Ian’s grandfather, Yeon Cheolho, was a fixture of Hyoseong-dong, famous in Seoul for particularly cheap housing prices. With money earned from manual labor in his youth, he had opened a small soup restaurant and had been in the rice business for nearly 50 years.
The menu was only pork soup, but the price was still 5,000 won. Thanks to this, the soup restaurant was always packed with people who wanted to eat at least one warm meal despite the daily rising cost of living.
Someone had jokingly said that if you’ve never gotten a free meal from Old Man Yeon, you’re not a true Hyoseong-dong person.
Thanks to that, the funeral hall had people who normally knew Old Man Yeon well personally stepping up to greet visitors and even handle the cleanup. Yoon Okjeong and Hwang Soyeon, chatting softly beside Ian, had taken on the role of looking after Ian.
“Ian hasn’t eaten a single meal since yesterday, right? Is it okay to leave him like that?”
“We should at least feed him porridge. Wait a moment. I brought some abalone porridge I made. I’ll heat it up in the microwave and bring it.”
Okjeong, wearing black hanbok top and bottom and sitting down, made a groaning sound and tried to get up. She had known Cheolho since their youth and ran a small convenience store near Cheolho’s soup restaurant.
After repeatedly standing up to bow and greet visitors on Ian’s behalf and sitting back down each time they came, her old joints screamed at her to stop overworking them.
“Where’s the abalone porridge? It’s in the inner room, right? I’ll do it. Ma’am, please stay seated.”
Soyeon, whose tightly permed hair was striking, stopped Okjeong from getting up. She too, like Okjeong, had heard the news that Cheolho had suddenly passed away in a hit-and-run accident and had rushed to the funeral hall after closing the hair salon that operated even on holidays without hesitation.
She went into the room set aside as a rest area and came out carrying a crimson floral-patterned bag. Inside the bag was a thermos containing food that Okjeong had made with care.
“Ian.”
While Soyeon went to heat up the abalone porridge, Okjeong called Ian’s name. Her aged voice was filled with worry for Ian.
Knowing how much the grandparent and grandchild had cherished each other, she hadn’t yet properly offered Ian a single word of comfort. This was because she knew well that no matter what words she said, nothing would reach Ian’s ears right now.
However, the living must live.
Though there was an order to being born, there was no guarantee when it came to leaving. Such was the way of the world.
Though it was too sudden, Old Man Yeon’s age was by no means young. Among those who had shared joys and sorrows with Old Man Yeon in Hyoseong-dong, there were many who had died from various illnesses and old age.
If Old Man Yeon couldn’t close his eyes peacefully, it would all be because of Ian. Even now, if he were watching from somewhere, it was obvious he would be fretting over when his child would eat.
Knowing that heart, Okjeong wanted to help Ian gather himself quickly by at least making sure he ate well.
“……I’m not hungry.”
However, Ian refused Okjeong’s kindness. Ian knew it in his head too. That starving himself wouldn’t help anything. But it was difficult to even swallow water.
The image of his grandfather dying while bleeding kept coming to mind. Unfortunately, the hit-and-run accident occurred in an alley without CCTV. Unluckily, there were no witnesses either.
The police officer in charge of the case said he would do his best to catch the culprit, but Ian read the troubled look dwelling in the officer’s eyes.
Even if it had been a simple traffic accident, his heart would have collapsed, but in Ian’s mind, the person who hit his grandfather with a car and ran away was a murderer.
They left his grandfather, who had suffered a severe head injury and was bleeding, in the freezing cold alley. Ian, who had gone to the accident scene hoping to find some kind of clue, sat down on the ground and wailed.
Not only was the shopping cart carrier that his grandfather usually pulled around rolling in a corner, but faint bloodstains that hadn’t completely disappeared still remained on the asphalt ground.
The carrier with completely ruined wheels was filled with meat and vegetables for that day’s business and gave off an unpleasant smell. The meat had completely changed color, and the vegetables had long since wilted.
He would at least have someone to resent if he knew the culprit. But the whereabouts of the bastard who caused the accident were completely unknown. As a result, Ian kept hurting himself. Without doing so, he couldn’t endure even a single moment.
He was a sinner. Was it even right for a sinner to eat? He could feel the hearts of those who worried about him, but right now he had no time to think about other people.
Should I just follow Grandfather? So Grandfather’s path won’t be lonely.
At the thought that came to him carelessly, he squeezed his eyes shut. He knew how upset his grandfather would be, but he had no confidence to live in the world alone. The world without the fence called grandfather was like a jungle where all kinds of beasts bared their teeth at Ian.
Because of his weak body and his not-so-strong personality, he couldn’t even attend school properly. Ian was strangely often bullied by school delinquents. There were definitely kids who wanted to become close with Ian, but they all couldn’t endure the delinquents’ watchful eyes and pressure and left Ian’s side.
He hid it as much as possible so his grandfather wouldn’t worry, but his perceptive grandfather didn’t let it pass after seeing the dirtied school uniform and book bag, and torn textbooks.
Thanks to that, Ian attended school just enough to fill the days so he could barely graduate. It wasn’t difficult to miss school by frequently going to the hospital and being hospitalized. After manifesting as an Omega, the pattern of bullying also changed, making it even harder to attend school.
Since he wasn’t particularly good at studying either, he didn’t even submit university applications. To commute from home, he would have to go to a university within the Seoul area, but his grades weren’t good enough for that.
Vaguely, he had planned to work at the soup restaurant helping his grandfather. Since his grandfather’s stamina was declining day by day, he intended to gradually think about how to live in the future while helping him from the side.
But the situation changed in an instant. Now there was no one by his side. His mother had left home when Ian was young, so he didn’t even know whether she was alive or dead, and his father was, as people chattering at the funeral home said, better off not existing. Ian had never once felt affection in his life.
The more he thought about it, the more uncertain his future felt. He was also afraid to return home where his grandfather was no longer there. A house full of grandfather’s traces would be nothing short of a nightmare itself.
“Excuse me, child…”
Okjeong grabbed and shook Ian’s shoulder as he kept digging a tunnel, only thinking dark thoughts. Ian, forcibly pulled out from his thoughts, barely lifted his swollen face.
It was when he hurriedly wiped the tears from his eyes, finding Okjeong’s face strange, her complexion as poor as if she had seen a ghost. Thinking that he had continued to ignore Okjeong’s goodwill in coming to help while drunk on his own sorrow, he felt very sorry.
“A guest has arrived…”
However, at Okjeong’s following words, Ian had to lift his head a little more. His eyes, which had been covered by severely swollen eyelids, gradually widened. Before he knew it, the funeral parlor was filled with men in pitch-black suits.
Soyeon, who had been returning to the funeral parlor with warmed abalone porridge, was also surprised and stopped abruptly in place. The funeral home, which had been bustling with mourners’ conversation sounds until just a moment ago, became quiet as if cold water had been poured over it.
Among the men with intimidating impressions enough to make one shrink, there was someone who stood out like a crane among chickens. The man who drew everyone’s gaze met eyes with Ian. At the fleeting eye contact, goosebumps spread down his spine.
Ebony-like hair and dark skin. Broad shoulders and long legs stretching below them.
The sense of pressure flowing from the man dressed in a perfectly fitted suit was tremendous enough to make it difficult to even breathe. Just by standing there, the surroundings fell into silence and an indescribably heavy air dominated the funeral home.
The man, who seemed like he could command countless people with a single glance, surprisingly walked over quietly and stood in front of Ian. Ian hesitated and got up from his seat. The man’s height was so tall that Ian had to tilt his head back to look up at him.
