The child said nothing. Since coming to this place, he’d been abused and starved by Dad, so he was thinner than when he first came, and his height had barely grown. So the height difference between the child and me had become more severe.
I pushed his stiffly frozen back and shouted at the child for the first time.
“Go, quickly!”
“……”
The child’s lips moved as if to say something. But in the end, without leaving any words, he turned around and began running. Admirably, he ran very fast without stumbling or falling even once. He looked very brave.
I stared blankly at that sight, and only when the child’s back became too distant to see did what I wanted to say suddenly occur to me.
“Don’t forget me! You can’t forget me!”
I shouted belatedly, but I didn’t know if the child heard. In the empty playground, only my voice echoed hollowly.
“Don’t forget me…”
When I hung my head low, the blue toy car the child had left behind was lying at my feet.
After that, my memories are cut off in fragments. As soon as Dad came home, he noticed the child had disappeared and immediately interrogated me. The interrogation naturally involved violence.
Unless he was an idiot, he couldn’t not know I’d released the child. Dad lost his reason and punched me. I lost consciousness in the middle, so I don’t remember exactly how much I was beaten.
Only a few scenes of the police rushing in and receiving treatment at the hospital came back vaguely.
Dad was arrested as is for luring and confining a minor, and I was immediately separated from Dad.
Did the child report it? I thought about the child the whole time at the hospital.
When my residence was moved to a relative’s house, when I was sent to an orphanage as if kicked out, when the police came to investigate—I never failed to ask about Kwon Yujin’s wellbeing. But there wasn’t a single adult who would answer me about the child.
Whether he returned home safely, whether he met the parents he said he missed, whether the bruised skin healed, whether he now wore shoes that fit his feet properly…
I had so many questions, but I couldn’t know anything. Nothing about the child was permitted to me.
It was the first time in my life I’d sincerely wished for someone’s safety and happiness this much. Looking back, the child was my only family. It’s ridiculous. To the child, I’m just an accomplice of the kidnapper, yet to me, the child was everything.
The only thing I could do was visit the playground where we last played together. Even knowing the child was no longer there, that playground was the only place I could go.
After school ended, after finishing middle school graduation, after dropping out of high school, after part-time jobs ended—the place I headed to was always the playground. But even after several years passed, I couldn’t meet the child.
I stopped going to the playground after I coincidentally discovered an article titled “High School Swimming Athlete Kwon Yujin, Sweeps Gold Medals.”
That’s how I coincidentally encountered news of Kwon Yujin after 7 years. In the meantime, I also learned he’d manifested as an alpha.
I was twenty years old at the time, so the child would have been seventeen. For several months, I only sporadically encountered news of the child through articles, then heard news that he was participating in a major competition.
After long deliberation, I decided to go watch the competition. Worried he might recognize me, I completely covered my face with a scarf in addition to my hat and mask. Fortunately, there were many people besides me in the spectator seats. Kwon Yujin must have been a famous athlete even then, as he had many fans.
He was much taller than in the photos, so I didn’t recognize him at first. The child in my memory always hovered below my shoulder.
But changes in appearance weren’t that important to me. Kwon Yujin looked fast, energetic, and healthy. Enough to make my heart swell.
***
Today, the site work finished earlier than expected. It was a rare day where not a single mistake came out in each of our assigned areas.
I put the cut wood waste into sacks to dispose of them and organized the remaining tools. Perhaps because I’d hammered quite a lot, my wrist was a bit stiffer than usual. When this site was completely finished, I’d have to refrain from joining the carpentry crew for a while.
Even while cleaning, intermittently bending my wrist back and forth, I thought about what happened with Kwon Yujin yesterday.
Imprinting. Imprinting was the problem.
The information available on the internet was too ambiguous and there were many posts for advertising, so I couldn’t trust it. Somewhere they said imprinting was a good thing, somewhere else they said it was fatal to health so it should absolutely be avoided.
“Director.”
“Oh, Taeyoung. Are you done?”
“Just need to clean up now.”
“Then why.”
“Director, do you know what imprinting is?”
The director, who had been gathering the sacks already piled around, tilted his head at my words.
“Ah, that. When alphas and omegas do that thing together?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard people around me do it. Why.”
I wondered how much I should explain. Since the director was a beta, he definitely wouldn’t know much about imprinting or pheromones. I’d asked suddenly out of frustration, but I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do.
“A friend said he got imprinted to someone he didn’t know well. He seems to be having a really hard time, so I wondered if you might know anything.”
I made up an excuse about it being a friend’s situation and asked the director. Then the director put down the sack he was moving and suddenly stared at me intently.
“Why.”
“Kid, you had a friend too? Bastard, that’s unexpected.”
“I have some.”
Actually, as the director said, it was true I didn’t have any, but since I’d already brought it up as a friend’s situation, I had to lie.
“But they did that thing when they’re not close? That can’t be right.”
The director muttered while taking out a cigarette from his pocket. It was similar to what the doctor had said. Usually, imprinting happens between people who have a bond. Though there seemed to be exceptions like Kwon Yujin.
“Still, something must have been there for them to end up like that.”
“What if there was nothing?”
“I don’t know that much.”
Then Tiler Mr. Kang, who had been just listening nearby, hijacked the conversation.
“Imprinting? Doesn’t that make you socially maladjusted if you don’t have your mate? Like ‘It has to be my woman, no one else!’ that kind of thing.”
“Hey, what maladjusted? It’s just being lovesick.”
“No, Director. This hyungnim doesn’t know much. Imprinting isn’t as romantic as playing house like that.”
“Then what is it.”
“For example. Say I imprinted on a girl named Jihwa, but she doesn’t even look at me? Then from that point it’s hell. I only go into heat for that bitch Jihwa, but huh? Just smelling other things makes me want to vomit. Life becomes unbearable.”
“That’s being lovesick.”
“I’m saying it’s not just that level.”
I, who had been watching the director and Mr. Kang’s words go back and forth, interjected.
“Then how do you treat it?”
“Ah, that’s simple.”
At Mr. Kang’s words that it was simple, I widened my eyes and listened carefully.
“You gotta persistently bang it out, man! Huh?”
“Bwahaha! I knew that bastard would say that.”
Giggling laughter burst out from around us. The director also shook his head as if dumbfounded.
I too deflated, the strength that had been in my shoulders naturally draining out.
“Hey, Hyun Taeyoung. By the way, can you come out 5 days a week for the next site too?”
“Yes. Except Saturdays. But we’re almost done with the carpentry here.”
“Not here, somewhere else. Come help with demolition work.”
“Where’s the site?”
“It’s not decided yet… I’ll tell you once the requesting side signs the contract. It’ll be around this area anyway.”
“Yes.”
In the end, the conversation concluded on an out-of-the-blue topic without learning any new information about imprinting.
***
[Location: Laforet House 3rd Floor, Seheon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul Time: Saturday 1 PM]
[Got it]
I checked the text I’d exchanged with Kwon Yujin a few days ago once more and stood in front of a building I was seeing for the first time. Judging by how he sent a text with just the address and time without any other words, it seemed to mean I should come directly here.
As I approached the building entrance, someone who appeared to be a security guard spoke to me.
“Which floor are you visiting?”
“3rd floor.”
“Visitor’s name?”
“Hyun Taeyoung.”
“Are you an acquaintance? Family?”
“An acquaintance.”
“Please sign here.”
Perhaps it was a place with very thorough security, as the guard handed me paper and a pen. I thought people lived here, but is it a place like a government facility? Or a sports facility?
While wondering, I still wrote my name and phone number on the visitor list and signed.
“Could you take off your mask and hat for a moment?”
