“Ah?”
She tilted her head slightly to the side and sounded like she was urging her in embarrassment.
It was a destructive force, so I ate the pork cutlet so that she would no longer be embarrassed.
“Heh heh heh.”
Then Seolhyang covered her mouth and laughed at what was so funny.
After dinner, Seolhyang and I started walking the college road again.
Lunch had just passed, but it was still summer and the sun was hot enough that we walked through the shade.
Still, we went to various classrooms and listened to classes, but we didn’t really listen to them.
It was because our hands were still together since I held out my hand as much as Seolhyang asked to hold it again.
It was a different feeling from the author holding my hand or hugging my arm as if jokingly.
Is this the difference between adults and minors?
“How about going to college for a day?”
It was getting late and the time was getting closer to 6 o’clock.
It was summer, so the sun was long, but time passed quickly.
“Yeah, it was fun. Maybe it was because I was with Ha-chan.”
Hearing my question, Seolhyang held my hand a little stronger and smiled.
“How was Ha-chan when he was in college?”
when i was in college
I briefly recalled the days when I was in college.
“I think I worked harder and harder than I am now.”
Lately, Baeksan’s training and company work have become incredibly numerous.
Somehow, back then, I didn’t have as much free time as I am now.
In order to maintain human relationships, you would have to do various things while having a drink with a friend or going to a PC room.
At that time, it was because I was so busy with my life that I could not build human relationships.
‘So naturally, we had no choice but to walk away.’
Human beings are supposed to have something to come and go.
People who were kind to me at first turn away when they know that I have a hard time even meeting them.
So when I was in college, I was lonely.
Therefore, it may be that Sa-yeon Kwak broke down more easily when she made a false #MeToo.
Sa-yeon Kwak was also engrossed in the game and spent five years in vain, but I also had a problem.
“So now is better.”
Ayu was the biggest help to me to come back to reality.
Seolhyang next to you now.
From Orjia and Flower Rain to the author, Shiho, and Seoho.
Finally, the Baeksan guy.
My life has changed completely from before.
And I liked this life.
To the extent that I want to do my best to protect it.
“Then how was it when you were younger?”
younger childhood.
Hearing that, I turned to Seolhyang.
Her face, shining through the slightly gloomy sun, was still as beautiful as a goddess.
“Um, well, honestly, it was hard. After my sister became like that, there was no one around to help me.”
In our family, there were very few people, either the father or mother-in-law.
Taken from n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
No, actually, there is no such thing as a parent.Because my father said that my grandmother and grandfather had passed away a long time ago, and that there was no other family.
In the case of my mother, I almost cut ties with my mother-in-law.
They said that the reason was to marry his father, but it was vague because I remember hearing it when I was in elementary school.
‘In the beginning, even my parents’ faces have become blurry.’
I only remember the faces of my parents who smiled at me vaguely, but now those memories are too old for me.
“So, for a while, I wanted to resent someone. But the object of that resentment is my sister. I couldn’t. The older sister who disappeared after being caught up in the dimensional shift barely reappeared after a year, how can I resent her like that?”
My father was quite calm when my sister got involved in the dimensional shift.
My father was a person with a bit of an oddity even in my hazy memories.
Anyway, such a father traveled with his mother for a year to solve her sister’s dimensional shift.
Thanks to that, I often went to the house next door with my peers.
The friend’s mother was also busy with work every day, so the two of them spent a lot of time playing together.
Thanks to that friend, even though my mother and father went looking for my sister, I was not very lonely because they were busy playing.
“Were Ha-chan’s older sister happy before that happened?”
“It did. At that time, I was still doing well in school. Even when I was in elementary school, I have a lot of good memories.”
Saying that, I growled.
“Come to think of it, I had a friend I was best friends with when I was in elementary school. He was a kid who lived next door, and he really played every day.”
As if reminiscing about the past, I started talking to Seolhyang.
Maybe it was because it had been a long time since I had told anyone about my past in this way.
“There were times when I was excited to go to the water play, catch insects, and even forgot about the fun of seeing flowers, thinking about forgetting a lunch box. I think I made a huge snowman in the winter.”
Having said that, I began to trace my memory.
“What was that friend’s name?”
Just before my sister returned home.
The friend must have gone to school.
I remember that we hugged each other and wept, saying we should contact each other, but then my sister returned home and I remember that I couldn’t contact each other because of this.
Thinking about it now, I’m really sorry.
That friend must have been waiting for my call all the time.
You can’t remember the name of a subject like that.
Why can’t I remember the names of the children I played with when I was young?
Then suddenly I remembered that he had two dots on his face.
He hated that his friends made fun of him with dots, but I said he was pretty at the time because the heroine of a cartoon was a character with a dot on her face.
At that moment, I met Seolhyang’s eyes.
Two dots under her left eye.
The dot was similar to the dot location on the child in my hazy memory.
Her eyes widened and she smiled.
“Seolhyang… … .”
“yes.”
As soon as I called her name, I started moving my lips.
