Chapter 27.2

Chapter 27.2

As he was watching the clock, a van drove by, its blinding headlights sweeping through the alley. André shielded his eyes with his hand, waiting for the van to pass, then straightened himself away from the utility pole.

A bitter smile crept onto his lips.

‘I guess this is it.’

He tapped the ground a few times with the tip of his shoe before turning to leave. After taking about ten steps, he saw her—Miran, standing right in the middle of the alley, dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt.

Miran squinted her eyes. She noticed a large silhouette beneath the utility pole. Tall, with a sturdy build. The hair, bleached by the light, appeared almost blonde.

‘No way…’

She rubbed her eyes and opened them wide again, worried that her eyes were conjuring the ghost of someone she wanted to see. But no matter how many times she blinked, the man standing under the utility pole was still André.

“André?”

She called out his name in a bewildered voice. At the sound, André, glancing at his watch as if about to leave, froze mid-step.

Without taking a moment to gauge his expression, Miran ran toward him. She was afraid he might disappear like a mirage if she hesitated.

André looked like he was on his way to a date, neatly dressed in a navy jacket over a light blue button-down shirt and wrinkle-free beige trousers. His attire seemed more suited for slicing steak in a fine restaurant with white tablecloths than standing in this alley. She felt the same sense of disconnect whenever she saw Seunghyuk.

But none of that mattered. What mattered most was that the man drifting in and out of her mind all day was standing right outside her house, waiting for her.

Like slamming the brakes on a car, Miran screeched to a halt in front of André, panting heavily with her hands on her knees. She hadn’t run far, but her heart pounded violently as if it would burst out of her throat. She placed a hand on her chest and slowly straightened up.

“How… huff… how did you get here… I thought… huff… we’d never meet again!”

André looked down at Miran as she struggled to catch her breath. Her hair, disheveled from sprinting over to him, framed her flushed, radiant face.

Under the streetlight, her large, brown eyes sparkled clearly, capturing his silhouette. André could easily read the emotions reflected in her transparent gaze as they shifted from surprise to pure joy. That consistent and predictable expression gave him an inexplicable sense of relief.

Feeling an urge to neatly tuck a stray strand of hair that had fallen across Miran’s mouth, André clenched his fist tightly. A thin stick poked into his palm. Then he remembered the lollipop he was still holding, and he suddenly extended his hand toward her.

Miran looked down at the round head of the lollipop peeking out of his large fist.

“What… what’s this?”

“…A lollipop.”

“You brought it for me?”

Miran looked up at him with wide, round eyes, covering her mouth with her hand as if trying to stifle a laugh.

André frowned slightly. He wasn’t some awkward teenager fumbling around. Handing her a lollipop the moment they met was the most foolish thing he had done in his twenty-eight years of life.

The face of André de Lafayette, known for never losing his composure, flushed red.

“…Don’t you like candy?”

It was just a lollipop; he could easily toss it away. As André started to withdraw his hand, Miran quickly snatched the candy from him.

“I like it!”

Though no one was about to take it from her, Miran clutched the lollipop tightly with one hand and wrapped her other hand around it, pulling it close to her chest. She exclaimed in a flustered voice and, with a rosy-cheeked smile, emphasized again.

“I really, really like it.”

She looked at André, her eyes crinkling sweetly as her lips stretched into a shy smile. The streetlight cast a bright glow over her face, making it seem even more dazzling than a car’s headlights.

André squinted his eyes, as if trying to shield himself from the brightness, and looked at Miran with a complicated expression.

‘This is madness.’

A warning echoed repeatedly in his mind.

‘It’s not too late. Leave now.’

But what came out of his mouth was something entirely different.

“…Want to practice?”