He already had Yoo-hwa all over him.

He was mercilessly trampling on the life of a woman who was barely living to destroy Kim Yi-woon. To him, there was no more deceit than to pity Yoo-hwa and to feel sorry for her.

So, his main concern was to prevent Yoo-hwa from paying attention to her phone for some time.

Woo-hyun’s eyes turned dark.

“You talked a lot to yourself.”

As if hesitating, Yoo-hwa laughed weakly. She laughed weakly, with an expression and tone that he had never seen before.

“The sun has risen… Do you want breakfast?”

“I’m going home.”

Yoo-hwa replied, ‘Ah.’, to Woo-hyun’s words, as if realizing it. She seemed to realize that, although it was hard to designate it like that, even if the relationship in which they mixed their bodies became a deep one, it wouldn’t change much.

“I have to go to work.”

Woo-hyun, who got up, looked down at Yoo-hwa and smiled.

“I’m sorry.”

Woo-hyun, who was tying his shoes, looked at Yoo-hwa standing on the stone steps.

“No. I kept you for too long.”

Yoo-hwa smiled faintly, facing his eyes more comfortably than before.

“See you later.”

At the goodbye that meant that they would meet again even if they didn’t know when, Yoo-hwa looked defeated for a moment and then replied, ‘Yeah.’, with more conviction than before.

As if asking him to remember that there was a promise like that between them.

As he turned around and looked at the door, Woo-hyun’s face turned cold as if he had never been smiling. Instead of pushing the door, he turned his gaze to the fake flowers that were stuck on the door. The well-organized flowers seemed real. Just like the relationship between him and Yoo-hwa.

A fake relationship that seemed real.

A cold breeze blew through the open door.

***

When the dim dawn light disappeared, the hazy morning light filled the room. His pursed lips opened, and a misty breath came out. The late winter wind was strong. Recalling the weather forecast that said it would snow soon, Woo-hyun folded his eyes thinly.

If it snowed heavily, this place would become isolated. Woo-hyun, who had changed into the shabby clothes he had stored at home, left the house, pretending to leave for his day job.

There was work to be done this morning. He should have handled this last night.

Woo-hyun passed Yoo-hwa’s house without looking at it on purpose.

“Woo-hyun.”

Noticing him, Yoo-hwa called him. Woo-hyun’s gaze, looking straight ahead, blurred. However, when he turned around and saw Yoo-hwa, he had a warm expression as if he had never been like that. While Woo-hyun lightly replied to her, Yoo-hwa stood in front of him.

Her short stature, which allowed him to see the top of her head when he looked down, her delicate appearance, and the tip of her ears that quickly turned red in the cold.

He noticed things he hadn’t seen before.

“It’s cold today.”

Yoo-hwa said, calmly. Woo-hyun, who was already feeling it, replied, ‘Yeah.’, half-heartedly. She pulled out the black scarf she was hiding behind her back and, standing on the tips of her toes, put it around his neck.

She wrapped it around him twice, covering up to his mouth. Yoo-hwa, who knotted it tightly so that it wouldn’t easily loosen up, slowly lowered her hands. Like a pianist who couldn’t remove their hands from the piano after playing, Yoo-hwa’s hands continued holding the scarf for a while.

“Take it. It will be cold if you work outside.”

She stepped back and said, shortly afterwards.

How could a person become so different after having sex once?

Woo-hyun scoffed. Although there was still some distance, they had become much closer than before. Above all, there was a slight liveliness on Yoo-hwa’s face, which used to be only cold. It was the joy of having someone by her side, a hope for the future.

“Thank you.”

Woo-hyun thanked her, pretending not to notice all the things he was seeing.

“You said you were looking for a job there, right? At that place under the overpass.”

“I could go there, or I could go somewhere else. It depends.”

“That’s right. It’s going to be colder there today. The river wind is blowing.”

“…”

Today, Yoo-hwa spoke a lot differently than before.

“Have a safe trip.”

And she smiled differently than before. Woo-hyun, who forcibly raised the corners of his mouth that had drooped down, answered with a smile and turned around. As he walked out the gate, he felt a suffocating silence. Going quickly down the road, Woo-hyun touched the scarf around his neck.

Where did she get this? How much did she worry, with her personality, and how hard did she, who avoided crowded places, try to stay away from other people’s eyes?

Those things were hovering in his head.

Woo-hyun took off the scarf as if to stop thinking about it.

As if trying to escape the chaos.

***

After opening the office door, Woo-hyun’s steps stopped. The faces of those gathered in front of his room were somber. A loud noise was heard beyond the tightly closed door.

“Fucking bastard, he’s got no manners!”

Violent swearing leaked out beyond the closed door. Even though the door had been well soundproofed for a fair amount of money, it could not stop the loud yell from being heard.