Come Back

“I’m sorry for showing something strange earlier.”

“It seems like you knew those people from before.”

“…”

I don’t remember, but I guess that might be the case. — I was about to say that, but I felt that he, like everyone else, probably wouldn’t believe me. Besides, it would sound like a pitiful excuse. So I changed the subject.

“And I’m also sorry for causing trouble that day.”

“…”

This time, Lee Hae-seong fell silent. Holding the tea cup with both hands, Choi Hong-seo started to speak in a somewhat lengthy manner.

“I was trying to pull myself together and leave quietly after telling you I was going… But suddenly, I started feeling unwell…”

“…”

“It wasn’t a lie, really. Until the middle, I could still manage, but suddenly, with no warning at all, it got really bad…”

“I know.”

“…What?”

At the unexpected response, Choi Hong-seo unconsciously looked up at him. Sitting next to each other on the same sofa with about three people’s worth of space between them, Lee Hae-seong slowly rotated his glass of alcohol on his crossed legs.

“Your fever shot up to 42°C out of nowhere, so it must’ve been hard to endure. Don’t feel sorry about causing trouble while someone’s sick.”

“So… you’re saying you believe me?”

Lee Hae-seong slowly turned his head toward Choi Hong-seo, making eye contact.

“The thermometer wouldn’t lie.”

“…”

“I believe you.”

That one sentence felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest.

I’m not Yoon Hye-an, I’m Choi Hong-seo. Even if he doesn’t believe everything, just believing that my collapse and sickness weren’t part of some show was enough to feel like I had been cleared of a great burden.

It didn’t matter if Park Dong-ha or the man from earlier, or anyone else, didn’t believe me. If he believed me, that was like the whole world believing me.

Feeling like I had been staring at him for too long, Choi Hong-seo hurriedly lowered his gaze and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“And as for the hospital bills… I’ll cover the costs. I can’t have you, the vice president, take care of that. At least the examination fees… I can…”

Before Choi Hong-seo could finish speaking, Lee Hae-seong gestured to his assistant. The assistant, who had been standing by the entrance like a robot, quickly approached and handed a small box to Lee Hae-seong. Choi Hong-seo stopped talking, noticing that Lee Hae-seong didn’t seem to take the financial matter seriously.

“I could have had you transferred from the emergency room to a regular room, but I gave that instruction myself. I can’t make Yoon Hye-an bear that cost, so don’t worry about it.”

After briefly explaining, Lee Hae-seong placed a box wrapped in shiny silver paper with a blue ribbon on the table, then slid it toward Choi Hong-seo.

“You can’t come to a birthday party without a gift.”

“Th-thank you…”

“Go ahead, open it. At least for the gesture.”

“Now?”

Lee Hae-seong nodded.

Choi Hong-seo, after putting down the tea cup, reached for the beautifully wrapped box as if it was too precious to open.

I never expected Lee Hae-seong to show up at Yoon Hye-an’s birthday party, let alone bring a gift.

Had my earlier collapse made him reconsider, even just a little, about me? I thought about that as I untied the ribbon and carefully peeled off the wrapping paper to avoid tearing it.

“……”

It was definitely the perfume. The custom-made fragrance Lee Hae-seong had given me and used to wear when he met me.

When Choi Hong-seo saw the contents, he froze.

“Have you not tried it? I want to know if you like the scent.”

At his suggestion, Choi Hong-seo sprayed the perfume on the inside of his left wrist. The moment he inhaled the fragrance, his face tensed.

It was the same bottle, but the scent was completely different.

Of course, he wouldn’t give the scent we shared to Yoon Hye-an.

“Why?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

Shaking his head, he rubbed his right wrist over his left and gently massaged both wrists beneath his ears. His thoughts had wandered, and it was almost a mechanical action.

Suddenly, he heard a soft sigh in his ear.

It reminded him of the sweet sighs he had heard when he was with Lee Hae-seong as Choi Hong-seo.

The sound of a heavy crystal glass being set down followed, and Lee Hae-seong closed the distance between them, moving closer to Choi Hong-seo. He picked up the perfume bottle from the table and, with a gentle voice, spoke like before.

“I told you not to rub it like that.”

Choi Hong-seo’s eyes widened as he looked down at the table. His heart was pounding so fast that it was hard to breathe even while sitting still.

Swallowing a dry breath, he tried to calm himself.

“…What?”

