A New Connection
After finals came vacation. The season when every college student transforms from just an unemployed bum into a super unemployed bum.
Naturally, I became a super unemployed bum too, starting my day by scratching my belly while writing novels.
This lifestyle of enjoying my hobby without school getting in the way.
How wonderful. I wish it could be vacation forever.
Today I planned to finish three episodes. If I had extra time, maybe four.
Everyone says this workload is a lot, but to me it's just normal.
One hour per episode, so four a day is nothing.
-Riiing!! Riiing!!
The sudden ring of my phone drew my gaze. I checked it with a flicker of hope, but that hope vanished just as quickly.
A call from Yong-ju. What's this about?
“Why?”
[Vacation, what are you up to?]
“Scratching my belly while writing a novel.”
[You don't even have a belly to scratch. Wanna come out tonight?]
“Tonight? All of a sudden?!”
[Got something to do downtown. Come out. Let's go get our tarot read.]
“What kind of errand is this.”
[Heard about a good place from someone I know. Thought I'd check it out.]
Having never experienced tarot before, rejection came first. Still, I'd always been curious. How did they manage to get everything right?
“Fine. See you tonight.”
[Great. Meet me by six-thirty.]
Two hours left.
With an appointment suddenly popping up, I'd have to settle for just two episodes today.
The downtown I hadn't visited in ages felt completely unfamiliar. Crowds were already the worst possible condition for me, and I'd shown up right in the middle of peak hours.
I was ready to cancel on the spot and head straight home.
Still, he'd come all this way because I agreed to meet downtown. Sending him back would be rude.
“You made it. Didn't get lost?”
“I took a taxi just in case.”
“I figured you'd get lost.”
“I know my own limits pretty well, so I made sure of that.”
“Super directionally challenged To-sin teacher.”
“Don't call me by my nickname out here. Su-ho alone is already too much.”
The place Yong-ju led me to was an enormous cafe.
Tarot readings in a spot like this? There were way too many people.
Seeing the two-story cafe packed wall to wall made my hands and feet tremble.
I should've just said something came up and bailed.
“Hey, you didn't mention it was a place like this.”
“I didn't know it'd be like this either. Just heard it was a good tarot spot.”
I steeled myself and stepped inside. A woman who looked like Yong-ju's acquaintance greeted us—a mature working adult radiating an atmosphere completely foreign to our age group. Had the kid really known someone like her?
“Welcome. Is this Yong-ju's friend?”
“Ah, yes. I'm Jung Jung-woo.”
“Unusual name. You seem younger than Yong-ju.”
“That... isn't much of a difference, is it?”
“What are you talking about? Your friend looks much younger.”
Thanks to the rapid weight loss after surgery, at least my appearance had improved. Dropping from 97 kg to 65 kg meant compliments on my looks followed me everywhere. At first it felt burdensome, but now it strangely felt good.
“By the way, what exactly is this place?”
“A booth the government set up to support young people. You can try all kinds of experiences.”
The stamp-card-like sheet listed everything from tarot to footsal, drawing, bead-making, and personality assessments. Prizes were surprisingly decent too—first place a laptop, second wireless earphones, third a smartwatch. Not that I'd win anything.
I'd only planned to get a quick tarot reading, but with so many options, I might as well enjoy a few.
Still, our real reason for coming was tarot, so we headed upstairs. The massive line forced us to leave our names and numbers before coming back down.
“What do you want to try first?”
“I want to go home...”
“No, why would you go home?”
“There are too many people. This is way too much for a hikikomori asocial shut-in like me.”
“Honestly, you're the only person I've met who's even more of a homebody than I am.”
“What can I do? I was born this way.”
Deep down I really wanted to leave, but the tarot reading was too tempting. Maybe I could treat the crowds as a trial I had to endure.
“Then... drawing.”
“Two guys doing that would look weird.”
“If you hate that idea, want to make beads instead?”
