The living room, enveloped in silence, echoed only with the occasional repetition of the sound of stones being placed on the Go board.

Donghoon pondered deeply as he stared at the Go board.

Despite only half of the board being filled with black and white stones, a sense of crisis had already emerged.

He, who was narrowing the gap and searching for an escape route, let out a sigh.

Chunho, intensely focused, calmly waited for Donghoon.

It was an attitude implying that he could take as much time as needed.

That somehow stimulated Donghoon’s competitiveness.

After contemplating for a while, Donghoon decisively placed a stone on a spot that caught his eye.

He then gazed at Chunho with a proud expression.

Chunho chuckled, as if finding Donghoon adorable.

Despite the innocent laughter, a deep sense of defeat engulfed Donghoon.

After Donghoon’s prolonged contemplation, Chunho promptly placed a white stone.

Donghoon, inspecting the spot where Chunho had placed the stone, belatedly sighed.

“Ha, why didn’t I see that?”

It was an absurd mistake.

Unable to recognize Chunho’s last move as too ambitious, Donghoon considered it a move to exploit a weakness rather than a trap.

“Yeah. How many times do I have to tell you to look at the whole board, not just the front? This guy never learns.”

The teachings that never failed whenever they played Go together continued without exception today.

“Grandpa is so skilled in psychological warfare.”

Donghoon grumbled like a child, not waiting for a response.

It was sincere.

Even if Chunho’s expression as he placed the stone was inexplicably meaningful, Donghoon wouldn’t have felt this disheartened if he hadn’t fallen for it.

Since learning Go from Chunho for the first time, they had pl
“Like you said, after that time, I kept losing continuously, and today, I lost to you again.”

“Heh, are you deliberately doing this to tease me?”

“But still, it’s commendable. Today, you competed with me this much, so you’ve improved quite a bit.”

Even with Donghun’s sarcastic words, Chunho nodded proudly, looking at Donghun’s moves on the go board.

Even though he felt a bit bitter about not achieving a victory today, Donghun didn’t mind Chunho’s praise.

“Even though you’ve improved a lot, Grandfather still can’t defeat you.”

“What matters in Go is not winning or losing to me. The important thing is that every time you lose to me, you learn good moves that you didn’t know before. Now you know how to use them, Donghun.”

Chunho continued to examine Donghun’s moves and gradually organized the go board.

Suddenly, he spoke in a calm voice.

“I called you today because I’m curious about your decision.”

“M… My decision?”

Donghun asked with a puzzled expression. The unexpected words left him unable to respond to Chunho’s question.

But Chunho didn’t say anything more.

He just waited, lifting the go stones with slow movements, anticipating Donghun’s response.

Donghun, who had quickly become calm as if trying to understand Chunho’s words, made an effort to comprehend them.

It didn’t take long for him to find the answer.

“Excessive greed turns everything into anger.”

“Things that are out of reach when you reach out from where you are now.”

The desire for those things is greed.”

“The more you desire things that don’t belong to you, the more you will eventually hurt yourself.”

“Let go before you get hurt more. That way, new connections that can comfort your heart can come to you.”

This was the conclusion of the conversations about Sooyeon.

He recalled a face he had momentarily forgotten.

Donghun hesitated in his response.

Although he was always straightforward in everything, when it came to Sooyeon, he always hesitated and stepped back.

After hesitating for a while, Donghun reluctantly opened his heart.

“To be honest, I still don’t know.”

“…”

“According to Grandfather, it’s clear that I’m being greedy, but I don’t know how to let go, and… maybe I’m pretending not to know because I don’t want to let go.”

Donghun’s eyes, genuinely pouring out his feelings, shone tenderly.

Although Sooyeon was his bittersweet first love, she was also someone he genuinely liked as a person.

Being with Sooyeon always made him feel at ease.

Even when he couldn’t sleep for days and became overly sensitive.

Even when a problem he had pondered over repeatedly still didn’t get solved and his heart felt heavy.

Even when scolded by the elders at home and his mood sank to its lowest.
“When Sooyeon is by my side, the stifling feeling in my heart dissipates, and it feels as if I’m walking through thorns, clearing my mind.”

“Sooyeon was someone who knew how to comfort with silence.”

With such an ability, Donghun had not met anyone else until this moment, excluding Sooyeon.

In the eyes of others, he might have appeared perfectly stable during the tumultuous adolescent years, all thanks to Sooyeon.

So, Donghun wanted to be a source of comfort for Sooyeon, just as she had been for him, and he wanted to be a good person.

Had he harbored that feeling for too long?