Winter Season Chapter 47

I felt a sudden doubt, wondering if I should consider whether the cause of my problems lay within myself, since I was experiencing such things even at a place I had come to for a brief rest. The self-mocking thought didn’t even make me laugh. Yihyeon squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, then gritted his teeth and hurriedly left the sleeping room.

Most of the people lying comfortably in the hall were deep in sleep. The clock on the wall pointed to three. As if running away, Yihyeon quickly went down to the locker room and changed his clothes.

As Yihyeon stepped out of the bathhouse carrying his unresolved fatigue, the cold dawn wind brushed past him like a scratch.

Where should I go now…

It was an awkward time to look for a motel now, and I couldn’t go back home. It was too cold to just stand still, so I started walking aimlessly, but I didn’t even know which direction to take. A group of heavily intoxicated people brushed past Yihyeon, laughing loudly.

There was nowhere to go. The faces of older hyungs I knew, who might let me stay for a day if I contacted them, flashed through my mind, but they would expect me to spend the night with them in return.

However, for today at least, I didn’t want to do that, even if I ended up freezing to death on the streets. I felt like I would truly feel like someone selling their body, as some people said.

I’ve wasted my life, Kwon Yihyeon. I don’t even have a friend to ask at a time like this.

My slightly damp hair froze stiffly, and my exposed bare hands grew cold to the point of aching. The cake box I was holding felt as heavy as a stone.

The more I walked, the duller my body became, but I couldn’t stop walking either. I wanted to go into a PC cafe or a 24-hour cafe, but all I could see were bars.

By the time my toes felt stinging rather than just cold because of my stiffened sneakers, I saw a group of people dressed in black pouring out of a shop ahead.

It was unavoidable that my gaze went toward the tall man who came out last.

“…”

It was a familiar face.

Why do I always run into him at times like this? In every single moment when I feel like there is no lower floor to hit.

It was Seunghyeok and his associates who had stepped out of the lit-up bar. A person who appeared to be an employee of the establishment came out to the entrance and bowed repeatedly.

The moment I stopped walking and stared blankly at the scene, I made eye contact with Seunghyeok, who was just taking out a cigarette to put in his mouth. The flame of a lighter held up beside him cast a bright light on his face.

When Seunghyeok, standing at the very front, just stared somewhere without moving while keeping his hands in his pockets, the puzzled gazes of the gang members turned toward me.

I suddenly felt ashamed of my damp hair and the cake box in my hand.

Whether he knew my heart or not, Seunghyeok, who had maintained an expressionless face, slowly opened his lips.

“Shouldn’t you be busy sleeping around with Gu Jinhyeok right now?”

“…”

“Why are you acting so pathetic on the street at this hour?”

At the cold voice, same as ever, Yihyeon lowered his eyes and bit his lip. A sigh welled up as the image of Seunghyeok I had run into at the company lobby this morning came to mind.

Is he trying to get under my skin with sharp words again? It’s too cold and I’m too tired to argue back like that right now.

“…It’s none of your business.”

White breath broke before my eyes every time I opened my lips. As soon as Seunghyeok heard the sentence muttered in a small voice, his brow furrowed. Yihyeon met his piercing gaze quietly without looking away.

“…”

In the silence, my nerves were strangely on edge. The wind penetrating the gaps in my clothes, the sensation rising from the tips of my toes, and that sharp gaze—all of it felt like it was scratching past me.

That was why I looked away first. It was just as I was taking a step to pass them by.

Grab.

The grip transmitted from my right arm was strong. Yihyeon looked down at his captured arm and then slowly turned his head. The place where his calm, settled gaze landed was Seunghyeok’s face. The tightly closed mouth, the crooked eyebrow, and the furrowed brow meant obvious annoyance.

“I have to make it so it’s none of my business.”

His angular jawline bulged and settled. Seunghyeok frowned, turned his head, and muttered indifferently, “You guys go on to the second round yourselves.” Before the response of the formal-looking men could even finish, Seunghyeok started walking. One hand was still clutching Yihyeon’s arm.

