“Ahjussi sent you the password. The front door is the same, so just enter it and come in.”
When they unlocked the door lock from the garage and entered, stairs that turned direction in the middle connected the basement and first floor. Upon reaching the first floor, the front door and vestibule were visible straight ahead, and from there long corridors extended on both sides.
All the windows in the corridor were glass blocks. They were positioned at intervals with about 10cm of wall between them, and the light passing through them also created shadows at the same intervals.
Was it because he was setting foot in an unfamiliar place for the first time? Despite the bright natural light and open structure, the shadows extending like molted skin on the floor were particularly desolate.
“On both sides of this corridor are the kitchen and study. The living room is on the second floor, so spend your time there when you have nothing to do. There are two rooms on the second floor, and the room Seonwoo will stay in is the one connected to the living room. When you wash up, use the large bathroom next to the stairs. Ahjussi’s son uses the bathroom in his own room.”
“Is he home now?”
“I’m not sure. Do you want to go up and see, Seonwoo?”
Right next to them were stairs going up to the upper floor. It was a structure that connected vertically from the basement to the second floor. The Vice Director only raised his wrist to check his watch and didn’t seem to have any intention of going upstairs.
“Nothing else you’re curious about?”
“No.”
“Alright. If anything comes up, contact me anytime. Ahjussi has to go back to the hospital now.”
As if bringing Seonwoo to this house was his purpose, the Vice Director left without even seeing his son who might be upstairs. Seonwoo also headed to the second floor without looking around the house further.
When he went up the stairs, the space seemed to be divided around the corner of the wall.
The left side with the corridor let in no light at all and was dim even during the day, while the right side had soft light filtered through curtains illuminating the living room.
The closed room at the end of the corridor was far from the stairs, and the path there had no windows or lighting, making it dim. The Vice Director’s son might be inside.
But Seonwoo didn’t linger in front of it and turned his back on the corridor.
The living room was larger than the single-patient room Seonwoo had been hospitalized in. The sofa looked like it could seat about eight people, and on the opposite wall, instead of a TV, there was a square fireplace built into the wall. Three or four logs were burning beyond the glass door.
Other than that, there was nothing to see and it was empty. There was no separate veranda, only a large glass window visible beyond the fluttering curtains. Seonwoo’s room was close to the window side. When he opened the room door, what caught his eye was a wide-open window.
It was so large that it took up almost the entire wall, giving a considerable sense of openness. Being a folding door type, the window folded in half was pushed to the left. The desk below it had nothing on it, making it as empty as a dormitory room someone had just moved into.
His appreciation ended there. Seonwoo lay down on the bed as soon as he closed the door. He lay flat on his back without even changing clothes, staring at the ceiling. An empty space was captured in his pupils.
“……”
He just blinked for a while. There was no way drowsiness would come at such an early hour. Suddenly looking around, Seonwoo discovered the paper bag that had fallen on the floor.
Rummaging through it roughly, medicine packets connected by dotted lines came out in a row. He tore open one pack and poured the pills that spilled onto his palm into his mouth without water.
Even though the large pills should have gotten stuck in his throat, Seonwoo forcibly swallowed them crudely. From then on, it didn’t take long for his mind to become hazy and fall asleep.
ლ
There was an accident.
It wasn’t something Seonwoo thought himself, but people who stuck their faces in one by one at the edge of his vision said so. He had just woken from sleep, yet his right hand was destroyed, his mother was in a coma, and his father died at the accident scene.
It took a long time to accept reality. Seonwoo’s process was longer than others because all his memories from the time of the accident had vanished. After countless tests and treatments, the memory that vaguely surfaced was the moment he was standing in line, shivering from the cold.
It was a rest stop crowded with people. After waiting, he held a sugar-covered hot dog and headed to the cafe on the opposite side. In front of it were his mom and dad, who had just received their coffee.
It was a family trip on Christmas Day. Despite being busy at the end of the year, his parents had made time for this trip. It was to celebrate none other than Seonwoo’s college acceptance.
The accident site was on a regular road slightly away from the highway exit. It was once a tourist spot people sought out knowingly, but it had become an area with declining foot traffic after a new city full of distribution complexes was built an hour’s drive away.
In other words, it was a section with few passing vehicles and a low accident rate.
The vehicle Seonwoo was riding in was a 5-seater mid-size SUV, a generous car type for a family of three, but the other party that charged at them running a red light was a 20-ton large dump truck.
It was impossible for a vehicle traveling at low speed to avoid it suddenly. Nevertheless, perhaps his father instinctively turned the wheel just before the accident—the collision point was the driver’s seat, and the car body was crushed beyond recognition. That’s what the detective who came to the hospital said.
The vehicle was pushed 30 meters while collided, but because there was no secondary accident, the back seat was relatively intact. That was why Seonwoo was alive and well except for his right hand.
[Student, to have been in such a big accident and only injured one hand is heaven’s fortune. So you need to shake it off well and get up……]
[……]
Even with his dazed head that wasn’t working well, Seonwoo thought those were meaningless words. The college Seonwoo got accepted to was an art school. Specifically, the ceramics department. It was a place where he couldn’t do anything with a hand that would have permanent disability.
Especially when working with clay, delicacy was key. Even a slight imbalance would change the form, making it difficult to see the end without considerable patience.
But Seonwoo couldn’t even hold a spoon straight now. Even scooping one spoonful of rice porridge was burdensome, so he had to use his left hand when eating. Without sitting in front of the pottery wheel to confirm it directly, he could tell. With this hand, even centering would be impossible.
If only what was crushed in the car body had been his leg instead. If only he had been the one sitting in the driver’s seat instead of his father. Meaningless imaginings were his only refuge, but even that didn’t last long.
The detective who offered clumsy comfort hadn’t actually come for a leisurely hospital visit. What had been waiting for Seonwoo to wake up wasn’t just the news of the accident.
His mother, who had been a tax accountant without a single scandal for over 10 years, had become a suspect in tax evasion assistance. The estimated amount of damages was a sum far too unfamiliar to Seonwoo. His mother was a one-person tax accountant without employees, and above all, there was no way that much money would be at home.
Seonwoo’s family lived in a 30-pyeong old apartment in the outskirts of the metropolitan area. Excluding each parent’s personal car, they had no assets to speak of. Nevertheless, the prosecution was confident of the charges, having found some kind of evidence.
The compact car purchased secondhand when Seonwoo was in elementary school, and the 20-year-old apartment building—both were in Mom’s name. All of it went to auction. What remained for Seonwoo was only Dad’s life insurance payout that would be inherited from now on, and the art studio.
The truck driver who caused the traffic accident was an employee of a large corporation’s logistics center, and the cause was drowsy driving due to excessive workload.
Immediately after the accident, it decorated the 9 o’clock news as a family tragedy, but then the truck driver’s physical condition on the verge of death from overwork and the story of how he had lost his spouse just a few months ago and was raising two children as a single parent flowed into the media, and public opinion boiled over.
