EVEN IF YOU CAN’T REMEMBER, IT’S THERE
The man dragged the chair across the floor with a grating sound. But he made no move to sit down and slammed his fists on his desk instead. He felt a sudden, uncontrollable surge of heat, like a volcano had erupted inside him.
He hardly remembered how he had gotten from the guesthouse in Seogwipo to his own home. He’d almost mowed down the entire guesthouse or surf café or whatever kind of place it was when he saw Romi with another guy, but he’d just barely managed to calm himself down and leave before it came to that. He’d nearly crashed into those two ditzes in the rental car, too, but they had swerved to escape him like a pair of scared little mice.
Romi had come to Jeju to find that damned guy from three years ago. He’d never considered that she still hadn’t forgotten him. The mere thought of them together made his blood boil, then go cold, over and over again. He banged on the desk a few more times. The pain didn’t even register.
A moment later, once his breathing had steadied and his anger gradually came to settle in the pit of his chest, he sat down in the chair, tilted his head back, and began to coldly, carefully weigh the situation.
First of all, he couldn’t stand by and watch Romi reunite with that guy. It had been one thing when he didn’t know about the other man, but now that he did, he couldn’t allow it. Couldn’t just swallow the fact that Romi had come here in search of someone else.
But he had to be more alert. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake like last time. He remembered what happened three years ago. While he’d been loitering around the exhibition center and waiting for the chance to approach her, he’d lost the initiative. And then there was the accident. Even after all that, no one had been keeping an especially close eye on him, but now he couldn’t be sure. The closer he got to Romi, the greater the danger seemed to grow.
But it was a danger worth enduring. An electrifying thrill coursed through his veins. He stood, picked up the photos on the desk, and stuck them to the board on the wall. They were photos he had taken of Romi while trailing her for several days. In a handful of them, she wore a sunny, utterly unsuspecting smile.
It’s true, he thought, tapping Romi’s face in the photos with his finger. You still have no idea. You still haven’t found anyone.
The fact that Romi still didn’t know the whole truth was an opportunity for him. I’ll be able to jog her memory myself. He locked eyes with her in one of the photos. This was nothing to be angry over. He had time. Time to either reward or punish Romi for forgetting about him and finding herself another man.
A chuckle escaped his lips. For a long time, he couldn’t stop laughing.