It was no longer a level Seonwoo could handle alone. He returned to his room and looked for his phone first. He pressed the only saved number. But no matter how long he waited, the call didn’t connect. Even though his son was on the verge of burning down the entire house, the Vice Director didn’t answer the phone.
“What a mess of a household……”
The Vice Director eventually did answer the phone. After Seonwoo persistently tried calling four times.
“Ahjussi. It’s me.”
― Yes, Seonwoo. You called.
“Yes.”
― What’s the matter?
Before he knew it, smoke coming from the gaps in the fireplace was gathering on the living room ceiling. What Seonwoo had to say was simple.
“I think the house is about to catch fire.”
After a brief silence, the Vice Director only left the words that he understood and hung up. Even after 10 minutes from then, there was no contact.
Just as he was thinking whether he should pour water on the increasingly fierce flames, two people arrived.
They were a middle-aged man and woman. Both were wearing only coats over their pajamas. The woman took out a remote control from somewhere and turned on the living room lights.
“How did a fire…… Oh my goodness!”
The face that confirmed the situation was colored with shock. All three people could see very clearly the clothes burning vigorously inside the fireplace. The man clutching his head shouted.
“Why would you put clothes in here!”
It was a natural reaction. Seonwoo appropriately listened with one ear and let it flow out the other. But suddenly the woman, who had been wandering around the second floor corridor, stopped him.
“Taejeong did this, right?”
“……”
“Aigoo, really, I can’t live like this……”
Seonwoo only avoided her gaze and didn’t answer. Even so, the culprit had already been revealed, but the two were busy trying to contain the flames.
In the urgently unfolding situation, Seonwoo leisurely mulled over the name he’d just heard. Taejeong…… Then was it Baek Taejeong? The name and surname felt disconnected.
After the situation was resolved, they gathered in the middle of the living room and exchanged belated greetings. The two were the housekeeper and her husband. The married couple were employed together and handled everything from the household affairs to the garden and basement management.
“We only come three days—Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The Vice Director doesn’t really like having people in the house……”
“Of all days, this happens on our day off, really……”
“Feel free to call us Ajumma and Ahjussi. You’re student Seonwoo, right?”
The man kept grumbling while cleaning the fireplace, and the woman tried to ease the atmosphere. Seonwoo nodded and asked.
“Does the kid in that room often stay away from home?”
“Taejeong? Um, yes…… Well, he’s here and then he’s not.”
The clothes that had burned more than halfway were scattered on the living room floor. The man who brought a large basket from the first floor picked up the debris and put it in. At the woman’s words to go in and rest quickly, Seonwoo replied appropriately and headed to the bathroom.
The bathroom was divided into the sink area and shower booth. The inside of the shower booth was wide enough for several people to enter at once. On top of that, everything from cleansing products to cosmetics was brand new.
Seonwoo scanned the interior once and stood in front of the mirror. His neglected hair had grown long enough to cover the area above his eyes. He looked better than right after regaining consciousness two months ago, but when he kept his mouth closed, his jaw still looked quite slim.
So there were no traces of care anywhere. Nevertheless, what made him passable was thanks to his handsome appearance, having inherited his father’s good looks.
Seonwoo, both when he was young and now, looked so much like his father that he heard he was a spitting image. When he occasionally went on errands to his father’s art studio, students would recognize him first and talk to him.
From time to time, his father would look at albums containing Seonwoo’s growing years as a pastime and admire that he was exactly the same as when he was young. Seonwoo himself had never once seen photos of his parents’ childhood.
His parents, as if they’d made a promise, didn’t bring up old stories in front of Seonwoo. Even when reminiscing about memories, the starting point was all after Seonwoo’s birth. But now they couldn’t even have such conversations anymore. The only ones who could share memories Seonwoo didn’t remember were his mom and dad.
“……”
Seonwoo looked at his right hand with sunken eyes and then wrapped a dry towel around it tightly. Seonwoo couldn’t feel his father’s death at all, even more than this wound.
All he’d heard was that he died instantly at the scene. He hadn’t confirmed the body or attended the funeral. He was in a state where he couldn’t properly go through the stages of accepting a family member’s death.
To accept reality, he needed to resolve the remaining matters from now on. But Seonwoo didn’t feel like doing that. He only kept avoiding it. Because he didn’t have the courage to face it directly.
Some stitches still remained. The dissolving speed was particularly slow. To keep water from touching the wound, the bath continued for a long time.
ლ
The Vice Director didn’t come home even when morning came. Whether work was busy or he had no intention of coming home, it was the same even the next day. Even though the house had almost caught fire, there wasn’t even a follow-up contact.
Thanks to that, Seonwoo had no occasion to face the Vice Director. The Vice Director’s son had also been away from home for several days. They didn’t look alike at all, but father and son seemed similar in disliking coming home.
Moreover, because the married couple who were the housekeepers left work in the afternoon and even that was only three days a week, Seonwoo was alone in this large house. At least it was true that there was no one to make him feel uncomfortable.
He saw the Vice Director’s face again a week after discharge. The place was not at home but at the hospital. A call came on his way out after receiving outpatient treatment. He said to meet in the first floor lobby, and this time he was there first.
“Have you met Ahjussi’s son?”
“Yes.”
“He wasn’t friendly, was he?”
Instead of answering, Seonwoo shrugged his shoulders. It was a meaning that was neither affirmation nor denial, but the Vice Director smiled faintly as if he knew everything.
“The kid is on the shy side. Please understand, Seonwoo.”
What was there to understand? Either way, the rolling stone was Seonwoo. So he didn’t convey unnecessary words. Neither the fact that he’d been grabbed by the collar and stripped to his underwear at first meeting, nor that the son had almost set the house on fire and hadn’t come home for several days.
“More than that, I’ll go upstairs. Before visiting hours end…”
“Mm. That seems difficult today.”
The vice director abruptly cut off Seonwoo’s words. A dry gaze turned straight toward the vice director. Just from his eyes, you could tell he was demanding a proper answer.
“Her blood pressure readings have been unstable since dawn yesterday. Visitation is impossible until she stabilizes.”
“Then I’ll come again tomorrow.”
“What if we don’t know when she’ll recover?”
“I don’t care.”
“Seonwoo is more stubborn than you look.”
A hand with light wrinkles touched the crown of his head. The vice director gently stroked his round head. To others’ eyes, it looked like doting on an underdeveloped child. Even though it barely touched him, Seonwoo tilted his head to avoid it. Despite the firm refusal, the vice director didn’t care.
“Do that, then.”
Seonwoo didn’t answer. He hadn’t been seeking permission in the first place. Despite the sharp atmosphere, the vice director asked obvious questions like how things went.
“They said it’s healing well.”
“Really? That’s fortunate. At least Seonwoo’s recovery is fast.”
It was a lie. Seonwoo’s hand was strangely slow to recover.
His thinking ability had recovered enough for daily life and his stamina had returned to an appropriate level, yet only the sutured area remained below expectations.
The attending physician explained various possibilities, but Seonwoo, unrelated to the accident aftereffects, had always forgotten topics he wasn’t originally interested in before long. He hadn’t listened attentively in the first place.
So the boring conversation with the vice director also evaporated during the walk home. Other thoughts filled that empty space. Things like what to do if he was refused visitation again for some trivial reason.
In fact, even the words that Mom’s condition had worsened weren’t trustworthy. Was it because he still hadn’t developed trust in the vice director? Perhaps being suddenly separated from his parents, he was being childishly stubborn.
