Saehyeon slowly began to ruminate on his memories. It seemed he’d fallen asleep midway. It wasn’t strange. It was after staying up all night with his eyes open checking on Hanguk University-related matters, then having a bout of quarreling with Gil Taeseo even if it wasn’t actual sex.
While fortunate if it was fortunate that he’d gotten some sleep in the midst of his head buzzing from fatigue. Conversely, it was a disaster that he couldn’t see outside the window because he was sleeping soundly. Because of that, Saehyeon couldn’t even gauge roughly where this place was.
‘Well, even if I’d been awake, could I have known?’
This wasn’t excessive self-deprecation but facing reality. Saehyeon’s radius of activity was quite narrow. As a student, it was school and home or school and dormitory. After becoming 28 in one fell swoop, it was home and part-time work. Though it had widened a bit after reuniting with Gil Taeseo, he’d never widened it of his own volition. It was closer to being forcibly widened while riding in cars and being moved around.
Saehyeon cautiously glanced outside the open door. The combination of an unfamiliar place he didn’t know, late at night, and Gil Taeseo standing tall was enough to make Saehyeon hesitate.
“Achoo.”
In that moment, chilly wind whipped through the car and escaped. Saehyeon, who’d sneezed small without realizing it, trembled. No matter that summer had begun, it was still a cool season day and night. Added to that, for reasons unknown, the wind here was even fiercer than the places he usually stayed.
Goosebumps immediately rose all over his arms. Saehyeon naturally raised his hand to rub down the forearms exposed outside his t-shirt. As soon as he did, something covering his lap slipped with a rustling sound.
“…This is.”
It was a large jacket, pitch black yet soft to the touch when felt. Come to think of it, Gil Taeseo bent over was wearing only a shirt. As he touched it with a slightly dazed head, thud. The sound of something falling pierced his ears.
No matter how dark it was, there was no way he couldn’t see what was happening right before his eyes. Saehyeon discovered two pitch-black shoes placed in front of the car door. Shoes large enough for a child to put toys in and play boat, with a sleek shine flowing from them.
In this place, the owner of such shoes could naturally only be one person.
“Put that on, and wear these before getting out.”
Saehyeon looked at the man standing before his eyes in bewilderment. The white shirt shaking violently in the wind, and bare feet revealed at some point. It was a truly bizarre outfit.
It was even more so because the man standing in such a state was Gil Taeseo. The man would conduct business occupying one floor of a tall skyscraper located in the middle of downtown Seoul. Sometimes he’d suddenly disappear saying he was going on a business trip, then come back with small scratches. The houses Saehyeon knew of alone were two. Putting this together led to this conclusion. Something like a corporate gangster with really a lot of money.
Added to that, there wasn’t a single lacking aspect among his face, body, and trait. It was a visual that sublimated even such bizarre attire into a kind of performance. His trait was even a dominant alpha, rare beyond compare.
He was truly a man who lacked nothing to regret and would detest being looked down upon by others.
Such a man…
The man who until now had been pressing and urging Saehyeon with long, rough words was strangely just quiet. But only those eyes remained fixed and gleaming, as if conveying wordless speech.
Saehyeon got out of the car as if drawn by an inexplicable force. He put his arms through the black coat and pushed his feet into the shoes.
Since the physique difference with the man had grown so large, this side ended up looking funny too. Gil Taeseo’s jacket concealed both hands and upper body and hung down past his buttocks. Needless to say about the shoes. The heels had so much excess that they clattered just from slightly dragging his feet. Overall, he looked like a young child who’d stolen and worn clothes and shoes to imitate daddy.
“…It’s warm.”
But when he closed the front of that large coat, the wind no longer dug inside. The shoes too still held their owner’s warmth so they were toasty, and perfectly blocked rough pebbles and such.
The man who had been watching Saehyeon touching the jacket and rolling his feet opened his mouth quietly.
“This way.”
