Chapter 53
Right. It didn’t matter if she stumbled or tripped; he just had to drag her out of here.
Oscar, his eyes simmering with irritation, was about to take another step forward.
Suddenly, he felt something slender wrap around his forearm.
“…….”
Oscar flinched mid-stride.
His gaze slanted downward. At the end of that sharp line of sight, he saw her arm entwined with his. The woman, who until now had been the one being pulled along, had turned her hand over to grasp his forearm. However, unlike his hand, which could easily encircle her arm with room to spare, her hand couldn’t even cover half of his.
“It’s difficult for you, isn’t it? I’ll try to open the path now.”
“…….”
Oscar’s eyes followed her as she stepped past him and into the crowd.
A small, frail back filled his wide field of vision.
As if she truly meant to open the way, the woman strained on her tiptoes, trying to see ahead.
Oscar watched the scene with an incredulous expression. She wasn’t even tall enough to reach his chest even on her toes; how on earth did she plan to navigate a crowd so dense it made even him sigh?
Yet, ridiculously enough, she began to forge a path.
It seemed there were paths below as well as above; she found gaps among the people and pushed forward. The problem was that she was constantly being buffeted by the crowd, but she didn’t seem to care. Stumbling like a fool and bumping into walls, she would still look back at him as if to check if he was following well.
A hollow laugh escaped him at the sight.
“Just look out for yourself.”
“Please bear with it a little longer. We’ll be out soon.”
“Right.”
The cold retort slipped out naturally.
It was then that a whiz echoed from behind them. Everyone’s eyes turned upward simultaneously. Oscar looked toward the sky as well.
A firework with a long tail was crawling toward the heavens. And here he was, watching it from the middle of this damnably large crowd.
“…….”
Aside from the lack of reality, it was truly absurd.
Oscar himself donated a massive sum to this event every year, and this year was no exception. The towering cathedral spires had seats reserved for high-level donors. There would be a seat prepared for him there.
Was it only the cathedral?
The department store’s VIP lounge would also have sofas placed in front of floor-to-ceiling windows with a perfect view of the fireworks. A place had been prepared for him there as well.
And yet, he had never attended once. Even as a child, it was the same. Despite living so close, he had never been curious about such an event.
Now, nearing thirty, what was he doing squeezed into this throng of people?
The speed of the firework crawling toward the sky slowed significantly. The spark, which seemed to pause in the air for a moment, soon exploded with a bang. Being the first shot, the burst was exceptionally brilliant. The crowd cheered wildly, and Oscar let out a dry laugh, rubbing his face.
He expected the intimidated stranger’s head to be tilted toward the sky at this moment. It wasn’t so much an expectation as it was the natural thing to do.
However, the woman who had appeared in a midwinter coat in the middle of summer was acting as strangely as her first impression suggested. Even now, she was desperately trying to navigate the crowd, tugging at his hand.
Oscar furrowed his brows and pulled her arm back.
“How do you plan to get through? Move once it’s over!”
Since he couldn’t even hear his own voice in the noise, Seo-ah seemed not to hear him and kept trying to push forward. But Oscar had no intention of following her. When he pulled her arm a bit harder, her body, which had been struggling to move forward, was dragged back with ridiculous ease.
But as her face was forced around, Oscar’s eyes narrowed. Pale to the point of being blue, she wasn’t looking at the sky at all; she was completely hunched over, frozen. It was a stark contrast to the children perched on their parents’ shoulders, all gazing at the heavens.
“…You, don’t tell me…”
Don’t you know what fireworks are?
Bang!
Oscar’s casual remark was buried under the thunderous explosion of another firework. As the surroundings turned bright and the crowd erupted in cheers, she reflexively closed her eyes and bowed her head. Looking closely, the fingertips gripping his arm were trembling slightly.
A sigh escaped him.
She didn’t know.
She really didn’t know anything.
She was more ignorant of the world than a ten-year-old child.
Just then, the sound of more fireworks soaring into the sky rang out. People moved, wanting a better view. The panicked woman collapsed helplessly. In a place like this, falling down was the end, and it was even more dangerous when one wasn’t in their right mind.
Oscar pulled her toward a wall. Standing with his back to the crowd, he braced his arms against the wall to secure a space.
Trapping her in the narrow gap between him and the wall—space enough for only one person—he endured the pressure of the crowd pressing against him. During this, she cried out with a face pale with terror.
“G-g-gunpowder! I hear gunpowder…!”
“What do you mean, gunpowder?!”
He snapped at her fiercely, but another firework exploded.
It was then that the woman, her face distorted as if she were about to cry, suddenly lunged toward him.
“Y-your head…!”
Seo-ah reached for Oscar’s head. At the same time, she tucked her own head down low.
“In an emergency, you must protect your head first.”
Her Teacher’s lessons seemed engraved into her very bones.
Something exploded loudly again. Along with a roar that shook the windows, the night sky turned as bright as day. Even with her eyes closed, the brilliant light lingered in her vision.
