I wavered between pressing the doorbell and pressing the back of my hand to the front door, going back and forth and getting nowhere.
Haeyong, who had been quietly watching me hesitate without making up my mind, finally lost his patience and barked at the top of his lungs.
“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!”
“Hey! Are you seriously doing this? You’re going to wake up the whole neighborhood. Ha, honestly. Keep it down.”
I tried shushing him after the fact, but Haeyong wouldn’t stop.
Whoever was inside the house — there was no way they hadn’t heard.
Click.
While I was floundering beside Haeyong, the door opened from the inside.
“…….”
Oh.
My instinct was right.
The grown-up Kwon Wookyung I had seen just yesterday from only a few steps away was now standing close enough to reach out and touch.
“Um… ah, hi?”
I fumbled about badly and even waved one hand like an idiot.
I tried to smile by lifting the corners of my mouth, but it only ended up making a strange expression that was harder to recover from.
“…….”
What? Why is he looking at me like that?
Under Kwon Wookyung’s gaze — not smiling at all, not saying a word, just staring straight at me — I awkwardly lowered the hand I had raised.
“You……”
With just that one word, Kwon Wookyung reached out his hand.
The instant his fingertips touched my cheek, Kwon Wookyung’s brow crumpled hard — and he suddenly bolted back inside the house.
“Hey?”
Left standing alone in front of the open front door, the tension I had been feeling shifted into pure bewilderment.
No, seriously — your friend came back from the dead, and this is how it goes? You don’t have to cry, but shouldn’t you at least be glad to see me?
At the very least, if it had been me — if Kwon Wookyung had woken up after lying there for six years — I would have shown that much of a reaction.
It was so absurd it almost made me irritated, and so I stepped inside. Kwon Wookyung hadn’t said to come in — but since when had I ever needed permission to enter this house?
“Hey, what’s your deal?”
I raised my voice slightly as I walked into the living room — but the owner of the house was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, faint sounds were coming from the first-floor bathroom.
Hurgh—!
…What, is he actually throwing up?
If a friend you haven’t seen in a long time takes one look at your face and collapses — and then throws up?
No, but why? What is going on?
My head filled with nothing but question marks.
They say when a situation becomes too absurdly incomprehensible, your mind just goes blank and your body freezes — that was exactly the state I was in now. I stood there, rooted to the spot, and just listened to the sound of Kwon Wookyung throwing up for about a full minute.
After that full minute, doubt crept in.
What if I brought some strange virus from the hospital?
And that’s why Kwon Wookyung suddenly gets sick every time he sees me?
After entertaining that ridiculous thought and even absent-mindedly brushing my own arms, I eventually arrived at the simpler conclusion that Kwon Wookyung might just be sick. Why it was the person who had come back from the brink of death — me — watching the other one fall apart, I couldn’t figure out.
“Hey, Kwon Wookyung. Are you okay?”
I moved close to the bathroom door and let my words slip through the gap. I gently tried turning the handle — it was locked.
“Are you not feeling well? Why did you lock the door?”
The sound of retching stopped abruptly.
“It’s nothing. Don’t come in.”
The low voice was firm, cutting like a drawn line.
“…….”
I flinched and let go of the handle.
I knew that tone from Kwon Wookyung. It was the voice he used to push away people who tried to get close to him — people who approached him warmly hoping to become friends. His unsociable nature, fully capable of being cold without any consideration for how the other person felt.
I had only ever overheard that tone directed at others a few times — I had never been on the receiving end of it myself. Now, for the first time, I had some understanding of what those people must have felt. Honestly, it sounded a lot like stop bothering me and get lost.
“Ha.”
I hadn’t expected some grand reaction but… isn’t this a bit too cold?
“Hey, you seriously—”
“Wait just a moment. I’ll be out soon.”
I had been about to raise my voice, but Kwon Wookyung answered first. Before I could even respond, the sound of running water came from inside — the faucet at the sink turned on.
“This is unbelievable.”
I grumbled, considered just turning around and leaving, then decided to wait like Kwon Wookyung had asked. I shuffled over to the living room sofa and sat down. Thankfully, there was no dust collected on it. The moment I sat, Haeyong — acting as though it hadn’t been him barking up a storm just moments ago — quietly settled at my feet and rested his head against my leg. The heating hadn’t been on long, and the air was still cold, which made Haeyong’s warmth feel all the more comforting.
“Yongyong, don’t tell me you knew Kwon Wookyung was here?”
“Hmph.”
