Park Shinui
“My son, you’re the best! You did so well!”
“I did well?”
“Of course~ You were the coolest and best here. Congratulations on the medal!”
Among the crowd of people holding bouquets, young Park Shinui carefully touched the medal hanging around his neck.
34th National Elite Taekwondo Selection Competition, Elementary Division Individual Match – Gold Medal / Park Shinui.
However, there was no family holding bouquets around him, not even a single relative who came to cheer him on.
“Shall we take a picture?”
“Yes!”
Pushed to the edge of the podium by the throng of people rushing in, Park Shinui felt self-conscious about being alone and glanced around while hovering between the people taking photos.
Today the priest said he couldn’t come because he was busy, but maybe his work finished earlier than expected and he might be here. Then… I might hear congratulations too, and maybe take a picture with someone.
“One, two! Look this way! One more time!”
Park Shinui pretended not to hear the shouts coming from here and there as he scanned through the people. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see a familiar face.
People waving toward somewhere, people making happy smiles, people holding bouquets and beaming brightly. Not a single one of them had come for Park Shinui.
Among so many people, realizing that no one had come to see him, Park Shinui quietly swallowed his disappointment. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, yet the melancholy feeling raised its head once more.
Park Shinui slumped his shoulders and came down from the podium. As he passed by the harmonious-looking people, he bit his lip hard.
‘The director must be waiting.’
He slowly walked toward the entrance. Since he had come here in the academy van, he needed to get to the parking lot without being late.
“The bouquet is so pretty!”
“What’s a mere bouquet? My son is a flower and a star to his mom.”
“Hehehe. Mom, I love you!”
Even though he didn’t want to hear it, the conversation reached his ears, and Park Shinui’s mood grew increasingly gloomy. He had felt pretty good when the medal was placed around his neck.
‘How many gold medals have I won so far?’
Counting by folding his fingers one by one, even all ten fingers weren’t enough. Despite winning so many medals, there wasn’t a single family member to congratulate him.
Park Shinui took off the medal hanging around his neck and carelessly shoved it into his dobok pocket. In front of the academy van parked in one corner of the parking lot, Park Shinui silently set down his bag. Everyone was still taking pictures with their families, so it was still noisy inside the stadium.
“If only I had someone who would tell me that I’m their flower and star too… how nice would that be.”
Even knowing it was an impossible dream, Park Shinui occasionally imagined that ‘someone.’
Someone who would come to meet him in front of school with an umbrella on rainy days, someone who would come pick him up saying it’s late when he played at the playground until sunset, someone who would come with a surprisingly huge gift on his birthday… And someone who would say ‘well done, you’re the best’ when he won a gold medal like today.
Even though there wasn’t a single person like that.
Park Shinui took a deep breath and trudged out of the stadium. When he rubbed his eyes, transparent liquid smeared on the back of his hand.
I don’t want to cry over something like this. Today, especially, it was hard to hold back the surging sorrow.
From his earliest memories, Park Shinui had been alone. With no way of knowing his name or birthday, he was what the world called an ‘orphan.’ On a cold winter day when snow was falling heavily, the baby left in the snowfield in front of the church was discovered by young Father Park who came out to prepare for dawn mass. The priest gave him the name ‘Park Shinui,’ taking his own surname.
The environment he grew up in wasn’t particularly harsh. The priests were kind and did their best to ensure that children growing up without parents didn’t starve for love. However, he particularly couldn’t mix with others. Like an oil droplet fallen into water, he floated around on the edges among children his age and always chose to play alone.
“God… please let someone appear who will tell me I’m their flower and star too…”
Young Park Shinui prayed without missing a single day. Believing the saying that earnest wishes eventually reach God, he hoped that someone who would erase this vague loneliness in one sweep would appear with a ‘ta-da.’
However, even as he left the orphanage and became an adult, and several more years passed, no miracle occurred. At some point, Park Shinui stopped praying to God.
