The bedroom, completely blocked from sunlight by blackout blinds, still felt like midnight even at noon.

Taejun woke up after 12 o’clock.

Feeling puzzled by the absence of Soeun, who usually slept more soundly next to him, he checked the time and abruptly got up. Suddenly, he felt a dull headache as he got up. Pressing his temples, he searched for his phone.

In the spot where Han Soeun had been lying, instead of Soeun, there was his phone. The time displayed on the phone also indicated the afternoon.

He had planned to wake up early and go exercise with her.

Why did I sleep so deeply? Did Han Soeun’s deep sleeping habit transfer to me now?

Was it accumulated fatigue? There wasn’t even a feeling of bodily pain.

Having slept deeply, it didn’t feel like all the fatigue had completely disappeared, and it was uncomfortable. Taejun stretched his neck, doing some stretching, and left the bedroom.

“Wake me up a bit.”

He complained in the direction of the unseen Soeun.

If I make a sound like this, I should hear some reaction from somewhere.

The still air in the silent house felt strangely stuffy as he moved away. The farther he went, the more uneasy he became.

“Han Soeun.”

He called louder, wondering if she couldn’t hear his voice.

“Miss Han Soeun.”

He recalled the times when he used to play hide-and-seek. Finding a hiding child was an easy task, and occasionally, if the hidden child didn’t appear, he would get irritated.

“Soeun.”

When that child disappeared without a word one day and they couldn’t play hide-and-seek anymore, he didn’t want to remember the time when he felt as if someone had stolen his head.

“Han Soeun. Come out quickly. This isn’t fun.”

His always gentle voice towards her became stern. Despite the stern warning, Soeun didn’t come out, and in the end, Taejun picked up his phone.

Instead of Han Soeun, an unknown mechanical sound flowed. Unable to believe it, Taejun checked the phone number again. There was no mistake. It was a number saved in his phone’s speed dial, just Han Soeun’s number. He only checked to confirm if Han Soeun played a prank on him by changing the number saved in his phone’s speed dial.

However, the number was correct. The call history and message history displayed on that number were undoubtedly Han Soeun’s phone number.

How could this be an out-of-service number?

The fuzziness in his head transferred to his chest.

No matter who you are, I hate this kind of prank. I hate this.

Seriously, this kind of prank is unforgivable. Even now, if you appear with a big smile, I’ll probably get angry like a fool.

Really, I hate it so much. So…

Taejun frantically searched the house.

The bathroom, dressing room, study, several rooms, and even the pantry room that he had never opened before.

Soeun was nowhere to be found.
Returning to the living room, Taejun thought he should report to the police. His lover, who had been with him until last night, disappeared overnight. She erased her phone number and disappeared without leaving a single trace. She was truly a kind and gentle woman, and unless it was someone’s scheme, she would never leave suddenly.

While waiting for the police station to answer after dialing the phone number, he couldn’t stay still. As he wandered around the living room, seemingly searching for clues among various objects, his gaze entered a ceramic jar.

“Oh, sorry.”

Taejun hung up and peered inside. Inside the jar that had a few candies while Soeun was moving in and out of this house, there was a white note and an international postal envelope.

The outer surface of the envelope had the address of the Korean Embassy in the Philippines and Soeun’s name written on it. It turned out Soeun had found the mail he had hidden. All that was left was the envelope, and there was nothing inside.

Taejun hastily unfolded the note. His heart pounded like crazy.

The neatly written lines were undoubtedly Soeun’s.

“You said there was nothing left for you to hide from me.

Then why did you do that?

I waited so long for news about my dad, how could you hide even this?

Why do you control my life as you please?

I can’t forgive you. Now, I feel suffocated because of you.

I’ll take care of the compensation for mental damage on my own. Please never look for me again.

I’m leaving everything because of your chilling and suffocating presence. I hope you thought you met a wrong person.”

What is this saying?

While checking the sentences that seemed strangely unlike Soeun, whom he knew, Taejun’s eyes became hot as if they were burned.

Taejun went to the dressing room where Soeun had kept her mail. His eyes, which frantically opened the watch display case, froze.

Han Soeun left. With five of his wristwatches.

⭐

Taejun went straight to Soeun’s house.

The front door was closed, but without entering the passcode on the door lock, it simply opened. The house was clean. It was a room where only furniture, such as the bed, wardrobe, and desk that Soeun used, remained.