Salt Society Chapter 47

Around the time I was getting ready to leave work, I revised the date on the resignation letter I had always kept saved in the shared drive to today’s date and printed two copies. I placed one on Team Leader Lim’s desk and submitted the other to Lee Bumhee.

I wanted to rest. I added a brief regret that I should have rested back then, when my ankle became like that.

So Kihyun left work with an unbothered face. Nothing about him had changed from the version of himself yesterday.

It was the summer of his eighteenth year.

It felt as though not much time had passed since they changed into their summer uniforms, yet the rainy season had already arrived. Final exams were just around the corner, but Kihyun, in particular, could not pull himself together.

His body sank every year during this time. It was something that could not be helped. In previous years, his father would have noticed Kihyun’s state first and scolded him, saying a man shouldn’t be so weak, and Kihyun would have pretended everything was fine. However, this year he was exceptionally busy, making it difficult to even see his face while living in the same house.

When that happened, Kihyun used to clear away all the liquor bottles in the house. He knew that despite his father’s words, he would drink medicinal wine in the lonely early hours of the morning while thinking of his mother.

In the past, his father would get dead drunk and smash the furniture, so after Kihyun grew a bit older, he started hiding the liquor bottles altogether. Perhaps because he hadn’t reached the point of addiction, his father said nothing even though he knew Kihyun had cleared the bottles away.

It was a weary season. For Kihyun, this season was exactly that. Now, once the rainy season passed and midsummer arrived, the anniversary of his mother’s death would draw even closer. It became an unavoidable reality that his heart would feel heavy.

Because of that, Kihyun intended to skip nighttime self-study again today. He shouldn’t let his guard down if he wanted to advance to the Military Academy, but he decided to deceive himself by thinking a day or two would be fine.

At any rate, the sensation of becoming weak was not something Kihyun enjoyed. He wanted to shake it off and stand up quickly, but as soon as the rainy season began, he was prone to being in a daze.

He didn’t want to meet people, and he wanted to open his mouth even less.

“Hey, Sogi. Let’s order Chinese food instead of eating the school dinner.”

“I’m not eating.”

“Ah, this guy is opting out again. When was the last time you actually followed your hyung-nim’s words submissively?”

Normally, Kihyun would have scoffed and asked “Who’s the hyung here?” but when he remained silent, Yumin, who sat in front of him, clicked his tongue in annoyance. He even went as far as to persist.

“Even when you turned me down for going to the internet cafe last time, you said we’d go next time. I’ll call it even for that, so let’s just eat together, okay?”

“He said he doesn’t want to, friend.”

He was just about to reply that he didn’t want to when someone spoke on Kihyun’s behalf. It was a familiar voice. Kihyun didn’t even look and just continued packing his bag.

A large hand abruptly grabbed Yumin’s shoulder and spun him around. Yumin had to turn his back to Kihyun without being able to put up even a single bit of resistance. It was Cho Yeonoh’s doing.

Yumin, who had been noisy the whole time, became quiet as if he had never been loud once Cho Yeonoh appeared, grabbed his shoulder, and moved him aside. He seemed to find Cho Yeonoh difficult to deal with; he only glanced at him and couldn’t protest or start a conversation. He simply kept his mouth shut as Yeonoh had turned him away.

Instead of the silent Yumin, Cho Yeonoh asked.

“Are you going now?”

“Yeah.”

Kihyun answered simply. Then, just as he was about to stand up, a hand suddenly approached and slid deep into Kihyun’s school pants pocket.

“What are you doing.”

“Your earphones were sticking out, so I shoved them in for you. What’s wrong, my darling? Did you actually feel something?”

Cho Yeonoh was leaning half-way over with his palms resting on Kihyun’s desk, smiling mischievously. Kihyun thought he had rolled them up well and put them in his pocket, but the cord must have popped out at some point. Even so, he found the guy disgusting for crossing the line instead of sticking to the kind of physical contact shared between friends. Looking at his grinning form, he seemed to be hoping for Kihyun to get annoyed.

Kihyun, who normally would have kicked his shins with his slippered feet saying a crazy bastard only picks crazy things to do, just kept his mouth shut this time too. After the guy shrugged his shoulders, he laughed while hitting the back of Yumin—who was in front of him—unnecessarily hard.

“Ah, man. He’s prickly. Right, Yucheol?”

“…Uh, that’s not my name…”

“Really? It suits you well. Change your name, Yucheol.”

Then he swung around toward Kihyun, who was standing up and putting on his bag. Since he reached out to grab his shoulder immediately, Kihyun tapped his hand away and left the classroom first.

From behind, he could sense the guy following slowly. Cho Yeonoh asked toward Kihyun’s back.

