Answering God's Call - Chapter 2

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠Perhaps it had been inevitable from the moment his past self, who could do nothing but submit to violence and lie powerless, overlapped with that dry, withered figure before him.

He stepped closer and bent down.

“Hey, are you alright?”

The woman, who had been stubbornly staring at the stone ground where raindrops splashed, slowly lifted only her eyes. Her gaze was sharp, as if asking whether she really looked alright in this state. After glaring at him for a moment, she soon forced herself upright, acting composed as if nothing had happened.

She looks very much not alright.

As the woman tried to move away from him, Ruslan straightened as well, and his eyes widened slightly. Tilting his umbrella over her, he looked straight into her vivid green eyes and asked, “Have we met somewhere before?”

“…?”

The woman glanced around before asking back, “Me?”

“Who else would I be talking to here but you?”

“…?”

Her mouth fell open in a daze. Ruslan studied her face closely, intently, and his brows creased faintly.

“Your face looks familiar. We’ve really never met?”

“No. We haven’t.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“What do you mean, what reason? We haven’t, so I’m saying we haven’t. Are you seriously asking that?”

Even under the shadow of the umbrella, her thoughts were clear, as if she were thinking she had never seen such nonsense in her life. At her blunt response, an unspoken awkwardness spread across Ruslan’s face. He looked just as flustered by the words he himself had said.

At that, the woman, momentarily at a loss for words, blinked. Asking whether they had seen or met before, then suddenly acting like this… talking nonsense on his own and then getting flustered on his own…. She muttered under her breath as if she couldn’t understand it at all, then slowly ran her eyes over Ruslan before abruptly sticking out her wet hand.

“I’ll give you a chance to make up for that.”

Noticing her gaze lingering on the cigarette, Ruslan let out a small scoff. In that state, what cigarette? Flicking his fingers, he tossed away the lit cigarette and instead held out a handkerchief, as if telling her to wipe her face or hands.

But perhaps she felt awkward dirtying something clean, because she quietly hid the hand that hadn’t taken the handkerchief behind her back. Who said I wanted a handkerchief? Her blunt mutter slipped into the sound of the rain.

At the sight, Ruslan let out a small sigh and asked, “Do you need anything other than cigarettes?”

“…Hah.”

A hollow laugh escaped between her lips. The hand that wiped the rainwater from her face, using the back that had less dirt on it, was noticeably irritated. Touching the bluish bruises made her frown, and she pulled out the damp bills she had stuffed into her pocket, waving them in front of Ruslan.

“I’m not sorry, but I’ll take tips. I don’t sell my body.”

“Not that.”

Ruslan lightly tapped his cheek with his finger.

“Your face. Your injuries look like they need treatment urgently.”

It’s not just your face. Didn’t you hurt your arms and legs when you fell just now? His expression calmly asked as much with his eyes. Uncomfortable under that gaze, the woman pulled down her blouse sleeve to cover the arm where blood was seeping through.

“I have medicine at home.”

“If you regularly treated your wounds properly, I wouldn’t have asked in the first place.”

And what about those lips, drained past pale into a purplish blue, and the state of her, not even a coat on in weather like this? From one thing to ten, everything about her grated on his nerves, so Ruslan stubbornly pressed on. In the end, as if conceding, the woman let her shoulders sag weakly and spoke as if it were nothing.

“As you saw earlier, it’s not just been a day or two.”

“Do you mean… it happens every day?”

“Who knows. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. It’s a relief if nothing happens.”

At the end of her words, she faintly winced around the eyes. She had answered because she couldn’t withstand his persistence, but her face said she shouldn’t have said it. Over the faint regret, the faded resignation he had seen earlier in that violence settled over her again.

At most, was she even over twenty? She looked young, but with her dry body and gaunt complexion, it was hard to guess her exact age.

Ruslan tilted the umbrella a little more toward her and asked slowly, “Do you live with that man from earlier?”

“How rude. I don’t.”

What a waste of time. The woman muttered curtly and spat out the blood that had pooled in her mouth. As she lamented the rain that looked like it would fall all night, stepping out from under the umbrella, Ruslan grabbed her again before she could go.

“Don’t you need cigarettes?”

“Give them to me first, then talk.”

Standing in the rain with her arms crossed, the woman turned her body halfway. Ruslan closed the distance she had made, held the umbrella over her, and made a proposal.

“If you promise to wash up and quietly apply medicine.”

“Wash up? Promise?”

