He wasn’t sure if he had done the right thing.

Jeong Tae-ui didn’t stop once until the elevator reached the first floor, silently staring down at the floor beneath his feet. Maybe he was regretting it. That faint, stinging unease flickering in his heart might well be called regret.

“Taking care of someone… can I really do it?”

When he spoke the words aloud, suddenly they felt unbearably heavy.

It wasn’t just the simple meaning of looking after or caring for someone. It wasn’t a one-sided notion — to take care of a person requires an enormous amount of energy. He hadn’t realized how much persistent, multiple energy it takes just to be with another person.

Others are basically creatures entirely different from oneself. They have completely different ways of thinking, completely different behavioral patterns. Even people who seem similar at first glance are the same. Everyone is fundamentally a different existence. Even if one resolves to be with ordinary people for a long time and try to handle it, it would certainly take tremendous effort.

It was different from just being hard. One had to exert effort. Putting in that effort could be easy or difficult. Maybe that was why people are divided into those who suit one and those who don’t.
Normally, even to handle other people, one would have to prepare oneself for such difficulty — much less…

“I’m just feeling really unsure of myself…”

Jeong Tae-ui muttered gloomily.

Ilay Riegrow. Officially a madman. Anyone who knew that man would surely say so.

Maybe it would have been right to follow Shin Lu’s advice. Maybe it would be better to escape him and live a more stable life.
But.
Jeong Tae-ui knew.

Even if Shin Lu came to him now, holding him back and offering another choice, he would choose the same path.

He would go to that man called Ilay Riegrow.

The elevator arrived at the first floor. Tae-ui walked out into the lobby. It was still early dawn.

In the end, Tae-ui spent the whole night staring at Shin Lu, who hadn’t opened her eyes once since then. Occasionally lost in other thoughts, then looking back again, lost in various reflections, and then looking back again.

Eventually, without having slept even a moment, he left the room. Suddenly, a thought came that he should get going.

At a time before dawn had even fully come, the lobby was sparsely populated. Upon seeing others, Tae-ui recalled a thought he had almost forgotten — a thought he’d had until now.
“Hmm… I need to buy a hat first…”

He put his hand in his pocket. The card he’d taken from Shin Lu’s wallet brushed his fingertips. He traced Shin Lu’s name printed on the card.

Since it was Shin Lu who had brought him here without his permission, he felt he owed at least this much responsibility. Besides, he was thinking of paying her back later.