Kang Eunsuk is an orphan. She heard she was abandoned in front of an orphanage before she even turned one. Her dream, having earned money through all kinds of hardships after becoming independent at 18, was to have a family, and at twenty she married a man of the same age in a similar situation, both falling in love at first sight. Though they were young, neither she nor her husband had any regrets because they both wanted a family to lean on. Though poor, they were happy. When they conceived a child, they both jumped for joy and vowed to become the best parents in the world.
But whether she was born with an unfortunate fate, she lost her husband when she was seven months pregnant. It was a drunk driving hit-and-run accident. The accident occurred in a remote place with no CCTV, so the culprit was never caught.
Though she lost her beloved husband, Kang Eunsuk had to live for her child. Giving birth alone and raising the child was absolutely not easy. There was a lot of money going out, but since she had to care for the child she couldn’t earn properly, always struggling with poverty. With nowhere to ask for help, she cried a lot too.
Once, finding it too hard, she even left her child in front of the orphanage where she grew up. But unable to take that step, she eventually cried and brought him back. She couldn’t make her beloved son an abandoned child just like herself. Unable to leave a lump in her child’s heart that would never disappear for life, she gritted her teeth and lived harder.
Poverty continued, and though the days were hard enough that she sometimes had to worry about meals, she could smile watching her child who grew prettier as he grew.
“Mommy! Seungjin loves mommy the most in the world.”
Whenever the child stretched out his chubby little arms and hugged her full in his embrace, she felt heart-aching happiness.
The child was her everything and became her reason for living. That child went missing. It was about a month after she could no longer send him to kindergarten because the factory where she worked went bankrupt and she didn’t receive several months’ salary. It was also about two weeks after she’d luckily started a part-time job at a department store promotional event through an acquaintance’s introduction. That morning, as she prepared to go to work, the child’s aegyo kissing her cheek and saying ‘Mommy, come back soon’ kept her in a good mood all day. So when she got off work and rushed home carrying hamburgers the child liked, the house was empty. Sometimes the landlady upstairs played with him, so she thought maybe he was there and went looking, but he wasn’t.
She frantically searched the area but the child was nowhere. One day, two days, a week, even after more than ten days he didn’t come back. From then on, she searched for the child like someone who’d lost their mind. But as time passed, she only felt more lost. She was kicked out of the house where she’d lived with her child because the rent was overdue, and eventually even her phone was suspended for non-payment. Gradually, the hope of finding her child turned to despair, but she couldn’t give up.
Today too, going back and forth between despair and a thread of hope, she’d been distributing flyers about finding her child in the busy streets. Two men approached her. Kang Eunsuk, who had been walking weakly looking only at the ground, raised her head like a ghost. Both were handsome men she’d never seen in her life—if one was handsomely masculine, the other was somehow a beauty with a sensual quality. Unable to tear her gaze away for some reason, she stared blankly then belatedly came to her senses and hurriedly took out a flyer from her bag.
“Have you by any chance seen a child who looks like this?”
The two men who received the flyer said nothing. Usually when receiving flyers, people either throw them away without looking, stuff them in their bags, or skim through them, but these two just silently looked down at the flyer.
“If you see the child in the photo, please contact me. I beg you.”
Kang Eunsuk bowed deeply toward the two men, then trudged back toward the inn again.
As soon as she entered, she looked for the inn owner but he wasn’t visible. The owner was constantly away and unfriendly. When she asked if anyone had contacted her, he’d routinely snap “You think this is your living room?!” but Kang Eunsuk tried to please the owner by bowing her head to the point of servility.
After looking around briefly, she entered the room she was staying in, planning to come back down later, and sat down weakly.
“Not many days left until I have to pay.”
Kang Eunsuk was living at this inn by paying a month’s fee in advance. The owner said he’d kick her out immediately if the money was even a day late, so to keep living here she’d have to find another short-term part-time job. She needed to hurry and earn money to revive her number. With short-term jobs that lasted a week at most, it was tight just to pay the monthly inn fee.
“Our Seungjin might call mommy’s number.”
Kang Eunsuk’s body, muttering while staring into space with unfocused eyes, gradually collapsed forward. She sobbed face-down, crying “Seungjin-ah!” She missed her son. He must be crying looking for mommy. Her heart felt like it was being torn apart with worry for her son.
“That’s fortunate.”
When they returned home, Ban Hanseong had been waiting anxiously. Having pressed them about what happened, he looked down at the flyer Eun Seonmyeong held out and said that.
“It’s fortunate we found the mother, and fortunate he wasn’t abandoned. Dying young is already pitiful, but how pitiful would it be if he was abandoned too? By the way, how did she lose the child?”
The flyer only showed the date of disappearance and the clothes he was wearing when he went missing.
“I don’t know.”
“What? Why don’t you know?”
“I don’t know because I didn’t ask.”
