Chapter 49
After that, the two continued wandering around the streets at night.
They stopped by a coin karaoke booth, bought various late-night snacks, and sometimes simply wandered the streets without any particular purpose.
As always, Seolhwa wandered around with a bright smile, while Hyeonwoo followed behind her and experienced the culture of the nighttime streets.
Every so often, Seolhwa would check Hyeonwoo’s face or send him a worried look, but
since Seolhwa seemed to be enjoying herself in her own way, Hyeonwoo felt relieved about that.
However, the other problem hadn’t been solved at all.
No…. It couldn’t be solved.
As long as he was with Seolhwa, it was a problem Hyeonwoo could never solve in the way he wanted….
“Phew….”
The place was a large park a little way from the nighttime streets.
A wide river flowed calmly right in front of them, and a cool breeze blew gently through the pleasant surroundings.
The park was more crowded than usual, and since it seemed to be hosting some kind of festival, a whole crowd of food trucks had arrived, filling the air with delicious smells.
Drawn in by the smells from the food trucks, Seolhwa was temporarily separated from Hyeonwoo.
“It’s refreshing….”
Hyeonwoo had stepped away from Seolhwa for a moment and was sitting alone on a bench, lost in thought.
The bench stood in a spot where the moon appeared huge right in front of him, offering a beautiful view of the river and the moon at a glance, but Hyeonwoo couldn’t see any of that right now.
“What am I doing right now….”
As he stared at the brightly shining full moon, Hyeonwoo covered his eyes with one hand and fell into deep thought about what he was doing.
He had set out to sort out his feelings for Seolhwa, yet he had tried to message her first.
He had even gotten flustered after meeting Seolhwa while he was out trying to sort out his thoughts.
...He had even accepted her invitation to go on a date simply because she had seemed a little down.
Contrary to his resolve, he was instead walking deeper and deeper into the sea that was Seolhwa.
Even though he knew that once he sank completely, no amount of struggling would let him surface again….
“...Phew.”
What made Hyeonwoo even more uneasy was the fact that he felt relieved whenever he was with Seolhwa.
The more time he spent having fun with Seolhwa, the more at ease and reassured he felt,
and whenever those feelings came to mind,
he could feel them rising to the surface whenever he deliberately shoved them into a corner of his mind and looked away….
“Haha….”
Hyeonwoo stared blankly at the moon hanging in the sky and muttered,
“The moon is really beautiful….”
The full moon shone brilliantly in the cloudless night sky.
Hyeonwoo stared blankly at the moon and let his honest feelings slip out.
He wished he could speak his true feelings just as freely….
“Hyeonwoo, Hyeonwoo!”
As he sat there in a daze, he soon saw Seolhwa running toward him and calling his name after going to buy chicken skewers.
Seolhwa came running toward him with two chicken skewers in both hands and a bright smile-
“Look, look! The vendor gave me one extra chicken skewer as a freebie?”
“Oh….”
As he stared blankly at Seolhwa running toward him, his complicated thoughts gradually disappeared.
He simply watched Seolhwa coming toward him with a bright smile.
...No, he had no choice but to just watch her.
For some reason, the closer Seolhwa came, the hotter his head felt, and the more dazed he became….
“I don’t know why, but the vendor said I did such a good job running the errand that he gave me another one as a freebie?”
Seolhwa came closer, sat down beside Hyeonwoo, and handed him the chicken skewer in her left hand.
“...Thanks.”
Hyeonwoo had a pretty good idea why the vendor had given her the extra, but he accepted the chicken skewer Seolhwa offered without saying anything.
Then he took a bite, and the taste of the sweet sauce spread throughout his mouth.
Hyeonwoo preferred spicy food to sweet food, so it wasn’t to his taste; rather, it was the kind of flavor Seolhwa would probably love.
Still, since it was food Seolhwa had bought, Hyeonwoo put the chicken skewer in his mouth without complaint.
“Heehee, it’s super delicious! Right, Hyeonwoo?”
Then, when he happened to glance to the side, he saw Seolhwa looking at him and smiling innocently as she ate her chicken skewer.
The bright smile of a friend with a face cuter than anyone he had ever seen.
That same innocent smile he had seen at the amusement park-
“Haha….”
