When Your Pain Becomes Mine

***

The darkness around the Han River deepened.

A taxi cab was on the road.

Sitting in the back seat, Gyeonhui looked silently out the window.

"Hah..."

Ojae, who sat in the auxiliary seat, sighed too.

"Hey Ojae, I'm the one who has to sigh here, but why do you keep sighing too? I feel worse when you do that."

Gyeonhui responded with a tone filled with annoyance while struggling with his complicated thoughts.

"I'm sorry. Hah..."

However, Ojae's once again heaved a sigh of relief. Gyeonhui quickly turned his head out of the window, seemingly annoyed at Ojae.

A while later, Ojae slowly started speaking.

"Have you ever thought that you wanted to go back in time?"

"... Time?"

Upon hearing Ojae's words, Gyeonhui remembered hearing the same kind of question sometime in the past.

"Hmm..."

Gyeonhui pondered for a moment, and he remembered that it was a question that Sun had asked on the day they broke up.

'Have you never wanted to go back in time?'

He certainly remembered the question, but he couldn't remember what he answered.

As he tried to remember while furrowing his eyebrows, Ojae started to speak again.

"You know that you could go back in time and prevent terrible things from happening, like bad memories that you would want to remove, your pain, or something like that. Have you not wanted to do something like that before?"

"It sounds like you have, Ojae?"

Ojae, who was smiling bitterly, slowly nodded and replied, "I don't know. I want to go back, but I don't know when to go back, a month from now or from half a year ago? How I could have and when I should have stopped Sarah's mind from changing... I don't know. I can't help it."

Ojae sighed with a sinking expression.

"If I can go back in time..." Gyeonhui was locked in his thought for a moment. "... I want to go back in time before I met Sun."

His cold words shocked Ojae so much to the point that his eyes widened.

"... We shouldn't have met in the first place."

Gyeonhui's face hardened.

Ojae, who was looking sad, nodded slowly. "How the hell could these women leave us…"

Gyeonhui was about to get mad at Ojae, but he closed his mouth instead.

No matter what excuse he had, the one who had left him was Sun, and he was the abandoned man.

He sighed as he furrowed his brows.

"... But why did Sarah do it? I had believed that our love was eternal."

Gyeonhui looked at Ojae like he was pathetic.

"... Snap out of it. There is no love between you and her."

"I believed that she was a person I could be with for the rest of my life."

"That's your mistake. You believed in people."

Hearing his cynical words, Ojae could not speak further.

Inside of the silent taxi, Gyeonhui looked out of the car window. A black wave that was reflecting the light caught his eye.

Suddenly, Gyeonhui recalled Sun's face. He had never thought that she would leave him.

It was a conviction from a particular moment, neither love nor faith.

However, she left without hesitation.

"... It's my fault that I trusted her."

Gyeonhui clenched his molars and mumbled to himself in a low voice.

At that time, Gyeonhui's face distorted because of the pain like it was stabbing his c.h.e.s.t with a dagger.

"Ugh."

He clutched his c.h.e.s.t while clenching his teeth.

"... Is this…?"

It was a different pain than hers.

His eyes shook violently.

45. Because I Love You

"Are you okay?"

"... I'm fine. It's okay now."

He pressed on his c.h.e.s.t and struggled.

"What happened to Sun?"

Ojae asked carefully since he was conscious of the taxi driver.

"No, I don't think that's it."

It was his pain. It differed from hers. In this incomprehensible pain, he breathed a long sigh with a grim expression.

In the severe atmosphere, Ojae looked into Gyeonhui's eyes without speaking any more.

'Bzzzz.'

Then, Ojae's cell phone rang. It was a real estate agent who had exchanged contact info with him when he bought a house.

"Hello?"

"Yes, It's Forsythia Real Estate Agency."

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"I'm calling because you are suddenly going to sell the house."

"My house?"

Ojae recalled Sarah's house. It was a house that he bought with all the money he had collected because he thought it would be his first house.

At this point, the taxi was passing near her place in the city.

"I'll get back to you soon."

When the phone hung up, Ojae's expression sank slowly.

"What was that?"

Gyeonhui asked while he was watching Ojae.

"Nothing. I think I'll have to go first. Please pull over the car up here."

Hearing Ojae's request, the taxi driver pulled over on the side of the road. As Gyeonhui looked around, he asked Ojae with doubt.

"This is not around your place, though."

"I'm sorry. I have to go somewhere."

Ojae opened the door and got out of the car as he staggered into the alleyway.

"What is it?"

Gyeonhui would have ignored it. However, he suddenly grew anxious after seeing Ojae's expression when he hung up the phone. It was very different than his usual self.

"Oh, jeez. Here." Gyeonhui quickly paid for the cab and left the taxi.

"Hey, Ojae!"

Gyeonhui quickly walked to the alley where Ojae vanished.

He walked through an alleyway into a corridor-access to the apartment complex, but he couldn't find Ojae.

"He definitely went this way."

Gyeonhui looked around the apartment complex and searched for Ojae.

"Wait. This place is…"

Gyeonhui looked at the familiar neighborhood. It was where Ojae once bragged about buying a honeymoon home.

"No way…"

"Open the door, Sarah!"

Then, in the hallway on the second floor, Gyeonhui heard Ojae's voice while knocking on the door.

"Oh… Ojae."

His steps had become urgent.

***

'Bang! Bang!'

Ojae continued to knock on the door.

He looked inside a small window in the hallway and saw the shadows moving inside.

It was clear that Sarah was inside.

"Sarah. Let's talk. Okay?"

He knocked on the door continuously, and then the door finally opened.

"What the hell is this?"

Sarah frowned, seemingly displeased, and asked while looking at Ojae.

"No matter how much I try to understand you, I don't know why the hell..."

Then, a smiling young man who had a snake tattoo that started from his waist to his c.h.e.s.t and ended with a wide-opened mouth approached from behind her.

"Who is it?" The man looked at Sarah and asked.

"The guy I saw the other day. He's been stalking me. I'll deal with him. Mr. Wuchang, you go in."

Sarah responded with an annoyed expression. Ojae couldn't continue to stay still like he was in shock.

"Who the hell are you? Get out of here, right now!" Wuchang said with a nasty tone.

"I don't have anything to say to you. Sarah, Sarah!"

"You're such a little jerk,"

Wuchang punched Ojae in the face.

"Oup."

Ojae tumbled down while groaning.

"You know that was self-defense, right? Get outta here! I'm asking you gently."

Wuchang threatened, but Ojae stumbled and rose again.

Ojae looked only at Sarah and said, "... Sarah. Why the hell did you do that? What did I do so wrong...?"

"Look at you. You want to be beaten up more?" Wuchang punched Ojae's face again, as soon as he ended his words.

Once again, on the floor of the hallway, Ojae collapsed, and Wuchang approached.

"A rat like you must be beaten up. You little jerk!"

Every time he said a word, He kicked Ojae cruelly. Whenever he kicked Ojae, His body would weakly roll all over the ground.

"Stop it."