A Quiet Everyday
The Jeongdongjin I grew up in had the sea.
A short walk from the house and the water opened wide before you, and when night fell, the familiar sound of the waves came rolling out of the deep dark.
From the time I was little, the neighborhood adults doted on me. Raised by my grandfather's hand, I naturally trailed after him to watch them work their fields, and once I was a little older I started helping myself. At first it was nothing more than simple errands and light loads. Whenever I fussed around trying to pitch in, the grown-ups would pat my head and tell me how admirable I was.
"Our Hayun, pretty as a picture. And such a good worker, too."
"Ehehe."
Praise made something warm and fizzy rise in my chest, and the smile came on its own. So the next time, and the time after that, I helped with a glad heart.
As I got older I could hoist heavy loads without a thought and put in a hard day's work in the fields. Years of farm labor had made me quite strong. In exchange, my skin burned dark. My arms especially, bared to the elbow on so many working days, went a far deeper shade than the rest of me.
Ayoung was the same. She mostly helped in the orchards, picking fruit and sorting it into boxes. As a child she hated getting a tan, and her temper ran a little sharp—if something didn't suit her, her lip would jut and the grumbling would start. But maybe it was from living alongside me and Yuri. Somewhere along the way she turned into someone who laughed easily at small things and looked after other people first. Even the honey-brown of her sun-browned skin stopped bothering her much.
Ayoung liked cute things, too. Ribbons and lace in particular, and a great deal of that came from my cousin, Seoyun. Whenever Seoyun dragged me along to cosplay events, Ayoung often tagged along, and she fell completely in love with the gothic-lolita outfits she tried on then. She still adores clothes that are dainty and showy like that.
I've wandered off the point, but anyway—I started saving money from childhood, meaning to make a life I actually wanted once I was grown. Of course neither of us could work as perfectly as the adults, so our daily pay came out a little smaller. Even so, they never failed to slip us spending money whenever we helped, and on breaks they set out generous snacks.
On days when she was feeling well, Yuri often came along with us. She was of Russian descent, a girl whose charm lay in silver-white hair that fell to her waist and clear blue eyes. Her hair was so long that Ayoung and I often braided it prettily for her, and every time she would sit patiently, then peek in the mirror and break into a bashful little grin.
Both of Yuri's legs ended around mid-thigh, so she usually got around in a wheelchair. Jeongdongjin, with its many curbs and uneven roads, was not an easy town for a wheelchair. When the way got rough, Ayoung would scout out a smoother path first, and if a stretch was truly impassable I would simply gather Yuri up and carry her across.
"Hayun, am I heavy?"
"You're incredibly light."
"Hehe. That's our Hayun."
Whenever her silver-white hair caught the summer sun and scattered on the breeze, clear light broke across the grass. Beneath a flower crown, lips curved in that soft little smile, eyes glinting with mischief. Stirring me and Ayoung up, then smiling all by herself with the most harmless face in the world—that had always been Yuri's specialty.
She didn't do farm work herself, but she said staying home alone was boring, so she would sit in the shade and watch us work. One summer day when the sunlight was especially bright, we had finished in the fields and were lying in the grass, cooling off. Yuri sat neatly in a white dress with a crown of wildflowers woven into her hair, then quietly drew the fabric together with her hands, cupped her chest, and smiled that wicked little smile.
"Look at this. My chest is huge, right?"
Ayoung, still cooling down, stared blankly at the way Yuri's chest strained the white dress taut, then let out a hollow little laugh.
"Here we go again. You're tiny—where does all of that even come from?"
"Hehe. Jealous?"
"Not even a little~! Clothes fit me easy, and I like that way better!"
Yuri seemed delighted by Ayoung's grumbling. She let her silver-white hair spill among the weeds and laughed, bright and ringing. Watching from beside them, I couldn't help laughing too.
Ever since we were small, whenever farm work left us sprawled boneless on the ridge between the fields, Yuri kept watch from under the shade. She broke the quiet with small, ridiculous pranks and pressed a laugh into our tired hands whether we wanted one or not. Sitting there that day in a white dress with a crown of wildflowers, she looked like the brilliant landscape of summer itself.
