54 Chapter 54 - Myself, Others, and My Friend 4 (1/2)

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 class to return the comic book he had borrowed from her some time ago.

”Hey, this one's good too. I love his illustration. 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 participate in different competitions.

According to Bom, after meeting with Sun Hwa at the cafe, she had received a written reply from her. Aside from the two, nobody 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 passed 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 passed the bike rentals, a field of grass met his eyes.

While walking through the lawn, he made his way toward the water. There were people fishing, 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 pushing it with a duck boat.”