/
Mustering up more courage, Yoonshin continued, “Are you going to a columbarium? I’m sorry for asking, but I really wanted to know.”
Yoonshin knew he should offer his condolences here, but because Sehun didn’t tell him anything, he didn’t want to gloss this over.
As Yoonshin expected, a more definite emotion rose to Sehun’s face as he stared at Yoonshin. But despite being face-to-face with Sehun, Yoonshin couldn’t read his exact feelings. Sehun was probably feeling a myriad of complex emotions. The fact that he didn’t pull away from Yoonshin’s touch was proof of that.
“Sir?” Yoonshin called.
Sehun didn’t reply, so Yoonshin called him a bit louder, “Attorney Kang.”
“Fourth-year. A columbarium is a place where you can store urns for several decades, where people who had enough financial resources go after they die. You were a wealthy young master your entire life, so that’s the limit of your imagination.”
“Yes, I know that my imagination is limited. I only asked because you don’t look very good. I’ve never seen you make this face before.”
“…”
“Should I go back? I’ll listen to you this time. If you want to be alone, I’ll let you be.”
Sehun listened very quietly and asked, his voice faintly cracking, “If I asked you, just like you did, to stay with me, what would you do?”
“I’m really sorry, but could you stay with me for a moment? I don’t think I can stay here alone.” What he had said to Sehun before was a string of language that expressed that he was on the verge of breaking down.
Yoonshin calmly stared into Sehun’s eyes before he released the other’s hand. Distress flashed by the older man’s face, which Yoonshin did not miss.
A single action was more effective in expressing his feelings rather than a hundred words. Yoonshin left Sehun behind, walked up to the passenger seat of Sehun’s idling car, and got in. He buckled up and stared straight at Sehun, who was watching. Would it be too farfetched to say that Yoonshin saw a hint of relief within that straight face of Sehun?
As he originally intended to do, Sehun also got in the driver’s seat. He gazed at Yoonshin with indecipherable eyes for a long time. Then, without saying anything, he skillfully drove out of the garage.
* * *
The day turned to evening, and as the dusk and the shadows grew alike, the air became incomparably cold to when the sun beat down on the earth. It felt even colder because they were standing at the waterfront.
The rural riverside where there was nothing but the river to see was quite desolate and eerie. The bone-chilling landscape fit to feature in a crime thriller movie stretched on. Surprisingly, this seemed to be Sehun’s destination today. It was a place that didn’t suit his extravagant life.
The atmosphere around their erubescent surroundings was chilly. The only thing nearby was the narrow rural highway, so there were few people here. In the summer, there might have been a lot of visitors since it was the riverside, but the view of the river in the winter wasn’t so spectacular to attract visitors. Yoonshin could only speculate as to why Sehun came to this solitary river, yet he did not know any specifics.
Yoonshin looked around, then he gazed at Sehun’s lonely back as he stood facing the river. If Sehun wasn’t here in this tranquil and vast, forsaken space, then he would have felt unbearably lonely.
Did Sehun always come here, forlorn?
“Where is this?” asked Yoonshin, who had been gazing at Sehun with worry in his eyes, as he walked up to the older man. Sehun turned away from the rolling waters of the flowing river. Fixed onto Yoonshin’s gaze as if he were a safe haven, Sehun’s eyes seemed a bit moist in the corners.