Chapter 57.1

Dong Jiwoo managed to feign a calm expression despite his wildly beating pulse. Fortunately, Han Seoryeong kept her head deeply bowed, appearing merely as someone temporarily out of breath.

Although she could be excessively tenacious at times, Dong Jiwoo fully understood her determination. They had endured this wretched hell for so long, and she couldn’t afford to slip up just two hours before the end.

‘Instructor, please just pass by…’

Dong Jiwoo swallowed hard, but the instructor’s boots stopped perilously close.

“…!”

Involuntarily, he looked up to find Lee Wooshin standing there with a peculiar expression, looking down at Seoryeong.

His narrowed eyes seemed to suggest he had already seen through her ploy, but his expression remained consistently businesslike and stern.

The man, standing there against the night wind, scrutinized Seoryeong’s stiffened hair and dirty forehead, training uniform hardened by alternating between mudflats and seawater, and her boots so caked in mud they were barely recognizable.

The more he looked, the deeper the wrinkles across his smooth forehead grew, and his persistent gaze finally fell on the ground where Seoryeong’s hand rested haphazardly.

Lee Wooshin’s expression changed abruptly.

Curious, Dong Jiwoo followed his gaze downward. He already knew Seoryeong had been frantically scribbling something right before she passed out and squinted to try to make out the faint letters.

Kim… Kim… what is it? Kim Hi? Kim Hyu-?

The strange expression on the instructor’s face was a real coincidence.

Lee Wooshin wore an inexplicable look, scratching his cheek with his fingernails and then clenching his fist as if he couldn’t stand it.

“…Damn, so tenacious. Where does someone like her come from to drive people mad.”

Despite Seoryeong’s disheveled, wrecked appearance, the instructor stared at her with an expression that seemed almost captivated.

He cursed under his breath, but a subtle softness appeared on one side of his face as he looked at the ground. Dong Jiwoo scratched his neck, wearing a puzzled expression.

The instructor couldn’t take his eyes off Han Seoryeong, as if there was something extraordinarily fascinating about her.

At that moment, a faint trace of pity appeared and vanished in his unfathomable eyes.

‘What… was that?’

Instinctively, Dong Jiwoo turned his head away, feeling as though he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

Lee Wooshin checked his military digital watch by subtly raising his sleeve. Clicking his tongue, he walked through the soft sand a few steps closer to Han Seoryeong.

Oh… oh…! As a flustered Dong Jiwoo shifted nervously, the instructor used the sole of his boot to erase the scribbles on the sandy ground a few times before walking away.

“….”

What did he do? Dong Jiwoo blinked in confusion, watching the instructor turn his back.

Lee Wooshin stood tall like a lighthouse in the direction where the cold wind had been blowing.

Just then, Seoryeong’s fingers began to move again.

***

Her mind was foggy. Her eyelids felt too heavy to lift, but a gentle breeze brushed her forehead.

Seoryeong, in a deeply subdued state, could barely tell whether it was a hand or the wind she felt. It seemed like she had been having a massive dream… Still, in a light sleep, she moved her lips slightly.

“Kim Hyun…”

She tilted her head to look for the wind, which instantly disappeared—an instinctive gesture that gave her husband a comforting shiver.

“Is that you, Hyun? Why are you home so early today? There’s no food at home…”

Her hand, which had been pushing her stray hair back, paused at the words that slipped out naturally.

At that moment, Seoryeong felt a strange sense of urgency and wanted to open her eyes as soon as possible. For some reason, she felt she might see Kim Hyun’s face if she did.

However, she couldn’t move at all, as if pinned under the building’s rubble. She strained to flutter her eyelashes, but suddenly, a warm towel was placed over her eyelids.

Ah... A sigh came from deep within her chest. It really is my husband. The warmth made her body relax involuntarily.

“I had such a strange dream… a really, really awful dream…”

“What kind of dream was it?”

The warmth, the familiar voice responding as if it were natural, made her feel like she might suddenly cry.

“My whole body hurt, and it felt like my chest was hollowed out…”

“Where exactly does it hurt? Here?”

His familiar touch carefully massaged her aching arms and legs.

“Mmm… and I was hit by cold water and hit with alcohol too.”

“Who on earth did that to you?”

“A jerk…”

“….”

“A really unlucky guy…”

“….”

“But no matter where I looked, Mr. Hyun wasn’t there.”

At that moment, it felt like the hand holding hers was either pulling her in deeper or pushing her away painfully. Everything was so unclear as if it were all a dream. Seoryeong called out his name frantically in her hoarse voice before falling back asleep.