“I wanted to treat you.”

Lee Jae Ho knocked to invite her for dinner. It felt so unreal, like entering someone else’s mind. Her thought processes flickered with error signals.

“You probably haven’t prepared anything on your first day.”

His inscrutable smile was so kind. Da Jung desperately clung to her heart trying to fall to a distant place as she continued her thoughts. Why was Lee Jae Ho acting like this?

No matter how she thought about it, it was excessive kindness.

“I have some good steak, but it’s boring to eat alone.”

His vague informal speech at the end mixed inexplicable intimacy and whining. Was that voice, with a spoonful of laughter added, perhaps casting a spell?

The man smiling as he leaned against the wall was fatally beautiful. Da Jung thought she might readily offer her neck even if he were a vampire. It could really happen if she wasn’t careful.

“No, it’s fine.”

So she tries to pull away first.

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t fully understand the man’s intentions. She didn’t want to be drawn in. Da Jung could see a clear line drawn in front of her feet. It felt like if she crossed that line, something irreversible would happen.

Only this far.

“I’m uncomfortable. And you don’t need to do this.”

As Da Jung tried to close the door with a somewhat harsh greeting, the man blocked it with one arm. His brow furrowed slightly.

“You don’t need to do this?”

“I mean you don’t have to go this far. I won’t spread rumors that you’re here, Lee Jae Ho.”

Da Jung said clearly and closed the door without hesitation.

Then she sat down with a thud. She tried hard to speak calmly, but her heart was pounding violently as if it would break. She felt like she was melting from the crown of her head under his languid gaze looking down at her much shorter self.

Crazy. This is crazy. Just, everything here. This whole seaside is crazy.

She barely got up and went to the kitchen to open the refrigerator. She took out some water and gulped it down. But her heart still wouldn’t calm easily.

“Why is he like that? Lee Jae Ho.”

Da Jung drank another glass of water while aimlessly circling around the kitchen. Her face felt hot, so she fanned herself with her hand. Then she drank more water.

“Suddenly asking to have dinner. Really now.”

She needlessly circled around the island counter one more time.

“Is he like this with everyone? Is he a loose man?”

Da Jung kept talking to herself endlessly.

“How flustering.”

Only after quite some time passed did her heart become a bit more docile. When Da Jung turned her attention back to the TV, the drama she had been watching earlier was over. It was disappointing, as it was just getting interesting. The face of Oh Chae Won with her thick wavy hair flowing like waves came to mind. It suited this role quite well.

“I’m hungry even in this situation…”

It was already past 8 o’clock after arriving here, unpacking, meeting Lee Jae Ho, and having a cup of tea. Normally, Da Jung would have finished dinner by this time.

“It’s been about three hours since I got here.”

She laughed emptily. It felt like two days had passed, but it was only three hours.

It feels like she’s dropped into a truly strange country where even time moves oddly. Da Jung approached the sink to suppress her noisy thoughts, opening various shelves. Ramen was visible on the top right shelf. She remembered the landlord couple saying they had prepared some.

“I’ll just eat this for now.”

There were a few side dishes Kyung Mi had prepared, but she couldn’t be bothered to look for them. Da Jung put water in a pot. She wanted to eat, sleep, and think again tomorrow.

She also wanted to forget for a moment the kind tone of the man who lacked all sense of reality.

**

Jae Ho sitting on the second-floor terrace let out a deflated laugh. It’s fortunate it’s not easy, but it’s so difficult because it’s not easy. If it keeps going like this, he’ll either die of yearning or wither away, but he didn’t know which was better.

“She rejects Lee Jae Ho and boils ramen. She’s crazy.”

He took a sip of beer while watching the stars scattered like mist. The smell of ramen wafted up here on the wind.

“The weather is damn nice. Why are the stars so visible? It’s thrilling.”

It’s a shame he didn’t bring his camera. Jae Ho, who liked taking pictures of stars, had quite a few high-performance cameras. He also had the ability to take near-professional quality photos. And most of those photos were taken in Taean.

This wasn’t Jae Ho’s first time in Taean. He had come here often enough to know beautiful beaches where stars poured down.

He even had a guess as to why Da Jung chose Taean for a month-long trip.

‘We went to Taean for vacation. Our family always goes to Taean. My dad was obsessed with digging for clams. Da Jung hated it so much.’

She must have many family memories here. Since ‘that guy’ mentioned it at least three times, she probably came here even more often. Perhaps the happiest times of their lives.

What would family trips feel like? Jae Ho didn’t know warm and happy family vacations.

Curious about that happiness, he often visited Taean after becoming an actor. Watching stars, staring at fires, fishing… But rather than realizing happiness, only longing piled up.

“Ramen on the first day of the trip, she’ll ruin her stomach.”

His thoughts returned to Room 102. As he considered ringing the bell again, all the lights in 102 went out. It seemed she was going to sleep now.