“Let go of this.”

I tried to shake off his hand by twisting my arm, but it was no use with such weak movements. Because I was cold, tired, and exhausted, Yihyeon gave up resisting and followed behind him powerlessly.

The place Seunghyeok arrived at while dragging Yihyeon was a parking lot. Approaching a black sedan, he flung open the passenger door and shoved Yihyeon inside. Then he walked quickly around the front of the car and took his seat in the driver’s side.

“Put on your seatbelt.”

“Where are we going?”

“If you have time to wander around holding a cake in that state, stay tucked away quietly at home and think about how to seduce Gu Jinhyeok.”

With a cold voice, the car moved. The direction the car was heading after leaving the parking lot was toward Yihyeon’s house. Yihyeon, who had been staring out the window with a “no way” thought, realized the car was finally entering a familiar road and spoke hurriedly.

“The house is a mess, so I can’t go in yet. Drop me off anywhere near here. I can just go sleep at a motel.”

Just then, an old motel building was visible outside the window. I thought that if it was going to be like this, I should have gone to a motel from the beginning. I gnawed on my lip and hurriedly unfastened my seatbelt, but Seunghyeok let out a hollow laugh and made a large U-turn.

“As if there would be an empty room on Christmas.”

Ah.

I had completely forgotten the fact that today was Christmas Eve—no, that it was Christmas since it was past 12 o’clock. Since he wasn’t wrong, I had no choice but to shut my mouth. Gripping the handle of the cake box, which was slightly crushed because I had held it so tightly, Yihyeon spoke.

“…Then where are we going?”

Seunghyeok turned the steering wheel without a word. His gaze, fixed forward, was directed toward one spot as if he were thinking about something.

I didn’t think an answer would come even if I asked more. Yihyeon, who had been looking only at Seunghyeok’s profile with his head turned, swallowed a rising sigh and looked straight ahead.

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound of him lightly tapping the steering wheel with his index finger echoed inside the quiet car. Perhaps he had turned on the seat heaters, as warmth rose through my back and buttocks.

As my body, which had been frozen all along, melted, the fatigue I had been ignoring began to pour in. Thump, I lightly hit my forehead against the window, but it was no use in waking myself up.

I shouldn’t sleep… I shouldn’t fall asleep here… While I repeated this to myself, yellow and red lights passed by in long lines outside my slowly flickering vision. I saw snowflakes like white powder fluttering over the black road.

I don’t know where we’re going, but I hope he lets me go soon.

Yihyeon’s eyelids, thinking that he wanted to fall into a sleep from which he would never wake, could not withstand the weight and sank down.

Yihyeon woke up just as the car was entering an underground parking garage. While he was looking around the somewhat dark interior, the car came to a quiet stop.

In the midst of blinking slowly because his senses hadn’t fully returned, he heard the sound of a seatbelt being unfastened from the side. Contrary to the expectation that he would get out right away, the driver’s side door did not open. Only then did Yihyeon turn his head to look at Seunghyeok. He was staring straight ahead at nothing.

“Where is this?”

His low, locked voice sounded terrible. While he frowned and cleared his throat, Seunghyeok’s lips opened.

“My officetel.”

At Seunghyeok’s words, Yihyeon, who had been stroking his Adam’s apple, paused his hand. I thought it felt familiar for some reason. It must have been because it was a place I had been to before.

I knew where this place was, but I still didn’t know why we had come. Instead of opening his mouth to ask directly, Yihyeon stared quietly at Seunghyeok.

His sharply angled jaw was unrealistic, looking just like something from a drawing. When his gaze was about to move past the high brow and straight bridge of the nose to below the philtrum, those red lips opened. It was a reflexive action that I avoided his gaze without even realizing it, like someone who had done something wrong.

“Stay at my place for a few days until your house is sorted out.”

“What?”

“You have nowhere else to go.”