Come Back

“Vice President! What’s going on?”

As they crossed the yard, not down the central stairs but along the edge of the platform, the general PD ran down with an umbrella opened.

“Yun Hye-an isn’t feeling well. Apparently, she’s been unwell since Seoul. It seems like it’s getting worse… I’ll go ahead. Please tell the director.”

Ihae-seong responded without slowing his pace, briefly glancing at Yun Hye-an’s pale face, which seemed to be leaning entirely against him. The PD, startled, nodded in understanding.

“Ah… If she wasn’t feeling well, she shouldn’t have pushed herself to come. Okay, understood. Please… be careful.”

Ihae-seong understood that Yun Hye-an was unwell, but couldn’t help wondering why the PD was even asking him why he was going down the mountain. The expression on the PD’s face was filled with such confusion, but no one would question his decision on this matter.

He was about to refuse the PD’s kind offer to take the umbrella, but upon seeing the moisture on Yun Hye-an’s face, he reluctantly accepted it. The umbrella he had used earlier was likely somewhere near the shaman’s house, but there was no time for such things.

Yun Hye-an was struggling to keep her balance, her knees buckling repeatedly. Ihae-seong wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her tight against his side as he nearly lifted her off the ground to walk her down the narrow path.

Even with his 190 cm frame and well-toned body, carrying a grown man like this with one arm was no easy task. But seeing Yun Hye-an’s trembling lips, pale beyond recognition, a surge of strength he couldn’t understand rose within him.

He just had to get Yun Hye-an as far away from the shaman’s house as possible. He needed to put some distance between himself and Yun Hye-an, the person he was seeing differently now, to get her as far from that place as he could. By the time they reached the parking lot, Ihae-seong’s shirt was drenched in sweat.

“Isn’t the manager coming along?”

He asked Yun Hye-an, but she was not in a state to answer normally. Some people had ridden together from Seoul, so Ihae-seong wondered if Yun Hye-an had come in someone else’s car since he hadn’t seen her manager.

“Vice President!”

Ihae-seong’s attendant came running through the rain. As the attendant was about to take Yun Hye-an, Ihae-seong handed him the umbrella and wrapped both arms around Yun Hye-an’s body.

“Let’s get the air in the car warm first. Turn on the seat heater in the back seat.”

“Yes, understood.”

The attendant took the umbrella and immediately ran ahead.

Ihae-seong pulled up his disheveled coat to cover Yun Hye-an’s head and fastened it tightly before heading back to the car. Supporting Yun Hye-an’s frail body in his arms wasn’t difficult, but sitting her in the back seat was another matter.

When he tried to get her in, Yun Hye-an reacted violently, shaking her head and struggling to stay away from him. The person who had barely been able to stand moments ago suddenly seemed to find strength to resist sitting in the car. It was as if she had forgotten how to speak, her mouth making strange noises like cries while her eyes filled with tears, desperately looking at Ihae-seong.

Her pleading eyes, asking him not to abandon her, tore at Ihae-seong’s heart.

“It’s okay. I’ll get in after you, okay? I’m not going anywhere. See? I’ll stay with you.”

Ihae-seong roughly wiped the moisture from his face and bent down to fasten Yun Hye-an’s seatbelt.

“Vice President, I’ll hold her still, you can get in.”

While the attendant in the driver’s seat held onto Yun Hye-an, Ihae-seong circled the trunk and climbed into the car. During that time, Yun Hye-an’s eyes followed him closely.

After taking off his wet jacket, Ihae-seong sat close to her. Their bodies, chilled and soaked in rain, stuck together like magnets. Her frightened eyes darted around, and her trembling lips gasped for air.

He made sure to wrap the coat tightly around her shoulders and back before pulling her into his arms. Her anxious gaze met his as he gently brushed the wet hair from her face to calm her down.

“You’re safe now. Nothing’s going to follow us here.”

Her hand clung weakly to the arm around her shoulders, shaking just as much as her body.

“Let’s go,” Ihae-seong said.

“Vice President, the seatbelt…”

“It’s fine. Just go ahead and start.”

Given how close they were, it was difficult to put on a seatbelt. But that wasn’t important at that moment.

As the car drove down the mountain’s unpaved roads, Ihae-seong checked the temperature on Yun Hye-an’s cheek and neck, feeling how hot her skin was, despite her body being cold to the touch.

“Find a nearby hospital. We need to go to a big hospital first.”

He spoke to the driver, and perhaps he understood, for Yun Hye-an began to resist again. Struggling, she shook her head, mumbling that she didn’t want to go, that she would be fine soon.

“You’re going to pass out again? Look at how hot you are.”

Ihae-seong grabbed her hand and placed it on her forehead so she could feel the heat for herself.

Her earlier resistance waned, and her cracked lips barely parted, gasping for breath.

“It’s… different this time. I’ll be fine. Just…”

“…Just stay with me.”

Those words, “Just stay with me,” felt like they were shattering Ihae-seong’s heart. Why did he feel like everything beneath him was collapsing, as though the very world he had been holding onto was falling apart?