“And instead of spraying it on the inside of your wrist, you should spray it on the outside. The scent lasts longer that way. I told you that, too.”

“What…?”

Turning his head stiffly like a rusty machine, Choi Hong-seo looked at him. At such a close distance, Lee Hae-seong’s eyes were looking into Choi Hong-seo’s, no, Yoon Hye-an’s eyes. His eyes alternated between his left and right eye, searching deeply as he had before.

But something was different.

The color was different, and the temperature was different.

His eyes no longer seemed cold, skeptical, and distant. There was something earnest in them, almost desperate.

A thought briefly crossed Choi Hong-seo’s mind—perhaps Lee Hae-seong wasn’t looking at Yoon Hye-an, but was looking for Choi Hong-seo within him. He might not be seeing Yoon Hye-an, but searching for Choi Hong-seo within him.

This time, his gaze slowly dropped down from Choi Hong-seo’s frozen form.

Then, he sprayed a little perfume on the outside of Choi Hong-seo’s wrist, which was limply resting on his knee.

“I just… remembered someone.”

“……”

“It’s not something I said to Yoon Hye-an, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

After placing the perfume bottle down, Lee Hae-seong stood up. At his sudden movement, Choi Hong-seo’s head instinctively followed him upwards.

He returned to his seat and picked up his glass. By now, it was only ice left in the glass. It seemed like he wanted to drink more, so he walked towards the minibar with his glass.

“Thank you for coming all the way here and for the gift, even though you must be busy.”

“……”

“If the vice president has nothing more to say, I’ll be going…”

“You called me an old man back then?”

“…What?”

Choi Hong-seo’s movements, as he was about to get up, stopped.

However, Lee Hae-seong, standing in front of the minibar, did not move an inch.

After a brief moment, he turned toward Choi Hong-seo with a new glass in his hand. This time, the glass was filled with deep amber-colored liquor, without any ice.

“I stayed in Yoon Hye-an’s hospital room until late that night.”

Choi Hong-seo was holding his breath, his gaze fixed on him.

“Do you believe me, at least, when I say I wasn’t pretending to collapse?”

“……”

“Even when I was unconscious, she said that to me.”

He relaxed his posture, leaning loosely against the minibar, and slowly spun the glass in his hand as he spoke.

“She said she couldn’t sleep because she was afraid that if she did, ‘the old man’ would disappear. She looked at me quite affectionately.”

After taking several large sips of the strong drink, without dilution from ice, Lee Hae-seong tilted his head slightly and looked at Choi Hong-seo, who was sitting on the sofa.

“I was even a bit shaken myself.”

Even with his mouth closed, the roughness of his breathing could be clearly heard by Choi Hong-seo.

It seemed like he had heard something significant, but before he could grasp the meaning of those words, Lee Hae-seong continued.

“I thought about it, over and over. About all the possibilities. I even consulted experts, both domestic and international, to see if there were similar cases.”

“……”

“They said there are cases where a person’s personality changed after regaining consciousness from a coma.”

He began to speak about a person who claimed to have seen memories of their past life while unconscious. After regaining consciousness, that person chose to live as their previous self, even severing ties with their family.

Before experiencing something like this, Choi Hong-seo would have had no interest in such a story. It would have been treated as material for a B-grade program featuring eccentric people.

“Past life… In such cases, no one can verify the truth. But Yoon Hye-an claims to not remember her own past, yet she knows everything in detail about me, about you, Choi Hong-seo. She knows what words she said to me, and even the layout of my house.”

“That…”

“Don’t try to argue about it.”

His eyes, expression, and tone were firm, signaling that unnecessary disputes should be avoided at this point.

He emptied the remaining liquor in his glass in one gulp and set it down on the bar behind him. Unlike before, he spoke in a softer tone.

“I’ve come to believe, to some extent, Yoon Hye-an’s words about not remembering her past.”

“……”

“I’ll help you find your memory.”

*Did you think you could use that excuse to wipe away all the mess of the past? Whether you remember or not, it was all your doing.*

The words of the man who had troubled him earlier in the hall resurfaced in Choi Hong-seo’s mind. He shook his head.

“I don’t want to find it.”

“……”

“I don’t want to go back to being the old Yoon Hye-an that people talk about…”

“Then, do you want to live as Choi Hong-seo?”

His voice wavered slightly, a crack in the calm composure he had been maintaining.

Choi Hong-seo, who had been shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of hallucinations, stopped.