The Cracked Bell
Yoon Halmoni stormed out of the room, huffing with irritation. Yeo-won rubbed her tingling back and lifted the porridge that had cooled to a perfect temperature.
The plastic bottle containing the medicinal water had been found near where Yeo-won had collapsed, or so she was told. Thankfully, Yoon Halmoni had picked it up, and while Yeo-won slept, she had boiled water and given it to Grandmother.
After drinking the medicinal water, Grandmother had slept almost nonstop. The news that she hadn’t thrown a fit even when the windows were closed and that she had eaten her meals properly brought Yeo-won a wave of relief.
The part about her collapsing on the forest path still nagged at her a little, but Yeo-won brushed it aside as nothing serious.
Well, she probably just couldn’t see the path clearly because of the fog and slipped.
Just as Yoon Halmoni had said, the situation could have been truly dangerous, yet Yeo-won felt strangely detached.
In the end, she had managed to bring back the water. Aside from the headache, her body didn’t feel too bad.
She had no energy, but oddly enough, her appetite had returned. Yeo-won finished the entire bowl of porridge cleanly and rose from her seat.
She folded the blanket neatly and stepped out of the room. In the kitchen, Yoon Halmoni was doing the dishes.
“Thank you for the meal. I’ll help with the dishes.”
“No need. Go wash up and get ready for the hospital. While you were sleeping, your grandfather made an appointment for you. Since he went through the trouble, you’d better go quickly.”
Yoon Halmoni snatched the empty porridge bowl from Yeo-won’s hands and scrubbed it with rough, impatient strokes.
Yeo-won hesitated for a moment, then bowed her head in a polite farewell.
She must not forget her duty. The reason she had climbed that dangerous mountain was to take Grandmother to the hospital, after all.
Yeo-won headed straight home, took a quick shower, and began packing her things.
Even drying her hair felt like a waste of time, so she simply patted away the moisture and started tidying the room.
There wasn’t much to organize—just the bedding—but Yeo-won swept and wiped every corner with meticulous care. She set aside unused or old items to be thrown away.
She probably wouldn’t be coming back here anyway, and Grandmother wouldn’t want to enter this room. It seemed better to clean it up now.
Yeo-won’s belongings fit into a single trash bag; she had already left eight years ago, so there was hardly anything worth taking.
If she thought about Grandmother, she wanted to leave the desk behind too, but there was no real need to go that far.
Finally, Yeo-won sat at the desk and opened the drawers one by one. She confirmed they were all empty, sliding each shut in turn.
When she opened the last drawer, a single photograph sealed in a ziplock bag lay abandoned inside.
“……So this is where it was.”
The somewhat faded photo showed a smiling Grandfather, a Grandmother who looked distinctly displeased, and a rigidly stiff Yeo-won—three people captured together.
Now that she thought about it, not long after Yeo-won had come down to the village, one of the village elders had gone around with a Polaroid camera.
She remembered how he had carried that rather dated-looking camera everywhere, proudly snapping photos of people to show off his skills.
This picture had been taken that day.
When the elder offered to take their photo, Grandfather, who had been working in the fields, had dragged Yeo-won and Grandmother out of the house and made them stand in the yard.
He told the cluelessly standing Yeo-won to look forward, and then came the click of the shutter. Grandmother grumbled about being bothered with such nonsense and went straight back inside.
Grandfather handed the printed photo to Yeo-won and returned to the fields. Yeo-won went into her room and stared at the picture for a long time.
It had been taken by chance, but it was the first family photo she had ever had.
Awkward and unnatural as it was, every time she looked at this picture, her chest would tickle and a silly smile would creep onto her face.
She had kept it in the drawer, taking it out every day. The day she noticed the edges had begun to wear down, it felt as if the sky were collapsing.
Back then she didn’t have money for a frame, so Yeo-won had secretly taken a ziplock bag from the kitchen and slipped the photo inside.
I didn’t know back then. That this photo would become a memorial portrait…
After that, Grandfather’s health had declined rapidly, and he had passed away in the end.
She hadn’t taken it out since. Just looking at it made her cry.
Yeo-won shifted her gaze from the photo to the trash bag.
Should I throw it away?
She had only just steadied her heart. Seeing something like this would only shake her again.
Grandfather’s memorial portrait was already framed and displayed. This one, though…
In the end, Yeo-won placed the photo inside the trash bag and set it outside in the yard.
With this, she had shaken off her lingering attachment. She tried to comfort her uneasy heart with that thought.
Just then, Yoon Halmoni came out through the gate and eyed the large trash bag.
“What’s with all this trash?”
“……Yeah. There were a lot of useless things in the room.”
Yoon Halmoni nodded as if it were no big deal.
“Alright. If you’re ready, let’s get going.”
“Yes.”
Yoon Halmoni brought Grandmother out from the room. Grandmother climbed into the car with surprising obedience, as if everything that had happened before had been a lie.
Yeo-won got into the back seat with her bag, and the car began to move slowly forward.
When she looked in the rearview mirror, the house grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
Gazing at the Inwol house she would never visit again, Yeo-won bit down hard on her lip. Her hands, resting on her thighs, clenched into fists.
