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A couple who looked to be in their late thirties was going through the check-in process at the counter, their daughter, who seemed to be in her first or second year of middle school, standing behind them.
Perhaps they didn’t have much experience traveling abroad as a family; the couple’s faces were fraught with tension, each of them carrying a backpack and a crossbody bag in addition to their check-in luggage.
After finally completing their check-in without a hitch, the couple was instructed to wait on a nearby bench until their checked baggage was fully inspected for any issues. They pushed their empty cart, now free of luggage, and moved in my direction.
And they settled down side-by-side on the bench opposite where I was sitting.
“You didn’t put the camera battery in the suitcase, did you?” “Yeah, it’s in my backpack.”
The father asked, carefully brushing back a strand of his daughter’s hair that had fallen beside her temple from her loosely tied ponytail. The daughter answered in a slightly annoyed tone.
“I’m worried, she didn’t sleep well last night. She’ll be uncomfortable on the plane, too.”
The mother said, looking at her daughter with a worried expression.
“Mom, what time did you say we’ll be in Prague? I want to go to the Charles Bridge as soon as we arrive.”
Seeing their daughter, who, despite her fatigue, was asking about the schedule in anticipation of the trip, the couple erased their worried expressions and exchanged smiles.
When we all went to Hong Kong on business for Phantom, I hadn’t really paid attention to my surroundings. There had been excitement, but also a great deal of tension. Just like the couple before me now. But sitting on an airport bench as a non-traveler, things I hadn’t seen then came into view.
Morae and Hyung were gone.
Saying we shouldn’t do something as cliché as watching until they disappeared into the departure hall, the two had suggested we part ways at the check-in counter. They would head for the departure hall, and I would head for the gate we had come through. That we should each go our own way, without anyone staying behind to watch the other’s back.
But after waving goodbye and turning around, I had come back to this bench and sat down. I just felt like I shouldn’t leave this place too quickly.
Families leaving for trips to mark the summer vacation and holidays could be easily spotted everywhere in the airport. It was an era where the number of overseas travelers reached thirty million a year, and it had been a long time since traveling abroad was no longer the exclusive domain of the wealthy.
Even in my grandfather’s village, there were opportunities for cheap overseas package tours organized by various groups like the fisheries cooperative, the agricultural cooperative, and the women’s association several times a year. And in middle school, after a new semester began, I often heard travel stories from friends who had been to various countries around the world during the break.
The three of us—my mother, my father, and I—had never been on one of those supposedly common overseas trips. My mother seemed to have traveled a lot in the past, but there had never been an opportunity for the three of us to go together as a family.
I never thought our family was unhappy because of it, nor did I ever feel small or envious of my friends’ travel stories. My parents prioritized securing time to paint in their economic activities, so our finances weren’t plentiful, but I never once felt unhappy or unfortunate for not being able to wear brand-name shoes or clothes.
I was thinking about the days right after my mother’s award was announced.
I was recalling the faces of my father and mother, who, with joyful expressions at the dinner table every evening, discussed how best to use the rather large sum of prize money for our family.
Whether to put it toward replacing the used car we’d been driving for over ten years; to supplement my mother’s digital equipment, replace my laptop which I had inherited from my father, and get my father a tailored suit, then save the rest.
The dinner table had been bustling with energy every evening, as if the act of deliberating where to spend the money was more enjoyable than actually spending it. Although my mother never openly suggested it, I knew at the time that she was also considering a museum tour to Europe for the three of us.
But that scene, rather than being an actual memory my family had shared, felt unreal to me now, like a video where happiness had been artificially staged. Moreover, as if due to signal interference, the screen soon flickered with static and went black. Just like our plans, none of which, out of several candidates, had ever been realized.
As soon as I intuited that I had dug up too much, I felt a safety mechanism in my chest snap and grab me by the scruff of the neck. It was a signal to stop.
I tore my gaze away from the girl who was flipping through a travel guide packed with colorful tapes and Post-it notes marking important pages, and I stood up from my seat.
The driver had said I couldn’t park for long in front of the departures gate and to call him on my way out, so I made the call to say I was leaving the airport now. The driver told me to come to the front of the gate in five minutes, but I hurried out of the airport.
The rain was still drizzling, though finer than yesterday, and the air outside was humid, but I didn’t feel the heat as my body temperature had dropped from the air conditioning.
The people coming and going in front of the departure hall all had flushed faces in anticipation of their travels. Just like in front of the hotel, I felt a sense of alienation here.
