Summer
— Ahem. Hello, residents of the village. Today, there’s nothing else, but…….
As always, the village chief’s announcement coming through the loudspeaker showed no regard for the time. I’d given up on it long ago, but waking up to that homely wake-up call every single time was a separate problem entirely.
I groped around for the phone I’d tossed aside carelessly after watching webtoons last night and checked the time.
6:00
Sure enough, still the crack of dawn. A pained groan escaped me involuntarily. There were people out there who lavished praise on this hour with great sentimentality, but I hated dawn. There was nothing that made me feel more cheated than being awake during that awkward hour that was neither night nor morning.
If this were the city, someone would’ve already raised hell by now, but this was the countryside. At five in the morning, the village grandmothers gathered in twos and threes at the village bus stop, chatting away as they waited to catch the first bus to the market, while tractors and cultivators rattled busily toward the fields. Dawn in the countryside was a time when everyone was awake. Everyone except one person, that is.
Before I knew it, the village chief had moved on to announcing the farming education schedule. As I pulled the blanket over my head at the sound of something that had nothing to do with me, trying to fall back asleep, that’s when it happened.
— And next. This time, I’m, um…… I have to say something unpleasant. I’ve told you all before, repeatedly! To please be careful with trash separation! Even though I’ve said it so many times, the trash is still a mess…….
In the end, I got up. Setting aside the village chief’s anger, his nagging reminded me of something I had to do. I picked up the phone I’d pushed aside again and checked the day. Wednesday. Trash day.
“Such a hassle.”
I got up, pulled on the sweatpants I’d left beside the bed, and left the room. Maybe because I was in too much of a hurry, within half a step my foot slammed hard into the corner of a book.
A curse flew out before a groan even could. Even though the pain wouldn’t subside, I glared at the book with bleary eyes. The fault was mine for leaving things lying around carelessly, but right now I needed something to blame. The moment I saw the cover with the little boy wizard drawn on it, though, even that anger faded.
Instead, I remembered why I’d left this book here—a book I hadn’t opened once in ten years. It was just a whim, a bit of nostalgia after a long while. And in the end, laziness.
While lost in thought, the pain subsided somewhat. I picked up the book and stood. I was about to slot it properly back into the bookshelf, but instead laid it down carelessly in an empty spot so it’d be easy to pull out again, then threw open the door leading to the wooden porch.
Stepping out onto the porch, the air that rushed at me stung the tip of my nose. It was the height of summer, when heat wave alerts flooded my phone several times a day. And yet, standing on the hanok’s wooden floor, I felt a cool chill. Goosebumps rose on the bare skin beneath my short sleeves. To think I’d feel the wisdom of our ancestors that my grandmother used to boast about, right in the middle of a heat wave—I supposed environment and experience really did matter.
Still, since it was a heat wave, this chill I felt now would be completely forgotten in just a few hours. Whether wanting to bask in the midday sun so soon after was a lack of patience or just habit, I couldn’t tell.
When winter comes, I miss summer’s blazing sun. And when summer comes, I miss winter’s bone-deep cold.
Concluding that it must just be habit, I put on my shoes and headed to the storage shed. I grabbed a few trash bags kept by the entrance and was turning toward the backyard when it happened.
Crash!
The sound of a pile of stones falling. More precisely, collapsing.
“Not again.”
I sighed and headed for the backyard. The large wall surrounding the old house was sturdy, built by carefully stacking earth and stone, but the backyard side was a different story. Once it had collapsed from a natural disaster and had been hastily rebuilt with stones alone, so it was so fragile that even a few cat kicks could bring it down. Sure enough, when I arrived, several large stones were scattered across the ground. On top of them, a fluffy white mass of fur with gray patches landed lightly.
“Meow.”
“Ilsun, you knocked the wall down again, didn’t you.”
It was the stray cat that frequented our house. Whether it was paying attention to what I said or not, its ears perked up and its eyes narrowed slightly.
Damn it, too cute.
Of all the cats that came and went from the house, this one was, by unanimous consent, the prettiest. Stay calm. No matter how cute it was, this was absolutely not something to just let slide. The stone wall was already in a precarious state from all the stray cats passing through.
“You and your friends are going to bring this wall down sooner or later. And I can’t even stack it properly.”
“Meow.”
“Why does it have to be here, of all places? There’s a cement wall right next to it too. What if you end up getting crushed under the stones by accident?”
“Myao, myao.”
Forget it.
No matter how cutely those little ears perked up, it wasn’t as if it actually understood human speech, and even if it miraculously did, it wasn’t the type to listen anyway. The only word we truly understood each other on was just one.
“Meow. Meow. Meow.”
“……Fine. I’ll give you some, alright.”
In the end, I waved the white flag at its pitiful crying and insistence. In front of that adorable face, my resolve always turned foolishly soft.
“I’m coming. I said I’m coming.”
As if it somehow understood, the cat spun around and dashed toward its food bowl. Seeing that, my heart clenched again, and I resolved that today I would absolutely only give it a little food. Of course, it was a resolution that would never be carried out.
