***
The move was pushed up because of the typhoon approaching northward with a threatening force. He skipped summer vacation supplementary classes again using the move as an excuse. Packing luggage himself in the high humidity heat and doing a truck move was indescribably exhausting.
The house where their family newly settled was on the first floor of a four-story townhouse.
Dust and trash rolled around in the hallway, and every time the front door opened, it made an annoying creaking sound. The rust everywhere, shabby front door, and peeling paint clearly showed their class.
But there was summer there too. Cicadas cried from the disorganized, overgrown trees. Still, it was fortunate to be able to hear the cicada sounds.
To Yeon Cheonguk, who went out with his hat pulled down low in case he ran into a familiar face in the neighborhood, his mother poured out nagging.
“If your father catches you going around hunched over wearing a hat again, you’ll get in trouble.”
Unable to say why he wore his hat pulled down and hunched over like someone who’d committed a crime, Yeon Cheonguk responded with a joke.
“It’s because Mom’s son is so handsome that fan letters might pile up in the mailbox.”
“Oh my, how cheeky!”
Now Kkaebi Video rental shop had become Yeon Cheonguk’s hideout.
After the move it was about 10 minutes farther, but this was the only place where he could open up and talk. On the small TV placed on the counter, a stage video of the singers Cool came on. Three people were lip-syncing a song called <Fate>. Yeon Cheonguk, sprawled on the sofa flipping through comic books, asked casually.
“Does he have a different comic book shuttle these days?”
“Yeah. This time it’s a girl. She doesn’t really seem to be doing it by force. She likes it so she stops by all the time.”
“……”
Yeon Cheonguk frantically waved his fan. The rental shop’s air conditioner had broken and the repair technician wasn’t coming. An air conditioner breakdown in humid sweltering heat over 30 degrees. In a droopy white tee and Seolyun High summer gym uniform he’d picked up to wear, Yeon Cheonguk wiped his sweat-soaked face.
“Don’t worry, the only time he comes here directly is when paying accumulated points.”
When he said he’d ended things with Hwang Jegu and heard severe insults and threats from that bastard, the part-timer worried about Yeon Cheonguk. Yeon Cheonguk sighed.
“I’m irritated with myself. Why is my guts so small, coward bastard.”
“Coward? That’s ridiculous. Does a coward not get scared at all on stage in front of hundreds of people, throw flirty comments at girls just fine, come here and borrow comic books from me like ‘sue me,’ and sing in front of broadcast staff without a single mistake?”
“So what. I’m fucking scared as soon as Hwang Jegu appears.”
The part-timer, who had been standing and organizing several comic books, muttered.
“I wonder. Then that might not be fear.”
“……”
“It might be a different emotion, not scaredness.”
Did I watch too much yaoi, the part-timer who frowned while talking to himself said in a loud voice.
“Right, it’s better to keep your distance. From him.”
“It’s already like that.”
Everyone pointed in only one direction. Every signpost in front of Yeon Cheonguk pointed in one direction.
Are you crazy being close to him. Avoid him. End it here. Never meet him. If you end it like this, everything will be comfortable.
Everyone shouted in unison that ending it here was the right answer. As if they were helping by foreseeing fate from the future.
Yeon Cheonguk decided. Right, it’s over. Hwang Jegu doesn’t exist on the path Yeon Cheonguk will live.
Intuition and revelation like exploding flames penetrated from the top of his head to his toes.
Yeon Cheonguk sprang up from his seat. He had to go to the butcher shop right now and get the video. He didn’t want to leave even a trace of his memory with that bastard. Getting that musical film video and returning it here would be Yeon Cheonguk’s own ending ceremony.
“<Moulin Rouge> video. I’ll go get it now, so wait a moment, hyung.”
“What? No, that’s already been reordered….”
Without hearing the part-timer’s words, he opened the door. He ran down the street in a shabby outfit of school gym clothes and slippers. The way from here to the market was now familiar enough to go with his eyes closed.
It was a cloudy summer day with rain falling drop by drop. Fog was visible in the distance. It was thick fog like smoke billowing from a fire.
