Chapter 233.1

Chapter 233.1

A lukewarm towel gently wiped over her skin. Seoryeong slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly at the man who was cleaning her.

“I saw something really strange. It wasn’t a dream or a hallucination, but I saw light. And then you were right in front of me.” Seoryeong muttered incoherently.

The miracle she was allowed to have existed right here. When she burrowed into his arms like a spoiled child, he pulled her into a tighter embrace. Their bare chests pressed together like magnets, not a single thread between them.

“So you followed that light?” he asked.

“Yes… well….”

“Why would you follow something unknown so recklessly?”

“No, when I followed it, you were there, Instructor.”

“I don’t like that.”

The man who had been stroking down her spine clicked his tongue low.

“There’s nothing wrong with being cautious. For the time being, it’s better to lie low and adjust to your new identity.”

She had already thought through that concern, but Seoryeong kept it to herself. She stopped herself from asking whether she could try having a hundred faces like he did. His reaction was obvious, and she did not want to waste such a good day arguing. Keeping her bold plan tightly hidden, Seoryeong simply blinked.

In truth, there was something more urgent than that.

“There’s somewhere we need to go together.”

“Where? Korea?”

“I actually… Instructor… I met your grandmother.”

The lips brushing butterfly kisses over her shoulder froze. His pupils stared down at her as if struck by lightning. His face showed that he could not quite grasp what she had just said.

For some reason, Seoryeong’s heart tightened with a sharp ache, and she bit her lower lip.

If she led him to that island, Lee Wooshin might have to face his childhood all over again.

After learning his grandfather’s intentions, he might explode in anger or end up deeply wounded.

Because of that, Seoryeong could have hidden the news of Daria Solzhenitsyn’s survival. But she chose not to. This time, she would hold the boy’s hand firmly herself.

“Daria Solzhenitsyn is alive.”

The frozen man stared at her blankly.

*

The nameless island was still filled with the fresh, green scent of seaweed. Simple people chatted cheerfully, and unadorned smiles bloomed like leaves in the sweltering heat.

Only Lee Wooshin, standing rigid, seemed as if he were still trapped in brutal cold.

If there was one presence that felt out of place on this beach, it was Lee Wooshin.

The harsh sea wind flapped his short sleeved shirt, revealing the defined muscles of his solid build. His once glossy hair lay in disarray. Even so, his gaze fixed on some faraway point did not waver in the slightest, almost frighteningly so.

Seoryeong looked at the man who kept readjusting his grip on her hand with quiet affection. She understood all too well the anxiety he was silently swallowing, so she pressed herself close to her husband’s side.

The expression that had vanished in an instant when she told him that Daria Solzhenitsyn was alive still lingered in her mind. As she haltingly continued her story, he remained sunk in heavy silence.

How she had endured after being left alone on the tracks, how she ended up in Thailand, and whom she met and what she heard there.

In the end, on the day Winter Castle was blown apart, the man finally learned why the boy alone had survived.

A flood of emotions surged through Lee Wooshin’s eyes. They darkened to pitch black, then swelled crimson red. Lee Wooshin blinked with a pale face.

His low murmur about needing to see his grandmother sounded like deep, icy water.

From that day on, Seoryeong never left his side for even a moment and remained restless. Lee Wooshin continued his daily life as if nothing were wrong, but whenever he sank into thought, he sometimes failed to hear her calling him.

Each time that happened, Seoryeong grew more frustrated with her own clumsy, awkward way of handling things.

Even then, Lee Wooshin remained perceptive and gentle. As if he saw straight through his wife’s aching heart, he relaxed his expression the moment he heard her footsteps and pulled the hesitant Seoryeong into a fierce embrace.

The strength tightening around her felt desperate enough to make her heart ache, but just pressing their hearts together allowed her to breathe again.

“Instructor, greetings! Gurkha graduate reporting in!”