<Episode 91>
Hyunwoo’s mother’s death insurance payout was taken by a younger maternal uncle who had shown up after a long absence. The rental deposit was claimed by an aunt whose name he could barely remember.
Hyunwoo simply sat in the corner of the room with his face buried in his knees, passively watching everything happen.
He felt neither anger nor sadness.
Only an indescribable sense of helplessness weighed heavily upon him.
‘Take it all.’
There was nothing left for Hyunwoo to protect, nor anything he desired.
His mother’s death was processed with a single document labeled ”Gate-related industrial accident,” and before long, Hyunwoo was transferred into the custody of a state agency and sent to an orphanage.
”Lee Hyunwoo, is it? I’m Seo Hyuncheol, the director of Hope Orphanage. You’ll be staying here from now on.”
The place was full of children in circumstances similar to his own.
Children who had lost their families overnight in Gate-related incidents and had been cast into the world with nowhere else to go.
Every night, they buried themselves beneath their blankets and cried or screamed that they missed their parents.
Amid those cries, Hyunwoo eventually turned sixteen.
The world remained as unfair as ever, but he no longer had the strength to be angry about it.
‘How long am I supposed to live like this?’
The thought came to him one day when he was falsely accused of stealing a missing headset simply because he lived in an orphanage.
He didn’t even feel like proving his innocence.
Everything just felt meaningless.
‘Maybe it would be okay if it all ended here.’
It wasn’t the desperate anguish of someone struggling because they wanted to die immediately.
It was closer to a dry resignation… one where tomorrow simply wasn’t worth looking forward to.
On impulse, Hyunwoo left school.
But he had nowhere particular to go.
Still, he didn’t want to return to the orphanage, so he simply started walking.
The bitter wind of mid-December pierced through his thin coat, but Hyunwoo barely felt the cold.
A fleeting thought crossed his mind that perhaps freezing to death like this wouldn’t be so bad.
How long had he been walking?
As he crossed a bridge over a stream, loud chatter drifted up from below.
Looking down, he saw a crowd gathered in an open area.
[Free Gukbap Distribution for Gate Victims! Come enjoy a warm bowl of soup~^^]
A crudely written banner fluttered in the wind.
Come to think of it, he vaguely remembered hearing that a Gate had opened somewhere nearby.
‘I shouldn’t have come this way.’
He hated crowded places.
Hyunwoo quickened his pace, eager to get away.
Then, among the laughing people, a small girl caught his eye.
Her hair was tied tightly with a red ribbon, and she darted between people like a squirrel, handing out spoons and napkins.
‘…Pretending to be nice.’
Though he thought so cynically, he couldn’t easily tear his gaze away from the scene.
A huge pot brimmed with steaming white broth.
The people gathered there each carried their own scars, yet they laughed loudly.
‘They’re Gate victims. Why do they look so happy?’
He watched them absentmindedly until dusk fell, but he couldn’t find an answer.
‘…I’m hungry.’
It was the first time in a long while he’d felt genuine hunger.
In the end, he dragged his swollen feet back to the orphanage and cooked himself a bowl of instant noodles.
After that day, Hyunwoo headed to the bridge every day.
He never joined the laughing crowds, but simply watching them from afar kept him from being bored.
‘The person serving the soup and the one setting up the tables must be married. Then that little girl must be their daughter?’
The family seemed quite close.
Whenever the husband cracked a joke, the wife would smack him hard across the back.
Even then, he’d only laugh cheerfully, which Hyunwoo found oddly amusing.
Watching them laugh, he often found himself smiling as well.
Looking at that scene made him feel as though he were part of their family.
One day, after this had become his routine…
“Who are you? Why do you keep spying on us every day?”
Turning around, he found the familiar little girl staring up at him.
With her hair tightly tied back, she glared suspiciously.
“You aren’t planning to report us, are you?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Sometimes people who run businesses around here report us. Well, if that’s not it, then it’s fine.”
“Why would I report–!”
Grrrrrrk.
At that moment, a loud growl came from Hyunwoo’s stomach.
Now that he thought about it, a single banana that morning had been his only meal all day.
His face turned as red as a ripe apple.
‘She’ll probably laugh and call me a beggar.’
