There was no need to wonder for long where I’d seen him. After all, it was the very memory I’d revived just last night. No, I’d never once forgotten it in over ten years, so remembering the man was nothing difficult for me at all.
But emotions were different. It was a heart I’d buried right after that year ended. Even when recalling the memory, the sensation had always been hazy. Yet my body recalled everything so easily it was almost pathetic.
Midsummer. Come here.
My heart tightened until it ached.
How are you here?
A heartbeat I hadn’t heard until now rang loudly in my ears. The louder it grew, the more the memory stirred up yet another forgotten sensation. My breath caught. It felt like if I didn’t spit something out, my breathing would simply stop.
“Choi Seol?”
In the end, that was the only thing I could possibly utter. In the distance, the sound of an ambulance could be heard approaching.
“Aside from minor bruising, there don’t appear to be any external injuries, but we won’t know the details until the patient regains consciousness and we run a thorough examination.”
Whether from staying up all night or not, the doctor’s voice was steeped in fatigue. At his glance asking if I had other questions, I shook my head without a word. As long as his life wasn’t in danger, that was enough. It would be strange for me, who wasn’t even his guardian, to pepper the doctor with questions anyway.
But it seemed the others didn’t see it that way.
“Guardian, please fill out the patient’s personal information here.”
Caught off guard, I took the paper and pen and looked at the nurse in bewilderment. It wasn’t the nurse who’d accompanied the doctor when we arrived at the ER, but a face I was seeing for the first time.
“Um, the nurse who was here earlier……”
“She finished her night shift and went home. First, please write down the name and resident registration number.”
After a brief explanation, the nurse hurried off to another patient. Having missed my chance to correct her, I blankly watched her retreating back before lowering my gaze. My eyes happened to land on the name field at the very top of the paper.
The name I should write there came to mind automatically, but I forced myself to resist the urge to readjust my grip on the pen. Instead, I turned my gaze elsewhere. The man occupying the ER bed right in front of me had a bandage on his forehead and his eyes closed, his face haggard. Despite his pale complexion, he shone. It wasn’t just his dazzlingly handsome looks or his body, perfect enough to make even another man swoon. It included a presence that could make a rich man’s son look like a country bumpkin by comparison, that could turn even a fluorescent green school gym uniform into a designer item. I could say with certainty that a man like that would be hard to find anywhere in Korea. Which made it all the more unsettling.
Even if it were possible for more than one man like that to exist in Korea, could they really resemble each other this much? Twins, perhaps? Harboring suspicion, I glanced closely at the man’s face again, but it only reinforced my conviction further. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed to match.
“Guardian, are you done writing?”
The nurse, having returned at some point, looked down at the paper in my hand. Naturally, nothing was written on it.
“Not yet.”
“That’s, well, I’m……”
“Aren’t you the patient’s family?”
Before I could properly answer, the nurse’s question came back at me, and I shut my mouth. Apparently taking that as an answer, the nurse sighed.
“Then, is it possible to contact the patient’s family?”
“We’re looking into that on our end, so please wait just a little longer.”
While I was racking my brain over how to explain this, a savior appeared. Relieved, I quickly turned around. A police officer in her mid-thirties, in a crisp, wrinkle-free uniform, looked at the nurse with affable eyes.
“I’m Inspector Park Hae-sook, here from the station after receiving the accident report. By the way, this person here is a witness who was nearby when our flower boy—no, when the patient had his accident.”
“A witness?”
The nurse turned her eyes to me as if trying to determine the truth of it. There seemed no need to deliberate any further.
“I don’t know him.”
Choi Seol.
I knew his name. I knew his birthdate too. I hadn’t asked him directly, but I’d happened to see it in his school record while running an errand for a teacher, and I’d turned it over in my memory countless times since.
I couldn’t say I knew everything about him, but at the very least, I remembered in detail what grade, class, and number he’d been in during our first year of high school, how popular he’d been at school, who his friends were, what sports he excelled at, what rank he’d maintained school-wide, and even how dazzling his rare smiles had been. I remembered all of it, down to the smallest detail.
Of course I did.
Because he was my first love. And because it had been unrequited.
But that man didn’t know that. And it had to stay that way.
“You stayed by his side the whole time, so I assumed you were his guardian. Usually witnesses leave the hospital pretty quickly once they’ve handed things over.”
The nurse, finally grasping the situation, wore an apologetic expression. In truth, my role as a witness had already ended. And yet I hadn’t just stayed nearby—I’d been staring intently at the man, so it was an entirely understandable misunderstanding.
Embarrassed that I might have been staring at him too much, my cheeks burned for no reason. Without thinking, I brought a hand to my cheek, just as the nurse asked the police officer in a troubled voice.