Seeing Seolhwa’s smile, Hyeonwoo smiled without even realizing it.
“Yeah, it’s tasty….”
At the Snow Woman’s innocent smile, Hyeonwoo’s heart softened slightly, and the corners of his mouth, rigid until then, lifted ever so slightly.
“Oh….”
Seolhwa looked at his expression, her face filling with surprise.
Then she soon broke into a bashful smile and said,
“...You finally smiled?”
“...Huh?”
Seeing Seolhwa happily point out that he had smiled, Hyeonwoo asked in slight confusion,
“Smiled…. What?”
“Just what I said. You finally smiled.”
Hyeonwoo looked puzzled by Seolhwa’s incomprehensible answer.
He couldn’t understand why Seolhwa was so childishly delighted just because he had smiled-
“...Did you know you looked like you were on death’s door when I saw you in the park earlier?”
Seolhwa stood up from the bench and walked a few steps toward the moon as she spoke.
“You looked so depressed, unlike your usual self…. It seemed like something had happened.”
Seolhwa raised her head to look at the moon and continued speaking.
“So I was worried. I wondered what I would do if you were dealing with some really serious concern.”
Seolhwa stopped walking, turned her body and head, and looked at Hyeonwoo.
She stood beneath the full moon, with its light at her back.
“So I wanted to ease even a little of your burden by having some fun…. Heehee, I guess it worked.”
“...!”
Only then did Hyeonwoo begin to understand what Seolhwa had been doing today.
The reason she had looked at him so worriedly.
The reason she had checked his expression over and over.
The reason she had been happy that he smiled.
All of it had been because she was worried about Hyeonwoo.
Hyeonwoo, whose mind had been tangled up in worries about Seolhwa….
Hyeonwoo had worried that something was wrong with Seolhwa, but in fact, he was the one who had been troubled.
“...You said it was because you had lots of assignments…. But that was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“Oh…?”
“Don’t think about making excuses. Do you think a lie like that would work after all the years we’ve known each other?”
Seolhwa said that, telling him not to treat her like such a little child.
Even though she had put on an awkward act back then, she had seemed to believe him well enough, and Hyeonwoo had thought that was enough.
But in reality, Seolhwa had known from the very beginning that he was lying.
“I won’t ask what you’re worried about. You didn’t tell me because you couldn’t confide in me.”
“......”
“But at least when we’re having fun, I think it’s better to forget everything and spend the time smiling.”
At that moment, a strong wind blew from behind Seolhwa, making her hair flutter.
Seolhwa brushed back her windblown hair as she spoke.
“People look their best when they smile!”
“...!”
Seeing Seolhwa like that, Hyeonwoo couldn’t help being deeply shaken.
The sight of her long hair fluttering beneath the moonlight.
The bright smile she gave him as she looked at him.
It was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen before-
“Haha….”
Seeing that smile, he had no choice but to admit it.
No lie, denial, or turning away could hide it anymore.
The proof of his feelings written plainly across his face was too obvious for him to keep ignoring them-
Only then did Hyeonwoo decide to accept these feelings.
He liked Seolhwa-
“...The moon is really beautiful.”
“Hm? Oh, I guess the full moon is especially pretty tonight.”
At Hyeonwoo’s words, Seolhwa turned around and looked at the large full moon rising behind her, then shared her thoughts.
“Doesn’t seeing a moon like that in a place like this make it look several times prettier?”
“...Yeah, it does.”
What Hyeonwoo meant wasn’t what Seolhwa took it to mean, but he decided that was enough.
No, he thought this was better.
Because the true meaning of those words was something he should tell Seolhwa herself someday.
“Phew…. I feel like something’s been lifted.”
“Really? Heehee, I guess playing with you really did the trick. You must get lonely a lot, Hyeonwoo.”
“...I guess so. More than I realized.”
Hyeonwoo shrugged at Seolhwa’s words and admitted it.
He no longer needed to hide or deny it.
“...I feel at ease.”
Once he acknowledged the feelings he had been denying all along, everything became easier.
He no longer had to force himself to deny them; he could accept his feelings as they were.
He had escaped the stress that had tormented him all this time.
Now it no longer mattered what anyone said or how they saw him.
He liked Seolhwa.
That was all that mattered.