Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Lily (2)
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"......Don't be startled."
With those words, she began removing the things covering her face one by one.
First, she took off her hat.
Under the dim lamplight, silver-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
It wasn't blonde or silver.
It was an unreal color, as if moonlight had been drawn out into threads.
Next, she removed the sunglasses that had covered half her face.
I held my breath at that moment.
Rubies.
Two perfectly cut red gems seemed embedded there.
Not a ghastly blood-red.
A beautiful crimson that shimmered translucently in the faint lamplight of the dark room.
Finally, she lowered her mask.
I was stunned.
Her skin was whiter than any white person's.
Whiter and more transparent than freshly fallen snow, as if it had never seen the light.
Cold, smooth porcelain that might shatter if touched with even slight force.
Silver hair flowed over that unreal skin, and ruby eyes looked up at me.
Even the eyelashes framing those eyes were like thin, white down.
In this dark, smelly, shabby house sat a being with an otherworldly beauty, like a statue accidentally dropped by God.
At that moment, I couldn't smell the rice, the pork patties, anything.
All my senses were focused solely on her before me.
She was like a fairy from a fairy tale.
As Ji-hoon froze speechless in place, Lily calmly picked up her utensils.
And as if nothing had happened, she began cutting the pork patties with knife and fork and chewing them.
A meal in silent stillness.
Only Lily's eating sounds and Ji-hoon's frozen breaths announced the presence of two people in the dark space.
"......Surprised?"
After filling her stomach somewhat, Lily wiped her mouth with a napkin and spoke first.
"...A little?"
At Ji-hoon's honest reply, Lily spoke calmly, as if understanding.
"......I'm an albino. Have you heard of it?"
Albino.
A congenital genetic disorder caused by deficient melanin synthesis in melanocytes.
In Korea, it was also called vitiligo.
"...Yeah, I've heard of it."
Only then did Ji-hoon understand everything.
"That's why... you wrapped yourself up so tightly when going out."
Albinos had extremely weak defenses against UV rays, making them vulnerable to skin cancer and such.
So Lily had avoided going out during daylight.
Her stomach full, Lily set down her knife and asked,
"...Am I scary?"
Ji-hoon thought about Lily's question.
No.
Quite the opposite.
He felt no fear at all.
Just mystery.
As Ji-hoon fell silent in thought, Lily spoke first.
"Since I was little, people teased me, calling me a vampire. Can't see sunlight, red eyes, white skin... Did you think that too?"
Her words snapped Ji-hoon to attention.
"No. I thought you looked like a fairy. But you don't look American... Are you mixed?"
Ji-hoon asked Lily, whose appearance was closer to Eastern European.
"Yeah... Mom's Russian. Dad's American."
"Ah! That's why you look a bit exotic. Anyway, sorry if I offended you. It wasn't surprise... just an overwhelming sense of mystery. That's why I was slow to respond."
At Ji-hoon's sincere words, a tiny smile appeared on Lily's lips.
"Pfft. I've only ever been teased as a monster since I was little... Hoon, you're really kind."
As she smiled faintly, the kitchen, lit only by the flickering lamplight, seemed to brighten for a moment.
"I've... always been alone."
Lily's quiet soliloquy filled the dark room.
"I can't even remember the last time I talked this long with someone."
Ji-hoon simply listened to her story in silence.
"My mom was an albino too."
Ji-hoon was startled by those words.
"It's a congenital hereditary disease, so I was born this way too. But Dad loved me more than anyone. Mom, though... I remember her always looking at me with sorry, sad eyes. I didn't understand back then... but after she died and I grew up, I think I get it now. She must have felt sorry for passing this curse-like disease to her daughter."
It was such a deep story.
Ji-hoon couldn't offer any words of comfort to Lily's sad eyes as she confessed everything like a sinner at church.
It was that heavy.
"Last year... Dad died. I cried so much, I don't know how much. And meeting someone who makes such delicious food and can talk like this... feels like Dad's gift."
Lily bowed her head.
"We just met... and I only talked about myself. Sorry."
At her brief apology, Ji-hoon quietly shook his head.
"No. You must have been lonely."
"...Yeah. Can I hear your story, Hoon? I'm curious about yours too. How other people live... I have no idea."
Lily looked at him with expectant eyes, like a granddaughter begging her grandfather for an old tale. Ji-hoon couldn't refuse that gaze.
".....It'll be boring. Still want to hear?"
"Yes!"
"Okay. But first, I have something to say."
Lily looked at Ji-hoon with curious eyes.
"What?"
Ji-hoon said it shyly, but sincerely.
"Will you be my friend?"
At Ji-hoon's words, Lily looked dazed.
A moment of silence passed.
Then, the brightest smile in the world spread across Lily's face.
