Chapter 0 / Prologue

PROLOGUE

Geumnakri, 32-4, a small single room attached to the village hall.

Heejae sat with her legs dangling out the side door, which served as a window, and asked,

“Is that true?”

The man, his large body crammed into the narrow backyard, silently jabbed a trowel into the dry earth.

It was understandable. Even as the sun began to set, June evenings were quite hot.

Heejae glanced at the ice cream she was holding, then at the man’s sweat-soaked school uniform, before nudging his shoulder with her knee.

“Ah, I said, is it true?”

At her prodding, Sewon’s already annoyed furrowed brow deepened even further.

“What is?”

“That snakes can’t get in because of the rose bushes, is that true?”

Every summer, snakes thrived in Geumnakri. Heejae’s unkempt backyard was especially notorious.

Even with patches of mold on the wallpaper, this wretched house was better than the scorching sun, so large and small snakes would persistently slither in and coil up. Heejae was now even having nightmares.

But she couldn’t just keep the only side door tightly shut when she was barely managing with a single fan, nor could she ask her mother, who was constantly refilling water bottles until her fingerprints wore off, to replace the torn screen door.

Waiting for summer to pass was her only option.

It was then that Sewon arrived at Heejae’s house, carrying a single rose bush. He also brought with him a superstition that wasn’t particularly convincing.

“Probably. Unless my grandpa lied.”

“Your grandpa?”

Come to think of it, crude rose bushes seemed to be strewn all over Sewon’s two-story mansion. The fact that his grandfather—who had replaced her rain-damaged umbrella with a much larger and sturdier one—was the source of this information made her no longer want to doubt its veracity.

Just as Heejae unhesitatingly brought the ice cream to her mouth, a low murmur reached her ears.

“It’s damn hot, shit.”

Her gaze dropped to find Sewon squeezing one eyelid shut. A bead of sweat, having run down his forehead, must have gotten into his eye. Heejae stared intently at him, still absorbed in digging, then lowered her ice cream again.

She reached out with her other hand and gently wiped away the bead of sweat pooled above his eyebrow. His sharp eyes, previously fixed on the ground, slowly lifted a beat later.

“What. What are you looking at?”

Heejae, her eyes meeting Sewon’s, quickly withdrew her hand and averted her gaze. She stubbornly fixated on the sunset beyond the half-collapsed wall, unaware that her earlobes were completely flushed.

No, he must know everything, sly like a fox.

Sewon chuckled softly.

“What’s wrong with a little look? Am I going to melt?”

“Yes, you’ll melt.”

“Oh, really? Should I check?”

Sewon casually leaned his shoulder against Heejae’s knee, which was sticking out of the door. And then, more intently, he openly admired her face.

She could easily pretend not to notice his burdensome gaze, imagining the mocking expression that was surely on his face. What truly bothered Heejae was the warm body heat spreading onto her knee.

A pang of belated guilt pricked her conscience for readily accepting the ice cream he offered yet not giving him a glass of water in return.

“Heejae.”

Eventually, Heejae’s eyes sought Sewon’s once more.

“Melt? No, you’re always beautiful.”

Sewon’s lips, which had been watching Heejae all this time, curved into a smooth smile.

“……”

For a moment, Heejae felt as if her toes were cramping. She had been like this for so long. Because Kim Sewon was leaning his large body against her… so… that’s why.

“Move, you’re heavy…”

Heejae mumbled, gripping the melting ice cream stick tightly. Sewon casually ignored her almost inaudible voice. This time, he rested his head on her knee.

“You’re so damn beautiful, Heejae, no matter how many times I look.”

“…Ah, I know.”

“You also know I like you, right?”

Heejae, who had been trying to respond brazenly, was finally speechless before the completely unexpected question.

As the silence lengthened, the smile on Sewon’s face also gradually faded. Before long, his lips returned to their original, neutral position.

“Smart Kang Heejae didn’t know that?”

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, go. Mom will be home soon.”

Heejae gently pushed Sewon with her knee, changing the subject. Surprisingly, he easily moved back, slowly taking off his dirty work gloves.

“Kang Heejae.”

At the man’s voice, which was not just low but heavy, her lips habitually pressed shut.

The subtle reaction, which others might have missed, was clear to Sewon. She was definitely afraid. He finished taking off the other work glove and let out a shallow sigh.

“Heejae.”

Just as he was painstakingly forcing out a gentleness he didn’t possess, crash! A sudden, violent shattering sound interrupted them.