Under the feast of magnificent fireworks, everyone looked at the sky and cheered.
But the stranger who had crossed the sea huddled in fear, and the man blocking her path looked down at the trembling stranger instead of the sky.
Seo-ah gasped for breath, over and over. Her ears were muffled by the roar. Her heart hammered as if it would burst, and her thoughts were a tangled mess.
The fear of the unknown and the instinct for survival filled her body like thick smoke.
Bang, bang-bang!
The sounds of things exploding continued. The cheers sounded like screams. She was simply waiting for this situation to end.
Then, a low laugh drifted into her muffled ears. Amidst her pounding heart and the heavy breathing that made her dizzy, the sound of laughter seeped in.
She thought she had misheard.
But she hadn’t.
Seo-ah blinked blankly. Her heart and breath were still racing, but the laughter created a crack in her terror-filled mind.
“Heh, haha…”
The laughter that cracked through her breathless terror was familiar.
A laugh that sounded like it belonged in a dark temple, scraping something from deep within.
Seo-ah slowly raised her head.
And in that moment, her world stopped once again.
She felt his curly hair against the tip of her nose. From the ends of that pitch-black hair came a scent that reminded her of a smoky night.
She felt her heart drop with a heavy thud. The sound was so loud that she could no longer hear the explosions or the screams shaking the world.
The moment she realized they were too close, she felt everything.
She was practically embracing his head. The hair tickling the tip of her nose and lips, their legs touching, the unfamiliar scent constantly flowing into her lungs, and even her own breath ruffling his hair.
Seo-ah hurriedly held her breath and let go of his head. As she pressed herself as close to the wall as possible to create distance, he raised his head. Through his fallen bangs, she saw his blue eyes looking up at her.
Ah.
She couldn’t even tell if she had let out a gasp.
Everything that had driven her into a panic until now vanished as if deleted. A void where sound, wind, and even light did not exist.
“…….”
“…….”
An illusion gripped her, as if they were the only two people left.
It felt as though an unrealistic world had swallowed her from head to toe. Her awareness of why she was here alone with him, and what the situation was, shattered into pieces.
The only thing remaining in the world she stood in was the man before her.
Oscar.
The blue eyes of the man with a face so beautiful it could bewitch anyone were right there. His lashes were delicate, and his eyes were so clear they seemed transparent—as beautiful as his face… and they looked so strong.
In those beautiful eyes, she could clearly feel a dignity that would not hide and a powerful conviction that would not falter anywhere.
Ah… so there are people with eyes like this.
She was thinking blankly when it happened.
The man, who had been staring at her as if glaring, seemed to move closer. His gaze, which had been fixed on her eyes as if to swallow them, slid down toward her chin. The path his gaze took felt strangely itchy. Her lips felt ticklish, so she pursed them tight, and his face tilted to the side. Just as she thought the blue eyes full of dignity and conviction had somehow grown hazy, he drew even closer.
“Hah.”
Seo-ah took a sharp breath, not realizing she had been holding it.
And in that instant, the unrealistic world where only he and she remained shattered completely.
As the scent reminiscent of a smoky night seeped into her lungs, her racing heart crashed down with a loud thud.
“Ah!”
Seo-ah pulled back as much as possible. Even so, there was nowhere to go. Pressed tight against the wall, she held her breath without even blinking. She felt that if she blinked, her eyelashes would touch the hair on his forehead. If she breathed, her breath would mingle with his.
Why…
What should I do? What am I supposed to do?
Then, the man who had been frozen, leaning toward her with his arms against the wall, moved. His eyes beneath his delicate lashes turned toward the crowded space, and one corner of his mouth curled upward. It seemed like a faint, airy laugh escaped him.
“…….”
Seo-ah, frozen and unable to say a word, watched blankly as he straightened up. As she once again felt the presence of the man standing before her like a mountain peak, the moment she had lost her soul gazing at him felt like a lie.
The world rushed back in like a tidal wave. The cheers she wondered how she could have missed until now rang loudly in her ears. Nevertheless, Seo-ah felt as though the man blocking her path was larger than that world.
A bang echoed above her head. Seo-ah looked up, as if fleeing from Oscar.
“Ah…”
Brilliant fireworks were exploding over the cathedral that reached for the sky. The multi-colored sparks lit up the dark heavens before fading away.
The screams were cheers, and what she thought was gunpowder was merely fireworks.
For the first time in her life, she witnessed the magnificent fireworks bursting incessantly in the sky.
Her brown eyes, smooth as glass beads, captured the display.
The fireworks exploded continuously in the sky, and within the eyes looking up at them.
Oscar watched the fireworks vividly coloring Seo-ah’s eyes before pulling his hands away from the wall. Meanwhile, his smile faded, completely vanishing as he ran a hand through his hair.
The brilliant fireworks reflected in her sparkling eyes.
Those sparks reminded him of the thorn he had momentarily forgotten.
“…Annoying.”
His low murmur scattered like smoke behind the brilliant fireworks.
