Someone Reliable?
“I think you’re the one who stopped that accident.”
“What? No, I just heard about it on the news. Your uncle chewed me out for it, so I just brought it up.”
Jong-hyuk listened calmly to my excuses, then came out of the room holding a torn-out page from a sketchbook. I was startled but kept a straight face, pretending not to know anything.
“Recognize this sketchbook?”
“Sketchbooks are everywhere, aren’t they?”
“You really play dumb, huh.”
Ignoring my flustered reaction, Jong-hyuk opened the page. Scrawled in crooked handwriting was a threat: his parents would be attacked while riding in a foreign luxury car.
“I saw it yesterday while seeing you off, right at the front door. I called my dad immediately, told him someone sent a threatening letter and it made me uneasy. If I’d just called casually, saying to take it slow like a normal check-in call, he probably would’ve sped up and the accident would’ve been worse. But hearing the anxiety in my voice after getting that threat made him think differently. Otherwise, it could’ve been a major crash... maybe I’d never see my parents again.”
“I wouldn’t write a threatening letter.”
“No, it was you. This sketchbook’s mine.”
“What?”
“Joo-shin gave it to me. So you couldn’t not know.”
“...”
I stood there speechless, and Jong-hyuk tore the page with the threat into pieces too small to read, tossing it in the trash. He poured a cup of water over it and looked at me.
“The threatening letter’s gone now. So tell me the truth.”
I planned to keep the truth hidden to the end, avoiding Jong-hyuk’s eyes. My head throbbed. Just like last time, I felt that dizzying sensation of visions and voices overlapping.
It was me in my forties, before regression, aged, and Jong-hyuk looking about the same age. The conversation began to flow.
I clenched my fist tight, focusing to not miss a word amid the bewilderment, just like yesterday.
I’d been foolish. Even before regression, I’d only had superficial relationships with work acquaintances, so I didn’t know how to treat a real friend.
I trust Jong-hyuk.
The threatening letter wasn’t really meant to harm his parents, but in that inexplicable phenomenon, I had to warn him they might be in danger and to be careful. So I’d hastily torn a page from Joo-shin’s sketchbook, scribbled a fake threat, and slipped it through the door crack while Jong-hyuk was rummaging in the gift set for processed food to go with kimchi stew. On my way out, I’d kicked it to the front door so he’d find it easily.
If I couldn’t trust Jong-hyuk even after he’d shredded the evidence that could implicate me, I’d never make a real friend.
“Believe it or not, the first day I met your uncle.”
“Don’t call him uncle. I don’t even want to see his face anymore.”
“Uh... that... foreign car guy. The first day I saw him, I overheard what he said.”
“What?”
“He said he’d make sure your parents rode in that luxury foreign car, and guys like me hanging around would lower their value, so get lost...”
Of course, I’d have to embellish it a bit for my friends to understand...
I couldn’t explain my mysterious power, so I said I’d overheard his true intentions when I first met Jong-hyuk’s uncle, while he was cursing me out.
“I see.”
“I figured after getting yelled at, you might think I was just badmouthing him out of spite. So I beat around the bush, but I was still uneasy. I jotted down what I remembered from what he said on the sketchbook. Not to worry your family, but if I didn’t say anything and an accident happened that I could’ve prevented, and you lost your family... I couldn’t forgive myself.”
Jong-hyuk listened quietly, then threw his arm around my shoulder. He was shorter, which might’ve made me laugh from the side, but I just smiled.
“Thanks, really.”
“Tit for tat.”
“Huh?”
“You always say my words make your skin crawl. You’re no better.”
We burst out laughing. Our mothers came down, curious about the noise, and we bolted out, claiming we were full from dinner and going for a walk.
The evening sunset laid out a red carpet ahead, lighting our path as we raced side by side down the alley.
The next day, on the way to school, the novelty of returning to school had worn off. Dragging my heavy feet, Jong-hyuk, walking beside me, brought up the topic we hadn’t finished yesterday.
“Hey, you said you’d introduce me to someone.”
“But your dad already knows him, right?”
“What?”
“He’s handling my dad’s settlement. The lawyer helping us out. Your dad introduced him.”
“That guy? I didn’t like him—cold and cynical.”
