January 1, 2025.
Florence, Italy.
White snow fluttered down over a city decorated as if to embrace the New Year with its whole being.
The sky was white, and snow had settled thickly over the streets.
The blanket of white covering the entire world created an atmosphere of quiet.
“Haah—”
I walked down the street, exhaling white breath with a crunching sound.
Because it was snowing and quite cold, I pulled my hood down deep and wrapped my scarf tightly around my neck.
Actually, well.
Wanting to spend some time alone was also one of the reasons I had bundled up so tightly.
But such worries proved pointless—the city was quiet.
Everyone must have been too busy spending cozy time with their loved ones.
“...”
Thanks to that, quietly.
Feeling only the sound of falling snow, snow brushing against my head and shoulders, and snow crunching underfoot, I walked the streets.
Walking as though I were the only one left in the world, I naturally fell into deep thought.
After finishing a grueling Boxing Day schedule.
I had come to Florence to spend a sort of two-week vacation.
Honestly, Florence wasn’t exactly a good choice for a winter holiday, but that depended on what kind of holiday you wanted.
The holiday I wanted wasn’t sailing a yacht somewhere on the sunny Mediterranean, but rather just looking back on the past days for a bit.
Like a salmon returning to its birthplace, I had come to Florence.
Whoosh—!
Walking on a bridge over the river, a fierce wind blew past.
I tightened my collar a bit more.
Stopping briefly before the bridge railing, I looked down at the flowing water.
“...”
The Arno River, cutting through the city.
If I wanted to eat somewhere with good scenery and atmosphere, I just had to come near this riverside.
What interior could be as exquisite as a river flowing under the sunlight?
As long as you could see the river, anywhere could easily feel sophisticated.
So when Jiwoo first came here, we mainly ate around this area.
Come to think of it, even while vehemently insisting we weren’t dating, we did everything couples do.
Well, what counted as a date anyway?
Going around places like this on our days off was a date.
Yet I went around claiming we weren’t dating, let alone that I liked her, so I wondered how funny the people around us must have found it.
...We’d been there too.
And that restaurant up on the hill too.
Chewing over the memories left in every place my gaze touched, I briefly savored the nostalgia.
Perhaps the river flowing in solitude was jealous of that.
“...Cold.”
I turned my steps at the biting wind that whipped past.
Crossing the bridge and entering a neighborhood lined with low buildings, familiar scenery welcomed me.
A small piazza.
Roads branching out from it and small-scale shops.
Though they seemed closed today, I could see the familiar gelato shop and fruit store.
It was a place I always passed on the way from my house to the training ground.
From when I first joined the Under-15 team until I was promoted to the first team.
About three years, I suppose.
Honestly, three years might not be that long.
In the grand scheme of things, it was merely a fleeting moment.
But there was such a thing as density.
Wasn’t three years spent meaninglessly different from three years spent with purpose?
The three years here had truly held great meaning.
And since this was the road I had traveled almost every day for those three years, the thick scent of nostalgia seemed to burrow into a corner of my heart.
“...”
Strangely, even though I was walking the streets alone, I didn’t feel lonely.
The shops were closed and there were hardly any people coming and going, yet oddly, it even felt lively.
Perhaps it was because I could still see them.
That man who always put a chair in front of his shop and struck up conversations with everyone passing by.
The couple who always read books at the café across the street.
The fruit shop owner who always looked after me with fruit every morning.
Maybe because it was scenery I saw every day, I felt like I could still see them now.
Come to think of it, so much had changed.
The me who first passed this road and the me who last passed it.
At first, I was someone who walked with my head bowed deep, only looking forward.
In the end, I was someone who walked while exchanging greetings with everyone.
I had truly grown a lot.
Here.
In height, and in spirit.
This was the place that contained every step of the process for me, from a scared little kid who only knew how to run away to a man cheered on by everyone.
So looking back, those three years didn’t feel like just three years.
It felt like at least twice that long.
It felt strange that I had only played in a Fiorentina uniform for three years.
So even if I end up spending much longer than three years somewhere else in the future.
I think this place will probably be my true home until the day I die.
I’m sure of it.
“...”
Passing by a restaurant, a sudden laugh escaped me.
This was the restaurant I brought Jiwoo to on her first day here.
I had frantically searched and found this place a few days before that.
I even practiced what was on the menu and how to order to look competent.
It was only three years ago, but I was such a kid.
Of course, I’m not much different now.
But looking back, I think I might have been a bit cute back then.
“...Ahem.”
Exhaling white breath, I started walking again.
Passing familiar scenery, I spotted a familiar bench and headed toward it.
Brush, brush.
I wiped away the accumulated snow with my sleeve and sat down.
For a moment, the cold and dampness seeping into my backside weren’t exactly pleasant.
But I had decided to go with romance today.
I decided to endure this much.
“...”
Here, if you sit on this bench, a red brick house is visible diagonally.
Beyond its fence, you can see the front door, and I always used to sit here waiting for that door to open.
That was the house where Jiwoo had boarded.
Well, at some point Jiwoo spent more time at my place anyway, but still.
Whenever we made plans, I always came here first and waited for Jiwoo to come out.
I remember always sitting here waiting for that door to open.
“...”
A smile formed on my face without my realizing; the very first time.
I recalled that moment when I met Jiwoo here after several years.
I had been really surprised back then.
The kid who was practically a tomboy had become a woman.
I’m only saying this now, but honestly, in that moment my mind went blank and my whole body froze.
Because she was so beautiful.
The thought that she had been this pretty short-circuited my brain.
