038 – Inoi and the Small Stationery Store #2
“How’s your condition?”
Morning.
Lee Jin-A asked her sister, Lee Sun-A.
Sister Lee Sun-A exaggeratedly placed her hand on her chest or exhaled dramatically.
Soon, her face lit up, and she opened her mouth wide.
“Oh, it doesn’t hurt at all! The chest pain is completely gone! Can this be real? It really doesn’t hurt at all! And maybe it’s just my imagination, but doesn’t my skin look better too?”
Indeed, there was a real effect from the golden apple.
The “magic disease” that troubled Lee Sun-A had been completely cured.
Of course, according to Dr. Yu Ara, it seemed they should monitor her condition a bit longer, but at least for now, Lee Sun-A’s condition had improved tremendously.
“Oh my, I feel so good!”
The party in question, Lee Sun-A, was very happy.
Over a decade ago.
A disease born from a horrific experience.
As it washed away, it truly felt like a long-standing burden had vanished.
“It was absolutely terrible in taste, but the effect is great! Jin-A, you got it from the crack, right? Huh? You’re sneaking around the crack even now without telling Dad.”
“No.”
“I know you’re sneaking around the crack without Dad finding out; don’t deny it.”
“I didn’t get it from the crack; I picked it from a country tree. And if I tell Dad that I’m sneaking around the crack, he would really freak out, you know?”
“What’s with the ‘you’ to your sister? And am I crazy? Do you really think I’d tell Dad that you’re sneaking around the crack? Both Dad and I get chills just thinking about the crack. You’re the only abnormal one!”
Abnormal.
At that remark, Lee Jin-A furrowed her brow.
Well, she might indeed be abnormal.
While she was thinking this, Lee Sun-A took a deep breath and added.
“I still find it horrifying just thinking about that time. I almost died, you know? Suddenly, I felt like I was being sucked in, and I thought I fell into an open sewer lid or something.”
That feeling of being sucked in.
Even after ten years, it was still vivid for Lee Jin-A.
That chilly cold.
It was the first crack she had ever entered since her birth.
And in that place, Lee Jin-A lost her mother.
‘I couldn’t even find a corpse.’
It was truly a sudden disaster.
‘It’s true that my sister and I surviving was a miracle too.’
Thinking like that, Lee Jin-A glanced at her phone.
Today was the day she had dinner plans with Haildo.
And it was also the day they promised to speak honestly about many things.
Telling the truth meant having to recall the past.
# # #
“Back then, remember how a crack opened right in front of the stationery store? People got swept up and disappeared; it was total chaos. Do you remember that, work? You were there too.”
At the stationery store owner’s words, I recalled an old memory.
It was when I first learned about the existence of a crack.
It was like a disaster akin to a sinkhole suddenly collapsing into the ground.
People vanished into the air, sucked into the crack like they were being consumed by a black hole, and all sorts of chaotic scenes unfolded, leaving me in a state of panic.
I extended my hand to save someone being sucked into the crack.
But the power of the crack, which was pulling in everything around, was too strong, and as a result, I too was dragged in.
What followed was─.
“It was horrendous in many ways.”
A sudden plunge into a strange environment.
A forest in the intensely cold winter.
People panicked and suffered.
Because for ordinary people, the crack’s environment filled with magic was like poison.
Fortunately, I had the qualities of an Awakened.
I could move relatively freely in that cold crack and gather and lead people to an escape.
At that time, I saved so many people.
Looking back now, that might have been the turning point that made me want to be a hero who saves others.
“The moving company owner’s wife was also there at that time. Didn’t you see her? You were the one who brought people out back then, right? Didn’t you see her?”
I couldn’t remember.
It was too long ago, and since then, the government had invited me to operate in various cracks, so I hadn’t had the chance to think back on the first crack.
That’s how the first group of students formed.
Busy day by day, I didn’t even have time to reflect on that first crack.
As I was lost in thought, the stationery store owner added.
“Anyway, when you meet that owner, make sure you comfort him well. That guy still says when he drinks that his wife is alive in the cracks.”
I see.
I decided to return to my family home for now.
Once I entered the house, Dad and Mom welcomed me.
“Haildo, you’re here again? Inoi is here too!”
