“Did it look like we are pretending to be calm?”

Kang Jin-Ho sheepishly looked away. “...Kind of.”

Park Yu-Min sighed and muttered, “It's both, actually...”

Kang Jin-Ho momentarily failed to understand Park Yu-Min's reply. What did he mean by 'both?’ At least one of the two seemed easy enough to figure out, but what about the other one?

Kang Jin-Ho's puzzled gaze soon got its answer.

“Some are pretending to be calm and okay about it. Some are really calm, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah...”

But how could that be? Kang Jin-Ho wanted to ask for clarification, but the waiter brought alcohol to their table and interrupted him. Once the waiter left, Park Yu-Min took the cap off a soju bottle and poured its content into Kang Jin-Ho's cup. “Well, we're all used to losing things, you see.”

“You are... used to it?”

“Sounds like you have forgotten something…” Park Yu-Min smiled wryly. “We're all disabled in some way. The kids, me... And people with disabilities have to give up on lots of things compared to able-bodied people. Even if I try to believe that I'm not any different from everyone, sooner or later, I'll run into a wall. A wall that's not even a wall to everybody else.”

Kang Jin-Ho had no choice but to understand what those words meant. He had experienced it himself before, after all. Things other people had always taken for granted could be unimaginably difficult to overcome for people with disabilities. Sometimes, such things would leave lasting and painful scars in their heart...