In the late hours of the night, without anyone knowing, Jun-kyung came to this place alone. He handed him various things, saying that he had come to bring him necessities, and looked around the house. When he saw the house that looked like it would collapse if kicked, Jun-kyung, who rarely changes his expression, could not maintain it.
Then, without saying a word, he stared at Woo-hyun’s face. As if asking if he was really going to live in this house. Woo-hyun almost laughed when he saw his face like that.
He was much more familiar with this house, which had stain marks from the rain leaks, than with his current house, which was made entirely of marble. That’s how he lived, and that’s why he came to this place. Jun-kyung, who had lived a normal life and only came to this place due to an emergency, was in an environment that was difficult for him to understand.
Left alone and leaning against the wall, Woo-hyun’s gaze moved along the yellow traces. As he looked at the end of the line that went down and connected back again to the ceiling, he heard the door open with a squeak.
Woo-hyun reached out and opened the small window. Then, he saw Yoo-hwa coming out of the house, staggering.
Her shoulders were bent under the pressure of life, and her cast-down gaze didn’t contain any guilt. After everything that was inside had flowed out, only her soulless appearance, barely standing, remained, haggard and weak.
Woo-hyun suddenly wondered if Eun-soo also looked like that in her final moments. The last time he saw her, before she was placed in the coffin, Eun-soo looked haggardly thin. It wasn’t that she was skinny because she had just passed away, but that she had been like that since she was alive.
She was pregnant, so how did she look like that? Why didn’t she call him even when she became like that?
“Oppa is also a part of our family.”
She said that over and over again.
Immersed in thought, Woo-hyun followed Yoo-hwa with his gaze. Yoo-hwa headed to the house next door with a slow pace but with a clear direction. 20 minutes after the old lady went out, Yoo-hwa went there to work.
For most of the day, Yoo-hwa took care of the meals of the grandma with dementia who had difficulty moving around, and did her laundry in the public water supply, where there was only cold water.
The grandma with dementia rarely came out of the house because of her mobility problems. He couldn’t see the grandma for a few days, so, if he hadn’t heard through Jun-kyung that Yoo-hwa was working part-time next door to look after her, he would have had no way to figure out why she was going in and out of that house.
Yoo-hwa stayed at the house all day and returned to her own house about 10 minutes before the grandma’s daughter, that old lady, returned home from work. Once every three days, the old lady did not come home, and Yoo-hwa, who seemed to be aware of that beforehand, stayed in front of the grandma’s house all night long.
Other than that, there was nothing special about Yoo-hwa’s actions. Sometimes late at night, she would put on a hat and go to the only mart 10 minutes away to buy tofu, green onions, garlic, onions, and ramen; and once in a while, she would crouch in the middle of the yard and look at the sky for a long time before going inside.
Woo-hyun watched all of that without making a sound. To win someone’s favor, it’s convenient to understand what kind of person they are, what they like, and what they do. It was one of the ways that have enabled him to survive so far.
6:20 PM. At that exact moment, Yoo-hwa came out of the grandma’s house. Yoo-hwa never looked at Woo-hyun’s house, as if she couldn’t see anything. It was a stubborn gaze, as if she had been instructed to ignore this place.
Suddenly, it started raining. The heavy rain pounded on the eaves and fell heavily on the cracked gray cement floor. Before long, the world was covered in heavy rain, making a clamorous sound. Unable to avoid it, Yoo-hwa went into her house after being hit with a few drops of rain.
The world was completely submerged in the heavy rain. With the roaring sound of rain in the background, Woo-hyun slowly got up.
He hadn’t eaten anything all day and was hungry. Fasting for a day when he was young was something trivial, but when did he start to be unable to stand this hunger?
Woo-hyun’s good-looking lips twisted, and the corners of his eyes were curved with an empty smile. With a cold smile, he pushed the door and got out.
Thump, thump.
Woo-hyun immediately knocked on the door next to his. It was quiet beyond the door. He felt a suffocating silence. He immediately realized Yoo-hwa’s intention to pretend she wasn’t there. Woo-hyun raised his hand again and knocked on the door. After he knocked a few more times, Yoo-hwa reluctantly opened the door.
It was raining so hard that even though it only hit her for a moment, her hair was still wet.
“… Is something wrong?”
Yoo-hwa asked with her eyes closed, like someone who had a foreboding of who had come.
“Seems like you knew it was me.”
Woo-hyun said with a gentle smile.
“You’re the only one who would knock on the door at this hour.”
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“You mean you knew I was at home?”
“… No. It’s not like that.”
Although Yoo-hwa denied it, Woo-hyun knew she was lying.
He was living while meeting with dozens or hundreds of swindlers who are all talk and no action. To him, Yoo-hwa’s shallow lies could be exposed by her closed eyes and voice alone.
However, Woo-hyun pretended not to know. It would be difficult if Yoo-hwa hid even more due to useless stimulation. She was still a woman hiding in her house like a snail.