By Zephyria 
When I smell the scent of lilac flowers
After asking at the reception desk, he found that Noona had been admitted to a single-occupancy special room.
‘Room 512, 512, 512….’
Muttering to himself as he walked down the hallway, Eun-myeong stopped in front of the sign that read ‘512’. Before opening the door to the hospital room, Eun-myeong quietly made a request to the thugs following behind him.
“Misters, I’m really sorry. Could you please wait outside…?”
The two men exchanged a glance. Then, the one who was bulkier and more intimidating gave a blunt nod toward the door.
“Five minutes.”
At the promise of five minutes, Eun-myeong gave a small nod.
“Thank you.”
With that, he opened the door and stepped cautiously inside.
A heavy silence filled the single room. Noona lay alone on the wide bed. Seeing her curled up facing the wall, looking so lonely and desolate, Eun-myeong felt his heart sink for a moment.
“Noona.”
He called her softly as he approached. He placed the basket of strawberries he had bought on the windowsill and quietly sat in the chair.
His large eyes rolled busily, filled with worry. He quickly scanned Noona’s body, which was as thin as a twig. Her slender back was hunched like a shrimp, and there were bruises all over the skin visible beneath the patient gown.
In particular, her leg, which had been limping from pain, was wrapped in a thick white cast. It was a heart-wrenching sight. It looked as if someone had sliced into her with a potato peeler.
Eun-myeong had so many things he wanted to ask. How badly she was hurt, if she was still in pain, what on earth had happened that day… He wanted to ask everything one by one while looking at her face, but Eun-joo remained with her back turned, as if asleep.
Even so, Eun-myeong could tell. He knew Eun-joo was awake. Could she be so disappointed in him that she didn’t even want to see his face? Eun-myeong lowered his eyelids.
“Are you okay? I bought some strawberries you like on my way here….”
Just as he was babbling anything to lighten the mood, his throat tightened unsightly. As Eun-myeong swallowed hard,
“It’s all my fault.”
Noona replied. Her voice sounded raspy and strained, as if she hadn’t spoken for a long time.
“I sneaked into the CEO’s office. I thought the Director was probably in that bastard’s hands, so I went in to find a clue.”
Eun-myeong clenched his fists tight. No matter how gutsy Noona was, it wasn’t that she didn’t fear men.
He had seen it clearly with his own eyes. In the CEO’s office, when she was talking back to the man, goosebumps had risen on the back of Noona’s neck. Her hands were trembling, and her legs were shaking—a sight completely unlike her. Noona was clearly terrified of him.
And yet, despite that.
The decision to suddenly hide in the warehouse must have been because of him. She must have done it after hearing that he was with the man. Once again, he had become a burden to her.
“The Director bastard was locked in the warehouse in the CEO’s office. I think I fainted after hitting my head against the wall while fighting with that bastard.”
As she continued the story, Eun-myeong felt a chill run down his spine. He stared intently at the back of her head resting on the pillow.
“You hit your head against the wall? How is it now? Is there any abnormality…?”
Eun-myeong hurriedly tried to rise from the chair, saying he would call a doctor.
“That person.”
Noona’s low voice held him back.
“He came to save me because of you, right?”
Though the subject was omitted, Eun-myeong easily knew who she meant.
“…The Boss.”
Eun-myeong couldn’t find the words to answer. Noona muttered to the wall as if talking to herself. It had been strange. She had wondered why that man would come to save her.
“You’re the only connection.”
Noona slowly pushed herself up. With her pale hair disheveled like a ghost and a wan complexion, she asked.
“If you get up now….”
He was about to tell her that she shouldn’t get up yet, but Eun-joo cut him off.
“The Director died like that, right?”
Eun-myeong’s fingers trembled as he tried to pull the blanket over Eun-joo’s shoulders.
“That son of a bitch Jjangja, too. He kept coming by asking for money, but at some point, he vanished without a trace.”
Eun-myeong let the blanket slip from his hand. The clump of fabric fell lifelessly onto the bed. His white fingertips shook. Every time Eun-joo spat out a word, he felt as if his tongue were shriveling and his throat were constricting.
“The sashimi restaurant owner disappearing like that… that was all his doing, wasn’t it?”
“…….”
Though it was phrased as a question, Noona smirked as if she had already reached a conclusion.
“I should have killed them all with my own hands….”
She looked so vacant that there was no focus in her pupils. Her lips, pale to the point of looking blue, spat out words like a curse.
“Those sons of bitches deserved to die.”
“…Yes.”
Eun-myeong answered with a slow nod. Some might say they deserved divine punishment, but these were people who had tormented them their entire lives and ripped out the very roots of their existence. They were the ones who would stomp on their hands and push them back into the pit whenever they tried to crawl out of that hell.
Eun-myeong also thought it was a fitting end for evil people who lived by sucking the sweat and blood of others.
“The only thing I regret is that I couldn’t kill them with my own hands.”
