Vol. 1 Chapter 3.1

As she drove, following the route marked on the GPS, neither of them said a word.

The car cut through the late-night streets in eerie silence, gliding through the city like a ghost.

Yunseok sat leaned back in the passenger seat, eyes closed. Yoonha glanced at him once, then tightened her grip on the wheel again.

What does he want to talk about? A while ago, she’d been worried about what he might say. Now, she just wished he’d say something. The silence was worse. It made her anxious. It made her doubt.

Was Yoonhyun really on his way home? Was he really going to hand over the car without any strings attached? She couldn’t help but question everything. After five years, how could she not? But then came the guilt. Am I being too cold? Too paranoid? Her mind spiraled again.

When the car came to a stop at a red light, the engine’s low rumble felt abnormally loud in the stillness.

This was a high-end car—expensive, smooth—so it shouldn’t have been this noisy. Was something wrong with the engine? Or was she just on edge?

She glanced at the GPS again. An apartment studio in the heart of Gangnam. She tried not to think too hard about it.

He was only two years older than her. That made him, what? Twenty-seven now? What had he done to afford a place in that building?

What kind of job did he have to end up here? What could he have possibly done to make those suited men call him Executive Director?

But at the same time, she didn’t want to know a single answer. She just wanted to finish this job like a proper chauffeur and disappear without a trace.

Then, his voice cut through the quiet.

“Did you end up going back to Sangchon?”

Just a second ago, Yunseok looked like he was sleeping. Now, he slowly opened his eyes as he asked the question. Yoonha, startled, turned her head sharply to look at him.

His eyes were already tired earlier, and they looked even more worn now. The shadows beneath them had deepened. When she didn’t answer right away, Yunseok raised a brow slightly, silently prompting her.

“Did you go back?”

“No. I got a call from Mom telling me she’s sick.”

“We’re staying with my aunt in Seoul while she gets treated at a university hospital,” she added after a pause, her voice clipped, almost defensive.

Yunseok gave a slow nod, like that made sense.

“And how is she doing?”

“She has pancreatic cancer.”

They said she probably wouldn’t make it past the year.

Yoonha cleared her throat, trying to sound casual and like it didn’t get to her. She didn’t want to seem weak.

Yunseok said nothing. Whether it was sympathy he felt or something else entirely, she couldn’t tell. But his silence made her uncomfortable, so she changed the subject, feigning nonchalance.

“When did you move to Seoul?”

She couldn’t bring herself to ask how his mother was doing, so she went for the next best thing. It’s not like she actually cared about the woman who’d had an affair with her dead father.

But the second she asked, she instantly regretted it. She saw him again, young Yunseok Jeong, standing at the bus terminal, clutching her hand.

Don’t go. Can’t I come with you? His voice, trembling with that innocent desperation, came back like a noose around her throat.

“That’s surprising.”

Yunseok murmured it, like her question had caught him off guard.

“What is?”

“That you’re curious about when I moved to Seoul.”

There was a subtle reproach buried in his tone, and it made her shut her mouth. She regretted the question instantly.

She should’ve stayed quiet and just kept driving. Now she’d only dug her own grave with a handful of useless words.

Jaw clenched, she bit down on her lower lip and kept her eyes on the road.

Yunseok watched her for a long moment, then spoke again.

“Did you ever wonder how I was doing?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

She bit back, sharp and defensive. Yunseok answered without emotion, his tone flat but honest.

“I wondered about you.”

Did you ever think about me? Wonder if I was doing okay, living the life you wanted me to? Even just once, did you ever wish you could see me again?

“I thought about that a lot,” he said.

As Yunseok spoke, Yoonha’s expression quietly crumbled, and he didn’t miss a single flicker of it. The way her face collapsed under the weight of those words.

“I wanted to see you.”

His voice was steady and quiet as he lifted his left hand, his fingers tracing the curve of her smooth right cheek, barely grazing it with the tip of his index finger. Unlike before, his touch burned. Hot, not from temperature but from everything behind it.

Yoonha flinched. His confession left her stunned for a second, but she quickly pulled herself together, swallowing it down, giving him nothing.

Did I wonder about you?

Back when she fled that suffocating countryside, Yunseok Jeong had been one of the many things trying to hold her back.

Maybe the most pitiful one.

But if someone asked whether all she’d felt was pity, she couldn’t say yes. If that were true, she never would’ve let him into her room that winter night.

An even thicker, more uncomfortable silence fell between them.

Yoonha was afraid of him, and Yunseok, whether he’d said everything he wanted or was still waiting for her response, didn’t speak again. He just stared for so long and hard it felt like he might burn a hole through her face.

Part of her wanted to snap, Stop staring. I’m not going to disappear just because you keep burning holes into my face, but she didn’t dare. Because right now, the power in this car didn’t belong to her. It belonged to Yunseok Jeong.

Every second felt like an hour, but time moved on all the same.

Focused on the road and saying nothing, she didn’t even realize they’d reached the destination until the GPS spoke up in its usual, too-cheerful voice: “You have arrived at your destination.”