Chapter 1
It was the fifth day since Grandfather passed away.
After a four-and-a-half-hour intercity bus ride, and another hour on a local bus from the terminal, a familiar landscape finally came into view. It was the moment I arrived at Jinhong-ri, a small rural village, my father’s hometown and the place where Grandfather lived alone until his death.
“This, luggage, is, so, heavy.”
I somehow managed to get my carrier off the bus by myself, but it was quite worn out, struggling against the bumpy, unpaved road. Being a self-proclaimed maximalist, I had also crammed it with everything that seemed necessary.
Thud, bump. Thud, bump. Thud, bump.
Every time it seemed to roll smoothly, the wheels would catch on a protruding rock. Each time, I’d heave-ho, lift it back into place, grab the handle, and drag it again. It felt like pouring water into a bottomless pot, but I couldn’t just abandon my luggage.
As the sun began to set in the west, Heena’s steps stopped.
“This seems like the right place.”
According to the roughly drawn map from her younger brother, Hee-tae, this was definitely Grandfather’s house. Heena folded the paper with the map and put it in her pocket, then slightly pushed open the blue gate. A rusty screech grazed her ears.
“It was this small…?”
That was her first thought as she stepped into the yard. When she was young, it seemed spacious enough to run around playing water gun fights and hide-and-seek.
Her parents and Hee-tae visited this place every holiday, but it had been almost ten years since she had been to Jinhong-ri. During her university days, she’d used studying as an excuse, and after starting work, she’d justified her absence with the demands of being a freelancer with no days off.
Next time, I’ll definitely visit Grandfather. Next time, for sure. As she kept postponing it, time flew by relentlessly.
Naturally, Grandfather’s time had also passed by like an arrow. The Grandfather she saw at the large university hospital in Seoul was an unbelievably aged old man.
Overwhelmed with guilt for not visiting him often, Heena volunteered to care for him. She stayed by his side until just before he passed away, his consciousness fading in and out, making sure he got some sunshine every day and reading to him.
During the funeral, only one thought filled her mind. She had to go down to Jinhong-ri after personally seeing Grandfather off. She had to spend enough time there mourning him.
When the family elders said they needed to go to Jinhong-ri to organize Grandfather’s house and belongings after he passed away, she volunteered to do it herself. It was the last gift she could give to her Grandfather, whom she hadn’t visited often while he was alive.
After walking around the house, which was as worn out as her carrier, Heena felt a lump in her throat and her nose sting.
Grandfather, who used to be so vigorous, was no longer there. The yard and the old house, which she had thought were large, now felt terribly small.
The jars of various sizes lined up along the wall caught her eye. Those jars, where Grandfather used to make water kimchi and store all sorts of seasonings and different kinds of kimchi, were still waiting for his touch.
Just like that, she stood in the middle of the yard, tracing Grandfather’s presence with her eyes, and then the thought came to her that she should move before the sun set completely.
✦⋆🍒.₊ ⊹
“Jeong Heena! Jeong Heena! Eat all of these.”
A little boy held out his small hands filled with red fruits. His chubby cheeks were tinged like cornelian cherries.
“You little thing! I told you to call me ‘Noona’!”
She didn’t like that the boy, the same age as Hee-tae, kept calling her by her name. She raised her fist in a threatening gesture, but the boy didn’t even flinch. He just giggled.
“And you don’t even have any teeth….”
The boy, whose front teeth were all missing, finally pursed his lips and rolled his eyes.
“Just you wait until my new teeth come in. I’ll be your Oppa then.”
Heena burst out laughing at his words.
“Are you stupid? How can a younger brother become an older brother?”
“I can!”
“You can’t!”
“Can!”
“Listen carefully, I’ll explain. You were born in year XX, and I was born in year XX. That’s a fact that won’t change unless we go back in time.”
“Then… then… I’ll go back in time! Then it’ll work.”
The boy stubbornly insisted on his nonsensical claim, and Heena sighed like a little adult, shaking her head. She didn’t forget to click her tongue. Then, her gaze shifted to the cornelian cherries piled up in the boy’s hands.
“But is it okay to just eat those like that?”
“Yeah. The grown-ups said they’re good for you. These don’t even have seeds.”
“If they’re so good, why are you giving them to me?”
“Uh? Uh, uh…”
The flustered boy averted his gaze and chewed on his lips. His already red cheeks flushed even deeper. Regardless, Heena picked just one out of the many and popped it into her mouth. As she chewed, a tart flavor spread throughout her mouth.
