Cats were cute and foolish creatures. Surim thought cats’ foolish behavior was utterly adorable, but he couldn’t deny the fact that such traits often presented trials for cats.
Especially when he saw a cat like this one—rolling around on a dead tree branch on a rainy day, slipping and falling into a pond.
“Are you okay?”
Surim, who had rushed to the pond in a hurry, splashing muddy water everywhere, asked the cheese cat Camembert, who had swum to the edge of the pond completely soaked.
Camembert, so startled that his wet fur was standing on end, cried out pitifully toward Surim with a mournful meow. He had managed to avoid drowning by placing his front paws on a narrow rock crevice and holding on, but it seemed he absolutely couldn’t climb up by himself. The rock, wet with water, was slippery, and Camembert was fat from receiving excessive love from college students, so it was perhaps natural.
Perhaps because it was a rainy day, there happened to be none of Camembert’s followers around at all. Surim looked up at the sky where rain was pouring down steadily and sighed.
“Ugh, if I catch a cold, it’ll be a breach of contract.”
He had a reason why he absolutely must not get sick, but still, he couldn’t just leave such a pitiful cat to drown.
Let’s rescue him quickly and go to the department lounge to dry off. Having made up his mind, Surim put down his umbrella, squatted at the edge of the pond, and stretched his hand out toward Camembert with all his might.
“Shh, it’s okay….”
Camembert, who had been looking around not knowing what to do, was startled by Surim’s hand and cried out with a squawk, then slipped and fell back into the water. Surim hurriedly bent his body further and succeeded in grabbing Camembert by the scruff of his neck.
Fortunately, once grabbed by the scruff, Camembert didn’t resist further. Whether he had frozen in shock or stopped struggling because he knew he was being rescued was unknown.
“Ungh….”
The problem was that Camembert was fatter than expected. Surim’s body, trying to lift a cat weighing about ten kilograms in an unstable posture with his weight supported on his knees, gradually tilted forward.
“Ah…!”
Surim reflexively threw the cheese cat toward the ground. And amazingly, the moment he confirmed that Camembert, who had spun once in midair, landed firmly on the ground, he fell with a splash into the pond.
Having fallen into the pond without even taking a breath, Surim instantly panicked. He couldn’t breathe, and because of the dirty pond water, he couldn’t tell which way to flail his hands. Even when he barely found the direction, somehow his body just kept sinking. Surim belatedly realized that he was wearing a bag containing several textbooks, but he no longer had the strength to take off the bag and swim up.
‘No, if I die, hyung is….’
Surim stretched his hand upward with all his might in his fading consciousness. Just when he thought he would die like this, a cold hand pulled him up.
Surim, who had lost consciousness just like that, at some point realized someone was gently stroking his head. It couldn’t be his parents, so was it his hyung? When Surim leaned his head in that direction, the hand flinched and moved away. Why? With a sad heart, Surim opened his hazy eyes. Then a large hand covered his eyes, and Surim fell asleep again just like that.
And when he opened his eyes again, he was on a bed in the university health clinic.
“This place is….”
“Oh my, you’re awake?”
Seeing him sit up, the nurse approached happily and asked.
“Do you remember falling into the pond? That student brought you in… oh, he was right there until just a moment ago.”
Surim jumped up and ran out of the clinic. Since he’d been saved from nearly dying, he had to see his face and thank him.
“Excuse me!”
Surim shouted when he saw the back of a man turning at the end of the corridor, but it didn’t seem to reach him. Surim ran hard to catch up with the man. When he reached the central entrance hall through the corridor, the man opened the entrance door.
The moment the entrance door opened, the spring breeze swept in and the man’s hair fluttered. At that moment, Surim felt a sensation of his heart dropping. While he was in a daze because the feeling of his heart beating so hard was so unfamiliar, the man moved away. He chased after him belatedly to catch him, but when Surim went outside the building, the man had already disappeared.
After that, he saw the man several times on campus. But strangely, they couldn’t meet. Across the street separated by a road with cars whizzing by, above on the second-floor railing and below on the first floor requiring quite a climb up and down the stairs, inside and outside the store with a glass wall between them—the two were in the same place without even their clothes brushing past each other.
