# Chapter 5
Hwiseo heard someone calling him from behind, but his legs that started running toward home didn’t stop. It felt like he had forgotten how to breathe. He inhaled when he should have exhaled and breathed out when he should have breathed in. Soon he was completely out of breath. A blue sports car stopped in front of the staggering Hwiseo. A man got out of the car and pushed Hwiseo inside.
“I heard from the Village Chief, so get in.”
The man said as he stepped on the accelerator. Thankfully, he ignored traffic signals and drove wildly. Hwiseo’s body flew forward and hit the dashboard, but he didn’t feel any pain. When they reached the intersection leading to the main road, a column of gray smoke came into view. Under the smoke that was rising like cumulus clouds, flickering flames could be seen. Everyone on the street was looking at the laundry shop. Some people were holding buckets.
As soon as the car stopped, Hwiseo jumped out and rushed toward the store. The living quarters connected to the back might still be okay. Telling himself that everything hadn’t burned down yet, Hwiseo pushed against the crowd, but someone grabbed both his arms.
“Shit! There’s someone inside! My dad is in there! Dad! Dad!”
“No, you can’t go in there,” the grandmother said as she grabbed Hwiseo’s legs and sat down. Hwiseo wasn’t afraid of the flames. He was more afraid of a world without his father than the fire that was crackling and consuming the laundry shop. Hwiseo desperately tried to break free from whatever was holding him back. He struggled while watching the store burn black. But strong arms held firmly onto Hwiseo’s waist and wouldn’t let go. Hwiseo tore at those arms and shouted.
“Let go! Let me go! Please, save him. Please save my dad!”
It was when the fire truck sirens started to be heard. There was a loud “boom” that blew out fierce flames. A mushroom-shaped dark red pillar of fire shot up into the sky. The firelight flickered across Hwiseo’s face. Hot heat poured over his entire body, as if it would burn everything. It melted everything Hwiseo had. His body, his heart, seemed to stop. He could do nothing.
Hwiseo finally collapsed. Below his navel, it writhed, “Dad.” From his chest, it muttered, “Dad.” At his throat, it choked, “Dad.” His tongue pushed out a scream.
“Daaaad!”
Hwiseo’s cry pierced through his entire body and tore through the night sky. The clear autumn sky that people used to talk about was now full of gray.
* * *
Hwiseo was staying at a guesthouse run by the Village Chief. He had nowhere to go. He truly had nothing except his own body. The fire spread to the petroleum detergent and only went out after turning everything pitch black. The fire wasn’t caused by his father’s mistake or equipment failure. They said that the troublesome man who had visited earlier in the day had poured gasoline on the shop. He removed the wooden boards from the temporarily repaired window, poured oil, and set it on fire. The drunk man was caught by locals while trying to escape. They said he was snoring in the police car even while being taken away.
Hwiseo stared blankly at the man he had picked up from the beach last night. The man was sleeping like the dead. Why was he there at that time? He wondered briefly, but his mind couldn’t function properly after not eating or sleeping for days. Instead, he took out his phone. He didn’t check the accumulated messages. He touched the photo gallery app. There weren’t as many photos of his dad as he thought.
A photo of his dad smiling in the T-shirt Hwiseo bought him for Parents’ Day, a photo of him with hair dye and plastic wrap on his head, a photo of the two of them together under a fully bloomed cherry tree, his touched face in front of seaweed soup Hwiseo made for him. And just his back view watching TV. Among them, he zoomed in on a photo with a pink Post-it note. It was a memo his dad wrote for him in his senior year of high school.
“People don’t know how strong they are. That’s why someone has to keep telling them. My son, Dad will always be here to tell you. Bongdeok is truly strong!”
Liar, you liar. Hwiseo’s shoulders trembled as he buried his head between his raised knees. No, this isn’t Dad’s fault. The chain of bad thoughts wrapped tightly around Hwiseo like shackles.
“Bongdeok, sweetie.”
Just then, there was a knock at the front door. As if telling him to stop his wandering thoughts, the grandmother from the soup restaurant called for Hwiseo. Ever since Hwiseo held the funeral and came here, the grandmother had been bringing soup every day for three days. She hugged him and said that he needed to eat to gain strength, that the living must live on.