"You just wait… next time I put on a pretty dress."
Ayoung muttered it as she tugged down the hem of her gym shirt, which had ridden up.
Yuri stuck her tongue out at her in a quick nyah, then stretched out at her ease on the sunlit grass. Cicadas shrilled. The grass smelled green and fresh. And between the three of us a bright, fizzy afterglow kept rising. The light was so dazzling that when I closed my eyes, the ghost of Yuri's bashful smile lingered long behind my lids.
It was a brutally hot summer day. And yet, in that moment, I wasn't tired at all.
Even though Yuri didn't work, the adults always set aside a share of the snacks for her when break time came. I think it was because they loved us like their own daughters. Thanks to them, the three of us sat side by side, washed apples fresh off the tree, and bit into a delicious stretch of time.
Whatever money we earned, we spent only what we needed and saved the rest. Ayoung, Yuri, and I passed a warm childhood like that.
But nearly a year after we graduated high school, a thought came to me out of nowhere.
Am I going to live like this next year, too?
And the year after that?
…Hmm. I don't know about that.
So I decided to leave the hometown I loved and move to Suwon with my childhood friends, Ayoung and Yuri.
"…Hayun."
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm going to die."
We had reached Suwon and were hauling boxes when Ayoung dropped onto the living-room floor. Her long, thick dark-brown hair spilled past her shoulders, and her violet eyes looked far more worn out than usual.
"A little more and we're done."
"You said that a minute ago, you know…?"
"Did I?"
I picked up one of the boxes still sitting on the floor, unruffled.
"…I left that one because I couldn't lift it."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. It's too heavy."
I hoisted the weighty box and carried it into the room. Behind me I heard Ayoung laugh, small and quiet.
"That's our Hayun."
"Hm?"
"Nothing. Thanks."
"Yeah."
Once the last box was put away, the long job of unpacking was finally over.
The place we would live was a small two-room apartment in Mangpo-dong, Suwon. Living room and kitchen joined together, two rooms off to the side. It wasn't spacious, but it was more than enough for three. More than anything, there was no high threshold at the entrance, and the doors and hallway were wide enough for a wheelchair to pass with room to spare. That was the part we had cared about most when we went looking, for Yuri's sake.
"Hayun."
"Yeah?"
"Could you set me on the bed for a bit?"
Yuri, seated in her wheelchair, looked up at me with sparkling eyes. Even to me, another girl, she was pretty enough to make you forget yourself.
"Come on. I'll carry you."
"Okay."
She looped her arms around my neck the way she always did. I lifted her and set her carefully on the bed.
"Thanks."
"Yeah."
But she didn't let go of my neck.
"Yuri?"
"Hehe."
She held me a moment longer, sharing her warmth, and then released me.
"I like our place."
"You do?"
"Yeah! We're really going to live together every single day now, right?"
"That's right."
"Ah, this is the best!"
Yuri beamed. Something tickled in a corner of my chest, too. We had always been together since we were small, but now we finally had a refuge that belonged to just the three of us.
"Hayun, look at this."
Ayoung, sorting a box of clothes in the living room, called me over.
"Yeah?"
"These are Yuri's, right?"
"I think so."
"Yuri, should I hang this dress in the closet?"
"Yeah!"
What Ayoung pulled out was a white dress. The very one Yuri had worn in the grass at Jeongdongjin.
"It's pretty."
"Right?"
At my words Yuri smiled that bashful smile, held the dress up against herself, then glanced down at her chest and tilted her head.
"It's from last year, though. It might be a little small now."
"Why?"
"It pinches here."
"Ah."
Yuri was small in frame but on the larger side in the chest, so picking out clothes often gave her trouble. She folded the corners of her eyes, playful.
"Hehe. Ayoung, jealous?"
"There she goes again."
Ayoung let out a short laugh.
"I like that clothes are easy for me to pick, actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Ayoung was shorter than Yuri, and smaller in the chest as well. She seemed to mind it now and then. She just never talked about it for long.