“At the hotel. It’s cold. And the rain isn’t going to stop easily.”

“…Hotel? What hotel?”

Just as her face started to fill with shock, as if she couldn’t believe her ears, Ruslan hurriedly added, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that.”

“If it’s not that, then what?”

“It’d be good if you could rest properly, even for a few days. From what I heard, he told you not to come out until the bruises fade—”

“Why?”

The woman cut him off and asked abruptly.

“Why would you go that far for me? Because you think you’ve seen me somewhere before, like we’ve met?”

“…Well, that’s part of it.”

“Or because you want to sleep with me once?”

She stared at him with a face still full of suspicion. At that intent gaze, weighing whether she could trust him, Ruslan snorted as if it were absurd.

Cute. Bold, too.

“If you get turned on looking like that, are you even human?”

“What a shame. I thought you’d fallen for me.”

“Do you not even look in a mirror?”

“Wow, you’re really rude as naturally as breathing.”

Her tone wasn’t disappointed at all, and the face pretending embarrassment was perfectly composed. He had scolded her out of concern for the injuries covering her thin body and for her being several years younger, but it seemed the woman thought he was simply pointing out her looks.

Ruslan didn’t bother to correct her misunderstanding and flicked the umbrella as if to say it was up to her to decide. The woman, rubbing her teeth with the tip of her tongue, wrapped her wet shoulders and asked.

“So, where is that hotel?”

***

Ruslan slowly took off his trench coat, the shoulders soaked through, and shook off the raindrops that hadn’t seeped in.

His fingertips were as cold as if he were holding ice, but the breath he let out lightly was hot. The woman insisted that while they could share the umbrella, she couldn’t wear his trench coat, so he had no choice but to quicken his pace.

The woman who followed him couldn’t close her mouth at the sight of the room, larger than most apartments or boarding houses, with a bedroom and a sitting room. Her expression was one of stunned disbelief, as if it were the first time in her life she had seen such a cozy space filled with warmth no matter where she stepped.

Watching the variety of expressions on the woman’s face with mild interest, Ruslan pointed in turn with his chin at the console and the bathroom.

“Now that you’ve had your look, go wash up and come out. There are clothes in the shopping bag on the console, so change on your own.”

“Clothes to change into?”

He hung his trench coat on the rack, turned, and looked at the woman standing blankly between the sitting room and the bathroom.

“Yes. They should fit you well enough.”

He thought he had explained it clearly, but the woman still didn’t move. Looking again, her eyes seemed to ask why he had spare women’s clothes when meeting her today hadn’t been planned.

Raising a brow, Ruslan replied evenly, “I bought them as a gift, but you can wear them. You can’t keep wearing wet clothes.”

“No way. Are you telling me to wear clothes you were going to give to your ex just now?”

Loosening his tie halfway, Ruslan sat in the armchair and let out a short laugh. She didn’t look like it, but her imagination was quite lively.

“I never said anything about an ex.”

“…Are you married?”

“You haven’t even asked my name, but you’re curious about that.”

He had never been married, not even for simple record-keeping or as a cover to make work easier, but he didn’t feel slighted by that. So whatever misunderstanding the woman formed with that small head of hers was none of his concern.

Ruslan silently watched the woman, who only opened and closed her mouth in considerable confusion. As if to see how far that brazen imagination would go.

“No, I mean, me, with a married man right now….”

“We’re not going to sleep together, so does that matter?”

“Ah, that’s true, no, wait?”

She agreed easily as if it made sense, then hesitated. Is that right…? This doesn’t seem right…? She murmured and grew more doubtful, tilting her head over and over, unable to reach a proper conclusion.

The woman, who had stood awkwardly as if following a stranger’s kindness all the way here felt off, soon sharpened her gaze as if regaining the temper she showed when she kicked the trash can.

“Why would I care about a name? Once today passes, we won’t see each other again—”

“How can you be so sure?”

“…What?”

“I know where you work, so if I want a drink, I can come find you.”

If nothing else, you said you take tips.

If he dropped by the pub now and then and made his presence known, that man would use violence less often like today. As he briefly pictured a place where a young woman could work safely and a suitable place to live, Ruslan shook his head.

Too far. It’s unnecessary interference.

“Next time I come, recommend a beer worth drinking.”

“…You never run out of nonsense.”

Snorting openly as if it was ridiculous, the woman grabbed the shopping bag on the console as if snatching it and went into the bathroom.