MS Ch 6 part 2

The bell alerting the end of regular classes rang throughout the school.

Euncho walked out of the school gates with the other students who were also wearing their fall uniforms. She looked up at the sky. The clouds looked like they had been painted. The weather was incredibly clear today.

Her daily routine of riding the bus and reaching the hill was the same. Euncho fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt as she stopped by the convenience store.

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Several days had passed since that day. Euncho didn’t know the exact number because she didn’t keep count.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she had her first day of school and that enough time had passed where she wore her summer uniform for a brief time before switching to her fall uniform. It was now more appropriate to drink warm yuzu tea instead of eating ice cream, signaling the approaching winter.

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However, Euncho continued to grab the ice cream out of habit.

Now, instead of three, she bought four. One for her, one for her mother, one for Unnie, and… Euncho put three in the bag and unwrapped her ice cream. She threw away the plastic packaging and gripped the wooden stick.

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She took a bite, and the new pomegranate flavor filled her mouth. She chewed on the lump of ice as it melted and suddenly came to a stop. She turned and looked back.

Even though she knew that the black sedan that had taken up the narrow alleyway was no longer there.

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That day, after they had ended things the way they did, she hadn’t seen a single trace of Ki Taeju. She realized how shallow this relationship had been. Now that he was gone, it felt like a frayed thread had finally snapped.

He wasn’t the only one she hadn’t seen since that night.

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‘Unnie, Heejin-unnie.’

‘Are you home, Unnie?’

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‘Unnieee.’

After Ki Taeju disappeared, she hadn’t seen Heejin-unnie either. Unlike that man, Euncho had no reason to avoid seeing her. No, in fact, she felt like she could properly see her now. Euncho continued to go to Unit 203 and knocked on the door.

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However, the apartment was completely empty.

She wondered if Heejin was just pretending not to be home or if she was in trouble and couldn’t respond, so she turned the doorknob and checked inside a few times. However, Heejin really wasn’t there. Everything inside remained the same. Only Heejin was nowhere to be seen. Every time this happened, Euncho swallowed her disappointment and went back home.

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This was why it felt like the summer was just a dream.

The two people she had been closest with had disappeared like bubbles in the sea. Their absence disrupted Euncho’s peaceful life. It made her look back only to be disappointed each time.

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“……”

As she walked towards the villa, her feet suddenly froze when she was almost there.

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Buzz, buzz. The villa, which had always felt like a remote world that was separate from other people, was now bustling with crowds of onlookers. Her eyes looked around until they discovered something. The siren flashing red and blue… It was a police car.

Euncho entered the villa as if she were in a trance. She squeezed through the strangers who didn’t live there and managed to reach the police tape in the second-floor corridor.

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Her hand holding onto the wooden stick of her ice cream fell to her side. All the noise seemed distant and far away before drawing near once again.

“Hey, kid.”

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Someone grabbed Euncho’s arm as she stood still, her eyes blank. She didn’t really remember her, but she recognized the woman as the ahjumma who lived on the first floor.

“Aren’t you the kid from Unit 301?”

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“……”

“Weren’t you close to the barmaid who lived over there?”

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The sound of her voice scattered in her mind. In fact, she couldn’t hear anything at all. All of her senses seemed to go numb, and only her vision was clear as it took in the reality that was unfolding before her.

“That’s…”

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“……”

“That’s Heejin-unnie’s house.”

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“Are you alright?”

“W-Why is the police there? Isn’t that police tape? Why is that sort of thing in Unnie’s house…”

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Euncho barely managed to mumble out the words. Her heart felt like it had run dry.

Something was approaching her, but she didn’t recognize it. It was terrifying, and it caused her heart to sink.

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Summer had truly passed, and a chill ran through her like sharp needles. It felt like her blood had run cold.

Suddenly, the door of Unit 203 opened, and someone came out. Two people or three… The people standing in front and behind were holding a stretcher. The white sheet covering the stretcher made Euncho feel dizzy. Her feet were rooted to the floor, but her entire body began to grow faint.

