Part One
Chapter 1. The Shortest Route
The rain started pouring at two in the afternoon. Yoon Seo-ha ran with an umbrella in one hand and a bouquet box in the other. Through the earbud in one ear, the bride’s tearful voice kept streaming in.
‘Yes, of course. I’ll be there in ten minutes. No, five!’
That was what she said, but Seo-ha had no idea where she was standing. The blue dot on her phone was moving in the exact opposite direction she was walking. She turned the phone a full circle to the right, then half a circle back to the left. The map on the screen spun along with it.
‘Why does the dot keep going backwards…’
She walked blindly wherever the app pointed until a sign came into view: AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. Before she had even finished reading it, she was already through the door.
It was a massive logistics warehouse. Boxes were stacked to the ceiling, and a forklift alarm was beeping somewhere between them. The moment Seo-ha turned toward the sound, someone grabbed her arm and yanked her back. A forklift swept through the spot where she had just been standing.
‘You’re standing in a loading lane. Out, please.’
It was a man with a lanyard round his neck, over a work jacket. His voice held no irritation, no concern. It was the voice of someone simply stating a fact.
‘Sorry, I’m trying to get to the Raum Wedding Hall. The app said it was here…’
The man glanced at her phone screen and answered right away.
‘Wrong way. Out of the main gate, left, right at the second set of lights, over the footbridge, three hundred metres.’
The directions tumbled out all at once and tangled inside Seo-ha’s head.
‘…What came after the left turn?’
The man let out a short breath.
‘Left, second lights, right, footbridge, three hundred.’
The second explanation was even shorter. And even harder to follow. Seo-ha hesitated, then swallowed her pride.
‘Couldn’t you… just take me?’
‘Why would I?’
Seo-ha held the bouquet box up in front of his face.
‘Without this, the bride walks down the aisle empty-handed. It’s once in a lifetime.’
The man looked down at his watch. A few seconds of silence passed. Then, without a word, he took a set of car keys off the wall.
The inside of the van was filled with the sound of wipers. And with Seo-ha’s voice.
‘The bride’s been crying since this morning. Her mother-in-law made a comment about her dress. And the groom was just sitting there on his phone. That’s what hurt more. If he’d just said something…’
The man kept his eyes on the road and gave a short reply.
‘So tell the groom to have a word with his mum.’
Seo-ha turned to look at him.
‘She’s not crying because she doesn’t know that.’
‘Then what doesn’t she know?’
Seo-ha opened her mouth, then closed it again. It would take too long to explain, and she doubted this man would understand even if she did.
‘…Forget it. Just drive.’
Silence settled over the van. Then, suddenly, the man swung the wheel and turned into a narrow alley.
‘Where are you going? The app says straight on!’
‘Straight on takes you through the roadworks. This way’s four minutes quicker.’
When the van stopped in front of the wedding hall, Seo-ha checked the time without thinking. Exactly five minutes.
‘…It really was four minutes quicker.’
‘Told you.’
Seo-ha opened the door, then paused halfway out. Raindrops fell on her shoulder. She turned back to look at him.
‘But you know, about the bride earlier. You just have to listen. Most people don’t talk because they don’t know the answer.’
With that, she ran into the wedding hall. The man stayed where he was for a moment, until she disappeared through the revolving door.
As he went to restart the engine, his eyes fell on the passenger seat. A phone in a pink case was lying there. At that moment the screen lit up with a notification.
[Bride] Where are you?? The groom’s disappeared!!!
Kang Do-hyun looked up at the wedding hall, phone in hand.
‘…Right. So what’s the point.’
Muttering to himself, he opened the van door.
Chapter 2. The Man Hiding in His Cave
The bridal suite was drowning in tears. The bride, Seo-yeon, was pressing tissues under her eyes so her makeup wouldn’t run, and Seo-ha was turning her bag upside down.
‘My phone, my phone, where’s my phone! The running order, my contacts, everything’s on it…’
Just then the door opened. The man from earlier was standing there, holding out the pink phone.
‘You left this in the van.’
‘You’re a lifesaver.’
