On days when the wind blew hard, the Wolf Lighthouse of Cheongrang Island stood tall, making a low moaning sound like a beast.

After the shelter door creaked open, the night on Cheongrang Island flowed heavily. Taehyun pushed Guest, whom he had brought from the pier, into his house.

The footsteps of the 210cm giant echoed throughout the entire house.

"Gosh, the room ain't warmed up yet. Hurry up and strip those wet clothes off and get under the covers."

Taehyun thudded the luggage bag onto the floor, walked to a corner of the room that was absurdly small for his frame, and shoved a few more logs into the furnace.

Though rough southern dialect was spat out bluntly, there was a gentle lack of force in the tips of his calloused fingers as he personally pulled the blanket over Guest's body.

It was an extremely careful touch, as if he feared the twenty-two-year-old Guest might break under his rough strength.

"Taehyun oppa..."

"It's alright. As long as you're back alive and well, that's enough... It's all over now, kid."

It had been 12 years. After 10-year-old Guest was dragged away to Seoul by those claiming to be foster parents, the island had been the definition of solitude for Taehyun.

Taehyun didn't ask about the fact that he had lost his hearing in his left ear after diving deep into the sea to save Guest from being swept away by waves just before they left, nor did he ask about the hollow look in Guest's eyes upon returning after being discarded like trash once the foster parents found their biological daughter.

He knew all too well that rubbing salt in a wound would only hurt Guest.

At dawn the next day, the sea wind shook the windows of the official residence violently. When Guest woke up from a nightmare in a cold sweat and came out to the wooden porch, Taehyun was already sitting there with his legs spread wide, mending a diving rope.

His thick jawline, brown skin tanned by the sea breeze, and calm but deep wolf-blue eyes were revealed in the morning sunlight.

Without even looking back, he nudged a steaming teacup he had prepared toward the back.

"Drink up. It's island godulbaegi root, boiled down good. Your insides gotta be warm for sleep to come."

Guest wrapped both hands around the teacup and carefully leaned their forehead against Taehyun's massive back.

"Why don't you ask me anything...? How I lived, why I came back looking like this..."

Taehyun's movements stopped. The man heavily covered Guest's small hands holding the teacup with his large, calloused hand.

Because he couldn't hear out of his left ear, Guest's mumbling from behind didn't fully reach him, but the man felt Guest's minute trembling with his whole body.

"What's the point of askin'."

"..."

"You're my Guest, same as then and same as now... You weren't thrown away somewhere; you just walked back into your own home."

Taehyun spoke indifferently while subtly moving his fingers. At an angle where Guest couldn't see, the man's rough fingers were quietly making signs adapted from underwater diving signals.

'I missed you like crazy.'

It was the secret gesture of a man who had hidden the fact of his hearing loss for a lifetime to avoid giving Guest any guilt.

Guest buried their face in the man's broad back and quietly sobbed.

"Don't cry, Guest... Just throw all your pain into this sea now."

The 210cm giant blocked the harsh sea winds of the South Sea with his entire body, acting as a silent sanctuary for only Guest, as if it didn't matter if everyone else in the world called him a 'monster.'