Chapter 8
Turning off the water, Ji-hyuk stepped out of the bathroom. He crossed the bedroom again and went out to the living room. The same air as earlier cut coldly through the living room. He even felt momentarily dizzy at Baek Hong-joo’s scent faintly mixed within it.
Squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again, Ji-hyuk gently bit down on his molars and approached the sofa. He saw Hong-joo. Lying on her side on the sofa, she had fallen asleep with her two hands tightly clasped together. In the quiet space, Hong-joo’s breathing could be heard going huff, huff. Her face, asleep and oblivious to the world, even looked innocent.
Approaching closely, Ji-hyuk quietly looked down at Hong-joo. Her bloodless, white face, contrasting with the black hair draped over her cheek, was merely pale. Like a clean canvas, like a pure white snowfield. Where a single drop of water would quickly create a stain. That’s why Hong-joo was always an easy kid to figure out. Because her white face would flush red like the flesh of a peach, revealing her emotions without filter.
Such a Hong-joo lost her grandmother. Even without seeing it, Hong-joo’s face was drawn out as if he had seen it. On that day, didn’t you freeze palely and collapse crying? Because the sky above your head would have collapsed, and the world surrounding you would have crumbled.
Did Do Chan-young hold onto such a Hong-joo? Do you feel grateful to Do Chan-young? Is that why you ended up taking on work for Myeongmun Group as well? It’s not, right? It isn’t. It shouldn’t be.
“Mmm.”
In that moment, Hong-joo wiggled her body and slurred her words blurrily.
“Ji-hyuk…”
Ji-hyuk swallowed a groan. The existence Hong-joo calls ‘Ji-hyuk’ probably isn’t just him. Since Baek Hong-joo’s history that he doesn’t know about must exist innumerably beyond the span of 10 years. And yet, he didn’t feel even a sliver of doubt in the fact that the Ji-hyuk Hong-joo was calling out so pitifully right now was none other than him.
“Why, why aren’t you coming.”
Moisture tinged Hong-joo’s whining voice. Her long, dense eyelashes became damply wet, and soon a trail of tears followed down the bridge of her straight nose.
“How can you be like this even to me.”
At the resentfully spat words, Ji-hyuk unknowingly reached out a hand and then stopped.
“Don’t do that.”
His fingers trembled slightly near Hong-joo’s lips. People say 10 years, but what a long time that is. As if imprinted, his hand reacted first to Hong-joo’s tears.
“Don’t be mean to me.”
Tightly clenching his hand, Ji-hyuk straightened his bent back.
“Be mean, when did I ever.”
Ji-hyuk’s eyes looking down at Hong-joo were insidious. Should I really be mean to you? Should I make you cry your eyes out?
“Ji-hyuk.”
Why do you keep saying my name, it’s getting on my nerves. Do you know with what kind of heart I left? At the very least, you shouldn’t have appeared in front of me. You should have lived quietly, doing the things you wanted to do. That’s why I disappeared for you. If I did that, you should have left me alone. You should have made it so my nerves wouldn’t be directed at you.
Why did you give up on being an idol? You definitely passed the audition and started trainee life. You should have just become an actor like you wanted to so badly; why did you become some lowly lawyer and get tangled up with Myeongmun Group? Why do you scratch at my temper, to be scratched.
“I, I have to take you back with me. I promised the Chairman I would.”
Why do you always… Act separately from my will? Why do you always become a variable, and why do you always put me to the test, why!
Furrowing his brow in irritation, Ji-hyuk unfolded the blanket placed at the edge of the sofa and covered Hong-joo with it. From the tips of her toes to the top of her head. So that not a single strand of hair could be seen. At least for now, he didn’t want to see Baek Hong-joo.
Blink, blink.
Barely lifting eyelids that were stuck tight as if glued and wouldn’t separate, Hong-joo blinked slowly. Her vision was hazily blurry, and her mind was also somehow groggy.
Did I actually doze off? Seeing how heavy her whole body was and how every single finger felt languid, it seemed she had indeed dozed off. To be precise, she hadn’t just dozed off, but fallen asleep. Of course, she had an excuse. She hadn’t slept for nearly five days already, so it was natural her body couldn’t hold up. Even so. How could she sleep so comfortably, oblivious to the world?
“Uuum, this won’t do. I have to keep watch so Seol Ji-hyuk can’t run away.”