“Hmm, well, it tastes good.”
As she gave her assessment with her chin held high, a bright smile spread across the boy’s face. Then, a beat later, as if realizing again that his front teeth were missing, he quickly pursed his lips.
He looked so funny that Heena covered her mouth with both hands and giggled. The boy, looking puzzled, soon started giggling along with her.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Why are you laughing?”
“This one keeps calling me ‘you’! Call me ‘Noona’!”
“No. I told you, in a few years, I’ll be much taller than you.”
“But not now.”
“N, now… Now…”
“Yay, cornelian cherries!”
Jeong Hee-tae, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, grabbed handfuls of the berries from the hesitant boy’s hands. Then, he shoved them all into his mouth.
Startled by Hee-tae’s unexpected appearance, Heena stared blankly at his actions, and the boy, whose berries had been snatched away, looked back and forth between Hee-tae and his own empty hands with wide eyes.
“Eww! Sour! Yuck, yuck!”
Hee-tae, who had greedily stuffed his mouth with the berries, screwed up his face and spat out the crushed fruit.
Heena couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about her brother’s reckless behavior. As expected, tears welled up in the boy’s eyes as he looked down at his empty hands.
“Waaah! These were for Jeong Heena! I brought them for Jeong Heena!”
Even while crying, he rudely kept saying “Jeong Heena, Jeong Heena.” But she wasn’t in a position to scold him now. Since he was crying because of her brother, she had to apologize.
“Don’t cry. I’ll pick some more for you.”
She carefully hugged the boy, who was smaller than her in both height and build, spreading her arms wide. As she patted his heaving back, his cries gradually subsided.
Jeong Hee-tae would growl and wriggle away if she hugged him, but this boy, perhaps gentle by nature, stayed nestled in her arms.
“Ring around the rosie. They hugged each other, they hugged each other. Ring around the rosie, ring around the rosie.”
Jeong Hee-tae, his mouth smeared with juice, teased them merrily, waving his index finger.
“Everyone! My Noona has to marry a princess now! The princess has to marry my Noona!”
Shouting loudly, he ran away.
The boy, nicknamed “Princess” because he was relatively docile compared to his peers, obedient to his parents, picky with food, and haughty towards strangers, looked dejected.
“Ugh, that jerk! You just wait till we get home! You’re dead!”
Heena yelled at Hee-tae’s retreating back. Worried that the boy, already crying, might start crying again, she carefully observed his expression.
“Are you okay?”
Contrary to her concerns, the boy shyly bit his lip and blushed again. Heena tilted her head. Could he be in cahoots with Jeong Hee-tae? Were they teasing her on purpose?
“Jeong Heena.”
She bristled again at his sudden use of informal speech, but the words that followed left her speechless.
“Can I marry you?”
“What?”
“Can I marry you?”
“You don’t ‘do’ marrying. You should ask, ‘Can I marry you?’ or ‘Can I take you as my bride?’ There’s so much to teach you.”
“Then can I marry you? I want to marry you!”
Heena crossed her arms with a serious expression.
“Let’s talk again after your new teeth come in and you grow much taller than me.”
At Heena’s rather mature and firm answer, the boy’s eyes welled up again.
✦⋆🍒.₊ ⊹
I must have fallen asleep on the floor after tidying up a bit and taking a short break. When I opened my eyes, it was pitch black.
Perhaps because I’d come down to Jinhong-ri after so long, I had a dream about my childhood for the first time in a while. It was something that happened when I was young and my parents, busy with work, left me at Grandfather’s house. Of course, I don’t remember it specifically, and there might be distortions, but something like that did happen.
He was such a foolishly innocent and cute kid. A chuckle escaped her lips. Then, as if disgusted, she shook her head and frowned.
Innocent? Cute? You’re crazy, Jeong Heena.
Her body trembled at the face that involuntarily came to mind.
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
Heena sniffled and pulled the blanket she was covering herself with up to her shoulders. She thought she might have caught a bad cold if it weren’t for the thick, soft blanket.
“Wait a minute…”
A blanket? I didn’t cover myself with a blanket.
Perplexed by the belatedly realized discrepancy, she looked around. But she couldn’t see anything; it was pitch black.
There’s no one I know in this village anymore, so no one could have come and gone. She shrugged, concluding that she must have just pulled the blanket over herself in her sleep because she was cold.