I remembered the back of that child walking while holding my hand with a small hand that day when we were going to school together.
I like her
“Seolhyang!”
that’s how it was called
Slowly, my eyes began to widen.
Jin Seol-hyang.
The name of a girl who lives next door and who I always went to with when I was in elementary school.
She was clearly named Jin Seol-hyang.
Jin Seol-hyang in my memory.
And Snow White in front of you.
The last name was different, but I knew it when I remembered it.
Who was the woman next to me now?
And who Seolhyang told me that day was the friend I was unable to contact because of the dimensional shift on the day I transferred.
“Ha-chan, I told you a while ago. You said that you can ask anything if you mention the company.”
Then her voice rang out.
There was a small tremor on Seolhyang’s face as she looked at me.
Seeing that trembling, I also felt like I was about to burst into tears after a long time.
For the first time, it felt like the happy past that had been lost and that will no longer come back was holding my hand again.
“Mr. Ha-chan Kang of the Rodry Company.”
She and I make eye contact.
“Is there anything you want to ask me?”
Her voice with deep tremors whispered in my ear.
Under the setting sun, Seolhyang’s silver hair flowed down in the light.
Her hair, which had been shaded by such a sunset, seemed to have been dyed black for a brief moment, as if reminiscent of a girl from a long time ago.
But when I soon realized again that her hair was silver, her eyes looking at me were the same as back then.
Anxiety, sadness, and longing.
Hearing the question mixed with emotions, I slowly opened my mouth.
“… … Is it Seolhyang?”
Her silver hair fluttered as soon as she heard my question.
She hugged my neck, buried her face in her shoulder, and wept bitterly.
“right!”
Long memory The face of her crying saying that she should contact me has changed a lot from that time.
It was like those warm tears.
The friend who cried so much for me soon became an adult.
“I am Jin Seol-hyang.”
And when those words continued, I hugged her tightly.
In my past where I lost my mother and father and didn’t even have a sister.
The warmth of her, who returned only one thing, was so warm that I thought my hard times were not in vain.
It was the only memory in my life that I would never want to forget again.
3
“Since when… … .”
“It was recent.”
She looked down at her clasped hands.
“I found out by chance a few months ago.”
Then there was the sadness in her face.
“I’ll tell you sooner rather than later.”
“Actually, I was a little greedy. I thought Ha-chan might recognize you.”
I listened to her and looked very sorry.
“My hair color is like this, my face has changed a lot, and my surname has changed in front of me. It’s natural that you don’t recognize it, but that’s okay.”
Seeing me like that, Seolhyang smiled as if it was okay.
But even with that smile, I couldn’t hide my regret.
“When I first came back when I was 21, I wanted to visit right away. I couldn’t. I was really messed up back then, and returnees were ostracized even worse than they are now. More than anything else, Ha-chan might have been afraid to see you.”
At 21, I was just getting faked #MeToo and just before Beijing was blown away by a returnee.
At that time, it was safe to say that the returnees were a mess.
The state treated them as weapons, and among civilians they were treated as crimes or disasters.
The reason that the recognition and treatment of returnees has improved so much now is because of the efforts of the World Returnees Association.
“So then, I turned my attention to something else and started working as a returnee. Because I have collected all the returnees I can collect while traveling around the world.”
She let out a small laugh as if it was a past that she didn’t want to recall very much.
I couldn’t even imagine how much effort she had to put into establishing the World Returnees Association.
“But I just happened to see it.”
I could feel the power in Seolhyang’s hand.
“One day, Ha-chan noticed that you were working part-time at a convenience store.”
As she recalled that time, she smiled.
“Maybe it was fate, when the World Returnees Association was all settled, and I was a little bit better. Funny enough, Ha-chan is copying your favorite game.”
“Last time you were doing Lord of the Academy.”
“Yeah, are you curious about my nickname?”
I wonder
Even though he was my childhood friend, the president of the World Returnees Association said that he played the same game as me.
It feels like Alon Musk is playing the same online game.
Seolhyang smiled as I watched with an interesting expression on her face.
That smile was the first mischievous smile she had ever seen.
It was the smile I had seen so long ago that I remembered the past.
“It’s good to know.”
my body stiffened
“uh?”
“It’s me. Ahh.”
And when I said the name again, she waved the hand that was holding me pleasantly.
“I said. I guess it’s fate.”
I felt a tingling sensation in my brain.
The voice didn’t come out properly.
At the same time, I remembered the reaction she often had when Ayu and I talked about games.
The pieces that were put together one by one were finally complete.
“No, no, come.”
A game friend I’ve known for years turns out to be a childhood friend that I broke up with a long time ago?
At the same time, the shameful things I did in the game began to flash through my mind.
It wasn’t just one or two starting from the lamentation of the situation.
“Say, tell me!”
“Even if you found out recently. The person I liked the most in the game was the person I missed the most. Ha Chan in the game was cute.”
enjoyed it
This guy was obviously enjoying himself.