Rubbing the corners of her eyes with her fingertips to chase away sleep, Hong-joo flinched momentarily.
‘A blanket?’
She definitely just sat on the sofa waiting for Ji-hyuk and lay down for a moment, but she was even covered properly with a blanket? Did she sleep this earnestly? The drowsiness that had been sticking to her like glue fled in an instant.
What time is it? In her panic, forgetting even that she was lying on a sofa, Hong-joo quickly rolled her body over and fell thump onto the floor below the sofa.
“Ouch.”
Simultaneously, the scenery outside the window came into her view.
“What do I do!”
The world was entirely pitch black. It was definitely daytime; just how long had she slept?
“I must be crazy.”
At that moment, a long shadow was cast over her head.
“You sleep noisily. You wake up noisily.”
It was Ji-hyuk.
“You’re just the same, aren’t you?”
Lifting her head, she saw arrogant eyes sparkling like stars from an impossibly high place. He looked exactly like the Ji-hyuk from the day they first met. Seol Ji-hyuk, who was arrogant but excessively brilliant, looking exactly like a star in the sky. Lying helplessly in the snowfield and flapping her arms around making angel wings, eight-year-old Hong-joo had looked up at Ji-hyuk absentmindedly. Even forgetting her situation of having lost her parents and coming to live off her grandmother’s workplace.
Craning her neck as much as she could and blankly looking up at Ji-hyuk just like that day, Hong-joo hurriedly scrambled up just like that day. Ji-hyuk gazed silently at such a Hong-joo. Wearing comfortable loungewear with his wet hair completely covering his forehead, Seol Ji-hyuk still just looked like a dazzling prince.
Though she didn’t have a camellia flower tucked in her hair today, Hong-joo, smoothing down her long hair to tidy her shabby appearance, stuttered out her words.
“Uh, um, you didn’t run away?”
Ji-hyuk’s brow furrowed microscopically.
“Why would I run away.”
That’s…
“Because you don’t want to go to Korea?”
At Hong-joo’s answer, Ji-hyuk let out a pfft, laugh. As if it were ridiculous, it was a very cynical laugh.
“If I don’t want to go, I just don’t go; why go out of my way to run away. What am I scared of.”
Ji-hyuk subtly nailed down the fact that Hong-joo couldn’t possibly force his return to Korea. It was an undeniably clear truth. Baek Hong-joo has no power to force Seol Ji-hyuk. She has neither the justification nor the qualification.
But she also had no intention of giving up. So, she had to find words to persuade Ji-hyuk somehow.
“You could have things you’re scared of, too. Since you’re human, too.”
Otherwise, it was a situation where she would even have to throw a tantrum.
“For instance, things like the burden. Because the Chairman’s achievements are overflowing but you haven’t accomplished much?”
At Hong-joo’s words, the corners of Ji-hyuk’s eyes contorted crookedly. His expression asked what kind of bullshit she was spewing. She knows. That what Seol Ji-hyuk has accomplished is immense.
“Or since your sister-in-law, who cared for you devotedly, is now thoroughly alone, you might be scared thinking whether you have to take responsibility for her, too.”
They were truly nothing but bullshit. Seol Ji-hyuk’s sister-in-law and the Vice Chairwoman of Myeongmun Group, Lee Ji-sun, was a heroine among heroines, so there was nothing to worry about. Hong-joo now didn’t even have a clue what kind of nonsensical things she was listing.
“If not that either, maybe you’re afraid that I, having recovered my lost memories, will reveal the entire truth of that day…”
In an instant, Ji-hyuk’s expression changed microscopically. His relaxed face, as if waiting to see how far her bullshit would go, stiffened coldly. Gauging his mood, Hong-joo held her breath.
What is this. Is it like a cow catching a mouse while stepping backward? It seemed the words she spat out without thinking had touched something in Ji-hyuk.
An uncomfortable silence flowed soundlessly. It even felt as though the air surrounding the two of them had expanded to the point of being pulled taut. She even felt afraid that if she breathed wrong, the whole hotel might explode. Ji-hyuk’s eyes sank like a still lake at dawn.
“So?”
Eventually, he slowly opened his mouth. Things like his slightly lifted eyebrow and sharply narrowed pupils seemed to represent Ji-hyuk’s psychology.
“Are you saying your memories have returned?”