Seo-ha practically snatched it from his hand.
‘But the groom’s gone missing. Thank you so much, honestly. You can go.’
But the man didn’t leave. Instead, he walked to the window and looked down at the car park.
‘What car does the groom drive?’
‘A white SUV… why?’
Seo-yeon answered between sniffles. The man pointed at a spot outside.
‘It’s still there. If he left the car, he didn’t go far. It’s raining, so somewhere with a roof.’
The man walked fast down the hallway. Seo-ha had to almost run to keep up.
‘Three entrances, two emergency stairwells, one passage through to the car park. The lobby’s full of guests, so nowhere to hide there.’
He talked like someone with the building’s floor plan spread open in his head. Seo-ha caught his sleeve.
‘Wait. Before where he went, we need to know why he went.’
‘Does the reason change the location?’
‘Of course it does! If he’s done a runner, the car park. If he wants a cry, the toilets. But…’
Seo-ha stopped in the middle of the hallway. A scene from that morning came back to her. The groom, Min-jae, sitting in the corner of the groom’s room, staring at his phone. The bride had called it indifference, but the face Seo-ha had seen was different.
‘He was on his phone all morning. But that wasn’t an indifferent face. It was the face of someone writing something and deleting it, over and over.’
The man thought for a moment.
‘Then he’s somewhere nobody will talk to him.’
‘What?’
‘When a man needs to sort out his thoughts, he goes off alone. Somewhere quiet, where nobody comes, but with a way out.’
Their eyes turned to the same place at the same time. A green emergency exit sign.
The groom was sitting on the landing between the fourth and fifth floors. In his tuxedo, clutching his phone in both hands.
‘…Don’t come any closer. Just give me five minutes.’
The man opened his mouth to say something, but Seo-ha touched his arm lightly. Then, without a word, she sat down on the step next to Min-jae.
For a long time, no one spoke. The fluorescent light in the stairwell buzzed now and then. It was Min-jae who spoke first.
‘This morning my mum said something about Seo-yeon’s dress. I should have said something right then, but I didn’t say a word. I was writing a letter to Seo-yeon, then writing what I should say to my mum… and in the end I couldn’t write a single line of either.’
Seo-ha only nodded.
‘When I go in there, I have to stand between the two of them. And I don’t know what to say.’
Seo-ha looked up at the man. Your turn, her eyes said. He came down a few steps and stood in front of Min-jae.
‘You don’t need to write anything long. One sentence is enough.’
‘…What?’
‘The thing you most want to say. Just that one.’
Right before the groom’s entrance, Min-jae stopped in front of his mother. Through the murmur of the guests, his voice came through clearly.
‘Mum. Seo-yeon looks really beautiful today. That’s all I need.’
His mother’s stiff face slowly softened. Behind the entrance, Seo-yeon heard it and wiped her tears, smiling.
Once the ceremony began, Seo-ha ran out the back door. The man was just climbing into his van.
‘Wait! I never even got your name.’
‘Do you need it?’
‘Back there on the stairs. If I’d been alone, I would’ve kept talking and never found him.’
The man paused with his hand on the door and looked at her.
‘If I’d been alone, I would’ve found him and then said the wrong thing.’
For the first time, a brief laugh passed between them. The van soon disappeared into the rain.
That night, looking at her phone in her office, Seo-ha stopped scrolling. There was a name in her contacts she had never seen before.
[Shortest Route]
‘…When did he put that in?’
Seo-ha let out a small laugh. Just then an email notification popped up. A new consultation booking for next month.
Bride: Kang Do-hee / Family contact: Kang Do-hyun
Seo-ha’s smile froze in place.
Chapter 3. Two Days of Silence
The bride, Kang Do-hee, walked into the consultation room with a bright face. The man standing beside her with his arms crossed was, as expected, him. Seo-ha put on her most professional smile.
‘Lovely to meet you. And… you must be family.’
‘Huh? You two know each other?’
‘No.’
‘Sort of.’
Their answers crossed at the same time. Do-hee looked back and forth between her brother and Seo-ha, then smiled knowingly. Seo-ha cleared her throat and turned a page.
