Shin Mi-sun told him that the kindness of the nameless stranger Yi-won saw was nothing more than an illusion. From the moment she heard that Yi-won had been hospitalized, her heart had sunk.
The island’s clinic handled not only general medical care but illicit procedures as well. The mere fact that Yi-won had been admitted to a place like that was enough of a shock. She had agonized over what kind of person — who exactly — had approached Yi-won.
“There’s no such thing as kindness without a purpose. Most of the people who come here show you a little warmth, then take two, three, four times as much in return. Once they’ve taken everything and have no more use for you, you get trampled and discarded like fallen leaves along the riverbank.”
Even if there was the slightest chance the person was genuinely good — however unlikely — she still needed to be on her guard. That was Shin Mi-sun’s warning to Yi-won. A good person. Of all the people who set foot on this island, how many could there be? The island itself was no good place.
“Even if such a person exists somewhere in the world, they absolutely don’t exist on this island. So don’t trust too easily.”
That’s not true. Others might have been like that, but that man seemed like a good person. Yi-won wanted to argue back. He didn’t seem to want anything from me at all. So he can’t be a bad person.
But looking at Shin Mi-sun as she gently patted his shoulder, he had no choice but to nod.
The brief exchange in the corridor came to an end. Yi-won, having moved all the dishes, stepped outside of Wol-hwa Jeong.
Not a single cloud in the daytime sky — and perhaps because of that, even the pitch-black night sky was clear enough to be transparent. His breath misted visibly with each long exhale. Yi-won kept his gaze fixed on a star he’d happened to spot as he slowly drifted away from Wol-hwa Jeong.
Heading around to the back of Shizunami, Yi-won looked down at the ground rather than up at the sky. All that lay on the ground was a crushed cigarette butt — the thing he was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
“Did someone pick it up and throw it away?”
He was sure that if he’d lost the lip balm, it would have been somewhere around here — but it was nowhere in sight, and the disappointment crept in. Yi-won bit down on his lips and continued to look around restlessly, his frustration quietly mounting.
Had it been kicked by someone’s foot and rolled off somewhere? If it ended up in a trash bag, there’d be no finding it. Yi-won’s steps gradually carried him further from Shizunami as well.
“……Is there anywhere else worth checking?”
Yi-won retraced his recent movements in his mind. When had he last used it? He’d confirmed it wasn’t at the hospital, and it wasn’t in his dormitory room either. He’d thought it might be rolling around on the ground near Shizunami, but it wasn’t there.
“Ah!”
The place that flashed through his mind in that instant was Unsol-chae. Yi-won’s steps quickened at once. His hurried walk broke into a run, and the closer he got, the more his breathing came in gasps.
He didn’t think about anything during the walk there. Even though he knew it was a place he could get near but couldn’t just walk into freely. By the time Yi-won had even a small recollection of that forgotten fact, he was already standing before the vast pine forest that enclosed Unsol-chae.
He let out ragged breaths through chapped, stinging lips. He wandered around the front gate, gazing at Unsol-chae and its sweeping landscaped grounds. The lights inside — as bright as the surrounding outdoor lamps — were illuminating the first-floor living room.
“……I must be a little stupid.”
What he was looking for was, after all, just a lip balm — a gift he’d received and barely gotten to use, yes, but still just a lip balm. Not gold, not a pile of money. Could he really risk his neck to try and sneak in for a single lip balm?
He let out an involuntary sigh at the thought of how senseless it was to have come all this way. And yet the lingering attachment refused to leave him. Yi-won stood there with a blank expression, staring at Unsol-chae, hovering between leaving and not leaving, unable to make himself go.
A sigh so deep it could have swallowed the ground escaped him. The dry corners of his lips had split at some point, and a dot of blood had formed. He was tasting the faint metallic flavor on the tip of his tongue and just about to turn himself around when —
“……?”
The smell of cigarette smoke drifted past the tip of his nose — something he hadn’t caught until just a moment ago. Step by step, steady and unhurried, footsteps echoed behind him. He had barely registered that everything was drawing closer to him.
“You again.”
When Yi-won turned around, Choi Woo-hyuk was standing there, as if it were the most impossible thing in the world.
“Why are you still here……”
“……”
He hadn’t expected to run into him again. This soon, and this unexpectedly. Joy, excitement, and beyond that, something that was difficult to put into words — emotions all tangled together, and more than enough to color Yi-won’s face a deep red.
