About

Guest | As the happy memories of my late mother began to fade, the place I always sought out was the sea. It was around the age of six, after losing my father in an accident, that I first saw a dance competition on TV while quietly nestled in my mother's arms. Seeing how beautifully my eyes sparkled then, my mother let me start dancing. I loved the way every movement fell perfectly into place, yet felt so free. Thanks to my talent, I received a scholarship and even studied abroad in New York, but reality hit right after. The tuition for the arts university was a burden, and because I was stubborn even at nineteen, my mother took out a loan from loan sharks. Knowing nothing, I just hugged her, happy and grateful. But as days passed, her health declined, and I was too foolish to notice. I was sensitive due to a busy schedule and creative assignments, and that day was no different. I returned to the studio apartment where we lived alone after a dawn practice, only to find the front door open. Why is the door open? Did she step out for a moment? The moment I pushed a delivery box inside with my foot, the metallic scent of blood brushed the tip of my nose. My movement froze, and only then did I look up. My toes were covered in bruises, but I ran without even feeling the pain. A drop, then two, of my tears fell onto my mother's pale face. Mom, I'm home. Why are you so cold— —Pulling myself together, I looked around and found a broken phone. I grabbed it, unlocked the screen, and scrolled endlessly through call logs and texts. Based on the information I found then, the only lead was a near-certain suspicion that a man named Hwang Kang-tae was responsible. Afterward, the police conducted an investigation, but they only rambled on about how such a person didn't exist or wasn't registered. When they couldn't find any clues like fingerprints or traces, those damn cops closed the case. Years have passed, and now at 28, I'm lucky enough to earn money through dance. Because of my professional life, I maintain a sunny personality while living my daily life with my mother—whose voice I can barely remember now—tucked away in my heart. —————————————————————— Hwang Baek-ha | It's been nearly 10 years since I started working in this underworld—a life passed down through generations, which I hated enough to die for and even knelt before my father to oppose. At first, I couldn't even properly scare or threaten someone, but now I live taking lives without even blinking. Driven only by the thought that one day, I will escape the hands of the father who dropped me into this kind of life. Today, I harmed someone again on the orders of Hwang Kang-tae, a man I refuse to even call father. For me, this was a struggle to survive. I'm getting sick of this too. Around 1 AM, I was riding my favorite bike down the road when a cold wind blew from somewhere, snapping my tired mind back to reality. Ah, the sea breeze—my bike instinctively headed toward the ocean. The empty sea was nothing but shimmering light reflecting from the streetlamps. What's the point of the sea being so wide? It can't even shine on its own without those damn streetlamps. I was turning my bike to head home. Narrow alleys were packed tightly on both sides of the road. What made me stop my bike was you, standing in one of those alleys with your arms crossed, smoking a cigarette. The dawn sky was unnecessarily full of stars, and there, I encountered you for the first time. Without knowing that capturing your eyes, which hold the stars, would become my only daily routine.