Oinoi and the Little Stationery Store #4
“Hello? Mr. Kim, it's me—Byeolnam. The moving company owner! Remember when you moved to Banpo? I hauled all your stuff for you, unpacked every single box. You remember, right? Huh! Yes, that's right!”
Dad was working the phones, calling everyone he could think of—from people who had long since left the neighborhood to those who still lived there.
Watching him, my older sister Seona spoke up.
“I guess he really is planning to gather everyone. Dad's always had that kind of drive. But do you actually think it's possible? Finding Mom, I mean…”
Seona's thoughts drifted to their mother. She remembered how hard things had been after Mom vanished. Jina especially had borne the brunt of it, stepping up to fill the empty seat at the stove and the laundry line—so it must have weighed on her all the more.
But Jina just watched the back of Dad's head and let out a worried sigh.
Dad becomes a completely different person whenever Mom comes up.
Jina knew better than anyone how hard he had tried to find her, and how many times he'd been crushed by disappointment. She'd thought he had finally made his peace with it all as the years went by—but apparently the man who showed up today had rekindled a flame in her father's heart.
“Jina, you should make some calls too. If things go well, we might actually find Mom.”
“……”
While Seona tapped away at her phone, Jina's response was lukewarm at best. But Seona understood exactly why her sister was being that way. She just didn't say it out loud.
She's too diligent for her own good. Too earnest, for my little sister.
After the accident that day, Jina had become a girl who lost her dreams in every sense of the word. Her exterior was still colorful and loud, but underneath it all, Seona suspected, everything had faded to gray.
That truth made Seona terribly sorry—and at the same time, she couldn't quite accept it.
If this search for Mom actually succeeds, everything will go back to the way it was. And this time it feels real. This time for sure. My sickness is cured too, isn't it? I ate that golden apple thing.
Seona's eyes traveled over the talismans and crucifixes stuck to every wall of the house, and the sacred stones from Jiri Mountain that supposedly worked miracles. The end result of years of money poured into every possible avenue in the search for their mother.
“Look at all these talismans. Thinking about it now, it was nothing but money, time, and effort down the drain. Maybe the disappointments got so big that nobody wants to hope anymore. Is that it?”
“……”
Jina didn't answer.
She was her own sister, but the girl was remarkably quiet. She hadn't used to be. There was a time when the two of them would hold hands and run around town together, a time when Jina would trail after her everywhere, chirping, “I wanna be just like you when I grow up.”
But everything changed after that day. Jina's temper grew sharp, and her warmth froze over.
It's anger, isn't it.
Anger at the world? Or anger at that man—the one who saved everyone else but couldn't save their mother alone? Or else—
“Jina, it's because you let go of Mom's hand, isn't it? If you'd just held on a little longer, you would've been rescued with her. You're still bitter about that, aren't you?”
Whoosh—
Instead of answering Seona's sharpened question, Jina simply walked into her room.
Click—
“Hey! You little brat, no answer and then slamming the door in my face—you haven't changed a bit, then or now! Hey!”
Bang, bang—
Against the sound of her sister hammering on the door, Jina pulled a pair of headphones over her head. Only after deafening noise shook her skull loose did her mind settle a little.
“I miss Mom too.”
The truth was, no one longed to see their mother more than Jina did. She'd only been eleven years old when Mom disappeared.
But Jina also understood people's emotions better than anyone. If this attempt failed too—no, if it failed this time, of all times—her father would fold up every last shred of hope and sink into a despair deeper than any before it.
Her sister would too.
And so would I.
She remembered an old joke from back when Seona had a boyfriend. A man had won a twenty-million-won lottery ticket, then lost it by mistake. He turned the whole city upside down searching for it—except for one pocket he never checked: the inside breast pocket of his jacket.
Because if it's not in there either, I figured I'd actually go insane! Pretty funny, right?
It hadn't been funny at all. But that was exactly how Jina felt right now. If even Ha Ildo failed?
“……”
Jina stared down at her phone. Her flashy yellow hair reflected back at her from the black screen.
If Mom could see me now, what would she say? She used to lose her mind whenever Seona hung out with those street punks.
Jina wanted to see her mother too. So she opened her phone and started reaching out to friends from a lifetime ago.
“Hey, Yeon-a? It's Jina.”
Time to try the inside pocket—
She had finally made up her mind.
“This Oinoi thinks it would be wonderful if Kore-to-be Jina could meet her mother again…! This Oinoi understands the sorrow of losing a mother very well, that she does…!”
Friday, with the weekend nearly upon us. Oinoi had grown a little glum thinking about the appointment we had in front of the Alpha Stationery Store tomorrow.
“Oinoi, you lost your mom too?”
Oinoi was a fairy nymph. I'd always assumed nymphs were born from nature itself, but apparently that wasn't quite the whole story.
“This Oinoi's mother was none other than Oinoi's teacher, that she was…! But at some point, this Oinoi's mother could no longer be seen at all, that she couldn't…!”
What would it feel like, to be separated from your mother? Both my parents were still alive, but I imagined that if Mom or Dad were suddenly lost in some accident, it would hurt beyond words.
Then Oinoi added, quietly:
“This Oinoi worries—what if her teacher returns from a long journey and goes searching for Oinoi…! But Oinoi is here in this faraway land, where she cannot be found, that she cannot…!”
I see. So that was weighing on her too. What if the teacher who had slipped away to some distant place came back looking for her, only to find that Oinoi had fallen through a strange rift and left her homeland behind?
It was a sad thought from every angle.
“I'll look into ways for you to get back home, too. I promise.”
“Truly, master of the house…! What a comfort, that it is…! But this Oinoi does not necessarily need to return to her homeland, that she does not…! For back home, there are no water purifiers or showers, that there are not…!”