“The guy sitting in front of you, why does he call you Sogi?”

“I don’t know.”

Even though it was a low-effort tone that hardly counted as an answer, Cho Yeonoh only clicked his tongue.

“That’s why I told you we should plan our elective subjects together. The classes got split, you moron.”

Kihyun remained silent because he didn’t understand why he was suddenly getting annoyed. When Kihyun didn’t respond, he caught up in a couple of steps with his long legs, leaned his head way out toward Kihyun, and said.

“What are you going to do when you get home?”

There wasn’t anything in particular to do. He thought he might just stay in a daze and sleep if sleep came, but he didn’t answer. Cho Yeonoh didn’t press his unresponsive counterpart this time either, but he followed him all the way to the school gate and said.

“I’ll be over later, so let’s boil some ramen and eat.”

Kihyun didn’t even nod. Why on earth would a guy whose family sends a chauffeured car for him just because he’s a student—even though he’s not even a senior yet—want to come to his house? A low sigh escaped.

“Hey, see you later.”

The guy shouted as if making a vow toward Kihyun, who was walking out the gate. Kihyun headed for the bus stop without looking back. Fortunately, the bus arrived quite quickly.

His head felt a bit dizzy so he wanted to sit, but since an older lady stood in front of him, he gave up his seat. He politely declined her offer to hold his bag in return.

When he arrived home that way, the living room was silent and empty. It was a relief. If he had run into his father, he would have been interrogated about why he skipped self-study. All without knowing the problem was that there was no special reason.

When she began to get very sick, his mother always told Kihyun that they were just parting for a short while. The reason she vowed they would be able to meet once time passed was only one thing. It was because the child was too young to be left behind by his dying mother.

After growing a year or two older, Kihyun began to understand his mother’s heart. Because of that, even at times like this, he vowed not to struggle with sadness since they would meet someday. Still, he couldn’t help the depression that came with the rainy season.

It wasn’t because he remembered his mother’s funeral, but because the season in which his mother was dying happened to be a season of lush greenery where all life was pulsating. While all that life was exuding vitality, the paradox that the one single life important to So Kihyun was fading away was the cause of his gloom.

Whether he was kicking a soccer ball or reading a manga borrowed from the library, whenever he ran to the hospital room where his mother was, his mother always showed her pain.

—Mom is hurting, Kihyun. Blow on it for me. If Kihyun blows on it, it will all get better.

When Kihyun granted her request, it was also a regular occurrence for her to smile as if the pain had vanished completely. However, during that specific season, his mother acted like a person who wasn’t sick.

How to put on socks by himself, how to reconcile with a friend he fought with, how to peel fruit, the recipes for the dishes his mother was best at, how not to be disappointed even if Santa didn’t come this Christmas. She taught Kihyun many things.

Then, on a midsummer afternoon after the rainy season ended, she left with a promise to meet again while holding Kihyun’s hand. So, he tried to think that this season was just difficult because he was retracing the things his mother had taught him.

After arriving home and washing up, what greeted him was a slight fever. Thinking it made sense since his condition had been a mess since morning, he just lay down and slept deeply.

By the time he woke up because he was thirsty, the dusky sky had become total night. While opening his eyes blearily to the dark view, he looked at his blinking cell phone screen and saw that messages had come in.

<Jot-Oh>

「I bought porridge. I bought medicine too」 09:37 PM

「I said I bought porridge, open the door」 09:37 PM

「Hyung’s words are being chewed up and ignored again, I guess they’ll be easy to digest. Chew them until they’re total mush, damn it」 09:38 PM

「30 seconds before I jump the fence」 09:39 PM

“…”

Kihyun stared down at those messages silently in the dark, then threw his phone onto the bed and headed out to the living room. It went without saying that the living room was also empty and quiet.

The one-story detached house was one of the legacies left to him by his mother. Because his mother, who was a child of a wealthy family, married against her parents’ wishes, she had to give up the assets worth billions that she was originally scheduled to inherit; instead, she had no choice but to receive a few houses in Seoul and villas in various places in Gyeonggi Province and be disowned by the family.

Since it was wealth that would be a true deception to describe as “needy,” Kihyun also lived quite affluently in his own way. The house Kihyun was living in now was also a detached house with a small yard, despite being in the middle of Seoul.

The alleyway where similar circumstances gathered was only quiet and secluded. The neighbors mainly consisted of retired professors or elderly executives of large corporations, so there was no sign of commotion even during holidays. Because of that, Kihyun couldn’t believe the guy was outside when it was just as quiet as usual.

Letting out a small sigh, he stepped out the front door and crossed the yard. Streetlights were already lit in the alley outside the wall.

“…”