The rain had stopped early, but the water wasn’t clear enough for diving — so Hwichan flatly refused to let Haeshin get in, fixing him with a sharp glare. Instead, Haeshin settled for tending to the pollack drying rack a little longer than usual.
“Why are you staring like that…… Do I have something on my head?”
Hwichan let out a quiet sigh, carrying something complicated in it. Haeshin tilted his head to one side and asked, “What’s the matter?” Awkwardly smiling and tipping his head whenever he couldn’t read the other person — that seemed to be a habit of his.
“You and that silly grin.”
At the mild scolding, a splashing sound followed immediately. Haeshin had already run down to the shoreline and came back with both hands cupped full of seawater, holding them out in front of Hwichan.
“Look at this. The water’s clearer than I thought today.”
“So — you want to go in?”
“No! I just wanted to show you that the water isn’t always murky after rain. Look, see? Barely any sediment, right?”
When Haeshin stretched both hands out, the seawater trickling between his fingers caught the hazy sunlight and shimmered softly. Like an unpolished gem.
Hwichan stared at the sight for a moment, almost transfixed, then shook his head. He had a feeling he understood why this guileless, wheat-golden simpleton was showing off the water out of nowhere. It probably meant: let me dive even on rainy days, as long as the water’s clear.
“Put that away. No matter how clear the water is, no diving on a day like today.”
“Alright, alright. You really are consistently prickly, you know……”
He’d agreed not to dive today, but as the sea breeze began to cool him off and he turned to leave, Haeshin grabbed his sleeve urgently.
“You’re going already? Want to have breakfast together…… with me?”
“No.”
“I’m a good cook.”
“Is that so? Congratulations.”
“……Oh, uh, thanks?”
“Whoever you marry is going to be very lucky.”
At that, a rumble sounded in the distance and dark clouds could be seen rolling back in.
He’d thought the rain was done, but did it really rain this much in the dead of winter? The weather had been strangely wet lately.
“Ahem. Marriage is a long way off for me. Anyway — you’re really not eating?”
“Not feeling it. Not really.”
He didn’t particularly want to eat anything. He just wanted to sleep more. So he politely declined and was about to head home when, out of nowhere, a ship’s horn sounded in the distance.
Having spent nearly two weeks on this island without once hearing a ship’s horn — Hwichan turned his gaze toward where the sound had come from, visibly startled.
Haeshin, too, widened his eyes and stretched up on his tiptoes to get a better look at the dock in the distance.
“Oh — did someone come from the mainland?”
Haeshin looked ready to run over and have a look at any moment. Like a little kid heading to a night market. Just as he quickly secured the clams he’d caught in his net and was about to sprint off toward the dock, a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Haeshin!”
Hwichan recalled that the owner of that voice was called Grandma Sooni. From what he’d observed these past few days, she was the elder Haeshin looked up to most on this island. She was also the only person who’d shared side dishes and household goods with the young outsider.
“My medicine for joint pain ran out.”
It seemed she needed an errand run.
“Oh! You ran out of medicine?”
Haeshin asked warmly and immediately padded barefoot over the rocks to stand in front of Grandma Sooni. Hwichan watched his retreating figure with a mildly baffled expression.
Looking at it honestly, Lee Haeshin was basically this island’s unpaid errand boy and delivery person. Alcohol runs, coffee runs, and now medicine runs. Errand boy was putting it generously — he was a pushover. He never said no, even when it must have been a nuisance.
An errand’s supposed to be something nearby. On this island at the edge of civilization, getting even basic supplies meant no choice but to board a fishing boat and head out a good distance.
Shortly after, Hwichan strode over the rocks and came to stand beside Haeshin. Haeshin had just received three crumpled ten-thousand-won bills from Grandma Sooni and was casually wiping the moisture from his palm before stuffing the notes into his pocket.
“Going out?”
Hwichan asked plainly.
“Yeah. Want to come? Won’t take long.”
The reply that came back was casual, but not unkind.
The sky that had looked ready to rain was clearing again. What was wrong with this bizarre weather? Given how many times a day it shifted, if the legend was true and a descendant of the Sea Dragon King really did live on this island, he was surely someone soft-hearted and guileless at his core.
The sun peeked out from behind a cloud. Like it was sneaking a look at the world below.
Haeshin glanced up at the sky and broke into a grin, showing his teeth.
“Hmm, nice day today.”
“Nice — it was just about to rain a minute ago.”
“No, it won’t rain now. Want to go out, Hwichan?”
***
It seemed a little warmer than the day before. Hwichan was dressed simply — a plain t-shirt and trousers under a thick coat. Haeshin, on the other hand, had not only his heavy puffer jacket but a scarf wrapped snugly on top, and was waddling his way down the alley.
Like a kimbap roll. He looks like a kimbap roll, all glossy and round with sesame oil. Hwichan smiled inwardly and called out to stop him.
Haeshin turned around, mask awkwardly pulled up, eyes wide and round. Those strangely-hued irises caught the sunlight and sparkled.
Hwichan thought he looked a little young. Clearly four years older, and yet he had the look of a first-year student who’d just started university. Was it because he was small and slight? Either way, he had a rawness and brightness to him that surpassed even the seniors Hwichan knew who were the same age as Haeshin.
He quickened his pace with short, brisk steps to catch up.
“You’re going out fully armored like that?”
It wasn’t meant as a jab, but Haeshin looked vaguely wounded and tugged his mask up a little higher.
“Coastal areas are actually warm in winter, surprisingly. Land cools down and heats up faster than the sea.”
In other words — the wind outside Samsam Island was colder than on the island. Hwichan furrowed his brow, comparing the Haeshin who had swum calmly in near-freezing temperatures without a second thought, to the Haeshin waddling before him bundled up in layers. It was impossible to believe they were the same person.
Far ahead at the dock, the boat they’d be taking out was moored in place. The man from the house below the Village Chief’s — the one who maintained the boats — waved at the two of them.
Hwichan walked slowly and asked, as if it were nothing in particular.
“Hey hyung — did you go swimming yesterday?”
“Hm?”
“Oh, it’s just — our place lost power yesterday so I went for a walk in the early hours. And there was this peculiar person in this neighborhood, swimming in the sea for a full hour in single-digit temperatures without even proper clothing on. Wondering who that could be.”
Hwichan slid a sideways glance at Haeshin beside him. As it happened, Haeshin had his mask on, so his expression wasn’t easy to read — but he helpfully made it very obvious he was lying, shaking his head back and forth.
“Who goes swimming in this weather? Goodness, that’s crazy. They’d catch a cold. Are they out of their mind?”
“Why? You’re the one who goes diving in the rain like a lunatic. Don’t tell me you went out again yesterday. You weren’t trying to do something stupid again, were you?”
The face that could neither confirm nor deny, crumpling in on itself — it was quite a sight. Hwichan slid his hands into his coat pockets and walked slowly toward Haeshin, now standing at the edge of the dock. A body a full half-head shorter than his, swaddled in winter gear from head to toe, with only two wide-open eyes tilted up.
“I’m telling you, I have no intention of dying. And who are you calling a lunatic? I told you not to say things like that!”
“You clearly haven’t heard real insults before…… You’d have a heart attack watching a Korean noir film. This is considered polite by most standards.”
“Hmph. Whatever happened to kind words.”
So the silhouette I saw last night was definitely Lee Haeshin. Hwichan confirmed it to himself, privately.