‘Let’s start with the processional. After the parents come in, it’s the bride’s entrance. Who will be walking you down the aisle?’
‘My brother, of course…’
Do-hee trailed off. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke carefully.
‘Do-hyun. I’m thinking about getting in touch with Dad.’
Do-hyun’s face hardened for an instant. Seo-ha didn’t miss the change. His jaw tightened, and his eyes escaped somewhere out the window.
‘…Do what you want.’
That was all he said before walking out of the room. The sound of the door closing seemed unusually loud.
‘Dad walked out when I was at primary school.’
Left behind, Do-hee spoke while turning her teacup in her hands.
‘My brother brought me up when he was still at school himself. My fees, my graduations, he sorted all of it.’
‘Then this must be really hard for him.’
‘But he never talks about it. When things get hard, he just disappears. Two days, three days.’
Do-hee wasn’t wrong.
[We need to set a date for the venue walkthrough]
Read. No reply.
[Did I do something wrong?]
Read. Still no reply.
In the end, Seo-ha called three friends, one after another. The first said being left on read meant it was over. The second said how could it be over when it never started. The third said something a little different.
‘It’s his sister’s wedding. Maybe he’s not cross with you.’
Seo-ha put her phone down. And less than a minute later, she picked it up again.
At the same moment, Do-hyun was sitting on his balcony, silently tightening the propellers of a drone.
On the second night, Seo-ha finally found herself standing in front of Do-hyun’s door. It took her five minutes to press the doorbell. When Do-hyun opened the door, his hands were smudged with grease.
‘I’m here about the walkthrough date. Strictly work.’
Do-hyun looked at her for a moment, then opened the door wider.
‘…Come in.’
Half-built drones filled the balcony. Propellers, motors and wires were lined up neatly on the floor.
‘You spent two days making these?’
‘My hands need to be busy when I’m thinking.’
‘Thinking about what?’
Do-hyun didn’t answer for a long time. Seo-ha didn’t push. The only sound was a screwdriver turning a screw.
‘If Dad comes to the wedding, where I’m supposed to stand.’
Seo-ha didn’t offer a solution. Instead, she sat down beside him, picked up a propeller and turned it this way and that.
‘You’re not going to ask? What I’m going to do about it?’
‘I told you before. People don’t talk because they don’t know the answer.’
Do-hyun looked at her. Seo-ha set the propeller down.
‘But just one thing. Next time you go into your cave, send me one line saying you’re going in. Do you know what I imagined over the last two days?’
‘What did you imagine?’
‘That’s… classified. For work reasons.’
Do-hyun laughed. It was the first time Seo-ha had heard him laugh out loud.
On her way home, her phone buzzed.
[Shortest Route] Done thinking. I’ll walk Do-hee down the aisle. Dad sits in the front row.
Seo-ha smiled as she walked. Then another message arrived. It was Do-hee.
[Do-hee] Sorry… Dad says he’s coming to the venue walkthrough. I haven’t told my brother yet.
Seo-ha stopped in her tracks.
Chapter 4. A Father and Son Who Need an Interpreter
‘I still haven’t told him. What do I do?’
In the wedding hall lobby, Do-hee clung to Seo-ha’s arm and whispered.
‘It’s too late to tell him now. Look…’
The revolving door turned, and Do-hyun stepped in. At almost the same moment, a middle-aged man in a worn jacket came in through the car park door on the opposite side. It was Kang Tae-sik.
The two men stopped in the middle of the lobby. About five metres apart. Neither moved. Only the chandelier kept sparkling, indifferent.
‘…You got tall.’
It was Tae-sik who spoke first.
‘Fifteen years will do that.’
Silence again. Do-hee tugged at Seo-ha’s sleeve. Seo-ha took a breath and walked right into the space between them.
‘Well, since you’re both here, shall we start with the ceremony hall? I’ll walk you through the layout!’
In the empty hall, Seo-ha walked down the aisle as she explained. Do-hyun and Tae-sik stood at opposite ends, far apart.
