Chapter 50: The First EncounterTranslator: ShawnSuh | Editor: SootyOwl

At Juho’s ambivalence, Seo Kwang asked as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard, “What? Why? Who were the judges? Which competition were you part of again? You of all people though? You?”

“Hey, man. There’s no need to be so nosy.”

“Well, it’s just that… of all people…”

Sun Hwa glared at him, and Juho explained while Seo Kwang still wore a puzzled look on his face, “I just didn’t have enough time.”

Then, he put the spoonful of food in his mouth. For some reason, nobody was talking. He picked up a piece of kimchi from the tray and brought it to his mouth. ‘Crunch. Crunch.’ There was nothing but the sound of chewing for a while.

“Huh?”

Juho looked around at the prolonged silence. Sun Hwa was there with a slightly awkward look while Seo Kwang was still murmuring.

‘Aha!’

Then, he understood the situation.

“I’m fine. Really. I did get something good out of it.”

“OK…”

For some reason, the response was still lukewarm.

‘I can’t think of a way to explain this. I’ll just leave ’em be for now,’ he thought as he chewed his food.

—

The next morning, he found a black plastic bag full of snacks on top of his desk. When he picked it up, he found a comic book underneath.

“The heroic story of a protagonist who overcomes the trials of his past.”

That’s what was written on the back of the book. He started reading it, and it was actually not bad.

Soon, Seo Kwang arrived. Instead of a bag full of something, he had brought a bag full of questions, and Juho answered them light-heartedly, saying, “It’s fine. I wrote the rest at home. I wasn’t even interested in the award anyway.”

At that, Seo Kwang’s eyes lit up, “Let me read it!”

“I don’t know where I put it.”

“I’ll find it. When are you free today? Can I come over?”

“Uh, no. Not for a while.”

‘I have ideas for my next book in my room. If he sees it, he might find out that I’m Yun Woo. This guy’s quick when it comes to reading and writing.”

He added as Seo Kwang was still in shock, “I’ll bring it to you later.”

“You promise?”

“Yep.”

After comforting Seo Kwang, he smiled as he looked at the comic book and the bag full of snacks. His friends were unstoppable.

“I should share this with the rest of the club members.”

Having read through the comic book between classes, he had a lively conversation about it with Sun Hwa. He had to spend significantly more time listening to her, but nevertheless, it was a fun time.

“I’m home.”

“Hey, I’m actually on my way out, so you’ll have to eat dinner on your own. Don’t forget the fruit!”

“OK. Be safe.”

When he got home, Juho changed out of his school uniform and sat himself in front of his desk with a cup of water. There were untidy stacks of paper to the side.

He was somewhat afraid to reach for them. ‘This is going to be hard to read. It’s going to be all over the place.’ A composition written in the midst of an intense emotional experience was usually difficult to read later.

Still, he had to choose. He had to pick out bits and pieces to knit it into a story. He had to reach for a lump of clay that barely held its shape. He had to cut and trip to make something out of it, whether it was a person or an animal.

He leaned against the backrest and slowly relaxed his body, trying to replay the events in his head.

‘There was a mother and her child. Daughter? Son? I can’t know yet.’ A doll without any facial features came to mind. It was wearing a name tag that read ‘mom.’ Juho approached her.

‘The mother loses her grip on the stroller. The stroller rushes down the steep hill.’ When he saw that, he became curious about the expression on her face, so he turned around and looked at her.

The woman without eyes, nose or mouth looked around as she recognized him staring at her.

He tried to talk to her.

“Aren’t you going to go after the stroller?”

The doll didn’t respond.

“Your baby is in there.”

She still didn’t respond. Only, her stomach was slightly bloated. She was breathing in.

“Your child is in danger.”

The cloth on the doll puffed up. Air was trying to escape.

“Your baby might die.”

“Ah.”

The doll suddenly had a mouth but still no eyes or nose. Her dry lips moved about with her red tongue, “Ah. Ah.”

“Look, the stroller fell.”

“Ah.”

“Can you hear the wailing?”

The mouth that opened was now splitting sideways. “Ee. Ee.” The wind blew through the gap. “Ah. Ee,” that was all she had said so far.

“Can you enunciate so that I can hear you better?”

“Ah. Ee.”

“Speak louder. Move your mouth more.”

“Ee. Ee. Ee.”

“She sounds like a broken cassette player,” he murmured in frustration.

Although her mouth was the only feature on her face, she still couldn’t say anything. Juho was growing impatient and anxious at the eerie sight. He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. He couldn’t afford to overthink things.

“I’ll wait here, so tell me.”

“Ah. Eu. Ee,” she moaned with her long, thin lips.

He carefully observed her face. It wasn’t easy to look for an expression in a face without eyes or nose. Still, he kept his eyes fixed on her.

“How are you feeling?”

The shape of her mouth didn’t change, “Ee. Ee.”

“How did you feel when you found me?”

Her lips got even thinner.

“I could’ve been too slow.”

They kept getting thinner.

“You said you’re sick of something.”

