The Wish We Made Together
It was the tail end of winter. After graduation, my world seemed to grind to a halt once more. Dozens of resumes vanished into trash bins without ever being read, and I kept tasting bitter defeat in the coding tests I’d stayed up all night preparing for. But there was one clear difference from before. Every time I found myself floundering, sunk up to my neck in the swamp of despair, a small presence was there to pull me back to the surface.
Even when I was slumped over my desk, the warm touch at my feet would make me lift my head. Black eyes gazed up at me, holding nothing but pure, unwavering trust—free of any judgment the world might offer. I’d rub my dry face, then turn back to the laptop. The single thought that I had to take responsibility for this little life was the only rope keeping me from collapsing entirely.
Before long the cold air retreated, and the faint scent of spring began to drift through the open windows.
That day, a message finally came from the guys for the first time in weeks.
It turned into a drinking party we’d managed to schedule after several weeks.
“Man, grad school is kicking my ass. You guys better not go down this road.”
“Pfft… Kim Yong-jun, you look like a walking corpse.”
“Shut up… So what have you all been up to?”
Even after so long apart, they were the same as ever, filling the table with noisy updates about their lives. The biggest surprise came from Jae-hyeok.
“I got into N Company.”
“What?!”
Everyone reacted in perfect unison.
“I barely scraped by. Seung-ho, you applied there too, right? Did you make it?”
“…I didn’t.”
Jae-hyeok’s face fell as he studied my expression. “Hey… don’t look so down. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. You earned it. That’s what matters.”
I forced a smile. Chan-uk clapped me on the shoulder. “But seriously, if you could just ditch the nerves and keep your mentality straight, you would’ve landed a big-company offer the second you graduated.”
“Anyway, Jae-hyeok, how the hell did you pass? Your coding was garbage.”
At Yong-jun’s jab, Jae-hyeok proudly pulled something from his pocket. A cheap silver cross necklace glinted under the bar lights.
“All thanks to this baby. Bought it on the street the day before my interview. Says it’s a ‘wish-granting cross.’ This thing is straight-up magic.”
“Bullshit.”
While everyone laughed at him, Jae-hyeok took out an identical necklace and pressed it into my hand.
“You take one too. Hey, nothing to lose, right? Just pray with it. I’ll pray with mine for you.”
He sounded like he was teasing, yet his eyes were oddly serious. The object was ridiculous, but his sincerity got through. I accepted it with a helpless laugh and slipped it into my pocket.
The next few days remained calm. With Yu-ri… no, with Yuri, things had grown much closer than before. We met at the café, talked about everything and nothing, and decided to drop the formal speech. She called me “oppa” with surprising ease, but I still stumbled over her name, clearing my throat several times before I could say it naturally.
That evening she was treating me to dinner as a graduation gift. The entire time I got ready, Som refused to leave my side. She was more insistent than usual. When I opened the closet to change, she shoved her little head through the gap.
“Som… I have to go…”
“Whine… Woof!”
By the time I reached the front door, she planted herself squarely in my path. Then she dashed to her toy basket, grabbed her most beloved squeaky doll, and dropped it at my feet. Those black eyes trembled, looking ready to spill over with tears. It was as if she were pleading, Play with this. Stay with me.
“…I’m sorry, Som.”
That day, the sound of the front door closing behind me felt heavier than anything else in the world.
“…Yuri!”
“Seung-ho oppa! You’re here?”
Calling her name without honorifics and speaking casually still felt awkward. I’d changed in many ways, yet this frustrating side of me remained stubbornly the same.
We wandered the streets like always, ate dinner, then ended up at the arcade. Inside the chaotic space of blaring music and flashing lights, Yuri looked completely in her element. She stood before the claw machine, feeding coins in with fierce determination.
“I’ll win that one for you, oppa!”
After several failed attempts, the claw kept dropping its prize. Seeing her disappointment, I took the joystick myself. A soft thunk.
“Huh?! You got it! No way!”
When the small dog plush fell into the chute, Yuri bounced with joy as though she’d won it herself. I handed her the doll, still a little dazed.
“Wow… oppa, you’re amazing.”
She hugged the plush tightly to her chest and stared at me with genuine admiration. That pure gaze made my face burn. It was awkward, but not at all unpleasant.
Night had fallen by the time we walked along the street lined with glowing lampposts.
“…Oppa.”
Yuri hesitated, unlike her usual bright self, then looked up at me. “You’re not an idiot… You’re not a bad person… and you’re not just playing with me, right?”
