Yeah, Let's Go to the Sea
Yeah. Let's go to the sea. ……………
The subway station. Commuter crowds surged in like waves during rush hour, then ebbed away. Standing right in the middle, I stared down at the yellow line under my feet without moving a muscle. Tick, tock, tick, tock. In my head, a very classic analog clock was turning. Lee Jin-ah's ultimatum. Roughly 40 hours left. If I didn't send her a receipt from the OB-GYN by then, I'd be socially dead. My face reflected in the screen door already looked half-corpse.
I tried to wring out some way to turn this absurd situation around, but my mind just went blank and burned white. No answers. Should I at least contact Yeom Hana? As I fiddled with my phone...
Bzzz— bzzz— The name on the screen... Yeom Hana. Too perfect to call a coincidence. I hit the call button.
"Hey, Hana."
"[——Ajussi.]"
The voice coming through the receiver was different from usual. She was forcing cheerfulness, but it felt cracked somewhere. Like glass with a fissure, ready to shatter at any moment.
"[Sorry, but come to my place. The house is a mess and needs cleaning.]"
"[Just... come help. I'll send the address. Hurry.]"
Click. The call ended, and right after, a KakaoTalk message pinged in—a screenshot from her map app with the address.
"What the...? Seriously..."
Until now, Yeom Hana had never told me her home address. Motels, cafes, PC bangs. We'd met in plenty of places, and she'd opened up about everything to me—except her living space, which she kept strictly secret. And now she was calling me there. Something was wrong. No time to question it. I grabbed a taxi right away.
……………
The destination was a cluster of red-brick multi-household villas. I navigated dimly lit alleys where streetlights were few and far between, heading to the basement of the building she'd indicated. As soon as I went down the stairs, the musty mold smell unique to half-basements hit my nose. The scent of a sunless, shady corner. And there, a half-open steel door.
"...!"
No, it wasn't open. The entire hinge was ripped off, dangling loose. Clear signs someone had forced their way in from outside. I pushed the door—screeech—and the devastation revealed itself.
Ruins. Overturned table, crushed cup ramen containers, a cheap fan with its blades and body smashed apart. And in the middle of that chaos.
Leaning against a bed frame with just a mattress on it, Yeom Hana looked up at me.
"Oh, Ajussi. You got here fast."
Yeom Hana waved and smiled. But I couldn't smile back. She looked wretched. Her hair was a tangled mess, her T-shirt torn, and her face and arms bore clear marks of violence.
"You... what the hell."
I rushed to Yeom Hana and knelt down.
"Who? Who the fuck did this..."
She just smirked.
"That one. Your cuckoo daughter. She came by earlier."
"What...?"
"Said wipe it out now, or she'd do it herself. Totally trashed the place. Scared the shit outta me."
Han Sol. Han Sol did this? That girl went this far? Wait—no. How did Han Sol even know this place? I didn't even know Yeom Hana's address.
In the midst of the confusion, my gaze instinctively dropped to her abdomen, which she was cradling protectively.
"Your stomach...?"
"It's fine. Guarded it hard."
Yeom Hana grinned and patted her belly. Seeing her smile with cracked lips and scabs tugged at my heart. I couldn't even imagine how desperately she'd fought to protect the baby, how terrified she'd been behind that smile.
"How did she even find this place..."
"Dunno. Maybe stalked us when we met up."
Yeom Hana shrugged like it was no big deal.
"Anyway, she was a total psycho. I said 'wipe it out'—hell no. Then she charged at me saying she'd do it herself."
"Ah..."
So it was an assault aimed at miscarriage. Attempted murder. My daughter tried to kill my baby.
"...Sorry. I'm so sorry."
All I could do was apologize. It was my fault. I'd screwed up. Guilt kept my head bowed. Yeom Hana burst into a hee-hee laugh at my expression.
"Whoa, never seen that look on you, Ajussi."
"You laughing right now...?"
"What's it matter? And honestly, I hit her way harder."
Yeom Hana held out the back of her right hand. Sure enough, the knuckles were badly scraped and scabbed.
"You know I don't lose in a street fight. Beat down a few villains too. She ran off with blood pouring from both nostrils. Hope I didn't knock any teeth loose."
Surprisingly energetic voice. But that didn't make this any less serious. Han Sol had acted on it. Not a warning, not a threat. She'd come here for real and tried to harm the baby in Yeom Hana's belly.
Rage boiled up—at Han Sol, and at myself for creating this mess. Because I'd been indecisive, kept postponing the decision, over and over. That's why Yeom Hana and the baby had suffered this.
