Chapter 12

The urgency in the air alone told her something bad had happened.

Seo-ha leaned forward without meaning to. Kim Do-hee ended the call and spoke to her in a subdued voice.

“I’m going to turn the car around.”
“Has something happened?”

Seo-ha asked, her hands clasped together. Unlike before, Kim Do-hee answered readily, probably too rattled to weigh her words.

“They say the CEO’s dog has been badly hurt and taken to an animal hospital. He’s over there now, so we’ll head to the hospital as well.”

Out of nowhere Seo-ha remembered Jun-hyeok mentioning the other day that he kept a dog, and her own expression hardened. She had no way of knowing exactly what had happened; all she could do was hope it was nothing too terrible.

They turned the car around and raced to a large general animal hospital in the city center.

When she stepped inside with Kim Do-hee, the sharp hospital smell of disinfectant stung Seo-ha’s nose. She could feel Dodam fidgeting, and she faltered right along with him.

“It’s all right. Dodam, we’re not here because of you. I’ll stay right beside you.”

Seo-ha bent and stroked the back of Dodam’s neck to soothe him. He hated hospitals, and he must have worked out where they were from the air and the smell. Anxiety took no time to catch.

I just hope he isn’t hurt too badly.

Seo-ha knew the feeling well herself: the moment a creature that has given you unconditional love falls ill or disappears, a corner of your own heart empties out along with it. Merely imagining it set one side of her chest aching.

Kim Do-hee’s urgent voice rushed on ahead, leaving Seo-ha’s tangled feelings behind.

“Boss. What happened?”

At Jun-hyeok’s familiar low voice from somewhere above her, Seo-ha raised her bowed head.

“There was an intruder over by the outdoor training ground in B Zone. The dog happened to be out there, of all times, so he went for the intruder.”
“What? Anyone who could sneak into B Zone isn’t some petty thief. How’s Karon doing now?”

His voice was bitter and worn, like a sigh he had been holding in for a long time.

“Stab wounds in three places. The surgery’s done, and he’s been moved to the recovery room.”

Listening in from beside them, Seo-ha drew a short breath. The injury was far more serious than she had expected, which startled her badly, but the worst shock was hearing that he had been stabbed with a knife.

He said the dog was a German shepherd, didn’t he.

A dog like that would have courage bred into him as instinct. He would never have left an intruder alone.

…So his name was Karon.

She had never once met the dog, yet Seo-ha kept putting herself in his place, and her heart smarted.

“Is he going to be all right?”
“Luckily the knife missed the major organs, they tell me.”

Their talk left Seo-ha, the outsider, no opening. Han Jun-hyeok hadn’t even greeted her yet, so speaking first felt awkward. While she hesitated, unsure what would be best, Jun-hyeok turned to Kim Do-hee.

“Do-hee, go straight home from here.”
“No, sir, I should see Yun Seo-ha-ssi all the way to her door.”

Seo-ha had been quietly following along, and at the sudden sound of her own name she flinched, her train of thought snapping clean off. She felt exactly as if she had been caught eavesdropping.

It had nagged at her all along: there seemed to be no boundary at all between the two of them. That familiarity kept needling her in some subtle way she couldn’t quite name.

“Forget it. There’s no need when I’m here.”

A trace of irritation clung to Jun-hyeok’s tone, as if carrying the conversation any further were a nuisance.

“Still, I ought to…”
“Go while I’m letting you.”

Only then did Kim Do-hee pick up on his annoyance, and she backed down.

“Understood. And keep me updated on Karon’s condition.”

Was it only her imagination, or did Kim Do-hee sound somehow put out?

Seo-ha was angry with herself for reading something into every trivial little thing. Ever since she had met Han Jun-hyeok, her moods seemed to swing harder and harder, and that was a problem.

“Yun Seo-ha-ssi, I’ll head off first.”
“Yes. Thank you for your trouble today.”

Even as she returned Kim Do-hee’s farewell, Seo-ha was anything but at ease. She felt like oil in water, someone who ought not to be mixed into this place.

To get her reeling mind under control, she took a deep breath. Besides, if anyone was entitled to be shaken just now, it was this man, not her.

