# Chapter 73
With tense fingers, I pressed the end call button. Just as I had strangely anticipated, the call had been from Teo.
After several months without contact, Teo sounded terrified, filled only with fear.
During the days when I thought about reconnecting with Teo, I had expected anger and resentment to burst out, contrary to my intention to understand and wait for him. But as soon as I heard Teo’s voice, I became calmer than expected, and no emotional words came to mind.
Bel, who was watching from the side, wore an ambiguous expression as she seemed to wait for my reaction. But even I didn’t know how to sort out this situation.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
“You, you’ll come back again, right?”
“…Yes.”
At her words, my brain, which I had kept coolly empty until just now, began to boil again.
Teo was in France, not Germany. I had no idea how he had suddenly ended up there, but I had no choice but to go to him directly.
The city where he said he was currently staying was located near the border where Germany meets Luxembourg. I would probably need to take a plane to get there, but since it was a place I hadn’t visited often, I didn’t even know if there was an airport nearby.
“Do you know how to get there?”
“Yes. No, no… Actually, I don’t.”
I had always acted like I knew everything in front of Teo, but there were plenty of things I didn’t know. Like now. I couldn’t grasp how to get there or what to ask Teo first when I arrived.
“Did you say Boulay? Then, it would be best to go through Findel Airport.”
Findel Airport. I blinked at the unfamiliar name. When I responded slowly, Bel took out her phone and started checking for tickets instead. She added that it was an airport in Luxembourg, and only then did I recall where it was.
Going there would certainly make it easier to cross over to where Teo was. Bel’s advice made me feel a bit more organized in my thoughts.
But now I noticed her hands were strangely trembling. She couldn’t possibly be unaffected. It was natural.
Teo and I had shared quite a long time together, and she had witnessed our relationship. I suddenly felt ashamed of myself for trying to push her away by drawing a line.
“Go. To the airport.”
She had already sent me a message with a booked flight ticket. Looking at Bel’s slightly furrowed brow, I nodded slightly.
“You’ll come back, right? We have to go to Munich in a week. You know very well that we really can’t cancel performances on a whim anymore…”
“Yes. I’ll come back. Don’t worry.”
I put on my coat and gathered what I needed. Bel, who had been restless, paced behind me for a while, but when I firmly answered that I would definitely return, her anxiety seemed less than before.
“I’ll see you in a week.”
“…Alright.”
I said goodbye to Bel, who wore that strange expression, neither smiling nor crying.
As I opened the door and went outside, the sun was still shining intensely. I passed by people who didn’t give me any particular attention and headed towards the surface train to the airport.
I had to pass by people who showed no emotion towards me, to meet the person who wholly wanted only me.
***
I left the forest and descended to a small village. I had come down in a slightly different direction from where Jang had gone, but since it wasn’t completely opposite to where he had headed, anxiety about possibly running into Jang held me back.
The place I arrived at had no one wandering around, perhaps because it was raining continuously. Somehow, it felt like I had been left alone again.
‘Let’s not think depressing thoughts. There’s no time for that…’
My whole body was soaked with rain, limp and feeling like I might lose consciousness at any moment, but I forced myself to keep moving.
Then, at the edge of my vision, I finally spotted a small shop. My heart beat rapidly, almost bursting, when I found a place where human footprints actually reached.
Massaging my rain-soaked and drooping body, I happily headed towards the store. Approaching, I examined the interior through the window and carefully opened the door and entered.
“…Hello.”
Looking around the interior, it seemed to be a place for tailoring clothes, with fabrics rolled up and filling the walls. It had been so long since I’d visited a place with traces of people that I felt an incredible sense of security just by entering this space.
But the man sitting in the corner seemed startled by my visit and stared at me for a while.
“…Hello. Can I help you with something?”
The older-looking man seemed surprised by my appearance, soaked through with rain and dripping water. I couldn’t help but be startled myself at my reflection in the glass window. But his calm voice responding to me was all the more amazing to me.
“I’m sorry, but could I borrow a phone?”
“Sure.”
Despite me saying I was merely borrowing a phone, not a customer, the man gestured for me to come over without showing any displeasure. It was fortunate. That someone would reach out to me even in this state.
As I trudged over, the clean floor began to get dirty with rainwater from my feet.
But the man simply handed me the telephone without any particular reaction. The phone he gave me wasn’t a mobile phone but an old-fashioned one where you had to dial directly.
With a word of thanks, I picked up the receiver and firmly pressed Woosang’s number that remained in my memory. The fact that I hadn’t forgotten this number made me feel like my emotions might pour out all at once.