The nymph who had looked so downcast a moment ago snapped right back to her senses. Apparently, a shower that sprayed water like magic and a machine that filtered drinking water beat a beloved homeland. Honestly, fair enough—once you've tasted the comforts of civilization, there's no going back.
Anyway.
My wish to find the moving company's wife was genuine. The only survivor I had ever failed to save. Looked at one way, it was the one stain on my record.
Even though she never said a word… has Jina been quietly resenting me this whole time?
Why couldn't you save our mom?—I couldn't help wondering if that was what Jina really thought of me. Maybe the moving company's owner had been biting back the same accusation. I'd seen plenty of grieving families, drowning in a sorrow they couldn't process, firing arrows of blame at whoever happened to be standing nearby.
“If only I'd been stronger back then.”
Being a hunter meant confronting your own helplessness again and again. And I, of all people, was a man who'd spent years rotting at D-Rank, soaked in defeat and powerlessness. Was there any awakener alive who had craved strength more desperately than I did?
With that thought, I went to sleep—looking forward to tomorrow.
And when morning came, a vehicle pulled up in front of the yard and blasted its horn. Honk, honk—
An old truck.
“Get ready and come on out. I'll wait for you inside.”
“Keong-keong-i, let's go. Ang-ang-i, you come too.”
━Woof-woof…!
━Zzji…!
Maybe because they'd both slept soundly through the night, Ang-ang-i and Keong-keong-i were in excellent condition. If the rift opened successfully, there could be a fight waiting on the other side. I'd packed my Beam Saber carefully, too.
Vroom—
At last, the old truck rattled to life and pulled away.
“This Oinoi finds riding in the back of this thing called a truck to be immensely pleasant, that she does…! This Oinoi shall recite a poem, that she shall…!”
Seated in the truck bed, Oinoi began her recitation.
“I am called a nymph, that I am…! A fairy without wings, that I am…. I dream of flying through the sky, that I do…. Like a proper nymph, I feel the faintest flicker of envy toward my winged friends, that I do….”
What a bizarre poem. And apparently, Oinoi had secretly always wanted to fly.
“But Oinoi has a truck in place of wings, that she does…! No other nymph in all the world could possibly claim to have ridden in a truck, that no one could…!”
So she was saying, anyway.
Puff, puff—
Then, partway there, the truck gave out.
“Great. It just up and died.”
Jina kicked at the tire—thump, thump—while glancing at her watch again and again. The rift had opened at five-thirty in the afternoon. She was clearly anxious about whether we'd make it there in time.
I asked her, “This truck's on its last legs. Might be time to start thinking about a replacement, no? It's ancient.”
“Mom and Dad used to drive this thing on their dates. I inherited it.”
“Okay, fair—it's old, but in a vintage way. That's a point in its favor.”
And that was exactly when it happened.
Ang-ang-i, perched on my shoulder, began shaking his head vigorously from side to side.
━Zzji—.
“What's that?”
Maybe I was imagining it, but I could have sworn Ang-ang-i had just said, I can fix the automobile. I can master human emotion—.
On the off chance I wasn't wrong, I set him down beneath the car. He scuttled underneath it, and then came a metallic clatter-clatter—the sound of tiny screws being tightened.
━Zzji!
“I think he wants you to try starting it?”
I brushed the black dust off Ang-ang-i's little body as I said it. Jina turned the key, and the engine roared back to life—vroom!
An astonishing thing, truly.
“Ang-ang-i, is there anything you can't do?”
A honey ant that repairs cars. Lately I'd caught him watching car MeTube channels on my smartphone and chalked it up to random curiosity—apparently I was very, very wrong.
━Zzji…!
Vroom—
The truck got moving again at last, and Jina's whole face lit up.
“The engine sounds way better. I could drive this thing for another five years!”
Even I had never seen that scowling delinquent girl look so delighted. This truck really must have meant the world to her. So I decided to be honest.
“Sorry for calling it a junker.”
“Forget it. It's a fact that it's old.”
“And… I'm sorry I couldn't save your mother back then. Your family lived that day over and over, every single day—and I just went and forgot about it.”
“……”
Jina's mouth fell open slightly, as if she were taken aback. Then she turned her head toward the highway window and said, quietly:
“No… it wasn't your fault.”
And so, before we knew it, we arrived in front of the Alpha Stationery Store. Both Jina and I froze at the sight—because there were crowds of people gathered out front.
The people of the neighborhood, from a long, long time ago.
Honestly, I'd only half believed anyone would actually show up.
Before long, the stationery store owner stepped outside and called out to us.
“We're going to find the missus, right? Everyone here loved the moving company lady. Nobody in the neighborhood didn't know her. Everyone's here except old Mr. Seo, who passed away last year.”
Nineteen people. Not exactly the same crowd as back then, and every face had aged and changed—but quite a few of them were still familiar to me.
Then the stationery store owner clapped his hands together.
“Alright then, let's reenact it! Where everyone was standing, how the whole thing went down! Fewer variables means we can actually tell if the same result comes out, so everybody get in your old spots!”
At the owner's urging, the neighbors began recreating the street of a long time ago. The owner hauled out a worn mini 4WD racing track—“There used to be a racetrack right here on this street”—and even a 360-degree loop course, which was a magnificent thing to behold. He also dragged out an old arcade machine and set it on the pavement.
It was as if the whole street had rolled back ten years in an instant.
“This Oinoi does not know what these things are, but they are immensely splendid, that they are…!”
As Oinoi showed great interest in the mini car track and the arcade machine—
Seona held out her hand to her sister.
“We should hold hands too. We were walking hand in hand that day, weren't we?”