# Chapter 72
As I climbed up to the second floor, my legs throbbed and ached. It was natural that I was stumbling since I hadn’t walked on my two legs for two months.
But there was no time. Lightning had started to strike, and the thunder might wake up Jang.
The second floor I faced was laid out with a long corridor.
‘Three rooms in total. That’s more than I expected.’
I approached the first door, silently muffling my footsteps, and grabbed the doorknob to turn it, but of course, it didn’t open. After feeling frustrated with the immovable handle, I examined the lock.
If it had been locked with just one turn of the key instead of two, I could have opened it with a flat piece of paper. But the lock appeared to have been turned twice just by looking at it.
Since I didn’t have time, I cleanly gave up and moved to another door. The one that opened with an uneasy sound was a bathroom.
I was about to pass by when a strange smell of rotting fish wafted out from the bathroom. I covered my nose at the familiar smell. I knew what this smell was.
It was the smell of a decomposing corpse. If I searched a little, I could probably find where it was coming from, but I didn’t particularly want to. Whoever he had killed, it wasn’t my business, and I didn’t want to know.
‘Was he planning to kill me too?’
An unpleasant thought passed through my mind. Maybe he was. It didn’t seem likely that he had stayed completely alone for 10 years. Jang didn’t seem like someone who had lived cut off from other people for 10 years, judging by his appearance and the way he talked.
Why hadn’t I thought of that? I pressed my furrowed brow for a while and headed to the next room.
But unfortunately, the remaining door was locked too. Then something caught the corner of my eye.
It was a small box hanging at the end of the corridor. Getting closer to check, it was clearly a key box. After staring at it for a while, I pulled the handle of the small box, but this was locked as well.
But a lock this small could probably be opened with the butter knife I had.
Just in case, I pulled out the butter knife hidden in my sock and struck the lock with force.
Crack!
With the sound of something breaking, the locked box slid open. My palm was slippery, and I was afraid of dropping the butter knife, so I tucked it back into my sock and looked inside the box.
Fortunately, there were two keys hanging inside. One seemed to be the front door key, and the other was a car key.
My throat felt like it was going to close up. I calmed my trembling breath and pulled out the front door key.
With the jingling sound, my heart felt like it would sink.
‘…No room key?’
I hadn’t expected there to be one, but it was disappointing that I had to leave like this. All I had was a rusty knife and a completely broken body. But that was okay.
When I meet Woosang, everything I lost won’t matter anymore. I considered taking the car key too, but if I took it, I’d be giving Jang a reason to chase after me. Since I didn’t think I could find Jang’s car anyway, I left it there and walked back down the corridor to the first floor.
I peeked out while suppressing any signs of my presence, and fortunately, Jang was still sleeping with his head bowed.
The rhythmic sound of his breathing and the still heavy rain. There was no reason for my breathing to be mixed in there.
I slipped my foot into a pair of shoes at the entrance that looked like they might fit me. They were a bit small, but they fit reasonably well.
I inserted the key into the front door and turned it once, making sure not to make any noise.
Click.
The sound was louder than I expected, and I turned to look at Jang in surprise—he shuddered slightly. I bit my lip hard and endured, then turned the lock once more.
Thankfully, the door opened without much resistance.
The fierce wind and rain crashed against my entire body. The angry raindrops were coming down hard enough to turn the forest white, but the sense of freedom made me want to shout.
I turned my head slightly to look at Jang. I whispered a soft goodbye with my lips, gently closed the door, and rushed forward.
My legs, which hadn’t been used in a long time, screamed in protest, but this kind of pain couldn’t stop my excited feelings.
It was freedom I hadn’t felt in a long time. I had nothing in my hands, the butter knife stuffed in my sock was stabbing into my flesh, and the ill-fitting shoes were uncomfortable. But the complete sense of liberation made me feel like I might float away.
‘I miss you.’
That was the most intense thought that came to mind. I missed Woosang. When I meet him, I wanted to hug him so tight that my body might burst. I wanted to hold him so close that we couldn’t be separated, and I wanted to kiss him.
My freedom and joy were entirely directed toward him.
Before long, my breathing became rough. My legs were trembling abnormally, and I felt like I couldn’t run anymore as spasms started to occur.
Only then did I come to my senses and look around, but the scenery remained unchanged.
All I could see were trees. Trees obscured by the heavily falling rain. A forest without a single path. But surely there must be a way out.
I forcibly grabbed my trembling legs and took a step. Just then, I noticed a slight clearing in my line of sight. Excited, I approached it and saw a garage at the end of my view.
I thought I should have brought the car key, but I couldn’t have driven it away anyway.
‘It’s okay. Now if I just follow this road…’
If I follow the road, I’ll reach town. So I just needed to head that way. I needed to borrow a phone once I got to town. If I could just call Woosang and ask him to come here, everything would be over.