‘The bride will come in from here on her brother’s arm, and you, Mr Kang, will sit in the front row.’
‘…Right. That’s how it should be.’
Tae-sik said it quietly. Seo-ha’s eyes lingered on his hand. Inside his jacket pocket, his fingers kept fiddling with something.
‘I’ll go over the entrance route again. I’m going to check the lighting.’
Do-hyun said it abruptly and disappeared backstage. Watching him go, Seo-ha muttered to herself. Another cave.
Seo-ha went out to the terrace with two cups of coffee. Tae-sik was leaning against the railing.
‘You’ve been playing with something in your pocket this whole time.’
Tae-sik froze, then, after a long hesitation, took it out. A photo with worn corners. A high school Do-hyun in his uniform, holding a diploma. It had been taken from very far away, through a gap in the crowd.
‘This… you went to his graduation?’
‘I didn’t go in. I stood outside the gates.’
‘Why didn’t you ever tell him?’
‘What would it change? I’m the one who left.’
Seo-ha looked at the photo for a long time. Do-hyun, alone backstage, staring up at the lights. Tae-sik, on the terrace, holding a photograph. Their backs looked strangely the same.
‘…You really are alike.’
Backstage, Do-hyun was flipping a light switch on and off for no reason. When Seo-ha came in, he spoke without turning around.
‘Don’t say anything.’
‘I won’t. I’m just passing on one thing. Consider me an interpreter.’
‘Interpreter?’
‘Translated, what your father is saying is this: “I was at your graduation too.”’
Do-hyun’s hand stopped on the switch. The backstage area stayed frozen in darkness.
‘…How do you know that?’
‘Reading what people don’t say is my job.’
After a long silence, Do-hyun spoke in a low voice.
‘Why do you always know. Even when I don’t say anything.’
In the dark, the distance between them was far too close. Seo-ha was the first to look away.
After the walkthrough, Tae-sik left first. When Do-hyun went out to the car park, he found an envelope tucked under his van’s windscreen wiper.
Inside was a bundle of bank transfer slips. They were all sent to the same place. The scholarship fund of the university Do-hee had attended.
‘Do-hee’s scholarship… the anonymous donor…’
Do-hyun looked up. In the distance, at the bus stop, stood Tae-sik’s stooped back.
Chapter 5. One Sentence
The night before the wedding, Do-hyun sat on the balcony with a drone in front of him. After a long while, he picked up his phone and typed a message.
[Shortest Route] Going into the cave. I’ll come out tomorrow morning.
At her office, Seo-ha read the message and held her phone to her chest, smiling.
‘…He sent one line.’
The morning of the wedding, in the bridal suite. Seo-ha was adjusting Do-hee’s veil when there was a knock. Do-hyun came in wearing a suit. His eyes were a little puffy.
‘You didn’t sleep, did you?’
‘I slept.’
‘Liar.’
Seo-ha and Do-hee said it at the same time. Do-hyun looked at Seo-ha, and Seo-ha gave a small nod. Do-hyun knelt down in front of Do-hee.
‘Do-hee. I’m changing the plan for the entrance.’
‘Huh?’
‘Please welcome the bride!’
At the host’s words, the doors opened. Do-hyun walked down the aisle holding Do-hee’s hand. The guests fell quiet. Seo-ha watched from the very back, gripping her radio.
In front of the first row, Do-hyun stopped walking. Tae-sik looked up at his son in surprise.
‘Stand up.’
‘…What?’
‘I brought her halfway. Let’s walk the other half together.’
Tae-sik rose from his seat with trembling hands. One of Do-hee’s hands was held by her brother, the other by her father. The three of them walked the rest of the way together.
At the back, Seo-ha raised the radio to her lips.
‘Sound team, turn the music up just a little. I think I’m going to cry.’
In the afternoon after the ceremony, Do-hyun and Tae-sik leaned side by side against the terrace railing. Still no words. But this time the silence wasn’t awkward.
‘The scholarship thing… don’t tell Do-hee.’
‘I won’t.’
