DTL Ch 9 part 2

PR by neji

The sky had been gray for the past several days, and finally, the first snowfall of the year came. YeonJung stopped working on her project and leaned back against her chair as she turned her head towards the window. She watched the snowflakes stick to the glass before melting away. Hyejin supported her hips with her hand as she approached the window and stood next to her.

“Aah, YeonJung-ssi. I don’t know why all men are like children. I heard that they’ll never grow up until the day they die. Those words must be true.”

DongHoon diligently responded from behind.

“You can say that to YeonJung-ssi all you want, but it will never take. The heart of a fanatic is only known to the fanatic themselves. Haven’t you also heard of the saying, ‘Don’t discuss life with someone who doesn’t know how to be a fanatic’? Why are you saying something like this to YeonJung-ssi, knowing that her house is filled with rare LP records? Right, YeonJung-ssi?”

DongHoon looked at YeonJung with pleading eyes, begging her to save him. He had been going on and on since noon about wanting to buy the new game that just came out. In return, DongHoon received a scolding from Hyejin. YeonJung burst into laughter.

“Yeah, and it looks like we’ll go broke in the process.”

In the end, Hyejin helplessly shook her head from side to side as she gave in. DongHoon thrust his fist into the air as he expressed his triumphant joy.

“As expected, my wife is the best.”

YeonJung watched the two bicker with longing eyes. That’s what it looked like when a couple was in love. One side wasn’t the one that always gave in or was lacking. The two of them would stand on equal ground and meet in the middle.

A long time ago, she had dreamed of something like this as well. If she fell in love with someone with a handicap as well, she thought they could overcome anything. Her young self had been stupid back then.

That man, Wuju¹… His name was as broad as his heart. When she had to leave him on her own, YeonJung decided to never meet him again. No, she believed she’d never love another man who wasn’t him. But Min SeonJae had flipped everything upside-down. She had thrown herself into the relationship to explore a world completely different from her own to forget about Wuju, but in the end, she had fallen into her own trap.

“Huh? YeonJung-ssi, are you planning on going home now?”

“Yes, I…I’ll goh home… first…”

Hyejin had been organizing her flowers when she suddenly called out to DongHoon.

“Honey, you should drive her home. Her car still hasn’t come back from the shop.”

“Okay.”

Seeing DongHoon get up from his seat without hesitation, YeonJung held out her hand.

‘It’s okay. It’s close, so I can just walk.’

“YeonJung-ssi, it’s snowing outside. The snow is probably covering the icy roads, so it’s going to be very slippery. Remember how Mijin-ssi slipped and fell and dislocated her hip? She’s still taking acupuncture for the pain to this day. Don’t be needlessly stubborn and go home in DongHoon-ssi’s car. You also have a lot of things to take home today.”

“Thah-nk… you.”

“No need to thank us. I thought we were closer than that!”

“Oh-kay.”

YeonJung felt that it wouldn’t be polite to continue to reject their offer, so she poured Hyejin another cup of warm barley tea. Then she began to pack her bags. The snowflakes grew thicker and thicker outside.

It took 5 minutes by car to get from the workspace to her apartment. YeonJung looked out the car window and gazed at the falling snow outside. It was the first snowfall of the year.

The large snowflakes poured down from the gray sky. The difference between the heated interior of the car and the cold outside was very stark. She wiped off the condensation clinging to the window with her hand. After parking the car, DongHoon got out first and began unloading her bags from the trunk. YeonJung also got out of the passenger seat to help him.

SeonJae, who had been sitting on the bench at the playground, stood up. White snow had settled on top of his brown coat as well as his hair that had grown longer and was covering his forehead. How long had he been waiting here?

SeonJae glanced at DongHoon, who was helping her unload her baggage, before turning his eyes back on her. When their eyes met, she felt something pierce her heart, so she turned her head away.

“YeonJung-ssi, you have a lot of bags, so why don’t I help you…”

After closing the trunk, DongHoon asked as he held the two bags filled with her work in both hands. His eyes, however, were gazing at something behind her. He had probably noticed SeonJae.

‘It’s okay. I can take the elevator anyway, and it’s right there. I don’t like the fact that Hyejin-ssi is all alone right now, so please hurry back.’

DongHoon hesitated as he read her sign language. YeonJung quickly took the bags out of his hands.

‘Are you really going to be okay? If you’re in a troublesome situation right now, I’ll help out.’

Instead of saying it out loud, DongHoon signed to her with his now freed hands. By ‘troublesome situation’, he was referring to SeonJae, who was currently watching them from afar.

YeonJung shook her head. She didn’t want to involve DongHoon in this unpleasant situation. Additionally, they had met once before, and that meeting didn’t go well either. Of course, it had all stemmed from a ridiculous misunderstanding, but still…

“Then I’ll be going, YeonJung-ssi. If something happens, give me a call.”

DongHoon looked at her with uncertainty before glancing down at his phone. Then he got inside his car. The engine hummed to life, and the car disappeared from sight. YeonJung glanced at SeonJae, who was still rooted to his spot, before turning around. She began to head inside the building, worried that he would grab her shoulder from behind to stop her. However, thankfully, nothing of the sort happened and she managed to get inside her apartment without any incident.

