It wasn’t too difficult to let him stay while organizing the house. Anyway, he had to keep the heating on while he stayed, and clothes—well, he could make do with Junseok’s. As for food, he just needed to buy a little more when shopping for himself.
But what about after that?
He only needed to sort through his grandmother’s belongings before returning. What if this person didn’t recover his memory by then? Should he take him to Seoul?
Hyedam, who had been thinking about the distant future rather than the urgent matters at hand, quickly shook his head.
“Let’s go to the real estate agent.”
Since he had to do what needed to be done regardless of the situation, Hyedam, who had finished preparing to go out, swallowed the sigh that escaped when he saw Ondal’s back as he sat on the wooden platform. I hope it’s just temporary memory loss. It could happen sometimes, like occasionally forgetting things.
Of course, taking him to the police station or hospital would be the best solution, but all Hyedam could do was wait, finding the countless procedures that would follow too bothersome.
Still, why is he sitting out there so long in the cold? What if he catches a cold?
He was already drenched in the rain last night; wouldn’t it be better to take a nap on the warm floor…
“Ondal, I’m going to town. There’s still some fruit in the fridge. I’ll buy various things on the way back, so hang in there. There’s ramen in the kitchen cabinet if you get hungry. Are you sure you don’t want to come? If we go to the police station…”
Hyedam, who had been speaking to Ondal staring at him, didn’t finish his sentence and walked past him. After opening the creaking rusty iron gate and stepping outside, closing it behind him, Hyedam awkwardly smiled at Ondal, who was still looking at him from the same spot.
“Don’t go out. Um. Don’t open the door to anyone. No one will come by anyway. Um… I’ll be back.”
Stammering because he didn’t know what to say and blurting out whatever came to mind, Hyedam quickly turned his head away when he saw Ondal smiling slightly and nodding at his words.
Though he couldn’t hear his voice, he clearly saw his lips saying, “Thank you.” Having caught that gesture that would have been missed if he hadn’t been paying close attention, Hyedam walked quickly along the narrow path. His heart began racing as he suddenly noticed a coffee scent he hadn’t perceived before.
Of course he should be thankful. If he had openly expressed his gratitude, it might not have felt this way. But as that slightly smiling face and those faintly moving lips lingered in his mind, Hyedam lightly patted both his cheeks with his hands.
Get a grip. What I picked up yesterday wasn’t just a person. Could he be a gumiho? Who says a gumiho has to be female? There could be male gumihos too. As strange thoughts continued to fill his head, Hyedam pinched the tip of his nose with his thumb and index finger, then let go.
He couldn’t understand why there was such a strong coffee aroma when there was no café nearby that roasted their own beans. As soon as he arrived in town, he went to a café and ordered an Americano with an extra shot, but Hyedam’s expression didn’t improve much.
This isn’t the same scent.
It was the kind of aroma that comes from slowly roasting high-quality green coffee beans over a gentle fire. Recalling that truly fragrant, rich, and slightly spicy scent, Hyedam rubbed under his nose vigorously with his index finger.
Who would have thought his favorite Americano could taste this bad? With a palate that could enjoy delicious coffee even late at night despite insomnia, Hyedam left his drink unfinished for the first time.
After stopping by the real estate agent and telling them to sell the house at a reasonable price without much loss, not caring much about the house value, Hyedam headed to a nearby mart.
With both hands heavy with groceries, Hyedam caught the bus that ran only twice a day back home, and his heart strangely began to race again. He thought about his grandmother, final exams, and internship applications, but each train of thought inevitably ended with the mysterious man. Just thinking about him naturally brought the coffee scent to mind.
Night fell quickly in the mountains, and by the time Hyedam reached home following the dark path with only scattered streetlights, his heart was beating rapidly as if he had just run a 100-meter dash. A faint smile appeared on his face when he confirmed the light flowing from the small house beyond the empty wooden platform.
Because he might have left while Hyedam was in town.
As he opened the creaky iron gate and crossed the yard with light steps, Hyedam sniffed, catching an odd smell. What is this smell? For a small rural village with no passers-by late at night, it was a truly unsettling scent.
In his urgency, Hyedam put down his bags on the platform and ran to the house, flinging open the door. The next moment, he covered his nose and mouth against the acrid smell, coughing as he stepped back.
“Kak. Khulock. What… this… what is this. Ondal!”
After momentarily being startled by the whitish smoke coming out, Hyedam, remembering that Ondal was inside, quickly entered and frantically gestured for the large figure standing in front of the sink to come outside.
“It’s fine.”
“Khulock… Huh?”