Well, anyway.
Leaving all that aside, the joy I felt then was indescribable.
It was from that moment that this neighborhood began to feel comfortable for the first time.
Like entering middle school for the first time with a nervous heart, only to find a friend from elementary school in the classroom.
Of course, I was several times happier than that.
Thinking about it now, what was I so embarrassed about?
I just wonder why I couldn’t offer a simple greeting while smiling.
Meeting after several years, yet I just snapped at her for no reason.
Expression is such an important thing.
“Haah—”
...Hmm.
So, about that.
When my hand in my pocket touched something, my heart suddenly began to pound.
It was a small cube-shaped case.
Um, well.
Actually, not long ago in the group chat, I was talking about this and that with my Fiorentina hyungs, and the topic came up.
Someone told me I absolutely had to marry Jiwoo, and I answered that I had already promised her that.
They asked if that meant we were engaged, and when I said something like that, they asked if I had a ring.
Since I didn’t, I said no.
Then they all were dumbfounded.
They asked what I had used to get engaged, and when I said we had made a pinky promise, they all just laughed.
Then I got an absolute earful of advice.
Something about being a man, this and that.
Asking if I was really an Italian man like this.
I’m not even Italian in the first place, yet they scolded me every which way.
Saying who gets engaged like that.
Saying that at the very least, we should exchange rings.
So, well.
I just said I got it.
Because I didn’t want to hear them nag anymore.
“...”
Of course, even after I answered that I got it, the advice never stopped.
Get a nice gift, prepare flowers, rent a fancy restaurant, write a letter... and then they told stories I wasn’t that curious about, which took dozens of minutes just to read.
Really, it should be enough to have the heart, so what was so complicated about it?
How long had I even been an adult to already feel the weight of such things?
Anyway.
Though I received all sorts of recommendations, I didn’t want to follow what others had done for an experience that happens only once in a lifetime.
Sorry to the hyungs, but I didn’t prepare anything else.
Just this, while giving her the ring.
Wouldn’t one word that could properly express my heart be enough?
After all, there was nothing we didn’t know about each other, and we had reached the point where we could read each other’s minds just by looking at expressions.
Hmmm.
So now I was worried about this.
What should I say while giving this to her?
Nothing more, nothing less. I wished I could express my sincerity without being cringeworthy.
I had no talent with words, so even though I had worried about it the entire way here, nothing that felt like “this is it” came to mind.
...Yeah.
If I hadn’t thought of anything even after worrying this much, it was inevitable.
I’d just go with the flow, freestyle.
The thought that came to me the moment I saw Jiwoo.
And the words I wanted to say to her.
Let’s go with that. That.
“...”
I took my phone out of my pocket, checked the time, and put it back in.
She would be here soon.
Because we wanted to deliberately spend some time apart, we had set a time to meet here again.
By the way, why am I nervous?
I’m not the me of old anymore.
Maybe because I came to the neighborhood where I spent those days, it felt like I had returned to being the trembling wreck I was back then.
Maybe because it was about time for her to arrive.
Just as I was wondering if I should call to check if she had slipped or gotten lost on the way—
“Hey—”
At the lively voice breaking the silence, I turned my head, and in the distance.
Beyond the falling snow, I could see Jiwoo.
Jiwoo, bundled up neatly in a black long coat with a hat and scarf, was waddling toward me like a penguin.
After spotting me, she picked up her pace, nearly slipping a few times as she did.
“...”
Seeing that figure, in that instant.
The memory of reuniting with Jiwoo here three years ago flashed past, and at the same time, I finished worrying about what to say while handing over the ring.
I had decided to say the very first thought that came to me when I saw Jiwoo.
“Ugh, did you wait long? You have so much snow on your clothes! Aren’t you cold? You’ll catch a cold!”
...You need to talk about one thing at a time for me to answer.
She started spewing words the moment she was within conversational distance, so urgent about everything that I held my breath for a moment.
“Brush it off! You’ll become a snowman at this rate! Let me brush it off for you!”
“...”
Even after Jiwoo came to my side, the timing didn’t come.
Jiwoo brushed the snow from my head to my shoulders, sat down beside me, and chattered nonstop about what she had done and eaten while we were apart.
I simply listened, nodding my head.
It was only by the time the snow I had brushed off had piled up once again in handfuls that I was barely given a chance to speak.
“So, what do you want to do now? Tour the neighborhood?”
“Uh, hm. Sure.”
“Great, great. Let’s look around. Should we go to the stadium too? It hasn’t been that long since we went a few months ago, but it wasn’t snowing then.”
“...Yeah. But, uh.”
“Hm?”
“I picked up something on the way. To give to you.”
I barely got the words out, and Jiwoo’s eyes went round.
“For me? What? What is it?”
With trembling hands, I took out the case I had been fidgeting with in my pocket.
The cold weather was a blessing in a way.
My hands were shaking so much it was plainly visible, but I could use the cold as an excuse.
“...What’s this?”
Jiwoo’s round eyes grew even larger.
Instead of answering, I opened the case.
Inside were two rings set with diamonds.
I heard engagement rings are usually diamond, so I chose these.
What was it they say.
That diamonds mean eternal love.
Anyway.
I took one of the two rings out and extended it to Jiwoo with clumsy hands.
And exhaling white breath, I spoke.
“...I love you.”
I don’t know since when I had wanted to say these words.
But in the end, I’m saying them now, here.
“...”
Feeling unnecessarily shy, instead of gauging Jiwoo’s reaction, I turned my head and looked up at the sky.
White snow was pouring down from the white sky.