The dark room seemed to light up like midday from that smile alone.
"...Yes!"
Ji-hoon pondered where to start his story.
He began recounting his tumultuous life as calmly and concisely as possible.
He was born into an ordinary but well-off family and grew up without lacking anything.
He fell into a fiery love young and married against his family's wishes.
But that short marriage ended emptily due to betrayal by the wife he trusted.
He confessed about the unfair trial in the divorce and the absurd asset division ruling.
In the end, he fled to America like a fugitive because he didn't want to give her the money, abandoning everything.
Lily didn't say a word throughout Ji-hoon's story.
She just quietly gazed at his face with her ruby eyes shimmering in the lamplight.
She didn't nod or ask questions.
She simply listened intently.
To her, Ji-hoon's story was the first real glimpse into 'another person's life.'
A story of a man whose life was so different from hers, yet ended with the same wounds.
When the story ended, silence filled the room again.
Having shared his tale, Ji-hoon felt somehow relieved.
Lily thought for a moment, then spoke in a very small voice.
"...That must have been hard."
Those few words melted the lump in Ji-hoon's heart.
Sometimes serious, sometimes bursting into laughter, the two talked endlessly, losing track of time.
Though their lives were completely different, they shared the strange common thread of loneliness.
Lily's loneliness from being albino and unable to mingle with people.
Ji-hoon's loneliness of living in a foreign country far from home.
The voids in their lives were gradually filling through each other.
"I should head out now. This was so much fun today, Lily."
Ji-hoon stood reluctantly.
"...Yeah, Hoon."
Lily replied softly.
"It was... such a joyful time after so long. Can you come visit often?"
At her words, Ji-hoon grinned.
"Friends see each other often, Lily. I might come so much you'll tell me not to."
"Pfft..."
A small laugh appeared on Lily's lips.
"Got it. That's what friends do... This is my first friend ever."
"Haha, what an honor? I'm Lily's first friend."
"Don't tease! Go on."
"Okay, okay. Next time, I'll bring something so delicious it'll shock you."
"...Yeah. Thanks, Hoon."
Ji-hoon waved cheerfully as he left her house, beaming.
Click.
The door closed, and the house fell silent again.
The warmth of someone's presence moments ago felt illusory in the returning cold quiet.
Lily's face, smiling at Ji-hoon, hardened instantly.
Expressionless, she quietly stared at the door where he had vanished.
She murmured in a very small voice.
"......It was warm."
And Lily melted back into the darkness.
Leaving Lily's house, Ji-hoon climbed into his truck.
As he started the engine and drove home, his mind was a whirlwind.
The warm, joyful feeling from being with Lily moments ago had turned into various thoughts now that he was alone.
It was his first time.
Facing an albino, a being called a disease, in person.
The shock when she removed her sunglasses was still vivid.
Unreal white skin and ruby eyes shimmering in the lamplight.
But that shock wasn't fear or disgust.
It was closer to otherworldly mystery and beauty.
How had they grown so close in such a short time?
Ji-hoon felt enchanted himself.
Spilling his past to a stranger.
She too had revealed her deepest sorrow, hidden her whole life.
Probably because they instinctively recognized each other's loneliness.
Pity surged in Ji-hoon's heart like waves.
A life avoiding sunlight due to illness, hiding in darkness from people's gazes.
A young girl who lost both parents and had to fight fear alone in an empty house.
His own betrayal and anger felt trivial by comparison.
Ji-hoon gripped the steering wheel tighter.
'I have to be good to her.'
It wasn't mere pity.
It was the responsibility of a person who promised to be her first friend.
A sincere vow to give her even a little courage to step out into the world.
Ji-hoon began thinking about what delicious food to make for her next time.
Just that thought warmed his heart somehow.
"Oh my! You really got cast?!"
Ji-su grabbed Min-jun's arm and shook it in disbelief.
"You're really going to be a celebrity now?!"
Min-jun was truly ecstatic that day.
"Yeah! Got street-cast today. Heading to the agency tomorrow to sign the contract."
"Oh my goodness! That's amazing, honey!"
Ji-su rejoiced as if it were her own achievement.
But the smile vanished from her face in an instant.
She whispered coldly into Min-jun's ear, like a snake.
"But... honey, you won't ditch me now that you're becoming a celebrity, right? You know? I won't die alone."
At those words, Min-jun's elation plummeted to rock bottom.
Deep despair crossed his sullen face.
'One slip below the belt, and this is what happens.'
A single mistake.
And he was trapped in a yoke he could never escape for life.
Ditching her meant not just ruin in entertainment, but possibly real prison.
Min-jun forced a smile.
"...Yeah. Of course."
At his reply, Ji-su beamed again as if nothing had happened.
She firmly believed Min-jun's success was her own.