Chapter 218 – The Witch and the Winter Sea (3)

Seol-ah didn’t run amok, as if the previous petting had eased her mind. The problem is.

“Ugh…”

It was because Seol-ah had raised her boundaries. Seol-ah clings to me and groans.

“Today… I have to… In front of people…”

“What?”

“No, no no…”

Seol-ah shakes her head. What do you do in front of people? She asked again, but there was no answer.

“Oh, it’s a park…”

Seol-ah steps over and changes the topic. In front of her eyes was a short bridge, the end of which led to the lake plaza, and there was a parking lot near the waterfront.

When she arrives at the park she has been waiting for, she sees an open view and a wide-open lake. In the far distance of the lake that crossed the sky, there were many mountains, all of which were flat at the top, forming an impressive skyline.

“Originally, it was an ordinary mountain… But during the monster war, the top part was all ground… It turned flat like it is now…”

“I think I saw it in a history book.”

“Maybe that mountain is that mountain…”

Seol-ah points to the mountain with her finger. Several buildings were camped on the mountain, among them Null’s. In the evening, the building of the Gangwon-do branch is said to shine brightly like a lighthouse.

“Maybe they’re all working overtime… I’m sorry…”

“Ah.”

It was a beacon of lamentation.

Seol-ah enters the park holding my hand tightly.

“It would have been better if you had come in the summer.”

Unfortunately, today was winter. The green grass has long since withered to light brown in the bitter winter wind, and the branches of the trees filled with cherry blossoms have long since lost their brilliance.

The lake was even worse.

“It’s all frozen…”

“Yes…”

Mid-January.

The power of the lake was insufficient to withstand the freezing cold. The snow that had fallen the previous day was still standing on the frozen Lake Sea in its wavy shape, and there was even a slight fog on the ice that covered the waist, giving off a slightly but bleak atmosphere.

On the promenade, the situation was even worse.

“I only have eyes…”

Everywhere was full of snow. Unspoilt snowballs were cleared beside the trails, enough to make hundreds of large snowmen.

“Did it snow that much in Gangneung yesterday?”

“It’s so piled up…”

After- Blowing breath spreads like smoke. It was especially cold because it was open and there were no obstacles to block the wind.

“Shall we walk…?”

“Uh.”

Seol-ah walks around the plaza holding my hand tightly. There was a long stretch of Gyeongpocheon (鏡浦川) far away next to the park, and the river next to the lake square is the point where the river and the seawater meet. It was a tail.

“There are a lot of people.”

“Let’s rest here…”

There were unexpectedly quite a lot of people in the square. In the past, the shape of the lake was slightly distorted due to the monster war, but in the process the lake narrowed and the land expanded. It was because the plaza was unintentionally widened and various facilities were introduced.

“There are a lot of places to take pictures, exercise equipment, etc.”

Many of the people who came to play were couples and families, and some of the dogs recognized me.

“Hyung-ah, hyung-ah, hyung, isn’t it Gingtae-ho?”

Just like now

A little girl rubs her hot pack in her hand and looks up at me. Seol-ah, who had been standing still next to me, clung to me in embarrassment and looked at me with a slightly wary look.

‘No, I’m wary of things like this.’

Maybe that’s why I hate all women. Afraid.

“Uh… Isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not my mother, hyung, it’s Gingtaeho and Mazmyeon…”

That’s pretty crazy.

Even if you fool around for fear of being annoying, the girl who looks like that boy clings to you relentlessly. Her eyes are like she sees something strange. Her puck or cuteness, the corners of her mouth go up involuntarily.

“Mommy? Where is your mom?”

“I’m writing this for a photo shoot over there.”

A girl points her finger at the photo zone. A man who looked like a high school student was taking pictures of a man and a woman in odd poses.

“Hey, it’s dangerous to walk around like this… Shall we take her to where her mother is?”

Seol-ah, who is weak to strangers, speaks in a crawling voice.

“Wow, Hangseolah sister!”

Her girl’s expression brightens noticeably. If I was the one who noticed something strange, Seol-ah…

“It’s a top!”

“Uh, huh?”

Her eyes were like looking at her idol.

After the girl throws me away, whom we were talking with just now, she rushes to Seol-ah and hugs her tightly.

“Ernie, sister! Watch it on TV!”

“Ugh, uh, uh?”

Seol-ah is embarrassed with an expression she has never seen before. Her wary eyes faded, and her face turned red, trying to make sense of her situation.

“A top? T, TV?”

“Watch everything from start to finish! Dedan!”

“Uh huh?”

“Loss, loses… I can do this too…”

The very excited girl raises her finger and she produces a patch of pale light. It was magic. When Seol-ah puts on a haggard expression and she giggles in embarrassment. A voice is heard from behind.

“Mina! What are you doing!!”

The girl who was hugging Seol-ah is startled. When she turned her head to where she could hear her voice, the girl’s family was running towards her.

“Sorry! My daughter- Mina! Get away now!”

“No!”

The girl’s mother forcibly removes her girl while saying she’s sorry over and over again.

“Are you okay? Are there any injuries? Really, really sorry… I was taking pictures at the photo zone for a while…”

“No, no… No, it’s okay.”