He realized it wasn’t fog but gray smoke when he got close, a few meters ahead.
The fire connected Yeon Cheonguk’s heart to some distant space.
Heat called to Yeon Cheonguk through the acrid air. Like a whisper guiding the way, it grabbed Yeon Cheonguk’s five senses.
There was fire in the distance. It was a black, thick blaze.
The closer he got to the butcher shop, the more uncontrollably rough Yeon Cheonguk’s breathing became. Flames burning relentlessly and hazy forms already turned to ash pierced through the gray sky above the market and rose up fluttering.
The unpleasant humidity and sweltering heat that was hard to endure without turning on air conditioning….
When acrid ash powder entered through his airway and stuck to his throat, Yeon Cheonguk’s gaze turned toward a high place.
Where Yeon Cheonguk looked was the second floor engulfed in smoke. The commotion of people crowded all around was just background.
Yeon Cheonguk ran there. No one pointed fingers at Yeon Cheonguk who roughly pushed through the crowd and passed through the market. The people were already in such an uproar.
“Something went bang…!”
“I smelled burning strongly so I came out and there was smoke…!”
The sky where colorful awnings had been was covered with layers of gray smoke clouds. The closer he got to the butcher shop, the stronger the harsh gas smell that stung his nose. The chilling heat that felt like it would burn his skin also intensified.
Yeon Cheonguk pushed through all the people standing gathered nearby and passed the outdoor counter.
“Oh my! What, that man?”
“Is he a paramedic? Who is it?”
People stirred at the appearance of a man running up the narrow second-floor stairs after throwing off one slipper. But the stirring soon turned to screams. It was because a small flame exploded with a whoosh once more inside the house that was burning black.
Yeon Cheonguk missed his footing once on the stairs. Even then, he didn’t realize one slipper was gone.
Sometimes if someone realizes an unbelievable thing, it’s surely a case of being possessed by revelation. Since Yeon Cheonguk was the same, there was no other way to explain it. Facing a dark door not knowing what path would unfold, opening the locked padlock from outside, taking off his upper clothing and soaking it in a rain puddle, then covering his nose and mouth and opening the door.
Even when witnessing the scene of flames spreading and catching on the walls. Even when toxic harmful gas so strong he couldn’t open his eyes rushed at his face, Yeon Cheonguk wasn’t Yeon Cheonguk.
Perhaps it’s right to explain that the waves connecting Yeon Cheonguk and song moved everything.
It lifted the old child crouching in front of the door crying and trembling in fear. And with the wet clothes that had blocked Yeon Cheonguk’s respiratory system, it covered the old man’s nose. Yeon Cheonguk carried him on his back.
Irresistible coughing came from smoke penetrating sharply through his nose and mouth. His throat stung and hurt. He couldn’t breathe properly from coughing that burst continuously.
He couldn’t see the narrow, steep second-floor stairs well. If he fell here, they’d both be done for.
He was scared. Behind them was fire that could swallow them at any moment, and ahead lay stairs that might connect to death. At that moment of falling into hopeless chaos, there was a melody spreading through his mind.
Yeon Cheonguk sang quietly.
*There was a night I thought only of you*
*Why am I really doing this*
Each time he stepped barefoot on the stairs, one step at a time, a vision brightened his view. They were the fireflies he’d seen on stage that school trip day. Hundreds of fireflies swarmed and illuminated ahead.
Next, the scenery that brightened ahead was the sunlight at the sunset faucet area.
The laughter of the man slapping chalk erasers, the dazzling light from the lamp shining down above his head as he dripped red blood in the phone booth….
Inside that, everything was bright and clear. Yeon Cheonguk came down following the bright path.
When the mysterious young man carrying the old man came down below the stairs, people crowded around. The man’s face couldn’t be seen well because of hair that poured down wet from rain. It was when everyone’s attention was focused on the old man who was on the verge of losing consciousness.
The young man who staggered and stood up holding the glass counter turned around and ran.
None of the people at the scene knew who the man was who appeared suddenly and rescued the old man trapped on the second floor.