After a long while, Do-hyun added,
‘But come round at New Year, at least. Do-hee can know about that.’
Tae-sik lowered his head and smiled. Seeing them from a distance, Seo-ha quietly stepped away.
By evening, it was raining again. Just like that day. Coming out the back door with her things, Seo-ha opened her map app out of habit.
‘The car park’s… this way?’
The phone spun. Just then, a van pulled up in front of her. The window rolled down, and there was Do-hyun’s face.
‘Wrong way.’
‘I know. I walked this way on purpose.’
‘Why?’
‘I had a feeling someone might give me a lift.’
Do-hyun let out a small laugh and opened the passenger door.
The van was filled with nothing but the sound of the wipers. This time, Seo-ha was quiet too. At a red light, Do-hyun spoke first.
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Are you asking for directions? You, Kang Do-hyun?’
‘Yes. For the first time.’
‘…What is it.’
‘What’s the quickest way to you?’
Seo-ha looked at Do-hyun for a long time. Then she closed the map app and set her phone down on her lap.
‘That’s not in the app. You just keep driving right here beside me.’
The light changed. The van pulled slowly out into the rain.
Part Two
Chapter 6. I See
‘I’m sorry, but cancelling two weeks before the wedding means the deposit… Sorry? Take me to court? Hang on, what have I…’
Click. The line went dead. Seo-ha sat with her forehead on the desk and didn’t move for a while. Then her phone gave a short buzz.
[Shortest Route] 7pm. That pasta place.
They had been together three weeks. Seo-ha let out a laugh that was half a sigh.
At the restaurant, Seo-ha talked without stopping. Do-hyun sat with his fork frozen in mid-air.
‘I spent a whole year on it. Went to four dress fittings with her, picked up every time she rang me in tears at three in the morning. Then she calls the whole thing off and wants her deposit back. I don’t even know what I did wrong…’
‘There’s a cancellation clause in the contract, isn’t there?’
‘…There is.’
‘Then legally you’re fine. Even if she takes you to court, you’ll win. I’ll put you in touch with a solicitor I know. And from now on, just block her number and…’
Seo-ha put her fork down. It landed on the table with a clatter.
‘Do-hyun.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m not telling you this because I want to win.’
‘Then why?’
‘…Forget it.’
The moment she said it, Do-hyun realised. They were the same words he had heard in the van, the day they first met. A heavy silence settled between them.
‘I’m just going to go home tonight. I can get there on my own.’
‘I’ll drive you.’
‘Even if I walk the wrong way, don’t follow me this time.’
Seo-ha walked off. The right way, for once. Do-hyun stood there for a long time.
That night, Do-hyun hovered awkwardly in the relationships section of a big bookshop. Eventually he picked up a book. Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps. He stared at the cover for a while, then muttered,
‘…That’s me, then.’
The girl at the till glanced at the title and hid a smile. Do-hyun cleared his throat for no reason.
The light on his balcony stayed on until dawn. There was a book where the drones usually were. Do-hyun underlined passages with a highlighter and wrote in a notebook.
1. No solutions
2. Nod
3. ‘I see’
Then he stood in front of the bathroom mirror and practised in all seriousness.
‘I see.’
He nodded.
‘…I see.’
He nodded again.
‘Is that right?’
The next afternoon there was a knock at Seo-ha’s office door. Do-hyun stood there holding two coffees.
‘Five minutes. Tell me about yesterday again.’
‘…Why?’
‘This time I’ll just listen.’
Only half convinced, Seo-ha began.
‘When she first came in…’
‘I see.’
Do-hyun nodded.
‘I haven’t told you anything yet.’
‘…I see.’
‘Do-hyun, do you know you’re nodding every three seconds?’
‘The book said…’
Seo-ha finally burst out laughing. She laughed for ages, then wiped the corners of her eyes.
‘You bought a book? That book?’
‘Bought it the second I saw the title. Thought it was about me.’
When her laughter died down, Seo-ha said quietly,
‘…Funny, though. Nothing’s actually been sorted, but I feel better.’
‘That’s what the book said. I only just understood what it meant.’
