TW 35

Chapter 35

When Danbi reached the shoe cabinet, she looked around for her shoes. But inside, there was only a pair of dress shoes that presumably belonged to Hae-il’s mother. The wet sneakers she had definitely taken off at the entrance were nowhere to be seen.

As though he had read the question on her face, Hae-il placed a pair of white sneakers in front of her feet.

They were brand-new, without a single mark on them.

“Wear these.”

“My shoes…”

“Yours were completely soaked, so I hung them out on the balcony. I’ll bring them to you on Monday.”

“Whose shoes are these?”

He hesitated briefly before answering.

“They’re my mom’s. They didn’t fit her, so she couldn’t wear them. I thought they might fit you.”

“…What?”

“It’s better than throwing them away. Try them on.”

Danbi looked back and forth between the other shoes beside them and the sneakers.

Compared to the dress shoes, the sneakers were noticeably smaller.

This wasn’t just a slight difference in size.

“Hurry.”

Unable to resist his urging, she slipped her feet into them.

They fit perfectly, as though Cinderella had finally found her glass slippers.

“They fit. You wear them.”

“…Aren’t these expensive?”

“You should wear good shoes. That way, you’ll have the strength to go anywhere.”

After saying that as though it were nothing, he knelt in front of her again.

Then, with surprisingly delicate hands, he carefully tied her shoelaces tight.

As though none of it were anything special, he stood up and opened the door.

“Come on. I’ll take you home.”

That casual kindness made her heart drop with a heavy thud.

But at that very moment, an icy realization pushed its way through her suddenly burning heart.

Something far better than the chocolates she had scraped together everything she had to buy for him—he gave it to her as casually as though it meant nothing.

Over her gratitude and excitement settled a clear sense of resignation.

The cold recognition of reality.

That he and she could never stand in the same world.

Strangely, though, that resignation didn’t make her sad.

Instead, it made her feel at peace.

It felt as though the heart that had tormented itself with desire and expectation for him was finally beginning to settle down.

Yes. This is enough.

He belongs to a different world, and I just need to be satisfied with receiving his kindness from time to time, from this place, from this distance.

If I don’t want anything more, then I won’t have to get hurt anymore.

With a much lighter heart, Danbi followed him outside.

It was a strange kind of peace that came from the disappearance of hope.

Unlike when she had arrived, the rain had stopped as though it had all been a lie.

That day, Danbi was scolded by her mother for skipping academy for the first time in her life.

Even so, it was such a sweet and fulfilling night that she could lie down in bed smiling.

Before falling asleep, she took the crumpled letter from behind her phone case.

Proof of a foolish desire.

Danbi stared at it for a moment before tossing it without hesitation into the trash can in the corner of her room.

That night, after clearly confirming the distance between them, Danbi finally escaped the long fever of her feelings for him.

It was truly fortunate that she had never confessed.

✶ ✶ ✶

Only a heavy silence filled the car with its engine turned off.

The light from a streetlamp slanted through the window, casting faint shadows across Hae-il’s sharp profile as he sat beside her.

His final question still rang in her ears like tinnitus.

Why didn’t you even make that kind of effort?

Danbi already knew the answer.

The answer had been inside the feelings she had once run through the rain to reclaim so long ago.

Slowly, and very calmly, Danbi opened her mouth.

“Just because you like someone doesn’t mean you have to do something about it.”

Hae-il said nothing.

He merely looked at her.

In the darkness, she couldn’t tell what emotions were stirring inside his deep eyes.

Without avoiding his gaze, Danbi continued.

“I just… I was satisfied with everything back then. I was happy.”

She had thought wanting anything more would be an excessive desire beyond her place.

Just watching his light from afar was enough.

Just keeping the occasional kind words he gave her tucked away in her heart was enough to make her happy.

And even now, that feeling hadn’t changed much.

“It’s still the same. I like things the way they are now.”

The moment Danbi finished speaking, he responded coldly.

“I’m not satisfied with things staying the way they are.”

The atmosphere that had been calm only moments ago suddenly changed.

The veins stood out on the back of the hand gripping the steering wheel.

“When you like someone, you stake everything on it and want them for yourself. You want them so badly you could go crazy. You want them to look only at you. You don’t even want them looking at other guys. Isn’t that normal?”

There was frustration in his voice, along with something else he had been holding back.

For some reason, he even sounded a little wronged.

“But that’s strange. From what I hear, you were pretty friendly with other guys. You got into that bastard from the design team’s car just fine. So why not me?”

“What?”

“Why are you only so difficult with me?”

The joke from lunchtime came back through his mouth as a weapon.

Danbi stared at him, speechless at the absurd accusation.

Then his eyes flashed coldly.

Click.

The sound of him unfastening his seat belt broke the silence.

Hae-il turned his body completely toward her, freed from the belt.

In an instant, the narrow car was filled completely with his presence.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

He leaned over the center console.

The moment his shadow completely swallowed her in the cramped space where there was nowhere to escape, Danbi felt her heart plummet.

“Lee Danbi.”

All the irritation from moments ago had disappeared.

Instead, he whispered with the aching tenderness of someone who had been enduring something for a very long time.

“…I missed you.”

At those words, every wall of reason and logic Danbi had painstakingly built over the years collapsed all at once.

And in the place where those walls had fallen, there was nothing left except a helpless, completely defenseless heart.

His hand slowly rose toward her face.

Danbi knew she should move away.

But her body had gone stiff, and she couldn’t move at all.

Finally, his thumb gently brushed across her cheek.

That tiny touch alone brought back a memory she had tried to forget.

Eighteen years old.

His room.

The suffocating tension she had felt on his bed.

At that moment, Danbi found herself unconsciously hoping for something to interrupt them.

The sound of the front door opening.

Or the ringing of a phone, sounding like salvation.

But nothing happened.

Inside this narrow car, there was no longer anything left that could interfere with them.

Only the sound of her heart beating as though it might burst, and his burning gaze—as though he understood everything—held her captive.

His eyes moved past hers and settled on her trembling lips.

A warning signal.

Her reason screamed desperately at her to stop this.

But her body still wouldn’t move.

His face slowly drew closer.

The world outside the car window blurred.

The narrow space became filled with nothing but his presence.

His deep scent and warm breath overwhelmed her senses.

Time slowed.

His long eyelashes.

The sharp bridge of his nose.

Even the faint parting of his lips.

Every movement became painfully clear, as though it had been etched directly into her eyes.

No way…

The thought had barely crossed her mind when it really happened.

As though it were a lie.

His soft, burning lips touched hers.

Smack.

They met only briefly before separating.

But that soft, hot sensation burned away every thought and emotion she had built up over the past several years.

Time stopped.

Sound stopped.

Reason stopped.

The only thing filling her world was the deafening sound of her heart pounding in her ears and the burning heat lingering on her lips where his warmth remained.

What is this?

What is happening right now…?

He paused for a moment, as though watching for her reaction.

Even in the darkness, his eyes gleamed with a hungry light.

“I’ve been curious.”

“…”

“Lee Danbi… what you taste like.”

His gaze moved openly across her lips.

Then, in a low, rough voice, he whispered,

“Let me taste you some more.”

Without waiting for her answer, he kissed her again.

This time, deeper.