The two began walking like that. Normally, curses would have already been exchanged several times, but as if they’d made some tacit agreement.
Saehyeon walked putting strength in his toes, then soon started dragging. Because they clattered so much, his steps were arduously slow. Saehyeon glanced sideways at Gil Taeseo. As much as his long legs, the man’s stride was wide. To follow that with these, wouldn’t he almost have to push his body like riding a skateboard?
But the distance between Saehyeon and Gil Taeseo just remained constant. The man walking leisurely with his hands thrust in his pants pockets looked back at Saehyeon as if sensing the gaze.
“What.”
“…Never mind.”
It was blunt and indifferent words enough to deflate. Saehyeon turned his head away sharply again and walked looking only at the smooth shoe tips or the pitch-black ahead.
Then suddenly, something began reaching through the darkness.
A damp and salty smell, and a sound like sweeping away sand with a rough broom.
“Whoa!”
Saehyeon, who’d raised his head with a start, staggered for a moment. It was because the place where he’d stepped, already unsteady, had suddenly sunk deep.
Gil Taeseo grabbed the flailing arm as if he’d expected it. Relying on it as if clinging, Saehyeon could stand regaining his center again. The ground below that he looked down at like that was entirely crumbly sand. And waves that had rushed in swept away that sand in an instant.
“…The sea?”
If there was nothing really wrong with his eyes, that was definitely the sea. Saehyeon’s eyes widened. Because it was dim and his eyes had gotten much worse, he couldn’t see as clearly as in daylight. Still, when he approached a few more steps, he could even see the white foam forming.
“It’s really the sea.”
It was the sea that Saehyeon was seeing directly for the first time. For a person living on land, not the seaside, and moreover in the city center, encountering the sea was surprisingly not easy. Most people would encounter it following their parents in childhood, or coming on trips after growing up. Saehyeon was in a position where he’d experienced neither case.
His parents were a bean-powder family with a bad relationship, and he lacked the mental and economic leisure to travel around. His father’s money implicitly had to be used only for studying and living. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about part-time work, but he was afraid it would affect his studies.
In the end, Saehyeon had encountered something called ‘the sea’ through photos or videos someone had taken, or through advertising media.
“Now that you see it directly, well, is it good?”
As he stared vacantly at just the end of the splashing waves, Gil Taeseo suddenly spoke from beside him. He’d been silent the entire way here, but now it seemed he was slowly starting up.
‘Is it good… he says.’
It was difficult to answer readily. Saehyeon originally had quite faint personal likes and dislikes. It was the result of learning that having intense standards for such things only became an obstacle and left wounds.
Swoooosh, the sound of waves rushing in then sweeping away the sand leaving only white foam. The smell of the waterside, more stuffy yet saltier than expected. Even the fierce wind of the still-cool summer beach. Saehyeon slowly mulled over the given information values.
Only after several wave sounds had passed did Saehyeon open his mouth again.
“Not bad.”
It was a voice that shrunk small as if embarrassed.
“Your reaction is fucking blander than I thought.”
“You dragged me here out of the blue, so just how enthusiastic a reaction did you expect? Is your conscience doing well?”
“Conscience? I sold off that kind of thing for cheap a long time ago.”
Saehyeon dragged the loose shoes a few times. The sand swept away roughly scattered over the bare feet of the man standing beside him. Mixed with seashells and rough sand, it clearly didn’t look like it felt very good.
Looking at that, various words rolled around in his mouth. Meaningless words that his brain couldn’t refine. After a moment’s hesitation, Saehyeon could ultimately only send out this question past his lips.
“…But why suddenly the sea? Did some water ghost that drowned in the sea possess you or something?”
Though compared to what he’d hesitated over, it was somewhat sharp and rambling, words close to reproach. As if to make Saehyeon’s hesitation meaningless, Gil Taeseo readily provided an answer.
“Didn’t you say you’d have to go see it even if you died soon?”
At those words, Saehyeon’s eyes widened.
