A Week In Korea (4)

“I’d like two, please! One for El as well!”

“Two, two cards, you said.”

The clerk faced a dilemma on what to do with the money Rurin handed over. There was no need to charge that much. Deciding to wing it, he resolved to charge 50,000 won each.

After all, the customer had handed over the money.

“Here you go. So, that’s 106,000 won, and the rest is….”

The clerk tried to return the remaining money, which seemed to exceed a million won, but Rurin was already gone.

“Customeeerrr!”

The clerk, flustered, tripped while trying to go outside with the money. As everyone’s eyes turned toward him, Rurin, oblivious, grabbed El’s hand just as he exited the restroom.

“El! I’ll show you something fun! Follow me!”

“Huh? What, what is it?”

Rurin ran, holding El’s hand, and tossed a transportation card to him. She stared at her own card with curious eyes.

She tried to pass through the turnstile, but the barrier closed, and it beeped loudly.

Rurin then tapped the card.

Beep.

The turnstile went quiet.

“How about that! If I just walk through, it dares to block me, but if I use this, it opens. Hehe, there are many fascinating things where you live.”

Rurin was so fascinated by the transportation card that she kept tapping it repeatedly. Naturally, El started to get flustered.

A station worker approached from a distance.

“Fascinating or not, let’s just go.”

El immediately pulled Rurin and went downstairs. Just then, the subway doors opened.

“Oh! This opens too. What is this huge thing?”

With an ecstatic Rurin, El sighed and boarded the subway. Behind them, the desperate cries of the clerk calling “Customeeerrr!” could be heard.

The destination was the house where I used to live. Faint memories of my parents’ faces resurfaced. When I was suddenly dropped into that other world, I wasn’t even allowed a single photo.

As the subway began running along the Han River, Rurin pressed her face against the window and exclaimed in awe.

“El, I see a river. Oh, we’re running above the river. This subway is amazing. Although it’s slower than me.”

Yeah. If you turned into a dragon and flew around, you’d easily beat the subway. Even amidst my turmoil, our dear Rurin makes me shake my head.

The subway soon reached its destination. We got off at OO Station. Fifteen years had passed, but this neighborhood hadn’t changed much. The apartment complex built during the apartment boom was still there.

The dreaded redevelopment hadn’t happened. My old apartment and the elementary school I attended were still there.

Seeing these familiar buildings stirred up nostalgia. There were new buildings on the streets, and it wasn’t completely unchanged, but the quiet apartment complex hadn’t seen much change overall.

The problem was whether my parents still lived here. I heard that families of missing persons usually don’t move. Because the missing family member might come home.

It’s the last thread of hope.

My situation is exactly like that. No, I must hope it is. That they’re waiting for me at home.

“El, where are we going?”

“Actually, this is where I lived before I crossed over to your world.”

“Oh, really? You lived in a cramped-looking place, El.”

It’s true that the apartments look a bit cramped. They’re not called matchboxes for nothing. Compared to the restaurant and ranch on the vast plains.

Anyway, we took the elevator up. In the midst of it, I felt an intense gaze and turned my head.

The owner of the gaze was a woman I didn’t know. She was staring at me intensely. Our eyes met, and she quickly looked away.

“Excuse me, is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

The woman waved her hand dismissively and looked elsewhere. Soon, the elevator stopped on the 6th floor.

I immediately stepped out of the elevator. And stopped in front of unit 604. After hesitating for a moment, I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

How long has it been since I was this nervous? Come to think of it, I hadn’t really been nervous since gaining the Dragon Lord’s power.

But this is different. I’m anxious. My throat is dry. The less than a minute it takes for the intercom to respond feels like an eternity.

“Who is it?”

But my nervousness and anticipation were in vain, as the voice on the intercom was a woman’s voice I’d never heard before.

No matter how much time had passed, I couldn’t fail to recognize my mother’s voice. An overwhelming sense of disappointment washed over me.

“Oh, um… I’m sorry. I have the wrong place.”

“Oh, okay.”

The woman responded with a mix of confusion and annoyance. The intercom was about to disconnect, but in that moment, I urgently spoke again. I felt like all my leads would disappear if I didn’t.

“Oh, wait a moment, I’m sorry, but do you know the previous residents here? The name is Lee Jeong-hwa…”

“Huh? I’m not sure.”

“I see.”

The woman ended the call without giving any clues. She must really not know. I thought this as I stepped back from unit 604.

At that moment, someone grabbed my arm from behind. It wasn’t Rurin. I turned around in surprise and saw the same woman from the elevator standing there.

“Excuse me…”

“Yes?”

“Why are you looking for Jeong-hwa?”

“You, you know my mother?”

