Chapter 13: The Day I Died in the Snow.

“…After realizing I had been thoroughly used, betrayed, and finally, completely abandoned for the person he claimed to truly love, I…”

Although it was a slightly different story from what she had been saying so far, Yoojun could feel that Sayoung was now spewing words more important than any she had said before.

He couldn’t breathe.
A painful chill was slowly creeping into Yoojun’s skin, starting from his fingertips.

A snowy field, again.
Yoojun was suddenly isolated in a pure white, silent, snowy field where not a speck of warmth could be found.

A dot in the distance spoke.

“I left the house and just walked. I had cried so much that I couldn’t see clearly, and I couldn’t even breathe properly…. My vision was dizzy… but I just kept walking. I wanted to get as far away from Han Jaewoo as possible…”

Knock. Knock. Dots spread across the snowfield.

“I don’t really remember how I got hit by the car. Whether I wandered into the road while walking aimlessly, or jumped in front of the car, or what… I just remember a flash of light, and then I was lying on the cold ground.”

The spreading dots were blood.
Yoojun, as if paralyzed, stood there in the cold wind, watching the red blood spread on that snowy field, or perhaps on the black asphalt.

“It was snowing that day…”

His fingertips were bitingly cold.
He couldn’t be sure if the person lying on the cold ground was Sayoung or himself.

“Snowflakes fell on the blood that blurred my vision… and in my ears, Han Jaewoo’s last words kept playing… I remember that scene being so cold and painful.”

Yoojun didn’t know what the voice that had lingered in Sayoung’s ears had been saying.
It surely wasn’t anything pleasant to recall.

Yoojun couldn’t know what it felt like for the final memories of one’s life to be stained with humiliation and misery.

“Mr. Yoojun.”

At that moment, Sayoung called to Yoojun.

The pale snowy field and the distant darkness, the blood that had been spreading there, all disappeared in an instant, and Yoojun was back sitting in the hospital room, looking at Sayoung, who was sitting in front of him, meeting his gaze directly.

His heart pounded with a loud noise.
It was an uncomfortable and alien rhythm.
Sayoung spoke.

“I know I look pathetic. I also know that it would be a better choice to forget him and live well for him to see, rather than carrying out such a petty revenge.”

“……”

“Still… the memory of that last day, which was so cold and painful it was hard to bear, is too vivid. I can’t forget it.”

Yoojun finally understood why the biting scent of midwinter had been lingering in this warm hospital room.
Yoon Sayoung was winter herself.
She was a person who possessed only the most painful moments of winter.

“So, it’s fine if I’m pathetic, but I want Han Jaewoo to feel the pain I felt at that moment, just for once, just for a single moment. So…”

Even as she uttered such painful words, Sayoung didn’t frown.
Not a single tear was seen.

It wasn’t because she was truly calm, but because she was so hurt she couldn’t even express it.

“So… please help me, Mr. Yoojun.”

“……”

“I’m begging you. Please take pity on me.”

The snowflakes that had scattered over Sayoung’s death, at that moment, fell onto Yoojun’s frozen hand.

****

Jaewoo was enjoying wine alone at home, a rare treat.
It had been the case for the most part recently, but today he was in a particularly good mood.
It was a sort of self-celebration.

It was because the contract for the movie <Summer Solstice>, which he had been putting a lot of effort into for his next project, had finally been signed.

It had taken longer than expected to finalize the contract, as it seemed the director had originally had another actor in mind.
He didn’t know how many strings he had had to pull, with investors and whatnot, to persuade the adamant director.

To be honest, his pride had been considerably wounded while pulling those strings.
It wasn’t the main male lead, and no matter how significant, it was just a supporting role, so there was no reason to stoop, but since he was the one who wanted it, he couldn’t push hard against the other party’s passive attitude.

Jaewoo, who had expected them to welcome him with open arms if he said he would do it, couldn’t help but feel offended.

If it weren’t for Kim Yoojun, he wouldn’t even give a damn about a movie like this.

Naturally, it was Jaewoo’s manager who had to bear the brunt of Han Jaewoo’s frustration, which he couldn’t release where he was truly dissatisfied.
He probably didn’t know it, but he was surely genuinely happy that the contract had been successfully concluded as well.

Jaewoo savored the aroma of the wine with a satisfied expression.
There had been a lot of things, but in the end, he had won the role with satisfactory conditions, and the schedules ahead would surely be enjoyable.

The two hottest male actors right now had teamed up, it was both of their first historical drama challenges, and although it wasn’t Jaewoo’s taste, the scenario was solid and it even had a renowned director.
It was a movie with little chance of failure from any angle.

