Chapter 49: Going Out -2
Chapter 49: Going Out -2
At about 40 minutes of driving, we arrived at our destination.
I don't even know how I got here.
I was just driving absentmindedly, and before I knew it, we had arrived.
Scratch it, and you're screwed.
With just that one thought in mind, I couldn't care less about things like the exhilarating speed or the exhaust noise that made my whole body tremble.
No matter how fast my heart was beating, despite driving carefully, anxiety surged as I got out of the car, and the first thing I did was to check the condition of the car.
"The wheels are fine, the bumper is fine"
After meticulously checking every corner, Dokyun finally breathed a sigh of relief when he confirmed that there wasn't even a scratch on the car.
"Phew"
'I thought I was a gone.'
This car is irreplaceable even if he sell all my organs.
Insurance may cover it, but he didn't have the confidence to pay for repairs if the owner of this car demanded it from me.
Perhaps, he would have had to sell all his organs or resort to borrowing money from loan sharks.
Once again, he breathed a sigh of relief, his anxiety dissipating.
As Dokgyun exhaled in relief, Eunseol's voice came from ahead.
"Stop chattering and come."
Dokgyun turned his head towards her with a disgruntled expression upon hearing her voice.
Seeing her attitude, which seemed to indicate that it wasn't her concern or that she had no interest in the condition of the car, made him boil inside.
And there.
"Wasn't she asleep?"
Before arriving here, when he glanced at her to check, she was definitely asleep with her eyes closed.
Thinking about how comfortably she was sleeping made him feel incredibly bitter.
"Come on."
Her urging came again.
His fists clenched tightly, but Dokgyun forced a smile on his face and replied with as lively a tone as possible.
"Let's go!"
Ah, it's driving me crazy.
Immediately after, as he strode over to stand beside her, he felt something different from usual.
It was a trivial discomfort, but when he searched for the reason behind the oddly irritating feeling, the answer became clear.
"It's her height."
She seemed taller than usual.
"The height that couldn't reach my shoulders now has grown enough to cover my chin."
As Dokyun scanned her with a somber mood, he finally understood the reason.
"Why are the heels so high?"
The heels of her shoes were quite high.
Wouldn't her feet hurt like that?
As Dokyun looked at her with a grim mood, he heard swearing from her right after.
"What the hell are you looking at?"
A considerably rough tone.
As he raised his head, he saw a face glaring at him with a deeply furrowed expression.
Dokyun calmed his slightly startled heart at that expression and forced a smile before speaking.
"Oh, nothing. I just noticed how high the heels are."
Pause.
In an instant, her body trembled at Dokyun's words.
Seeing Dokyun's puzzled expression, she grimaced again and swore at him.
"Stop staring and follow me. There's a lot to do."
After saying that and moving forward, Dokyun finally realized why she was acting so hostile.
"Oh, it's a complex about being short."
He found a weakness.
Though his lips twitched at the thought, he suppressed them, realizing that picking a fight over this might only result in him getting beaten up, and straightened his lips before chasing after her.
"Let's just go!"
Honestly, those eyes were a little intimidating.
***
As they emerged from the underground parking lot, the cityscape unfolded before Dokyun's eyes.
Already in mid-December, the chilly air began to seep into his nostrils, filling his lungs. The smog that always pierced the air now felt strangely comforting; it couldn't be a mistake.
The loud music pounding in his ears made his heart race. The cacophony of music echoing from every storefront felt awkwardly familiar, twisting his body, and only then did he look around at the city.
A forest of tall, white buildings, cars and people passing through.
Everyone on the street was bundled up in thick coats, and frost clung to the bumpers of passing cars.
The streets, which had not yet shed the last remnants of autumn before he was kidnapped, now fully displayed the light of winter, showing how much time had passed in his absence.
There was no skeptical contemplation like 'the world seems to be doing fine without me.'
Just seeing the bustling society moving briskly along each street, he finally felt the joyous feeling of truly being outside.
It was a truly endearing and welcoming sight.
As he stood there, lost in thought, for quite some time, a voice calling out to him reached his ears.
"Hey."
Turning his head, he saw her, deeply furrowed and grimacing.
"Oh, yes."
As Dokyun replied, she approached him and started rummaging through her coat pockets, pulling something out.
"Take this."
She lowered her head and saw what she was offering.
It was his wallet and smartphone.
"Ah."
She had remembered to bring them. Only now did these things come to mind.
Despite having lived with them all her life, the sudden situations had caused her to black out and forget them completely.
As Dokyun received the wallet and smartphone and felt an awkward sensation, her words reached him again.
"Let's go to that caf over there."
Raising his head to see the direction she was pointing, he saw a franchise caf across the street.
Reading from her words that she intended to act separately, Dokyun asked her a question while looking at her.
"Aren't you coming with me, Eunseol?"
"I have something to take care of."
"Ah."
He had naturally assumed they would move together, but her response was different from what he had in mind.
"You also handle your affairs during this time. Since I handled the company's, you can take care of the rest."
"Me?"
As Dokyun felt puzzled amidst her continuous explanation, she added further clarification.
"I made up some excuse about being sick. You'll have to return to work later, won't you?"