"Hayun."
"Yeah?"
"Isn't it a pain for you, too, picking clothes?"
"Sometimes?"
"See?"
Ayoung nodded.
"Look, Yuri. It's not just you."
"Hmph."
Yuri put on a deliberately sulky face, then brightened into a smile almost at once.
"I still like my body, though."
"All right, all right."
Ayoung laughed and stroked Yuri's silver-white hair with real affection, and Yuri narrowed her eyes and accepted the touch. Watching the two of them get along so well, the move finally felt real.
We would go on living like this, the three of us…
Finding the apartment had taken a great deal of help from Yuri's father. A deposit of twenty million won, and rent of eight hundred thousand a month once maintenance fees were included. He paid the entire deposit, and the lease was put in Yuri's name. He offered to cover the rent as well, but Ayoung and I dug in and insisted on paying our share. In the end we settled it so that Yuri's portion was four hundred thousand won, and Ayoung and I would each put in two hundred thousand.
He had cherished us like daughters since we were little, and he said he was grateful enough just to have someone looking after Yuri—but we wanted to stand on our own. Ayoung and I each decided to leave ten million won of our savings in Yuri's keeping. It was money we would get back once the lease ended. All right. Now we really had to find work.
"Let's go look for part-time jobs."
"How about a convenience store?"
Ayoung looked up at my words and offered the idea.
"Sounds pretty good."
Thinking of Yuri, who would be left home alone, we decided to stagger our shifts. Ayoung in the morning, me in the afternoon. If we could both have the weekends off, all the better.
"Can't I come too? I want to see the neighborhood."
Yuri's eyes sparkled as she asked, and we happily headed out together. Light short-sleeved shirts and shorts. As we walked, Ayoung glanced down at my arm.
"Hayun, your arms are really tan."
"Yeah."
"Mine too, though."
She held her arm out beside mine. Years of farm work had burned both of us a healthy brown.
"Guess we really did work hard."
"Yeah."
"Even under my clothes, though. Isn't that weird?"
Ayoung lifted the hem of her shirt a little and showed me her stomach. A faint tan line remained where the sun had worked its way through thin fabric.
"Oh."
"We won't be farming in Suwon. Think some of it might fade?"
"Maybe?"
"Hehe. I hope so."
Unlike Jeongdongjin, Suwon was full of cars, the buildings packed tight. We walked along looking this way and that until a notice on a convenience store's glass door caught my eye: Part-Time Help Wanted. Weekday afternoons. Exactly the hours I had been looking for.
"I'll go ask."
"Okay. Go on."
I stepped inside, greeted them, and sat through a short interview. When I said I had done plenty of farm work and was confident with anything that took strength, the store manager laughed a warm heheh and told me to come in starting tomorrow.
"They said I start tomorrow."
"…Already? Wow, that's our Hayun!"
"Hayun got a job! Congratulations!"
The moment I came back out, Ayoung and Yuri rejoiced as if it were their own news and pulled me into a tight hug.
The next day, convenience-store shifts began. The register, stocking shelves, sale discounts, parcel drop-offs—there was a mountain of things to learn, but I picked them up one by one. When I started hauling heavy cases of bottled water without breaking a sweat, the manager didn't hold back his praise, saying I was remarkably strong. The praise put me in the same good mood it had when I was little, and I worked even harder.
By the time I had settled fully into the store, Ayoung was still looking for work. Morning shifts that fit her conditions were harder to come by than we had expected. Then, on my sixth day, it happened.
"Hayun! I got a job too! They said I start tomorrow!"
Ayoung delivered the news with a wide smile. A convenience store not far from home, eight in the morning until three in the afternoon. No overlap with my hours, and weekends off—perfect.
"So both of us are working now. What a relief."
Yuri joined in, and the three of us held hands and laughed.
Back then, I truly believed I would just work a convenience-store job and live a small, ordinary life. I hadn't the faintest dream that I would one day step into an entirely new world called internet broadcasting.