But I wasn’t sure if Woosang would answer the call or not. He often didn’t answer calls from unknown places and tended to ignore them.
‘Please…’
The dial tone rang twice, three times in succession. Each time the tone extended, I felt a pressure as if someone was punching me in the solar plexus.
Just as I felt my breath might stop, the dial tone ceased, and a silence mixed with small noises came through.
「…」
I swallowed once and spoke.
“He-hello.”
「Hello?」
A shiver ran through my entire body at Woosang’s voice. At the strong stimulus, I bent my head forward deeply to hide my emotions.
The man standing in front of me seemed flustered by my behavior, but as if deliberately giving us space, he went into an area set up inside.
Only the conversation between Woosang and me echoed in the small shop. I wanted to immediately pour out my bursting feelings to him, but I restrained myself and continued.
“It’s me. Teo. It’s Woosang, right?”
「…Where are you? I was, very worried.」
His calm voice beat against my ears and swept through my mind. In those few short words, it felt like all the small pains that had been bothering me were washed away at once.
I felt like crying uncontrollably, but I suppressed it and tried to tell him my location. But then I realized I didn’t know the exact address of this place.
Just then, I made eye contact with the man who had gone inside.
“Excuse me, do you happen to know the address here?”
The man walked over slowly and handed me a business card from the counter. Looking at the address written there, I stammered the alphabet to Woosang.
He asked with a small sigh.
「How did you end up there? No, that’s not important right now. What happened? Are you okay?」
After receiving the important information, Woosang asked questions without pause. But I couldn’t answer any of them with certainty. It was all things I didn’t understand either.
Recalling the time I spent confined, I had no way to explain this situation. Who would believe that I had been imprisoned by someone after having an accident on the way home?
Of course, if I said it, Woosang would believe me. There’s no way he wouldn’t. But now wasn’t the time.
“Can you come here first? Let’s talk when we meet.”
「Alright. It takes some time to get to France. Even at the fastest, probably about 5 hours.」
5 hours. I couldn’t be sure if I could stay here during that time. It was uncertain whether the man standing in front of me would allow it, and even if he did, it could be dangerous to continue staying here as Jang might come looking.
Nothing was easy. As always, some incidents were ones I had brought upon myself, mistakes I had made. But this situation was despair created entirely by external forces.
I wanted to ask Woosang how to act appropriately in such an absurd situation, but I caught my breath and passed over the question.
“I’ll wait. …I’ll wait however many hours.”
With those words, we ended our dry conversation after only a brief silence and greetings.
There was so much I wanted to say, but I wasn’t confident that I could convey these emotions to him through words alone. So I had to meet him. I wanted to meet and pour everything out.
The man standing in front of me carefully held out a towel, as if he had been waiting for the phone call to end. Only when I saw the towel did I realize I was trembling.
“Thank you… And thank you so much for letting me use the phone.”
“It’s okay. Are you going home now? Or did your friend say they’re coming here?”
“Yes, he said he’s coming here. But he said it would take some time… Thank you for the towel. I’ll be going now.”
The man heard what I said, blinked slowly, and tapped his fingers on the counter.
“You can stay here until your friend comes. There’s a separate space in the back, you can rest there…”
“No, my friend seems like he’ll arrive quite late. But thank you for offering.”
His words were kind, but on the other hand, they made me anxious. Perhaps because I had just been imprisoned by Jang for a not-so-short time of 2 months, even the seemingly innocent offer from this man was unwelcome.
‘It can’t be helped, I was in a situation that could only foster suspicion… Being on edge like this, isn’t it natural?’
I comforted myself that way.
“You can stay until late. I have a lot of work to do today. You could change your clothes too… But if you feel uncomfortable, you can leave.”
The man seemed to notice that I was worried about something and carefully asked. His words and actions made me feel slightly embarrassed about my thoughts.
After contemplating for a while, I quietly asked him.
“Then, can I impose on you just for a little while?”
The man nodded and opened a small door beneath the counter as if telling me to come inside.
But at that moment, a strong wind blew from behind, and the closed door creaked and screamed.
“…!”
I turned around startled, and shortly after, I saw a familiar car slowly passing by beyond the glass window.
I wondered if I was mistaken, but that couldn’t be. There was no way I wouldn’t recognize the car that had been in front of me just a few hours ago.
Harsh words escaped between my lips.
That small car Jang had driven away in. That car was passing by this shop as if scanning it, and was emitting small noises.