The photo she had thrown away in the trash bag kept flickering before her eyes.
Even after everything that had happened, she still couldn’t pull herself together.
She knew all too well how painful it would be later if she allowed herself even the slightest clumsy hope.
Yeo-won squeezed her eyes shut and cursed under her breath.
When she opened her eyes again and looked in the rearview mirror, she saw a stray cat prowling around the trash bag.
As the cat batted at the bag with its front paw, Yeo-won cried out in panic.
“Wait!”
The car screeched to a halt at her urgent shout.
“What—what is it!”
Her voice must have been louder than she realized; Yoon Halmoni jumped in surprise and stared at her.
“I left something behind. I’ll be right back.”
Yeo-won jumped out of the car and ran back the way they had come. The stray cat that had seen her took off in fright.
Yeo-won pulled the discarded photo from the trash bag and let out a sigh of relief. It was a little crumpled, but otherwise fine.
She pressed her face against the photo, desperately holding back the heat rising in her eyes.
She had already lost the faces of her mother and father long ago.
No matter how hard she tried, as time passed, she would lose far more memories than she could keep.
Yeo-won knew that better than anyone.
In the future, when even Grandmother was gone from this world.
When she was truly left alone in this world, she would need something to remember them by.
It was fine if they never truly became a family.
Just this much.
Nothing more, just this.
She hoped Grandmother would forgive her for holding on to at least this much.
*
The examination results came back saying Grandmother had no abnormalities.
Given her age, her joints weren’t in great condition, but there were no problems with her brain or internal organs.
Her screaming and vacant staring were concluded to be symptoms stemming from some form of stress.
By the time they left the hospital, the sun had already set.
Grandmother, exhausted from the long journey, was dozing off in the back seat.
Yoon Halmoni, who had driven them to the terminal near the hospital, asked with concern.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you all the way home?”
“Yes. The bus will get me there quickly. Thank you so much for taking care of us these past few days.”
“Why don’t you stay a few more days?”
“No, it’s alright. Grandmother seems fine now, and from what I saw today, she’s eating well. I should head back. I have work piling up too.”
“I see. You do need to work. Aigoo, I can finally breathe easy now.”
Yoon Halmoni let out a long, heavy sigh and leaned her head against the seat.
Yeo-won offered an apologetic smile as she gazed at Grandmother in the back seat.
Out of all the days she had seen her, Grandmother’s complexion looked the best today. That was a relief.
“Halmoni, I’m sorry, but could I ask you for one more favor? There’s an envelope on the desk in my room—could you check it for me?”
“Huh? Can’t I just throw it away?”
“No, please make sure to look inside the envelope.”
It was the envelope of money Yeo-won had left for Yoon Halmoni. She had written a short note inside, so Yoon Halmoni would understand right away.
This time especially, she owed Yoon Halmoni a great deal. Without her, she wouldn’t have been able to care for Grandmother or go fetch the medicinal water.
She had even saved her from what could have been a lonely death on the mountain.
Thinking about it, Yeo-won worried she hadn’t put enough money in, but she decided she would send a gift later.
Despite Yeo-won’s emphasis, Yoon Halmoni nodded without suspicion.
“Go on, then. You’ll miss your bus.”
“Yes. Please drive safely, Halmoni. Oh, that’s right. Let me give this back to you.”
Yeo-won took the small bell from her pocket and handed it over.
Earlier, when she had gone to the hospital, something had been bumping against her pocket. When she took it out, she realized it was the bell Yoon Halmoni had lent her.
Yoon Halmoni casually dropped the bell into her bag and drove off immediately.
But… did that bell always look like that…?
Since Yoon Halmoni had accepted it without any strange reaction, it must be fine.
Yeo-won stood there until Yoon Halmoni’s car disappeared from sight, then turned and walked into the terminal.
*
By the time Yoon Halmoni arrived back in Inwol, it was nearly midnight. Traffic had taken longer than expected.
Upon reaching home, Yoon Halmoni sat down in the main hall and patted her shoulders.
“Aigoo. I can finally breathe.”
With one exhausting event after another, there wasn’t a single part of her body that didn’t ache.
She was about to get up to make herself a cup of tea when the bag she had leaned against the pillar slid over with a soft rustle.
The bell she had received back from Yeo-won rolled out and across the wooden floor.
It tumbled past the hall and fell onto the ground with a small clink.
“Goodness me.”
Yoon Halmoni bent down to pick it up. In the bright moonlight, the bell’s true appearance was revealed.
“What in the world…”
The bell was covered in black rust and cracked as if it had been struck by lightning. The cord tied to it had turned pitch black, as though it had been scorched by fire.
It looked so fragile that it might crumble with the slightest pressure. Its appearance, aged as if decades had passed, made Yoon Halmoni’s face harden with dread.
“……Something has happened.”
The bell Yoon Halmoni had given her. It was a part of the shamanic bell she had used during her days as a shaman.
Ordinary evil spirits wouldn’t even be able to approach it, let alone make it ring.
Yoon Halmoni gazed at Mount Inwol with a complicated expression.
The mountain looked the same as always, yet somehow it now felt as oppressive as the gaping maw of a beast.