“No, let's just go draw.”
He'd acted like he knew what he was doing, but in the end he'd been dragged along too.
We headed to the drawing booth, listened to the brief explanation, and chose to color a small sketch rather than tackle a full drawing book. No way I could finish one of the big pictures.
“Every time I do stuff like this, I always wonder—how the hell did I win gold medals twice in art contests when I was a kid?”
“Probably because your imagination was still rich back then.”
“Now it's just gone rotten.”
“The Jung-woo who's tasted society's bitterness can never go back to the old Jung-woo.”
“Hey, aren't you freeloading a bit too much with that line? Even sashimi isn't eaten that raw.”
“That's exactly why I hate sashimi.”
Even something as simple as coloring felt like it crossed a line when the sketch showed rain pouring from storm clouds.
Once we finished, the organizer asked if we wanted to take the picture or leave it. I left it without a second thought. If they'd offered to wrap it in plastic, maybe. But they didn't, so why bother carrying it around?
“Want to try footsal? Looks like you just have to kick the ball straight into the goal right in front of you.”
“Yeah. Let's do that.”
At the footsal booth, the organizer was busy explaining his club. I let it all go in one ear and out the other.
“You want to kick first?”
“No, you go.”
“I'm seriously three-legged when it comes to this.”
I hadn't kicked a ball since high school, so I felt oddly tense. Kicking with everything I had seemed more fun than going easy, so I poured all my strength into my foot and sent the ball flying...
...straight past the side of the goal.
How does a person's foot even work if they can't score from right in front of the net?
“Your turn.”
I'd expected him to blast it with full power too, but Yong-ju simply tapped the ball once and sent it neatly into the goal with zero enthusiasm.
“Ugh, you unfun bastard.”
“You just have to kick it.”
“Still, if you're going to kick, at least do it properly.”
We'd tried everything except tarot, so we sat at a table and waited for our turn.
“You still talk to that girl often?”
“Yeah. Pretty often. I'm keeping it steady.”
“Now that it's vacation, you'll probably meet up a lot.”
“Well... if our schedules match.”
“First time I've seen you stay in touch with someone this long.”
“Do I really live without contacting people that much?”
“Enough that I sometimes wonder if you're dead. Even when I message first, you never reply.”
“I should probably start contacting people more.”
“Ah, wait—is that why? Coming here for tarot today too...”
“Shut it. If you don't, I'll rip that mouth of yours wide open.”
Whenever girls came up, he always pushed way too hard. That was exactly why I never wanted to bring it up.
While we chatted, our names were finally called. We headed upstairs.
The moment we sat at the round table, the reader spread the cards like a fan.
Oh. Just like the videos on YouTube.
“Pick any two cards here, then three, then two more.”
“You're not even thinking about it?”
“That's how you're supposed to do it—just go with whatever feels right.”
She laid out the cards I'd drawn in three rows: top, middle, bottom.
“The top row is the past, the middle is the present, and the bottom is the future.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Just remember the past and future aren't separated by a huge time gap.”
“Got it.”
“Hmm, how does it look? Everything seems pretty good, right?”
“Those two at the very bottom don't look good.”
“Most people assume anything related to death is bad. I'll explain now.”
Finally getting into the real reading, I found myself leaning in without realizing it. Everyone always said tarot was just for fun, but sitting here, I couldn't treat it lightly.
“You have quite a strong will. And once you focus on something, you become like a racehorse—completely ignoring everything else around you.”
“Huh?! Yes, that's right. That's exactly my personality. Incredible.”
“The obstacle card in your past row indicates stubbornness.”
“I picked them randomly, but it fits.”
She focused on the two future cards. Naturally, the future interested me most, so I leaned even closer.
“And in the future, you'll form a new connection. When that happens, it will be an excellent time to begin something new.”
“A new connection?”
“Yes. A new connection.”
If it was a new connection...
Don't tell me...