Finding the Ring
Finding the Ring
"Hmm... so that's the next thing."
I'd taken care of my family to some extent, so now it was time to look after A-ra's.
Though when I say "look after," her parents had already passed away, and she didn't know her maternal or paternal relatives either.
She'd said they hadn't been on good terms since she was little, so she'd barely ever seen them.
"So what I could do was..."
Hadn't we just heard about the rings again when we visited the columbarium where A-ra's parents rested?
If they weren't found at home and weren't found at the scene,
where on earth could they have gone?
A-ra had said she'd hired people to search most of the house. And yet they still hadn't been found... Had her parents simply not worn the rings in the first place, nor left them at home?
Now that the thought had occurred to me, I decided to go down to where A-ra used to live and search for them.
The hometown where A-ra lived before debuting as an idol: Gimhae.
"But driving there was a bit..."
I'd never driven on the expressway before, so fear followed the thought.
Even now, driving a car required all my concentration just to drive safely,
and I had no confidence that I could maintain that level of focus for hours on end.
"I'd take the KTX and then a bus."
A-ra would worry, but if I brought Jeong Hwan-yi or Lee Min-ho along, she'd probably feel reassured.
I was scared to go alone, after all.
***
"They said it was the countryside..."
"What? Gimhae is countryside to you?"
"In Gyeongnam, isn't it the top place apart from Changwon?"
Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho patted me on the back, saying I was talking nonsense again.
I'd assumed it would be some rural village since they called it the countryside, but it didn't feel that way at all.
The bus terminal was, for some reason, connected to the Shinsegae Department Store, and there was even a light rail, making round trips to Busan incredibly convenient.
If a place like this was countryside, then what exactly was the countryside I'd been imagining?
"Should we grab something to eat first?"
"But there doesn't really seem to be anywhere to eat around here."
A river, neither too big nor too small, lay ahead, and while there was a Shinsegae Department Store and an E-mart, it wasn't a downtown district.
But it wasn't a place without traffic either.
That aside.
Conveniently, the Shinsegae Department Store and E-mart were right next to each other.
E-mart had a food court, so it was perfect for grabbing a quick meal.
"Food court? I heard the dwitgogi in Gimhae is supposed to be delicious."
"We'd have to know where the restaurants are first."
"Then I'll look them up, so wait a sec."
He grabbed my arm as if chiding me, saying I moved too fast.
Truthfully, I had no interest whatsoever in what we ate after coming all the way to Gimhae.
I just wanted to find the rings quickly and make A-ra happy.
"Looks like there's nothing around here."
"Yeah? That's a shame."
"Then let's take care of business first and then go eat."
"Hmm... well, sure, I'm not that hungry anyway."
"We can just order jjajangmyeon later."
In the span of just ten seconds, the two of them had changed the entire menu.
I couldn't tell anymore whether they were incredibly understanding or just capricious.
They were probably just being considerate of me.
"What was the address of your in-laws' place again?"
"Uh... Bunseong-ro..."
Jeong Hwan-yi, who'd asked me for the address, quickly called a taxi.
*
What greeted us upon arriving at the address was a large house.
When A-ra had been on the rise, she'd poured all her money into buying her parents a house first.
You couldn't ask for a more devoted daughter.
I'd heard she'd been a cute daughter who doted on her parents endlessly.
Sigh...
It only made A-ra's heart ache more.
"This is the place, right?"
I nodded at Jeong Hwan-yi's question.
The building looked exactly like the one A-ra had shown me.
"Let's see... the passcode is..."
A-ra had said it was the first six digits of her resident registration number.
I could feel how the passcode itself was filled with her parents' love for their daughter.
But this was dangerous.
Shouldn't it be changed now, since no one was living here anymore?
"What're you doing? Hurry up and go in."
"Ah... yeah, let's go in..."
"What's with you? You've been acting off for a while now."
Lee Min-ho placed his hand on my forehead, asking if I felt sick.
Since my head wasn't warm, it was just lukewarm.
"No fever."
"That's not it... Sigh, what would you two know. You're not even married."
"What, are you bragging about being a winner?"
Did they have any idea what it felt like to walk into the home of in-laws who'd already passed away?
I sighed with those thoughts and opened the door.
The inside was spotless, since a cleaning service had been called in regularly.
Even the small yard was well-maintained, with the plants neatly trimmed—ready to move into at any moment.
"It's so clean..."
