Chapter Text
Jun-wan walks slowly along the foreshore of Sokcho beach, the cool wind of late March ruffles his hair. The crisp air freezes his cheeks, but he doesn't care: on a day like this he needs to be outdoors, and breathe. He needs to feel something, anything that can fill the huge emptiness within him. The cellphone in his jacket pocket starts buzzing, he looks at the name on the display and answers.
"Hi Ho-sub."
“Jun-wan! We have the verdict..."- the man on the line says breathlessly.
He closes his eyes, his heart starts to beat faster and harder in his chest. The world around seems to move in slow motion.
"Innocent! - finally exclaims the lawyer - Innocent! "
The doctor lets out a relief snort.
It's over.
"Thanks... - he manages to stammer after a while - Thanks Ho-sub."
It's finally over.
“I'm only too pleased to see justice done. - he replies enthusiastically - Next week I'll submit a claim for damages, okay?"
“Okay. I owe you so much Ho-sub."
“It's my job, but thank you. Take care Jun-wan."
The doctor closes the call and looks at the now orange-colored horizon. For the first time in months he feels at peace with himself, and finally the pain that had filled every corner of his soul had been replaced by lightness, or at least part of him. He sighs. Even if justice has shown his absolute innocence, nothing will bring back what he has lost. He is bitterly aware of it.
He looks at his watch and decides to leave the beach. He whistles and waits. The white and gray Shitzu comes scurrying in and stops to stare at its owner. Jun-wan smiles, leans towards him, strokes his neck and ears, then puts the leash on him.
"Good boy! Let's go Oreo!"
The phone vibrates once again in his pocket. He looks at the display unsure whether to take the call or not: it's his mother. He bites his lip and takes a deep breath, he can't avoid this conversation.
"Hello Mom." - he finally answers.
"Honey! Have you heard? - she screams in tears - Finally! Oh my dear! I'm so happy!"
"Yes mom. At last." - he tells her in a calm and detached tone.
He should be over the moon as well, feeling satisfied and free, and in a sense he is, even though he knows that happiness is no longer an option for him. Despite he has now been proven not responsible for the accident.
The accident.
"Will you come back now?"
"Um?"
“Will you go back to Seoul? To Yulje?"
Why should I go back? There is nothing left for me in Seoul.
"I don’t know. - he decides to answer only to avoid her unnecessary concern - I have a job here, and patients that need my attention. We'll see."
"Sure. - she replies - Take all the time you need, honey. "
“I have to go, Mom. Thank you for calling."
"When are you going back to Changwon? I miss you."
"Soon. - he answers as he always has for months - Very soon. Promise."
"Sure... Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Of course. I love you."
"I love you too, Jun-wan."
Oreo rubs himself on his legs and stares at him in his unique and irresistible way that means "Are you okay?", the doctor smiles in response and bends over to pet him.
“I'm fine Oreo. I'm fine."
Before reaching the building where he has lived for a year, Jun-wan stops at the mini market and buys the necessary for dinner. The cashier, a man in his sixties, recognizes him and smiles, then they exchange a few words about the coming Spring, and finally he sets off for home.
“Good evening Doctor Kim! - the elderly landlady greets him from the window when she sees him pass through - I made the kongnamul gukbap, would you like some?"
The surgeon replies with a broad smile.
“What do you say, Oreo? - he asks the dog - Can we say no to our lovely landlady?"
The Shitzu tilts his head to the side and the woman giggles happily, inviting him to enter. The environment is small, but tidy with a very welcoming atmosphere, as all the apartments there.
"Here it is. - she tells him handing an airtight container - At least there is someone who gives me a little satisfaction here!"
"You can't say no to ajumma Jung's cooking."
"You're a connoisseur on fine foods, sir."