Heejae’s head instantly snapped towards the tightly shut iron gate. The ground vibrated as if something had toppled over, then came the sound of aluminum dishes clattering on the floor.

“You son of a bitch, do you know who I am!?”

And the voice of a man, heavily drunk…

The shouting was so familiar that it now made her shudder. Heejae wanted to cover her ears immediately. But her hands only twitched against her will, and the ice cream slipped from her fingertips.

“I’m Kang Taehyun, Kang Taehyun! You rotten bastards!”

Kang Taehyun, he was Heejae’s father. A man who hardly deserved to be called that, but the law and society had arbitrarily bestowed upon him the name of father.

He was a man who wielded that name as if it were immense power. Outside that gate, he was merely an alcoholic, a madman, but in the small world of their home, he was the law, the head.

He usually didn’t come home much after one of his outbursts, so why today…?

Heejae clutched her school skirt tightly. A sudden fear gripped her. Could her body, still bruised from a recent beating, endure today? Would she really be beaten to death this time?

Her heart pounded as footsteps grew closer beyond the iron gate. Heejae wished her father, too drunk to keep his balance, would stumble and fall. Or, if not, that he would slip on the household items he’d thrown around, and, by some stroke of bad luck, crack the back of his head on the ground.

Yes, so that he would just…

“Just die.”

Contrary to her desperate wish, Taehyun’s shadow gradually darkened over the checkered glass that covered half of the small iron door.

Realizing the unchanging reality, Heejae frantically tried to close the side door to hide Sewon. But before her hand could reach the doorknob, her wrist was grabbed. At that moment, she was abruptly pulled outside, and the blue screen door, which had been casually propped up, slid down behind her.

Bang! At the same time, the iron gate violently opened and slammed shut.

“Ugh, goddammit. This fucking house, I’m gonna boil alive.”

As Taehyun, now in the room, strode towards the side door, Sewon clicked his tongue softly. He wondered if his broad back might be visible through the open door. Showing himself in this state would surely make today his memorial day, so he pressed himself even closer to Heejae, who was leaning against the wall.

She was so terrified that Kang Heejae, who would normally have pushed him away by now, was holding her breath, her eyes squeezed shut.

“What’s this woman doing, can’t even change this one thing!”

Fortunately, Taehyun didn’t see the two of them. He merely turned the constantly rattling fan head towards the center of the room and spun around. Soon, he flopped onto the bare floor, grumbled a string of scathing curses for a moment, and then suddenly began to snore.

At that instant, blood rushed to Heejae’s eyes. Her throat throbbed as if she’d swallowed boiling water.

Was it relief or shame, or both? Heejae buried her forehead in Sewon’s shoulder to hide the tears that were too late to swallow.

Sewon gently embraced her trembling head.

“What a mess, seriously…”

It was typical of Kim Sewon. Unlike her, who found everything complicated, his calm demeanor made a weak laugh escape Heejae’s lips.

But a fresh surge of tears prevented her from lifting her head.

Like this, she would be okay for a moment, then dislike everything again. It was a repetitive cycle, a dozen times a day.

In that case, would it have been better if she had never been okay? If she hadn’t known Kim Sewon, would she have harbored no expectations?

Heejae subtly pushed Sewon’s chest. But instead of moving away, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

“Should I really kill him?”

He then pressed his lips to Heejae’s ear and whispered in a low voice. Her tear-streaked face snapped up, and her feather-light body was lifted with it. Only when the overgrown weeds that had unpleasantly brushed against her knees fell beneath her feet did Heejae realize her eye level had risen considerably.

“What are you doing…?”

“Why? You said you wanted him dead.”

She should tell him to stop talking nonsense, to put her down quickly… but strangely, her lips wouldn’t part. As she awkwardly gripped Sewon’s shoulder, staring intently at his inscrutable face, her easygoing father’s snoring gradually faded into the distance.

Finally, Sewon stopped walking and set Heejae down on a discarded desk in the corner of the backyard. With one hand on the edge of the desk and the other clasping her knee, he leaned his upper body languidly closer.

“But that’s quite expensive.”

Stopping at a distance where their noses almost touched, Sewon murmured in a deeper voice.

“And certainly not for free.”

His tone sounded almost like a temptation.

“If I kill your dad for you, what will you give me, Heejae?”

Heejae tilted her head and silently watched Sewon’s faint smile for a long moment.

Nineteen. That summer, Geumnakri.

And Kim Sewon.

Is that all she had truly forgotten?