I’d given it plenty of food, so that chore was done……. Maybe I’ll take a walk.
Leaving the house and heading straight down the road for about five minutes, there was a large utility pole. I set the trash down neatly beside it and lifted my head to take in the wide-open countryside scenery. Unlike the city, which was gray no matter where you looked, the fact that I could see scenery full of green just by stepping into the yard gave a plausible excuse for my impulsive decision to live in the countryside.
The problem was that the yard alone was more than enough for scenery-viewing, so there was rarely any need to actually go for a walk. Though the biggest problem, to begin with, was that I had no will to walk at all.
Anyway, if taking out the trash counted as going out, then this was truly an outing after a long while. A year since I’d turned into a homebody—sometimes this kind of forced walk was necessary.
From where I stood now, the path along the rice paddies was the closest walking route, but I had no nerve to leisurely cut across a place in the middle of farming activity when I wasn’t even there to help.
In the end, I decided to walk the forest path behind the house, and as I turned, I saw a cat dashing rapidly toward me.
It was Ilsun.
Even though I’d just seen that face back at the house a few minutes ago, being outside made me oddly glad to see it again. I thought about calling out to it, but wondering what had it in such a hurry, I just watched—and then I saw another cat following close behind.
It was Ilsun’s mother. For whatever reason, she was chasing Ilsun with the ferocity of someone about to land a solid cat-punch.
The road’s dangerous.
Cats, sensitive to even the smallest stimuli, were oddly careless on roads sometimes. A few precarious scenes I’d witnessed before came to mind, and I checked the road. Fortunately, there was only one car passing far in the distance, nothing dangerous in sight.
They’ll dodge it fine. These were creatures that had survived by looking after themselves all this time. Just as the two of them dashed past me and I turned my steps back toward the forest—
Screech!
The sound of a car suddenly accelerating. I whipped my head around to see a black car, which had been driving far off just moments ago, now charging straight at the utility pole.
Crash!!
A deafening sound of something shattering rang through my entire body. In my slowly moving vision, I saw two cats disappearing toward the rice paddies. The instant I confirmed they were alive, I immediately ran toward the car.
By some stroke of luck, the impact seemed to have been absorbed somewhat by the pile of trash, but the front bumper looked crumpled against the utility pole. On top of that, perhaps from flying debris, the windshield was shattered too.
“Somebody call 119!”
I shouted urgently at the villagers who’d come out at the commotion, then hurried over and knocked on the driver’s side window.
“Hey! Are you okay?!”
Through the darkly tinted window, I could see the driver leaning against the seat. The man, who looked young at a glance, wasn’t moving.
Had he lost consciousness? Or……
I hurriedly pulled at the handle, but it wouldn’t open. Thinking it was no use and turning to go get help, that’s when I saw movement inside the car.
“Can you hear me? Please open the door!”
As I knocked on the window and shouted, he seemed to somehow understand, struggling to move his arm. Soon came a click—the sound of the lock releasing. At the same moment, I yanked the car door open with all my strength.
The instant the door swung open, the driver’s body collapsed toward me. I caught him out of reflex, but whether he’d lost consciousness or not, the dead weight was hard to bear. In the end, I ended up sitting on the ground, nearly crushed beneath his body.
“Oh my gosh, what on earth happened!”
Just then, the village chief’s panicked voice rang out as he came running.
“Chief. Please…… help me.”
“Y-yeah, got it.”
The man’s weight grew heavier by the second, like a soaked cotton ball, and I felt like my back would break. I’m going to die at this rate. Thankfully, with the chief’s help, I managed to lay the man down on the ground. Even though it had only been a moment, the tension and exertion left my whole body drenched in sweat. In the middle of it all, the man’s scent that had rubbed off on me felt strangely unfamiliar. He must have been wearing some strong cologne. A brief wave of dizziness hit me.
“Gah! Blood, there’s blood!”
It was only at the chief’s breathless cry that I finally checked the man’s face. He seemed to have hit his head; blood was flowing.
“Oh no, he’s hurt bad! Did you call an ambulance?”
“Don’t worry, I already called. Should be here soon.”
“What in the world happened. He’s not dead, is he?”
“Hey now! Don’t say such ominous things.”
“Such a handsome young man, how did this happen to him.”
Before long, the villagers who’d gathered nearby were all chiming in with their own remarks. Someone asked me what had happened. Someone else even tried to hand me the paramedic’s phone call. But I couldn’t respond or react to any of it. I could only stare at the man. More precisely, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
How……
Amid the confusion, the old woman’s words echoed in my ears.
Handsome young man.
The man was certainly handsome. Even I, who considered myself average for an adult man, found him difficult to support given his large build and solid frame, his tall height, and a face like a sculpture. Even feeling guilty for evaluating someone’s looks while they were injured, it was a face so rarely handsome that I couldn’t look away.
And he felt very familiar. Extremely familiar, at that.
