ST 07

Chapter 07

It was unexpected.

Cha Taegyeong thought he was someone sitting here because he’d been pushed into it. No, actually, he’d said as much just a moment ago.

“You don’t need to feel burdened.”

Taegyeong raised his glass.

“Because for now, it’s just my own thought.”

I laughed without meaning to.

“Saying it like that makes it more burdensome.”

“Even so, if it makes you conscious of it one more time, all the better.”

Glass met glass with a light clink.

And then, I suddenly felt a gaze from the direction of the lounge entrance.

It was Bae Dohun.

Our eyes met.

This time, I didn’t avoid it.

Dohun didn’t avoid it either.

A few seconds like that.

The one who looked away first was me.

I didn’t notice that Taegyeong was watching that.

It was a little past midnight.

There was no one in the corridor leading back to the cabin.

Behind the sound of my heels, steady footsteps followed. I knew who it was.

And yet I didn’t turn around.

Until yesterday, I was the one who couldn’t endure silence.

Striking up conversation for no reason, drawing out answers.

Desperate to see a face that wavered even slightly.

Today was different.

I didn’t say a word until the end. Bae Dohun was the same.

Passing through the long corridor, I finally arrived in front of the cabin.

I took out the card key.

Beep—.

Just as the lock released and I was about to grab the handle.

“……Are you going to get married?”

My hand stopped.

At first, I thought I’d misheard.

As I slowly turned around, he was a few steps away, gazing at me intently.

“What?”

“To Director Cha Taegyeong.”

Dohun looked at me straight.

“Do you intend to marry him?”

I was dumbfounded.

The same person who had told me to hold the ceremony.

The same person who had concluded that was the best choice for me.

“Why are you asking that?”

I turned my body fully and took a step toward him, then another.

“You told me to do it.”

“……”

“You said to get married. That it was the best choice for me.”

Dohun’s jaw tightened minutely.

“So I’m thinking about it.”

“……”

“Taegyeong is a good person.”

Dohun’s eyes sank.

“Good-looking, good family, well-mannered.”

I continued, as if folding down fingers one by one.

“And he seems interested in me.”

“……”

“So like you said, marrying him wouldn’t be so bad.”

Even after I finished speaking, he gave no answer.

But it was strange. I’d given him the answer he’d clearly wanted to hear, yet he looked not the least bit satisfied. Rather, he was only pressing his lips firmly together.

I looked up at that face quietly.

“What? Do you hate it? Me getting married?”

“……”

“You can’t answer.”

He still said nothing.

With his mouth, he tells me to get married, yet when I say I might actually do it, his expression hardens like that.

Would you know that a single small waver like that makes my heart drop all at once?

I slowly approached him, watching his face.

Dohun didn’t step back.

One step, then another half step.

We were close enough that if I lifted my head just slightly, our breaths would touch.

“Bae Dohun.”

When I called his name, his tightly closed lips moved minutely.

I wanted to confirm.

The answer he would never give me in words—in some other way.

On impulse, I moved a little closer.

In that moment, Dohun’s gaze touched my lips for a very brief instant, then returned.

It was a short moment.

But that alone was enough.

So I wasn’t the only one wavering after all.

“Then that’s fine.”

I turned my back to him again.

I didn’t press for an answer.

Bae Dohun was always like this.

When he swallowed words he wanted to say, strength entered his jaw; when he was angry, his eyes cooled first; and when he was troubled, he shut his mouth just like now.

It seemed ten years passing didn’t change things like that.

“Good night.”

I swiped the card key again and opened the door.

That was when.

Woooom—.

With a low vibration, the floor tilted minutely.

I reflexively braced against the wall. At the same time, Dohun’s hand grabbed my arm from behind.

“Are you all right?”

The man who had been clamping his mouth shut so tightly just moments ago was quick again at times like this.

“Yeah.”

Soon an announcement flowed from the speakers installed in the corridor ceiling.

It said that due to worsening weather, the vessel might shake temporarily, and that for safety, access to the outdoor deck was restricted.

Faint thunder rumbled in the distance.

Come to think of it, the sea that had been calm until just a moment ago was now churning roughly.

“Go in.”

“I’ll escort you inside.”

“The room is right there, what do you mean.”

“The weather conditions are not good.”

“So what, you think I’ll go rolling around inside the room?”

He didn’t reply.

I left him behind, laughed lightly, and stepped into the cabin.

But the door didn’t close. I turned around, and Bae Dohun was following me in.

“……Why?”

“I’ll just do a safety check.”

With those words, Bae Dohun entered the cabin and checked the window and balcony door first.

He examined the locks and moved the glass teetering on the table further inward.

I sat on the sofa and quietly watched him.

“You’re working hard.”

“It’s my job.”

“Bodyguard duty?”

“Yes.”

“While desperately pretending not to know me?”

