Episode 1. Was it still there?
A cold touch on your chin and forehead.
You might get used to it now, but when you put your face to the optometrist, you always feel anxious.
Maybe that’s why I blinked my eyes involuntarily.
“Don’t blink, stay there.”
The nurse, dressed in a blue uniform and a white cardigan, spoke in a dry, businesslike tone.
Contrary to her pretty appearance, there is no such thing as a sweet taste.
“Okay. You can go to the treatment room and wait.”
“yes.”
When I arrived at the professor’s office, the waiting number was 5.
Ages ranged from gray-haired seniors to young children who looked like students with thick glasses.
I didn’t even go to a local hospital until I graduated from college.
However, it had been a little over a year since I first stepped into society, and a disease such as the blue sky had occurred.
I had to take care of my health from a young age, but I didn’t imagine that this would happen to me because I usually don’t wear glasses and my visual acuity is over 2.0.
“Jin Yu-seong, please come into the treatment room.”
When it was my turn, my saliva was dripping down and I took a few deep breaths without stopping, and then got up from my seat.
A middle-aged female doctor in a white gown was flipping through the medical chart on the monitor.
When I stopped clicking, what appeared was a picture of an eyeball that appeared to have been taken with an optometrist just before.
“There is nothing wrong with the examination. How are you?”
“I don’t have any problems other than my eyes are a little stiff.”
“It’s been awhile since I removed the sutures. It’s going to get better. Oh, how about seeing something strange then? Is it like that again?”
“No, I haven’t since.”
“Ho-ho, did I say? It was because it was right after the operation back then. It was a simple operation, but since corneal transplantation is also an organ transplant, it must have been because of temporary complications or psychological factors.”
“So. I must have been a little sensitive back then.”
The doctor in charge smiled and tapped the keyboard to record the medical chart.
There were a lot of medical terms written in English that were difficult to understand at a glance.
“Yooseong is so well cared for and the prognosis is good, so I don’t have to come in the future.”
“Really? Are you cured now?”
“The cure is coming soon. It is rare for young people to follow the doctor’s instructions, but they followed it well. From now on, you can rest assured that there will be no problems with your daily life.”
“Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
I kept my head down as I sat on the medical chair.
The first time I lost sight, it felt like the sky was falling.
Living so blindly, it was impossible to describe the despondency of not being able to do anything on my own.
It was not wasted no matter how many times I bowed my head to thank you for finding the cornea and restoring my sight.
Even if it was just a routine job for her.
“Congratulations.”
My heart swelled at the words of the doctor in charge.
***
Turrr.
As soon as I left the front door of the hospital, I called.
The ringing without coloring rang hard in my ears.
-hello?
“Pay.”
-Uh, how far away?
“I’m going down this week. You call the kids.”
– It was. But didn’t you see the doctor today? what happened?
“It’s okay. That’s why I called, ma’am.”
– Hey, Jin Yuseo. I’ll drink a cup in a moment. kick kick.
“Algiers, I’ve been sober for a year. Tell them all to come. If you miss even one, you’ll die.”
-sure. see you then.
ddu. ddu. ddu.
The baby will cut it right away.
I clicked my tongue briefly and pressed the hotkey to call again.
“Hello? Mom.”
– Uh, son. What are you doing in the hospital?
“He said he’s fine. He said he doesn’t have to go to the hospital anymore.
-Good job. However, if there is any problem, go to the hospital and get medical treatment, okay?
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. And my week…”
“Yeah, let’s talk when Gramo comes down. Degas.”
ddu. ddu. ddu.
Umm… he just says what he has to say and cuts it off firmly.
I put my phone in my jacket pocket and looked up at the sky.
As if to signal the arrival of spring, the sky blue was yellow due to the yellow dust.
Still, it’s so damn beautiful, wow.
***
The place I decided to meet them was in Changdong.
Our high school days, long before Masan, Changwon, and Jinhae became unified Changwon cities.
I wanted to have a drink while recalling my memories at the place that gave up the throne in Changdong Street, Masan, which used to be the hottest place, and now Sangnam-dong, Changwon.
“Hey, Jin Yuseo!”
“Oh, you’re here.”
I crossed my arms, shrugged my shoulders, and grinned.
The night air, which I did not know during the day, was quite chilly.
There were three of them except me.
“Who is Myung-seop?”
“Geumma, it’s still coming. The kid sings because he’s busy every day.”
“That’s right. In that case, let’s go in first, it’s cold.”
After graduating from a prestigious university in Seoul, Myung-seop began his social life at a large corporation.
Out of the five of us, he runs the most elite road, and in a word, he’s the best.
Although living in a foreign country like me, it was different from the start of a small business.
Changdong Street has changed so much.
From there, we went into a house that sold jju sam bulgogi and drank soju.
As soon as I drank one or two cups as a snack for memories, a question came in.
“Are you really drunk? Are you okay?”
Donghwan asked in a worried tone first.
Donghwan talked to me.
He is the tallest among us and has the worst dialect because he was raised by his grandmother.
The Gyeongsang-do man is just talking about him.
“It doesn’t interfere with my daily life. Don’t worry.”
“Still, I had an eye transplant… My uncle got a liver transplant last year and he’s still taking medicine and is struggling.”
