“Are you alright?”

Jae Ho asked.

“Wow. I was so nervous thinking Yoon Da Jung might faint.”

He let out a big sigh.

Her heart was pounding as if she had been fully focused on herself in a confrontation with fire. The man’s feelings didn’t seem fake at all.

“Phew.”

The relaxed atmosphere gently melted her heart.

“You did well. Thank you for overcoming it. Still, tell me if you’re scared.”

“It seems… better than I thought.”

He nodded and then got up abruptly, disappearing to a corner of the yard. A moment later, he reappeared with his hands full of something. They were pine cones.

He tossed a few well-dried pine cones into the fire.

“This will make the fire smell like pine.”

“Ah.”

“I want you to be further from fear.”

Jae Ho placed a few pine cones in Da Jung’s palm.

“Try throwing them. If you can.”

“…”

“Don’t force yourself.”

She wanted to try. Da Jung nodded quite solemnly. But it took great courage to actually extend her hand towards the fire. The first pine cone she managed to toss after holding it for a long time until her hand was sweaty didn’t make it into the fire and fell to the ground.

“Ah.”

“It’s okay. There are plenty.”

Only after a long while did Da Jung throw again, and this time she succeeded. As if it were something significant, she felt quite genuinely elated and laughed.

“Well done, Ms. Yoon Da Jung. You’re braver than I thought.”

“I was scared.”

“Still, you’re better than me. I also had a fear of fire. I was like you, Ms. Yoon Da Jung.”

Thud. Thud.

The man started talking in a calm voice as he threw pine cones. Da Jung’s eyes widened a bit.

“When I was young, there was an accident. Fortunately, I was able to avoid it, but the trauma was significant. Fire… It was really scary. But I eventually overcame it. Like this.”

“An accident? Fire? Was there a fire? When? Were you not hurt?”

Surprised, questions poured out of Da Jung’s mouth as if interrogating. Jae Ho smiled awkwardly.

“Just… a memory I’d like to bury.”

“Ah… I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I won’t ask.”

She knows how painful it is to reopen wounds. Da Jung closed her mouth.

“It’s okay.”

Jae Ho threw a few more logs into the fire. The man reflected in the flickering flame’s shadow looked lonely. He quietly opened his mouth.

“I’m quite an unhappy person, Ms. Yoon Da Jung.”

“…”

“From afar, I might look like quite a lucky person, but that’s just on the surface. Still, now that I have Yoon Da Jung, my life has become quite alright.”

Each word stuck in her heart one by one.

“So stay by my side. I’m just living because of Yoon Da Jung. I became an actor to meet Yoon Da Jung.”

She knows it’s just a figurative expression.

Anyway, since he became a celebrity, he can plan this kind of escape.

Well, surely he didn’t really become a celebrity just to meet me. It’s just a joke that shouldn’t be believed and can’t be believed, but it was words that scratched something in her heart.

So Da Jung also took courage. Because the confined flames were exceptionally beautiful.

“This is my first time seeing a bonfire. To have this first… with you, Lee Jae Ho. I’m glad. I won’t forget today. I’ll remember it for a very long time.”

“We have many days ahead of us. There will be countless camping trips in the future. So you don’t have to remember just today.”

“Still. Because it’s the first. I want to remember.”

The man smiled.

Da Jung opened her mouth as if enchanted by something.

“What kind of relationship are we?”

The man slightly raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. It seemed like he was trying to understand the intention of the question.

“What will we become in the future? What kind of relationship will we end up in…”

After speaking, Da Jung trailed off, feeling the question was too abstract. It seemed foolish to keep probing him with questions that couldn’t be asked clearly while just stirring things up.

“Never mind. Forget I asked.”

Da Jung waved her hand dismissively and laughed.

The man’s gaze deepened as he pondered the question. How should he answer to make her give up on parting? If he declared they would get married, she would likely make a suffocating expression from the burden.

At the end of this trip, pushing hard wasn’t a good method. Jae Ho was afraid Da Jung might run away.

For now, it was important to let them sink into each other without any worries.

The man, having thrown all the pine cones, dusted off his hands and straightened his back. With a serious look, he slowly opened his mouth.

“We’re not anything.”

Da Jung’s expression clouded upon hearing those words. The autumn night’s temperature suddenly dropped.

The passing breeze felt chilly, cooling her heart. Despite being in front of the bonfire.

“I won’t make any promises.”

Da Jung rubbed her cold hands. She blinked a few times, feeling like she might cry.

“We’re just being together. No need to be bound by burdens. Think of it simply.”

The man, with the flickering flames reflected in his eyes, smiled brightly at Da Jung.

How could that radiant smile be so beautifully indifferent? With a plain voice devoid of any guilt, he clearly defined their relationship. A relationship where nothing could be promised.

It felt suffocating. His smile slashed at her heart.

“It’s enough if we just like each other. That’s all I need.”

Wrapping simple pleasure in plausible words made it sound ridiculously elegant. Da Jung lowered her head and gave a self-deprecating smile.

Did she really need to have it confirmed to this extent? She felt utterly pathetic for asking such a foolish question.

What was she expecting?

Did she think he would suddenly confess his love and propose?

While she had been so confident about not believing in Cinderella, she had somehow let her guard down as if enchanted.

“By the way, Ms. Yoon Da Jung.”

The man said with an alluring smile.

“Let’s go stargazing next time. That beach we couldn’t go to last time. This time, I’ll show you real stars without any tricks.”

He talked about the next time again. A next without a concrete future was just empty. The wind blew right through her hollow heart.

