Watching that subtle shift in expression, Jonghyeok pulled out another cigarette and put it to his lips. Inside the supermarket, which had been letting in clean, fresh air through its wide open door and windows, the smell quickly turned thick and stale again.
“She’s not back yet.”
“Where’d she go.”
“She went into the city for some business. Said she didn’t know when she’d be back before she left.”
“Guess I’ll wait at your place, then.”
Swallowing dryly, Jeongan visibly worked to steady his expression amid the hazy smoke.
He still had no idea what kind of person this was, someone riding a bicycle that looked ready to fall apart any second, running a supermarket that looked like it might collapse without warning.
The day they’d first met, Jonghyeok had, without any hesitation, guided a total stranger and told him to ask if he needed anything, despite seeming otherwise shy and unassuming. He’d seemed to get along with the villagers in some vaguely odd way, yet stayed easygoing about it. Jonghyeok had only caught brief glimpses of Jeongan so far, but he could tell well enough that he had a soft, pliable nature.
And yet, seeing him capable of an attitude like this now was something he’d never have expected. Jonghyeok let out a faint, humorless laugh.
“She might not come back today.”
“When did she leave, exactly.”
“…..”
“Didn’t hear me?”
“…Three days ago.”
Jonghyeok was simply talking, nothing more, but Jeongan seemed to sense a threat in it and found himself glancing, without meaning to, out past the supermarket. Outside, the black car that had carried them all the way from Seoul sat blocking the entrance. Jeongan swallowed quietly.
“She’s getting on in years. She’s the oldest person in the whole village.”
Jonghyeok, watching the movement of Jeongan’s throat, shifted his gaze back up to his face. Jeongan kept going, still composed.
“You… mustn’t do anything to hurt her. This village doesn’t even have a proper hospital, and it’s hard enough just to leave.”
Seeing him sell cigarettes without a flicker of concern, greeting people just as he normally would, Jonghyeok had assumed he simply had no idea what kind of man he was dealing with. From the look of it, he’d been born and raised in this remote backwater and probably hadn’t even finished his schooling properly, which meant he likely had no real grasp of how the world worked. That, Jonghyeok had figured, was why he’d stayed silent even after witnessing what happened with old man Shin the day before.
“Do I look like the type to hurt someone.”
But seeing his attitude now, it turned out he was sharper than expected after all. Jonghyeok felt a flicker of interest at Jeongan’s rather amusing wariness.
Is this because of what he saw earlier?
It was similar to, and yet somehow different from, the way he’d been the day before, riding his bicycle ahead of them.
“So why’d you just stand there watching, back then.”
At first, Jeongan only blinked, not understanding, until it dawned on him that Jonghyeok meant the small clash he’d had with the other villager earlier. Jeongan tugged pointlessly at his gloves, rubbing at them.
“I’m sorry.”
Instead of answering further, he moved back toward the drink refrigerator he’d been crouched in front of before. Jonghyeok let out a short laugh and, once he’d finished his cigarette, stepped closer to Jeongan.
A long shadow fell over Jeongan’s head as he crouched, sorting the drinks. He didn’t need to look back to know whose shadow it was. Though the shadow itself had no distinct shape, stretched thin and long, the sense of menace it carried was considerable. Even with the bright sunlight and the sound of the sea drifting in through the wide open door and windows, that oppressive weight refused to be pushed back.
“Jeongan.”
At the sound of his own name, Jeongan flinched, then pretended not to notice, moving his hands again. The mood was entirely different from when his name had been said the day before.
“If I just wait until she’s got time, I’ll get to her eventually.”
Jeongan looked back at Jonghyeok as he pushed the drinks into place. Jonghyeok, already onto a new cigarette, tapped the ash off its glowing tip and rubbed at his scarred eye, his brow tilting slowly downward.
Yellow sunlight stretched across his thick, solid back. Unaware that an outsider had come to stir up the village, unaware that visitors leaving behind some vague sense of unease had entered, the sunlight spread its warmth evenly over everyone all the same.
Because of it, Jonghyeok’s lengthening shadow kept falling over Jeongan’s body, again and again. Jeongan hurried to finish sorting the drinks and retreated to the side, as if fleeing. He busied himself wiping away the traces left by the people who’d come by that morning to drink. Jonghyeok, unbothered, took a seat at the now-clean table.
An odd sort of coexistence.
“Jeongan, sweetheart, leaving the store empty like this and going where…! Oh my. Are you busy, Jeongan?”
“…Sorry. I don’t think today’s going to work.”
“Alright, no worries. It’s nothing urgent, I’ll just buy it tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
Red Roof Auntie’s house. Jeongan, in the middle of gluing eyes onto stuffed dolls, jotted down the nickname of the auntie who’d come all the way to his front yard only to leave again, onto a nearby notepad. Already the fifth person to take up a spot on the list.
“Quite the crowd for a little corner store.”
If it weren’t for the men sitting right in front of him, this would likely have been a customer who’d have padded his pocket nicely today. Already the fifth customer he’d missed out on. Finding the store closed and coming all the way to his house instead, they’d probably end up borrowing whatever they needed from some other villager on their way back. It’d be a relief if they actually came by the store tomorrow, but…
“Your face says disappointed, plain as day.”