For adult Park Shinui, life was simply ‘enduring’ itself. To earn tuition and living expenses, he went from part-time job to part-time job from dawn to late at night, and to not lose his scholarship, he turned pages sleeping only three or four hours a day. As a result, naturally, the fact that he was alone and the sense of loneliness gradually dulled.
For him, his only refuge was books. He liked the fact that while reading books, he didn’t have to force himself to mix with others, nor did he need to pathetically watch people’s reactions to earn someone’s trust.
《When That Day Comes》 was also one of the books he encountered that way. For him who would burrow into books like an escape whenever mental and emotional isolation surged, it was a novel that appeared like a gift in some gap of his boring daily life.
That day was an ordinary, average day no different from usual. Park Shinui, who had finished his tutoring part-time job until late as always and was returning home, unexpectedly encountered a used bookstore at the entrance of his neighborhood.
The expression ‘encountered’ was exactly right, because even though it was an alley he passed through every day, it was the first time he recognized the existence of a bookstore there that night. As if someone had just placed it there.
‘Was there a bookstore in this neighborhood?’
Park Shinui checked the faded paper reading <Closing Down Sale> attached diagonally to the glass door, then entered as if possessed.
“Welcome.”
The owner’s voice was so clear and cheerful it was hard to believe they were facing closure. Though it was late at night when all the surrounding shops had turned off their lights and gone to sleep, inside the bookstore a bright energy circulated as if time had stopped.
“May I… look at the books?”
“Of course, look as much as you want.”
The interior of the bookstore was much more spacious and pleasant than it looked from outside. Despite the words ‘closing down sale,’ the bookshelves were packed tightly with books without gaps, and spotlessly clean without a speck of dust. It was like a stage decorated in the cleanest state, waiting for someone to come.
“Come this way. There are many interesting books here.”
The bookstore owner kindly led Park Shinui, who had been frozen at the entrance, to the front of a bookshelf. 《The Days We Loved》, 《Courtesy Regarding Love》, 《And They Loved》. The bookshelf the owner guided him to was plastered entirely with romance novels praising ‘love.’
“…When That Day Comes?”
The achromatic cover that stood out alone among the romance novels felt unfamiliar, as if it hadn’t been there from the beginning. Park Shinui stroked down that incongruous cover and turned to the first page. The book in his hand had the characteristic resistance of a book that had never been opened, let alone touched by anyone’s hands.
300 years ago, one day. A gate to another world that didn’t exist in this world opened.
The novel was clearly fantasy from the first sentence. But why was it wedged between romance novels?
Well, it’s not my business how the owner organizes things. Feeling dubious, Park Shinui turned the first page and from some point was sucked into the sentences as if drawn by a magnet.
“That book is interesting, isn’t it?”
When did they approach? When he raised his head at the excited voice heard from beside him, the bookstore owner was pointing at the book Park Shinui was holding and asking.
“Ah… yes.”
‘Have I been looking too long?’
When he averted his gaze, feeling self-conscious for no reason, the owner smiled gently and waved their hand.
“Ah, I must have interrupted you. That book is really interesting, so I couldn’t help myself… You can keep reading.”
Even after the owner returned to the counter, Park Shinui couldn’t put down the book for a while, but then checked his watch and reluctantly brought volume 1 to the counter.
“Will you be purchasing it?”
“Yes.”
“It’s complete at 7 volumes… just one?”
The owner looked at the book placed on the counter and asked. Though the tone was ordinary, somehow there was impatience seeping through, as if eagerly waiting for Park Shinui’s answer.
“Yes. Just this one for now.”
Actually, he wanted to collect the entire set, but with his current wallet situation, one volume was the best he could do. So he decided to buy just volume 1 first and gradually collect the rest when he received his part-time pay.
“This book… if you purchase the complete set… I’ll give you a special 80% discount.”
Unexpected words flowed from the owner’s mouth. As if they were someone with a sense of mission to get these books into Park Shinui’s hands as quickly as possible.
