Come Back

[Even if you don’t remember, it doesn’t change the fact that it was my doing. I did it before. I treated you so badly, and yet you always accepted me. This time, give me a chance to help you.]

“What… Ugh, huff… How did you do that… I called you to that, ugh, huff, place…”

Once the tears burst, they overflowed without stopping. The resentment and guilt toward Yoon Hye-an that were mixed together, the suffocating fear that Jo Sung-hyun had instilled in her. The emotions that she had been suppressing and not being able to release, poured out uncontrollably.

[Even if you failed to summon the Vice President using me, Jo Seong-hyeon did not back down. He found another way.]

Yoon Hye-an’s voice on the other end of the phone was calm. It was a side of Yoon Hye-an that Park Dong-ha had no idea about. No, after waking up from unconsciousness, was there even a single time when Yoon Hye-an was similar to before? But he couldn’t readily believe that she had lost her memories. That’s because it was so hard to shake off the Yoon Hye-an of the past.

“I wasn’t supposed to be sponsored… Heh, heh, I wasn’t supposed to be sponsored… Huh… I shouldn’t have… Jo Seong-hyeon was right… I, sob, I went there on my own feet… Who can I blame…”

Park Dong-ha now shook his shoulders and sobbed loudly. He forgot that he was on a call and started rambling and blaming himself.

He was confined in a prison called fear and was confining his emotions to no one but ‘Yoon Hye-an’. The only place he could talk to was ‘Yoon Hye-an’. Have you ever thought that?

On the other end of the phone, Yoon Hye-an just listened to Park Dong-ha cry for a moment. Then she spoke in a calm but confident voice.

[If you put a person on the edge of a cliff, and hold a sharp knife in one hand… Do you want to jump? Do you want to be stabbed with the knife? If you ask them that, there’s no choice there. How can they choose between the two?]

“Ugh, ugh… ugh…”

[Jo Sung-hyun is the one who threatened you to choose between jumping or being stabbed. Whether you chose to jump or be stabbed. It’s not your fault. Me too… I only found out because someone told me so. Now I think that person is right.]

Park Dong-ha was listening to Yoon Hye-an’s story, and in the meantime, Park Dong-ha’s crying was gradually decreasing. Just like a child who was crying sadly and loudly gradually reduces his crying when he sees a new toy being shaken in front of him.

I focused on the voice of Yun Hye-an, who was throbbing as if possessed, while wiping away the tears from my cheeks with my palm. My palm, which had wiped away the tears, was excited. I swallowed the end of my tears as I rubbed them on my pants.

[A mistake that can be forgiven and undone is a mistake, and a mistake that cannot be forgiven is a sin. Remember your line in our scenario?]

“Oh, I remember…”

Park Dong-ha nodded and answered with a voice still full of moisture. It was a line he had been practicing a little while ago, so there was no way he wouldn’t remember it.

[Whether it was me in the past or you now, it would have been a huge mistake to receive sponsorship. Even if no one hurt anyone else, it would have been the same as hurting ourselves… a very, very big mistake.]

“……”

[But Jo Seong-hyeon has also hurt others. He has filmed non-consensual videos and threatened to ruin the lives of many people, and he is still ruining them now, and there is no telling how many more people he will ruin in the future.]

“……”

[I think that’s the crucial difference between sin and mistake. No, I came to think that way. Thanks to someone.]

“Khuh, huh… sigh…”

For some reason, the pounding sound of tears burst out again.

Yoon Hye-an had not changed. Not just that much, but she had become a completely different person, someone Park Dong-ha did not know. Maybe it was because of the ‘certain person’ that Yoon Hye-an was talking about now.

He could feel that there was no lie or acting mixed in what Yoon Hye-an was saying to him now. Only those who truly love each other can change each other in that way.

“Sigh, sob… I, I’m sorry, hyung… I really believe it now… That hyung, sob, is a different person than he used to be… sob, that he lost all his memories. I really believe it now. That the vice president and hyung, s, aren’t like sponsors or anything… hehe, sob…”

[Yes, thank you. Thank you for believing in me.]

On the other end of the phone, Yoon Hye-an’s voice, which had been calm the whole time, was trembling with tears.

[So trust me one more time, no, trust the Vice President, and let’s pack our bags quickly right now. Even if I can’t stop Jo Seong-hyeon, I can stop the Vice President.]

The more he heard Yoon Hye-an’s voice, trying to swallow her tears and stay calm, the louder Park Dong-ha’s crying became.

[Dong-ha, Park Dong-ha. Are you listening to me? There isn’t much time right now. Even if you cry, you have to cry while packing. Okay?]

“Oh, okay…”

[Put Romeo in the cage. He will be looked after at the Vice President’s house until you return.]

After finishing the call, Park Dong-ha wiped his face, which was covered in tears and snot, with a tissue. He was told to pack within an hour, but he didn’t know where to start. He was still struggling with emotions that had not yet been resolved. Then he opened his suitcase and started throwing everything he could get his hands on into it. Summer clothes and winter clothes were mixed together, and important and useless things coexisted.

In fact, there was nothing that was absolutely necessary. It wasn’t a quiet trip. Park Dong-ha seemed like someone whose only purpose was to fill up his carrier. And when the carrier was actually full, he covered it and zipped it up.

Romeo, now it was your turn to take care of Romeo.

Romeo, perhaps sensing his master’s anxiety, hovered around Park Dong-ha the whole time he was packing. Park Dong-ha sat on the floor and stroked Romeo.

“Romeo. You’re going to have to stay at the Vice President’s house for a while. Are you really living a very luxurious life? Can you be nice and good like you were when you were with me, without being hated?”

Whether he knew or not that they were apart for a moment, Romeo rubbed his body against Park Dong-ha’s thigh and lay down next to him, pressing himself against him.

“Would you like one last snack?”

Meow? The boy reacted immediately at the word snack. He sat up straight from his prone position and pricked up his ears. That sight made me laugh briefly.

I dragged my messily filled carrier into the hallway and headed to the kitchen with Romeo following me. When I took a plastic bag out of the fridge, Romeo straightened his tail and wagged it.

Niyaa.

“Hurry up, please,” the boy cried, looking up with his head held high.

I took out a single individually wrapped piece of Churu from the plastic bag and cut off the end so that Romeo could eat it. At first, he stood there quietly and wiggled around, but soon he put his front paws on Park Dong-ha’s hand and ate it without thinking.

“Is it that delicious?”

This time the guy didn’t answer.

The homemade snacks that Yoon Hye-an had left behind the day he came to this house. That night, Park Dong-ha couldn’t sleep and tossed and turned for a long time before coming back to the kitchen. He stood there blankly in the kitchen with no lights on, then dug through the trash can and took out this bunch of plastic bags. For some reason, he couldn’t completely throw them away. Maybe this time, he wanted to believe that Yoon Hye-an’s words might be true? He didn’t know himself. He just couldn’t.

The Churus that had been taken out one by one and fed to him until now only had two or three left. Park Dong-ha’s eyes filled with tears as he stroked Romeo’s back, who was desperately trying to eat the Churus until the very end.

“How do you make it? Next time… I’ll definitely ask my brother.”

I made a firm resolution again, enduring the pain and not shedding tears, until my eyes turned red.

“I’ll definitely ask and make it for you.”

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