That evening, when Do-hyun got back to the office, the head of operations was waiting for him.
‘Do-hyun, you know we’re opening the new logistics hub in Singapore? I’ve put you forward to run it. You’d fly out in three months, and it’s three years minimum.’
Do-hyun’s face went rigid. The phone in his pocket buzzed.
[Seo-ha] Thanks for today. Our first trip’s next week and I’ve planned everything! ✈️
Do-hyun looked down at the screen for a long time. Then, instead of replying, he turned the phone face down on the desk.
Chapter 7. One Thing at a Time
The café table was a war zone. Seo-ha had an earbud in one ear, a tablet in one hand and her phone in the other. Across from her, Do-hyun was holding nothing but his coffee.
‘Yes, peonies for the bouquet. Do-hyun, what do you think of this place to stay? Oh, hang on. Text from a bride.’
‘Seo-ha, there’s something I need to…’
‘No, not white, ivory! Yes, go on. I’m listening.’
‘…It’s fine. When you’re off the phone.’
Thirty minutes later the call ended. Do-hyun took a breath and started again.
‘Something came up at work…’
‘Oh! The hire car! Keep going, I can do two things at once.’
‘I can’t.’
Seo-ha’s fingers stopped tapping.
‘…Sorry?’
‘I can only do one thing at a time. Talking or listening.’
Only then did Seo-ha properly look at his face. He looked a bit worn out.
That night, alone in her office, Seo-ha opened the book Do-hyun had left behind. On the page about multitasking, there were highlighter marks. In the margin, in wobbly handwriting:
Seo-ha can listen to everything at once. I can’t. Not fair.
Seo-ha laughed without making a sound. Then, all of a sudden, she stopped.
‘…Hang on. What was he trying to tell me earlier?’
The night before the trip, in the van on the way to her flat, Seo-ha made a show of burying her phone deep in her bag.
‘Look. Phone’s away. One thing at a time now.’
‘What thing?’
‘Listening to you. What you were going to say earlier.’
Do-hyun’s grip tightened on the wheel. The lights turned red. He hesitated for a long time.
‘Work… signed off my leave. Four days.’
‘Was that really so hard to say?’
‘…Yeah.’
Seo-ha got out, smiling, and waved. Left alone, Do-hyun rested his forehead on the steering wheel.
‘I’ll tell her on the trip. Nowhere to run off to there.’
As he lifted his head, he spotted a sheet of paper on the floor under the passenger seat. Seo-ha’s packing list for the trip. On the last line, in her handwriting:
✔ Goal for this trip: say ‘I love you’ to Do-hyun first
Chapter 8. The Trip Without Directions
Halfway along a mountain road in Gangwon Province, the satnav gave up. All the screen said was ‘No route found’. Neither of their phones had signal.
‘What do we do? Should we turn back?’
‘It’s fine. You can roughly tell the direction from the sun. We just head east.’
‘Roughly? Mr Map Genius?’
‘No map, so roughly.’
An hour later they were driving past the same pavilion for the third time.
‘We’ve seen that pavilion before. Twice.’
‘It’s just a similar one.’
‘It’s got the same swallows’ nest on the roof.’
Just then, an old woman working in a field straightened her back.
‘We could ask her!’
‘Let’s just go a bit further.’
Instead of answering, Seo-ha wound down the window.
‘Excuse me! Which way to the town?’
Do-hyun said nothing.
The rain came down so hard that they ended up spending the night at the old woman’s house. Boiled corn and potatoes appeared on the wooden platform in the yard, and her husband poured them rice wine without a word.
‘Fifty years, and this one’s never once asked for directions. He’d go off to market day in town and end up at the market in the next village. I’ve lost count.’
‘The market there was better.’
‘See? See? Never admits it.’
Seo-ha laughed, then caught Do-hyun’s eye. Do-hyun cleared his throat.
Late that night, after the old woman and Seo-ha had gone inside, only the old man and Do-hyun were left on the platform. For a long while, they just drank their rice wine in silence.
‘You’ve got the face of a man with something to say.’