Her stomach puffed up. It bulged out more than her breasts.

“Hee.”

Her bloated stomach sank back to its place, and he felt her breath on his cheek. He saw her teeth between her rolled up lips. He saw her tongue. It was all red.

“You’ve been smiling.”

Juho smiled with her.

Slowly, he walked away from her. He wanted to hear more, but he had to stop for the day.

‘Tap.’

A small, hail-like thing fell from the sky. It was a piece of debris of some sort. Then, it started pouring like rain, but what fell cracked like it had been shattered.

“I’ll come back another time,” with those words, he opened his eyes. He couldn’t remember how long he had been keeping his eyes closed. As he sat there exhausted, Juho felt something wet on his feet.

“Ah.”

The glass of water had fallen on the floor. Thankfully, none of the pages were wet. It had been a good thing that he had kept the glass on the desk, so that he could “clean” his room. ‘Well, I guess the adults want us kids to listen to them for a reason,’ he thought.

Mother.

There were countless mothers in that world. A woman who delivered life, and then the life that was bound to fade away.

After staring up at the ceiling for some time, Juho reached for his pen.

In the end, he didn’t clean the water until it was close to dawn.

—

“Alright, eyes on the board.”

Math class.

As he scratched his eyes, he took out a small notepad from his pocket. Juho had bought one after the incident at the hillside, and it was small enough to be portable.

He had tried writing out his story in a notepad. Looking at the scattered fragments of the story, he thought, “It’s not enough.”

It lacked too many things, much like the faceless woman.

Meeting a character had always been exhausting. Whenever Juho started a conversation, they answered honestly. Of course, the woman had just started talking, but she was incapable of saying words or sentences.

It was a proof that her character hadn’t been fully formed yet.

‘I’m sure she’ll look more like a person the next time I see her.’

Once again, he organized what he had written on his notebook.

There were plot holes throughout. Whether it was a person or an event, he needed raw material in order to fill those holes. Juho tried to imagine the forthcoming path of the protagonist and looked around to see what he could find, but the fog was too thick. He couldn’t see anything.

Yet, there was one thing he wanted. He wanted something that would work in contrast with the dark overall tone of the story. He was looking for something that stood out at a glimpse, yet stayed consistent with the rest on the inside.

The issue was that he had no idea where he could find such a thing. He tried searching through his thoughts. There were passing images, but nothing popped out.

He needed something veiled and somewhat discreet. ‘Inner thoughts, feebleness, hesitation. What surrounds these words?’

“So if you substitute this part with 1…”

He was getting too sleepy. Juho tried to shake his head as hard as he could, but he couldn’t resist his heavy eyelids.

Considering he had been up almost all night, how sleepy he was made perfect sense. Having two jobs was not easy.

“Therefore, we can infer the solution through this process.”

“Yawn,” Juho yawned once again. He tried to stay awake as he wiped the tears that oozed out of his eyes, but it was no use. ‘I gotta get some shut-eye. I’m sure Seo Kwang will wake me up. I’m sorry, teac…’

The math teacher’s voice slowly faded away. His head fell lower and lower, and he didn’t fight to stay awake this time.

After sleeping through his afternoon classes, he barely woke up and walked over to the science room. With Seo Kwang nagging him to wake up, he opened the door. Sun Hwa and Bom were already there.

“Hey,” they greeted like usual.

There was nothing different except for the coldness in the air. After staring at the two for some time, Juho opened his mouth, “I’m asking just in case.”

“What?”

“Did you guys get into an argument?”

There was a visceral response from Sun Hwa and Bom, but it wasn’t until after a few seconds later that they denied him.

“Yep, they did,” Seo Kwang murmured.

“Nope.”

Juho knew their answers weren’t entirely sincere.

He was incredibly surprised to learn that they had fought. There was a crack to their already-fragile friendship. Though they were pretending to be OK, a relationship leaning one direction was susceptible to fall apart.

The two were not on good terms. ‘Was that a good thing or a bad thing?’ He felt an itch at the end of his fingertips and decided to learn more about what had happened.

But before he could say anything, at that moment, the door slid open. It was Baron. Though they greeted one another like usual, he had to have noticed the coldness in the air also because he also looked at the two girls and asked, “Did you two fight?”

“Nope,” Sun Hwa answered. However, no one believed her. The tension was apparent even at a glance. They were usually talking and laughing together, but this time, neither was saying a word.

“I don’t think you’re being honest.”

“We didn’t fight,” Bom answered, but her expression was saying otherwise. It was obvious something had happened.

Then, Mr. Moon walked in, and he too asked the same question as the others, “Did you two fight?”

“Nope,” Bom answered again.

Mr. Moon looked at the two girls briefly and added, “If you’re interested in applying for an essay contest, come find me in the staffroom. Juho and Baron, if there’s another contest you’d like to be a part of, come see me.”

“Yes, Mr. Moon.”

Even as the rest of the club members answered, Juho couldn’t open his mouth. Seo Kwang started poking his side, wanting for an explanation, but Juho wasn’t sure what to tell him.