“Oh, the dormitory is just straight down this way.”
“Lead the way.”
“Pardon?”
“The walk. Let’s finish it.”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s late, and you must be tired, ah……”
Yi-won hurriedly fell into step behind Woo-hyuk, who had already moved ahead. Their footsteps pressed side by side into the moisture-laden earth. Each time a cold wind cut sharply past the tip of his nose, Yi-won caught the scent of cigarettes mingled with the smell of winter coming off Woo-hyuk.
The awkward distance between them gradually narrowed as they walked further from the villa. Beneath the cigarette smoke, Yi-won now caught a faint trace of alcohol he hadn’t noticed before. He hadn’t shown any signs of being drunk at all.
Everyone else gets sloppy when they drink — stumbling, unfocused. He smokes a lot, so maybe he’s just as heavy a drinker.
Yi-won glanced at Woo-hyuk from time to time — the man walked in silence, eyes fixed straight ahead. Of their three encounters, Yi-won thought he looked the most impressive right now. Maybe it was the clothes, but he seemed less intimidating somehow.
Walking behind Woo-hyuk’s tall, broad frame seemed to shield him from the wind too. He’d drift up beside him, then fall back a step and tuck in behind him again. Back and forth, side by side and then behind — Yi-won felt a silly smile threatening to spill out and quickly ducked his head.
“You’ll trip.”
“……Pardon?”
“Face-plant. If you fall like that.”
“Ah. I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’m confident I could walk this with my eyes closed and not fall once.”
Woo-hyuk, who had been looking straight ahead the entire time, turned his head toward Yi-won.
“I was born here.”
Yi-won looked up at Woo-hyuk and smiled with his eyes. His large eyes curved into crescents, half-lidded with warmth, and the smile at the corners of his lips — as if drawn by hand — was filled with pure, unguarded sincerity. It didn’t belong on this island. It was endlessly clean, like the night sky above them now — cloudless, without a single speck of dust.
For Woo-hyuk, it was something of a shock. For a long time, this island had served as a place to dump people who had borrowed money and couldn’t pay it back, trapping them here until they’d worked themselves to the bone to settle the debt. The island’s clinic handled basic medical care, of course — but its primary purpose was abortion, as a means of damage control.
And this was the place Yi-won said he was born.
It had never once occurred to Woo-hyuk that someone might have been born and raised here.
Two thoughts existed side by side in his mind: what kind of reckless alpha hadn’t bothered to clean up after himself, and what kind of delusional omega had gone ahead and had a child without knowing her place. On top of that, the lax management of the island was staggering. He wanted to ask whether Yi-won was here paying off his parents’ debt too. No — he decided it was worth confirming.
“How much longer are you planning to stay on Cheongun Island?”
“Who knows. Nothing in particular.”
“I see……. Then if we happen to run into each other later while I’m working, would it be alright if I greeted you first?”
Woo-hyuk put a cigarette to his lips. Despite the confusion swirling in his head, he had been answering Yi-won’s questions readily enough. He cupped one hand against the wind and clicked the lighter. The faint crackle of the cigarette catching fire. Feeling Yi-won’s gaze on him, he offered an answer that had little to do with the question.
“Where do you work?”
“I only do cleaning for now. I’m not assigned to any particular place. That day at Shizunami, I was just there helping out in the kitchen.”
B-Boss, I…… I only do cleaning, sniff, only cleaning……. Please just——
Ah, so that’s why. Then the one thing he’d said to earn himself a beating — it hadn’t been a lie. It hadn’t been an excuse to get out of something he didn’t want to do.
“But they say I can’t keep doing just cleaning anymore. I’m an adult now, after all.”
“……”
“There’s someone called Auntie Mi-sun — thanks to her, I’ve been able to keep doing room cleaning, fixing clogged toilets at the establishments, helping out in the kitchen, things like that.”
Whether he was simply excited or just hadn’t had anyone to talk to in a long time, Jeong Yi-won chattered on without pause. Woo-hyuk listened quietly, letting the smoke drift from his lips.
“Doesn’t it feel unfair, being born here.”