"Ajussi, stop spacing out and help clean up. Won't finish by tonight."
Yeom Hana nodded at the debris strewn across the floor. I didn't move. No more. The guillotine blade was swinging down behind me. Lee Jin-ah was out to kill me socially, Han Sol physically after the baby. Yeah, my fault. But I couldn't erase a living life.
Lee Jin-ah, Han Sol. If they were pushing me this far, I had no choice. I'd have to leap through the fire in front of me.
Decision made. Instead of picking up trash, I grabbed Yeom Hana's hand tight.
"Hana, no more."
"Ajussi?"
"Let's... run away."
Yeom Hana blinked in shock for a moment. The half-joking words I'd tossed out at the motel last time. She'd brushed them off with a hollow laugh as impossible. But now it was different. No other way.
"...For real?"
"Yeah. For real."
Seeing the resolute look on "Ajussi's" face, the corner of Yeom Hana's mouth twitched up. Even with her cheek swollen, she smiled faintly.
Escape from hell. The end might be another hell. But right now, we had to run.
……………
We shoved the broken crap aside and cleared just enough space to sit. No first-aid kit, so I ran to the nearby convenience store for antiseptic, bandages, and gauze. Sitting on the ruined room floor, I dabbed antiseptic-soaked cotton on Yeom Hana's arm. It had to sting, but she didn't even groan. Just stared blankly at the ceiling.
Chaos-filled room. Musty mold mixed with balm scent.
"You really gonna do it?"
"Yeah. Really."
No more hesitation. Decision made—now execute. Turns out, to get shit done, you gotta set your mind first. Picking the one path—escape—and committing cleared my tormenting doubts in one go, leaving my head clear as distilled water.
'Prep tonight, move tomorrow.'
I mapped it out in my head. Before bed, log into the intranet and request all remaining vacation days. Submit resignation on the last day of leave. Approved or not, didn't matter. Wasn't coming back anyway. Accumulated no-shows would get me fired. House: minimal. A few clothes, valuables to cash in. Rest gets ditched. Notify landlord about breaking the lease.
I laid out the simple plan for Yeom Hana. She nodded.
"Guess I gotta prep to leave Seoul too."
"Yeah."
"Got nothing worth packing anyway. All this is trash."
Yeom Hana nodded toward one corner of the room.
"Just need that guitar."
'Gotta travel light, but the guitar...' I almost gave advice, then swallowed it. Ruined half-basement, trash piles—and there, a lone battered guitar case. Amid overturned tables and smashed fans, only it stayed intact. That was her dignity as a human, the dream that kept her scraping by. Everything left to her besides me. Couldn't tell her to leave it.
Her entire fortune: one guitar. Bitter, but so very Yeom Hana.
"Yeah. Pack that at least. Gotta play wherever we go."
"Hee-hee."
I handed her the case. She hugged it and smiled wistfully.
"Kinda weird, huh? House trashed, got hit, no clue what's next."
She rested her chin on the case and looked up at me.
"But not scared at all. 'Cause Ajussi's here, I guess."
"...Yeah?"
Her words were a weight on my shoulders—a responsibility—but also a pillar propping me up. Yeah, let's go. Anywhere. No spiderwebs at mountain entrances, right?
"So where we bolting to?"
Yeom Hana asked. Truth was, no specific destination in mind. Pure impulse escape. But couldn't worry her. Kept cool and made shit up.
"Leave Seoul first. Capital area or Chungcheong—nah. Head south. Yeongnam, Honam... Jeju. Travel a few months. Sightsee, find a spot to settle."
"Ooh, romantic?"
Yeom Hana smirked.
"But y'know? Feels like that debt-ridden family taking one last trip before double suicide."
"Hey."
Snap!!
"Ow!"
Instead of answering, I flicked her forehead.
"Watch your mouth. Ain't happening."
I grabbed her shoulders, stared straight into her eyes.
"Won't let you or the baby die. I won't."
My firm words made Yeom Hana's eyes go wide. Silence fell in the tiny half-basement.
Then suddenly, she murmured low.
"...Wanna see the sea."
"The sea?"
"Yeah. Never seen it. Not even on school trips."
Twenty years old and never seen the ocean. That one sentence sketched her unfortunate, barren, harsh life. My chest ached. I reached out, stroked her messy hair.
"Yeah, let's go."
East Sea, South Sea, West Sea.
"I'll let you see it all you want."