Chapter 59
- I'll Take You There Someday
2023.06.28.
With Heejin's help, Mal-hee borrowed 1 billion from a private loan shark and immediately bought coin. Now, all she had to do was wait for that 1 billion to rise to 3 billion. She had been adamant with her husband that she wasn't borrowing money to gamble, but now she understood that feeling completely.
However, the rise was slower than expected. Perhaps it was because Mal-hee's heart was too impatient. Still, it never fell even for a moment, and it showed a slight upward curve each time, so her heart was reasonably secure.
The problem was her son, Yang Hee-wook.
He stayed out all night the day before yesterday, came home drunk late last night, and today he was gloomy all day before taking out alcohol in the evening.
Frustrated, Mal-hee approached and asked.
"Son, did something bad happen? What's wrong with you these days?"
"No..."
"What do you mean, no? You're just drinking without any energy. Why? Did something happen at work? Haven't you made up with Hyun-ji yet?"
"No, it's not that."
"Then what is it! You're upsetting your mother."
Mal-hee stood her ground in front of him, and Hee-wook reluctantly uttered a word.
"Mom, So-eun..."
"What about So-eun again! What about her!"
"She got a boyfriend..."
What a foolish thing to see.
Mal-hee was even more dumbfounded by Hee-wook's answer. Her voice grew louder.
"Goodness. Is her getting a boyfriend such a big deal?"
"......"
"Get a grip, you! You're about to get married, you should be making and handing out wedding invitations, why are you being so pathetic!"
Mal-hee was furious at her son, who couldn't come to his senses when the land of happiness was right in front of him, and was just muttering his ex-girlfriend's name. Han So-eun also became hateful.
\
Friday evening, when the heat had subsided a bit. The plane Tae-joon was on arrived at Incheon Airport.
He moved busily to keep the promise he had made to So-eun, but there was a limit to handling work that would take about a week in just two days. Tae-joon had to continue working on the plane. Fortunately, the work was going well. The connections Tae-joon had built up while taking practical management classes were a great help.
He was exhausted from working all the way, so he called a driver from the airport to Seoul. He thought he would get some sleep on the way to Seoul, and then take So-eun somewhere a little further away, whether it was the sea or the mountains.
After estimating the time, Tae-joon sent two text messages to So-eun and moved on. The door of the arrival hall opened, and as he looked around, he saw the driver politely greeting him from afar and diligently approaching. However, someone else cut in front of Tae-joon before the driver. Tae-joon stood expressionlessly in front of that smiling face, whose intentions he could not understand.
"Hello, Director."
It was Choi Hyun-ji, a lawyer from Yulkyu Law Firm and Yang Hee-wook's lover.
\
Arrived at the airport. Come out, I'll pick you up. In about three hours.
Do you like mountains or the sea?
Two text messages arrived.
He throws out options without even suggesting a trip. So-eun quickly replied 'The sea!' to Tae-joon's proactive question. He wouldn't arrive for three hours, but So-eun's heart was already pounding.
Just a month ago, she couldn't even imagine that she and he could become so close. In fact, that's still the case now. The word 'getting closer' implies the time and space in which the distance between the two gradually decreases, but Kim Tae-joon was like someone who suddenly appeared to her through a door that goblins go in and out of, without any middle ground.
There is always a twist that goes beyond the expected process. Every change is scary, and that's why I don't readily have the courage, but if he's by my side, So-eun felt like she wouldn't be afraid of anything.
So-eun spent a busy time waiting for Tae-joon, packing and unpacking her luggage, putting on and taking off her clothes. She stopped by the convenience store to buy a lot of snacks and drinks, and also did a massage pack for smooth skin. Time passed quickly, and three hours after Tae-joon promised, it was 10 p.m.
But Tae-joon didn't show up. Instead, a phone call came.
[Sorry. I think I'll be a little late, do you want to sleep?]
"Ah. Then shall we just see each other tomorrow?"
[No, I'm on my way now. I was a little late because of something. It'll take two hours.]
Two hours meant he wouldn't arrive until midnight. It really seemed better to see him tomorrow.
Since he said he was coming now, she couldn't refuse strongly. So-eun said okay and hung up.
Tae-joon arrived exactly at midnight as promised.
She was so happy to see him, but So-eun's emotions were taken away by her heavy eyelids as time passed. So-eun, who came out to meet him, greeted Tae-joon with half-closed eyes, and said that they should go up and sleep today and leave tomorrow, but Tae-joon insisted on going today. He said they had to see the sunrise. The weather tomorrow morning was predictable, but the day after tomorrow was not.
So-eun reluctantly got into the car with Tae-joon. Tae-joon, who had packed So-eun's luggage, started the engine confidently and said.
"Sleep if you're sleepy."
"No. You're driving, Director."
