Dohui forced his frozen mouth to move, barely. His parched voice made the men’s brows knit together. Dohui was a sight — that much was plain. Three men in hard hats — perhaps working construction nearby — exchanged glances.
“Oh goodness, kid. What on earth happened to you. You’re going to freeze to death out here, aren’t you.”
“Po, police……”
The man unzipped his padded jacket with a hand thick with callouses. Then he patted around at his vest — the kind that looked like it had well over ten pockets.
His expression shifted quickly, surprise and awkwardness crossing each other.
“What are we going to do. We were on our way to lunch so we left our phones behind. Hey, you. You got a phone?”
The men all shook their heads in unison. How…… Dohui felt hopeless. Then the man took off his padded jacket and draped it over Dohui’s shoulders.
“You’ll freeze to death standing around like this. Here, put this on for now.”
The jacket, warmed by the man’s body heat, was wonderfully warm. Only then did Dohui register the cold — the kind that felt like his toes might drop off. He rubbed his feet against his legs. The soles that had pressed against the dark ground were aching, numb, and freezing all at once. Every kind of pain came surging up at the same time now.
“My car’s parked over there. Wait there a moment.”
“Right, we can’t leave it here. I’ll run and grab my phone, alright?”
“……But.”
“Kid, listen to me. Standing out here like that, you’ll get frostbite on your feet. No really, what in the world is going on here.”
The man’s eyes traveled past Dohui to look back the way she had come. He took in the well-paved road and the houses that were noticeably different from everything around them, and sighed. A white cloud of breath spread into the air.
He patted Dohui’s back.
“Come on. Let’s get to the car and warm you up first. Goodness, not even properly dressed……”
He led Dohui to his car. When they climbed into the blue cargo van, warm air hit both cheeks.
“Good thing I left the heater on. Wait here a moment.”
“F, file the report first.”
“Don’t worry about that either. I sent the others, they’ll report it and be back in no time. Koreans are nothing if not thorough when it comes to that.”
The man pulled out a thermos. At the sight of it, Dohui’s upper body instinctively drew back. The man laughed heartily at that. As if he understood exactly what the worry was.
“It’s barley tea, barley tea. Out working in weather like this, something like this is essential.”
He opened the lid and a warm, earthy smell drifted out gently. The golden liquid trickled down the side of the cap. He handed over the steaming lid.
Dohui looked down at it quietly. With every breath, the enticing smell spread further.
Even Dohui, who had refused every drink and food offered to him in all this time, couldn’t hold back this time. He sipped it down — and burned his tongue. That was fine. The chill that had felt like it might freeze his insides melted away softly.
“Your face is very red.”
The man looked sympathetically at Dohui’s cheeks, dried out from running through the winter wind.
“Where are those guys — what’s taking them so long?”
He kept glancing at the rearview mirror and checking the side mirror too.
“Maybe I should’ve just driven straight to the police station the moment we got in the car. Sent them off for nothing and wasted time.”
“…….”
Dohui couldn’t lift his head. He kept watching outside the car window with anxious eyes. The van had no tinted windows — the inside would be fully visible from outside. Which meant if Gong Haejin happened to be on his way back, he might be seen.
The man looked at those white, delicate toes caked with dirt and grime.
Whatever happened to this one. Either lost their mind or went through something awful. The messy hair was the least of it — the expression was deeply off. The man stared at the skin, pale enough that the veins showed through, and clicked his tongue. Talking fine though, so at least that’s intact. The world’s really gone to ruin.
The man lifted the thermos with the barley tea. Asking if he wanted more. Dohui shook his head. In the brief moment the man rolled the window down to shake the remaining moisture from the cap, Dohui’s body shuddered involuntarily from the chill. A few minutes somewhere warm and he’d already forgotten how cold it was.
“By the way, where did you come from? Thought you’d fallen out of the sky. Most of it around here is still under construction. Well, there is one house further in……”
Dohui gave a small nod. His mind was in no state to gauge distances.
But then the man’s tone shifted, subtly.
“Ah, but that house further in……”
The man stopped. His expression — it looked like something had clicked. The atmosphere said as much.
“I, I’m fine. I’ll be going.”
Dohui scrambled out of the car in a hurry. The man reached out to stop him in a flustered motion, but was a beat too late. Dohui had already pulled the door shut.
The man’s shout came through the glass, muffled and indistinct. Dohui slowly backed away, then broke into a run again. Until he was out of this neighborhood, he couldn’t trust anyone. How…… how far, how deep does it go……
The man shouted from behind.
“Hey——! I’ll give you a ride——!”
Every shout that jabbed into his spine like a needle made Dohui push his legs faster. He thought he might actually make it — break free of the area entirely.
The blue cargo van the man was driving came after him. And from the opposite direction, a black car closed the distance at an unhurried pace.
In the confusion, Dohui lost all momentum entirely. The way they were closing in from both sides — it wasn’t ordinary. Which way, which way…… His eyes moved frantically.
The black sedan stopped and the rear door swung open. A familiar silhouette came into view, piece by piece. Shoes without a spot of dirt on them. Sharp-creased slacks. And that jet-black hairstyle.
Until Gong Haejin stepped fully out of the car, Dohui couldn’t move. As though nails had been driven through him into the ground. A cold sensation crept upward slowly from the tips of his toes.
Gong Haejin smiled, looking thoroughly entertained.
“You failed?”
“…….”
“You said you didn’t want to play hide-and-seek — changed your mind today?”
Saying that, he pulled a cigarette from the inner pocket of his jacket and put it between his lips. He shielded one side with his hand and lit it. His brow pinched slightly with irritation.
Gong Haejin looked around. His gaze moved along the tall walls of the empty houses one by one, and finally landed on Dohui’s feet. However far he’d run, his feet were bright red. And more than that — there were drops of blood. Dohui didn’t seem to know. And who gave him that ratty padded jacket?
Just then, a construction worker jumped down from the cargo van behind Dohui. He came hurrying over to Gong Haejin and bowed at the waist.
“Hello, Director. I greeted you before — I’m the site foreman.”
Gong Haejin dismissed him with barely a glance. Then he pulled the padded jacket off Dohui without hesitation. The frozen Dohui didn’t resist even once. He was like a doll. Like a shell left behind after the soul had slipped out.
“I don’t recall having thrown you away.”
“…….”
“Why did you come running out and make things complicated? If you really wanted to play hide-and-seek, you should have just said so.”
