- Hosan Village
The village sat embraced by mountains and sea alike.
Behind it loomed a rugged mountain that seemed reluctant to welcome outsiders. And before it stretched a vast, open blue sea.
It seemed hard to believe that on this cramped strip of land, there could still be a sea that hadn’t announced its existence to the world, and yet the sea surrounding this village was exactly that. A sea left untouched, unpolluted, in its natural state.
Though the mountain had been carved away in places to make room for roads people could walk, it still retained more of its ancient form than most other mountains.
Perhaps that was why so few people came looking for the village nestled deep within it. Few was too generous a word. Practically no one came at all.
Shhhhh, the sound of the sea crashing white against a corner of the mountain could be heard. Listening to that soothing sound, a man opened the door of a black car and stepped out.
“…..”
He was an outsider who hadn’t set foot on this mountain in a long time. No one could say how many years it had been since he’d last visited the village.
The man raked a hand through his hair, his prominent brow bone and the space between his eyebrows creasing. His build looked solid even at a glance. His sharp eyes, the scar cut beneath his pronounced brow, his clearly defined nose bridge, and his angular jaw all gave off a fierce, formidable air.
On top of that, the man was tall, remarkably so. He looked down from an even greater height at the sea, faintly visible in the distance. Bracing his weight on thick thighs, he slowly turned his broad upper body, his gaze drifting toward the village that was barely visible, if visible at all.
“No signal here either.”
Following the man, another man emerged from the passenger seat. Squinting against the pouring sunlight, he turned his phone this way and that, searching for a spot with reception.
“I think we passed this road earlier.”
“Yes. I think so too.”
He’d heard the road into the village was complicated. Because the mountain was so rugged, they’d built a road, but a rather shoddy one at that, easy to get lost on. Supposedly, if you followed a specific route straight through, you could reach the village without wandering off course, but…
“The view’s nice, at least.”
The man who had gotten out first tilted his stiff neck to one side. He’d been trapped in the car for hours now. He’d meant to stop by another town partway to take care of some business. If he had, he might have ended up arriving at this mountain in the dead of night and getting even more lost.
The man’s eyes narrowed at the mere thought, exhausting even to imagine. His dark eyebrows and sharp eyes twisted faintly.
“There’s no road ahead anyway. Might as well rest a bit before we go.”
Yes, hyung. Behind the man’s low voice, the others who had ridden along answered in turn. The mild-mannered man who had been driving also got out of the car, rolling his stiff shoulders back and forth to loosen them.
“Hyung, we’ll go take a look up ahead, see if there’s anything.”
“Doubt there is.”
“Just thought we might spot something from where the car can’t go. We’ll be quick.”
“Don’t go too far.”
Having issued that brief warning, the man leaned against the car and pulled out a cigarette to light. Click, the lighter’s flint struck, sparking a flame. But perhaps because of the sea in the distance, the flame that caught was faint. The man bent his head, eyebrows creasing, to touch the cigarette to the fire.
White, acrid smoke curled up from the cigarette’s tip.
At the same time, a breeze carrying a clear, fresh scent that didn’t suit the man at all rustled past his shirt. Though it was spring, the air still held a lingering chill, yet the man had taken off his jacket and wore only a black shirt. Over it, formless streaks of light spilled down in a strange, shifting pattern.
The man drew the smoke in deep, exhaled, and reached for the phone he’d tossed inside the car earlier. Jihwan had said a moment ago that there was no signal, but still…
This area is outside network coverage. To place a call…
Listening to the endlessly looping recorded message, the man hung up and set the phone back where it had been.
There was clearly nothing to be done. He should have corrected course the moment he first entered the mountain, back when that dizzying feeling that he’d taken a wrong turn had brushed faintly through his mind. Jonghyeok, a man born and raised in the city, hadn’t imagined for a second that something called a mountain could hold him hostage for hours like this.
Jihwan and Yongsik, who had gone off to find the road, still hadn’t come back, no telling how far they’d gotten. Jonghyeok stared at the crudely connected road and slowly raked a hand through his dark black hair.
The sea was visible far off in the distance. But just when he thought he was moving toward it, before he knew it, the sea had drifted off to the opposite side again. He’d even considered just leaving the mountain entirely and starting the search for the road from scratch. But the mountain, as if it knew exactly what he was thinking, refused to let them out.
Thinking about it again, it was absurd to the point of being ridiculous. Even as he thought this, he found himself almost understanding why the sea encircling this village had remained untouched by people’s footsteps for so long…
“…Excuse me.”
