A New Person, A New Family
"My whole body's gone stiff. Sitting in a chair that long is work in its own right."
I stepped out of the library and stretched, and Seol-hwa came to stand beside me, murmuring, "Tell me about it," as she quietly tipped her face toward the sky.
"Shall we go?" I said, and held out my hand.
Seol-hwa looked from my face to my hand and back again, then carefully laced her fingers through mine.
"Books have a way of turning you soft without you even noticing."
"I think I know what you mean," Seol-hwa said, falling into step with the thought.
"Still, you were really locked in back there."
"It just sort of happened."
I ought to do something nice for Jiwu next time, I thought, and we wandered along the roadside at an easy pace until, before I knew it, we had reached a familiar stretch of street.
"Hey—this is that place, isn't it?"
It was the same little side road where Seol-hwa and I had first crossed paths. The stone wall still wore its scatter of crude graffiti; the vending machine still flickered as if its power couldn't make up its mind. Nothing about the scene had changed.
A lot has happened since then…
It hadn't actually been that long. How to put it—we'd simply lived the time densely, that was all. After everything that had gone wrong in middle school, I had more or less given up and spent every ounce of my strength wasting the days as they came. But things were different now. I had someone precious again. I could walk home on my own two feet. I could look at each day and feel grateful for it. If I told the old me that this was how I'd end up, he wouldn't have believed a word of it. The thought was so funny I almost laughed out loud.
I glanced sideways at Seol-hwa. Without a word she sank into a crouch in the exact same spot as before.
"It's not here."
"…What isn't?"
"The cat."
Only then did it click. "Ah," I said.
"Now that you mention it."
I crouched down beside her and offered a vague sound of agreement. The day Seol-hwa had collapsed, there hadn't been time to worry about the stray—but I could still picture her looking at that abandoned cat.
"…I felt a kind of kinship with it."
"Kinship?" I echoed. Seol-hwa nodded, her voice touched with something heavy.
"In a way, I was abandoned too…"
I couldn't find anything to say. Part of me knew she wasn't wrong. To tell her no, that's not true would have been a lie—so instead of offering empty comfort, I simply rested a hand on her back and patted it in silence.
"Maybe some kind-hearted person took it in."
I looked around, but there was no sign of the cat. It had been pure black; it should have stood out. The box was gone too, so the ordinary conclusion was that someone had carried it off.
How am I supposed to cheer her up…
I was standing there with my arms folded, turning it over, when someone suddenly grabbed my arm and barked, "Hey, you!"
"…Can I help you?"
"Just come with me a second!"
There's a limit to how out of nowhere something can be.
Part of me wanted to tell him to stop being a nuisance, but with Seol-hwa there I couldn't exactly shove him off. So I had no choice but to follow the man—and the place he led us to turned out to be the base of a utility pole.
"Take a look at this!"
He pointed with a voice that could have rattled windows. A car was parked there.
"Wow. That's a pretty deep dent."
A sizable gouge had been punched into the hood of the car parked under the pole. Repairs for something like that wouldn't come cheap.
"This is not a time for admiration! That repairman over there is clearly the one who did it, and he keeps denying everything! You two can be my witnesses!"
"…Even if you call us witnesses, we didn't see a thing."
"He must have dropped a tool while he was working on the pole. What other explanation is there?"
So parking right next to a utility pole somehow made him blameless? The man struck me as thoroughly self-centered, but saying so would only make things worse, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Baseless conjecture."
The repairman, who had been silent until then, finally spoke.
"I've told you any number of times—I did no such thing. Work at height is dangerous, so I proceed with the utmost care. That you refuse to believe me is nothing short of lamentable."
"And I've told you any number of times! Who else around here could possibly have caused it?!"
It was starting to look like fists might fly. I was wondering whether I ought to step in when the repairman let out a long sigh.
"Very well. If it's the repair costs you want, I shall pay them."
"…Th-that's more like it. Finally, someone who can talk sense."
"However!"
"…However?"
"Not a single word I have spoken was a lie. I would ask that you reflect on this again later… For people to live without trusting one another is a deeply sorrowful thing. To be unable to trust others is to be unable to feel their love! It is to be steeped in loneliness!"
"…Excuse me?"
The car owner and I both went blank at the same time—but the repairman pressed on without the slightest concern.
"In this harsh reality of ours, being alone is a painful thing. People are strong because they are together—strong because they give and receive affection! What of you, sir? Is there someone who makes you feel that you matter? Or are you grinding through a life steeped in loneliness?"
"Ah—n-no…"
"That is well, then. To have someone with whom you can share your heart is a precious thing. Live in gratitude for it."
I could only stare, dumbfounded, as the two of them slid into something resembling a third-rate comedy routine—until Seol-hwa, who had been quietly studying the dent the whole time, spoke up.
"Um… isn't that a cat print?"
"What?"
At her words I looked closer, and sure enough, something like a paw print sat right in the middle of the gouge. A moment later a soft meow drifted up from under the car, turning suspicion into certainty.
Three pairs of cold eyes swung toward the car owner. His gaze darted around with nowhere to land, and he blurted, "S-sorry about that!" before scrambling into the car and fleeing the scene.
"A man who departs like the wind."
"There's a limit to how inconsiderate a person can be."
I muttered it in a state of pure disbelief, and the repairman chimed in with a firm, "Agreed."
"This is the same one from before," Seol-hwa said. At some point she had scooped the culprit of the whole affair into her arms.
