Chapter 1: The Last Ride Together

The sky, heavy with dark clouds, was twisted as if about to squeeze out raindrops.

It was Olympic Park, where the OST concert for the Invincible Power Kitty Corps was to be held.

The long line of cars stretching front to back showed no sign of moving, like a paused screen.

At the parking lot entrance, where a massive banner featuring the five cats came into view, two men were in the middle of a heated argument.

“So I have to report every single detail of my private life to you now?”

Seon Woo-min rolled down the window, as if feeling stifled.

The late autumn wind, carrying a chill, immediately rushed into the car, ruffling his light brown hair.

A faint cough escaped him, as he was still recovering from a cold.

“You always talk like that when things don’t go your way.

When did I ever tell you to report to me?”

Lee Do-kyung promptly rolled the window back up.

Biting his lip, Woo-min fidgeted restlessly with the locked door trim button, clicking it incessantly.

Do-kyung, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, closed them tightly as if trying to suppress his anger.

“Keep your hands still.”

“……”

“Your hands.”

“……”

“Seon Woo-min.”

Woo-min glared at Lee Do-kyung with a look of exasperation.

Do-kyung’s jaw was clenched tight, the muscles standing out.

The piercing through his lower lip glinted coldly.

Today was Seon Woo-min’s birthday.

Lee Do-kyung had made various plans centered around what Woo-min liked.

So when Woo-min, who had been sitting at the café barely perched on his seat like his mind was elsewhere, suddenly announced he had prior plans and started getting ready to go out alone, Do-kyung couldn’t hide his dismay.

He had to press and ask where he was going, finally managing to drive him to his destination.

Although the unseasonably warm weather made it feel muggy, the evenings were still chilly, and Woo-min hadn’t fully recovered from his cold, so Do-kyung wasn’t pleased about it being an outdoor venue either.

Woo-min claimed he had told Do-kyung about these plans.

But since the date he said he’d mentioned was Woo-min’s birthday itself, Do-kyung might have simply dismissed it as having misheard.

Moreover, there had been a lot building up due to Woo-min’s attitude of seeming to hide something lately, and it had chosen this moment to finally explode.

That was the whole story of the argument that had continued from the café all the way to this place.

“I clearly told you, Lee Do-kyung.”

“Right, November 7th.”

“You just misheard it as November 1st.

You should have checked again.

Why are you blaming me?”

“I’m not blaming you.

I just never imagined you’d make other plans for that day.”

“Don’t be sarcastic.”

“Just let this one slide.”

Do-kyung wanted to let it go because it was Woo-min’s birthday, but for that very same reason, he couldn’t.

Spending the entire day together from start to finish was an unspoken promise between them, the most important event of the year.

“You don’t need to go all the way into the parking lot.

Just drop me off here.”

Woo-min, who had been looking away from Do-kyung the whole time, muttered.

“Lee Do-kyung, are you listening to me?”

At Woo-min’s sharp urging, the Maserati veered roughly out of the line of cars and swerved around a corner.

A heavy silence filled the parked car.

Seon Woo-min, frozen in surprise, gradually relaxed the grip he had on his seatbelt.

Lee Do-kyung rubbed his eyelids, looking tired.

He let out a deep sigh that made anyone listening’s heart sink.

“…I’m getting worn out too, with this kind of thing happening over and over.”

“……”

“How much am I supposed to understand?”

“……”

“Get out.”

Seon Woo-min blinked quietly.

He stared at his partner’s profile for a long moment, as if he had something to say, then got out of the passenger seat with a defeated air.

With Woo-min walking toward the lakeside plaza, Lee Do-kyung’s car drove away, his back turned to him.

Returning home immediately, Lee Do-kyung first lit a cigarette.

Without a moment to catch his breath, he canceled all the reservations—the book café rental, the hotel restaurant.

Beyond the living room window, the glowering sky flashed with dry lightning.

If it rained, would the concert be canceled?

Would they move it to another venue?

He didn’t know.

Turning his head, Do-kyung took a shower as if plunging into scalding water, then flopped down onto the sofa.

On the coffee table sat the gift he had intended to give Woo-min, left untouched.

He had planned to use it as an opportunity to propose, something along the lines of living together from now on, and finish off his lover’s birthday night.

Looking away, he set an alarm on his phone for around the time the concert would end and closed his eyes.

No matter that they’d fought, he intended to go pick up Woo-min.

Jolted awake by the piercing ringtone, Lee Do-kyung dragged his heavy, half-asleep body upright.