“Stargazing. Yes. Okay.”

Da Jung forced her trembling lips into a smile, thinking about the end. Her vision blurred.

**

“Huh? Our elder brother hasn’t come yet. Is he not answering his phone?”

On a certain weekend when visiting Woo Jung’s house.

Da Jung opened the door to an empty house. Jae Ho’s gaze lingered on her slightly reddened cheeks as she made a puzzled expression.

“He’s not answering his phone. We were supposed to meet at 2 o’clock.”

“He went out with elder sister Kyung Mi earlier. They might be a little late. Come in for now.”

Those thirty minutes alone with Da Jung in that house. It was a day when he wanted to grab and hold onto the ticking clock hands, feeling every second was too precious to waste. Da Jung had pink rollers in her bangs and made a face like she might cry when she belatedly looked in the mirror.

It was cute, but for some unknown reason, she hurriedly went into the room, took out the rollers, and came back out looking sheepish.

Thinking she should serve something to the guest who came to the house, her hands were busy and clumsy as she took out various things. He had to try hard not to stare openly.

“H-here, have some of this…”

Busily going back and forth in the kitchen, what she prepared as hospitality was a glass of milk and a few chocolates. Jae Ho doesn’t particularly like sweets, but he unwrapped a chocolate and put it in his mouth without showing it.

“Do you like sweet things?”

“Mm. I just like chocolate. Though my elder brother scolds me if I eat too much…”

“I like it too.”

Jae Ho smiled as he told the obvious lie. He gathered his courage and opened his bag to take out some chocolate.

“You eat it. I have too much.”

“Ah…”

Through the awkward air, Da Jung’s soft breathing could be heard. The sound of rustling chocolate wrappers and sleeves brushing. Even the occasional passing car sounds were vividly remembered.

“Thank you.”

Seemingly uncomfortable with the awkwardness, Da Jung brought up how envious she was of the school trip to Jeju Island. She said she had only been to Jeju once when she was young, so she didn’t remember it well. She complained that her brother promised to take lots of pictures, but that wasn’t comforting at all.

“Have a safe trip, elder brother. Let’s look at them together with our elder brother when you get back.”

Da Jung probably wouldn’t remember that day, but Jae Ho kept thinking about it.

It was the day he privately named their first date.

**

Da Jung’s fishing skills were terrible.

She tried hard to cast, but it would barely land in front of her or often get caught on rocks. She had broken dozens of “egi” lures used for catching cuttlefish.

Why were there so many rocks on the bottom of the West Sea? Even when she thought she had cast well, it would mysteriously get caught on rocks as soon as she pulled a little.

After struggling for about an hour, getting caught on rocks improved a lot, but no cuttlefish were caught. They said to gently shake it up and down, but she couldn’t figure out what that feeling was supposed to be like.

After two hours passed like that, Da Jung began to doubt if cuttlefish actually lived in the sea water.

“You haven’t caught anything either, Jae Ho.”

“I was busy watching Ms. Yoon Da Jung.”

Finally, they folded up the fishing rods and walked down from the rocky shore towards the lodging. She playfully swung the egi dangling at the end of the fishing rod. Da Jung laughed as she turned the empty bucket this way and that. Jae Ho wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gently kissed her cheek.

They entered the yard of the lodging like that. Kyung Jun was standing in the yard.

“Yoon Da Jung…?”

**

Kyung Jun couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was… Lee Jae Ho.

When the man stubbornly refused to let go of Da Jung’s hand, she whispered something in his ear. Frowning deeply, the man finally let go of her hand and just nodded slightly to greet Kyung Jun.

“I’ll be right back.”

Da Jung pulled Kyung Jun towards the lodging.

“Why did you come without contacting me, Lee Kyung Jun.”

The door closed with a thud.

“You, you, you, hey Yoon Da Jung, how could you, what is this now. With Lee Jae Ho. No, this is.”

It’s understandable to be surprised. Da Jung fully understood Kyung Jun’s commotion. It would be hard to believe even seeing with your own eyes. She had been the same for the first few days of seeing Lee Jae Ho.

Now that it’s all ending, why did Lee Kyung Jun have to come at this timing? The situation was so ridiculous that she gave a bitter smile.

Nevertheless, since it had come to this, she wanted to be honest. It wouldn’t be bad to have at least one witness. It would be proof that this whole situation wasn’t a dream.

Having made up her mind, Da Jung slowly opened her mouth.

“Kyung Jun. I’ll talk first. Listen to everything I have to say, then ask questions.”

After watching his expression gradually return from shock to its original color, Da Jung spoke calmly.

“First, the important thing. We’re going to break up.”

“What?”

“We met by chance. Don’t tell elder sister, keep it to yourself.”

Kyung Jun listened to Da Jung’s story without even breathing. It was an unbelievable story even after hearing it, but he had to believe it since he saw it with his own eyes. He couldn’t help but regret bringing Yoon Da Jung to this suspicious seaside with his own feet a month ago.

It was Lee Jae Ho. Not any other celebrity, but Lee Jae Ho.

That damned Lee Jae Ho that Yoon Da Jung always babbled about being her breath, her hope. If there was one person in this world that Lee Kyung Jun couldn’t beat, it would be Lee Jae Ho.

“Why of all people…”

So the gist was that she happened to stay at the same pension as Lee Jae Ho and started a one-month contract relationship. From what he heard, they went to the market together, went camping, and just enjoyed a paradise-like time.

The time he had begged her to do anything but date crumbled miserably. Of all things, dating, and of all people, with Lee Jae Ho. Kyung Jun felt defeated and despaired.