Winter Season Chapter 75

As Yihyeon lay down first, Seunghyeok turned off the room light and came in beside him. In the darkness, where not even a faint silhouette could be seen due to the lack of light, the presence of the person next to him felt acutely sensitive.

Just a moment ago, it felt as if sleep were pouring over him, but once he actually closed his eyes, all his nerves focused on his back. Because the blanket made a rustling sound every time he moved, even breathing became something to be cautious about.

Yihyeon slowly turned his head toward the side where Seunghyeok lay. Once upon a time, he had watched Gu Seunghyeok’s shoulders rising and falling in the darkness like this.

Thinking back to that time when they were younger, smaller, and more immature than now, he felt a suffocating sensation, as if something were strangely knotting in his chest. It had been more than nine years, but did the traces of it still remain?

Yihyeon, who had been blinking his eyes while staring into the darkness, spoke in a small voice.

“Gu Seunghyeok, are you sleeping?”

“…Not yet.”

“Shall we exchange three questions each?”

Silence followed amidst the gentle background sound of snow piling up. Thinking it was a sign of refusal, he was about to turn his back without a word when a low, husky voice came across.

“What are you curious about?”

Yihyeon hesitated before speaking.

“When you do that kind of work… do you, like, kill people too?”

“…If I don’t want to die.”

“How many people have you killed so far?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Then,” Yihyeon’s lips flickered.

“…Back when we were in high school.”

There was another brief gap. But soon, along with the sound of swallowing, a small voice continued.

“Because of that incident. Do you still hate me?”

He spoke in a calm tone, but the words held weight. Could the emotions he held in the past be expressed simply by the word “hate”? He felt as if the sound of swallowing his dry saliva would reach Gu Seunghyeok. While he was just nibbling the inside of his cheek, Seunghyeok’s voice broke the silence.

“Kwon Yihyeon.”

“…….”

“We’re leaving early tomorrow. Shut your mouth and just sleep.”

With those words, no more talk came over. Yihyeon thought about the meaning of that silence in his head.

On one hand, seeing as he didn’t at least say yes, he wondered if it could be interpreted positively, but then recalling Gu Seunghyeok’s expression as he looked down at him when they reunited, it felt like that would never be the case.

Various thoughts floated dizzily in his head before settling down. His eyes seemed to blink slowly, and from a certain point, they closed completely. He thought he might have heard the sound of rustling as someone got up beside him in the middle of it. But Yihyeon had already fallen into a deep sleep.

༘⋆🤍˚ .❄️₊˚ෆ

Swish, swish. The sound of snow being swept up with a broom echoed in the yard. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw a deep blue sky through the window. When he turned his head without a thought, the empty space beside him caught his eye. Gu Seunghyeok seemed to have woken up first.

After a quick wash, he opened the door and stepped out, and the clear, cool air welcomed Yihyeon. Fortunately, it seemed the snow that had been pouring down had stopped. The accumulated snow glittered entirely in silver under the sunlight spreading in all directions.

Yihyeon curled up and crouched at the edge of the wooden veranda. Water was dripping one drop at a time from the icicles hanging under the eaves, leaving deep marks on the thick snow.

Drip, drip. Yihyeon, who had been quietly listening to the sound of water falling into the gutter as the snow on the roof melted, stood up and spoke to the owner of the house who was sweeping.

“Madam. Have you seen the person who came with me?”

“Ah, that young man? It looked like he went out at dawn and has been sitting in his car parked right out front.”

He could have just woken him up; why go out first and do that, making him feel unnecessarily sorry.

Yihyeon, who had hurriedly put on his clothes, bowed to the owner. After saying thank you and coming outside, the black sedan he had left in front of the pawnshop yesterday was parked there.

Beyond the front windshield of the driver’s seat, he saw Gu Seunghyeok sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Since when had he been doing this? Was sleeping under the same blanket as him that uncomfortable?

While various thoughts crossed his mind, Yihyeon made a sound by lightly tapping the car’s windshield.

