EPISODE 35. Incomplete memory
“Han Yi-gyeol, calm down!”
“Are you okay?”
It was Park Geon-ho and Woo Seo-hyuk. I barely gave strength to my droopy arms and grabbed Park Geon-ho’s hand.
“Hu, I… I told you not to come out…”
“Is that important now?”
“Look at your face.”
A warm, large hand gently grabbed my chin and lifted it up. The two faces were seen with a frown.
“…what the hell happened?”
“Haa.”
Woo Seo-hyuk sighed and wiped my cheek with his thumb. Only then did I notice the tears running down my cheeks.
“No, it’s not. This…”
I’m not crying.
‘Han Yi-gyeol is crying.’
I couldn’t speak until the end and let out a wet breath. Park Geon-ho, who looked down at me with a complicated gaze, forced my body to stand up.
“Let’s go for now.”
Park Geon-ho, who had my arms around his shoulders, held my waist tightly. I returned to the car with help and laid down in the backseat. Woo Seo-hyuk, who was sitting next to me wiping away tears, asked Park Geon-ho, who was sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
Contrary to his words, Park Geon-ho started his car without hesitation. Until then, the tears didn’t stop and continued to flow.
“Please don’t do that.”
Woo Seo-hyuk gently wiped the corners of my eyes, blocking my rough rubbing hands. I was a little embarrassed because of Woo Seo-hyuk’s act of wiping away my tears like a child, but I accepted it with gratitude because I was so tired that it was hard to move even one of my fingertips.
* * *
When the tears that flowed as if broken were barely stopping, the car arrived somewhere. Woo Seo-hyuk asked me, who was leaning on his shoulder and blinking my eyes slowly.
“Can you get up?”
“Yes. I feel a bit better now.”
Park Geon-ho, who opened the car door, and Woo Seo-hyuk, who got off first, waited for me with anxious faces. I barely gave strength to my shaky legs and came out and smiled awkwardly at them.
“I’m fine.”
“You say things that are hard to believe so easily.”
Park Geon-ho, who laughed lightly, hurriedly approached me and lifted me up.
“Ugh, what?”
Surprised, I reflexively hugged Park Geon-ho’s neck and protested, but he started walking while pretending not to hear.
“He’s still not in a good condition. Don’t act harshly.”
“Yes, yes.”
Park Geon-ho, who heard Woo Seo-hyuk’s nagging in one ear, took the elevator across the parking lot.
“Please put me down, Team Leader Park Geon-ho.”
“Stay still. We have arrived.”
As I struggled to get down in an awkward position, Park Geon-ho held me tighter. The elevator stopped with a ding sound, revealing a wide hallway in bright grey tones.
“Here is…”
Park Geon-ho, who pressed the door lock key of the only entrance door in the hallway, pulled the door handle.
“My house.”
With a simple answer, Park Geon-ho dropped me off. He took off his shoes at the entrance and entered first, beckoned to me and Woo Seo-hyuk.
“Come on in.”
I shared the gaze with Woo Seo-hyuk with a difficult heart. Unlike me, who was embarrassed by the sudden visit to Park Geon-ho’s house, Woo Seo-hyuk didn’t change his expression.
“……”
There was nothing I could do. I sighed, took off my shoes and went inside cautiously. After taking off his shoes, Woo Seo-hyuk came in and forced me to sit on the sofa in the living room.
“Han Yi-gyeol.”
Park Geon-ho, who rolled up his shirt sleeve, brought a glass of water. Even I didn’t want to, I was very thirsty, so I accepted with gratitude.
“Um, can I come all of a sudden like this?”
“Is it bothering you?”
Park Geon-ho, who smiled brightly, folded his arms and tilted his head slightly.
“It’s too far to go to the guild, I can’t help it. I live alone in this house, so relax.”
I felt a little relieved at the fact that he was living alone. As I relaxed my stiff shoulders and drank water, Woo Seo-hyuk exhaled a weary breath, took off his suit jacket, and pulled his tie to loosen it.
“Thank you. I will leave a bit later.”
I thought it was cold water, but the water that touched my lips was quite warm. As I put the empty glass down on the table and spoke, Park Geon-ho shrugged his shoulders lightly.
“Why don’t you just sleep over? There are a lot of rooms left.”
“That’s a bit.”
I’m not alone, there’s even Woo Seo-hyuk… Wasn’t that too much of a nuisance? Perhaps he had the same thought like me, Woo Seo-hyuk shook his head with both hands in his pants pockets.
“It’s not too late, so it’s good enough to go back.”
“You can go alone, Secretary Woo Seo-hyuk. There is also a subway station nearby.”
“I will never leave Han Yi-gyeol-ssi alone here.”
After spitting out his words strongly, Woo Seo-hyuk looked at me.
“Anyway, rest for now, Han Yi-gyeol-ssi. I still don’t think you are in a good condition.”
“Really?”
I touched the corner of my mouth awkwardly and said what I had been wanting to ask for a long time.
“What was my condition when you found me?”
I still couldn’t tell if everything I saw in Area C12 was a dream or a hallucination. Woo Seo-hyuk and Park Geon-ho, who looked at each other for a moment at my question, sat on the sofa opposite to each other.
“Rather, we would like to ask. Han Yi-gyeol, what the hell happened there?”
“That…”
Woo Seo-hyuk undid a couple of the buttons on his suit shirt, which he had tied all the way to his neck.
“We kept waiting for Han Yi-gyeol-ssi in the car.”
Park Geon-ho twisted the corners of his lips and took over Woo Seo-hyuk’s words with a smile.