As he sat up blankly and looked out the living room window, a torrential downpour was falling.

He grabbed the phone that had been relentlessly ringing.

With rain that heavy, the concert venue would surely have been changed.

But his fingers, moving to confirm that, froze over a sudden news flash dominating the main page of the portal.

[Breaking: Olympic Park Art Hall – 30-meter-tall large steel structure collapses, concert halted]

[Urgent Breaking: Casualties reported at Art Hall]

“……”

Right.

No way.

It couldn’t be.

There’s no way the changed venue was the Art Hall.

And even if it was, this accident had nothing to do with Seon Woo-min.

Lee Do-kyung immediately called Woo-min, but he didn’t answer.

It must be because he was watching the concert.

It had to be.

Steadying his body, which kept trembling as if with a chill, he accessed the Olympic Park website.

A pop-up appeared: [The Invincible Power Kitty Corps OST concert venue has been changed to the Art Hall.]

There was no update regarding the accident.

He called the customer service center, but the line was dead.

Grabbing his car keys, Lee Do-kyung rushed out of the house.

Lee Do-kyung stared in silence at his own reflection in the glass door, clad in a black suit.

He rarely had occasion to wear a suit, so whenever he dressed up this formally, Seon Woo-min would noticeably brighten.

“You’ve worked hard, Do-kyung.

Go get some rest too.”

He wasn’t sure if he’d answered “Yes” or “I’m fine.”

He couldn’t hear his own voice clearly.

He just endured, driven by the single-minded determination to see through what needed to be done.

The woman in mourning clothes had fainted several times from the grief of losing her only son.

As he supported her numbly, Do-kyung thought to himself that it would be even more horrifying when she opened her eyes.

Three days passed without him even realizing how the funeral proceedings went.

Lee Do-kyung hadn’t eaten or slept.

There was no way he could cry.

In that state, he exchanged bows with Seon Woo-min’s acquaintances and his own, then guided them to the restaurant, raising glasses of alcohol and lighting cigarettes.

It felt like being trapped alone inside a pitch-black storm cloud.

In the moment the slow-moving mass of vapor began to thin, faces of mourners appeared here and there, and from a distance, the faint sound of weeping could be heard.

Whenever a fundamental question arose—what am I doing here, in this place—he would quietly gaze at the photograph placed on the altar.

Was this what they called a funeral portrait?

There was Seon Woo-min’s funeral portrait, so this must indeed be his mortuary.

Lee Do-kyung smiled hollowly, his eyes fixed on his lover’s face, framed by black ribbons on either side, seemingly unable to look away.

The corners of Seon Woo-min’s mouth curved upward in a shy arc rather than a full-blown laugh.

His eyes were gently lowered, as if unwilling to let this moment of happiness be stolen.

It was a photo taken when they had first gone to Gangneung together.

His mother beat her chest, asking why he had chosen such a somber-looking picture.

No.

That was the smile Seon Woo-min wore when he was happiest.

Lee Do-kyung knew something even the woman who bore him did not.

He was certain.

Woo-min’s happiest smile had become his funeral portrait.

With that joyful smile, Seon Woo-min was quietly observing the people who had lost him in a single day.

When Do-kyung held that portrait in his gaze, he kept being transported back to the seaside in Gangneung where he had been with Woo-min.

Back to that day, when they’d kissed countless times, sneaking away from others’ eyes, then scraped his shin, and acting like a baby, Woo-min’s worried face was so lovely that Do-kyung had grabbed him in another embrace.

Even though the place he was now was Woo-min’s mortuary.

So, like Woo-min’s mother who had fainted many times, Lee Do-kyung had to repeatedly lose consciousness alone and then snap back.

He had to slap his own cheek to wake himself.

He had to tell himself: Seon Woo-min is dead.

That no matter how closely he scrutinized the faces of mourners entering the mortuary, just in case, Seon Woo-min wasn’t there.

That even if he clearly heard a voice calling his name in the funeral hall corridor, it was never Seon Woo-min.

So pull yourself together and look at that funeral portrait.

Your lover is in a completely different place from you.

That means he’s no longer by your side.

“Oh, right, Do-kyung.

I was supposed to give you this.”

Seon Woo-min’s mother held out a crumpled piece of paper to Lee Do-kyung, who had just seen off the friends who had accompanied him to the burial site until moments ago.

She said it was among Woo-min’s belongings, found in his coat pocket.

Two tickets, folded together and heavily wrinkled.

One of them had not been torn along the perforation.

Lee Do-kyung placed them in his palm and stared down at them for a long time.