Jun-wan looks fondly at the slender woman in front of him. For some inexplicable reason, that petite but strong-willed woman immediately took him under her wing. He was for her a sort of nephew. There wasn't a day that she didn't ask him how he was, or she didn't find the time to exchange a few words with him. And he feels the same way, for some unfathomable reason, he's worried about her, and cared about her health. But yet they are two complete strangers.
"How's the blood pressure?"
The woman replies by shrugging.
“Much better now! Thank you for replacing my medications. "
"No problem. But I'm still waiting for you to come to the ospital for a complete check-up."
“I'll surely come. But don't worry to much, weeds are not killed by the frost."
Jun-wan chuckles in response, takes a bow and leaves the small apartment not before wishing her good night. Oreo follows him wagging his tail.
Arriving at the top of the stairs, he stops, like every evening, to admire the view of the bay from the large terrace and enters the apartment on the third floor. This was his life now. The work in the small hospital, the daily walk with Oreo, a few words with his landlady. Sleeping, working, eating, walking. Again and again.
Oreo snuggles up in his kennel outside as he enters, turns on the light and goes directly to the tiny kitchen corner. He arranges the groceries, then moves into the living room with a glass, a place mat, a spoon, and a bowl of soup. He goes back to the kitchen, takes some water from the fridge and the already opened bottle of white wine.
We must celebrate tonight.
He sits down and begins to eat alone, in complete silence, interrupted only by the noise of the cutlery and, from time to time, by the sound of a TV in the distance. The cell phone on the table lights up, the doctor looks absently at the display and frowns. He stops eating and scrolls the screen. The preview reveals that there are three new messages in the 99s chat. He blinks unable to do anything else. Months have passed since the last message in that group: exactly 425 days, 10,220 hours, 613,201 minutes. He heard Seok-hyung from time to time: a couple of calls, a few sporadic messages, but the chat remained silent and unchanged for a long time.
Who will have written?
Seok-hyung? Song-hwa maybe?
He doesn't have the courage to find ut. He sighs as he feels his heart racing. Should he read it? Or maybe it would be better to ignore it?
He resumes eating slowly, listlessly. His mind is now in Seoul, back to that evening 17 months ago. In that car that had changed everything.
Oreo's shrill and insistent barking brings him back to reality. His little friend is probably hungry. He approaches the door and opens it. On the threshold, in addition to the Shitzu, there is also his young neighbor, Seo-jun, 8 years old, with a frustrated expression on his usually sunny and smiling face.
“Good evening Seo-jun. What's that face?"
“Good evening Dr. Kim! - he replies with a deep bow - My mother is still at work and I have to finish my math homework, but I don't understand anything."
“Okay… Come in, let's see if Oreo and I can help you somehow. Have you already eaten?"
The boy shakes his head, his stomach rumbles and he blushes. Jun-wan pretends nothing has happened and lets him in together with the dog that crouching under the dining table.
“You are lucky, ajumma Jung made the kongnamul gukbap. Would you like to eat some?"
The boy nods, claps his hands happily and sits down on a chair, while Jun-wan retrieves a place mat, a glass, another bowl, a spoon and two bags of chips.
"My favorites!"
Jun-wan winks at him and the two begin to eat heartily, Seo-jun has abandoned his distressed expression and now smiles and comments on the food they are sharing. Jun-wan also feels better, he has something that distracts him from bad thoughts.
"Doctor Kim, did you know that in order to protest against Korean snack companies - he says at one point opening the package - guilty of filling the bags with too much nitrogen, three university students have decided to build a raft with 160 packages of chips and they have been able to sail about 1.5 kilometers on the Han River?"
"Interesting, I had never heard of it... But they ate the chips at the end?"
The boy frowns thoughtfully and continues to eat.
"I think they did."
“Otherwise it would have been a waste. - Jun-wan comments, eating a couple of chips from his bag - Will you let me take a look at your homework?"
"Are you good at math?"
Jun-wan looks at him, raises an eyebrow and smiles mischievously.
"My GPA was the second-highest in the entire Natural Science Division."