SOTL - 7

Upon entering the hospital room, Seo-kyung’s eyes fell on a donut box on the side table. The owner of the bed was nowhere to be seen.

“One should be fine.”

Seo-kyung contemplated as she looked at the half-empty box, which suggested the owner had already eaten some. She picked out one covered in chocolate and sat down in the visitor’s chair. She frowned at the toothachingly sweet flavor and waited for the owner of the bed.

“Oh? Sister. When did you get here?”

“Are you sure you’re allowed to be walking around already?”

Seo-kyung stood up to help Han-na, who was entering the room with the aid of a walker. Han-na waved her hand as if to tell her not to stand up and smiled.

“I just saw a friend off. It’s okay, the doctor said I should walk as much as possible now. Oh, you ate a donut.”

“I’m sorry, I just took one.”

“Why? They’re delicious. You should have had more.”

Seo-kyung wiped her mouth with a tissue and replied that it was too sweet, so one was enough.

“This place is really famous. The waiting line is so long that it must have been hard to buy, but my friend went and bought it anyway.”

“...I see.”

“They were so happy when I gave some to the nurses, saying it was a rare treat.”

Seo-kyung guessed that Yeon-woo had visited and nodded.

Seo-kyung was relieved that Han-na, who had woken up a month ago, was recovering quickly.

The wound from Oh Tae-beom’s stabbing had left a large scar, but it hadn’t taken Han-na’s life. However, she had bled so much that she was in a critical condition, and the damage to her internal organs was so severe that it took her a month to regain consciousness.

“I want to get discharged soon. The staff here are all nice, but it’s so stifling.”

“Don’t rush. The most important thing is for you to get better.”

“To be honest, I’m also worried about getting a job and want to prepare for it quickly. It feels so strange that I used to be a police officer, but I want to try it again.”

“...”

Seo-kyung just smiled in response.

Han-na, who had woken up after a month, didn’t remember the events of that day. To be precise, the end of her memory was when she was in high school at the orphanage. She didn’t remember that Oh Tae-beom was her father, that her mother had died, or anything about Shin Jong-mu.

While Han-na was unconscious, the charge of kidnapping was dropped. This was because Yeon-woo strongly insisted that Han-na hadn’t kidnapped her but had rather protected her from danger. Han-na just thought she had been injured while chasing a criminal.

Han-na quickly accepted the situation where she had just gotten older. According to the orphanage director, her naturally bright personality seemed to be helping.

However... according to her nurse, she often stares out the window with a somber face like this. As if she were waiting for someone.

“I should get going now. You didn’t forget what I said about contacting me if anything happens, did you?”

“No. I’m going to buy a phone as soon as I get discharged. It feels strange to be the only one without one.”

“Alright. Let me know your number as soon as you get it.”

Seo-kyung stood up, asking her not to see her off. As she was about to turn her back, Han-na called out to her.

“Sister. Do you happen to know this song?”

‘Spreading my silver wings wide, with you holding my hand ummm ummm.’ As Han-na hummed the song, Seo-kyung tilted her head.

“I’m not sure. Is it a theme song from an animation? It sounds familiar.”

Han-na ruffled her hair and sighed.

“You know how a song gets stuck in your head and keeps repeating.”

“Haha, I know very well. That’s why there are songs called ‘test-prohibited’ songs.”

“It keeps looping in my head just like that. But I can’t remember the next lyrics, and it’s so frustrating.”

Seo-kyung chuckled and said she didn’t know either.

“Everyone doesn’t know it. I asked my friend since she’s the same age as me, but she just stared blankly, as if she couldn’t remember. She gets so spaced out so often.”

“Then why don’t you make up your own lyrics? I used to get scolded by my dad for always singing my own lyrics.”

“Maybe. It feels a bit incomplete, though.”

Seo-kyung promised to contact her if she ever found out the lyrics and left the hospital room. ‘Spreading my silver wings wide, with you holding my hand~ ummm ummm,’ a small humming could be heard from behind her.

________________________________________

Honk. At the sound of the horn, Yeon-woo was startled and finally looked at Seo-kyung’s car.

Thinking that she might not have gone far yet, Seo-kyung had deliberately passed the bus stop and, as expected, Yeon-woo was sitting on the bench. She had been waiting for a long time for Yeon-woo to notice her, but Yeon-woo’s blurry eyes were just staring into space.

Seo-kyung pointed to the passenger seat, and Yeon-woo opened the car door and greeted her.

