SMW 20

Eventually, Choi Seol asked me.

“Why are you going this far for me?”

Come to think of it, he had asked me at the house as well—why I was taking care of him when we weren’t even friends. There was a homework assignment that needed to be solved before proving his amnesia.

“The reason is simple.”

I answered readily.

“I was grateful for the book, and the tteokbokki you first bought me was delicious. The rainy days, the autumn, and…”

It was a strange thing. I was merely listing words, but each one carried the scent of summer, pulling me into a wave of sentimentality.

“Anyway, I feel like I received unauthorized copy[visit our site]quite a lot of help from unauthorized copyyou during that one year. So, I want to repay the favor.”

I couldn’t tell him the whole truth this time either, but I wasn’t lying. Looking back, my only memories of high school were from my first year, and Choi Seol was always in them.

That was why I was glad that I was twenty-seven now. At the very least, I was no longer seventeen—the age where I couldn’t even meet his eyes and found a single greeting so difficult, even when I was grateful. While it wasn’t anything grand, I felt a long-overdue sense of pride in being twenty-seven and capable of helping Choi Seol.

“Thank you.”

As Choi Seol spoke with such shyness, I smiled and held out a fork.

“At this rate, you’ll be eating for ages.”

I pointed to the food that still hadn’t diminished. Choi Seol stared at the fork I offered for a moment, then let out a small chuckle.

“You’re the one who needs it.”

He seemed to remember this clearly, too. Choi Seol pushed the fork away with his hand and picked up his chopsticks. Watching him immediately eat a piece of sundae, I poked a piece of tteokbokki with my fork and brought it to my mouth. It had cooled down a bit, but it was delicious. Enough to make my heart flutter for the first time in a while.

“Are you okay?”

“So-so.”

I rubbed my churning stomach and nodded with difficulty. I couldn’t bring myself to say I was fine, even as a white lie. I’ve always been prone to motion sickness, but perhaps because I’d been cooped up at home, traveling long distances was overwhelming. There was also the issue of my physical stamina.

“How many hours are left?”

“About two and a half hours.”

“I see.”

I had already been traveling for two hours to end up in this state, and the thought of spending another few hours on a bus brought a wave of bleakness. It would be one thing if that were the end of it, but to get to our destination, we would have to transfer between subways and buses for at least another thirty minutes after arriving at the terminal. If I had known, I would have exercised.

While I was immersed in belated regret, a drink glass filled with ice was held out in front of me.

“Try drinking some of this.”

“…Thanks.”

It was lemonade. He must have bought it while I was in the restroom. Since he had gone to a cafe rather than the convenience store in the rest area, real lemon slices were floating in the transparent cup. I took slow, small sips of the drink. Just the cold, sour taste washing down my stomach made me feel refreshed.

“How is it?”

“I think I feel a bit better.”

When I answered in a voice that sounded much lighter than before, a faint smile appeared on Choi Seol’s lips.

“That’s a relief. Do you want more?”

“…I think this is enough. I don’t want to have to go to the bathroom while we’re on the bus.”

The road ahead felt daunting, dragging along a body that was sensitive in every way. Choi Seol let out a sigh.

“Then you can just ask them to pull over for a moment.”

“I think that would be a nuisance to others.”

“What’s the point of worrying about others if your body breaks down?”

“Isn’t that example a bit extreme?”

“Not at all. I’ve seen people who had to have surgery because they kept holding in their need to use the bathroom.”

“Who?”

“…”

Choi Seol started to speak but closed his mouth. Seeing him frown in deep thought, I instinctively spoke up.

“Is that a memory from after you were seventeen?”

“…Maybe.”

“You don’t remember who it was?”

Choi Seol pondered once more, then shook his head as if any further effort was futile.

“I feel like I know, but it’s very faint.”

Despite that, a wide smile spread across my face.

“Anyway, that means something is coming back to you.”

“Is it?”

“It is.”

Excited, I jumped up from my seat.

“That’s great. Maybe it’s because we’ve gone outside? At this rate, will you suddenly return to being twenty-seven once we hit Seoul?”

“I am twenty-seven right now.”

“Huh? Oh, right. That’s true, but…”

I was slightly flustered by his blunt response. In the meantime, Choi Seol stood up and took the drink glass from my hand.

“Tell me if you want to drink more later.”

“I’ll hold it.”

“Forget it. Your hand will get cold if you hold it for too long.”

I withdrew the hand I had extended to take the glass back. This man’s kind and thoughtful behavior felt strangely unfamiliar today. Perhaps it was because we were outdoors.

The outfit he wore today also played a part. Choi Seol was wearing the semi-formal suit he had on the first day of the accident. The clothes seemed to have given him new wings. As if he could just fly away and everything would be over.

“Let’s go. It’s almost time for the bus to leave. When we arrive, let’s eat something with a hot broth to settle your stomach.”

Choi Seol led the way. The gazes of the people glancing at us from various parts of the rest area followed him in unison. unauthorized copyHe Read on Read BL Novelswould undoubtedly receive even more attention once we reached the city. It occurred to me once again that I had liked a truly remarkable guy. And that he had felt that far out of my reach.

The stomach that had been calmed by the lemonade churned again. Patting my chest, I followed Choi Seol toward the bus. I happened to look up at the sky, and it was overcast. The heavy clouds looked as if they would bring rain at any moment.