“I’ve never thought about it that way. I was born here, so I just live here. Cheongun Island is just……. I’m not sure.”
Yi-won tilted his head. It was something he had never once thought about. It was the first time he was really considering it, prompted by Woo-hyuk’s question. Had he ever felt it was unfair? He truly didn’t know.
Sadly, Yi-won had grown so accustomed to this island that it was simply his entire world, and he had no way of knowing what was wrong with that. An island of barely forty thousand pyeong — that was Yi-won’s world. Even the grievances he heard from those around him were difficult for him to fully understand.
Warnings were constant, and the sound of crying came easily from everywhere. Hands flying, people thrashing and screaming, mouths being covered, hiding, being dragged away. Sometimes there were people with hollow, vacant expressions lost in their own thoughts, and others consumed entirely by rage, not knowing what to do with themselves.
If someone were to ask Yi-won whether Cheongun Island was a good place, he would, of course, say no — but if they asked him what it was like to live on the island, he felt he would give the same answer he had just now: I’m not sure.
“They say there are no good people among those who come to the island. Good might not be the right word — I just don’t think there are any kind ones. But I don’t think you’re like that.”
“……”
“I think you’re a good person.”
Woo-hyuk flicked the spent cigarette away with the tips of his fingers. It sparked off somewhere in the distance. He said nothing.
“What do you think you know about me.”
“……”
“Not knowing — the island’s owner and me, we’re not so different in that regard.”
He’d written off the island’s owner as a frightening person on the spot, then looked at his own face — a stranger he hadn’t even exchanged names with — and called him a good person. It was laughably flimsy logic.
He had been pretending not to notice, but the dormitory building had been growing steadily closer. Some windows were lit, others dark. The small space given to Yi-won was likely among the dark ones.
“Actually…… I’ve been inside Unsol-chae before. For cleaning.”
“……”
“The man who had me clean there that time was terrifying. But it turned out the person even that man was afraid of was the island’s owner.”
The one Yi-won was referring to must be Lee Gyu-tae. He was saying he’d witnessed Lee Gyu-tae groveling before him. Which meant that day, when Woo-hyuk arrived at the villa, Yi-won had been——
“I was supposed to finish cleaning and leave before the owner arrived…… but I wasn’t able to do that.”
“You were hiding?”
“Underground. I slipped out once it got light. Thankfully.”
Lee Gyu-tae, hovering and sneaking glances at him like a dog that needed to pee. Lee Gyu-tae, flustered by the wide-open living room window. The floors clean but marked with several blood stains. Following those stains, the strawberry-scented lip balm rolling around in the basement.
So the owner of that lip balm I picked up and still haven’t thrown away — it was you.
Woo-hyuk let out a breath of disbelief. He had left the clean ashtray and the shattered pieces right where they were and rushed off — and where he’d gone was Unsol-chae. One way or another, what a strange connection.
“I never saw your face, but there’s such a thing as a feeling. And you…… you’re not frightening at all. You helped me. Because of you, I got to be treated and rest properly.”
“……”
“And just now too — you didn’t ignore me. It’s late and you must be tired, but you walked me all the way here.”
“……”
“So you’re……”
Yi-won didn’t realize he was making a mistake right now. Of course, he was saying all this not knowing that Woo-hyuk was the owner of Unsol-chae — but he had carelessly let slip that he’d been in and out of the island owner’s space, and in his naivety, had laid his heart completely bare.
If you happen to run into him again, don’t even make eye contact. Just avoid him. Physiognomy is a science.
Doctor Jang’s words.
There are no good people among those who visit this place, Yi-won.
Shin Mi-sun’s advice.
Both forgotten entirely.
“You’re a good person.”
“……”
“If there’s ever anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. All I really know how to do is clean…… but even so, whatever it is you want, I’ll do my best.”
He had said it all without a trace of fear. But Yi-won only felt proud of himself — he had finally said what he’d been wanting to say ever since he met Woo-hyuk.
The two of them slowed to a stop as they reached the dormitory building.
“Go inside, Jeong Yi-won.”
“……”
