Closed Door

「 But if he died more than six years ago, why only now…」

「 In the last gates we entered… we were on the verge of total annihilation. Team members died first, XXX risked his life to clear the gates, but he didn’t survive either. Only I barely made it out. And even then, I wasn’t in the best condition, was in a coma all this time and only woke up about a year ago.」

「 Ah…」

「I had a lot of things to settle, and I needed time for rehabilitation as my body had stiffened. And it was difficult to find you. In the end, it took me half a year to hire people and track you down.」

「I didn’t have a permanent residence. If you conducted an investigation about me, then you probably know what happened to me and how I lived.」

「These are the things XXX left for you.」

The woman pushed towards me the box she had been holding nearby.

「This is money he saved and some artifacts. They’re not rare, but not cheap either.」

「Is this his inheritance?」

「XXX’s inheritance couldn’t pass to you. When we die, all our property is confiscated by the state. This is what he secretly accumulated, saving bit by bit.」

Saving secretly?

Seeing my look, the woman coughed and scratched her cheek.

「We risk our lives and get paid little, what else could we do? We had to save in secret. We were always close to death. We had to think about what would happen after our death, about those who would remain. The fact that we don’t have family doesn’t mean we don’t have dear people. Since the government won’t give compensation if we die, we hid what each of us saved in places known only to us. And decided who to pass it on to after our death.」

「…And it was me?」

「You were the only family XXX had left.」

Family.

I thought I was alone in this world, but it turned out there was a person who considered me family. But now they say even he has died.

What irony.

He considered me family on his own, although I didn’t even know about it. Although we once had a relationship, he never contacted me or visited me all this time, so I forgot about his existence. And yet, hearing the news of his death, I felt lonely again.

「There’s not much cash, but if you sell the artifacts, it’s enough for a room in a safe place. When I was passing on the belongings of other team members, I thought we did the right thing by secretly saving.」

The woman said this as a joke and laughed weakly: “Ha-ha”.

「…」

「I’m sorry it’s so late.」

Her serious voice sounded in my ears.

“Yes, …that woman.”

Due to her different manner of speech and atmosphere, her face changed over 7 years, and moreover, her thin and sickly appearance, I didn’t immediately recognize her, but when I recalled my memories before returning to the past, there were definitely similarities with her current face.

If so, wasn’t the person this woman was talking about the deceased Sa Gongwoo?

I remembered how Sa Gongwoo had been coming to me all this time.

I understood a little the nature of regret and sympathy hidden under his face when he jokingly denied my accusations of fraud and reproaches.

4

I saw a figure wandering in front of the restaurant door.

Checking the time, Sa Gongwoo slightly shook the locked door, then pressed his face against the door, examining the inside of the restaurant. Noticing that I was calmly observing him, he waved his hand in greeting.

When I just looked at him without much reaction, he folded his hands together as if praying. He seemed to be begging to open the door.

Usually, he came when I was already closing, tiring me out, but today he came even before opening. I wish this man would understand that it’s tiresome both before and after working hours.

I quietly sighed and opened the locked door.

“Choron, good morning.”

Feeling my emotional gaze, Sa Gongwoo awkwardly greeted.

“Do you see the working hours written here?”

“I see.”

“Then come back in an hour.”

When I tried to close the open door again, Sa Gongwoo hurriedly inserted the toe of his boot into the gap.

“I didn’t come to eat. Can we just talk a little?”

Maybe he wants to thank me? Or apologize? Or maybe he came to pay the hospital expenses?

I silently looked at Sa Gongwoo, then nodded, inviting him in. When I stepped away from the door, Sa Gongwoo’s expression, which had been making a pitiful face with lowered eyebrows, brightened.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“My stomach is still empty.”

How nice it is to drink coffee on an empty stomach when you’ve just gotten up in the morning. I don’t know if it’s good for health, but I really liked it. It seems Sa Gongwoo didn’t share this opinion.

“Then, maybe tea?”

“What’s this? Choron, why have you suddenly become so nice to me? Are you worried about me because I was sick?”

“Your words make me reconsider this. Just drink water.”