“This place has changed a lot too.”

After arriving at the bus terminal and eating something with hot broth as Choi Seol suggested, I regained some of my senses. Gathering my strength, I traveled another thirty minutes by subway and thirty minutes by bus, arriving at an old neighborhood where longing and unfamiliarity coexisted. Like someone returning to their hometown after ten years, my eyes moved busily, searching for traces of old memories.

“I searched before coming here, and they said there’s been a lot of development across the stream bridge. Some parts are still under construction, and a business hotel opened… Is that it? Oh, it’s pretty big. I heard it was launched by a subsidiary of a famous conglomerate hotel; the view over there really was good. It looks like quite a few shopping centers have moved in too. Looking only at that side, it doesn’t even feel like our neighborhood.”

“…Indeed. It has changed a lot.”

I immediately shut my mouth, which had been chatting lightly. When I glanced at Choi Seol’s profile, he looked heavily subdued. Only then did I realize I had made a mistake, and I quickly changed the subject.

“B-but the school area has hardly changed. Oh? That bakery is still there. That place was really delicious. Should we buy something later? Ah! The arcade over there is the same too. Gyeong-ho and I used to bet ice cream there… Sorry.”

Despite my attempts to fix things, he only stared at me intently, making me instinctively lower my head. Soon, a calm voice reached me, as if soothing me.

“You don’t need to worry. [Read on Read BL Novels]I was the one who stolen contentsuggested coming [unauthorized copy]here in the first place. I’m prepared for this to some extent.”

When someone says that, it only makes you worry more.

Choi Seol said he wanted to stop by here before visiting the current address listed in the documents. In a way, it was a natural process. His memories had stopped here. For him, this place couldn’t be purely about longing.

This was no time to be cluelessly sightseeing.

“Listen, I came here today as your guardian.”

I carefully broached the subject with Choi Seol.

“Like I told you before, I want to repay the favor. So, you don’t have to act like an adult today. Just do whatever you feel like. Don’t worry about me, and… if it’s hard, you can even act spoiled. I’ll take care of you.”

Looking back, the seventeen-year-old Choi Seol had always acted like an adult. Though he had his temper tantrums very occasionally, he was mostly kind. Even so, he never easily revealed himself. That meant he was skilled at suppressing his emotions. Having lived through it, I knew that was never a good thing. Especially for a teenager to have such an ability was truly sorrowful.

“I understand. I’ll try that when I feel like it.”

Choi Seol, who had been listening quietly, answered and wore a faint smile.

“Thank you.”

At the low greeting that followed, I instinctively curled my fingers. The inside of my palm felt ticklish.

“Then shall we go? Which way is the house?”

I asked lightly on purpose to shake off the heavy atmosphere. Choi Seol seemed to hesitate for a moment, then pointed in one direction.

“Across the stream bridge, the neighborhood on the other side is where my grandmother and I lived.”

That was exactly the place I had been rambling about, saying how much it had changed due to development. This is why one must be careful with their words.

“Sorry.”

I apologized once more.

“The area around where I lived seems to be the same.”

As if telling me not to worry, Choi Seol added a word and stepped forward first. I hurried to follow him, then stopped abruptly. Noticing something, Choi Seol turned around and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think a drop of water just fell on my head. Didn’t you feel it?”

At my words, Choi Seol looked up at the sky.

“Hmm, I didn’t feel anything.”

“Really? Then I must have been mistaken.”

“Still, it looks like it’ll pour soon.”

Having departed early in the morning, we had arrived in Seoul around lunchtime. Even though it was midday, the sky had already grown dark with gathering rain clouds. It felt as if a raindrop would plop onto my head at any second.

“Should I buy an umbrella?”

“Let’s cross first. There should be at least a convenience store over there.”

We hurried our pace. Fortunately, no raindrops fell while we crossed the stream bridge.

As I crossed the bridge, my eyes were unconsciously searching for something. A tree with large, old branches stretching out, possessing the summer sunlight that filtered through lush leaves.

I felt as if I had glimpsed it. However, as soon as I crossed the bridge, the ordeal that befell me caused the memory to vanish beyond reality.

“We just need to go up that way.”

It was just as we entered the residential alley. The flat ground ended quickly, and what lay before us was an uphill path with a height similar to the 108 steps found at some mountain temples. If anything, it looked steeper.

“I have to climb this?”

“Not all the way, just about halfway.”

“Halfway… how long does that take?”

“About five minutes?”

“Not by your pace, but by the pace of a normal, average person.”

“Ten minutes, based on my grandma’s pace.”

Why was it suddenly being measured by his grandmother’s standards? Still, if it took ten minutes for an elderly person, it seemed doable.

“That’s about it. Let’s just go.”

“…”

“What’s with that look? You don’t think I can’t even walk for ten minutes, do you?”

“No. Surely a youth in his twenties can walk a distance that even my grandmother used to walk vigorously every day?”

Seeing him tease me so spitefully, it seemed the memories from Read on Read BL Novelsafter age seventeen were slowly being summoned. Choi visit our siteSeol gave a slight nod of his head, as if telling me to go first.

As if he thought I couldn’t do it.

I clenched my fists in both hands and began to climb the uphill path.

And before long, I had no choice but to admit it. I had underestimated many things.