My Childhood Friend Came Looking for Me
We were sitting on top of a small hill.
Below our feet, low rooftops huddled together in clusters, and far off, along the street where the festival was in full swing, colorful lanterns stretched out in a long, unbroken line. As if to testify to the festival below, beautiful fireworks burst across the night sky.
"Wow~! Dohyun, the fireworks are so prettyyy!"
A girl was sitting beside me. She looked to be about my age, more or less. Every time a firework bloomed, her long hair was dyed in a dozen different colors — and yet, strangely, her face alone stayed blurred, as if veiled in a thin mist, impossible to make out.
But the warmth that traveled through our touching shoulders was vivid, and with every gust of wind, a faint, sweet scent drifted over us.
After a while of watching the fireworks in silence, the girl spoke up carefully.
"Someday, we……"
"Yeah?"
"When you come back, Dohyun."
Come back? Where would I be going? The me of right now knew nothing, but the little boy inside the dream seemed to understand everything — including, above all, how important the promise they were about to make was to the two of them.
"Don't worry."
Hearing his answer, the girl reached out her hand in relief. The moment he took that small hand in his, his heart settled with an almost unnatural ease.
"Then it's a promise, okay?"
She hooked her finger firmly around his pinky, as if she would never let go.
"You can never, ever forget that promise."
"Yeah. I promise."
At that moment, countless fireworks filled the night sky from edge to edge. A light so bright it stung the eyes came pouring down over the girl's face.
"Ah…"
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling. Faint morning sunlight was filtering in through the gap in the window. I lay there in a daze for a while, then slowly lifted my right hand.
It was just a dream.
Of course, there was nothing left in my hand. And yet, in my pinky finger, I could still feel the sensation of a promise made with someone — crisp and clear. I slowly clenched the hand that seemed to hold a lingering trace of warmth.
Who was that girl in the dream?
Could it be something that happened in this village when I was little?
No way. If I'd made a promise that important, there's no chance I'd have forgotten it.
More than anything, this was the first time I'd ever dreamed something like this. It was strange, too, that a memory which had never once surfaced should suddenly appear as a dream the very moment I returned to this village.
Maybe it was because I'd suddenly gained a fiancée yesterday. Nothing had been set in stone yet, but among the elders, the air already said everything had been decided. Even Baek Seol-ah had been talked around by her grandfather.
Did I come down to this countryside for nothing?
"I'm losing my mind."
Sleep refused to come back. In the end, I threw off the covers and got up. A light walk to clear my head seemed like the right idea.
When I stepped outside, the cold air brushed against my face. Unlike the city, there were no car engines, no murmur of crowds. Only the sound of the wind stirring dry tree branches stood out, sharp and clear.
I had no destination in mind, so I simply let my feet carry me wherever they wanted. Low stone walls and old tiled-roof houses lined the road one after another. I looked around in case the hill from my dream might appear somewhere, but there was no such hill in sight.
Guess it really was just a stupid dream.
How long had I been walking? Beyond a stone wall, I caught sight of a familiar head of silver hair. It was Baek Seol-ah. She had a white jacket thrown over a comfortable set of training clothes — apparently out for her morning exercise despite the freezing weather.
Should I just walk past like I didn't see her…?
If we ran into each other now, she would definitely bring up the engagement. But the road was far too narrow to avoid her. While I was still debating how to greet her, Baek Seol-ah spotted me first.
"Lee Dohyun?"
"Morning."
"Out exercising?"
"Couldn't sleep."
"I see."
Baek Seol-ah walked up until she stood in front of me. Her hair, catching the morning sun, shone brighter than it had yesterday.
"Perfect timing, actually."
"Why?"
"I wanted to go over the contract I mentioned yesterday in more detail."
My ominous predictions were never wrong. The one silver lining was that Baek Seol-ah had no interest in me. A shield to fend off the male students who bothered her — and I, in turn, could use her as a shield as well. If it was a situation I couldn't escape anyway, then all I could do was adapt to it somehow.
"There's a pavilion over there. Shall we talk there?"
"Sure."
I followed Baek Seol-ah toward the inner part of the village. Before long, a wooden pavilion came into view, standing beside a small stream. We sat side by side with a set distance between us — just far enough that our arms would never touch, which, without my meaning to, put me at ease.
Baek Seol-ah pulled the Andromeda Fold 8 from her pocket, tapped the screen a few times, and held it out toward me.
"I jotted down a rough draft of the contract clauses yesterday."
Several lines of text were displayed on the screen.
One. We maintain a relationship as a couple at school.
Two. Neither party interferes in the other's private life without a valid reason.
Three. No physical contact that the other party does not welcome.
Four. Neither party makes unreasonable demands by exploiting the contract.
Five. If either party decides the contract can no longer continue, the relationship will be renegotiated.
Six. We tell no one that our relationship is a contract.
It was more properly organized than I'd expected. This hadn't been some impulsive decision — she must have sat up last night thinking through which conditions were needed, one by one. There was nothing particularly disadvantageous to me in it. If anything, most of the clauses existed to keep the two of us from ending up in awkward situations.
"What do you think, Dohyun?"
I couldn't exactly brush off her grandfather's request. He had done a great deal for me while I was in the hospital, after all. Above all, there was the selfish part of me that wanted to escape this curse, too. That was the biggest reason I couldn't refuse this contract outright.