“The parents of the home’s master…! How delightful…! I, Inoi, brought back some Apollo sweets, so please all have a taste…!”
A reunion that was noisy in many ways.
As I observed Mom peeling fruit for Inoi, I asked Dad.
“Didn’t the moving company owner’s wife go missing in that crack?”
“Huh, you didn’t know? I thought you already knew. Back then, the owner’s wife and her daughters got caught while shopping at the market and got swept away. Don’t you remember saving those girls?”
I didn’t remember.
After all, I rescued at least twenty people from that crack.
I couldn’t possibly recall each one.
“Ah, so Lee Jin-A was there.”
Lee Sun-A getting the “magic disease” must have been around then.
Now, the puzzle fit neatly.
Indeed, I was clever.
Time passed with that feeling, and evening came.
I was invited to Lee Jin-A’s house.
What slightly concerned me was that I was bringing Inoi along.
“I, Inoi, absolutely want to see where the prospective Core Jin-A lives…! And I also want to see the second person who ate the golden apple…!”
Inoi wasn’t invited as a guest, but oh well.
After all, they were the one who grew the apple.
I figured they’d be treated well.
With that feeling, I entered Lee Jin-A’s house. It was a single-family home with a yard, and you had to go up the stairs to open the door.
Ding-dong-.
When I pressed the bell, Lee Jin-A with her yellow hair opened the front door.
“Come in.”
She was as unvarying as ever, lacking in TMI.
Well, that meant she wouldn’t bring up things like the first crack or her missing mother.
While I was admiring the living room, suddenly—
Clunk-.
The door opened, and someone came out.
“Are you Jin-A’s boyfriend?”
“……!”
She was the girl who stole my cultural product voucher!
I knew I would meet her, but meeting her in reality made me stiffen up like a hamster before a snake.
“I’m Lee Sun-A! Since I’m your younger sister, you can speak comfortably, right? We’re not meeting for the first time, after all. Isn’t that right?”
“Well, yes. You did take my cultural product voucher.”
“What cultural product voucher? I’m discussing the cracks here. But cultural product vouchers… Ah, now that I think about it, you’re that person from back then! Hahaha! My goodness, this neighborhood is indeed small!”
Lee Sun-A burst into laughter.
It sounded like she was dying of laughter.
Then she turned to Jin-A and said.
“I once mentioned that I had never seen a cultural product voucher stolen before. Jin-A, remember when you bought that ‘Transparent Hat’ from the game Autumn Story with that voucher? Huh? That voucher back then…!”
You mean Jin-A bought the cash item ‘Transparent Hat’ from the game Autumn Story with my cultural product voucher? That was news to me.
My goodness, how could this happen?
Jin-A and Lee Sun-A were in cahoots!
While I was shaking with betrayal and loss, Lee Sun-A said.
“Back then, you promised to give me the ten-thousand-won voucher in exchange for a kiss worth ten thousand won, right? But why did you run away? You were smaller than me back then, and now you’ve grown so much.”
That was true.
In the first year of middle school.
When I was so small I always sat in the front row.
The older girls cornered me in the alley and made fun of me while stealing my cultural product voucher. They said they’d give me a kiss worth ten thousand won in exchange for the ten-thousand-won note—
I knew this was just a mockery for me, and I was only embarrassed and scared.
So when the adults shouted, “Hey! What are you doing over there!” I ran away in a hurry.
Since then, I hadn’t even dared to set foot in that alley.
“You didn’t call me here just to tell that story.”
“You always get cranky with your sister. Anyway, now I guess I have to call you ‘Mr. Work.’ By the way, I enjoyed the apples you sent me. They tasted absolutely horrible, but the effect was really good…!”
Thank goodness the effect was good.
Soon, Inoi crossed their arms and smiled mischievously.
“I, Inoi, grew that apple…! I, Inoi, diligently learned how to grow apples from my mentor…! I am confident in growing golden apples…!”
So it seemed.
However, Lee Sun-A frowned at Inoi.
“Who are you?”
“I am Inoi…!”
“Did you hear that? Their name is Inoi! Oi-Oi! Inoi, you know! Kya-ha-ha!”
That was incredibly loud.
