Heavy snow fell all night. The entire world was dyed white as if covered with a down comforter. One came to admire the beauty before the bone-chilling cold.
‘It would be nice if it were only as pretty as it looks.’
But if you approached the snowdrift closely, you would feel the fierce cold. If you even touched it, you’d be startled by how cold it was.
Looking down at the white snow piled up softly, Yeohwi thought that snow resembled Dowon. No, to be precise, he resembled hard ice more than snow scattering in flakes. Dowon, who neither broke easily nor melted, was no different from an iceberg.
‘Then you should be in Antarctica. Why are you here?’
Yeohwi, sitting at the dining table, sipped the milk in his mug cup through a straw. He was wearing a soft khaki-colored knit. His nape revealed above the thick weave was tinged with pale pink, whether from the cold or from the presence of Dowon sitting across from him.
It was awkward.
It had already been three days.
The two’s gazes kept missing each other as if by promise, and conversations couldn’t continue for long either. Even trying to act as usual didn’t go well.
Yeohwi swallowed a sigh while meaninglessly mashing the omelet on his plate into small pieces with his fork. Dowon, as always, was checking documents on his tablet while drinking coffee. His fingers turning pages were much slower than usual.
It was suffocating.
The silence seemed to stick stickily between the two. It felt as if some viscous lump had settled in the middle between them and solidified, filling the space completely. A long sigh finally escaped from Yeohwi’s mouth.
“Hah……”
Then a very faint crack appeared between Dowon’s brows. His breath caught with tension. But it was also difficult to speak rashly. The moment either one of them spoke first, it seemed like this strange awkwardness would twist into another form.
Yeohwi, who checked the time, stood up from his seat first. It wasn’t to avoid Dowon. Today was a regular checkup to confirm the treatment progress of his hand.
“I’ll be going.”
Yeohwi greeted in a low voice and headed toward the entrance. He glanced at Dowon as he turned around, but their eyes didn’t meet this time either. He wasn’t looking at Yeohwi. There was no response.
Yeohwi turned around sullenly, opened the middle door, and put on his sneakers. In the garden, two security team vehicles with heavily tinted windows were already running and waiting.
It was the moment he stepped on the marble stairs and headed toward the garden.
“Wait.”
The security guard from the front car opened the door for Yeohwi, when Dowon’s voice was heard from behind.
Dowon walked out in a suit with his coat draped over his arm. His expressionless face was like a sculpture carved from marble, making it impossible to read what he was thinking. Even today, with his hair set without a single strand out of place and his handsome features forming a perfect sculpture, the only thought was that he was annoyingly handsome to death.
Dowon approached the waiting security team leader and held out his hand.
“Hand over the keys.”
“What? Director, will you drive yourself?”
“Yeah. I’ll do it.”
Dowon took the keys from the bewildered team leader and headed to the driver’s seat, passing by Yeohwi who was standing blankly. Yeohwi couldn’t hide his flustered expression.
“Dowon-ssi, I’m going to the hospital……”
“I know.”
“Then…… you’re taking me?”
Dowon didn’t respond and sat in the driver’s seat, fastening his seatbelt. Yeohwi, who watched him start the car, flinched and closed the back seat door. Then he quickly got into the passenger seat. Soon the car moved forward smoothly with a heavy engine sound.
Dowon lightly gripped the steering wheel with one hand and skillfully operated the gear knob with the other as he exited the mansion. One other security team car followed closely behind like a shadow, maintaining a constant distance.
Inside the sealed car. Silence circled again in the space with just the two of them. Suffocating silence continued.
Yeohwi buried himself deep in the passenger seat and smelled the scent of the luxury leather seats and Dowon’s calm cedarwood fragrance. As he did so, he became needlessly uncomfortable and shifted his posture. It was probably because the seatbelt was uncomfortable. Thinking that, he adjusted the hem of his thick knit, but nothing particularly changed.
Finally, unable to bear this atmosphere, Yeohwi sneakily cast his gaze toward Dowon.
