The snow piled up just enough to make it look beautiful made Asterum feel even more romantic.
Enough to make you forget that it will soon melt away.
The quiet city streets and the moderately cold weather seemed to deepen my worries for no reason.
For the past few days, Ha-min's head has been a mess of unorganized information, thoughts, and feelings.
I tried to organize it carefully while lying down before going to bed, but it didn't go as well as I thought.
This was especially true because of Raea's unpredictable attitude.
Sometimes, he would glance at her with eyes that seemed to have something to say, but whenever he tried to approach her, she would run away, leaving Ha-min at a loss.
"Hamin, are you okay?"
"Oh, yes. Sorry. I just had a thought."
Bambi checked on Ha-min, who was walking blankly, staring straight ahead.
I was worried that he might be worried because he rarely seemed lost in thought, even when he was with someone else.
But since he didn't want to force himself to ask questions if he didn't speak up first, Bambi decided to just walk alongside him.
"Are you okay, hyung?"
"Uh, no... uh."
Bambi hesitated to answer, then stopped as if he had discovered something. He followed the line of sight and there, in the falling snow, was Leah, standing with her head up and eyes closed.
It was the first time Ha-min had seen Rae since the day he had run into her in the hallway, the day he had helped Bambi while she was sitting down.
"....."
The sight of her black hair, which contrasted with her white eyes and flowed long along her shoulders and down her back, looked somehow mysterious.
In contrast to Eunho, the silver hair that extended down from behind her ears made her realize that she was from a different world.
Her lonely-looking profile reminded me of her in the space of life.
You must have spent a long time alone and lonely, like me.
But why does he still look lonely even now that he is here with us in Asterum?
Hamin took a step towards Raea without realizing it.
Bambi, who saw that, naturally turned around and the two ended up walking towards Leah.
Ha Min was a little embarrassed, but he thought it was all for the best.
At least with Bambi, Leah might not run away from me.
The sound of the two people's footsteps crunching in the snow tickled my ears.
I was close enough to see the eyelashes on her closed eyes, but Raea stood there without moving, as if lost in thought.
"...Ms. Raea."
In the end, Raea opened her eyes and turned around to look straight at the two of them at the sound of Ha-min's voice that spoke first.
Their eyes met naturally, but unlike the last time they met, Raea quickly avoided Ha-min's gaze.
And when he felt himself consciously looking towards Bambi, Ha-min found it difficult to hide his bitter feelings.
Raea just stared at the two of them without saying a word.
It seemed like he was waiting for me to tell him if I had any business.
However, Ha-min couldn't easily say the first word to Ra-ah, who didn't look at him as if she was ignoring him.
"I guess you like Raea's eyes."
When no one spoke, Bambi finally couldn't hold it in any longer and spoke awkwardly.
"I don't know. It's my first time seeing it today."
"Have you never seen snow before?"
"Yeah. I've seen it in pictures and videos."
"You must have lived in a hot place."
"I just... rarely left the lab."
"ah."
I asked for nothing.
He is truly not an easy person to deal with.
While Bambi was trying to find his next words after hearing the unexpected answer, Ha-min, who was listening from the side, quickly changed the subject, afraid that the atmosphere would become unexpectedly gloomy.
"How about seeing it in person? Isn't it pretty?"
Only then did Raea look straight at Ha-min.
"Yeah, it's really pretty."
As she said that, Raea smiled gently.
It wasn't the first time Ha-min had seen Rae-ah smile, but it was at least the first time she had smiled at him.
Strangely enough, Ha-min felt closer to Rae-ah than before.
Is it because I found out that there was someone who had been through something similar to me?
Or maybe it's because of this smile.
Looking at Raea like that, he also smiled secretly.
During a brief pause in the conversation, Bambi turned his head, covered his mouth, and yawned loudly.
As the two people's gaze turned to him, Bambi finished yawning and smiled awkwardly.
"Haha... sorry."
"I'm sorry. You have to go home soon, hyung."
The two of them didn't notice that Raea's eyes sharpened for a moment as she looked at Bambi like that.
"Sorry, I'll go first."
Bambi, unable to overcome his fatigue, ended the conversation.
Raea looked straight at him and nodded.
It was a pity to part ways after only a few days without being able to talk, but Ha-min had no choice but to follow Bambi.
To be exact, I was trying to take my foot off the gas.
Until Raea caught him with her words.
"Let me talk for a moment."
-----------------------------
As I breathed in the cold air of the winter Asterum, my racing heart seemed to calm down.
It was quite unexpected for Ha-min that Raea had asked to talk first.
Strangely, my heart began to flutter with an inexplicable sense of anticipation.
There were definitely a lot of things I wanted to ask and say.
The words that had been rising to the top of my head suddenly ran away from my mind and turned into a blank sheet of paper.
"are you okay?"
Ha-min was so anxious that he couldn't say anything because he was worried about Raea, who was following Bambi's back as she walked away, trying to stop him from talking.
It was a random remark that omitted both the beginning and the end.
I started to look for the reason why he asked what was okay after spitting it out.
But I don't know.
I think it was just because... it didn't look okay.
At Ha-min's sudden question, Rae-ah turned her head and looked up at him with slightly surprised eyes.
In that fleeting moment, when those amber eyes shook slightly, countless emotions and words he couldn't understand seemed to pass through him.
"..It should be okay."
Raea tried not to lie and say she was okay.
But I couldn't honestly say that it wasn't okay.
It has to be okay.. It has to be okay.
At least until this is over.
Leah knew that this story couldn't go on any longer, so she quickly got back to the main point.
"Has anything happened to Bambi lately?"
The story Raea told was something Ha Min had never expected.
An inexplicable sense of disappointment seeped into his heart, but Ha-min answered without showing it.
"Nothing special happened. Just... Even though he slept well, he said he felt tired like he'd stayed up all night. He seemed so unwell that he couldn't even tell if he'd had lunch."
It was nothing special, but Raea's reaction to hearing Ha Min's words was unusual.
Somehow, I even felt like the air around me had become heavy.
"..Is it something serious?"
"That could be the case, we'll have to check."
Raea's eyes narrowed as she stared into space.
As the time spent alone thinking about something began to grow longer, Ha-min carefully brought up the words he had been holding back.
"...Can't you tell me about this too?"
Leah, who had been deep in thought with a serious expression, quickly raised her head at those words.
When he met her dark green eyes, filled with a hint of regret, his heart sank, but Ha-min had no way of knowing how Rae-ah felt.
Leah did her best to control herself so as not to vent her feelings.
After the storm has passed, the sea will eventually become calm again.
"You can tell. ...I saw a familiar trace on Bambi. ...It's similar to something I've seen before."
After finishing speaking, Raea took a deep breath as if swallowing the pain.
The eyes, distorted with pain, were looking somewhere other than him.
"Bambi is in danger."