A wave of fatigue suddenly washed over me. As the tension eased, it felt as if the physical exhaustion from not having slept or rested properly for the past few days was crashing down all at once.
I crossed the street at two traffic lights to get to the location the driver had told me. The black sedan that had comfortably transported us yesterday and today was slowing down as it approached.
I bowed my head toward the faint outline of the driver visible through the heavily tinted windshield of the stopped vehicle, walked toward the back seat, and opened the door.
“You parted ways earlier than I thought.”
It was his voice. He was inside.
With one hand on the edge of the door, I leaned in and froze for a moment.
“How…”
It was definitely the same car I had ridden in with Morae and Hyung, and the same driver who had driven us. As far as I knew, he had never ridden in this car with us.
Tsk. Clicking his tongue, he moved closer and pulled at my wrist, which was still gripping the door.
“You’ll get all wet again. Hurry up and get in.”
Even after awkwardly getting into the car as he led me, I couldn’t grasp the situation and sat pressed against the door, looking at him with eyes full of questions.
“Is it that surprising that I’m here?”
He, on the contrary, looked as if he hadn’t expected me to be this surprised.
In truth, I was more pleased than surprised. So pleased that I didn’t know how to manage my expression. It was because I had just realized, only after sending Morae and Hyung off, that my heart had been wrung out and left in tatters over the past few days… His completely unexpected appearance was a joy. Just seeing him was the beginning of healing.
He was already exerting his influence as the person I liked.
“I didn’t expect it at all…”
I muttered as the car started moving and I shifted to sit more comfortably. For some reason, I felt awkward looking straight at him.
“I don’t think me being in my own car is that surprising.”
A small laugh escaped me at his joke, which he insisted on with strange logic. Whatever the reason he was here, whether it was for business or something else, for now, I just wanted to gratefully accept this gentle influence he was unknowingly exerting on me as the object of my affection.
My gaze, which had been lingering around his chest as I thought my joy at our unexpected meeting might be showing too clearly, caught sight of his sunglasses. Though it was the rainy season, he habitually kept his sunglasses tucked into the left breast pocket of his jacket.
“Those are nice sunglasses…”
“Hm?”
As if it were an unexpected topic, he raised the end of his sentence in a question.
“Can I… try them on?”
It was a bold move for me. I was just as surprised by my own impulsive action. Perhaps the fatigue after a major event and the excitement from his appearance were drawing out a side of me that was different from usual.
Smiling with the corners of his lips pulled up, he looked at me with an interested expression, as if he’d heard a fascinating proposal, and readily handed over the sunglasses. With a simple frame, dark lenses, and thin, sleek arms, the sunglasses, which gave off an intellectual impression, were excellent for hiding one’s expression.
“Let me see. They look good on you.”
Even as he turned my shoulders and peered into my face, amused, I was able to meet his gaze without looking away. It was a very useful item.
He stared at my face with sparkling eyes as if looking at something wondrous, and only after a long moment did he shake his head and avert his gaze. Then he took a phone out of his inner jacket pocket and held it out to me.
“What… is this?”
“It’s your new phone, Mr. Seo Yeehyeon.”
The phone I took, bewildered, was the latest model from a certain brand that Juhan-hyung had been going on and on about wanting lately.
“Until now, their objective was those two, so there was no need to apply direct pressure on you, Mr. Seo Yeehyeon. But once they realize that tracking those two has become impossible, you’ll be the only one left to dig for information. The situation is different now. You could become a target at any moment. We need to be prepared.”
Tapping his thumb on his own phone screen, he spoke in a humorless voice. A moment later, I felt a light vibration in my hand. It was a message from him.
“It’s a new number, so use this from now on.”
In the blank message inbox, only his number, not yet saved as a contact, was displayed. The empty device in my hand, holding no trace of anything, felt like a futuristic tool that could reset the entire past and allow for a fresh start. I silently scoffed at my own sentimental and absurd hope.
“Where you work, where you live. Finding out that much information within the country’s borders is simpler than you think. It’s best to live somewhere that isn’t easily accessible, even if they find out where you are.”
His outline was a bit blurrier through the sunglasses, but the color of his eyes seemed even more vivid. His eyes, which seethed with a carbonated blue and white during sex, were now calmly directed at me.
“There’s a suitable place for your atelier and temporary residence, Mr. Seo Yeehyeon. I was thinking of going to check it out with you now, would that be all right?”
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