“That’s the type who does the job cleanly. Look at your luxury car uncle—acts all nice in front of you and your parents, but behind the scenes, up to no good. No proof yet, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Especially with money issues, cynical and quick calculators handle it cleaner.”
“Dad’s great, but his heart’s too soft.”
“That’s why... handle this through the lawyer, not personally.”
“...”
“It’s bothering you, right?”
“What’s bothering me?”
We were so absorbed we didn’t notice arriving at the school gate. Kyung-soo, the glasses guy, greeted us, snapping us back to reality as we hurried to class.
“Suspicious... so suspicious.”
I felt awkward discussing Jong-hyuk’s family privately and planned to keep the truth from Kyung-soo, avoiding his eyes. My head throbbed again.
Not fully used to it yet, but with experience, I gripped my mind to catch as much as possible. The hazy old photo and distant shouts overlapped in that strange sensation.
A young man in glasses, looking like a college student, and another guy who seemed a friend, drinking beer with simple snacks in a small indoor pub, rambling drunkenly.
The conversation flowed.
Is that Kyung-soo?
Clenching my fist like yesterday to focus amid the shock.
The conversation trailed off like stretched taffy, and snapping back, I was in class during lesson time.
I wrote a note like Jong-hyuk had for me, suggesting a quick exchange of opinions, and arranged to talk with Kyung-soo.
Lunchtime, Kyung-soo approached as we finished talking, sulking and radiating suspicion. I dragged him “kidnap-style” behind the incinerator where no one was around.
He thought it was a joke at first, but seeing our faces, he followed willingly.
I stood at the entrance, back to the building, scanning for people, watching Jong-hyuk and Kyung-soo glaring at each other inside.
“What? Something happened and you two kept me out?”
“It blew up over the weekend suddenly. Wasn’t trying to hide it.”
“This morning?”
“You gonna brag about your parents’ accident at the gate? Even if you don’t care, kids gossiping sucks.”
“Ah... didn’t think of that. Sorry.”
“This morning was sudden too.”
“...How bad are your parents hurt?”
“Dad’s in hospital with a left arm fracture, but can switch to outpatient soon. Mom’s already home.”
“Should I tell my mom to visit the hospital?”
“Huh?”
“She’s an insurance agent.”
“Really?”
“You suspect the luxury car, right?”
“Yeah.”
“For a luxury car that level, gotta have comprehensive insurance or none at all.”
“What? Really?”
“Don’t know details, but most are managed by comprehensive insurers. Mom deals with them, might check. Gotta get consent from the parties first, though.”
“I’ll tell Dad. It’s nagging at me.”
As their talk wrapped up, I chimed in.
“Only ‘evidence’ is a line I overheard while getting yelled at. Can’t do much on suspicion alone.”
“Joo-in, you’re something else. Writing a fake threat letter?”
“No way to explain otherwise.”
“Still, if it backfired, police for extortion.”
“I trashed the letter.”
Jong-hyuk got scolded by his mom for pouring water in the trash after dealing with it.
“Couldn’t just watch your parents get hurt. Life-threatening possibility... even if it got messy and led to charges, we’re middle schoolers—just a scolding.”
Maybe realizing I’d lost my dad recently, Jong-hyuk elbowed Kyung-soo. Kyung-soo, catching on, said casually,
“Lunchtime’s ending. Gotta eat.”
Just as the mood got heavy, Kyung-soo’s light nudge to grab lunch made us chuckle. Pretending defeat, we headed to class.
After school, on the way home, Jong-hyuk eyed me curiously.
“Not going straight home?”
“From today, I’m checking on Joo-shin after school.”
“Something with Mom?”
“Just worried.”
“About what?”
“Same pay, but she skips breaks when busiest. Bugs her.”
“Raising a kid, it happens.”
“Probably coworkers told the manager. Can’t give everyone breaks or no one works.”
“Colleagues being petty.”
“No choice.”
“I get it? Same pay, some get breaks, I don’t—unfair.”
“Dude, why take it so seriously?”
Joo-shin’s elementary school was opposite Jong-hyuk and Kyung-soo’s homes, but chatting, we naturally walked together. I couldn’t stop smiling at our synced steps.
On the way home carrying sleeping Joo-shin on my back from Jong-hyuk’s, Mom—who’d just finished work—grabbed my cold hand tight, smiling at me. It confirmed I wasn’t on the wrong path.