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“Please step aside. Just a moment.”

“Passing through.”

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The white sheet was coming closer.

Euncho reflexively took two steps back. Something like this came out of Unnie’s house. What was it? But her intuition had already guessed what it was. She didn’t want to acknowledge it. That’s why her thoughts kept flying in random directions.

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However…

Thud, the stretcher shook as it hit the wall of the narrow corridor.

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Something poked out from underneath the wrinkled sheet. A green bracelet on pale skin… It was the bracelet that Euncho had tied. It was hanging on a lifeless wrist drooping like a withered leaf…

Something splashed onto her foot. Euncho stopped breathing. Her vision turned painfully red, and she thought it was blood. It was Euncho’s melting ice cream. Drip, driiip. The red pomegranate ice cream had already lost its shape and was melting, creating a pool on the floor. It looked like blood.

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Meanwhile, the white sheet disappeared.

Ah, ah… Her head went numb. Thoughts entered and shattered, they surged up before crumbling. A few moments later, Euncho threw the ice cream stick out of her hand and frantically chased after them. She almost tripped down the stairs and barely managed to pull herself together and catch up to them.

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She didn’t have the courage to lift the sheet, so she grabbed the stretcher’s handle instead. Puzzled stares began to turn her way.

“What’s the matter?”

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“Why…”

“Pardon?”

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“Why did she die?”

The men who were holding the stretcher exchanged looks. Suddenly, a monotonous voice pierced her ear. It spoke as if this was an everyday occurrence.

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“Are you this person’s family?”

“We’re not… family. But we were like family.”

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“……”

“Unnie didn’t have anyone other than me and my mom…”

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The man who asked the question gave her an awkward look. He rolled his tongue against the inside of his cheek as if he were uncomfortable. When they heard someone shout, ‘What are you doing? Get moving!’, he readjusted his hold on the stretcher. When Euncho didn’t move, her face pale, he turned to speak to her.

“I cannot tell you.”

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There was only one reason why he could not share the cause of death with her, a person he had deemed an outsider.

Murder…

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Someone killed Heejin-unnie…

Her hand lost its strength as it fell from the stretcher. Euncho clasped and unclasped her hand that had grown sticky from the ice cream. As she stood still, her surroundings continued to change. The car that loaded the body disappeared with the sound of the car exhaust. The murmuring crowd that had gathered began to disperse.

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Whoosh, the sound of the dusty breeze was all that remained. Euncho ran to her apartment.

‘There’s no way.’

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Why Unnie? Why did Unnie die?

Since she wasn’t able to ask Heejin-unnie herself, she needed to ask someone else. Her chaotic mind could only think of one person.

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‘He is a really dangerous man. Never, never speak to him. If you happen to run into him, just pretend you don’t know him…’

Ki Taeju. She needed to ask Ki Taeju. Her hunch struck like lightning. He must have something to do with why Heejin-unnie ended up like that.

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Euncho, who had been rummaging through the apartment for a long time, suddenly burst out in frustrated laughter. She searched the blankets, she searched the pillows. She shook the wardrobe and searched every nook and cranny, but nothing came out.

It wasn’t a surprise. All she’d done since meeting Ki Taeju was have sex.

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Did she ever try to get to know who he was? What he did for a living, how old he was. Other than his name, she didn’t know anything about him. Without knowing anything, she had been completely absorbed in the pleasure he provided. She liked the way his weight settled down over her limbs. She liked the sense of security she felt whenever his arms wrapped around her.

She had become blind to an illusion that disappeared the moment she turned her back.

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“…Ah.”

The memory of a thin piece of paper flashed in her mind.

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“B-Business card.”

She had received a business card from him at one point. Euncho ran out of the apartment without giving it further thought. She slammed open the glass door, almost causing it to shatter. She groped along the area by the streetlight. Here. I think it was here? No, was it by those bushes over there? No, it wasn’t here. No…

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Where was it? Where on earth did I rip the business card?

She groped along the flowers that trailed along the dirty, plaster wall. As she fumbled around, her vision gradually grew blurry with tears as they began to drip down. Her pale hand flinched before clenching around the weeds.

