When she returned to the main room, the club's lights blinded her, almost violent.
Everything seemed too loud, too fast after the storage room.
The rest of the evening unfolded like through a thick veil, as if someone had pulled a transparent sheet between Nari and the world.
She served cocktails.
She smiled.
She nodded.
She took orders.
But she wasn't there anymore.
She was dissociated.
Lost.
Shattered into pieces.
How had this happened?
The question came back again and again, hammering inside her skull.
It was as if her brain refused to understand.
As if that scene belonged to a parallel world where normal rules no longer existed.
— Why did Kai beat those men?
At first, the answer seemed logical, considering they had threatened her.
But Kai wasn't the knight-in-shining-armor type.
He wasn't tender.
He wasn't altruistic.
So why?
She tightened a bottle too hard between her fingers.
The glass slipped; she nearly dropped it.
Aera placed a hand on her arm.
— Hey… you okay? You look weird.
Nari forced a smile.
A mask.
A lie.
— Yeah, yeah… just a bit tired.
But deep inside—
tired had nothing to do with it.
She was shaken.
Truly haunted.
Because she saw his face again.
His gaze.
That uncontrollable laughter when he'd caught her driving her heels into those men's flesh.
That laugh had slid under her skin.
And left a mark.
⸻
— Why did he say he was leaving them to me?
That sentence.
She couldn't get rid of it.
— How did he know I wanted to make them pay?
This question terrified her.
Because yes, she had wanted it.
She had hated them.
She had clenched her fists.
She had swallowed her rage.
But she had said nothing.
Shown nothing.
Let nothing slip.
So how…
how did Kai know?
She shivered.
As if Kai didn't read faces.
But souls.
Micro-tensions.
Buried intentions.
Silent deviance.
As if Kai could dissect her with a single look.
The next morning, the cold light filtered through the apartment curtains, soft but sharp, as if the day was taking care not to wake Nari's still-trembling thoughts too abruptly.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed, hair a mess, eyes still swollen from the night before, her heart clenched by a tension she refused to examine.
Her phone vibrated between her fingers, the screen's light washing over her face.
She hesitated.
Her thumb hovered above the keyboard, trembling with a mix of defiance and apprehension.
Then she pressed send.
Sion, we won't be able to see each other today.
I'm spending the day with Aera before going to work.
Join me at my place after if you want. 😏
She stayed completely still, eyes glued to the screen as if the words might disappear.
Then she locked her phone too quickly, like she had just done something forbidden.
Seconds passed.
No reply.
Nothing.
A digital silence that weighed on her chest like a stone.
Nari inhaled, pressing her lips together.
She shoved her phone into her bag with a gesture that was too abrupt, almost nervous, and forced herself not to think about it. Not now. Not today.
Aera was waiting for her…
and Nari NEEDED this day.
The shopping streets of Seoul welcomed her with a warmth she hadn't felt in a long time.
The cold bit at her skin, but the winter lights illuminated everything:
the hanging decorations, the glittering store windows wrapped in golden garlands, the giant Christmas trees on crowded plazas, the roasted chestnut stands filling the air with a warm, sugary smell.
Aera walked a few steps ahead of her, sparkling, loud, alive — a little tornado in a dress far too short for the weather, her heels clacking against the ground in an almost musical rhythm.
— LOOK AT HIM! she hissed, pointing at a man who was far too muscular to be legal.
— Aera, they're going to notice you!
— But that's the POINT! she yelled, bursting into laughter.
Some passersby turned around.
Aera sent them an exaggerated wink, without a hint of embarrassment.
Nari felt a smile pull at her lips — a real smile, one that came from far away, one she hadn't worn in months… maybe years.
Aera talked loud, laughed loud, lived loud.
She drew eyes like a candle draws moths.
⸻
The two young women spent the day in Myeongdong, and everything felt unreal, as if the whole city had been built just for them — for this suspended moment.
They tried on coats that were far too expensive.
Boots they would never buy.
Shiny dresses Aera spun around herself, laughing like a child.
They took selfies in front of the lit-up displays, their faces pressed together, cheeks flushed from the cold, eyes shining.
Aera twirled in front of every mirror, leaned forward to check her own cleavage, struck ridiculous poses, then asked Nari:
— Aren't I a total bomb, seriously?
Then she'd throw herself into the arms of a plastic mannequin just to make her laugh, completely incapable of staying serious more than three seconds.
Nari's stomach hurt from laughing.
The kind of laughter that cleans you out, lightens you, lifts you, repairs you a little.
In front of a café, they crossed paths with a group of Japanese tourists.
Aera pretended to trip, almost fell into the arms of the tallest one, and fluttered her lashes in clumsy Japanese:
— Konnichiwaaaa, sumimasen, watashi… watashi… very clumsy, huh?
The group burst into laughter.
The scene was so absurd that Nari had to lean against a pole not to collapse.
Aera, meanwhile, kept going like she'd been born to attract the world's attention.
Then she turned to every man they passed, whistled, sent winks, laid a hand dramatically over her heart, feigning instant love at first sight:
— AH! Look at him! He's a walking sin!!
And Nari laughed again, her throat freed, her heart light, that almost-forgotten sensation of being… simply alive.
⸻
Under the colored neon lights, in the dense crowd, with the scent of sweet coffee and strangers' laughter bouncing off the buildings, Nari felt herself exist fully.
A moment out of time.
Out of men.
Out of drama.
Out of shadows.
Just her.
Aera.
The city.
And a freedom she had never tasted before.
She didn't know yet
that this very freedom
would be torn away from her
before the night was over.