Prey (Lee Seohan) - Chapter 88

Should I greet him?

Or should I stay quiet and wait for him to go inside before following?

As she debated, she continued to watch him. But then, Jeonghan’s expression seemed different from earlier.

…Is it because of the bluish light of dawn?

There was a somber and weary air about him.

That atmosphere felt completely uncharacteristic of Do Jeonghan.

He was always like a perfectly sharpened blade—a man whose presence alone made those around him tense with his unique, intimidating aura.

‘…….’

Even though she found it strange, Suhyeon couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Do Jeonghan.

It might have been a misconception, but his darkened eyes seemed to hold the depths of loneliness.

The thought that she might be seeing the raw, unguarded loneliness he had never shown before made Suhyeon uneasy.

Loneliness?

That word felt even more unfitting for Do Jeonghan than fatigue. There was no way a man as cold as him could harbor such a fragile emotion.

Even so, she couldn’t move and kept watching him. While she remained frozen, Chief Joo came out from inside.

He approached Jeonghan and said something. Jeonghan listened and nodded before extinguishing his cigarette and heading back inside the building.

Suhyeon, who had been hiding between the cars, also made her way toward the building.

Inside the brightly lit funeral hall, the Jeonghan she saw was his usual self.

His cool, collected demeanor was so perfectly in place that the man she’d seen just moments ago felt like an illusion.

Was it really just my imagination?

It’s dawn—it wouldn’t be surprising if I’d imagined it.

Convinced of this, Suhyeon shifted her gaze away from him.

That night, just like the previous one, Jeonghan sent Suhyeon home as soon as midnight struck.

Once again, Suhyeon returned to the funeral hall before dawn.

She looked at the spot in the parking lot where he had been standing the previous day, but he wasn’t there.

When she entered the funeral hall, most of the people in the large hall had fallen asleep, and Do Jeonghan stood alone in front of the portrait.

Where did Chief Joo go?

After glancing around the room, Suhyeon’s gaze returned to Jeonghan, and she saw his profile clearly.

Ah…

Suhyeon paused.

With the same quiet, deep eyes she had seen the previous dawn, he was staring silently at the portrait.

Seeing that hollow look in his eyes, a look he never showed in front of others, Suhyeon’s eyes wavered.

She quickly turned her head, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Thump, thump.

Her heart was beating oddly fast. Turning her body, she fled the scene as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

Standing still, her mind retraced the moment, and she muttered to herself absentmindedly.

“Why… did I run away back then?”

She had definitely run away from Do Jeonghan at that time. In a state of panic.

But why had she fled? Was it because he seemed so different from the Do Jeonghan she knew?

It seemed like the confusion she was feeling now was similar to what she had felt back then. Although it was a brief moment, she had been taken aback by the completely different atmosphere from the Do Jeonghan she knew.

At the same time, a fear of getting to know him more deeply had made her run away from that spot.

The long, white fingers holding a cigarette in the piercingly blue dawn light, and the deeply sunken eyes of Do Jeonghan in front of the portrait, looked so desolate. She buried those images deep in the sea of her memories.

It felt like she had no choice but to do so.

That was why she had never seriously thought about it before—why Do Jeonghan had been like that.

Why had he been alone at the funeral hall, in the middle of the night, with such an expression?

He looked like a child left alone in the world…

Yes. Like a child who had suddenly lost their parents.

“……”

Lost in thought, Suhyeon paused in the middle of undressing and walked into the living room.

She filled a glass with ice and cold water from the water dispenser and drank it in one go.

Hah.

Wiping the moisture from her lips with the back of her hand, Suhyeonplaced both hands on the bar table to steady herself.

For some reason, thinking about Do Jeonghan from the funeral made her chest feel heavy.

She realized she had been ignoring the fact that Do Jeonghan, too, had those weak, vulnerable sides.

Because she couldn’t understand…

Suhyeon shook her head.

She hadn’t understood, not then. Even now, she was still so confused.

She paused again as she grabbed the glass on the island bar.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, the memories of what had happened with Do Jeonghan at this bar resurfaced.

‘…Suhyeon.’

The tightly strained voice overlapped in her mind, and her transparent eyes trembled.

Suhyeon, Suhyeon.

The painfully suppressed voice echoed repeatedly, pressing down on her chest.

“Enough.”

Shaking her head forcefully, Suhyeon walked back to the dressing room. Trying to break the train of thought, she quickly stripped off her clothes and entered the bathroom.