Come Back

After a soft and sweet sigh, which seemed familiar, as if it was something Choi Hong-seo had heard before, he spoke.

[I’m outside your house now.]

Choi Hong-seo thought she must have heard it wrong, and she hoped she had. She was even more shocked by this statement than when she had seen “Carrot Seller” on the screen earlier.

[You said you could find out where Yun Hye-an’s house is if you put your mind to it.]

“……”

[I’ve breached some privacy.]

‘Do you really think it would be so hard to find out Yun Hye-an’s home address if I really wanted to?’

‘But that would be an invasion of privacy.’

His voice, lacking any humor, was referencing a previous conversation they had. However, Choi Hong-seo couldn’t laugh because she was too focused on what he meant by saying he was outside her house. This was an unexpected situation, and her mind couldn’t catch up with what was happening.

[Did you hang up the phone? Am I talking to myself here?]

“No… I’m listening.”

[Are you alone?]

“Yes.”

[Then, would you mind serving me a cup of tea?]

“Pardon??”

She unconsciously raised her voice, her eyes wide.

[I came all this way, and all I ask is for a cup of tea. Is that really so surprising?]

“I-I’ll come down right now!”

Only then did she snap back to her senses. Not knowing what to do first, she rushed back and forth between the table and the sink, moving around in a frenzy.

[I’ve already gotten off the elevator.]

Choi Hong-seo’s legs suddenly froze, as though a rock had fallen on her foot. No matter how hard she tried to think, no solutions came to mind.

“My… my place is small and messy… um, if you go a bit further down the alley, there’s a café. You can wait there, and I’ll be right over.”

[Are you trying to chase me away after I came all this way to check on you?]

“……”

[And I left the dinner I hosted for this.]

She could tell he was trying to guilt-trip her into opening the door. He was determined to come inside, using the same pushy approach that she had never experienced when he was Choi Hong-seo. It was a side of Lee Hae-seong she hadn’t seen before.

[If you’re not sick, there’s no reason not to show your face.]

Was he thinking that Yun Hye-an was pretending not to be sick? Did he come all the way here to confirm that?

In the small one-room apartment, every sound in the hallway could be heard. Slowly, the sound of his footsteps stopped right outside the door.

[Or is there something I shouldn’t see?]

Now, his voice echoed in both the phone and outside the front door, in double layers.

At the moment he said that, Choi Hong-seo’s eyes darted to the head of the bed. She threw her phone onto the table and hurriedly ran toward the bed, almost tumbling over. Her posters, which she cherished even though they were inexpensive, were slightly torn at the corners, but she didn’t care and ripped them off hastily.

“Just, just a moment! Ten seconds!”

She shouted toward the front door.

Holding the posters in her hand, she nervously scanned the cramped apartment. She hid the bundle of paper underneath the blanket, then ran toward the door without even glancing in the mirror.

One, two… she released the safety lock, three, unlocked the door, four, placed her hand on the handle. Five… even after counting to five, she wasn’t ready. She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them before finally unlocking the door.

“……”

Like a lie, he was really standing there, just outside the door.

It wasn’t because she didn’t want him there, but because she was so shocked that it was too overwhelming to accept in one go, she almost shut the door again. In fact, she stepped back and even pulled the door a little. If he hadn’t grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it open, she might have closed it.

Lee Hae-seong’s eyes swept over her flushed face and disheveled breathing from hurriedly hiding the posters.

“Were you working out or something?”

Choi Hong-seo, using her fingers to smooth her hair, averted her gaze slightly.

“No… come in.”

Reluctantly, she stepped aside to let him enter.

“I didn’t bring anything because I came so quickly. But Yun Hye-an brought me flowers last time.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He took off his shoes and entered the apartment, facing Choi Hong-seo without even glancing at the room.

“You’re hiding your symptoms, aren’t you? Didn’t the doctor tell you not to hold back?”

“No, it’s just that I’m a little under the weather.”

“……”

Lee Hae-seong, who had been silently staring at her, draped his jacket over the back of the chair. With a look of disbelief, he took a few steps closer.

“Let’s check if you really have no fever.”

As he moved to touch her forehead, Choi Hong-seo instinctively took a step back. She flinched, looking up at his approaching hand, and even hunched her shoulders.

“I-I’m fine, really.”