[This is the timeline separator]

Morning dawned.

Thanks to the seagulls screeching painfully loud, her eyes opened from dawn. Da Jung pulled back the blinds and looked at the sea. The tide was half out.

She couldn’t tell if the tide was coming in or going out. She was oddly curious about this, for some reason. If she was going to stay here from now on, wouldn’t it be convenient to know the tide times? She searched to see if there was an app that showed tide times and surprisingly, there were quite a few. It seemed fishermen mainly used them.

Just in case, Da Jung downloaded one of them.

“Hmm. The tide is… coming in.”

Screech screech.

“Why are those guys so noisy?”

There was one more serious problem she hadn’t expected. The seagulls.

The seagulls she thought were the romance of the sea were actually very noisy birds. If it continued like this, she wouldn’t even be able to imagine sleeping in.

Anyway, this place was full of annoying things. Lee Jae Ho, and the wild decibels.

But why is the morning view so beautiful?

After admiring the sea for a while, Da Jung turned to look down at the three suitcases in the living room. She needed to unpack. Today’s plan: Unpack suitcases, go to the market for groceries, take a walk.

As she counted her tasks on her fingers, she suddenly found the situation funny and chuckled. She came to clear her mind, but it felt like it was being filled even more. Wasn’t she constantly creating things to do?

“Let’s live slowly, Yoon Da Jung.”

Right. First, a walk to wake up properly.

Was Lee Jae Ho awake?

As her thoughts flowed towards Room 101, Da Jung hurriedly got up and bustled about. If she moved busily, she’d have fewer stray thoughts. Her hands were hasty as she quickly gathered her outer clothes.

Thinking she might run into Lee Jae Ho on the beach like yesterday, she planned to walk in the opposite direction today. There were fields, paddies, and a few houses near the entrance they came in. She was curious about that path too.

When she opened the front door, the cold wind hit her cheeks. Even though it was fall, the dawn was quite chilly.

“Shall we go?”

The air was different from Seoul from the start. When she took a deep breath, the cold air filled her lungs. She smiled for a moment, liking that refreshing feeling. Walking along the road like that, houses and fields appeared. It was a quiet countryside village.

After walking for about thirty minutes.

“Let’s go back.”

Suddenly feeling like she had come too far from the pension, she turned around.

From the pleasant walk, Da Jung gained positive energy, physical strength, and flushed cheeks. It was a beautiful autumn. Although a few troubling things unsettled her mind, the satisfaction from the trip was still very great.

She worried about her mother from time to time, but she had no doubt that Kyung Mi would take good care of her. In fact, worrying was Da Jung’s old habit.

Worrying doesn’t change anything. She had only worried since that day, but nothing changed. Da Jung’s thoughts flew on the autumn wind to the day of her brother’s accident.

[…It was revealed that those staying at the resort were students from Seoul Haeyul High School on a school trip. While the teachers’ lodgings were relatively intact, the students’ accommodation building was almost completely burned… The news of all deaths…]

She couldn’t remember in what state of mind she boarded the plane. The parents instantly became bereaved families and boarded planes to Jeju Island. Da Jung arrived in front of a building that was burned so badly its shape could barely be discerned. Wailing. Sobbing. Acrid burnt smell. People’s anger and indescribable pain.

Our tragedy was scattered across the country under the name of ‘news articles’. Looking at her parents crying and clutching their chests, Da Jung recalled her last conversation with her brother.

‘What should I buy you?’

‘Um, um! Food. Food.’

‘Besides food. What do girls like? Dolls? Hairpins?’

‘No. I want chocolate.’

‘You eat chocolate here all the time. Cut down on chocolate. You’ll really regret it later.’

Her brother, feeling under the weather, sniffled but didn’t forget to scold her with concern. But while ruffling her hair, he eventually said okay. Saying he couldn’t win against her anyway.

‘Alright. I’ll buy chocolate too. Just wait a few days.’

‘Yay!’

‘I have something to tell you when I get back. Look forward to it.’

A few days eventually became a lifetime. What did her brother want to say?

Before plunging into the deep sea, Da Jung forcibly stopped her thoughts. Depression instantly swallowed Da Jung and locked her in darkness. Now she wanted to live more brightly. She needlessly turned her head to look at the sky and admire the autumn leaves. She even hummed a cheerful tune.

Arriving at the pension like that, Lee Jae Ho was standing there.

Da Jung looked at the man leaning against the entrance of Room 102 as if he were a painting. Then, as if to prove he wasn’t a painting, the man straightened up and faced Da Jung. A gentle curve hung on his lips.

“You’ve already been for a walk? You’re diligent. I was going to go with you. Why did you go alone?”

His attitude was so natural. It was so confident that she almost mistakenly thought there had been an appointment that she had forgotten.

Strange man.

“Do you like morning coffee?”

Strange… Another strange day was beginning.