Seol-ah catches her breath and she waves her hand saying she’s fine. There was still a look of bewilderment on her face. When the girl’s mother bows her head and apologizes, the girl’s father next to her looks at me.

“Uh… Wait, but… Are you, by any chance, Kim Tae-ho?”

“Yes?”

“Majamaja! Dad, Gingtaeho hyung, that’s right!”

“You’re right…”

I try to say no, but I just give up at her interrupting voice. When I said I was right, the man made a puzzled expression.

“Gee, really? I’m sorry. All of a sudden our daughter cuts in… Then, she’s the one next to him…”

“It’s Seola!”

The girl answers instead. The expressions of the two people change moment by moment. She says that the mother of her child, who had only apologized for her elongated apology until a while ago, apologized with the momentum of her kneeling.

“I’m really, really sorry…!”
“I-I’m really, really fine…!”

Would she have exchanged apples over and over until her lips were worn out? The commotion has finally calmed down.

“By the way, what did you two come for?”

“Gnyaang, that, I’m here to play… With a friend.”

After calming down to some extent, they start talking to each other. When we said that we were here to play, the girl’s brother next to us said, “We also came to visit for a while.” After a brief chaos, it’s time to say goodbye. Even the girl, who used time with her evil spirits, couldn’t overcome her mother and succumbed to her power.

“See you later~”
“Seola sister…”

The child’s mother waves her hand and walks away from me and Seol-ah. Looking at Seol-ah, she doesn’t feel like she hates it. It was nice to have her, but she had a strong feeling that it was a pity that we broke up.

“Tae-ho…”

“Huh?”

“Baby, I want one…”

“What?”

I beg your pardon?

“No…”

Seol-ah holds my hand tightly and kneads it. Her slightly excited eyes look up at me. Even so, she is full of regretful eyes.

“Ugh… It wasn’t just monsters… Seriously, doing this and that… That’s just…”

“…”

Please don’t talk scary.

Seol-ah groaned and subtly put her arms around me.

“Let’s take a short walk, Taeho… I have something to show you…”

“Are you going to show me?”

“Yes.”

Seol-ah looks at me and smiles. Oddly enough, the lower part of the body gets hot every time they cling to each other. Seol-Ah’s expression also gradually loosens up. Her face was stained red.

Seol-ah holds my hand, and she enters the promenade right next to Gyeongpocheon.

The promenade was full of withered. Snow piled up along the side of the road, and the trees were all skinny and bare. The rivers were frozen as they were, and the ground hardened into stone.

“It’s Taeho.”

As Seol-ah stands in front of the promenade, she looks up at me.

“I am a wizard.”

Let’s snap her fingers.

“That too, one of the greatest wizards in the world.”

Warmth spreads from the ground in all directions.

“I can bring the dead back to life.”

The bushes sprout green.

“I can melt what was frozen.”

The river melts and flows into the sea.

“I can wake up what was hiding.”

All the cherry blossoms that were asleep.

Begin to bloom profusely.

“Still, strangely. I can do everything. I couldn’t do anything about my heart.”

Winter has melted and spring has sprung up.

Let’s snap her fingers.

One by one, the cherry blossoms sitting on the branches come down and start wandering around us. Not the cold winter wind, but the spring wind.

A sight that makes your mouth open just by looking at it. Seol-ah meets her eyes.

“I love you, Taeho.”

Seol-ah held me tight in my arms without saying anything. A slight, warm feeling spread through her body.

“When I first saw Taeho, I didn’t come here for this purpose.”

Seol-ah smiles bashfully and looks up at me.

“For the first time in my life, I felt sexual desire towards a human. It was like a guarantee that I was a ‘human’ and not a monster… But gradually, I started to fall for Taeho.”

She licks her pale pink lips. A warm wind blew – and slithered beside me and Seol-ah.

“When Tae Ho put me down, when we went to the aquarium together, when we talked about movies, when he taught us magic, when he lent me books, when he didn’t abandon me even though he knew I was a monster.”

“I gradually fell for Tae-ho, and at one point I came to my senses and the ‘guarantee check’ was gone. I just fell for ‘Tae-ho’ itself.”

Seol-ah, hold my hand tightly. It was as warm as the wind blowing from the side.

“So, you wanted to make Tae-ho fall in love with magic?”

Eyes meet.

“Because I’m a great wizard. I thought there would be nothing that couldn’t be solved with magic. But there was. There was no such magic anywhere.”

“The more I knew that fact, the more desperate I became. Because Taeho has an owner, I thought, over and over, over and over, that there was no chance for me anymore. Later on, I fell into despair. Narrowed it down to one.”

Seol-ah smiles happily, raises her tiptoe and dances suddenly.

“Let’s make as many good memories as possible.”

The wind blows.

“And-“

The wind.

It blows very strongly.

The wind swept over me and I couldn’t hear what was going on behind the scenes. But let’s hear that sound, that word stuck in my ear. The lower part of the body starts to heat up as if the engine has been started. A little, but a cold sweat forms on his forehead.

“Tae-ho, I love you. And…”

…Sorry.

“What?”

Seol-ah clings to me and kisses me. Then, the beating of her heart intensifies.

“Should I stand or stand?”

“Now, let’s go for a walk…”

Seol-ah smiles brightly and takes my hand.

That day, her hands felt strangely hot.