“Then is there no other material that could prove his identity? We need to register him first.”
“My colleague who’s currently at the scene is running a check on the vehicle. It should be confirmed soon, so please wait just a bit.”
“A vehicle check?”
“Aside from that, no belongings that could prove his identity—like a wallet or phone—were found on him at all.”
At the nurse’s expression of having heard something truly strange, the officer gave a vague smile as if she shared the sentiment. He wasn’t out for a neighborhood stroll, and he was clearly an outsider, yet he’d been driving down a country road without so much as a phone or wallet. At this point, there was nothing to say even if it looked suspicious.
“Oh dear, could he have lost his bag somewhere? He wasn’t pickpocketed, was he?”
But there wasn’t a trace of suspicion toward the man on the nurse’s face. If anything, her gaze, full of pity, couldn’t seem to look away from him. The officer was no exception.
“Exactly. Just thinking about how a fine flower boy like that must have suffered makes my heart ache.”
It seemed that face alone inspired powerful trust. I was starting to feel pathetic for having been so anxious inside. The words of my female classmates back then—that a face was its own justification—still rang true now as much as ever.
If it had been me, I would’ve been branded a suspicious person ages ago. It wasn’t like I went around being told I was unattractive, but standing next to that face worked some kind of magic that turned me into a squid by comparison. It had been the same back then too. The boys in our class had been forced to seriously question their own looks, all because they happened to share a class with Choi Seol.
In any case, it seems everyone, then and now, treats that guy generously.
I scoffed without meaning to, then quickly straightened my face and shook my head. At some point, I’d been completely equating that man with the boy from back then.
That man isn’t the Choi Seol I know. He’s not my first love.
So let’s run.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way now.”
“Hold on a second, witness. You still need to finish talking with me.”
“Gah!”
The moment I tried to step away from the bedside, the officer grabbed me by the scruff of my neck.
“N-noona? Could you let go of this……”
“Noona?”
“Before being a witness, he’s the kid from the house across from ours. Funny running into him like this today. The countryside’s pretty small, huh?”
Having begged the pardon of the nurse—who’d had plenty of surprises for the day already—the officer dragged me toward the hallway. Being hauled off by someone in a police uniform looked, to any onlooker, exactly like an arrest. I could feel curious glances flicking toward us from every direction.
I really should have left sooner. What lingering attachment had made me stubbornly camp out by that bed—it was a moment of bitter regret.
“Trying to sneak off without even saying hello to your noona.”
The instant I was finally released, a flick to the forehead came my way. That noona was just as consistent now as she’d been back then. There was no mistaking her for anyone else.
“I already said hi earlier.”
Rubbing my forehead, which had surely turned red, I retorted sullenly, and her hand rose again. As I flinched back to defend myself, she lowered her hand with a sigh, as if she’d only meant to threaten.
“Honestly, you country boys never know how to appreciate someone. Because of you and my dad, I swear my heart nearly gave out more than once in my ten years on the force.”
The one who’d responded to the accident report and rushed to the hospital was, of all people, someone I knew. She was the village chief’s youngest daughter, and also the noona from across the street who used to play with me back when I was left at my grandmother’s house as a kid. She explained that, partly because of her father’s request and partly because the accident happened in her jurisdiction, she’d ended up handling the case—and that at first, she’d thought I was the one who caused the accident.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Not like it’s your fault my dad didn’t explain things properly. As long as you didn’t flat-out commit a crime, you’ve got nothing to apologize to me for. Though if you actually did, that excuse wouldn’t fly either.”
She’s so cool about it. Her casual attitude made my heart give an uncomfortable little jolt. Did I actually commit some kind of crime? Why did my conscience keep stinging like this? I think I knew the reason, but I deliberately looked away and pretended not to, placing a hand over my chest, when suddenly an arm slung around my shoulder.
“So I’m telling you this in advance. You know I became a police officer to bring justice to the world, right? So things like connections won’t work on me—not even on our family dog.”
Wondering what kind of nonsense even the dog wouldn’t understand, I looked at her, and she added simply.
“Now’s your chance to come clean, is what I’m saying.”
“Chance? What do you mean by……”
“You’re lying to me about something.”
I gulped, the sound nearly audible. Worried she might have heard it, I hurried to speak.
“T-there’s nothing like that.”
Idiot. There was no other way to describe it—my voice had come out painfully awkward. The noona seemed to notice too; her narrowed eyes gleamed sharply, as if hunting down the real culprit.
“It’s you, isn’t it? Not the cat.”
“What?”
“The truth is, that flower boy was trying to avoid you, wasn’t he?”
It was only then that I realized where that bizarre suspicion had come from. My heart, which had been pounding in fear of being found out, settled back into calm.