At that moment.
The front door opened, and a considerably older man entered the house. The previously noisy sister zipped her lips, and Jin-A stopped setting the table.
“So you’re Professor Hail’s son, huh? You’re tall. 180?”
He was a robust elderly man despite his age.
However, his face had quite deep wrinkles, and his hair was almost white.
It must have been due to severe stress.
We soon sat down and began to have a meal while chatting about various things.
Usually, it was me being asked the questions.
“You’re working in that crack business, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Ever thought about quitting and working under me? Initially, the salary might be a bit low, but I can raise it more as I watch you. It wouldn’t be a small amount for raising kids.”
That was a kind of conversation I had anticipated.
I decided to humbly decline the offer.
“Thank you for your offer, but I have things I want to do.”
“Okay.”
The conversation briefly ended there.
There were moments of awkward silence in this house, and during those silent times, I felt exceedingly uncomfortable.
Suddenly—.
Then, having finished eating, Jin-A placed her spoon on the table.
“Haildo, I have something I want to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve met before.”
Indeed, that was the topic she wanted to discuss today.
If I hadn’t been reminded of that memory at the stationery store, I would have been quite surprised.
“I know. We saw each other in that frozen crack, right? You were inside.”
“What? You knew?”
“I remembered today too.”
“Back then, I wanted to thank you for saving my sister and me. I wanted to talk about that. I couldn’t say it until now.”
As Jin-A said this, her expression was quite serious.
However, her sister Lee Sun-A, who was jokingly piling cucumbers on Inoi’s rice, was startled and looking around anxiously.
“Hey, don’t bring up the crack at the dinner table!”
Clunk-.
At that moment, the moving company owner placed his spoon down.
His deeply lined face filled with mixed emotions, and after a sigh, he addressed me.
“Mr. Haildo, thank you for saving my daughters. If you hadn’t been there, I would have had to live without my daughters. Just thinking about that time still makes my heart sink.”
“I was just doing what I had to do. And thinking about what didn’t happen isn’t good for your health.”
“I know, but I still feel like I’m stuck in the past. My wife calls for me every night. In my dreams. Mr. Haildo, have you ever seen my wife in the cracks? She looks like this.”
With a flip—.
He showed me a picture of a woman resembling Jin-A.
Unfortunately, even if I wanted to, I had never seen the owner’s wife in the crack.
I had nothing to say about that.
However, I did feel I might have something to say.
“You said she appears in your dreams every night, right?”
“Right. She appears every night and calls for me. I can’t see her clearly, but her voice is definitely my wife’s. I also hear a strange song….”
Every night the same dream—.
Seeing the trembling older man, Jin-A spoke.
“Dad, have you taken your medicine?”
“I’m not crazy. Your mother is alive…!”
Slightly—.
Lee Jin-A opened her narrow eyes.
The person who disappeared in the cracks over a decade ago.
It would be something they thought could not possibly be alive until now.
However, my thoughts were different.
“There’s a real possibility that your wife is alive. You said she repeatedly appears in your dreams, right? I understand that kind of situation well.”
The well house.
They said people staying at the well house often had dreams.
About the cracks in the well and the existence dwelling within them.
The owner’s dream seemed very much like those dreams of the well house.
I’d need to hear more detailed stories to know for sure, though.
“Hey, don’t talk nonsense! Sometimes, hope makes people suffer even more, don’t you know?”
Lee Jin-A stood up abruptly.
Soon, she seemed like she wanted to grab me by the collar in anger.
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense. Mr. Owner, you said you dream the same dream every night, right? Do you remember anything specific about that dream? If you do, please tell me.”
“Well, it’s not exactly the same every night, but it’s generally similar. I often hear a song. The lyrics… let me think, there’s something I wrote down as soon as I woke up….”
The owner rummaged through his belongings.
Soon, he took out an old notebook and showed me a page.
It read:
“Doran, doran water, little doran water. It was such a song?”
Haven’t I heard that song somewhere?—
While I thought about it, Inoi jumped up their hand.
“Ah…! That is definitely the ‘Song of Doran Water’…! It’s a song all Nymphs learn to speak when they can talk…! There must be another Nymph sister somewhere…!”