“Hello. But I... can take the bus, you know.”

“This is an out-of-the-way place, so the bus doesn’t come by often. I can’t take you all the way home, but I’ll drop you off at a nearby subway station.”

Only then did Yeon-woo agree and get in the car.

Seo-kyung glanced at the passenger seat as she drove. Yeon-woo, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time, had a subtle and different aura than when she first saw her.

The steep cheeks and the round eyes had gained a certain depth, and her youthful appearance, which could have been mistaken for a high school student, had faded considerably.

“You went to see Han-na, right?”

“Yes. And you, Yeon-woo. I heard you’ve been visiting her almost every week.”

Yeon-woo smiled gently in response. She hadn’t revealed to Han-na that the two of them knew each other. It was to avoid causing any confusion if her previous memories returned.

Perhaps the reason Yeon-woo, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had matured as if she had shed a layer, was because she had come to know the bitterness of a secret. A silence filled the car for a moment after they talked about Han-na.

“Is... is Oppa doing well?”

Seo-kyung turned the steering wheel toward the station at the end of the road and answered.

“I don’t know... I have no reason to see him since our jurisdictions are different. But I heard he’s even more cold-hearted than before.”

“Ah... I see...”

When the car stopped in front of the station, Yeon-woo thanked her and got out of the passenger seat.

Just as she was about to step on the stairs leading underground, honk, the horn sounded again. She turned her eyes to Seo-kyung’s car. Seo-kyung rolled down the passenger side window and leaned out. She made a small gap with her thumb and index finger and said, “Still, I hear his rulings are a little less harsh than before. Just a tiny bit, though.”

Yeon-woo burst into laughter for the first time in a long time.

It was the first time she had laughed this heartily since Yoon-hwan had left the house where they had lived together since childhood.

Choi Jin-mok, who was pushed down the stairs, Yoon Cheol-jung and Lee Sa-hyun, who were murdered, Kim Min-a, who fell into an unconscious state, Yeon-woo’s kidnapping, and Han-na’s stabbing incident all came to an end when Oh Tae-beom turned himself in. He admitted to all the crimes he was charged with and said he would obediently await trial.

Everything seemed to have returned to its place, but Yoon-hwan had left his grandmother’s villa.

When Yeon-woo blocked the front door, asking why he had to do that, Yoon-hwan asked her if she didn’t know the reason after investigating the case of his father’s death. At those words, Yeon-woo had no choice but to let go of Yoon-hwan’s arm.

When Yeon-woo returned home, she felt something different the moment she turned on the light in the hallway. Just in case, she went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were new containers of side dishes neatly stacked inside. Yeon-woo burst into laughter for the second time that day.

“What is this, a snail maiden?”

She opened the lid of one of them and tasted it. Even though it was a sweetly braised potato, her nose stung.

________________________________________

Yeon-woo drove to the suburbs.

She had only gotten her driver’s license before, but Yoon-hwan’s scolding that it was dangerous had kept her from getting behind the wheel. But after a week of driving lessons, she started the engine of her grandmother’s old compact car.

She had been worried that it wouldn’t run, so she took it to a car repair shop first, but they said it had been well-maintained and there were no problems. It seemed that Yoon-hwan had continued to maintain it even though he didn’t drive it.

The place Yeon-woo was heading to was a mountain ridge where the North Han River flowed beautifully.

If Yoon-hwan were to find out that she was here... he would rush over immediately. Yeon-woo was willing to bet the lunch box she had packed with the side dishes Yoon-hwan had made and left that he would drag her back to Seoul.

Yeon-woo took a leave of absence with the permission of Professor Gu and spent the rest of the summer scouring Suan Mountain. She divided the area into nine sections using a map and went over each one meticulously. There was something she absolutely had to confirm.

And before she returned, she stopped by the villa where Yoon-hwan had spent his childhood.

The villa, which had become the scene of a brutal crime, was old and shabby, with an eerie atmosphere, but Yeon-woo, just like at Suan Mountain, carefully examined every corner. As if she were looking into the young Yoon-hwan, she observed it meticulously, just as he had done for her. And she spent time in the greenhouse in the yard until the sun went down.

Yeon-woo, who had been searching and wandering all day, finally raised her head as Suan Mountain was turning red. The green mountainside, surrounded by the quietly flowing river, was looking at her. Yeon-woo stared blankly at the sun being swallowed by the mountain.

Just like the fading light, summer was coming to an end.