Leftover Streets
“You said we’d meet often, but isn’t it way too hard to even catch a glimpse of your face?”
Mina grumbled at Seok-jun as she walked along the street behind him.
“I’ve been busy with work.”
“Pfft, even so, three whole weeks? Three weeks!”
If he hadn’t called or messaged her even once during that time, she might have started wondering if he had lost interest. After all, he was the kind of man who, the moment he was out of sight, made you suspect he was probably racing his motorcycle across some distant wasteland.
“By the way, Miss Mina, why on earth are you carrying so many things?”
He clearly had no intention of explaining what he’d been up to. Instead, he glanced at the gift sets she was half-burdened with and smoothly changed the subject. Even though Mina was dying to know what could possibly keep him so tight-lipped, she knew the nature of his work left him no choice. She reluctantly played along.
“My coworkers gave them to me.”
“Even then, isn’t this a bit excessive?”
The way he stared at the mountain of gifts with a weary expression made Mina smile bitterly.
“This is the first time I’ve ever received this many, too.”
“Do you possess some kind of charm that bewitches people?”
“My magic is production-type… Wait, no! I’m not some nine-tailed fox or anything!”
Mina had briefly wondered why he would say something like that after having seen her magic once, but she quickly realized he was teasing her and shouted in protest.
“They just felt sorry for me, that’s all.”
After all, if she hadn’t taken over most of the paperwork, their salaries might not have come out on time. The thought that he might have misunderstood her made her sulk.
“More importantly, what’s that supposed to mean? Did you really think of me that way?”
When Mina grumbled, Seok-jun let out a small chuckle and looked at her.
“You’re quite the beauty, after all. It seemed like a reasonable possibility.”
“Ugh!”
She hadn’t expected a compliment to come flying back at her like that. It felt like something had poked her right in the chest.
“The world has changed so much, yet some things never do.”
“Tch. I suppose it’s because these are the kind of things you can keep using for a long time.”
Just as she was thinking how impossible it was to let her guard down around him, he turned his attention back to the gift sets.
“From my perspective, it feels like relatives dividing up war supplies.”
“Pfft! I guess it does feel a bit like that.”
Listening to him, it actually sounded convincing. She remembered things had always been this way, but ever since the Gate Incident, the tendency had grown even stronger. No one knew when or where a gate might suddenly appear. As a result, gift sets filled with non-perishable canned goods, dried foods, and daily necessities had become increasingly popular.
Then Mina remembered something she had wanted to ask him.
“Um, Mr. Seok-jun. Do you happen to have any free time during the holiday?”
Though it happened less often these days, many families still gathered during Lunar New Year to perform ancestral rites. It had become a sensitive topic after the Gate Incident, but since the subject had come up, she gathered her courage.
“Hmm. Could you wait a moment?”
He stopped walking and began checking his smartphone. Was he looking at his schedule? She wanted to sneak a peek at the screen, but she couldn’t. It made her realize all over again just how tall he was.
Soon Seok-jun put his phone away and spoke to her.
“I should have some time tomorrow afternoon. Would that work for you?”
“Tomorrow afternoon, you say?”
She pulled out her own phone after hearing him. Tomorrow marked the official start of the holiday. She wondered if he might be in a similar situation and nodded.
“It’s not going to be evening, right?”
When she gave him a suspicious side-eye because he hadn’t specified an exact time, the man simply shrugged.
“I’ll call you when I have a better idea of the timing.”
Seeing that he still wouldn’t give her a proper time, Mina glared at him with puffed cheeks. In response, Seok-jun held out the gift sets he was carrying back to her.
“We’ve arrived, so take these.”
“Ah.”
Only after following him did she realize they had already reached the front of her house.
He remembered.
She looked longingly at the gift sets he was offering, then a good idea struck her.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Instead of taking the gifts back, Mina clasped her hands behind her back and took a few steps backward.
“Miss Mina? What about these?”
When Seok-jun asked in confusion, she giggled.
“There are too many for me. Since you live with your colleague, I think you’ll find them useful. Please take them.”
“Still, it seems like far too much…”
“Hehe. You’re not the kind of bad person who would accept all these gifts and then stand me up, right?”
After hearing her words, he finally let out a helpless laugh and nodded.
Having firmly secured a meeting with him, Mina was able to head home with a light heart.
And so the promised day arrived.
“Hmm-hmm-hmm♪”
From the moment she woke up, Mina stood in front of the mirror checking her appearance. She noticed she still had plenty of time left. Doing her full makeup would take a while, and since she had so much free time in the morning, she decided she could squeeze in some exercise. She looked over at Pomi.
The dog was sprawled lazily across the bed where Mina had been sleeping, holding a dog treat between her short front paws and gnawing on it with gusto.
“Pomi, the weather’s nice. Want to go for a walk?”
“Sniff?”
For once, the dog actually perked her ears up at Mina’s words. Thinking they might actually go for a walk together, Mina picked up the leash—only for Pomi to bark once.
“Woof!”