Whoosh—.

After taking a warm shower and drying her hair, she made herself a hot cup of coffee. Holding her pen and tablet at the work table, she began to design a bouquet. However, her thoughts kept roaming somewhere else. Glancing at the electronic clock at the table, she noted that it was 10:05 PM. Over an hour had passed since she had returned home.

‘He’ll leave… He’s probably left by now.’

Thinking this, she still couldn’t get herself to look out the window to check. She could see that the snow was still falling from the black sky through the blinds. Her head was turned towards the veranda windows as she sat at the table, but she quickly brought her eyes back to her project.

11 o’clock.

She crossed her fingers together and stretched her arms as she stretched. She had deliberately immersed herself in her sketching, and the time had flown by. YeonJung dumped her leftover, cold coffee down the drain. Then she washed her mug before washing her hands. Because she had been in the same position for a while, her shoulders were stiff and sore.

She massaged her shoulders with her hand as she walked across the room. Thinking she should go to the place recommended by Hyejin to get a sports massage, YeonJung walked over to the veranda door. She was just about to turn off the lights and close the blinds when she noticed it. She could hardly believe her eyes.

‘Why is that person still there?’

In the pouring snow, he was sitting on the bench at the playground across from the parking lot. He was still sitting in the same spot he had been when she had first come home. Her lips slightly parted.

It was as if time had stopped for him. Only the piled snow on the bench next to him indicated that time had truly flowed on. With his hands in his coat pocket, his head was tilted back as he stared at her apartment window.

‘He’s crazy. In this weather? He’s lost his mind.’

According to the weather report, the lowest temperature went down to 9°C. She didn’t stop to think. She ran to her room and grabbed the first padded jacket she saw and barely managed to put it on. Then she put on any old pair of slippers lying around and exited her front door.

She felt as if the elevator was ten times slower than usual as it made its way up to her floor. As soon as the doors opened on the first floor, a blast of cold wind brushed against her cheeks. Just wearing her pajamas and the padded jacket, she hadn’t even stopped to zip up her jacket. The cold wind cut through her clothes, but that wasn’t the issue right now.

When she got outside, she began to walk over to the man sitting on the bench. Seeing the white puff of smoke leaving his stiff lips, she was relieved to see that he wasn’t dead.

A sigh burst out of her lips. SeonJae was staring blankly at her. YeonJung’s brow twisted as she glared back at him.

“Ah-re… you… crah-zy?”

This was the first time she’d spoken to him after they had met again. She barely managed to get the words out as she gave him a fierce scowl. SeonJae’s eyes slowly looked her up and down. His ears were red with cold.

“…Aren’t your feet cold?”

He forced his frozen lips to open in order to speak. To ask her if her feet were cold. His lips had definitely moved to say this. YeonJung felt something lurch within her chest. She did her best to endure this sensation.

“Get… up.”

She tried to be precise in her pronunciation, but her tongue seemed to have frozen in her mouth and remained stiff. In the past, she had never worried about how she had sounded in front of him.

‘From here on out, whenever we’re together, don’t write it down and just say it. You can speak even though you can’t hear, after all.’

At the time, his expression looked sincere.

‘If you feel like you’ve missed something I’ve said, just ask me to repeat it.’

That may have been why she had mistakenly believed that he wouldn’t get hung up over her disability.

She recalled the final day they had shared that she had tried so hard to forget. The image of his face as he screamed at her to stop talking appeared in her head. Unable to endure the gazes from the onlookers, the humiliated man snatched her hand into his clenched fist and dragged her outside.

“I… told you… not to coh-me here. Min SeonJae-shi, why… ah-re you doo-ing… this too… me? Serious…ly.”

She held back the urge to burst into tears. Why did he appear in front of someone who had been living well all on her own and turn her insides upside-down? What was his objective in appearing in front of her again? She wanted to scream these questions at him.

“Your feet……”

White smoke left his trembling lips once again. He had lowered his head, so she didn’t catch the end of his sentence. It looked like SeonJae was going to stand up. She was focusing on calming her breaths when she felt something touch her feet. He had knelt onto the ground and placed his hand on top of her exposed feet. It was cold. His hand that was trying to warm her feet from the cold wind was even colder.

‘What is he doing, seriously?’

She grit her teeth as she grabbed the collar of his coat and dragged him up.

“G-oh. Please, just… go.”

“……”

The frozen tip of his nose, his red ears, his colorless, dried lips. She was worried he’d get frostbite at this rate. Her expression twisted into a frown.

“Why……”

“……”

“Why… ah-re you doo-ing… this… too me?!”

She asked because she really wanted to know. She yelled because she was so angry. She didn’t care how her voice sounded anymore. She hated herself for continuing to think about him.

She thought she’d be able to forget him. Those were the words she had promised to herself countless times after she had left him. Time would fix all things. The truth that she had realized after leaving Wuju would prove itself once again. And so she had endured for the past two years.