He seemed to be concentrating only on driving. The long fingers gripping the steering wheel, the sharp eyes checking the rearview mirror while waiting for the signal, and the seatbelt pressing against his curved chest and the collarbone moving beneath his shirt.
Yeohwi, who had been observing the sleek and pointed shape of his ears and even the blue veins on his nape below them, fidgeted with his bandaged left hand and opened his mouth. His cheeks with bristling fine hair were already flushed.
“Why are you taking me? You must be busy.”
Dowon replied in a low voice with his gaze fixed forward.
“In case you wander off somewhere else.”
“I have nowhere to go.”
Yeohwi smacked his lips and muttered quietly.
“You even told me to go out and have an affair……”
Dowon answered dryly.
“Do it. Just don’t meet bastards like Gye Sanghoon.”
“……”
The conversation cut off bluntly again. Yeohwi looked down at his wrist resting on his knee. The watch Dowon had fastened emitted eye-piercingly reflected light above his bandaged wrist.
‘You protect it.’
‘As if it were me.’
A strange defiance arose.
Yeohwi took a deep breath and looked at Dowon’s profile with squinted eyes. Taking in the sleek jawline as if drawn with a ruler and the thinly pressed lips, he asked.
“Then what kind of person should I meet? Tell me, Dowon-ssi.”
Dowon’s gaze rested on Yeohwi very briefly through the rearview mirror before being withdrawn again.
“Meet a kid younger than you.”
“What?”
“Go play together, you two. Holding hands.”
Even though he had steeled himself, Yeohwi’s expression crumbled as if to show it. Unable to do anything and at a loss for words, Yeohwi turned his head to look out the window. The words he had wanted to say were swallowed down his throat.
Yeohwi, who had been slowly blinking and staring at the scenery passing quickly outside, squeezed out a voice as bright as before and spoke again.
“You’re teasing me right now, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“If they’re younger than me, they’d be minors. High school students?”
“It’ll be January soon. They’ll turn twenty.”
“What does that even……”
“Why, does it seem absurd? That’s what you looked like just a year ago.”
Dowon’s brow twitched very faintly. He applied strength to the hand gripping the steering wheel, checked the traffic light beyond the car window, then looked to the side. His deep eyes steadily gazed at Yeohwi’s flushed face.
“No more arguing. Just try meeting someone first.”
“……”
“By the time that hand heals, the year will have changed too. Perfect timing.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Yeohwi finally flared up. His eyes became hot as his voice grew louder.
“You know what, Dowon-ssi. I have something to say after I come back from the hospital.”
“What is it.”
“There’s something like that. I’ll say it later.”
“……Got it. Finish the checkup first.”
It was the moment Yeohwi swallowed his roughened breath.
Screeeech!
A noise like a scream tore through his eardrums.
From the right side of the intersection, from the blind spot in their vision, a huge dump truck covered in dust charged like a monster, completely ignoring the signal. There was no sign of it even stepping on the brakes.
Dowon’s black pupils, having caught the truck running across the lane, contracted instantly.
His body reacted before his brain.
Dowon violently turned the steering wheel to the left with superhumanly amazing reflexes.
“Ugh……!”
CRASH!
A roar as if the world was shattering rang out.
The heavy truck’s bumper rammed into the car, smashing the passenger side. The car body crumpled like paper and was flung several meters. The shattered windows turned into diamond powder and scattered in all directions, and white smoke covered their vision as the airbags deployed.
The car only stopped after being pushed for a while, scraping against the guardrail.
“Khuk.”
Hearing a ringing tinnitus, Dowon opened his eyes.
Blood flowing from his forehead ran down his eyebrows. Everything before his eyes was bright red.
When he checked the passenger seat, he could see Yeohwi beyond the deployed airbag. The khaki knit was messily stained with flying glass shards and fresh blood. He was staring into space with unfocused eyes, gasping for breath.
Fortunately, he seemed to be conscious. But the blood flowing down his cheeks was dripping down, soaking his white nape.
“……Seong Yeohwi.”
Dowon called him in a hoarse voice.
At that call, Yeohwi’s eyes moved very slowly. He turned his head toward Dowon, but there was no focus in his light brown eyes.