“Not long after, you came down the stairs. Almost crawling and gasping.”
“……”
I was gasping and crawling like crazy. I leaned against the back of the sofa, staring at Park Geon-ho. Then, when I followed Han Yi-gyeol’s past unfolding before my eyes, my body actually moved…
It was my first experience like this, so I was just confused. Feeling complicated in my head, I brushed my bangs, and Woo Seo-hyuk opened his mouth with a hesitant expression.
“What’s going on… can you tell us?”
“Um.”
I didn’t know how to explain. It was difficult to give an answer because it was difficult for even me to understand right now.
I had to say something because I looked like I was crying out of breath unintentionally. After thinking for a while, I finally spoke up.
“Actually, I have bad memories of that C12 Area.”
“It’s a bad memory.”
Park Geon-ho, who was following my words and rolling his eyes, abruptly got up.
“When you talk about this, you need something.”
“Yes?”
Park Geon-ho went back to the kitchen and just started taking something out of the refrigerator.
“Come here, Han Yi-gyeol.”
Park Geon-ho smiled as he placed the glass bottle on the Irish table.
“Secretary Woo Seo-hyuk also comes if you want to.”
The table, where only wine bottles and beer glasses were placed, began to fill up as Park Geon-ho moved busily. Shine Muscat and cheese, along with a salad. Park Geon-ho, who made snacks in an instant, said as he touched his chin.
“It’s a bit sad for the three of us to drink like this. There is no food prepared, so this is the limit.”
“Hold on. Drinking all of a sudden?”
“There’s nothing like drinking when you talk about the past you don’t want to remember.”
Soju, beer, and even vodka? Park Geon-ho, who poured beer into an empty glass with quick hand movements, placed one in front of me and Woo Seo-hyuk, who sat side by side.
“That, Team Leader Park Geon-ho.”
“Um?”
Park Geon-ho took soju and poured it into his own glass. Are you going to drink all of that?
“I’m sorry for breaking the atmosphere, but I don’t have the heart to explain everything.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Park Geon-ho, who gulped soju as if drinking water, winked at me.
“Let’s eat rice next time and have a light drink today.”
“Drinking…”
As I looked at the pale yellow beer with foam, my saliva flowed over. My body and my mind were tired, but, ironically, that made me want to drink more.
‘Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I last had a drink.’
It was only a glass of the wine I drank by chance at Ha Tae-heon’s house, so this was the first time I had been drinking properly since becoming Han Yi-gyeol.
Woo Seo-hyuk, who read the sign of wanting to drink from my face, sighed and pushed his glass in the opposite direction.
“We need someone to drive, so I won’t drink.”
“Whatever. I told him to sleep over earlier, so he will be stuck here.”
“He can’t get enough rest in places where safety isn’t guaranteed.”
“You talk so strangely, Secretary Woo Seo-hyuk? Is my house in danger?”
I left behind Park Geon-ho and Woo Seo-hyuk, who were fighting again, and drank beer as hard as I could. The moderate carbonation tickled the throat pleasantly and the cramped stomach was refreshed.
After I drank all the beer from the glass, Park Geon-ho, who had finished arguing with Woo Seo-hyuk, started pouring beer and soju into my glass with an excited face.
“Drink more, Han Yi-gyeol.”
“Han Yi-gyeol-ssi.”
I felt like the stress I had accumulated so far was released, I kept drinking without realizing it. Woo Seo-hyuk, who was watching me with a frown on his forehead, pushed the snack in the centre in front of me.
“Drink slowly.”
“Okay. Let’s drink and talk. What’s the bad memory?”
After drinking the second glass of soju and beer, I answered with a breath I had been holding back.
“…I have a younger sister. She was seriously injured in C12 Area and is now receiving treatment.”
She wasn’t hurt, she was dead, but it was too dangerous to be honest. I wasn’t even sure if Park Geon-ho and Woo Seo-hyuk were trustworthy enough.
“If she was injured in C12 Area… Could it be the gate break in October?”
“That’s right.”
Park Geon-ho filled the glass for the third time. For some reason, the amount of soju seemed to be higher than before, but it doesn’t matter. I drank this glass, too.
“I stopped by to find out something, but then I remembered a little… I think I’ve become emotional.”
“I see.”
The heavy air inevitably sank on the table. I felt burdened by the droopy atmosphere, so I put the fourth full glass to my lips.
“Secretary Woo Seo-hyuk. You didn’t know that either?”
“I didn’t know.”
Woo Seo-hyuk, who forced me to hold a Shine Muscat in my hand, continued.
“In October, I went to Japan on the orders of Master. Even after returning to Korea, I haven’t heard any information about Han Yi-gyeol-ssi.”
I was surprised by the answer. As described in ‘Abyss’, most of the attendants knew that Han Yi-gyeol’s younger sister was related to Cheon Sa-yeon. So I expected that Woo Seo-hyuk would have noticed the problem with his younger sister.
‘…of course, there is a possibility that what he just said is a lie.’
As I drank my drink, a large hand reached out from the side and took away the glass I was holding.
“Woo Seo-hyuk-ssi?”
“Don’t rush.”
Woo Seo-hyuk, who took the drink with a displeased face, blinked at the Shine Muscat that he had given to me earlier.
“You have to drink while eating snacks… Han Yi-gyeol-ssi?”
“Yes?”
“Your face looks a little red. Do you feel hot?”
“Um? Yeah.”
I blinked my eyes blankly. Hot?
“A little bit…?”
Of course, it felt hot since we talked so much. You asked me a lot. Thinking it was no big deal, I brought back the glass that was stolen by Woo Seo-hyuk.
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