CH 101

15 years ago, the town that Lee-yeon and Choo-ja had been living in was turned upside down.

Strange people in black suits barged into old houses and searched them. They went through everything, from bowls to storage boxes, kicking things around it as they searched the entire town. For a few days, the place that was usually peaceful became a rowdy mess.

During that time, Lee-yeon was home alone. She had been left in the home that her uncle and Choo-ja had lived in while her uncle was dealing with his health complications and had to be admitted to the hospital.

One normal, quiet day, Lee-yeon’s peace was interrupted by the sound of scratching on wood.

“Please help me!” said the voice of a woman. “Please open the door!”

Lee-yeon, who had been doing her homework on the floor when she heard the scratching, froze. It seemed like the woman was too weak to even knock on the door, resorting instead to scratching at it. The thought of it alone sent a chill through Lee-yeon’s spine.

“Someone is chasing me!” the voice continued. “Please hide me! Please! Save me!”

Lee-yeon dropped her pencil and moved away from the door slowly as the woman’s sobbing became louder.

“Just open the door for a moment! Please! Let me in!”

Lee-yeon remembered the things that she had heard from the last few days. She remembered that they were looking for a woman, the older folk had been rather upset about it. She wondered if the woman at her door was the woman that they had been looking for.

Her instincts told her to leave the door closed, to not let the woman in. But she knew that she couldn’t do that. She saw herself in the woman, trembling in fear just as she had been, all alone just as she had been. Lee-yeon didn’t hesitate as she opened the door.

As the door swung open, her eyes met with the lady who had been sobbing at the door. She looked up at Lee-yeon like she was her lifeline and began sobbing harder.

She looked like a mess. Her hair was in disarray and her hands had cuts all over them, as if she had just run through a sea of thorny bushes. Lee-yeon looked around to see if anyone was watching and quickly pulled the lady in with her and closed the door.

The lady had stayed in the house for quite some time. She had given Lee-yeon a huge sum of money that Lee-yeon had forgotten about when she grew up and went to university.

“I know,” she mumbled, staring at the ceremonial table with Choo-ja.

Choo-ja smiled. “Maybe the kind person is living a good life.”

I wonder if she ever ended up seeing her son, Lee-yeon thought. She smiled at Choo-ja. “I’m sure she’s living a good life with her son.”

***

“Chae-woo,” Lee-yeon called out for Kwon Chae-woo. The memorial was over, and she was looking to see where he went. She saw him as he approached her, having just come back from the yard. In his hands, he was holding an envelope. Lee-yeon frowned. “What’s that?”

Wordlessly, Kwon Chae-woo handed her the envelope. There was a seal on it that matched the logo on the jacket that Joo Dong-mi was always wearing. Lee-yeon nodded as she opened the envelope to see what was inside.

There was a catalog explaining the work that the center did and an application with his resumé.

Kwon Chae-woo sat beside Lee-yeon and rested his forehead against hers. His breath tickled, but Lee-yeon didn’t even notice because all she could focus on was the way that her heart sank looking at the application. There were so many empty slots left for her to fill in.

“I only know my name and my birthday,” Kwon Chae-woo told her. “You can fill in the rest.”

Lee-yeon frowned. “You said you were issued a new ID, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can you show it to me?”

Lee-yeon pretended to be busy studying the application as Kwon Chae-woo handed her his ID. She took it in her hands and felt her body stiffen when she saw his photo.

She wondered when the photo had been taken. It showed Kwon Chae-woo, but it was not the Kwon-Chae-woo that Lee-yeon knew. His eyes looked aggressive and his face was cold as it stared back at her. She tried to look away, but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to do it.

She scanned the rest of the ID, trying to avoid looking at the photo. She bit her lip when she read when his birthday was. His birthday was the day that Lee-yeon had witnessed him bury someone alive. That day had started all of this and she found it eerie that it also happened to be his birthday.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Kwon Chae-woo’s quiet voice asked her, “Lee-yeon, what’s my education?”

Lee-yeon came back to her senses. She suddenly wanted to tell him everything. Surely, he would be able to accept the whole situation now, right? Even though it was complicated, they would be able to solve it together, right?”

She opened her mouth to say something. But she couldn’t.

She was afraid that, if she told him the truth, everything they had right now would be ruined. Maybe he would get his memory back and everything would change. She decided it was better to hide the truth for just a little more. Just a little more, it wouldn’t hurt… would it?

The more she fell for him, the harder it was to hide these things from him. But, even then, she knew that she would have it no other way. Even when she knew that the consequences to her actions would come back to bite her eventually.

She sat in silence as Kwon Chae-woo leaned back against the sofa and sighed.

“I guess my education isn’t that good,” he said.