“When I found him, he was already injured.”
Seongjun gave a small lift of his brow and gestured for him to continue. Yuhyeon had wanted to relay only the key points in a clear, organized way, but he wasn’t much of a talker, and he started off a little haltingly. He began with coming into Glock at six in the morning as a substitute for the head chef. To avoid any confusion in his recollection, he walked through even the parts unrelated to the incident, step by step.
“Around ten in the morning — probably around then. I needed a mop to clean up a dirty patch on the floor, so I headed toward the staff bathroom.”
Yuhyeon translated the vivid image forming in his mind into words. It was all in the past now, but just thinking back to that moment made his heart beat erratically. Trying to shake off the tension that had crept back in, he swallowed hard and pressed on.
“From the hallway all the way into the bathroom — it was all soaked in blood.”
“Where did you find me?”
“Room 1.”
If he had to guess why there was blood in the bathroom too, it was probably because someone had tried to stop the bleeding there. The staff bathroom was the closest thing to the entrance of Glock, so it was a reasonable assumption.
“After that, I noticed sounds coming from the direction of the rooms, and that’s when I found you collapsed in Room 1.”
“And so you called 119.”
“Oh — yes….”
“Then it would be fair to say that Seo Yuhyeon has absolutely no knowledge of this incident.”
Yuhyeon nodded. At that, Seongjun gave an enigmatic smile. It was an expression that didn’t quite fit the situation.
It’s almost like he’s relieved I don’t know anything.
Perhaps that was a stretch. He knew Seongjun wouldn’t be like that — and yet the thought came anyway. Seongjun was a man whose thoughts were difficult to read, and Yuhyeon had no way of gauging how any of this was going to play out.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
“By all means.”
“The wound on your stomach…. It wasn’t from something like a knife… was it?”
It was a potentially sensitive question, so Yuhyeon chose his words with as much care as he could. When he had found Seongjun, the bandages had been covering the wound, so he hadn’t been able to get a proper look. Based on the volume of blood, the wound was clearly deep. It wasn’t the kind of bleeding that could happen without something sharp tearing through skin.
It didn’t seem like a traffic accident….
Seongjun’s car had been far too pristine for a traffic accident to account for it. And aside from the lower abdomen, there were no other areas that looked injured. He had wondered if Seongjun had gotten caught up in a stabbing — the kind of thing you only heard about on the news.
“You’re thinking I was stabbed?”
Seongjun responded with a faint air of surprise, as if he couldn’t imagine how that thought had occurred to him. So it really was just wild speculation. Yuhyeon felt a flicker of embarrassment and curved his lips upward.
“That couldn’t be. If I’d been stabbed, how would I be walking around?”
“…Fair enough.”
He had clearly been in critical condition back then — and yet the man talking to him right now showed no sign of pain whatsoever. His voice was firm and steady, and there was nothing unusual about his color.
Then what on earth was all that blood from….
The other party didn’t have full recollection either and was in turn asking Yuhyeon for answers, so this wasn’t a curiosity that would be resolved easily.
“Then why… did you tell me not to report it and throw my phone?”
“I threw Yuhyeon’s phone?”
“Well — I suppose you wouldn’t remember. It was completely smashed to pieces….”
He deliberately emphasized smashed to pieces and added that the phone wouldn’t even turn on.
“So that’s why you were unreachable. I’ll make sure to compensate you for the phone.”
The conversation had shifted toward compensation. He expressed his apologies with the energy of someone ready to head to a phone carrier right then and there.
“Anyway, that’s about everything I know. There should be CCTV in the bar — have you reviewed it?”
They hadn’t installed cameras inside the rooms out of respect for guests’ privacy, but the hallway was covered with cameras positioned to leave no blind spots. Reviewing the CCTV footage would certainly turn up leads about the incident. Seongjun gave a loose nod at Yuhyeon’s suggestion. He seemed eager to wrap up that particular thread of conversation quickly.
“Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
“For now, no.”
There was something that had crossed his mind. But it was a question Seongjun, having lost his memory, wouldn’t be able to answer.