‘…Is it that obvious?’
‘I’ve had that face for fifty years. But she always knew. Even when I didn’t say.’
‘So you don’t have to say it?’
‘No. She knows, and she waits anyway. That’s what hurts more.’
Do-hyun put his cup down.
The rain had stopped, and the sky was so full of stars it looked as if they might fall. Seo-ha came and sat beside Do-hyun, wrapped in a blanket.
‘I had a goal for this trip, you know.’
‘So did I. There’s something I need to tell you.’
‘Hang on, me first. If I wait my turn, I’ll bottle it again.’
Seo-ha took a deep breath.
‘I love you. And I’m hopeless with directions, so honestly, I don’t think I can get by without you now.’
Do-hyun looked at her. The words he had prepared caught in his throat.
‘Your turn.’
‘…Me too. I love you.’
Seo-ha leaned against his shoulder and smiled. Do-hyun looked up at the stars and, in the end, swallowed the second thing he had meant to say.
The day after they got back, Seo-ha dropped by Do-hyun’s flat to help him unpack. While he was in the shower, an envelope slid off the kitchen table onto the floor. Seo-ha picked it up without thinking.
Advance Notice of Transfer. Kang Do-hyun, Team Leader. Head of Singapore Logistics Hub. Expected departure: 30 November.
Next to the date, in Do-hyun’s handwriting, was a short note.
When do I tell Seo-ha.
The bathroom door opened. Seo-ha, holding the letter, met Do-hyun’s eyes.
Chapter 9. No More Caves
‘How long have you known?’
‘…A month.’
‘A month. The night I cried at the pasta place, at the café, the night we looked at the stars?’
‘I wanted to decide properly before I told you. If I told you when I was only halfway there, you’d just worry.’
‘That is the cave! Deciding everything on your own and then coming out to announce it.’
‘I wasn’t going to announce anything.’
‘Then what? This isn’t a road you’re taking on your own. I’m on that map too!’
Do-hyun couldn’t say a word. Seo-ha picked up her bag.
‘Just send one line. You promised.’
The front door shut.
For three days after that, Do-hyun’s chat on Seo-ha’s phone stayed silent. On Do-hyun’s balcony, the drones piled up: one, two, three. Seo-ha rang her three friends one after another again. This time she couldn’t say anything. She just cried.
On the third day, Do-hee turned up at Seo-ha’s office, just back from her honeymoon and very tanned.
‘I hear my brother’s gone quiet for three days.’
‘How did you…’
‘He rang me. At three in the morning. Didn’t say a word for an hour, then hung up.’
Seo-ha couldn’t answer. Do-hee went on slowly.
‘He’s done this before. At uni he got a scholarship to study abroad, and he just turned it down because he couldn’t leave me on my own. Told me he hadn’t got in.’
‘Is he going to do the same thing this time?’
‘Who knows. But leaving someone behind is the thing he’s most scared of. Because that’s what Dad did.’
Seo-ha looked out of the window for a long time. Then she put down the phone she had been holding.
‘I’m not going round this time.’
‘Sorry?’
‘This time he has to come out on his own. If I knock on his door, I’m reading him for him again.’
That night, Do-hyun’s doorbell rang. The person standing there when he opened the door wasn’t Seo-ha. It was Tae-sik, holding two bottles of soju.
‘Do-hee told me to come.’
Father and son sat side by side among the piles of drones. Just as Seo-ha once had, Tae-sik said nothing for a long time. Only after the glasses had been emptied twice did he speak.
‘I left without a word.’
‘I know.’
‘If I’d left your mother even one line, you lot wouldn’t have waited so long. That’s what I regret most.’
Do-hyun bowed his head.
‘Whether you go or not, I don’t mind. But talk before you decide. Don’t end up like me.’
Tae-sik drained his last glass and got up. Putting on his shoes at the door, he looked back.
‘That girl worked everything out from one photograph. You don’t come across people like that very often.’
At the same moment, Seo-ha was sitting in her dark room. Her phone buzzed. The first time in three days.
[Shortest Route] I’ve come out of the cave. Sorry it took so long.