“I said it’s fine.”
What exactly is fine? As the white smoke that had flowed outside when he opened the door gradually disappeared and Hyedam could properly see the situation inside, his mouth fell open. Unlike himself, who kept coughing, Ondal didn’t seem particularly troubled.
He thought there might have been a fire, but fortunately there wasn’t. Though it had almost happened.
Waving his hand in front of his face as he approached, Hyedam stared blankly at the blackened object under the cold stream of water in the sink.
Did we have such a black lump in our house? Seeing the torn ramen packaging scattered next to the sink and the gas stove emitting red and blue light though nothing was on it, Hyedam quickly turned off the stove first.
“What is this?”
“Ramen.”
“Why is the ramen like this?”
“Ah… I stepped out briefly, and it turned out like this.”
Stepped out briefly? What’s your definition of “briefly” in terms of time? Does “briefly” mean an hour to you? To me, it’s less than 5 minutes. Do we have different perceptions of time? Are you really an idiot? Ramen takes 3 minutes. Instead of going out or whatever, you’re supposed to stand in front of the stove, watch it boil, and wait a “brief” moment for the noodles to cook.
You put in water and added the noodles according to the instructions, right? Couldn’t you read the part that said to boil for about 3 minutes? Could you read the letters but not the numbers? Would you please explain to me how this could possibly happen?
At Hyedam’s urging, Ondal began explaining the situation, and as the story progressed, Hyedam’s mouth fell wider and wider.
To put it simply, Ondal, wanting to eat ramen, had put the noodles and soup powder in boiling water. Feeling stiff, he went out to the yard briefly when suddenly, the village dogs started barking. Wondering what was happening, he peered outside. Then suddenly, something large was moving around in the field in front of the house, so he chased after it.
A wild boar out of nowhere? Well, they do come down occasionally, but how scary is a wild boar that you would try to chase it away? Besides, that field in front—that’s not even our field. Anyway, when you went to the field, the wild boar went back to the mountain? And then you came back inside and… it turned out like this?
With one hand on his forehead, Hyedam bit his lower lip repeatedly, not knowing where to begin or what to correct.
Following Hyedam’s instructions to open all the windows, they opened every door in the house, and when the smoke and burnt smell that filled the house had subsided somewhat, the first thing Hyedam felt was the cold.
Of course it’s cold when all the doors are opened for ventilation late at night.
After taking the blackened pot that had turned to ash and placing it outside the house, Hyedam called Ondal in a small voice.
Then, after looking at him staring back and then at the bags on the platform, he silently went back inside and began closing the windows one by one.
Is the person who causes the accident different from the person who cleans it up?
Seemingly not oblivious, Ondal, who had brought in the bags from the platform, started helping close the open windows, and this time Hyedam began unpacking the bags he had brought in.
“How dangerous is a wild boar that you’d go out to chase it? And what time is it now to be eating ramen just now? There were apples here too, why didn’t you eat the apples! You don’t even need to peel apples. You just need to wash them under running water and bite into them.”
When he opened the refrigerator and saw that the three apples that had been left were still there, nagging naturally poured from Hyedam’s lips. Did he not eat anything all day? Thinking about how he had been starving and then nearly burned down the entire thatched house trying to cook one packet of ramen, Hyedam felt a tightness in his chest.
From the way he spoke earlier in the day, he didn’t seem like someone who would be particularly conscious of others’ reactions or feel intimidated, but Hyedam wondered if that wasn’t the case with his inner self.
After organizing everything he had bought, Hyedam turned around and gestured to Ondal, who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the house with his head slightly tilted to one side.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“I smell bread…”
“Bread? I didn’t buy any bread, but… I’ll buy some tomorrow.”
Does he prefer bread over rice? Promptly responding to his request for bread, Hyedam took out a few ready-to-eat meals.
“I’ll go wash up, so put these in the microwave. You can do that, right?”
Instead of answering, Ondal picked up the ready-to-eat meals and looked at the instructions, which Hyedam confirmed before gathering his clothes and heading to the bathroom. This is really strange. Where is this coffee smell coming from? Despite the ventilation, the burnt smell hadn’t completely dissipated from the house, but there was also a subtle coffee aroma.
Having prioritized buying side dishes, meat, and food that could be eaten immediately, he hadn’t bought any snacks at all. Naturally, he hadn’t bought any bread or coffee-like drinks either. He hadn’t even gone near a bakery, so why was Ondal suddenly talking about bread?
Hyedam’s days, which had been as stagnant as still water without any change, had transformed into the middle of a stormy sea with the appearance of one person.