“Hey, it’s cornea, cornea! Baby! What color of eyes is that. What Naruto.
“Kick-kick, right?”
“There is no need to take medicine for a corneal transplant, so don’t worry and follow along.”
I held out the empty glass in front of me and said.
“Slow down a little. Don’t let go of the reins and stay overnight on the street.”
“I knew.”
I mean, but how easy is that?
I thoroughly did not do anything bad to my body until I was told by the doctor that it was a ‘cure’.
He had quit smoking for five years and didn’t even drink a glass of alcohol at a dinner party.
“But you said that your eyes are income? Can I get a white cornea transplant?”
Oh-seong, who was sitting across from him, asked with curious eyes.
It’s like asking why your eyes aren’t blue.
“It doesn’t matter. To put it simply, lenses? Think of it as a change of thing. It doesn’t matter whether whites or blacks wear it. The color of the eyes is because of melanin.”
“Wow, man, I studied this.”
“I’ve known everything. I know the pain of not seeing you. I thought I was crazy at that time.”
“I know. Negu’s mother wasn’t joking about it either.”
We are friends in the neighborhood, so we know each other.
That’s why his mother took good care of my mother, when I was blind.
“But Ohsung and Sujin broke up?”
“Huh? How did you know that?”
“My mother is Gradra.”
“My mother-in-law and I have been chatting with my mother again. Miss.”
“It’s because you two are close.
“Hey, do you know what Mara is? If you want to get married, you must have a house. I’ve been living in society for two years now. What does that mean? Don’t speak.”
“Aren’t you going to add it over there?”
“Siva, at least it wouldn’t have ruined it if it was. Drvasser called it a slap.”
Oh-seong emptied the drink at once, sighed, and put the octopus in his mouth and muttered.
Since some time in our drinking party, the topic of marriage has flowed.
the age of twenty-eight.
In the meantime, most of the talk about shitty company life was about getting married.
When I met a woman, even if it was not a word, the premise of marriage had to be laid on the other side of the floor.
In a way, it was the most important turning point in my life.
“But it would be nice if you could. I’m dating. I’m making money.”
Seong-hoon, who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses and sipping a glass of wine, sighed and muttered.
It’s a new beginning, Shinsehantan.
He’s the only one of us who didn’t choose a job and went in a different direction.
The guy who graduated from Kyungpook National University, a recognized university in the province, was trying to become an accountant. for two years.
“Hey, except for Myung-seop, everyone here is a rat. But if you become an accountant, you’re going to enter the high society right away.”
“What kind of high society. It’s going to be like gold horses.”
“Still, a professional dragon-tailed child. We have snake heads.
Except for Sunghoon, the three of us, including myself, shed self-helpful laughter.
Rat tails who run small businesses.
I found out after I came out.
Because I started low, I have to live low until I die.
It means that it is impossible to change a job to a large company no matter how much experience you have in a small business.
The military is not the only class society.
“But man, this isn’t a wire? Call me, Sunflower.”
Sung-hoon turns around and Myeong-seop makes excuses.
As if the word “comfort” is burdensome for others.
“I’ll try.”
Donghwan talked for a while and then shook his head.
“Let’s change seats. Go to the 2nd shift, and the people will come. Now we have arrived at the terminal.”
Myung-seop is the only one among us who works at a large company.
When I was in high school, I wasn’t very good at studying.
Even though it’s acorn height, if you have to ask, Sunghoon is the number one among us. And the rest were pretty much the same.
To be honest, I think the reason he went to a large company was because of the big sign at the school.
In our time, when we were called the worst CSAT generation, especially many students chose to be lucky, and he got into a prestigious university due to the lack of staff. Well, the distribution that you applied for with those grades is a skill if it’s a skill.
Of course, after entering the school, you will be accepted into a large company if you work hard.
I know, me too. Calling this jealousy.
But what do you do?
It is a society that divides them by school, divides them into companies, divides them by salaries, discriminates based on where they live, and grades them based on their parents’ financial resources.
I hate to feel inferior to my friends, but when I compare myself with others, the act of comparing myself to others like an instinct creeps up in my mind.
So much so that I hate myself.
“Okay, let’s go.”
There weren’t many people on the street.
Even at dinnertime, which can be called a peak, such a thing created a bittersweet scene that made me question whether this place was really the Changdong in the past.
It was time to cross the two-lane road.
“Hey, the car is coming!”
I shouted to block Seonghoon’s front.
The cub took a sip and was already drunk.
boo boo.
A black sedan passed quickly.
After seeing the car, Sunghoon turned his head to me.
“How did you know?”
“What? It’s from there, okay?”
I said, pointing my finger in the direction the sedan was running.
“So I mean. How did you see that? It’s hiding it.”
“what?”
“Huh? Are your eyes burning again?”
“Eyes? Why are my eyes?!”
I shouted, startled by the sound of the snow.
Then Donghwan and Ohseong approached.
“Why? What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Huh? No, I think Yooseong just had a little bit of blue eyes.”
“What? Kamakuman.”
They opened my eyes and looked around.
Then, an object that had never been seen before came into my sight.
A large wind doll blocking the direction the sedan came from, it was dancing with its arms waving back and forth.
‘Have you been there forever?’