Village Memories and a Rainy Reunion
I searched the internet for the neighborhood where Hyun-ah had lived, but not a single mention of the murder case turned up.
It wasn't that the incident had been covered up. In a place like that, it was just too commonplace to make the news.
I logged into a portal site for the first time in ages to check the news, only to find my inbox flooded with unread email notifications. I deleted them without a glance—my message box was crammed with spam. Join this product subscription, I'm some famous person and want to schedule a meeting: pointless nonsense.
I killed time with unproductive tasks, letting the hours slip by quietly.
A knock rattled the door—Karin's knocks were always quick, but today they were especially rapid, more like a woodpecker drilling into a tree. I shouted for her to come in.
"I'll show you something super cute!"
"Wait, that's what was so urgent?"
Karin was always overflowing with confidence in her body, so it was rare to see her covering her navel or thighs. Today, in her tank top and dolphin shorts, she clung to me a bit too insistently, almost overwhelming.
"Check out this little kid doing aegyo. Cute, right? Super cute?"
She shoved her phone screen in my face. It was a short video, about ten seconds long. Against a forest backdrop, a girl around seven years old sang a nursery rhyme while hamming it up adorably. She spoke in Japanese, so I couldn't make out the lyrics, but it was cute enough regardless.
"Worth rushing in for," I nodded.
She had a good reason to come barreling in out of nowhere.
"She's the baby of our village. Adorable, huh? With no men left in the village now, she'll probably be the last kid born there."
Karin scrolled through the video and photos of the little one with affectionate eyes.
"Thanks to you. The villagers can live so peacefully because of..."
Her gallery was filled with countless snapshots of serene daily life. The most frequent subject was that same little girl from the start—tiny hands doing laundry, gleefully picking fruit. Images flickered by one after another.
I'd left the door open when Karin came in, so Hee-ah stood outside, staring blankly at us.
"Oh? Wanna watch too?"
"Huh?"
Hee-ah stepped hesitantly into my room, and we all admired the village maknae together.
"Lots of people seem to love this kid..."
"Can't blame 'em! With a cutie like that running around, everyone's her big sis or auntie just walking through the village."
Hee-ah gazed enviously at photos of the girl with others.
"Ah..."
I wanted to comfort her but couldn't find the words. Having neighbors to help in tough times was a concept rare in urban slums. The village's income might even be lower than Hee-ah's old slum. But the sight of so many people laughing together must have felt alien to her.
A few more photos passed. When one showed the girl splashing happily in a stream, Hee-ah couldn't look away.
"Wanna go together?"
Hee-ah whipped her head around.
"Huh?"
"Not the stream—somewhere like the beach or a water park works too."
It had been ages since I'd been to a water park myself. Gathering the household for a trip sounded fun.
"Not really swimming weather, though? Onsen maybe... Korea got any good hot springs?"
"Oh, right?"
Karin had a point. Early autumn wasn't ideal for getting wet. I'd lost track of the seasons.
"Well, even if not that, anything you wanna do?"
"N-no, I'm fine..."
"Take it easy. That maknae's getting all the love, sure, but you're precious too."
Karin slapped her shoulder encouragingly.
"Yeah! I was chatting with Mikoto once, and she went on for a solid thirty minutes about how cute you two are."
"You're at our place now, so relax like family. Got it?"
Hee-ah nodded hesitantly. But telling her to "relax" was asking too much. No matter how family-like we treated her, she and I were still strangers. Hyun-ah would live here too, but we had no real bond yet. I could be the "nice uncle," but not family. An invisible wall stood between us.
"Uncle... are you gonna do it with me too?"
Her unexpected question left me speechless. I froze in silence for seconds, then gathered my thoughts to respond.
"You're too young right now. If you grow up enough... would you want to?"
Hee-ah trailed off. Small sounds swirled in her mouth and faded. I said nothing.
/////
Hyun-ah sat dazedly waiting for the bus. The sensation of being utterly alone in the world clung to her relentlessly.
Cruelly, the bus she needed passed by just seconds before she reached the stop. With such long intervals here, she'd have to wait dozens of minutes.
The air grew damp. A chill crept up her spine, freezing it slowly. Rain was falling.
One by one, other students boarded buses and vanished. Hyun-ah remained, sitting blankly alone.
Staring at photos of women being violated by men for hours, studying—it made her head feel a bit off. The women in the illustrations and problems were mere tools for extracting semen. Yet the men didn't feel human either.
The very existence of guides to winning men's hearts implied analysis. Analysis meant they were no longer mysterious. Men seemed like animals attempting reproduction during heat in the right environment—or machines following species propagation commands.
People with this disposition have such-and-such traits, get aroused by these situations and people. The book hammered it home endlessly.
Use deprivation, memories, desires to seduce men, it claimed. Persuasive, proven theory. But emotionally, she couldn't accept it.
"Hyun-ah, hop in quick!"
"Huh?"
Lifting her eyes, she saw Seongha extending a hand. The rain had turned torrential, as if to sweep the world away. Quite some time had passed. A bus had come and gone, it seemed.
"Rain's pouring, I was worried. Get in fast. Need to pull right up at a bus stop like this!"
Standing before her was a man more radiant than any romance novel hero. Umbrella in one hand, he urged her on.
Hyun-ah hesitated, then took his hand. Warmth flowed through her palm. Unbeknownst to her, the rain had chilled her body through.
It was ecstatic, blissful happiness. Seongha gently drew her under the umbrella's center, like a light embrace.
'Urgh...'
The warmth she'd felt in her hand now spread to her shoulder and back. Hyun-ah shrank slightly.
She stumbled into the black car parked right ahead. Seongha followed swiftly, shutting the door crisply.
"Bus time came and went, kid's not showing, rain's bucketing outside, calls go unanswered..."
"Sorry."
Checking her phone—set to vibrate in class—missed calls from Seongha scrolled down the list.
"No, wasn't mad. Everything okay?"
No hardships. Just confusion. Why was this man before her so kind, so ideal?
Men in the exam booklets were cruel, predictable. Clear reactions to actions: anger here, arousal there.
But the real man watching her now was different. Appearance and demeanor straight from a girl's fantasies.
If she'd seen warm, idealized media men first, then cold reality, she might've accepted it. But this real man was too fantastical, too unreal, leaving her bewildered.
Leaning against the seat headrest, he glanced cautiously at her. She couldn't see him as a beast. Couldn't believe the dark desires from her academy lessons slumbered within him. The thought of him making those scary faces from the book felt impossible.
Their eyes met; he smiled faintly. Hyun-ah bit her lip.
"No... hardships."
Still, she steeled herself. Against a "good man" like Seongha, she'd never prove her worth that way.
What she had to do remained unchanged: craft elements to excite him, hone her body into a more lascivious machine for squeezing out semen.
"Good work today."
But when that time came, she'd lose this warm, gentle face. Hyun-ah etched his smiling visage deep into her heart.