It was clearly a refusal. The dog turned her head away and continued chewing on the treat, pretending not to care. With a sigh, Mina hung the leash back in its place.
“Sigh… I just don’t understand why you hate walks so much.”
It would have been nice to go together, but in truth, Mina had only managed to take Pomi on a proper walk a handful of times. Even then, the dog had only trudged along reluctantly, dragged out by Mina’s insistence. Since one of Mina’s favorite hobbies was walking, it was a shame she couldn’t bring Pomi along. Still, she had no choice but to leave the dog behind and head out for her morning stroll alone.
“As expected, no one’s around.”
Even though it was morning, the path leading to the walking trail was eerily quiet. The roads were the same—cars rarely passed by. It was Lunar New Year, after all. Most people must have gone back to their hometowns. It was a sight she saw every year, yet the usually noisy city wrapped in pale morning fog and steeped in silence never failed to stir a strange feeling inside her.
Everyone has somewhere to return to.
Walking through the streets with the strange sensation that she was the only one left in the city, she finally reached the trail. It was even quieter here. There were no cars or people passing by at all.
Gazing at the silent city beyond the embankment, Mina began walking along the trail, accompanied by the sound of the river flowing beside her.
“I really should have brought Pomi after all.”
Walking alone while feeling the cold wind wasn’t bad, but knowing she had a dog at home made the solitude feel a little disappointing. Just as she was feeling that pang of regret—
“!!!”
A young, childish voice rang out from the far end of the trail.
“A kid?”
The high soprano tone clearly belonged to a child. Though the distance was too great and the sound too scattered to tell if it was a boy or a girl, it was definitely a child. Assuming it was just some kid playing nearby, she continued her walk.
That was when she noticed something small and pitch-black racing toward her from up ahead on the path.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
“Huh? That sound…”
And soon after, the noise that followed was strangely familiar to Mina’s ears. It sounded exactly like the clicking of a dog’s claws against the trail surface—the same sound she heard during the few walks she had taken with Pomi.
She quickly identified the small black thing hurtling toward her. Long snout, body, and tail. Floppy ears that swayed wildly. And disproportionately short legs.
Mina immediately knew what it was.
“A dachshund?”
Before she had chosen Pomi, she had seriously debated between getting a Welsh corgi or a dachshund. In the end she had gone with the corgi, but seeing a dachshund like this still made her happy. As she watched it run, the dog suddenly noticed her blocking its path and skidded to a stop.
“Grrrr…”
It planted its short legs firmly and growled at her. Mina was taken aback.
“W-wait, I’m not going to hurt you?”
She hadn’t expected to be met with such wariness just from running into a dog on the trail. Most dogs she met—aside from Pomi—tended to be a bit timid, but this was the first time she had encountered one so openly aggressive.
She checked her pockets, hoping she might have some of Pomi’s treats, but of course there were none. It made sense, since Pomi hated going outside anyway. As she stood there, unsure what to do while facing off against the dachshund—
“Ah! There it is!!”
A lively child’s voice suddenly rang out from ahead. The dachshund that had been confronting her flinched violently.
And then Mina saw it.
A cannonball?!
The mist that had been gently spread across the distance suddenly parted as if struck by a bomb, and something bright red came flying straight toward them. It was moving so fast that even Mina’s eyes could barely track it. Realizing she was directly in its path, she threw herself to the side of the trail in a panic.
The dachshund also darted in the opposite direction at the same moment.
—Kwaaaaaang!
The red projectile slammed into the exact spot where the dachshund had been standing. Dirt exploded in every direction, and sharp bits of gravel stung against her skin. If this wasn’t a cannonball, what could it possibly be?
“Oh my god.”
For a second she wondered if a dungeon break had occurred while everyone was away or if an awakened person had gone on a rampage. She was still dazed when—
“Hup!”
“Eh?”
Mina watched in blank astonishment as someone rose from the spot where the red projectile had crashed.
Because what stood there was—
“Uuu! Missed again!”
A girl with vivid red hair, vigorously shaking the dirt off her clothes.
Mina was even more shocked because she had seen this girl before.
After all, that child was—
“The one who was at Mr. Seok-jun’s place?”
“Hmm?”
Perhaps she had heard Mina’s voice. The girl’s bright red eyes met hers. She tilted her head in thought for a moment, then broke into a bright smile.
“Ah! It’s the big sister Grizzly brought!”
“Y-you remember me?”
Mina was stunned to discover that the thing she had mistaken for a cannonball was actually a familiar child. But that shock only lasted a moment. She suddenly recalled that Seok-jun had called this girl part of his family.
“Where’s your guardian?”
“Guardian?”
The girl puffed out her cheeks as if the word displeased her. Then the sound of footsteps came from the direction she had flown from. Mina looked up automatically—only to feel a wave of disappointment.
“Choi Yeeun, that’s enough. Let’s go back.”
Because the person standing there wasn’t Seok-jun. It was the man in full plate armor who was supposedly his colleague.