However, as soon as Min SeonJae appeared again, her quiet life had shattered. Her daily routine had become a mess. For the past week, all she could think about was whether this man would appear again or not. Looking at herself now, she realized that it was no different from waiting for him to come.

“YeonJung…”

She could see that he was murmuring something. She wasn’t the only one with frozen lips. She couldn’t tell what he was saying from the way his lips were moving. She felt anger begin to boil within her once again.

‘I can’t hear. I can’t see.’

She fiercely shook her head.

“I… cah-n’t hear. I don’t know… what you’re sah-ying… I cah-n’t hear. I don’t know ah-ny of it.”

Hot tears began to well up in her eyes. He wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t know how much she had to focus on him in order to understand what he was saying. Sometimes, she wouldn’t understand what he said, but she’d pretend that she did and nod. There was no way he’d know what she had been thinking.

He began to slowly move his lips, and she could make it out with her blurry eyes.

“…I’ll only look at you. Can you give me permission to do just that?”

‘What is he saying right now?’

She wiped her eyes with her fist. Then she gave the man in front of her a clear glare. 

“It doesn’t matter if someone else is by your side. No, honestly, it’s not okay. If I were to be completely honest, it’s hard to endure. So I thought about it for a while, but I still… I still think it’s better than not seeing you at all. I’ll only look at your face once a day. Ten minutes, no even five minutes is okay. Just let me look at your face like this. I’ll be satisfied with just that. So, please. Please don’t tell me to stop showing up in front of you.”

That’s all she could make out. Seeing his trembling eyes before her, she realized now that he was telling the truth.

He was being sincere. No matter what the reason was, he was currently holding on to her. She couldn’t ask him why. She was afraid of what his answer might be. She slowly opened her mouth.

“All right… so please… goh home for too-day.”

His eyes met hers. His dried lips began to move once again.

“Then… does that mean I can come again?”

The cold air enveloping her body began to make her teeth chatter.

“Yes, it doesn’t mah-tter to me, so… goh home. For too-day. It’s too cold. If we stah-y like this ah-ny longer…”

Suddenly, the man pulled her body closer to his. It happened so quickly that she couldn’t react to it. With her body in his tight embrace, he began to stroke her hair with his trembling hand. She couldn’t understand what he whispered into her ear. The smell of the cold wind wafted from his clothes. She squirmed and pushed against his chest, finally escaping from within his arms.

SeonJae obediently let go. YeonJung drew in a deep breath as she glared at him. She felt as if her heart would burst out from inside her chest.

“…Sorry, I’ll go. So you go in first.”

“Let me know…  when yoo… get home.”

Worried that he’d only tell her he’d leave but remain outside in the cold, YeonJung told him to confirm with her when he was home. His expression turned strange. She could see the corner of his lips begin to tremble. YeonJung took in another deep breath and spoke as she stared at him.

“Text me… when yoo get home.”

“Can I do that?”

“Do yoo know… my phone nuh-mber?”

She hadn’t changed her phone number after they had broken up in case a former client of hers would want to request her services again. It definitely wasn’t because she was waiting for him to contact her again. For the past two years, SeonJae had never contacted her once. And neither had she contacted him.

“010-XXXX-0205.”

Her shoulders flinched when she realized that SeonJae still had her phone number memorized after all these years.

“Go. Hur-ry.”

“…I’ll text you as soon as I get home.”

He finally turned around and began to walk away. He turned around to check and see if she was still there a few times. When he finally left the apartment complex, YeonJung quickly turned around. The snow had stopped falling at some point.

[I’m home. I just got here.]

After lying in bed and turning the electric blanket on to its highest setting, YeonJung began to melt her cold body. The phone she had placed on her lower stomach began to vibrate. It was from an unknown number. A text from SeonJae. YeonJung debated whether she should give him a reply before sending him a curt response.

[All right. Good night.]

[Can I call you?]

When she saw his quick reply, her eyes narrowed in the dark.

Call her? Now that she thought about it, this had happened once a long time ago. It had been the day she had read the news of his engagement in an economic magazine. Although he knew very well that she couldn’t hear, he had called her. She thought it was quite rude, so she purposefully answered his call and blasted the music in her car as she drove. And what was the CD that had been playing at the time?

As she reminisced about the past, the phone in her hand began to vibrate. He was really calling her. After taking a deep breath, she answered the call.

“……”

Silence lingered between the two of them. 

0:00, 0:01, 0:02, 0:03, 0:04…… In the dark, the bright numbers continued to go up.

“Min… Seon…Jae-shi.”

When the numbers had passed the two-minute mark, she broke the silence. She had realized that she would have to take the lead in this one-sided call.

“Good… night.”

He did not end the call. She moved her finger and ended it.

She couldn’t fall asleep long after. She burst out of bed and walked into the living room. The record that he had gifted her was still in its plastic wrapping on the shelf. She finally remembered what music had been playing on the night he had first called her.

The Eagles. Hotel California. She had thought the song suited him very well. She carefully took off the plastic wrapping and pulled out the black record from its paper sleeve. After putting it on, she circled her arms around the large speaker and sat down. Whenever the vibrations rocked against her body, her heart began to race at the same rate.