To be able to build a good career while playing a rival role with Yoojun.
It was truly a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
A moment where there was no reason not to enjoy it.

“……”

But Jaewoo’s eyes, after taking a sip of wine, were somewhat subdued, unlike a moment ago.
It was because a voice he didn’t want to think about had come to mind out of habit.

‘Congratulations! I knew you would get it!’

He didn’t need to make an effort to recall the voice.
As if she were right in front of him now.
As if she were right next to him, actually speaking to him, a voice so clear came to his ears.

It was Yoon Sayoung’s voice.

In the early days of their marriage.
That is, when Jaewoo was still pretending to be a man passionately in love with her.

Whenever Jaewoo, who had been unknown for a long time, landed good roles one by one, Sayoung would sincerely congratulate him, her eyes sparkling with joy as if her own good fortune had arrived.

A lovely and moved face.
So much so that even Jaewoo sometimes wanted to genuinely smile back at her.

But that face of Yoon Sayoung’s could not remain a pure joy for Jaewoo.
Because Sayoung’s existence always reminded Jaewoo of what others said about him.

‘Yoon Sayoung’s husband.’
‘Cinderella.’
‘A kept man who had nothing and was nothing special, who had hit the jackpot by meeting one good woman.’

The envy and jealousy towards Han Jaewoo, who had not only seduced the most talked-about star in Korea at the time overnight but had also shed his obscurity and was soaring to success thanks to her, was beyond imagination.

It wasn’t just people talking on the internet.
From the gazes of fellow actors and staff he met on set, from passing jokes, from the words he had to pretend not to hear from behind, Jaewoo always had to endure stories that were no different from malicious comments on the internet.

No matter how much their words weren’t wrong.
Even if it was true that he had approached her and won her heart purely because he wanted to use Yoon Sayoung’s popularity, actually receiving the same criticism endlessly was by no means a pleasant feeling.

Jaewoo believed that it was somewhat understandable that he had vented his anger from the disregard and insults he suffered on Sayoung.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know it was a trashy thing to do, but it was none other than Sayoung who had insisted on staying by Han Jaewoo’s side even knowing that.
And so, she had made him feel a thrill at the sight of her groveling and clinging to him, no matter how cruelly and badly he treated her.

Jaewoo felt it was somewhat unfair to have to bear all the responsibility for this now.
Well, it was a problem he didn’t need to think about anymore, now that they were divorced.

As his thoughts reached that point, Jaewoo suddenly put down his glass and rose from the sofa.
Then, he slowly walked down the hallway toward Sayoung’s room, which was in the most secluded corner of the house.
It was an impulsive step.

Although they lived in the same house, the two of them had been using separate rooms for a long time.
At Jaewoo’s words that he felt sick just looking at her, Sayoung had willingly moved her room to a corner where her path would not cross with Jaewoo’s.

Jaewoo opened the door that he had never once opened with his own hands, not even when Sayoung, who had transferred the jointly owned house to him after the divorce, was leaving.
A strange sensation brushed against his fingertips.

At that moment, the scent of a lush summer forest’s greenery brushed very faintly against the tip of his nose.
It was the scent of the Omega, Sayoung.

A long time had passed since Sayoung had left, and it wasn’t as if the room hadn’t been cleaned in the meantime, but her scent still lingered in this space.

Just like the tiresome Yoon Sayoung.

“…So tiresome, really.”

Truly a being that was annoying to the very end.
Jaewoo shook his head lightly and turned his body away from the place where Sayoung’s traces remained.

The question was why he had suddenly thought of Sayoung on such a good day in the first place.

Jaewoo closed the door, shaking off the name, face, voice, and everything of the person who would no longer hold any meaning in his life.

Yoon Sayoung.
She was a person who would no longer exist in Han Jaewoo’s life.

****

‘It still seems like none of my business.’

Yoojun had definitely opened his mouth to give that answer.
When he had heard Sayoung’s words asking him to take pity on her.

He had heard enough of Yoon Sayoung’s circumstances.
With what kind of heart she had started this childish revenge drama, and why she was trying to drag him into it.
Yes, it was still incomprehensible by Yoojun’s standards, but he understood, so to speak.

However, understanding her situation and accepting her request were completely different matters.
Yoojun still had no reason to participate in her plan, which would bring him no benefit.

“…Alright.”

But at that moment.
The answer Yoojun uttered while facing Sayoung’s face, who was calmly awaiting his decision, was in a completely different direction from the answer he had thought of in his head.

Yoojun was flustered.
So he hurried to retract his answer.
Yoojun opened his mouth again.

“I’ll play along with your childish tune, just this once, as if I’m being deceived.”

The words that followed were still sounds that had nothing to do with Yoojun’s will.