Biting his lip, Hyunwoo stepped back.
Just as he turned to run away, his sleeve was suddenly pulled tight.
“I’m hungry too. Want to have dinner together?”
Without realizing it, Hyunwoo shook his head.
“I-I’m not hungry. It’s just…”
“Who said anything? I’m the hungry one! Stop talking and come on.”
Hyunwoo pressed his lips together.
Despite her cute face, the girl’s personality was anything but weak.
‘She’s tiny, but ridiculously strong…’
Of course, he could have shaken her off if he wanted to.
But he didn’t.
Grumbling under his breath, he simply allowed himself to be led by her small hand beneath the bridge.
“Mom! Lots of gukbap! Like, reaaally lots!”
“Oh my! You brought someone with you too? Alright, alright. I’ll serve it right away. Honey! Get the kids some seats.”
The woman glanced at Hyunwoo and smiled warmly before filling a stone bowl to the brim with gukbap.
Before he knew it, Hyunwoo found himself carrying the bowl and awkwardly sitting at a folding table set up by the man.
Immediately, the girl plopped herself down beside him.
“My name’s Jung Haneul! I’m thirteen. What about you?”
“I’m Lee Hyun– Wait, why do you keep speaking casually? I’m sixteen. I’m even wearing a school uniform.”
“Oh! Are you older than me? My mistake!”
After her playful apology, Haneul casually began slurping her gukbap.
The crisp crunch of kkakdugi echoed cheerfully between bites.
“Stop staring and eat already! It’s really good.”
Without realizing it, Hyunwoo swallowed.
Carefully, he scooped up some broth and tasted it.
‘What the… this is really good.’
He hadn’t expected much from free food, but it tasted far better than he’d imagined.
It might even have been the best thing he’d ever eaten.
His spoon began moving faster and faster.
“Told you, right? My mom and dad run a restaurant. People line up every day to eat this gukbap!”
The girl beside him chattered nonstop, clearly excited about something.
Normally, noisy people annoyed him more than anything.
Strangely, she didn’t.
‘She’s kind of cute, actually.’
Her plump cheeks puffed as she chewed.
Her bright, sparkling eyes.
Even the way she blew on the hot soup while stomping her feet impatiently.
Without realizing it, Hyunwoo found the corners of his lips lifting.
Startled, he quickly shook his head.
After that, Hyunwoo practically clocked in there every day.
Before long, he naturally found himself helping the couple trim green onions and carry heavy trays of gukbap.
“What? You had a son this grown-up?”
“You didn’t know? Isn’t our son handsome?”
“Wow~ He’s a fine-looking young man.”
Whenever people asked whether he was their son, the woman never denied it.
Instead, she jokingly treated him like one.
The feeling was oddly ticklish and pleasant, so Hyunwoo would only smile shyly.
“I’m not her son, though.”
“Oh dear, and here I thought Haneul had already picked him out as husband material.”
“Hey! Mister! It’s not like that!”
At the local man’s teasing, Haneul’s face would turn bright red as she stomped her feet.
Eventually, Hyunwoo would throw his head back and laugh.
It was the first time he had laughed out loud since his mother’s death.
One day, while helping wash dishes, Haneul’s eyes sparkled as she said:
“You know, Oppa, my dream is to open my own restaurant someday. It’ll serve super-special food that people can only eat at my place!”
“Only at your restaurant? What kind of food exists like that?”
“Hah, just wait and see. Later, even if you beg to eat there, I won’t let you!”
Only after repeatedly apologizing did Hyunwoo manage to secure future admission rights to her restaurant.
“So when are you opening it?”
“Hmmm. Maybe ten years from now?”
“…That’s still a long way off.”
Thinking about where he himself would be ten years later, Hyunwoo shook his head.
The future felt so distant that he couldn’t even imagine it.
“Can’t you open it a little sooner?”
“It’s not something I can open just because I want to. I need the perfect item first!”
“…You could just run a gukbap restaurant. It’s really good.”
“That’s my parents’ restaurant! I want to do something completely different!”
As they spent their days talking about such trivial things, Hyunwoo never even realized that he had begun imagining a future for himself again.
And just like that, the empty lot beneath the bridge gradually became a part of his everyday life.
Comments (0)