“……I honestly thought you wouldn’t still be on the island. I felt bad that I hadn’t been able to say goodbye properly since I thought you’d left. I’m glad I got to see you like this. I really am.”
“……”
“Thanks to how you looked after me, I recovered well. Thank you so much.”
Choi Woo-hyuk — whom Yi-won had assumed had already left the island — was dressed unexpectedly casually. A thick jacket, hair loosely fallen, and even the unhurried way he delivered a simple greeting. Yi-won couldn’t help but sweep his gaze from Choi Woo-hyuk’s head all the way down to his feet.
There was also a chance he’d come back to the island. He was certainly not dressed to be leaving today. The thought that he might see him again flashed through his mind in an instant.
“Do you like it?”
“……Pardon?”
“Weren’t you looking at that house?”
The mouth that had been chattering away fell shut. He couldn’t exactly say yes, and saying no felt just as awkward. If he asked why he’d been loitering around the villa where the island’s owner was staying, what would he even say?
That he’d dropped his lip balm in there……? That he came because he wanted to find it? Telling the truth wouldn’t get him in trouble, but there was no real reason to say it either. It wasn’t any grand reason — it might even come across as stranger for being so trivial.
“I was just wandering around and it looked nice even from far away…… so I took a quick look. I heard the island’s owner stays in that villa.”
“Right. So they say, I suppose.”
Yi-won watched as Choi Woo-hyuk turned his gaze toward Unsol-chae. With an indifferent expression, as if he had a vague idea already, Woo-hyuk quietly smoked his cigarette.
“Do you know the owner?”
“We’re not acquainted.”
“I’ve heard the rumors, but I haven’t actually met him yet.”
“What do you imagine he’s like?”
“He sounds frightening.”
“Not ‘sounds like he might be’ — ‘sounds like he is’?”
Yi-won nodded. Then his gaze dropped to follow the fingers holding the cigarette that moved in and out from between Choi Woo-hyuk’s lips.
Through the darkness, the large, jagged scars that covered the back of his hand were starkly visible. Scars that somehow fit and didn’t fit at the same time. That was how severe they were — and how startling.
He would never dream that the person standing before him was the island’s owner — the very master of Unsol-chae.
Yi-won couldn’t take his eyes off Choi Woo-hyuk as he finished the last of his cigarette and exhaled a long, slow stream of smoke.
Silence settled over the two of them, standing across from each other with Unsol-chae in the distance. Yi-won let his eyes drift back and forth, searching for something to say. He had a feeling that if he hesitated any longer, Choi Woo-hyuk would leave.
He could just say it was getting late, that he’d be going now, and turn to leave — but for some reason he wanted to keep talking. He wanted to hold him here. He wanted to get closer, and to know him just a little more. Because the Choi Woo-hyuk reflected in Yi-won’s eyes was not a bad or dangerous person.
“Um…… what brings you all the way out here?”
Of all the things to come up with, that’s the best he could manage. He was silently scolding himself for being so pitiful when —
Choi Woo-hyuk let out a quiet laugh at Yi-won’s question. “Sir.” That was why — that title. A promotion of sorts, from Executive Director to “sir.”
“Who knows. Same reason as you, I suppose.”
“A night walk? I was just wandering around so it feels a bit much to call it a walk.”
“Close enough.”
Choi Woo-hyuk had only stepped outside of Unsol-chae ten minutes ago. After sending Jang Hyeon-u away — tired of going back and forth with him — he’d been debating whether to have another drink or get some air, and had ended up stepping out to the garden.
When one of his subordinates patrolling the perimeter of Unsol-chae spotted Yi-won, Yi-won had also stumbled into Woo-hyuk’s own line of sight. He’d spent just a moment — in the cold breeze — weighing his options. Starting from does this kid even know where he is, all the way to should I mess with him a little.
Choi Woo-hyuk waved off the subordinate who’d been about to intercept Yi-won and moved himself instead. Slipping out through the rear exit of the villa, he circled around — and there was Yi-won, standing blankly, completely unaware. As he drew closer to that unguarded back, a smile had crept onto his face without him even noticing.
If Yi-won had seemed like a chattering sparrow at first, now he felt more like a scruffy countryside mutt — the kind that made you consider keeping it a little closer.
Having something like you around — this island life might actually be entertaining. Something like that.
Of course, it was something he’d never done in his entire life. Both this thought, and this behavior.
“Where are you staying?”
“……”