In the meantime, So-eun, who had chased away some sleep by going up and down the stairs, put strength into her eyes. Tae-joon, who saw So-eun with deeper double eyelids for the first time, burst into laughter. Tae-joon was about to move the car, but suddenly leaned over and placed his lips on So-eun's lips. The breath that greedily swallowed her parted lips was mischievous, as if it would induce sleep by taking away oxygen.
In fact, So-eun was happy even in her fading consciousness. Only then did she think that this was the Kim Tae-joon she knew, and So-eun luxuriously wished that they had left a little later. But soon the lips parted.
"I'll take a nap if I get sleepy while driving, so So-eun, sleep comfortably."
Those affectionate and merciless lips.
So-eun looked at his handsome profile with resentful eyes. Tae-joon, feeling her gaze, forcibly lowered the back of the passenger seat. So-eun groaned as she was buried in the seat that was automatically lowering slowly.
"Ugh, that's too much..."
Soon, warm heat came into the backrest and her buttocks, and a soft blanket fell on her body. It was the same trick as that time when she was sleeping soundly out of her mind.
"I said I'm not sleeping, that's too much."
So-eun grumbled in a painful voice with her eyes half-closed.
"When we arrive, I'll wake you up when the sun rises."
"......"
"I get too anxious if Han So-eun doesn't get enough sleep."
He didn't let her sleep when she said she wanted to sleep. He makes her sleep when she says she's not sleeping.
So-eun mumbled and grumbled, but he seemed to pretend not to hear. He locked the seat switch so she couldn't raise the backrest. So-eun soon fell asleep as he wanted.
*
How long had she slept? So-eun opened her eyes to the sound of waves that seemed to reach even the car wheels. It was the sea already. The surroundings were dark, but a faint dawn was felt at the end of the sea.
When she turned her head, she saw Tae-joon sleeping in the driver's seat. He seemed to be sleeping so soundly that So-eun watched him with the hope that the sun would rise a little later. But time doesn't wait. The sun rose faster than expected.
What should she do? Should she shake him awake?
After hesitating, So-eun went closer and kissed him on the cheek. At the same time, Tae-joon, who had only his eyes open like a doll, stared at So-eun from nearby. His eyes were more turbulent than the sea holding the sun. It felt like he would rush in like a wave at any moment. For some reason, she felt so much longing that her nose tingled. So-eun didn't want to ruin this moment with her noise because he was so beautiful.
Smack.
Tae-joon moved first. Tae-joon, who raised his head and responded to So-eun's kiss, wiped away the deep gaze from before and smiled neatly.
"Shall we go out and see?"
The two opened the car doors and went outside. So-eun shrugged her shoulders at the cold that was hard to believe was summer, and a blanket was placed over her shoulders. Tae-joon's arm was firmly placed on top of the blanket.
The sun was half-hanging over the shimmering red scales of water, and then it popped up. It was like the sea was spitting out the sun. It was a fleeting moment that could have been missed.
It was So-eun's first sunrise in her life, and it was amazing that the sun, the owner of this suffocatingly hot and scary season, became such a cutie every morning, and the red colors it left behind were even more amazing. It felt like she should put a period to her life here because it was so beautiful. It was an overwhelming feeling that she didn't need to see anything more beautiful.
The seagulls flew up to the sun as if to give them, who were precious to them today, a more wonderful memory.
In a world where nothing could be heard except the sound of waves and seagulls, Tae-joon quietly opened his mouth first.
"There's a sedimentary rock formation national park in Utah, USA, called Bryce Canyon."
The country where he spent his short childhood and youth. So-eun listened quietly as it was the first time she had heard the story of that land.
"It's a red desert filled with densely packed rock towers like thick Goblin Horn, and at sunrise, the whole world looks blood red. My expression is not enough, so it sounds terrible if you hear it as an explanation."
"......"
"If you sit quietly on any rock there and watch the sunrise, you feel like I'm a stone rolling on the ground, or like dirt flying in the wind, like I'm nothing, but also like I can live for ten thousand years. It's a place that makes you feel so many emotions. It's huge, desolate, and lonely. It's the most wonderful scenery I've ever seen, no, now this is the prettiest..."
He gave a long description as if he was making a confession to the scenery, unlike the usual Kim Tae-joon. But that long story was also gentle and soft in every word, so it was definitely Kim Tae-joon.
"Let's go, someday. I'll take you there. It would be more wonderful to see it together."
"......"
"But you have to be healthy to go there. The road is rough."
Can you promise the future so easily?
She tried not to think about 'someday'. 'Someday' without a fixed date was like an unattainable hope, and if she held it in her heart, her heart would wear away from the inside.
But for some reason, she felt like this man would definitely do it. He would take her, who had never even been on a plane, across the Pacific Ocean and leave her in the middle of huge rocks. He would sit there together, become a stone rolling on the ground, and bring all kinds of brilliant scenery in front of her eyes so that she could become dirt flying in the wind.
So-eun was amazed by that vague belief.