What on earth was he trying to say back then.
— Sir, just a moment. Ugh, you’re heavy…!
— …Why… like that….
— Sorry? What did you say?
— I thought you… would….
Going by what he had heard, it seemed to be I thought you would. But would what? Yuhyeon tilted his head, eyes narrowing. It was possible that Seongjun, out of his mind on medication, had said it without any real meaning behind it.
Beyond that, he was also curious about the scene in the room he’d been called into during his shift. The man who had tried to swing at him, and the men kneeling in a row. No matter how you looked at it, the image was one of people serving Seongjun. It wasn’t right to judge people by appearances. Even so, there had been something raw and unrefined about them — they had looked unmistakably like thugs. The questions circling his mouth eventually sank back down his throat.
…And there’s the wound on his stomach.
The longer the thought stretched, the less he could bring himself to believe the denial that it hadn’t been caused by a knife. Something was clearly off, and yet Seongjun was keeping Yuhyeon’s eyes covered from it. Then again — if it really was a stab wound, there was no way he would have told Yuhyeon the truth.
“There’s something that’s been on my mind.”
Just as an unsorted tangle of unspoken questions was twisting around inside Yuhyeon, a neatly extended hand moved toward him. The fingertips landed on his neck, and at once a sharp, stinging pain flared up. Seongjun was pressing deliberately into the wound Yuhyeon’s father had left on him.
“This. Can you explain this as well.”
Seongjun’s index finger slid slowly downward — and caught on the ring.
The ring….
He should have returned it the moment they arrived at the park, but the timing had slipped away from him. Not wanting Seongjun to think he had any ulterior motive, Yuhyeon quickly moved to unclasp the necklace chain. Even when the urge to sell it had surfaced from time to time, he had always talked himself out of it just as quickly. He didn’t want to be misunderstood.
The chain wouldn’t come undone easily, and as he fumbled with it, Seongjun’s hand settled over his. It was as though he was stopping him from removing the ring that hung at his neck.
“I believe Seo Yuhyeon must have felt it too.”
“Sorry? I’m not sure what you mean….”
Yuhyeon glanced down at the hand holding his, and his body went rigid. Something about Seongjun holding onto him like this felt strange. Stiffly, with movements that creaked like old hinges, Yuhyeon lowered his arm. Even as his palm came to rest on his own thigh, the man didn’t let go. They weren’t close enough for casual physical contact like this, and Yuhyeon could only feel bewildered. Had he always been like this? He couldn’t bring himself to pull away, worried it might embarrass Seongjun.
“That I’ve been watching this ring the entire time.”
Even someone with no perceptiveness at all couldn’t have missed that intense gaze. Yuhyeon answered with a small nod.
“It’s not that I remember nothing — it’s that things have disappeared in patches. Even so, there were limits to how quickly I could bring back what I’d forgotten.”
Seongjun touched the line of Yuhyeon’s neck again. It was only a gentle skim along the surface, so the wound itself didn’t hurt — but the unfamiliar sensation sent a faint tingle down his spine.
“But the moment I saw this ring, the words engagement ring began circling endlessly in my head. Obsessively.”
Seongjun’s instinct was right. Yuhyeon was about to confirm that yes, it was indeed his engagement ring — but Seongjun left him no opening and continued.
“The people around me also tell me I have a fiancée. But I have no memory of that.”
“…Oh, right. Yes — this is definitely your engagement ring.”
“Right. But Seo Yuhyeon has it. I wonder — what was there between the two of us?”
Between an employer and a part-timer, what could there possibly be? They were complete strangers to each other. He knew exactly what kind of answer he should give to correct Seongjun’s misunderstanding. But something had clamped his throat shut, as if a hand had been pressed over his mouth. It felt like something had struck him hard across the back of the head. The sensation at his crown rang and rang and then slowly spread through his entire body — and then the landlady’s voice began to hum in his ears.
— If a gamble of an opportunity ever comes your way, one so outrageous it feels like a long shot — don’t hesitate. Take it.