Jonghyeok had just thrown down the cigarette he’d been smoking, ground it out under his shoe, and was pulling out a new one when an unfamiliar voice rang out, making him crease his brow.
He turned his head, and there stood a young man with a neat, composed air about him. Someone clearly only in his early twenties, still carrying a hint of youth.
“…..”
“…..”
The young man hadn’t expected to run into anyone else either, evidently. He gripped the handlebars of the bicycle he was holding without realizing it, tightening his hold as he faced Jonghyeok.
For some reason, his palms had gone damp against the handlebars. Jonghyeok watched his long eyelashes tremble, as if betraying that very fact.
“…Hardly anyone comes through here. Where are you headed?”
A voice that suits his face well, Jonghyeok thought. Pale hair that looked faintly brown, perhaps from catching the bright light. A white short-sleeved T-shirt layered under a neatly pressed shirt. Light-colored jeans. Clean but worn sneakers. And…
“Looking for Hosan Village.”
“…Ah.”
He had a handsome, delicate face. Judging by his air, he seemed to have been born and raised somewhere nearby, yet his clear, well-defined features and fair skin were the kind that wouldn’t look out of place even in the city.
Above all, Jonghyeok found himself unable to look away from his long eyelashes in particular. Eyes that blinked slowly as they took in the mountain and sea together. The clear, unclouded eyes and long lashes glimpsed between each blink looked as though they’d been shaped by this very place.
“The roads here are strange, so a lot of people end up lost. You’re an outsider, right?”
“…..”
“I’ll take you there. I’m headed to that village anyway.”
“You live there?”
“Yes. I live in that village. Getting there from here means a long way around… Looks like you got lost on the way.”
He answered calmly, then curved his lips into a quiet smile. His entire body seemed to broadcast just how awkward he found this conversation with an unfamiliar outsider.
But Jonghyeok didn’t smile back. He snapped the cigarette he’d been holding between his lips and rose slowly to his feet.
“…..”
As his large frame straightened to its full height, the young man’s clumsily smiling face stiffened faintly. He was far taller than expected. An intimidating presence radiated off him, pressing down on whoever stood opposite him without even trying.
It was a fierceness the young man, who had lived his whole life here, had never once encountered. The heavy, probing gaze that kept sweeping over his face felt just as unfamiliar. Jonghyeok wasn’t doing anything in particular, and yet the one facing him couldn’t shake the tension gripping him.
“Choi Jonghyeok.”
Jonghyeok pulled a business card from his pocket and held it out. CEO Choi Jonghyeok, Yeongsan Construction. Jeongan accepted the card with both hands without quite meaning to and read it over carefully.
“Na Jeongan.”
“Mind if I speak casually with you?”
“…Ah, of course. Please, go ahead.”
Jeongan checked the card front and back, then tucked it into his shirt pocket. And he thought, that’s a slightly odd question to ask.
By any measure, the man looked older than him. Even the air he gave off carried an unmistakably masculine weight, one that felt almost incomparable. A powerful man whose unique, cool scent seemed strong enough to overwhelm even the natural fragrance rising off the mountain and sea.
So why would he ask permission to speak casually? Jeongan, who spent his days among people in the village far older than himself, had never once been asked such a question. Everyone simply spoke to him casually, as a given.
His mouth had gone dry for no reason. Jeongan figured it was probably just because it had been a while since he’d met someone from the city, and shook his head, belatedly, to clear it.
“So, what brings you to the village…?”
“Hyung!”
“Hm?”
Jihwan and Yongsik, who’d gone to scout the area, approached Jonghyeok with strange expressions on their faces. Jeongan startled at the sudden appearance of two more men and bowed his head in greeting. He wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed they were traveling with the man who’d introduced himself as CEO.
A ghost, maybe? Yongsik, the more mild-mannered looking of the two, murmured close to Jihwan’s ear.
And as if to shatter that theory outright, Jonghyeok answered in his place instead.
“Says he lives in Hosan Village.”
“Whoa, really?”
“Yes.”
“Thank god. I was getting frustrated, no signal anywhere we go and no road either.”
“I’ll take you there.”
“Seriously, what a relief. But why’d you come all the way out here? No car and… a bike?”
Yongsik asked, visibly relaxing now that his mind was at ease. Jeongan watched Yongsik’s expression visibly melt with relief, then followed the gaze of all three men, now openly staring at his bicycle.
“Ah, I needed to buy something from the next village over. The mountain’s rough, but I don’t take the paved road, I take the shortcut. A bike’s easier.”
“No supermarket in the village?”
“There is. I run it.”