His movement stopped for a very brief moment.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he went back to tidying the table.

“Personal feelings and work are separate. The check is complete.”

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes.”

Dohun walked toward the cabin door.

But in that moment, flash—outside the window blazed white. Soon after, a great clap of thunder rang out.

Kwa-rrung—.

At the same time, the cabin lights flickered once or twice.

And the lights went out.

Pitch-black darkness descended.

“The emergency lights will come on soon, so don’t be afraid.”

“……I’m not afraid of things like this anymore.”

“I know…….”

The time I was afraid of the dark was when I was eighteen. And quite severely, at that.

The day the huge gymnasium lost power.

I clung to Bae Dohun’s clothes and hung on him, and though he found me annoying, he never once shook off my hand until the lights came back.

Of course, not now.

At twenty-eight, I was perfectly fine being alone in a dark room.

But Bae Dohun still remembered.

That eighteen-year-old Yulseul was afraid of the dark.

A trivial past even I had forgotten.

“……You’re really funny.”

“Still, please don’t move.”

A moment later, the emergency lights came on low along the wall.

A dim light illuminated the cabin.

Only then could I see Dohun standing a few steps away. I rose from the sofa.

“I told you not to move because it’s dangerous.”

“This is my room. What’s dangerous about it?”

“……”

“And I’m twenty-eight. Not eighteen.”

At those words, Dohun’s expression changed very minutely. I passed by him and picked up the water bottle on the table.

Just then, the ship shook greatly once more.

My body, losing its center, tilted to one side.

Dohun quickly reached out. This time it was my wrist. A firm hand wrapped around my wrist.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine…….”

The mouth that was about to answer stopped.

Under the faint emergency light, I saw Dohun’s hand.

His hand back, to be exact.

A faint scar remained on the part extending from his wrist to the back of his hand, catching my eye.

It was something I was seeing for the first time.

“……What’s this?”

Dohun’s gaze turned downward. My finger was touching the scar.

“When did you get hurt?”

Dohun immediately pulled his hand away.

“It’s nothing.”

“If it’s nothing, why hide it?”

“I never hid it.”

“Then show me.”

“Yulseul.”

“You know your name for me comes out first even now when you’re rushed?”

“……”

“Same yesterday.”

Bae Dohun’s expression hardened stiffly. My gaze turned to his hand again.

It was clearly a trace that hadn’t been there ten years ago.

Something that appeared during the ten years I didn’t know.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t just that.

His surname had changed, he’d quit swimming, and he’d suddenly appeared as a bodyguard for Daeyang.

But I didn’t know a single reason why.

“Did you get hurt swimming?”

Dohun’s eyes changed. It was a truly minute shift.

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“There’s no reason for me to tell you.”

In that moment, something surged up.

“That again.”

“……”

“Why is it always only me you have no reason to tell?”

Without realizing it, my voice rose.

“You can’t tell me why your surname changed. You can’t tell me where you were for ten years. You can’t tell me why you suddenly disappeared. You can’t tell me why you quit swimming.”

The more I brought out one by one, the more the things I’d buried inside my chest rose with them.

“I don’t know anything. During the ten years you were gone, I didn’t have a single piece of news about you.”

“……”

“Not even whether you were dead or alive.”

The end of my sentence trembled slightly.

I hated it. It felt like I was being emotional all alone again.

So I forced a smile.

I thought a face smiling while crying would look strange, but there was nothing I could do.

“Then you show up and tell me to get married.”

Dohun’s gaze settled on my face like that. I looked at that face for a moment.

And after taking one deep breath, I held it in. I didn’t want to act like a child.

“Fine. If you don’t want to tell me, don’t.”

I went back to the sofa and plopped down.

“I won’t ask anymore either.”

“……”

“Instead.”

I paused for a moment.

And looked straight at Dohun.

“I’ll wait.”

Dohun’s expression changed clearly for the first time.

“Until you want to tell me.”

“……”

“I waited ten years, so what’s a little more.”

I laughed as if joking.

But Dohun didn’t laugh.

His face, visible under the faint emergency light, was frozen to an strange degree.

After a moment, the cabin lights came back on.

While I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden light, Dohun turned his body.

“……Are you leaving?”

“Power has been restored.”

“Yeah.”

He opened the cabin door.

“Bae Dohun.”

The foot about to cross the threshold stopped at my call.

“What I said earlier is real. I’ll wait.”

A brief silence passed.

And then a low voice returned.

“Don’t wait.”

Dohun’s hand gripped the doorknob. For someone telling me not to wait, he couldn’t bring himself to close the door.

A few seconds like that.

Dohun closed and opened his eyes.

“Get some rest.”

The door closed.

I stared at that door for a while.

Then slowly leaned back against the sofa.

“……Liar.”

The voice that had told me not to wait sounded strange. As if it were desperately swallowing the exact opposite words.