Eun-joo added that it was truly the only thing. Then, a moment of silence followed.
“Eun-myeong.”
Suddenly, Eun-joo grabbed his forearm. Eun-myeong flinched and looked up toward her thin hand.
“What on earth is that man?”
Eun-joo deliberately lowered her voice even though no one was around. As if she knew the thug misters were standing outside the door.
“Why is Kang Pyeong-won so obsessed with you?”
“I don’t know.”
Eun-myeong slowly shook his head. He couldn’t give an answer to this question either. It was a question he had carried in his mind all along, but he had never reached a conclusion.
At that, Noona gripped his hand and began to plead desperately.
“Eun-myeong, come back. That man is truly a terrifying person.”
“Yes, I know. I know that he is a truly terrifying person.”
Whenever he thought about what the man had done and what more he was capable of, he was terrified of him. He really didn’t want to give his heart to such a bad person.
But….
As Eun-myeong showed his hesitation, Eun-joo’s gaze grew heavy. It was because she remembered the man’s eyes when he snatched Eun-myeong’s photo away from her. In those eyes, which looked like empty caves stained black, something was undulating slowly like a swamp.
That madness, which seemed as if it would boil over at any moment.
Just looking at it made his skin crawl; the man truly seemed to be out of his mind.
“That man will surely consume you.”
He will try to tear you apart….
Eun-joo looked as if she were possessed as she spoke, but there was a strange strength in her voice. Eun-myeong lowered his eyes mournfully.
Before long, it was time for him to go to work. Eun-myeong washed the strawberries, set them aside, and left the hospital room, walking listlessly.
He had no clear destination, no signpost. He felt as if his heart had become a beggar. He was walking meaninglessly, crushed by the obsessions that filled his head.
“…Wow, look at that.”
He heard an exclamation of awe nearby. Eun-myeong, who had been walking absentmindedly, looked up.
“It’s so beautiful.”
Exclamations of admiration flowed around him. Lilacs were in full bloom along the street.
A warm breeze blew softly. Pale purple petals fluttered and tickled the fine hairs on his cheeks. A soft, fragrant floral scent brushed the tip of his nose.
While the surroundings overflowed with vitality and brilliant colors, only Eun-myeong’s expression remained dark.
“Sigh.”
People were standing in front of the beautiful flowering trees, taking photos. Friends, lovers, and families gathered together, sharing the fullness of spring.
Avoiding the people posing and smiling, Eun-myeong stepped back and shrank away. He hid his face deeper, fearing that his gloomy presence might occupy a corner of their precious memories, or that they might look at the photos later and ask who this unlucky person was.
“Thank you!”
Soon, a shutter clicked, and a small child gave him a polite bow, thanking him for waiting. Eun-myeong nodded awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.
“…Not really.”
Eun-myeong stole a glance at their retreating backs as they chatted. They talked softly about the beauty of the flowers and the gentle spring breeze. Hearing words like “Mom” and “Dad,” he figured they were indeed a family.
He didn’t know how much he had wanted to be inside those happy-looking photos in the past. But as he grew up, he realized the truth: there was no place for him there.
No matter how much he struggled, he was merely a parentless orphan, a poor stranger with no dreams.
In the midst of that, only the man had embraced him.
It wasn’t as if he had wanted to give his heart to such a bad person.
‘Boss, …I love you.’
It was a heart he had managed to open up with great difficulty. Far from cherishing those precious feelings, the man had laughed, calling it ridiculous, and mocked him to his heart’s content. He tore him down, ridiculed him, and toyed with him.
Even if he held his heart and shook it like a toy, even if he kept him by his side out of a childish emotion—not wanting to lose the exquisite pleasure of it to anyone else.
And yet, he kept missing him and seeking him out.
Eun-myeong took out a crumpled photo of himself from his pocket. He still wondered why on earth he had kept this. After staring at it for a while, he saw a trash can next to a bench and threw it away.
That was because it wasn’t a photo he particularly wanted to remember. Although it was cut now, it had originally been a photo taken with the Director and Chairman Go.
Sizzle—perhaps a discarded cigarette butt hadn’t been fully extinguished, as the photo began to burn from the inside, but Eun-myeong didn’t care.
It was a photo he would never have to see again anyway.
However.
Later, Eun-myeong would encounter that photo again. The chills he felt when he discovered the photo in a frame in the man’s CEO office.
For a moment, he wondered if it was a copy, but the slightly burnt edge proved it was definitely the one he had thrown away himself.
A cold shiver ran through his entire body, giving him goosebumps.
By this point, the question of how the man had possibly gotten his hands on it again was unimportant. The important question was why.
Only then did Eun-myeong ask why he was keeping this photo.
In response, the man gently tickled the belly of the young Eun-myeong in the photo with his index finger and said,
“Seeing how this baby’s belly is so plump, he looks like my own kid and is so cute that I couldn’t possibly throw him away.”