I should have turned back partway when she said something had come up.

While Seo-ha went on silently repeating her regret, Jun-hyeok dropped heavily down beside her. Trying to keep her mixed feelings from showing, she spoke quietly.

“You must have had a fright. If it had been me, I might have fainted.”
“Unfortunately, it isn’t the first time.”

For a moment Seo-ha tried to imagine what sort of life he had led. An ordinary person could go a whole lifetime without once seeing their own dog stabbed.

As if he had read her expression, Jun-hyeok answered the very question on her mind.

“Before I adopted him, he was a police dog.”
“Ah…”
“He got injured and retired early, and he still hasn’t kicked the old habit.”

Jun-hyeok shifted with a deep sigh. That citrus scent of his swept over her, and Seo-ha carefully drew back before going on.

“It must be instinct, stamped deep in his bones. The urge to protect what’s precious to him.”

She did not know why those words had come blurting out of her, nor could she tell whether Karon weighed on her so heavily because she was a dog owner herself, or because of the worn-out air about Han Jun-hyeok, so unlike his usual self. Perhaps her own situation and Karon’s had simply overlapped in her mind.

“Because whether it’s a person or an animal, having something you want to protect makes you strong.”

Seo-ha, too, had put up even her own death as collateral to protect herself. The saying that anyone grows brave with something to protect held true for her as well.

Strangely, though, Jun-hyeok gave no reaction one way or the other. A man like him would normally have had plenty to say. It was a long while before he spoke, his voice low.

“So what is it you want to protect.”

The question, turned back on her so unexpectedly, left Seo-ha moving her lips without a sound, and he went on.

“With that strong will of yours to die, I mean.”

Only then did Seo-ha recover her composure enough to answer, slowly.

“Peace, rest, freedom?”
“Bullshit.”

Seo-ha flinched at Jun-hyeok’s sharp bark, and just then a member of the hospital staff came over and called to him.

“Sir. Karon has come out of the anesthesia much sooner than we expected. He has a strong will, so we think the recovery will be quick too. It’s a good sign.”

The staff member sounded bright; the surgery must have gone well enough.

“Come this way. Seeing his owner when he wakes up helps a great deal with getting his strength back.”

Jun-hyeok brushed himself off and rose quickly. Seo-ha had meant to sit and wait, but he spoke abruptly, almost as if to himself.

“Aren’t you coming?”

A moment ago he had been scolding her coldly, and she could hardly believe the words were his. She answered with a question of her own.

“Am I allowed to come?”
“There’s no reason you shouldn’t.”

Jun-hyeok took her by the arm and pulled her to her feet. Still dazed, she stood with him in front of Karon’s recovery room.

Picturing Karon was not hard. If anything, it was easy.

A full tail, a lean body, a back hard as river stone. His paws probably thud with every step.

Back when she lived on the island, the managers who lent out daily-installment and monthly-interest money, taking their cut off the top, had kept dogs. Most were beasts raised to frighten the unnies at the hostess bars¹, in case any of them tried to run. One manager used to boast no end that one of his dogs was a pedigree German shepherd.

The memory was a long way back, but those blazing eyes alone had left an impression deep enough to stay with her even now, and she thought Karon would be just the same.

Standing before the recovery room, she clasped her hands together and made a wish.

I don’t need to see you to know you’re strong. So pull through and get up soon. Your owner won’t say it, but he looks fairly shaken.

She hoped the prayer that had carried her through the hard times would reach Karon too.

A little later, as they came back out into the waiting room together, Seo-ha tried a clumsy joke on Jun-hyeok, wanting to lift the heavy mood even a little.

“We never did get the marriage registered after all. If Karon was giving us a sign not to… what then?”
“Ha. Why is it that every time you open your mouth today, it’s nonsense?”

His blunt reaction left her feeling she had made a silly quip, and her face flushed hot. Apparently, jokes weren’t something anyone could pull off just by copying others.

Then Jun-hyeok’s voice came again, softer now and carrying a weighty certainty.

“That one’s the only one on my side. There’s no way he would.”