The woman’s mention of my mother’s name startled me. She tilted her head, trying to recall something.

“Just a moment!”

After a moment, she clapped her hands and ran off somewhere. Towards unit 605 on the same floor.

The woman returned shortly with a photo from her house. She compared it with me and then, with a startled look, began to shout.

“I knew it! You’re Jeong-hwa’s son, right? The one who went missing! Oh my, oh my!”

Jeong-hwa.

The familiar name made me look at the woman again. I couldn’t remember well because it was so long ago. But when I saw the photo she handed over, some old memories resurfaced. She was definitely the woman who lived on the same floor and was very close to my mother.

“Ah!”

I exclaimed without realizing it, and the woman suddenly let out a long sigh, her expression hardening.

With a tearful expression, she hugged me tightly and patted my back.

“Yes…! You rascal, where have you been all this time? Your mom searched for you so much, so much!”

Saying that, she suddenly burst into tears and collapsed. It was clear to anyone that these were not tears of joy over my return.

My heart suddenly sank. Those tears were surely related to my mother. To my mother.

I didn’t have the courage to ask anything. I stood there helplessly, staring blankly at the woman.

Rurin grabbed my sleeve. She didn’t say anything.

Time passed quietly like that.

But we couldn’t stay like this forever. It’s a difficult truth to face, but it can’t be buried. To learn that truth, I took a deep breath and spoke to the crying woman.

“Is it possible that my mother…”

I could barely speak. My heart felt like it was going to burst. Whether it was the Dragon Heart or my own heart. My heart, my guts. It all felt like it was going to explode.

Seeing my face, the woman grabbed the hallway wall and stood up.

“It looks like you had no news when you came here… In that case, I need to tell you, otherwise, you’ll keep searching…”

The woman motioned for me to follow her and walked away. So I followed. Rurin quietly followed behind me.

We entered her house. She quietly seated Rurin and me at the dining table. Rurin looked at me. I wasn’t sure if she knew something was wrong with me, but she just stared quietly.

The woman made tea silently and then sat down. A brief silence followed. That silence lasted for several minutes.

I couldn’t break the silence first. Eventually, it was the woman who changed the situation.

“Your father had a car accident. He passed away after a long illness. That was ten years ago. Your mother was left alone, suffered mentally, and became weak because of it. Even so, she searched for you everywhere, and in the end, she followed your father. That was five years ago. Five years! Where on earth have you been, you rascal!”

“……”

It felt like the sky was falling. What a bolt from out of the blue. Both of them were gone.

From that moment, I can’t remember what I heard or how I moved. Everything was a blur.

My parents are no longer in this world? They became weak while searching for me?

Damn this fate.

I can’t count the hardships I endured when I was thrown into a strange world alone. I survived near-death experiences by clinging to the hope that I would one day reunite with my parents.

At that time, I didn’t even know Rurin, so it was even more so.

But in the end, what awaited me was this tragedy.

It couldn’t be.

Feeling like everything was collapsing, tears flowed naturally.

.

.

.

My mother was a kind person. She always supported and encouraged what I wanted to do. Even when my father opposed, she always supported me and persuaded him.

Going to culinary school was a difficult decision, but she supported me. And then… and then…

I can’t find the words.

I didn’t leave because I wanted to. Something unimaginable happened, and I was forgotten in this world.

Such a fate.

Thinking about my parents passing away not knowing if their son was dead or alive made my already blurred vision even more painful.

“Hoo… Damn.”

It took a long time before I could finally see my surroundings. I was sitting on the emergency stairs of the apartment.

What was surprising was that Rurin was standing quietly next to me. She was just looking down at me as I cried. Our eyes met, and at that moment, Rurin quietly spoke.

“Your mother is dead too?”

“Yeah. Probably…”

Barely managing to reply, Rurin came and sat next to me. She suddenly hugged me tightly and began to pat my back.

I’ve patted her back many times, but this is the first time Rurin has patted mine since we met.

“It’s okay. I’m here with you! And I’ll always be by your side. If you’re that sad, it makes me sad too.”

“Really?”

Rurin’s warmth seeped into my empty heart. I’ve hugged her many times, but this is the first time my heart felt this warm.

Rurin was comforting me. It was kind of funny, but the peace settling in my heart was entirely thanks to her.

It felt like being embraced by my mother, that sense of security enveloping me.

“I was sad when my mother died too. I cried a lot. Back then, I didn’t know you, so I couldn’t stop crying. But now I’m here with you. So don’t cry, El.”

“Yeah…”

Rurin spoke to me expressionlessly, but her presence felt incredibly radiant.

Like a goddess.

In that moment, I let go of everything and just stayed in Rurin’s embrace.

It was the complete opposite from the usual.