At the thought of hearing Woosang’s voice, my eyes inexplicably grew hot. The fact that I had somewhere to return to was unbearably overwhelming.
I just needed to go back. And after resolving the job, I wanted to spend time just for us. That’s all there was to it, step by step. Despite the swirling thoughts causing dizziness, it wasn’t enough to make me collapse.
That’s when I heard a shout from behind, cutting through the sound of rain. A familiar voice that hadn’t left my ears lately.
It was Jang’s voice.
Startled, I ran forward and hid behind a thick-looking tree. Even knowing that my breathing couldn’t reach him over the sound of the rain, I covered my mouth and held my breath.
“Ichen!”
His voice pierced my ears. I wondered if he had discovered where I was, but his searching gaze was failing to find its bearings.
The kitchen knife in Jang’s hand deflected the raindrops. My entire body felt like it was about to burst with heat. It was the first time I learned that one could feel this hot while being drenched in rain so cold it gave me chills.
In the past, I could respond calmly no matter what happened. That’s how I had survived without falling behind Hund or the other colleagues.
But now I was so weak that I feared death. I could only hide my body because I was afraid my pounding heart would stop.
After calling my name several times, Jang seemed to tire and trudged into the garage. Then he drove the car and started speeding down the road.
I silently watched the scene, then slowly stood up. The receding car bumped along and disappeared into the rain.
‘I need to find another way.’
Calming my trembling body, I stretched out my thoughts. If Jang had driven into town, he would certainly be waiting for me at the entrance to town, expecting me to come out of the forest.
I needed to find another way. Having been in the rain for so long, my body was now infinitely cold, and chills swept over me. But I couldn’t stop.
I got up from the muddy ground and headed in a diagonal direction from the path I had walked.
‘Let’s head toward town first. Then I need to take a different route.’
Firmly grasping my mind that was trying to become hazy, I recalled memories of being with Woosang. The streets of Paris’s 7th arrondissement where we first met. The endless fields of Berlin, the bleak sky of Brussels.
Fortunately, those memories gave me strength. I needed to go see new scenery with him again. I wanted to go somewhere we could feel joy together, not a place to put down roots completely.
***
I blinked a few times. Looking at the window, I realized the sun was already setting.
“You’re awake?”
“Yeah.”
Bel spoke to me from beside me. As I looked around the darkened interior, she thankfully turned on the lights. Unable to adjust to the suddenly bright surroundings, I blankly stayed in place.
“Are you tired? I’m dying of exhaustion too. We have another tour in a few days.”
“That’s right.”
We had successfully put on the performance we had been preparing hard for recently. It was also a stage I hadn’t been on for a long time, and there were many trials and errors, such as having to simplify my choreography because my bones hadn’t fully healed during practice. But we successfully completed our two weeks of performances. It was a moment of small achievement and the disappearance of the thoughts that had been accumulating.
But since it was a performance with scheduled tour dates throughout Germany, we had to take only about a week’s rest before moving to another city.
Suddenly not seeing my phone, I felt around in my pocket. Gently pulling it out and checking the screen, the notifications were still silent.
It had already been almost two months since Teo disappeared. The messages from him remained unchanged and wouldn’t be updated.
Teo’s phone was turned off, and location tracking wasn’t working. It had clearly been discarded somewhere.
About a month in, I was so frantically anxious that I tried to go find him again, but now I knew to some extent.
Teo can never leave me. If Teo doesn’t return, it would truly mean that he has lost his life. He would never distance himself from me voluntarily.
I know this.
‘Sometimes waiting is also an art.’
Of course, I didn’t want to wait, and I wanted to bring him before my eyes right away, but dancing was a promise with Teo. I intended to do whatever he wanted. With a frustrated heart, I closed my eyes again.
That’s when I felt Bel plop down next to me and stare intently at my face.
“Hey.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to forget him now?”
“…”
At Bel’s words, I opened my eyes and turned my gaze. Her calm gaze and tone. A strangely rude question. I knew what she was trying to say, but I didn’t want to answer her right now.
“Are you trying to interfere with my love life again? I thought you said you wouldn’t do that anymore.”
“I did. But lately, I’ve wanted to interfere a bit.”
“Stop it. I’m as tired as you are.”
I spat out the words irritably and curled up, turning my body away from her. Bel was annoying for trying to burrow into thoughts I had been deliberately suppressing, but I didn’t want to get angry, so I pushed down my emotions.
That’s when my pocket vibrated. I was going to ignore it since I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, but when I checked the number, an unfamiliar number appeared on the screen.
The country code was +33. France. Although I hadn’t been accepting work from Paris recently, it could certainly be a number from there.
But it was already 10 PM. Who would be calling at this time?
As I hesitated for a while, a strange premonition was warning me.
It felt like someone was whispering that I should answer this call.
