CH 159

Yiyoung visited another place the next day. The trip required all the tourists to constantly move around, and Muyeol couldn’t understand why Yiyoung loved it so much. She needed to pack, unpack, and then pack again each day. The hotels she stayed at weren’t good either, their quality the same as that of a cheap motel.

Muyeol had even called the traveling agency and complained about the hospitality, “If you want to have customers, you should upgrade the quality of your hotels and food. What’s the point of using a national airline if your hospitality isn’t great?”

Yiyoung didn’t understand why he had to call the agency; he’d never done such a thing before. He was being very nosy about the trip.

Yiyoung kept sending him pictures, but Muyeol was no longer happy about it. His expression exposed how unhappy he was as he looked at the pictures. But then, one picture flipped his mood.

“This is Hallstatt,” Yiyoung texted, “I want to get married here. Do you see the church behind me? I heard the church holds weddings. Let’s get married here. I’ll wait for you.”

In the picture, behind Yiyoung, was a beautiful view. “You would have been amazed by the view if you saw it yourself. You would have doubted it if it’s real. It’s so beautiful over here. I’ve never been to such a gorgeous place. I heard it was in the movie, ‘The Sound of Music’.”

Muyeol then stared at another picture. Yiyoung stood on the tip of her toes, her head tipped back as she pretended to kiss an invisible figure. Muyeol ruffled his perfectly arranged hair, an ominous black smoke swirling in his heart. He didn’t understand why she kept sending him pictures like this when he wasn’t with her. He didn’t know what to do.

Yiyoung moved to another location again, arriving at Rothenburg after passing by Salzburg. She’d sent him the pictures she clicked at a Christmas store. And then she’d returned to Frankfurt. It was time for her to come back to him.

But Yiyoung wasn’t on the flight.

Muyeol had screamed as he aggressively slammed the door to the travel agency. “So where is she? Aren’t you trying to conceal an accident?”

“Mrs. Yoon Yiyoung completed the tour successfully, and went on her own way after we returned to Frankfurt. She wanted to travel on her own,” the person in-charge had replied.

“You should have brought her back! She’s sick, and she needs to be guided!”

Muyeol had gone to Incheon Airport to pick Yiyoung up around the time she was supposed to return. But even after he waited for a long time, she didn’t show up. Muyeol’s heart dropped to hell when he didn’t hear from her.

Muyeol had called the traveling agency, the Korean Embassy, wherever he could call, to ask for Yiyoung’s whereabouts. But she was nowhere to be found. And just when he was about to go crazy, he received a text message from Yiyoung.

“I was on my way to Hallstatt, so I couldn’t respond. But I’m doing well. Don’t be upset.” Muyeol’s eyes reddened from stress as he read the text. “I’m the luckiest person in the world to have met you in this life. I don’t regret loving you, and I still think that it’s the best I’ve done. I want to stay here a little longer. I want to stay in this beautiful place for a while longer. I believe the memories that I’ve formed now will strengthen our relationship in the future, for me… for both of us. All I did in the past was read books, but you’re the one who brought me out into the real world. It’s you who gave me the opportunity to see all the beautiful things here.”

Muyeol’s body juddered, and he couldn’t control his emotions; he exploded like a volcano. He screamed out loud as he hurled the documents sitting on his desk onto the floor.

He’d almost lost his mind as he looked for her everywhere at the airport. Muyeol had even wished he was going crazy, not wanting to believe that it was real.