Chapter 54 (1/2)

Chapter 54

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

”Juho Woo, that oddball,” Sun Hwa thought out loud about the person in her mind .

Whenever she thought of him, the first thing that came to mind was his droopy face . Whatever happened, he'd always be the only calm person . He was weird . It was hard to picture him being startled by something . Whenever she looked at him, she felt sorry for her cowardly self .

Sun Hwa held back her smirk .

The way he spoke was very much like his character - calm and unfazed, and their recent conversation had left her feeling vulnerable .

As she looked out the window, she saw Bom walking toward the cafe . 'What if she doesn't like me?' she thought anxiously . It would have been a lie to say that she wasn't afraid .

Still, there was nothing to regret .

As Sun Hwa greeted her, she found herself smiling before she even realized . No matter the result, Sun Hwa was able to smile .

*

Juho visited Sun Hwa in her cla.s.s to return the comic book he had borrowed from her some time ago .

”Hey, this one's good too . I love his ill.u.s.tration . I really dig it”

”Oh, yeah! I've read that one . I'm a fan too . ”

He hesitated as he was about to call for her . She was in the middle of a conversation with someone he had never met before . However, he had seen her once when he had come to visit Sun Hwa . She had been sitting in the corner, on her own .

She had been reading her comic books then, so it made sense that they were talking to each other .

”I actually didn't like it that much . I think this one's closer to my preferences,” Bom said as she picked out one of the comic books . At that, Sun Hwa and the girl objected to her, ”You'll change your mind once you read it . I feel sorry that you can't truly appreciate a masterpiece like this . Later, you're going to think back and regret saying what you just said . ”

Together, the three were laughing and joking around with one another .

'If I chimed in now, I'd be interrupting . '

They were doing well, so he turned back light-footed .

Sun Hwa and Bom had been close with one another as in the past . As always, Bom was the first person to start cleaning while Sun Hwa was the first person to act on something .

Also, they had agreed to partic.i.p.ate in different compet.i.tions .

According to Bom, after meeting with Sun Hwa at the cafe, she had received a written reply from her . Aside from the two, n.o.body else knew what was written in that response .

Juho took out his notepad as he walked down the hallway . One by one, he wrote down his newly aroused inspiration for a couple of characters for his story .

'Spring and flower gently fell into a world where there was no one but parents and children . '

Juho leaned against the side of the subway doors and saw a rather large body of water among views that quickly pa.s.sed by . He stared out the window at the Han River, which resembled a large, gaping hole . He thought as he watched the wavelets breaking, 'Was that around where I drowned?'

”The doors will open on your right . ”

People got in and out of the subway, and Juho moved aside to let people through .

It was his first time seeing the Han River since he had drowned . He wasn't afraid of the water necessarily, but he didn't want to go out of his way to look at it either .

'Why am I here when I've drowned already?' He didn't want to know the answer to that question . If he found out, he wouldn't be able to imagine, and if he couldn't imagine, he wouldn't be able to write .

He reminisced about the experience on that day . Starting from his head, his body grew colder and colder . He had started to suffocate and he couldn't see anything . His limbs grew heavier as the current coiled around his entire body . It felt like he was being pulled down .

”Next stop is…”

It was his stop . He checked the time . There was still some time left until his appointment . After he walked out of the subway station and pa.s.sed the bike rentals, a field of gra.s.s met his eyes .

While walking through the lawn, he made his way toward the water . There were people fis.h.i.+ng, riding their bicycles and walking casually with their dogs . He saw the water . He walked toward it with his eyes transfixed .

He went down to the rock where the ground met the water .

A wave was breaking, and the wind was blowing gently . The water smelled slightly fishy .

He sat on the rock and reached for the water . Its coldness clung to his hand .

”I guess it's because it's still daytime . ”

Strangely, he didn't feel anything . Because he didn't know how to swim, he had a natural wariness toward rivers and oceans and would normally feel uneasy whenever he saw deep bodies of water .

Now, things were different . He still didn't know how to swim, but he was not afraid, even as he stared into the dark depths of the river . If anything, he felt more adventurous .

He dipped his hand deeper into the water . Better yet, he wanted to try going into the water . He felt like there was something violent at the end of death and rebirth .

He dipped his hand even deeper .

”Watch out!”

Somebody pulled him back from behind . Juho's wet hand had been dragged out of the water, and he looked up to see a rigid face .

”Dong Gil . ”

”I don't think this is where we agreed to meet . ”

”I got here early, so I was killing some time . ”

”Were you looking to dive or something?”

”No way . ”

Juho slowly got up, shaking off his hands . As he looked at Juho intently, Dong Gil asked, ”Did you want to ride on the duck boat?”

”Duck boat? That's random . What made you want to get on that?”

He slowly lifted his hand and pointed at something .

”You seemed like you really wanted to go in that direction . ”

It was the center of the river . After staring intently at the water, Juho shook his head .

'I want to live for now . '

”It'd be pus.h.i.+ng it with a duck boat . ”