It was quite an unexpected statement.
'Later'
She was talking about after everything was over.
Feeling somewhat strange about her words that seemed obvious, he had a question that came to mind before anything else.
"How did you manage that?"
It wouldn't have been as easy as she made it sound; after all, his workplace was not just some neighborhood store but a reputable mid-sized company.
If it were so easy to manipulate, he wouldn't be worrying like this.
Looking at her with a face full of doubts, she casually provided him with an answer.
"Money."
"What?"
"What can't be done with money?"
Dokyun's mouth fell open at her response.
"I roughly fabricated a medical certificate and spread the word that I was in an unreachable state. I knew someone over there."
As he stared at her with a despondent expression, tired eyes shone behind the glasses. Her expression was indifferent, as if it wasn't a big deal.
"So, I contacted only personal acquaintances like that, and I'll go first."
"Is it an illusion that turning away after saying so much seems larger than life?
Even though she had only uttered a few words, it definitely felt like she was from a different world.
'Wow'
Indeed, as Eunah had said, Unnie was remarkable.
***
How long had he stood there in a daze, feeling the chill creeping into his body, Dokyun finally snapped out of it and made his way into the caf.
As he opened the door, the tinkling of bells could be heard, along with the welcoming greeting from the staff.
"Welcome~."
Responding casually to the greeting, Dokyun looked around and noticed that despite it being a weekday afternoon, there were quite a few people seated.
Feeling a bit excited by the scent of people he hadn't been around for a while, Dokyun approached the counter and ordered a cup of coffee. As he settled by the window, he began to recall what he needed to do.
Firstly, he needed to contact people around him and tidy up his surroundings, as she had suggested.
After finishing his thoughts, Dokyun took out his smartphone, turned it on, and was greeted by a familiar wallpaper, followed by the home screen.
The sight of the gray wallpaper and the icons arranged on it brought a sense of nostalgia, causing a slight flutter in his chest.
Lost in contemplation, as he was about to delve into his phone, a sudden groan escaped from Dokyun's lips.
"Ugh"
Perhaps it was because it had been nearly two weeks since he last touched it, but pressing the screen felt oddly unfamiliar.
It felt like he couldn't control the strength properly. Even though he pressed gently, his finger felt awkward as it pushed down onto the screen.
"This is driving me crazy."
It felt like becoming a primitive man encountering civilization for the first time.
Feeling a momentary disappointment at how awkward it felt despite being away for only a few weeks, Dokyun's body quickly adapted to the familiar sensation, erasing the discomfort, and he opened his contacts.
Shortly after, as he scrolled through his contacts, Dokyun suddenly found himself chuckling.
"The contacts I received"
His parents, his squad leader, his boss, three friends.
Despite having disappeared for two weeks, he wondered why there weren't more contacts, feeling a hint of melancholy.
"But then again, I'm not the one who usually reaches out first."
Quickly brushing off the feeling as he recalled his usual behavior, Dokyun began making calls to the contacts that had reached out to him.
While it felt like a long wait for him, it seemed like only a short time had passed in society. The voices on the other end of the line were filled with more joy than worry.
His parents were doing well, and Porong seemed to have just been neutered. Myungdae was still complaining from the first word of the call, and his boss managed to wrangle a drinking appointment out of him.
Facing the time and people he thought he might never recover, there was a slight lump in his throat, but it was a feeling filled with laughter, which made him gladly raise his head, despite the slight melancholy creeping in.
After a while, Dokyun ended the call with his last friend, quickly conveying only the necessary information, and finally took a breath, shifting his gaze to stare blankly out the window.
"Now what?"
Contacts were also done. Probably there wouldn't be any problems related to this for a while.
There was nothing else to deal with.
Literally, sorting out the people around him was over.
As he sat blankly for a moment, recalling how he usually spent his free time, Dokyun's eyes widened.
"Wait a moment."
He was alone now. His smartphone was in his hand. Perhaps there was still quite some time until she arrived.
His gaze, which had been directed out the window, twitched with a sudden movement towards his hand.
"This Is it time to read a novel?"
The thought occurred, and before his mind could grasp it, his body began to react.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart pounded fiercely. The corners of his mouth twitched, and his eyebrows trembled.
"Come to think of it"
For about two weeks, he, who had not skipped a single day of reading novels, hadn't read a web novel for almost two weeks.
That meant
The piled-up novels were waiting.
"Huh!"
A groan escaped involuntarily. A sensation akin to piercing through his spine.
"Ah"
The tremble didn't cease.
Now was the time for catastrophic ecstasy, in cafes, outdoors, publicly.
"I can do it Can't I?"
Goosebumps ran through his whole body. A pleasant sensation stemming not from fear but from exhilaration.
The previous sentimental resonance vanished without a trace, and a primitive pleasure began to envelop him thickly.
His fingers moved involuntarily, pressing the gold-winged icon that had been floating impatiently on the screen.
And then, the screen appeared.
"Let's go Let's go!"
Releasing the lips that had become uncontrollable, Dokyun, who had been staring at the main banner floating on the screen, felt his suppressed essence awakening.
Now was the time to endure the long period of humiliation and suffering and return to being the 'Simhae Bee.'
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