The moment Seunghyeok’s eyelids opened and their eyes met, he felt as if his heart had dropped. Yihyeon tried to loosen his stiff expression and forced a smile. Seunghyeok’s unreadable gaze stuck tenaciously to it.

The car raced along the early morning road and came to a stop at a nameless beach where the East Sea came into view at a single glance. As he got out following Gu Seunghyeok, the salty sea breeze fiercely blew his hair about.

Turning his head, he saw Seunghyeok taking a cigarette out of his pocket and putting it in his mouth. Yihyeon looked away and stepped toward the sea.

Unlike the back area where white snow was piled up, the front was covered in clay-colored sand wet from the seawater. Every time the waves pushed deep into the sandy shore, the ground repeatedly turned a dark color and then lightened again. Yihyeon stared blankly at the surging sea with his hands in his coat pockets.

There was a time when he wanted to entrust his body to the waves that pushed in incessantly. He thought it would be nice to just let everything go and close his eyes peacefully. Life after being denied everything and kicked out of his home was a series of such thoughts.

What supported Yihyeon during those times were the memories of individual moments. The vivid, hot midsummer sunlight on the day they took their final graduation photos; the early evening gloom he looked down upon from his first rooftop room; the untimely water play at the beach that had been cool and dry before the sprouts bloomed.

Every time he habitually reached for something sharp while intoxicated by alcohol and the effects of medicine, trivial old memories settled in Yihyeon’s head as if to dissuade him. And among those memories, there was one person who appeared exceptionally often.

Yihyeon slowly turned his body and stared quietly toward Seunghyeok, who was standing far off. Over the figure smoking with his hands in his pockets, a slightly shorter, short-haired, boyish-faced Seunghyeok overlapped.

In the wide-open, deserted beach, it felt as if a scene of the two of them splashing water and shouting at each other was being drawn before his eyes.

The scene changed its background to the old arcade in front of the school, and then it became an empty classroom after school. The scenery, which slowly transitioned through a convenience store, a worn-out office, and a room full of his own traces, returned once again to the deserted midwinter beach.

Yihyeon, who had been watching Seunghyeok, took one step, then another, slowly backing away. Behind his back, the waves were breaking noisily with a shuaaa sound. His black hair fluttered softly in the cold winter wind. Yihyeon was the first to look away and turn his body.

Seunghyeok, who was watching that sight, unintentionally clenched his fists tight. It was because Yihyeon, standing all alone in the middle of the vast sandy shore, looked so blurred as if he might disappear at any moment.

Seunghyeok, who crushed out his cigarette, approached Yihyeon with hurried steps. With every step he took on the snowy ground he sank into, his stride gradually widened. With his eyes fixed on Yihyeon, Seunghyeok muttered quietly. …Kwon Yihyeon.

“Kwon Yihyeon…!”

Yihyeon’s steps toward the vast ocean came to a sudden halt. His thin body was whipped around by Seunghyeok, who had drawn close before he knew it. His face, with fine fuzz like a white magnolia flower, glowed clearly under the bright winter sunlight.

“Gu Seunghyeok?”

It was a very brief moment.

The moment Seunghyeok’s heart went thump and dropped.

༘⋆🤍˚ .❄️₊˚ෆ

On the way up from Gangwon-do to Seoul, no conversation passed between them inside the car. Seunghyeok had a serious expression the whole time as if thinking about something, and Yihyeon likewise didn’t feel the need to strike up a particular conversation with him.

Around the time the car passed Gyeonggi-do and began to enter the familiar neighborhood, Yihyeon spoke at the entrance of the alley where the villas were located.

“Let me out here.”

Seunghyeok, looking around, stopped the car on the shoulder without much of a word. As soon as he got out of the passenger seat and closed the door, the car zoomed off.

He didn’t know why he had become so cold again, but it was obvious he would show up again in a few days as he pleased. Yihyeon, sweeping back his fallen bangs, shook his head and stopped by the mart at the entrance of the neighborhood to buy some food before coming out.

Walking up the uphill road toward his house, the phone in his back pocket began to vibrate.