I wanted to at least pretend to welcome a guest, but his tongue ruins everything.

I narrowed my eyes and looked at him askance, but Sa Gongwoo just smiled happily.

“Choron, have you had breakfast already?”

“What time is it? It’s almost lunchtime.”

It’s absurd to skip your own meal while preparing to feed others when there was a business to make a living. Of course, I’m not opening the restaurant to make a living, but just out of habit, but I decided and am doing this to satisfy my basic needs.

In other words, I went to the market early in the morning and had a hearty breakfast of pork belly with fresh vegetables.

“And why do you still have an empty stomach? Weren’t you told to eat well and rest for a week?”

“I’ll eat seolleongtang. A little later, when the restaurant opens.”

“Really, you take such poor care of your body.”

Isn’t physical strength important for a hunter, not just ability? And he looked so emaciated.

“What did grandmother say? She said that food is the most important thing. Whatever a person does, they should be full, not skip meals, and come to eat. Don’t you remember grandmother’s words?”

“I remember.”

“A person who said he was indebted to grandmother doesn’t even listen to her words.”

“Grandmother grumbled exactly the same way. She said to go around having eaten.”

“…Wait.”

I stood up and went to the kitchen. I poured a bowl of boiling seolleongtang, put a portion of freshly cooked rice, and placed it all on the table closer to the kitchen.

“Sit here and eat.”

“You said it was still early.”

“Just eat.”

I put a screen behind the chair so that no one would think we were already open if someone came. Seeing this, Sa Gongwoo quietly laughed and moved to the table.

“Choron, you’re very much like grandmother. Still so kind and caring to others. But don’t do this in the future. The more exceptions you make, the more tired you get.”

“Even when I give food, you still complain. Just eat faster.”

I sharply replied, embarrassed because I understood the meaning of his words. Sa Gongwoo nodded and obediently began to eat seolleongtang with rice.

I sat opposite and carefully examined Sa Gongwoo’s face.

Yesterday, just in case, I searched for the album.

Although in an era when people usually took photos on mobile phones, they rarely printed photos, grandmother had a habit of choosing several photos from those taken during the year, printing them, and keeping them in an album every year.

She said that an album full of photos would become a valuable memory in itself.

Back then, I thought it was incomprehensible sentimentality, but now, remembering that it was the only thing that allowed me to see the already vague faces of my parents, I understood that grandmother was right. Although in most photos I was small in the center, held by my parents, I used these photos to remember their fading faces.

For the first time in a long time, I took out the first album and, looking at the photos of my parents, grandmother, and myself as a child, I cried and laughed. After being immersed in old memories for a long time, I remembered why I had taken out the album and started looking for photos from when I was about five years old.

It was about a year after my parents’ death when I was living with grandmother. He said it was fourteen years ago, so it should be around that time.

As if confirming this, it was hard to find a smiling face in the photos from that time. I was either crying or looking depressed. Maybe that’s why there were fewer photos from the age of four or five than in other years.

Flipping through the few available photos, I thought bitterly: “Ah, there’s nothing.” I hoped that there might be photos left, since he said he played with me, but maybe we were just acquaintances who sometimes ate together. There was no reason to specially photograph someone who just ate for free a few times.

Thinking I had hoped in vain, I quickly flipped through the album, but suddenly stopped. I found a photo of a boy who was smiling widely, holding little me on his knees and looking at a tablet together.

In photos that were obviously taken by grandmother, little me was holding the boy’s hand and smiling, or sleeping in his arms, or eating together with him.

This boy, whose image was buried in the deepest recesses of my memory due to my young age, seemed both unfamiliar and familiar.

[6-year-old Roy and 19-year-old Gongwoo]

Under the photo, I saw a brief note written in grandmother’s handwriting.

19-year-old Gongwoo.

He was a handsome older brother even as a teenager.

Although he looked smaller, thinner, more tired and nervous than the current Sa Gongwoo, his facial features, which hadn’t changed much, made me think he was very handsome from the beginning.

Indeed… he existed in the past. Somewhere in my life, there really was a person named Sa Gongwoo.