Woo-hyun was a high-ranking executive from a competing company.
Soon enough, the resort he was building would threaten their livelihoods.
Still…
A customer was a customer.
After asking them to refill his water bottle, he started running along the coastal trail.
The rain from the night before had left the air cool and damp.
The refreshing sea breeze slowly cooled the lingering heat inside him.
He increased his pace.
Turned up the music in his earbuds.
Beyond the low railing stretched the endless sea.
Little by little…
He found himself liking this place.
By the time he’d finished running without thinking, he found himself standing in front of the Parapara Hotel.
Checking the distance on his smartwatch, he bent over to catch his breath.
Panting heavily, he wiped the sweat from his chin and looked up.
Morning sunlight softly illuminated the abandoned building.
He immediately called Manager Yoon, who should have arrived at work by now.
“Yes, Director. Yoon Su-il speaking. Did you sleep well?”
Just hearing Su-il’s smooth-talking voice, Woo-hyun could already picture him celebrating during these four days without his boss around.
“I slept well enough. But the budget proposal you promised by last night still hasn’t arrived. What exactly are you doing? Just because I’m away doesn’t mean you get to slack off too.”
“Come on, Director. I heard everything yesterday. They said you ditched the engineering department’s company dinner halfway through. What’s going on? You’ve been awfully interested in Samcheok lately… Don’t tell me you’ve got a girlfriend hidden down there…”
“Yoon Su-il.”
Woo-hyun’s voice instantly turned icy.
Su-il coughed awkwardly.
“Y-Yes… Well… the higher-ups keep rejecting the budget. Again and again. I’m going crazy here. Honestly… I think the Chairman is openly boycotting the project. You might have to come back and handle this yourself.”
Although one was a manager and the other a director, Su-il had been Woo-hyun’s friend and colleague for twenty years.
Still…
They always kept business and friendship strictly separate.
Hearing the normally cheerful Su-il sound this serious…
Woo-hyun knew his grandfather had started causing trouble again.
“Got it. Make sure we get project approval no matter what. Just don’t let the old man catch wind of what we’re doing.”
“Hiding things from Grandpa is practically my specialty… I’ll do my best. But seriously… you didn’t go down there because of personal reasons, did you? Lately you’ve been acting kinda…”
“I’m hanging up.”
Removing one earbud, Woo-hyun let the cool breeze dry his sweat.
Crossing the empty four-lane road, he climbed the hill.
Yesterday the drive hadn’t seemed difficult.
Today, on foot, the slope felt surprisingly steep.
Imagining a future walking trail being built there, he climbed to the third floor.
Suspicious gazes followed the unfamiliar visitor.
Chuckling to himself, he walked over to the sofa area.
Opening the ice cooler he’d been curious about since yesterday, he found bottled water and canned coffee inside.
Taking one bottle, he dropped onto the blanket-covered sofa and leaned back with his eyes closed.
His whole body seemed to melt.
The cool breeze.
The wide-open view.
The unexpectedly cozy atmosphere.
He could finally understand why she liked this place so much.
“…Excuse me.”
“What exactly are you doing on my sofa?”