He made a sound that gave no clear answer either way, then pressed his nose against the sofa and sniffed at it.
Haeyong had come and gone from this house as a puppy, and had seen Kwon Wookyung many times. It was entirely plausible he still remembered.
From the bathroom, the sound of running water kept on without stopping. What on earth was he doing in there.
It seemed like I was in for a long wait, so I looked around the living room with fresh eyes. The furniture and interior were remarkably the same as I remembered. But having been left completely untouched all this time, there was not a trace of warmth — just a bleak emptiness.
Kwon Wookyung had lived alone in this big house since he was a child. After his parents divorced when he was eight, he had lived with his father — but that father had found a new partner and started a new family of his own. In the early days after remarrying, he would come and go every few days, making a show of caring for his son — but those intervals grew wider and wider, until eventually he had left Kwon Wookyung completely alone in this house.
Because of this, Kwon Wookyung had learned to take care of himself from an early age. No wonder he was so mature beyond his years and so quiet.
On top of that, even as a child, his characteristically detached, cool demeanor had deflected other children’s attempts to get close to him — he always stood a few steps apart from the groups of playing kids. I, on the other hand, was going through the only period in my life when I had no friends — and out of sheer boredom, I kept pestering the lone Kwon Wookyung and poking at him… and that was how we had become friends.
As time passed, I made many friends, but Kwon Wookyung remained the same as always. There were plenty of kids who wanted to get close to him, drawn by his looks that had stood out even from an early age — but none ever actually became close.
On the other hand, the bond between me and Kwon Wookyung was tenacious — we graduated from the same elementary school, the same middle school, and entered the same arts high school together. Even though our majors were different, the fact that we were together every single day never changed.
Aside from the hired help that visited regularly to clean the house and maintain the garden, I was the only one who came and went here often. So of course this space was full of traces of me.
“Wow, this is still here.”
I reached out and picked up the trophy sitting on top of the dresser. Not a speck of dust on the golden trophy with its spread wings.
Seoul International Competition Ballet Division — 2nd Place Overall Myeonga Arts High School, Year 1 Shin Haehyeon
At our house, there was a separate display cabinet where my trophies were kept. The reason this trophy — which should have been there — was here instead, was entirely my own stubbornness.
I had been jumping on stage and landed wrong, stumbling. I had gotten right back up immediately, but the fact that it was a move I had never once made a mistake on in practice had rattled me badly — and that was the problem. Because of it, the second half of my dance started to unravel bit by bit, and I even failed to manage my expression.
After taking a quick bow and exiting, I collapsed behind the curtain and stared blankly at the other competitors laughing and dancing. I had never hated myself more. How could I have shown something this poor?
The bad feeling had not been wrong — the competition results came back as second place in the end, and I couldn’t smile even the slightest bit when I received the award. It had been so disastrous that even placing felt undeserved.
Mom and Kwon Wookyung, who had come to watch the competition, came backstage to find me. I managed to smile for Mom as she hugged me and told me I had done so well. While Mom was busy gathering the bags, I had shoved the certificate and trophy into Kwon Wookyung’s arms and told him to throw them away.
“Why is this still here?”
I had completely forgotten about this trophy after that, so finding it in the living room of this house — I couldn’t even begin to describe how baffling it was. I had assumed it had been thrown away that very day.
“I picked it up after you threw it away.”
“Why would you pick that up?”
“You always change your mind. It was obvious you’d throw it out and regret it later.”
“Who said anything about regretting it?”
I had bristled for no real reason and left the trophy at his house just as it was. To prove that I would absolutely not regret it.
Had he been planning to hold on to it until I said I regretted it?
He had apparently been away from this house for a long time — he might have even forgotten he still had a thing like this.
I fiddled with the old trophy for a while, then set it back down. Even after that, I paced slowly around the living room — the only room with a light on — a few times, and was seriously contemplating whether I should just shout “If you’re not out right now I’m leaving!” — when Kwon Wookyung finally came out into the living room.
“…….”
It was the calm, composed face I knew.
Looking at that expression alone, it was hard to believe this was the same person who had been throwing up just moments ago.
“Are you sick?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Kwon Wookyung gave a small, dry cough.
It wasn’t the cold tone from before, and without realizing it, I felt a quiet sense of relief settle in.
“Don’t lie.”
Kwon Wookyung wasn’t someone who got sick often — but on the rare occasions when he wasn’t feeling well, he was remarkably good at hiding it. It was the habit I hated most about him.
“It really isn’t anything serious. More importantly… when did you wake up?”