"So — we pretend to be a couple at school, and engaged in front of the adults."
"Exactly. Is there anything you'd like to add?"
I looked back down at the screen. But I had to prepare for the worst. Accidents had always happened the moment I let my guard down.
"There's a clause I want to add. If anything strange happens, you drop me immediately."
"Strange how?"
"If an accident happens nearby, or anything dangerous comes up."
Baek Seol-ah studied me quietly for a moment.
"Grandfather said there was some kind of circumstance about you, Dohyun. I take it this is related to that."
"It is."
"Could you tell me about it in detail, then?"
So her grandfather hadn't told her everything. Baek Seol-ah might believe me if I explained… but I didn't particularly want to describe this curse out loud.
"Sorry. It's not a pleasant story."
I'd expected her to press, but to my surprise, she simply nodded.
"That's fine. Everyone has secrets they don't want to share."
Few people had ever accepted my silence at face value like that, so I felt a quiet sense of relief.
Baek Seol-ah added the new clause.
"Anything else?"
"Yeah."
And then, the most important condition of all.
"The moment either one of us develops real feelings for the other, we terminate this contract on the spot."
Baek Seol-ah's finger froze above the screen. It was the moment when, grown accustomed to a fake relationship, one of us began to see the other as a real lover. From that point on, this contract would no longer be a shield protecting us — it would become a shackle dragging Baek Seol-ah into danger. Which meant it had to end before feelings could deepen.
"Understood."
A faint smile spread across Baek Seol-ah's lips. Perhaps because she was usually so expressionless, even such a tiny change stood out to an unusual degree.
"But that won't happen, so there's no need to worry."
The answer came without a moment's hesitation.
Baek Seol-ah lowered her gaze to the screen once more and typed in the final clause.
Seven. If either party develops genuine feelings for the other, the contractual relationship shall be terminated immediately.
Having confirmed the sentence, Baek Seol-ah nodded with what looked like satisfaction.
"I think that'll do."
"Agreed."
Baek Seol-ah set down her smartphone and held her hand out to me.
"Then — looking forward to working with you."
I stared down at her outstretched hand. Just holding a girl's hand, and my instincts made me scan the area before anything else. Whether anything might fall from above the pavilion, whether a car or bicycle was passing by, whether the stones along the stream might crumble. I knew I was being absurdly oversensitive — but everything I'd lived through had made me this way. Only after confirming the surroundings were safe did I take her hand.
"Likewise."
Of course, nothing happened. Still, I couldn't quite let the tension go completely.
"So that's everything, right?"
"No."
"What's left?"
"If you have time, come to a café with me."
For a second, I thought I'd misheard. I'd spent my whole life steering clear of anything resembling romance, but even I knew what it usually meant when a boy and a girl went to a café alone together. I knew there was nothing of that sort between us, of course. It still made me uneasy.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know anything about each other."
"We've settled everything the contract needs."
"We'll be attending the same school while pretending to be a couple. If we don't know each other's favorite foods, hobbies, or birthdays, we'll be found out right away."
It was a fair point, but did we really have to go to a café for it?
"Can't you just ask me whatever you need to know right here?"
"I'm cold."
That was Baek Seol-ah's short reply. So that was why she'd kept her hands in her pockets this whole time. Looking closer, I noticed the tip of her nose was a little red, too. I had no choice but to nod.
"Think of this as practice for dating, too."
She said it with a perfectly straight face, and somehow hearing it made me feel strange.
"Fine, let's go."
We left the pavilion and headed toward the center of the village. I'd assumed there'd be no such thing as a café out in the countryside, but once we passed the village hall, a street of small shops appeared. Nestled among the old buildings stood a café with a white outer wall, warm light glowing through its floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Here we are."
"You come here often?"
"Sometimes. I like it because it's quiet and not crowded."
So Baek Seol-ah disliked crowded places. Somehow, that taste suited her perfectly. Somewhere quiet, with no need to get entangled with other people. Come to think of it, I liked those kinds of places too.
Baek Seol-ah opened the door first. Chime. The little bell hanging on the door rang out a clear note. Along with the warm air, a sweet scent washed over us.
Inside, about six wooden tables were arranged across the room, and small potted plants lined the window. It was still early, so there wasn't a single customer.
"Welcome in!"
A bright voice called out from behind the counter. A girl appeared a moment later — a girl with light pink hair reaching down past her shoulders, gathered up into a single ponytail. She looked about our age, yet she wore an apron and was tidying the counter with practiced ease.
"Hi, Seol-ah. Hot cocoa again today?"
The girl recognized Baek Seol-ah.
"Hello, Bom. Yes, the usual, please."
The girl called Yoon Bom let her gaze drift naturally over to me.
"And who might this be—"
Our eyes met.
The moment they did, Yoon Bom's bright, smiling face hardened in place. At first I thought she was simply startled to see Baek Seol-ah arrive with a boy she didn't know.
But Yoon Bom wasn't looking at Baek Seol-ah at all. She was staring only at me — eyes wide open, as if she'd discovered someone who could not possibly be standing there.
"……Dohyun?"
This time, it was me who froze. She was unquestionably a girl I was meeting for the first time. And yet Yoon Bom had called my name — exactly, without a moment's doubt.
"You know me?"
Yoon Bom looked at me with a face that seemed ready to burst into tears at any second.
"Is it really…… is it really you, Lee Dohyun?"
This illustration was created using AI.