[Shortest Route] The night before I fly, I’ll be waiting there. This time I want us to decide together.
‘There… where’s there?’
Just as she began to type a reply, a low battery warning flashed up. Then the phone died.
Chapter 10. The Woman Who Drew the Map
The night before he was due to fly. Her phone, plugged into the charger, refused to come back on. Beneath the screen she had cracked when she dropped it, not a flicker of light. Seo-ha held her head in her hands.
‘Where’s there? The pasta place? The wedding hall? The old couple’s house?’
Seo-ha closed her eyes. And for the first time, instead of reading a map, she began to read the man. The way he gave directions. The way he swung the wheel into a side street whenever the road was blocked. A man who always went back to the beginning when things got tangled.
‘He’s someone who starts again from scratch. When the route goes wrong… he goes back to the starting point.’
Seo-ha opened her eyes.
‘The warehouse.’
She took out a sheet of paper and drew a map in biro, remembering the route he had repeated twice on the day they met.
‘Left… second set of lights… right… footbridge…’
But this time she had to go the other way. From the wedding hall to the warehouse. Out of habit, Seo-ha turned the paper round. Then her hand stopped.
‘No. Don’t turn the map… turn yourself.’
Seo-ha left the paper where it was and turned her body to face the right way. Then she started walking.
At the second set of lights she got muddled. She went into a corner shop and asked the man behind the counter for directions. On the footbridge she ran out of breath and had to stop for a moment. In the distance she could see the lights of the logistics centre. Seo-ha drew a circle in biro around the warehouse on her paper map.
AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY.
In front of the same sign as the day they met, Seo-ha stopped, out of breath.
Then, from the darkness, came a low hum. Dozens of drones rose into the sky, their lights glowing. The lights formed a single line. From the wedding hall to the warehouse, it was exactly the route Seo-ha had just walked.
At the end of the line, Do-hyun stepped out.
‘You found it.’
‘I asked for directions once. At a corner shop.’
‘Good. Took me until I was thirty-six to learn that.’
Do-hyun took a step closer.
‘I haven’t decided about Singapore yet.’
‘You’re flying tomorrow.’
‘It’s just a recce. I told my boss. That it isn’t something I can decide on my own. That there’s someone I need to decide it with.’
Seo-ha said nothing. Do-hyun went on.
‘If I go, it’s three years. If I don’t, life stays as it is. I’m fine either way. As long as you’re on the map.’
Seo-ha looked at Do-hyun for a long time. And this time, it was she who came up with the solution.
‘They have weddings in Singapore, don’t they?’
‘…Sorry?’
‘The Koreans who live there, who plans their weddings? They’ll need a wedding planner.’
‘You’re saying you’ll come?’
‘You said we’d decide together. I’ve decided. But there’s a condition.’
‘What is it?’
‘When you go into your cave, one line. No exceptions.’
Do-hyun laughed.
‘I’ll send two.’
Do-hyun pressed the remote in his hand. The lights in the sky scattered, then slowly came back together. This time not as a line, but as a circle. The shape of a ring.
‘You said one sentence was enough.’
Do-hyun took a small box from his pocket.
‘I’ll drive beside you for the rest of my life.’
Her face somewhere between tears and laughter, Seo-ha nodded.
Epilogue
Six months later, in the bridal suite of a wedding hall.
Seo-ha was in her wedding dress, and she still had a radio in her hand.
‘Sound team, music in three seconds! Petals from the second row!’
‘It’s your own wedding! Put the radio down!’
Do-hee snatched it off her in disbelief.
Tae-sik sat in the front row. Beside him were the old couple, up from Gangwon Province.
‘This is the third floor, is it?’
‘It’s the second! I told you to ask!’
The doors opened. At the end of the aisle, Do-hyun was waiting for Seo-ha. Walking slowly towards him, she faltered halfway.
‘…Hang on. Is this the right way?’
Do-hyun held out his hand.
‘Doesn’t matter if it’s the wrong way. I’ll take you there.’
Seo-ha took his hand.
— The End —