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Chapter 31
“Let go of me.”
Chae-yoon, who had been helplessly held by Mu-hyun, suddenly spoke with a serious expression. However, the tremor in her voice betrayed her, and it carried no real weight.
Mu-hyun stared at her, forgetting even to reply. He fought hard to suppress the urge to hold Song Chae-yoon tighter, to pull her closer into his embrace.
If a simple gesture like this could shake him so deeply, perhaps Chae-yoon and he were closer than he had thought. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so unsettled.
“Do you really want me to let go?”
Perhaps the question was really meant for himself, not Chae-yoon.
Should he let her go and return to the time before Chae-yoon existed, or should he follow his instincts and hold her closer, refusing to let go?
With two options before him, it was unlike him to hesitate so much. Still, Mu-hyun couldn’t make a decision easily. So he forced the choice onto Chae-yoon instead.
“Why not be honest? Instead of pushing me away out of obligation, wouldn’t it be better to let everything you’re holding inside out and feel at ease?”
“What would change if I let it all out?”
At that moment, Chae-yoon shot back without hesitation.
“Just because I hear about the past doesn’t mean Director Seo Mu-hyun’s memory will return, right? Why do you keep digging into a time I can’t even remember?”
Her voice was still low and trembling, but the words themselves were firm.
Mu-hyun was momentarily taken aback by her calm, almost cold, tone—and then surprised at himself for being unsettled by something so trivial.
“I’m curious. Five whole months of life vanished. Who wouldn’t be curious about that?”
“…I don’t understand why you’re trying to recover that memory through me. I feel sorry for you, Director Seo, but there’s nothing I can do to help.”
Her composed refusal made him strangely uncomfortable. Clenching his teeth, Mu-hyun finally responded, his voice twisted slightly.
“I don’t think that’s something you should be saying while looking at me with eyes that tremble like that.”
“You only think it looks that way because of this awkward position. Could you move aside now?”
Her hands weren’t gripping him tightly, yet Mu-hyun’s arms slackened and fell away from Chae-yoon.
They had only been in that embrace for a few minutes. Still, as he watched Chae-yoon step back, Mu-hyun felt a pang of regret.
Suppressing the inexplicable feeling that he shouldn’t let her go so easily, he asked again.
“Is that really how you feel, Song Chae-yoon? You have nothing to say to me? Not even one word?”
“…Nothing. So please, just go to the villa now.”
Her voice, answering without turning back, was completely unwavering this time. Perhaps because of that, Mu-hyun felt a chill in his chest at her cold dismissal.
It was a drizzly autumn day.
Mu-hyun, in the villa, paced the living room as he waited for someone.
He glanced at the wall clock, then out the window, then at his wrist, and back outside again—clearly waiting for someone.
After a short while, his phone rang, and he pressed the call button as if he had been waiting for that moment. His expression brightened instantly, warm and gentle.
“Class is over? What? Already on your way? Then you should’ve called earlier. It’s raining like this… No, if I leave on time for the station…”
He frowned briefly, perhaps at what the other person said, then quickly broke into a smile.
“Since it’s raining, you’ll come get me, right? I’ll be there soon, so wait inside the station. Don’t get a drop of rain on you. Got it?”
Saying that, Mu-hyun went upstairs. He returned shortly, coat in hand, and his every movement was full of joy and anticipation.
Watching him like an outsider, Mu-hyun realized how clearly that everything felt like a dream.
While wondering whose call could make him dash out like that, in the dream, he was already outside, starting the car.
The rain grew heavier on the way to Yangpyeong Station, turning what should have been a ten-minute trip into almost twenty.
At an intersection with a view of Yangpyeong Station, the light changed, and Mu-hyun stopped the car with mild annoyance.
He was checking the time, clearly impatient at making the person he was meeting wait, when a chilling screech reached his ears.
Screeeech!
Who drives recklessly in this rain? he thought.
Then, a truck suddenly appeared, crashing into his car.
Bang!
“Ah!”
Mu-hyun’s eyes flew open, and he gasped.
It was his first time dreaming about an accident, but it felt so real that he couldn’t calm himself easily.
It took him a while to sit up on the bed.
He stripped the sweat-soaked clothes and stood under a cold shower for a long time.
Afterward, he checked the time: 4 a.m.
He gave up on sleep and went down to the kitchen. A cup of hot coffee finally calmed his racing heart.
In the living room, he stared at the dimly brightening sky, lost in thought.
Could that dream have been real?
…Perhaps. He had heard that he was at the villa resting when the second accident occurred.
Then, who had he gone out to meet?
The thought of him personally going to pick someone up because of rain, with such a bright, happy expression, felt remarkably vivid—even in a dream.
It must have been a lover. He had never stayed with anyone else at the villa.
Occasionally, his grandfather stayed for a day or two, but the idea that his grandfather alone would come to the villa via Yangpyeong Station was absurd.
Who could it have been?
Who made the tedious act of driving in the rain feel joyful?
Could it… have been Song Chae-yoon?
Mu-hyun deliberately tried not to think of her, failing, and wore a tired expression.
“…I don’t understand why you’re trying to recover that memory through me. I feel sorry for you, Director Seo, but there’s nothing I can do to help.”
Last night, he had intentionally provoked Song Chae-yoon, wanting to see her falter.
Even if she hadn’t, he thought that continued provocation might make her accidentally bring up a memory.
Yet Chae-yoon was stronger than he expected. She didn’t just resist; she outright rejected him, leaving him unable to shake or provoke her.
Perhaps that dream was his heart, unsettled by Chae-yoon, manifesting.
Her clear eyes that wavered when startled, the red lips she bit to hide her expression, the slim shoulders that fit perfectly in his arms, the delicate waist that seemed almost nothing—
Remembering holding Chae-yoon in his arms yesterday, his body reacted instinctively.
Mu-hyun looked down at his lower body and muttered a curse. He couldn’t understand why, after thirty years of being so proper, he was now so desperate to reveal himself.
