54 Chapter 54 - Myself, Others, and My Friend 4 (2/2)
”Don't you underestimate my legs.”
With those confident words, Dong Gil turned around and walked further away from the water. Juho followed. He felt his hand getting stiffer as it dried up.
It wasn't a special occasion. Since their meeting, the two had been texting one another frequently. One day, one of them suggested that they meet up to talk and kill some time together, and Juho had no reason to say no.
The two walked up to the observatory where the entire field of grass could be seen.
Although it was slightly windy, a screen was there to protect them from it. The sound of a clumsily played piano was coming from afar. There must have been a piano that was open to the public use.
”Do you play?”
Dong Gil had written a book about music once, and he gave off the impression that he knew how to play an instrument.
”Nope,” a quick answer. ”Instead, I listened to it day and night. I turned the music on the moment I opened my eyes and then turned it off when I was about to go to sleep. I kept it playing while I was eating or showering. The entire writing process took me about eight months, and I listened to classical music the entire time. It felt like I had listened to my entire life's worth of music. Whenever I had a dream, the sound of violin came out instead of my voice.”
Despite the content, he sounded quite calm. Unlike him, Juho asked with a disturbed look on his face, ”What did that feel like?”
”It felt like I had been eating the same thing for a year.”
”I've never tried that myself, but I think I get the gist.”
In other words, he was sick of it.
Every author had a character that was similar to Dong Gil's. No matter what people told them, they had to see things for themselves. They wouldn't start writing unless they had identified things with their own eyes and understood what they had seen.
Dong Gil was especially unique even among authors.
Usually, an author would gather just enough information for his book. No one went to the lengths of making themselves feel like they had been eating the same food for the entire year.
He really didn't know his limits.
”I think that was when I was the biggest jerk in my life.”
”I'm surprised you're still sane.”
”I wanted to write well.”
He sounded like a student who had just started writing. In reality, that was also something frequently said by the Literature Club members: ”I want to write well.”
'Coming to think of it, that must have been why I went up to the bridge in the middle of winter before I fell into the water. I wanted to write well,' Juho thought.
”Look,” Dong Gil called for Juho as he was lost in thought.
”What is it?”
At his voice, he walked toward the handrail. When he was one step away from reaching the rail, he was met with the wide, open view of the grass.
People about the size of the joints on his finger were sitting beside one another. Some had brought a mat while some had brought something to shield themselves from the wind. Some sat on flyers. There were all sorts of people.
”This.”
It was like a painting, but it wasn't because of its beauty.
”There's no movement.”
Nobody was moving. As if time had stopped, everything stayed completely still in its place. It was as if somebody had frozen them. Maybe they had all agreed with one another to be that way. If it weren't for the leaves blowing about in the wind, one could've believed that something was seriously wrong with the world.
”This is unusual.”
”I know. It's incredibly lifeless.”
It would've been nice to have people around playing badminton or kindergarten students on their class picnic.
Everyone was motionless and exhausted.
Juho looked to his side. Dong Gil was watching the motionless scenery as if that wasn't his first time.
”When did you first see this?”
To answer his question, Dong Gil slowly parted his lips, ”I was out for a walk to see if I could find anything interesting in amid the average, boring everyday life. I was looking for some inspiration.”
”Is there a 'but' coming?”
”But then this was all I saw instead of finding anything interesting. Well, it has become a form of inspiration in its own right since, but I wasn't exactly thrilled about what I saw. It's almost as if these people have been told to stay completely still.”
He was right. It wasn't a pleasing sight. Despite the number of people around, the lawn was almost too quiet. The silence in the lawn brought Juho a sense of physiological fear. It was unsettling, and Dong Gil added, ”If I were God himself, I'd pour water onto these people.”
”On these people?”
”At least it'd make them jump from their places. Besides, it'd look much more entertaining.”
Juho imagined it. 'There's a natural disaster. Water levels rise, and it floods over to the people. Still… I can't really picture these people running and screaming. Wouldn't they just be swept away quietly?'
”The water bill would be monstrous.”
”Well, I'd just have to reimburse them.”
As they joked around, a sound came from behind. When Juho glanced over his shoulder, he saw a foreigner. His blue eyes were fixated in Juho's direction. They were as blue as the East Sea.
As their eyes met, the foreigner approached him.
”I ask for direction,” he said in awkward Korean, with a guide book in his hands.
”Where were you going?” Juho responded in Korean.
”Um, uh… Here.”
He opened his guide book and showed it to Juho. It was a picture of the duck boats, and Juho explained to him how he could get there, but he didn't seem to understand.
”Would you like for me to explain in English?” Juho asked in English. His face brightened up at the sound of his native tongue.
”Ah, that'd be great. I've been lost for a while now. I've gone straight and then turned left like how it is in the guide book, but as you can see, I'm still lost.”
”You have to turn right here.”
”Oh my, I've gone the opposite direction.”
”It's not too far from here. When you walk down from here, walk toward the water. You'll get there in no time.”