“If it’s real, there’s no reason to avoid it.”

It seemed like a strange logic, but she also thought it would be odd to continue being stiff and saying no.

With his palm on her forehead, he looked as serious as a doctor diagnosing a serious illness. His palm was warm against her skin.

Just the sensation of his hand touching her, as if she were alive again, even if only through someone else’s body, made her eyes burn with unshed tears. She clenched her eyes tight and pressed her lips together, trying to hold it in.

“Hm.”

When his hand lingered a bit too long, she tried to subtly move back. But then his hand shifted to her cheek. It felt like a heavy rock had dropped onto her foot, shattering the bone entirely.

His fingers brushed against her ear, slipping into her hair, as his hand pressed deeply against her cheek. The warm, broad palm was completely cupped against her face. Choi Hong-seo, who had been staring down at the tips of her shoes, heard his quiet voice near her ear.

“You’re a good person.”

It was a compliment directed at her.

Even if she just took care of herself, if she quietly entrusted her face to him when he said he missed her, or gently rubbed her cheek against his hand… he would always call her good.

She remembered the day when the threats from Lee Seo-kyung became unbearable, and her body had fallen ill. That day when the rain poured heavily.

On that day, Lee Hae-seong had come to the dorm, just like now, to check her fever by pressing his hand against her forehead and cheek. He had kissed her fevered forehead and told her she was good.

She recalled how, delirious with fever, she had begged him not to leave. He had never shown such a proactive will before, but her fear of never seeing him again pushed her to do things she had never done.

She had forced him to stay, despite him not wanting to touch someone who was sick, and they had ended up spending the night together. The fear that she would never see him again hurt her heart even more than her sick body did.

Now, she realized he wasn’t looking at Yun Hye-an, but at Choi Hong-seo. At least, he was looking for the version of Choi Hong-seo that Yun Hye-an had shown him.

No matter how much she strained her eyes, it felt like she couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. The memories were like a sharp knife, mercilessly slicing through her heart.

It wasn’t just her; it had been the same for him after she left.

Her neck, ears, and face felt flushed. She couldn’t help it—she took a step back and gently slipped her hand out of his. Turning toward the kitchen, she tried to hide her face. He spoke to her in a soft voice from behind.

“It doesn’t seem like you have a fever.”

“Please sit on the couch. I’ll make tea. I only have capsule coffee and tea bags…”

“Coffee, please.”

She turned her back to him, moving around nervously. Despite telling him to sit on the couch, she could still hear his voice close behind her.

“Were you cooking?”

“I’m not very good at cooking. I was making cat treats…”

She wasn’t worried about him criticizing the mess in the kitchen, but out of embarrassment, she pushed things out of sight, into places he wouldn’t notice.

“I don’t see the cat.”

“It must be hiding under the bed.”

After that, he didn’t say anything, so she thought he had gone to sit on the couch. But when she turned around with the mug of coffee, she found him standing in the middle of the room, staring at the shelf above the couch.

The shelf had been there since she moved in, holding dried flowers and perfume. It was the bouquet he had sent through his assistant when she was discharged from the VIP ward. She hadn’t wanted to throw it away, so she had dried the flowers and placed them in a vase. She wasn’t very skilled with her hands, so she had followed a video tutorial, but she had to throw away about a third of the flowers. The perfume he had given her on Yun Hye-an’s birthday was also placed next to the vase.

In her hurry to hide the posters, she hadn’t even thought about those.

“Oh, that… It’s just that you gave it to me after all. It seemed like expensive flowers, so I didn’t want to throw them away…”

She quickly added that it wasn’t because it was from him, but because they were precious to her. As she desperately tried to explain, he turned toward her.

Taking one of the mugs from her hands, he casually brought up a completely different subject.

“I guess you knew about the trouble I caused.”

“……”

As he brought the mug to his lips while sitting on the couch, Choi Hong-seo had to search her mind for a moment, still processing everything that was happening. Just the fact that he was in her house made it hard for her to focus on anything else.

‘So… I caused too much trouble… and I’m sorry…’

Ah, yes. It was the message he had asked Manager Kang to pass on when he handed him the tie. It seemed that Manager Kang had delivered it without missing a word. The tie… the tie. Only then did she notice it.

He had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves to just below his elbows, and hanging from his shirt collar was the tie that Yun Hye-an had given him.