Chapter 02
I Hate Love
Swoosh—
Yeonhee pulled open all the blackout curtains that had been blocking the morning sunlight and opened the window wide.
Rattle, whirr, drip……
She ground coffee beans with a hazelnut scent and poured the warm coffee into her favorite cup.
Ding!
She baked soft bread that smelled like butter and placed it on a pretty plate.
It was a peaceful morning she had not enjoyed in a long time.
The fresh morning air, fragrant coffee, and warm bread.
Sitting on the sofa, Yeonhee enjoyed a moment filled with all the things she liked. A smile that rarely appeared stayed around her lips.
Today, for some reason, she felt like something good would happen.
“I’m dating my boyfriend’s two friends at the same time. He still hasn’t noticed. Seriously, what an idiot.”
“There was a group I studied with, but they rented another place without telling me. I feel like they don’t respect me these days, so I said something. Ah, seriously. It’s ridiculous!”
“I don’t want to do anything these days. Actually, I didn’t even want to come here, but I already made a reservation, so I had no choice…… Is a refund possible right now?”
……
The corners of her lips that had been curved upward all morning had fallen a long time ago.
A good thing, my foot!
True to its slogan, <Hearing, Healing>, the customers of Damcheongwon left after pouring out their stories and feeling refreshed.
All three people who had reservations today left Damcheongwon with expressions as refreshed as if they had taken digestive medicine.
On the other hand, Yeonhee returned home with a face that looked like she had received all the stress in the world.
She had wanted to understand the emotion called love by listening to people’s stories, but right now, she only felt like an emotional trash can.
Fortunately, today’s reservations were finally over……
Ding-dong—
At that moment, the sound of the Damcheongwon bell rang.
Yeonhee jumped in surprise.
Who is it? Is it Doyoon?
It was not someone accidentally pressing the bell.
Damcheongwon was located in a place that was not easy to find.
A three-story old commercial building without an elevator, deep inside an alley.
<Hearing, Healing> was somewhere on the top floor.
Old company signs that were no longer operating hung everywhere, creating a creepy and abandoned atmosphere inside and outside, but Yeonhee had insisted on staying there for three years.
Because that was where her mother and father’s research institute had been.
When you opened the Damcheongwon door on the third-floor hallway, a dark customer space appeared.
Behind one wall made of opaque glass was Yeonhee’s space.
Stories flowed in through a small window, and on the other side, Yeonhee saw the customers’ hands and mouths while listening to their voices.
Perhaps because of that, Doyoon once said Damcheongwon looked like a place where people went for confession.
It was a narrow and dark space, but there was a magical path hidden there that allowed her to go home in one second after work.
She only had to find the door that looked like a wall.
Opening it led directly into the spacious studio apartment where Yeonhee lived.
Therefore, the bell ringing right now meant that someone had climbed the stairs of the old three-story building hidden in the alley, walked down the hallway, and pressed the Damcheongwon doorbell.
A reserved customer would have simply entered.
Tilting her head in confusion, Yeonhee opened the door leading to Damcheongwon.
Immediately, she saw someone sitting in front of the window.
As usual, her eyes moved toward that person’s hands.
A man’s hand.
A hand she had never seen before……
Yeonhee sat down in her chair, calmed her breathing, and cleared her voice.
“Hello, customer—”
The man sitting opposite her answered with a soft and low voice.
“Hello. Excuse me, but what kind of place is this?”
The moment she heard his voice, Yeonhee’s eyes widened.
“……I hate love.”
The voice that had painfully and heavily said he hated love.
That voice that had lingered in her ears.
The top actor who had thrown the entire country into chaos with an interview saying he hated love.
Yoon Jihan.
Why was this person here……?
“What kind of place is this?”
When no answer came, Jihan asked again.
For some reason, his voice was filled with caution.
Yeonhee, who had been blankly staring at the man’s hand in front of her, shook her head and forced herself to come back to reality.
Get a hold of yourself, Seo Yeonhee.
This person must have come here as a customer too.
“This place is called ‘the grave of all secrets in the world.’”
“The grave of all secrets in the world……?”
“Yes. Whatever story the customer tells, that secret will be buried here forever.”
“……Why bury a secret here?”
Jihan slightly lowered his guard and asked as if he was genuinely curious.
Did he come here without knowing anything?
Most Damcheongwon customers came after hearing about it through rumors, so they rarely asked questions like this.
Yeonhee was slightly confused by Jihan’s question, but thanks to him, she remembered the time when she had first decided to open Damcheongwon.
She slowly answered.
“Keeping a secret inside your heart and living with it is more painful than you might think. There are secrets you can never tell even your friends or family, right? You come here and bury those kinds of things.”
“……The king’s ears are donkey ears, something like that…….”
“Ah, yes! You can think of it as a personal bamboo forest.”
Yeonhee finished answering and pressed her lips together.
Hearing him seriously mention the title of a fairy tale did not suit the situation, and a small laugh escaped.
“These days, people can freely say whatever they want anonymously on the internet. Why would they come here while taking a risk? I don’t really understand.”
His voice sounded like he had returned to being cautious again.
Yeonhee tilted her head slightly.
Does this person really know nothing about this place?
Instead of answering, she handed him a Damcheongwon business card.
Jihan slowly read the words written on the small piece of paper.
“Hearing, Healing. We listen to your story……”
“Yes. It is also called ‘Damcheongwon.’ Dam means story, and Cheong means listening.”