The first few times, he even ran to chase him. But strangely, when he went around and arrived at the place where the man had been, he was always gone. Only the scent of an unknown perfume remained, proving the fact that the man had been there until just a moment ago. After such incidents continued several times, at some point he had no choice but to accept that they weren’t destined to meet.
Still, whenever Surim saw the man, he always followed him with his eyes. The fact that they couldn’t meet but could see each other might have made him unable to let go of his lingering attachment.
The only regret when graduating from university was precisely that man. Since he could only see the man occasionally even at university, there would never be a chance to meet him again after going out into society.
That’s what he thought.
* * *
The research institute’s general affairs team was truly everyone’s errand runners.
As soon as Surim arrived at work, he had to spend a morning carrying all kinds of equipment, going to supply items to each research lab, organizing supplies in cabinets according to researchers’ instructions, returning to the general affairs team, and being scolded by his superior, Assistant Manager Seong, for doing unreasonable errands that researchers made him do.
But when they gave orders as if it were natural and just turned back to their seats, as a new employee, it was difficult for Surim to ignore them or to question why he had to do such work. It was a natural progression to be flustered and stand there blankly, then have no choice but to organize pens, notebooks, A4 paper, and such.
Why did researchers try to use general affairs team employees like errand runners in the first place?
“Now I understand why there was an opening….”
Using people so mercilessly like this, there was no way kids these days could endure it. However, Surim, who shook his head and clicked his tongue as if he weren’t one of those kids these days, was actually a kid these days too. A fresh kid these days who had gotten a job through a professor’s recommendation while looking for employment before graduation.
However, Surim prided himself on being different from those kids. Since he had become the head of his household around the age of fifteen, it would be rude to compare him with kids these days who grew up peacefully receiving allowances.
The reason the professor had singled him out among so many students to arrange a research institute interview might have been because he had glimpsed such mature aspects in him usually. And fortunately, Surim had endured well in the feast of miscellaneous tasks that had made three interns run away in horror, and was finally able to become a regular employee.
Would he have looked for another job if he had known that position had opened up because last year’s new employee, fed up with the abuse of power by some researchers, had barely endured for a year before running away?
“Before going back….”
Surim, who was moving through the corridor pushing an empty cart, subtly shifted his steps toward a corridor where people didn’t frequent much. According to Assistant Manager Seong, it was also an ability to take breaks here and there while moving around for work. Of course, she had added that he mustn’t get caught.
“A quick call should be fine, right?”
When he pressed and held 1 on his phone’s call screen, the dial tone rang and soon the other party answered.
“Hyung! Have you been well?”
– What do you mean ‘have you been well’ when we saw each other yesterday?
“Still, I’m curious, so what can I do?”
A faint laugh was transmitted to his ear. Surim squatted down, holding onto the cart.
– I’ve been well. How about our Surim? Is work manageable?
“Yeah, it’s in my nature.”
– What nature? You should say if it’s hard when it’s hard.
“Really. Even if it’s a bit hard, my fatigue completely disappears when I think about eating delicious food with you, hyung.”
– Me too, when I think about eating delicious food with you, hospital life isn’t boring at all. I want to hurry up and get better so I can buy you delicious food and give you allowance too….
“The doctor said you’ve improved a lot lately, hyung. If you manage well this year and build up your strength, you’ll be able to be discharged next year.”
– Yeah, let’s go eat delicious food together when I get out. I’ve been looking at all the restaurants I want to go to.
“Definitely, definitely. You know you have to work hard on treatment and rehabilitation for that, right?”
– I know. I’ll work hard.
Surim smiled with satisfaction. His hyung, who hadn’t been able to get out of bed for a long time, was in a situation where he had lost even the muscles needed for daily life. Until recently, his body had been so poor that his survival was precarious and rehabilitation was unthinkable, but lately his condition had improved a bit and he received a diagnosis from the doctor that it was okay to start rehabilitation.
Surim, who had moved his phone slightly away from his ear to check the time, stood up abruptly and said,
“It’s almost lunchtime. I should hang up now. Hyung, I’ll see you this evening.”
– I keep telling you that you don’t have to come every single day.
“It’s because I want to see you.”
– Okay. I’m just… worried you’ll be tired.
“I’m not tired at all, so don’t worry.”
– Alright, see you later.
“Yeah, see you later.”