He felt a surge of hot emotion in his chest, a sorrow so deep it almost made him angry.

Hong Seo, the person who had thrown herself from the 32nd floor… it felt like she was here, in his arms, taking her last breaths. It felt like his own soul was burning with hers.

He wanted to pour his own life into those lips.

He tightened his arm around her shoulders and firmly said,

“No, we’re going to the hospital first.”

“I’m really fine.”

“I’ll stay by your side. I won’t leave you. So let’s go to the hospital.”

“It’s… different this time. I’ll be fine soon. The fever will go down.”

“What do you mean, different? How can I know that?”

Even knowing she couldn’t respond properly, his frustration and sadness made his voice sharp, and he immediately regretted it, pressing his eyelids and biting his lower lip.

Yun Hye-an snuggled deeper into his embrace, just like that time when they first lay next to each other, her dry lips brushing his neck.

“Don’t make me go. Uncle… Uncle, I was wrong. Really wrong. I won’t go. I’ll stay here…”

Her voice, calling him “Uncle” and clinging to him, left him with no way to respond. Ihae-seong couldn’t resist.

He could feel the moisture on his neck.

“Alright, we won’t go. You don’t have to. I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”

To calm him down, I gently stroked the back of his head, shoulders, and back. I softly kissed his damp hair and promised, whispering several times, that I wouldn’t let him go.

The anxious child soon fell asleep. Just like the day when Choi Hongseo had come to Seocho-dong to watch *Love Story*, not expecting to fall asleep in my arms that night, unaware of what would happen.

That day, Choi Hongseo had come to Seocho-dong to watch the movie *Love Story*.

When Manager Kang brought the drinks, Choi Hongseo had slowly moved closer to me. It was still early in our relationship, so we were a bit awkward. But when someone even more awkward and difficult appeared, Hongseo unconsciously ended up standing closer to me.

I didn’t even realize that I had grabbed the area around my elbow, but I was still nervous about Manager Kang’s presence.

At that moment, I couldn’t hide the smile that was trying to form on my lips. If I could, I would have kept Manager Kang standing beside me throughout the movie. I wanted to see how Hongseo would shorten the distance between us, how she would depend on me.

By now, it no longer mattered how this child had learned about Choi Hongseo or why she was imitating her. From a certain point on, I had begun seeing this child as Choi Hongseo, listening to her as Choi Hongseo, and treating her as such. And that was the problem.

After pulling the coat tighter around the child who was stirring in my arms, I turned my gaze toward the car window.

By then, the rain had intensified. All I could see was the deep green world, soaked by the heavy downpour.

—

When I opened my eyes, Choi Hongseo needed a moment to process. To understand where she was and how she had gotten there.

It felt like the blackout after a night of heavy drinking, but for Hongseo, that moment was filled with immense fear. She was afraid she might wake up in another place, in someone else’s body.

Choi Hongseo was lying in the front passenger seat of an SUV. The seat, pushed all the way back, was reclined to its maximum.

Hongseo sat up and the thin, light cashmere coat that had been covering her body slipped off.

“…”

She remembered whose it was. Like a beloved blanket, she held the coat tightly to her chest.

The car was empty. There was no sign of the servant or of Lee Hyesung. The events at the temple in Gangwon-do were still vivid in her mind. There were some gaps in her memory, but she could still remember riding in Lee Hyesung’s car. But she had no memory of when she had moved to the front seat.

Turning her gaze outside the window, Hongseo quickly recognized where she was. It was So-wol-ro on Namsan. In her line of sight, Lee Hyesung was clearly visible.

He wasn’t looking at the night view. With his back to the city lights, he was leaning against the railing, staring at the car. Hongseo also fixed her gaze on him and got out of the car.

He was standing still, watching Choi Hongseo—no, Hongseo’s appearance—approach. As if he had come to a conclusion, like someone who had found peace after a stormy sea had calmed, there was no sign of agitation in him.

Stopping a few steps away, Hongseo offered the coat. But the sight of him, wearing nothing but a shirt, without even a jacket, made him look so cold.

“Here… wear this. I’m wearing a jacket, so…”

Lee Hyesung, who had removed himself from the railing, approached and took the coat without any change in his expression. He wrapped it tightly around Hongseo’s body and fastened it securely in front.

I was going to say that I was fine since my body temperature had returned to normal, but when I saw his expression, I stopped myself.

“How are you feeling?”

His voice was rougher than usual, and Hongseo nodded and answered.

“Thanks to you taking care of me… I’m fine now. The fever’s gone down.”

She even touched her forehead to prove it.

But whether he knew the fever had already gone down or not, he didn’t respond to that. Instead, he slowly lowered his gaze to her feet.

“You said you didn’t need a substitute.”

“…”

“I’ll cancel that.”

Then, his heavy gaze returned to Hongseo’s face.

At this moment, I thought of him like the calm sea after the storm, but that wasn’t it. He had chosen to throw himself into the storm.

With the city lights behind him, a city that once seemed to belong to him, he spoke as if he had nothing left.

“Can you hold me like Choi Hongseo?”