“Damcheongwon……?”
“A story is completed only when there is someone who listens. Even if you speak to a bamboo forest or an anonymous message board, you don’t know whether anyone is truly listening. Then the weight of the secret in your heart never becomes lighter.”
Yeonhee explained kindly, as if teaching a child.
At this point, he should understand, right?
Just as Yeonhee was about to continue, Jihan spoke first.
“So this place is not a ‘research institute’?”
Why is this person like this?
Why does he look so confused?
During movie interviews, he was proud and elegant like a top actor.
When he said he hated love, he was strong and firm, as if striking down with an iron hammer.
But right now, his voice was rough, dark, and sad, like a wounded wolf.
She had heard a voice like this once before.
Was she around ten years old?
After Yeonhee learned about her parents’ deaths, she lost interest in everything.
“Yeonhee, do you want to read a book? You liked <Alice in Wonderland>, remember? The director will read it for you!”
Seo Yeonhee was the child who always worried Director Jin So-yeon, who ran Jinri Orphanage.
Yeonhee had not been a child who talked a lot or laughed often, but after the parents who occasionally visited her stopped coming forever, she gradually lost even more words.
Director Jin was extremely worried.
What if Yeonhee closed her heart completely?
“Ah……”
Director Jin sighed quietly as she walked around in front of the silent Yeonhee.
Thinking this could not continue, she walked toward the children playing with a ball in the distance.
“Doyoon! Come here for a moment!”
At the director’s call, a boy with brown curly hair ran over immediately.
His chubby cheeks were red from playing.
“Since you get along well with your friends, how about taking care of Yeonhee like a younger sister?”
Director Jin believed Doyoon would take good care of Yeonhee because he was usually bright, energetic, and popular among the children.
“Yes, Mom! No…… Director!”
Doyoon pressed down his curly hair with his small hands and answered before quickly running back toward the playground.
Director Jin watched her son’s back and noticed Yeonhee sitting alone in the corner of the playground.
“That poor child……”
While Director Jin shook her head and entered the orphanage building, Doyoon had already approached Yeonhee.
“Yeonhee!”
Doyoon asked with a bright voice, but there was no answer.
Fortunately, Doyoon was used to rejection because of his younger sibling Dodo.
He did not give up because of the silence and reached out his hand again.
“Do you want to play together? There are lots of friends over there!”
Instead of answering, Yeonhee shook her head.
It was a quiet but clear rejection.
However, Doyoon found hope because it was not silence.
Kneeling down to match Yeonhee’s eye level, Doyoon asked gently.
“Then should we do something you like together? What do you like?”
Without even looking at Doyoon, Yeonhee suddenly stood up.
“……I like being alone.”
She spoke in a small but firm voice toward Doyoon and immediately turned around and ran away.
Everyone will leave me anyway.
Just like my mom and dad……!
Rather than being abandoned and hurt later, it was better not to make friends at all.
Yeonhee avoided Doyoon and hid in a corner of the orphanage building.
He won’t come this far, right?
Hiding herself between the orphanage building and the wall, Yeonhee closed her eyes tightly and caught her breath.
“What is your dream?”
At that moment, someone’s voice came.
Yeonhee, who thought no one was nearby, was startled and her shoulders jumped.
The voice coming from outside the wall belonged to a boy.
“……A dream…… I don’t have one.”
The voice that answered also belonged to a boy around the same age, but unlike the first boy, he seemed to stutter badly.
Without realizing it, Yeonhee held her breath and listened to their conversation.
“I have a dream. I’ve never told anyone until now……”
“Wh, what is it? ……Ah! S-s-sorry. You don’t have to tell me. Someone like me, h-how could I……”
“No. I think I can tell you because it’s you.”
A short silence followed.
After a while, the boy continued.
“……I pray every night. I pray for my dream to come true. Ah, I’m not praying to God. If God existed, there’s no way He would leave me like this.”
“What, what do you pray for?”
Neither of the two boys spoke.
Silence filled the area for a moment.
Yeonhee realized she had unconsciously moved closer to the wall.
After her parents left her like that, this was the first time she had felt curious about something.
“……I pray every night that I…… become someone who cannot love.”
The boy who had first asked about the dream slowly spoke.
At that moment, Yeonhee could not fully understand his words.
Why?
Why would someone pray to become a person who cannot love?
The stuttering boy seemed to have the same thought as Yeonhee and asked with doubt in his voice.
“……Why?”
“Because love can kill people. A person who cannot love is someone who has received a blessing. Just like you.”
“I…… I-I-I received a blessing?”
The boy asked back in surprise, stuttering even more than before.
Yeonhee leaned her body against the wall and waited for the next words.
But the boy’s voice did not return.
Instead, she heard the footsteps of the two boys leaving.
Love can kill people?
A person who cannot feel love is blessed?
What was that child talking about?
She had always believed everyone in the world wanted love……
Without realizing it, Yeonhee touched the scar on her wrist and thought deeply about the boy’s words.
“……I…… becoming someone who cannot love.”
It was an unbelievable thing to say.
But what shocked her even more was the boy’s voice.
A lonely, dark, and sad voice.
A voice like a child hiding a deep wound inside his heart.
The voices of the two boys outside the wall had disappeared long ago, but Yeonhee could not leave that place until late.
She could not forget that voice.