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How can I find it? How could I possibly find it?

That was already several months ago!

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She had ripped it up, and it had been blown away by the wind. It was probably crushed underneath someone’s foot and drenched in the rain, so how…

Her knees buckled, and Euncho collapsed to the ground. Because she couldn’t find Ki Taeju’s business card, because she couldn’t contact him, because she could only watch helplessly as Heejin-unnie’s death played out before her. The reality of it all threw Euncho into a pit of despair.

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From the moment Euncho accepted Heejin’s death, her voice continued to ring in her ears.

‘Euncho, don’t get mixed up with that person.’

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‘He is a really dangerous man.’

‘Euncho, please…’

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She truly thought about it now.

The tears she had never seen from Unnie, the terror that seemed to swallow her whole, the dread and fear she showed towards Ki Taeju, the grip of her hand on her shoulder that seemed to reverberate throughout Euncho’s body.

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Maybe Unnie was sending me a signal, asking me to save her?

Just maybe.

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Maybe Ki Taeju…

Maybe Unnie… by Ki Taeju…

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Euncho held her head with both hands.

She felt as if something was ripped out of her chest. In the hole it left behind, sorrow, doubt, unrecognizable regret, loneliness, and other indescribable feelings began to surge out.

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Her head felt like it was going to explode. She wished it would explode.

* * *

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The cold breeze tickled her forehead.

With a scarf wrapped around her neck, Euncho blankly stared at the building. Although it wasn’t any different from before, the layer of snow covering the villa made her feel like she was seeing it for the first time. It had been such a familiar place, but it had become something completely different in an instant.

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“Euncho, what are you doing just standing there?”

Vrooom. She heard the engine of the truck that held the neatly packed moving boxes.

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Murder. It was the final taboo of the villa in this impoverished neighborhood.

Druggies, gamblers, and barmaids lived here. Even if they weren’t one of them, the people who lived here were still marked by destitution.

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Although they lived through hardships such as rape and persecution, murder was a line that had never been crossed.

Until now. The taboo was broken because of Heejin’s death.

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Euncho had already anticipated the move once she realized that her mother’s remarriage was a real possibility. Because Heejin-unnie had been murdered inside her home, the plans had been moved up. Although the debt hadn’t been completely paid off, when Ahjussi heard about what happened, he said he could no longer stand by and watch.

Therefore, the move that they had planned for next year was now taking place before the end of this year.

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‘Snow…’

It’s snowing again.

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According to the morning news, the first snowfall had come historically early this year.

Euncho tilted her head back and looked up at the sky as the snow fell. The streetlight that stretched out like a beanpole by the villa’s entrance. The dark backside of the villa that she couldn’t see from here. Unit 203 where she went over to play nearly every other day. Unit 301 where she had lived for a long time. And the rooftop where she had often gone to hang the blankets in the summertime.

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Even though the season had passed, the memories were still pleasant.

But she wondered if they were truly pleasant. Because Euncho still didn’t know anything. The way Heejin-unnie’s face had been distorted with fear. Ki Taeju saying he did not plan on ending things with Heejin-unnie. What kind of feelings tied those two together?

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Who killed Unnie?

Was it…

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“Euncho! We need to leave now.”

She heard her mother’s urging voice behind her back. Euncho, who had been facing the villa, turned around. As she walked away with the villa at her back, her feet suddenly stopped as if something had grabbed her ankle. She turned around and took one last look.

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‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘Are you that curious?’

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‘Just try one puff.’

Heejin-unnie’s ringing voice had gradually faded away and only Ki Taeju’s voice remained. However, it was now so faint that she often wondered if she heard anything at all.

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Euncho’s lips parted. As if making a mockery of the summer, the winter cold caused a cloud of mist to flow out from between her teeth.

Are you the one who did that to Unnie?

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She knew she wouldn’t get a response.

Euncho turned around again. The wind blew against the back of her head. It felt hot at times and cold at times.

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It was a bone-chilling winter filled with loss.