"You know, between this and the café—you're really good with animals, aren't you?"
"I-is that so?"
"Most strays bolt long before anyone gets a chance to hold them."
They were the sort that took off the second you so much as reached for them. Watching one nestle into her arms like this was absurd in an entirely different way from a moment ago.
"I am in your debt. Thank you, young lady."
"I-I'm Yun Seol-hwa."
"Hmm. A splendid name, well suited to a beautiful girl who is quite literally a flower of snow."
"Wh-what…?!"
Seol-hwa's face went scarlet so fast I half expected white steam to come whistling out of her head like a locomotive. Surely that was just my imagination.
"And you as well—forgive me for dragging you into this sudden commotion."
"You've got nothing to apologize for. The one who ran off is the one at fault."
"Well. Thanks to you both, I am in your debt. If the chance arises, I shall repay—"
He broke off mid-sentence, checked his wristwatch, and sighed. "Ah."
"Since I am already indebted—might I impose one more favor? Could you assist me with the work? I will of course compensate you for your trouble… That little incident has put me rather behind schedule."
It was supposed to be our date, but walking away now would have left a bad taste in my mouth.
"…Is that all right with you?"
I asked for her opinion. Seol-hwa stroked the cat she had set down on the ground and answered, "I'll play with this one for a bit, so it's fine."
The "work" itself wasn't much. He couldn't very well let a civilian handle the equipment, he said, so all I had to do was brace the streetlight while he made the repairs. We must have been at it for about two hours; by the time we finished, the sky had turned the color of sunset.
"…Are you sure it's all right to take this much?"
The sum he handed over as a day's wage was more than you'd earn from a full day of part-time work. I asked just to be sure he hadn't miscounted, but he only nodded and told me it was fine.
"If you two hadn't helped, I would have lost twice that in repair costs anyway. Think of it as a token of thanks upon a token of thanks, and accept it."
"It feels like you did the harder work, though…"
All I'd done was hold the light steady from below and look up at him. Spending that long on a job high off the ground had to be exhausting. But he didn't show a trace of strain. "It's the job," he said, and simply nodded.
"A person must act—but for what purpose? To become a better self than yesterday. To be of use to the ones they love! Something of this level is nothing at all, so do not worry yourself."
The way he delivered those speech-like lines without a shred of embarrassment made it clear he really was fine. The words themselves were a little cringeworthy, but I understood the meaning behind them well enough. Someday, if Seol-hwa and I came to live together in the truest sense—what would I be doing then? What would I be able to do? The image of myself grown up and making a living simply wouldn't form in my head, and I sighed inwardly. To a novice who had only just started shuffling forward, a working adult who carried his own weight looked genuinely impressive.
"Ah—if I don't hurry, all the time I've saved will slip away. Until next time, then… Oh, and this is my card. Do take it, if you would."
The business card he pressed into my hand read Yongseong Electric — Han Yunseong.
I feel like I've heard that somewhere…
I was still turning the name over when Yunseong muttered something about being busy with work, climbed into his work truck, and drove off into the distance.
"That was… a lot."
I only let the breath out once the truck had dwindled and vanished. I was mid-stretch when I noticed the cat from earlier rubbing its cheek against Seol-hwa's ankles.
"This one is seriously weird."
I'd never seen a stray take to people like this. Thinking I might try petting it myself, I reached out—and was rewarded with a thick yowl and a set of claws across the back of my hand.
"Let's just dump it."
"P-please bear with it…"
Was it that animals hated me, or that they adored Seol-hwa? Either way, the feeling it left was pretty bitter.
"Before, when it was wandering the roadside in the rain, I at least put a box over it… Maybe that's why?"
"Who knows…"
Even while we talked, the little thing was purring against Seol-hwa for all it was worth, pouring out affection. And Seol-hwa, unable to walk away from a creature like that, just kept stroking its head in silence.
"…Want to take it home?"
"Huh…?"
The suggestion clearly hadn't crossed her mind at all. She froze with her eyes gone round.
"Well, you two seem to like each other plenty… Unlike me."
"Y-you don't have to just because of me…"
"Oh, is that so? Then get up. It's getting late—time to head home."
I said it flatly, and Seol-hwa hemmed and hawed, looking back and forth between me and the cat, before finally dropping her head and opening her mouth.
"…Can we keep it?"
"It'd be nicer if you were honest from the start."
Still, better late than never. I let out a long breath and ruffled her hair, and that familiar soft, beaming look of hers came into view.
"Come to think of it—what should we name it?"
"Hmm… What about Sia?"
"…That's the character from the book you were reading, isn't it?"
"H-how did you know?!"
"How else? You fell asleep in the living room with it open once. I glanced at it when I carried you to bed."
It had been one of the books Eun-ha lent her, if I remembered right—pretty classic shoujo-manga fare. Seol-hwa flailed as if she'd been caught with contraband, so I flicked her lightly on the forehead to settle her down.
"Take good care of it. I don't think I'm cut out for the job."
The gap in affection levels felt about as wide as the distance from the sky to the earth's mantle. It would fawn all over Seol-hwa, then put its claws up the second I came near.
"I'll treasure her. Looking forward to more days with you, Sia."
…Well. I already seemed to have a puppy of my own to raise, so it didn't really matter.
I swallowed the thought and watched, quietly content, as Seol-hwa cradled Sia in her arms and stroked her with the greatest care.