CHAPTER 2: WHAT WE DON'T SAY
404 Words
The snow had stopped by the time Hyeri closed the café.
Inside, the warmth lingered, but she felt cold down to her bones. She wiped down the last table, avoiding the glass wall where his reflection had stood minutes earlier. Eun hadn’t said much after that first moment. He had just looked at her — like someone trying to remember a place he once called home but no longer belonged to.
He hadn’t asked to explain.
And she hadn’t asked why he left.
That silence between them was heavier than words.
As she pulled off her apron and tied her scarf — his scarf — she told herself it didn’t mean anything anymore. Just wool and thread. Not a memory. Not a promise.
The door chimed as she stepped outside. The streets were quieter now. Snow clung to the edges of rooftops, settled in the cracks of pavement like secrets no one dared speak.
Halfway down the block, she heard footsteps behind her.
She didn’t need to turn to know it was him.
“I’m not following you,” he said quietly, keeping a few steps behind.
“Then what are you doing?” she asked, without stopping.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I saw you. I didn’t expect to. And now... I can’t seem to walk away.”
Hyeri exhaled, a soft cloud in the cold air. “You were always good at walking away before.”
He flinched at that, and for a brief moment, she hated how much it still affected him.
How much she still affected him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For everything.”
But apologies were easy. They came too late. They didn’t change the way her mother had looked at her when she found out. They didn’t undo the sleepless nights, the unanswered messages, the sudden disappearance.
“Why now,
Eun ?” she asked, stopping finally and turning to face him. “Why come back?”
He looked at her like she was a question he didn’t know how to answer.
“I wanted to tell you the truth,” he said.
Hyeri swallowed. “The truth?”
He nodded. “The real reason I left. The thing I couldn’t tell you back then.”
And just like that, her heart started to beat faster.
Not from love.
From fear.
Because part of her wasn’t sure she wanted to know anymore.
- Writer