Her trembling voice was so different from normal that my own hands began to shake.
“I like getting closer to you, oppa… but I don’t want it to stay like this… I like you.”
I had no idea what to say. Or what to do. Yuri was genuinely a good person—kind, unpretentious, and pretty enough that anyone would agree.
“…Yuri, I like you too, but… I’m sorry. My situation right now…”
“What’s wrong with your situation? I like you exactly as you are!”
Yet if we started dating, I wasn’t confident I could be the kind of person she deserved. I felt like someone who had nothing and had achieved nothing.
Tears gathered in her eyes. Seeing them, I couldn’t bring myself to accept her confession so carelessly.
“Can you wait just a little longer…? Once I pass the exams… or land a job…”
My next words died in my throat, choked by the fear that I had no right to say them.
“Oppa, you’re really mean… Making me wait, getting my hopes up, only to leave me hanging… It’s so annoying… But the fact that I still like you makes it even worse.”
Sniffling, she lightly thumped my chest. “From tonight on, I’m going to pray every single night before bed… so you can’t make me wait too long. I won’t let you off the hook.”
Her half-threat, half-plea ended with a forced smile. Each step she took toward her front door seemed to echo the chaotic pounding of my heart. All the way home that night, my chest kept fluttering. Emotions I’d convinced myself would never be mine were suddenly swirling inside me.
Som greeted me with even more enthusiasm than usual when I returned home. But I couldn’t fully respond to her excited welcome. Yuri’s scent, her confession, and my own cowardly reply weighed on me like lead.
Whether she sensed my mood or not, Som followed me more persistently than ever, sticking to me like a shadow. As if she hated the foreign scent clinging to me, she licked my hands and face again and again. It felt like a desperate attempt to erase every trace of Yuri and replace it with her own.
“Som… that tickles.”
She ignored my voice, growing only more intent.
“Som, I’m going to shower. Wait for me, okay?”
Even getting into the bathroom was a struggle that day. After a long standoff with her whining and pawing at the door crack, I finally tossed her the shirt I’d worn outside. Only then could I close the door.
Under the hot spray, I closed my eyes. The day’s events crashed over me like waves above the sound of the water. Yuri’s trembling voice beneath the streetlights as she bravely confessed. It was awkward, unfamiliar, frightening… yet my heart had raced on its own. Could someone like me truly be allowed that kind of ordinary happiness?
From outside the door came the faint sound of her gnawing and scratching at the shirt. I stood there a long time, letting the water wash over me as if it could rinse away every thought.
After my shower, just before climbing into bed, my eyes landed on Jae-hyeok’s cross necklace lying on the desk. I’d laughed at it earlier, yet my hand now closed around the cold metal.
I’ll pray for you.
Jae-hyeok’s mischievous grin and Yuri’s forced smile as she promised to pray every night flashed through my mind. Everyone was supporting me in their own way. Everyone except me.
“Som… should we make a wish too? What would you wish for?”
In the end, I decided to lean on that childish superstition. I sat on the floor, pulled Som into my lap, and closed my eyes. The scene was ridiculous, but I no longer cared.
“First… I hope the tests and job search somehow work out… I hope my family and Gomo all stay healthy… and with Yuri… um, I hope things go well…”
What began as rambling nonsense gradually turned into an earnest prayer. I hugged the small, warm body breathing softly against me even tighter.
“And most of all… I hope our Som never gets sick… and that she can live a long, long life together with me, like a human.”
After whispering the final wish with all my heart, I slowly opened my eyes. I met those black eyes staring straight at me. She watched me in silence, as if she had understood every word. The sight filled me with a strange mix of embarrassment and affection, and a small laugh escaped.
“Sigh… I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.”
Muttering to myself, I drifted off, comforted by the pleasant weight in my arms.
The next morning, Som was once again tickling the back of my hand.
“Mmm…”
Frowning in my sleep, I tried to pull away—when a clear voice slipped into my ear.
“Master! Master!”
Master…? My thoughts froze. Very slowly, I opened my eyes.
The one licking my hand wasn’t a small white dog. Long silver hair sparkled in the sunlight. Pale shoulders, delicate collarbones, a slender, petite frame. An unfamiliar young woman was looking at me.
When she confirmed I was awake, she gave me the purest smile I had ever seen and called out again.
“Master!”
“Who are you…?”
Those were the first words I ever spoke to Som as a human.