An Exile's Handshake

"I'm sorry? No, there's really no need to—"

All she'd done was try to draw the line, and now things threatened to tangle up even worse.

Yun-seo waved her hands in flustered protest, but San had clearly already decided on his own. Worse, he was already stacking the dishes with a brisk clatter and rising from his seat, radiating the air of a man who had never once intended to hear the word no.

Yun-seo pushed her chair back and awkwardly stood up after him.

"I'll do the dishes, so please just go. It's been a while since I had a decent free meal, and it's way too late already."

"Sit down. I'll finish the dishes properly and be on my way."

He strode right past her and claimed the sink for himself. The way he slid those enormous hands into the rubber gloves looked surprisingly natural.

Ssshh—a clean stream of water poured down from the faucet.

What on earth happened to all that talk about him having a girlfriend earlier? Yun-seo fidgeted restlessly behind the broad back that blocked the entire sink, then clenched her fist and called out.

"Your girlfriend won't like this, Mr. San……!"

She prayed he might feel even a flicker of guilt, but San only tilted his head toward her beside the cascading water, stared at her for a moment, and gave a careless shrug of his shoulders.

"It's not like I'm eating her up."

"No, that's not what I—"

"It's not a hidden agenda. It's courtesy."

"Pardon?"

"A man should leave every place he's stayed cleaner than he found it. That's just how it's done."

Oblivious to Yun-seo's desperate wish to usher him out the door, the clatter of dishes continued on, maddeningly indifferent to her plight.

Drowsiness crept over her. Yun-seo checked the wall clock. Under normal circumstances, she would have long since been sprawled dead asleep in her bed.

Even after the dishes were done, she'd worn herself out trying to stop him from tidying up random useless things, and now her legs were trembling with exhaustion.

When on earth is that man going to leave? I am never letting him in the house again. She was busy making that vow as she watched him organize things that needed no organizing when, at long last, San finally headed for the front door.

"Well then, I'll be off. Lock up tight behind me."

"Yes, please go!"

Yun-seo, who had been sagging against the wall yawning her head off, brightened visibly and hurried to the front door. With tears of relief practically welling up, she flung it open. The midnight air rushed in, heavy and damp like waterlogged cotton.

"By the way, this sensor light isn't coming on."

San glanced up, one shoe half on.

Yun-seo stopped in his wake and looked up too. The moment she saw the sensor light as dead and black as coal, her eyes wavered wildly. The man was already bent at the waist, waving his hand back and forth beneath it.

It had been flickering uneasily for a few days, and of all the possible moments, it had chosen now to conk out completely. Not a good omen.

"It started flickering a few days ago. It does that for a bit and then works again."

Fearing he'd offer to fix that too, she quickly drew the line again, but as expected, it was useless.

"Still, it bothers me. I'll just fix this one thing on my way out. It's not like you could do anything about it on your own anyway, Doctor."

"Well… the flashlight on my phone is actually really bright."

"And what happens when you trip over something in the dark and crack your head? The only doctor on this island is you, Ko Yun-seo."

"But if the wound opens up—"

"Let's see, where's the breaker box. Is it this one?"

Watching San scan the entryway wall in search of the electrical panel, Yun-seo shut her mouth.

Protesting was pointless—it would get her nowhere. She didn't have the energy for another round of back-and-forth anyway, and truthfully, someone needed to be called to fix it sooner or later. Getting a repairman out from the mainland meant rounding up whatever work was piling up and bundling it all into one visit, which was exactly why she'd kept putting it off.

"Then… thank you."

As if he'd been waiting for her lukewarm permission, San promptly dragged a kitchen chair over and climbed onto it. The cramped entryway was already packed wall to wall thanks to his enormous frame.

That man is without a doubt good with his hands at everything. Holding up her phone's flashlight to illuminate the ceiling, Yun-seo admitted it to herself with grudging admiration.

"You've lived here your whole life, I heard."

Just then, San, still absorbed in his work with his eyes fixed on the ceiling, threw the question out. Yun-seo's eyes went wide at the sudden remark.

"How did you… ah, the older folks told you, didn't they."

"At this point, the only thing I don't know about you, Dr. Ko, is what happened back in Seoul. You were apparently quite the handful from childhood. Full scholarship to medical school, passed your licensing exam on the first try, landed a job at a major hospital in the capital—the elders couldn't stop singing your praises."

"They even told you all that?"