Eun Seonmyeong and Shim Iyul just came back after receiving the flyer. They thought that was enough since they’d directly confirmed Kang Eunsuk’s face and knew her whereabouts.
“Why didn’t you ask! You should have asked!”
“Is it important why the kid died? Isn’t finding the mother enough?”
“That’s… that’s true but… Aren’t you even curious how that young child died alone?!”
Ban Hanseong shouted angrily.
“He asked us to find his mom, so we found her, didn’t we? What more do you want?”
“We need to know why he died!”
“Did the kid say he’s curious about that?”
“I’m curious!”
The confident answer left him momentarily speechless. Feeling absurd, just as Eun Seonmyeong was about to say ‘You’re curious so what do you want me to do about it’:
“Right, I’m curious too!”
Shim Iyul, who had moved next to Ban Hanseong at some point, shamelessly shouted. Eun Seonmyeong sighed looking at Shim Iyul, who had the exact same pose and expression as Ban Hanseong, as if they were soul twins.
“Then go ask her directly.”
Eun Seonmyeong replied indifferently and waved his hand as if shooing away something bothersome.
“Wow, cold-blooded. Telling us to ask a mother who lost her child ‘How did you lose your kid?’ Why not just stab her heart with a knife?”
Shim Iyul looked at Eun Seonmyeong as if looking at something terrible, while Ban Hanseong beside him nodded in agreement.
“The Gaju originally lacks empathy. Just as Fox-nim said, he’s cold-blooded.”
“He does seem like that. Cold-blooded, rude, petty, and v-word.”
“Fox-nim is completely right. The Gaju is exactly like that. But what’s v-word?”
Shim Iyul, sneaking a glance at Eun Seonmyeong, answered.
“There’s such a thing.”
Eun Seonmyeong looked with an astounded expression at the two who were whispering in perfect harmony. Setting Shim Iyul aside, Ban Hanseong was even more ridiculous. Anyone watching would think he was the fox’s subordinate.
“I can hear everything. At least show the sincerity of badmouthing me where I can’t hear?”
“Cover your ears.”
Shim Iyul indifferently presented a solution.
“Fox-nim is right. Gaju, cover your ears.”
Eun Seonmyeong seriously considered tying up one fox and one human with rope and kicking them outside the gate, but gave up. They’d definitely make noise quacking together as a set, and just thinking about it was disturbing.
As Eun Seonmyeong headed to his room to change clothes, he heard the conversation between Shim Iyul and Ban Hanseong behind him. The two’s voices continued to be heard even after closing the door. Eun Seonmyeong stood at the door and listened to their conversation for a moment.
“What about the kid?”
Shim Iyul asked Ban Hanseong.
“I told him to stay home and play with Taeho.”
“He doesn’t remember anything more, does he?”
“No. He’s barely remembering his name. Even that won’t last much longer.”
Soon he’d start forgetting even his own name. Before that happened, he had to let him meet his mother. Even now, if he went home and said ‘We found your mom,’ Lee Seungjin would jump with joy.
“I shouldn’t be doing this. I need to hurry and tell him we found his mother.”
Ban Hanseong, suddenly feeling urgent, stood up abruptly and stepped down from the main hall. Just as he was hurriedly putting on his shoes, he felt a force grabbing his wrist. It was Shim Iyul.
“Tell him in a few more days.”
“Why?”
“The kid can just leave, but the mother remains.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Right? Humans are foolish and persistent, so not knowing her child is dead, she’ll keep searching like now—how ridiculous is that? It would be good to tell her he’s dead and let her see his spirit at least once. I’m not saying this out of sympathy for humans, but because it’s pathetic watching her search for her dead child.”
Shim Iyul’s voice as he rambled on was higher than usual. He avoided Ban Hanseong’s admiring gaze and grumbled, “Ah damn, he’ll misunderstand that I’m sympathizing with humans.”
It’s not sympathy. Absolutely not. Just… that desperate face begging to be contacted reminded him of his mother.
Why do the faces of mothers who’ve lost their children all look so alike?
It was long ago. When his father died. Unable to watch his mother, who had lost her husband and was despairing listlessly, Shim Iyul secretly left home. It was to find the Soul Revival Stone. Remembering hearing long ago that a crane revived its dead chick with a mysterious red stone, he asked birds and went to the ends of the earth. Holding the foolish expectation that if he found the Soul Revival Stone, he might be able to revive his father. His father’s body was already rotting, and his soul had long left the body and entered the afterlife, yet like a fool he thought he could revive his father if he had the Soul Revival Stone.
But he couldn’t find the Soul Revival Stone. He couldn’t meet the crane that had supposedly revived its chick with the Soul Revival Stone either. When he finally gave up and returned months later in beggar’s clothes, what he found was his mother’s half-deranged face. Sitting collapsed on the wooden porch, blankly staring into space—that face was exactly the same as Kang Eunsuk’s earlier.