“Who’s that boy?”
She asked urgently, looking at the man Hwiseo had wrapped tightly in blankets.
“A friend from Seoul came. He drank too much.”
“Did he drink all the alcohol by himself?”
“I didn’t drink. I’m weak with alcohol, just like Dad.”
The grandmother stroked Hwiseo’s face. Her hands, weathered by life’s hardships, were rough and firm but warm. When she said she would bring another bowl of soup, Hwiseo followed her out. People looked at Hwiseo’s face and each said something.
“Your father would want you to stay strong and live well. So stay strong.”
Hwiseo nodded. He couldn’t bring himself to smile. He took the pot of soup and almost ran back to his room. In the room, the man who had awakened from sleep was sitting wrapped in blankets. His hair was shaggy and his face was unkempt. The man who finally opened his eyes saw Hwiseo and, for a long time, only moved his lips like the Little Mermaid who had lost her voice.
Hwiseo silently looked at him. His round, large eyes had a clear contrast between the black and white parts. His upper lip was raised like a bird’s beak, and there was a small, black mole on his left cheek. These were things you wouldn’t notice unless you looked closely. But Hwiseo could recognize them from afar. Because everything about the man was identical to Hwiseo.
* * *
The small table was filled with two bowls of soup, two sets of spoons, and a dish of radish kimchi. Maybe after eating something, he could think properly. Hwiseo mixed the rice into the soup and drank it like water. The man’s face looked complicated as he sipped the broth. Soon Hwiseo felt full. The meal ended, though he couldn’t tell if he had eaten properly. When Hwiseo spoke to tell the man where the shower was, the man was so startled by his voice that he fell to the floor. Neither of them had expected their voices to be similar too. Pretending nothing was wrong, Hwiseo handed the Village Chief’s son’s clothes to the man. While Hwiseo washed the dishes, the man took a shower.
“It was me who brought you here after finding you collapsed on the beach last night. Other than that, I don’t know anything either.”
“Be…ach? Beach? This is by the sea?”
“Yes, the East Sea.”
“But I… fell into the Han River?”
They silently looked at each other, then quickly averted their eyes. Seeing someone who looked exactly like oneself wasn’t about surprise or embarrassment. It was fear. Whenever their eyes accidentally met, they both looked away. Hwiseo didn’t want to prolong this strange, frightening experience of facing someone who looked exactly like him.
For now, Hwiseo was too exhausted and troubled. His father had passed away and he was alone. It was strange that a man who claimed to have fallen into the Han River was now at the East Sea, but with not even a pair of underwear to wear tomorrow, Hwiseo couldn’t care less whether what the man said was true or not. Bringing him here was the best Hwiseo could do.
“You look fine. How do you feel?”
“My body seems okay for now.”
“I’m just staying here temporarily because of my situation. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but once you recover, go back.”
“Wait a moment.”
“I’ll go with you to the police station. Once we’re there, you can handle things yourself, right?”
“Don’t you know me?”
Hwiseo’s eyebrows raised at the man’s careful, unrelated response. He tried to understand the man’s intentions. There was no way the man could have seen someone with an identical face before. If he had, he wouldn’t have forgotten it. The hypothesis of being a lost twin brother didn’t fit either, as the man looked a bit older. Not older as in aged, but he had a mature aura about him.
“Are you saying we’ve met before?”
“No, that’s not it. I mean from television or the internet.”
Who are you that I should have seen you on television? Hwiseo’s expression said. The man fidgeted with his left ear. It was what Hwiseo did when he was flustered, and the man was doing the same thing. As the silence grew longer, the man gave a brief introduction about himself.
He said he was 27 years old this year and had debuted as an idol at 21. He said he had recently started acting seriously and had received drama offers. It wasn’t an enormously successful life, but it could be described as the life of a steadily growing entertainer. But Hwiseo didn’t know the man’s face, much less his name.
“What’s your name?”
“Lee Hwiseo.”
“What?”
“Lee Hwiseo, that’s my name.”
Hwiseo had a feeling that getting rid of this man wouldn’t be as simple as he thought. It felt like a huge iron chain had appeared from somewhere with a clank and shackled his ankle.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