San was reciting everything from her drinking habits to the shameful history of her crying after being chased by the neighborhood dog as a kid, down to her approximate shoe size.

Given that they'd apparently ransacked her entire life story for him, that man must have really won the villagers over.

Come to think of it, of course he did. On a remote island with no infrastructure whatsoever, a man rolls in of his own accord offering to fix anything and everything free of charge—who on earth would turn him away?

Far from being shunned, he'd deserved a standing ovation.

Besides, he only looked intimidating; his personality was warmer than expected. He was exactly the type of man the elders adored.

Yun-seo nodded slowly and let out a faint sigh.

"Whatever the case, right now I'm a woman in exile."

"Exile? The elders said you volunteered out of worry for the folks back home. Wasn't that it?"

"Ah… so that's the story going around."

She had kept her lips tightly sealed with the elders about the real reason she'd come back, and the rumor had apparently spread with a rosy gloss on it.

"It's not quite like that."

In truth, she was half out of her mind wanting to return to Seoul even now. But with her contract term still running and nowhere willing to take her, she'd simply stayed against her will.

As Yun-seo swallowed the circumstances she couldn't bring herself to voice out loud and sat there with a grim look, San glanced down at her, twisted the new bulb into place, and nodded.

"I figured there was something you couldn't talk about."

"…I suppose so, yes."

"Come to think of it, I'm not so different—effectively exiled here myself. Let's us exiles get along well for a while, then."

San held his hand out toward the air.

What is this? Just as Yun-seo hesitated, unsure whether she should take the large hand floating there in midair—

"Let's be comrades."

"Comrades?"

"I'm not going to eat you, so let's just be friendly. I'd hate to be a man my girlfriend would be ashamed of."

He laughed easily and waved his arm up and down.

"They say a doctor whose heart races at the sight of another doctor is a symptom of post-traumatic stress, so I'll have to believe that's what it is."

"Ah……"

"Come on, shake the air."

Watching his hand move about on its own, a light laugh escaped her before she knew it.

Getting a little closer wouldn't hurt, right? It's all for preparing for the future anyway—there's absolutely no reason to keep him at arm's length.

Yun-seo snorted along with him and raised her own hand into the air. Matching the timing of his gestures, she gave her hand a playful little wave.

"Yes, let's be friends."

Zzziiing—

At the vibration rattling out of her phone, Yun-seo groggily cracked her eyes open.

She remembered closing them for a moment while waiting for San to finish fixing the light, but somehow dawn was already breaking through the frame of the old window.

"Ugh…"

Yun-seo tilted her stiff neck back and let out a long, dragging yawn. It had been an exhausting day, so passing out the way she had was hardly surprising.

Did that man make it home all right? She was just rolling over, turning her body toward the outer edge of the sofa, when—

Blink. At the dark, hulking silhouette sprawled across the living room floor, she slowly closed her eyes and opened them again.

Blink. Blink.

She wondered if she was dreaming, but as the shape grew steadily more distinct, she snapped fully awake. Right beneath the sofa, San's face, turned on its side in sleep, filled her entire field of vision.

"What…?"

Yun-seo pulled the blanket up over her toes. As she carefully shifted herself into the far corner of the sofa, her eyes never left him.

Why this man was getting a sound sleep on her living room floor, why he hadn't gone back to the health post last night, why he was half undressed… none of it made a shred of sense.

"Um…"

She was just bending down, about to tap his shoulder gently, when—bang bang—someone pounded on the front door.

Yun-seo nearly jumped out of her skin and burrowed into the blanket. San, who had been sleeping away with perfect serenity, slowly propped himself up, pressing a hand to his shadowed brow.

"Sleep well?"

He asked in a low, gravelly voice as he stretched. Yun-seo looked back and forth between the man cracking his neck and the front door, then blinked slowly.

"…Why didn't you leave? Why are you sleeping here?"

She pulled the blanket up stealthily to her chin and huddled herself into the smallest possible ball in the corner of the sofa. San lowered his arm, then leaned his upper body sharply toward her curled-up form.

"You don't remember?"

"Remember… what?"

At that ominous, ambiguous remark, every dire scenario imaginable began to bloom in Yun-seo's head. But she hadn't touched a drop of alcohol last night, and her memory was clear enough.

Why would he say something so loaded? I just dozed off. Did something happen while I was asleep?

Zzziiing, zzziiing—

Just then, her phone began ringing again and again. Yun-seo groped blindly for it and picked it up. The moment she saw the screen, her face froze, and she answered.