"How long did she say A-ra's parents lived here?"
"About a year?"
A-ra had started gaining traction when she was seventeen, so it would have been right around then.
The gap between when she was discovered crying on the stairs and when she began to rise was about two years...
After opening the front door and entering, we split up to search for the rings.
I took the master bedroom, storage room, bathroom, and small parking area.
"If we find the rings, jjajangmyeon is on you, Seong-hwan."
"I'll buy you hundreds of bowls, so just find them."
"Heyyy~ And tangsuyuk too, right?"
Honestly, I was even willing to buy them an apartment.
If I could just see A-ra happy, that much money wouldn't be a waste at all.
After that, I decided to search the master bedroom first.
Seeing the master bedroom so neatly arranged, as if someone had been lying there watching TV just moments ago,
I could understand to some extent why A-ra didn't want to come down here.
For A-ra, visiting the house where her parents had lived must have been far too painful and agonizing.
"Hmm... There's nothing here after all."
The people A-ra had hired must have already searched once.
There was probably no chance of finding anything in the master bedroom.
"A place where you'd take off a ring..."
Thinking about it simply,
the bedside table in the master bedroom, the bathroom sink, the kitchen counter.
These three were the most likely places.
But the question that nagged at me was why neither of them had been wearing the rings.
If one had been found, that'd be one thing, but could both really be missing?
To begin with, wedding rings normally weren't something people took off often.
They were designed with minimal ornamentation so they wouldn't get in the way of daily life, after all.
"Then it must be the master bedroom. Anyone could understand taking off a ring before bed."
So the places I wanted to search most intensively were the bedside area and the vanity in the master bedroom.
And the bathroom, just in case.
***
I searched everywhere but came out to the living room empty-handed.
And one after another, Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho came out too.
Judging by their expressions, they hadn't found them either.
Still, I asked, hoping against hope.
"Did you find them?"
"No, nothing."
"If they'd been here, the people who came in to search before us would've found them."
As expected...
I'd already known that, but I still let out a disappointed sigh.
The two of them patted my shoulders, telling me to hang in there.
"Where else in the world are there devoted children like you and A-ra?"
"Yeah! Lighten up your face."
"...Okay, thanks."
Right.
A-ra would be even sadder than I am—how could I stand here frowning like this?
At the very least, as her husband, I had to be the one to comfort A-ra.
"Then shall we go eat some jjajangmyeon?"
"Whoa! Jjajangmyeon!"
"Order two tangsuyuk—one with sauce, one on the side!"
"Two of them!?"
"One isn't enough."
And with that, they started ordering not just jjajangmyeon but also jjamppong to share, and more—
an amount the three of us could absolutely never finish.
How much time had passed?
Maybe because the restaurant was nearby, the delivery arrived in under thirty minutes.
First, I handed my card to Lee Min-ho and told him to pay.
Then, remembering that A-ra had said there were disposable side plates in the kitchen, I headed there.
"The side plates are... here."
For some reason, the side plates weren't in a drawer but inside the two-door cabinet under the sink.
This was the kind of place where things like the sink and water supply controls were kept.
"Did someone mess with this?"
There was no way it was Jeong Hwan-yi or Lee Min-ho.
When it came to manners, those two had it ingrained in their bones.
Then it must have been A-ra.
She must have come here before and put them in there.
I took out three disposable side plates and closed the door.
No... I was about to close it.
Until I saw it.
Just as I was about to close the door, something shiny caught my eye.
Thinking maybe some chopsticks or a spoon had fallen in, I opened the door and shone my phone light inside.
"Huh?"
Looking more closely, that wasn't it.
What had fallen in there was a somewhat large jewelry case.
I couldn't understand it.
Why was something like that lying at the bottom of the cabinet?
As if someone had deliberately hidden it, tucked out of sight...
It felt less like it had fallen and more like it had been stashed away.
If the light hadn't reflected off it, I never would have imagined there was anything there.
It was in a somewhat deep spot, but not so deep I couldn't reach it, so I stuck my hand in and grabbed it.
"Ughhhngh!"
It wasn't heavy, but it kept snagging on something and getting caught,
so it ended up taking some time to pull out.
Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho were already calling for me, making a racket.
Like baby birds waiting for their mother.
"You two! Come here for a second!"
I called out to them in a loud voice.
Somehow, I felt like I'd be seeing A-ra's smile when I got home.