Well, it couldn’t be helped that a disappointed look crossed his face. Jeongan glanced between his notepad and Jonghyeok, who kept glancing between the two, then picked up another doll and a pair of eyes. Checking both sides carefully to make sure the fluffy rabbit doll wouldn’t end up cross-eyed, he picked up the glue and fixed the eyes in place.
Just as he reached for the next rabbit, the house phone rang.
“People still have landlines these days?”
Yongsik, apparently bored out of his mind, sitting on the wooden bench in the yard, muttered to himself. Jeongan glanced toward the yard where Yongsik sat before making his way to the phone.
The sleek black sedan that had carried Yongsik and Jihwan had followed along all the way to Jeongan’s house. Jonghyeok had offered him a ride, even opening the door for him personally, but Jeongan had shaken his head and declined. He’d simply wheeled the bicycle that always stayed by his side and walked alongside it instead. Jonghyeok, perhaps worried Jeongan might try to make a run for it, walked right beside him the whole way. He kicked lightly at the bicycle’s back wheel now and then, his footsteps echoing with the sound of dress shoes on the ground.
“Hello.”
That same Jonghyeok was sitting right in front of Jeongan even now. Watching, from less than a meter away, as Jeongan glued eyes onto the dolls.
“Getting any signal?”
“Nope.”
“Right. I already tried earlier. Doesn’t work at all. They said it works fine nationwide, total bullshit.”
Jihwan sat in the yard between Yongsik and Jonghyeok, staring at his phone. But even here, he couldn’t get any signal at all.
Yongsik, eventually overcome by the warm sunlight, lay down flat on the wooden bench. Even so, he kept sneaking glances at Jonghyeok, cautiously, rolling from side to side once. He looked rather like a bear lazily rolling around, soaking up a warm spring day.
“…Yes. Yes. Makgeolli, got it, I’ll do that. Yes.”
Hanging up the phone, Jeongan quietly picked up his pen. Grandfather from the house with the blue gate. A sixth customer joined the list, written just beneath the note he’d made moments ago.
“Go on and take care of business, I said.”
“I’m fine.”
There was no telling just how many people came through this little corner store, but judging by the fact that six names had already piled up on the waiting list, plenty of people seemed to come looking for Jeongan. Jeongan subtly slid the list out of Jonghyeok’s line of sight before picking up a rabbit still missing its eyes.
Then, with careful hands once more, he picked up a pair of eyes. Making sure this rabbit, too, wouldn’t end up cross-eyed, he lifted the glue.
Before leaving the supermarket, having finished sorting the drink fridge, Jeongan made a point of cleaning the whole store. He fetched a rag from somewhere, wrung it out thoroughly, and began wiping down each table one by one. Then he grabbed a broom, swept and mopped the floor, and even sprayed blue detergent on the windows, scrubbing them down. He wiped the detergent away meticulously with newspaper.
Jonghyeok wasn’t blind to the fact that this was all a ploy to delay bringing them home for as long as possible. So he waited patiently for the cleaning to finish. Even after that, when Jeongan kept fussing pointlessly with his bicycle, Jonghyeok moved to load it straight into the trunk of the car and opened the car door for him, at which point Jeongan finally let out a short breath and led them home after all.
Still not quite at ease, Jeongan locked up the supermarket entirely and sat down in front of Jonghyeok, keeping watch over the three of them. He even carefully taped up a sign on the shop door reading [Temporarily Closed]. Then, handing out a glass of orange juice each from what he’d brought along from the supermarket, he sat down in front of them and refused to leave the house, using the excuse that he needed to keep gluing eyes onto dolls.
There seemed to be more people coming through that little corner store than expected, and giving up all that income took no small amount of nerve.
Jonghyeok casually picked up one of the rabbits Jeongan had finished. Jeongan, in the middle of giving a fresh rabbit its eyes, paused and glanced sideways at him.
“You can’t break the rabbit.”
“I won’t break it.”
“…..”
“Why don’t you try calling the lady of the house.”
“She doesn’t really pick up the phone.”
There was no reply that followed, but Jeongan held Jonghyeok’s dark gaze for a moment. Then, slowly turning his eyes away, he carefully eased the white rabbit out of Jonghyeok’s broad, heavy hand and tucked it away behind the other rabbits, already clustered together with their eyes in place. Only after finding eyes for another rabbit and smoothing down its fur once more did Jeongan reach over, straighten out the fur on the rabbit that had been in Jonghyeok’s hand, and shove it deep back among the others. It had the air of comforting a comrade returned from some hardship.
Just as Jonghyeok was about to burst out laughing at the absurdity of the gesture.
“Who’s there.”
A booming voice rang out from the yard.
“Who’s in this house!”
It was Mrs. Oh.
“Grandmother…!”
The instant he heard that sharp, ringing voice, Jeongan bolted up from his seat. Jonghyeok, fiddling with the jacket he’d taken off earlier, rose slowly to his feet.
