Chapter 28: Goodbye, For Now

D-7

[Come back safely.

If you don’t, I’ll put up wanted posters.]

It was a blunt reply from Detective Lee.

Mu-yun glanced at his phone, let out a short breath, then swallowed it again.

It was a bit disheartening to be in a position where he had to mind the eyes of a long-serving subordinate just to take a vacation.

“It’s not like I’m running away.

Right, Kkammi?”

He looked back at Kkammi, who was lying on the back seat cushion, looking indifferent.

There was a time when Kkammi acted like the world was ending if they didn’t go for a walk, but now he was unimpressed either way.

By human years, he was about seventy, so it was about time, but there was a saying that life begins at seventy.

Yet Kkammi seemed to have become indifferent too early.

“Let’s go.”

Mu-yun started the engine.

The destination wasn’t far.

About forty minutes by car.

During rush hour it would take a bit longer, but it was a weekday morning, the quietest time.

Short distances were fine, but Kkammi got carsick on longer trips.

Watching him, Mu-yun drove carefully.

Confirming that Kkammi, who had been dozing off, had buried his head, a faint smile touched Mu-yun’s lips before vanishing.

Getting on the city’s outer ring highway, after a short drive, they arrived at a place not far from Jeongpyeong.

It was a park cemetery with a clear view of the blue East Sea.

Parking the car, he carefully opened the back door.

“Kkammi.

We’re here.

Time to get up?”

His joints had weakened, making it hard for him to get out of the car now.

Mu-yun lifted him in his arms and gently placed him on the ground.

Kkammi looked around, sniffed the ground, and realizing where they were, lifted his head with rare energy.

Mu-yun attached the leash to Kkammi’s harness.

“Let’s go see hyung.”

As if his words were a signal, Kkammi slowly walked ahead.

Walking up the sloping path, rows of graves came into view.

After a while, Mu-yun stopped in front of a headstone on a sunny hillside.

The three characters of the name ‘Won Tae-i’ carved into the cold, smooth stone caught his eye.

He carefully traced the name along the carved grooves with his fingertips.

“Captain Won, it’s been a while.”

He let out a soft laugh.

Mu-yun spread out a chocolate-scented beer he had bought at a convenience store and an array of new jelly products, then sat down.

Kkammi sat down beside him.

Worried that Won Tae-i, who had never met the spring that came for ten years and remained forever in winter, might be cold, Mu-yun took out a hand warmer from his pocket, shook it, and placed it on the headstone.

“…….”

He definitely had a lot to say, but as always, once he got here, his mouth grew heavy.

He had arrived while the sun was still up, but it wasn’t until he saw the sun setting that Mu-yun was able to return to the car with Kkammi.

After stroking the head of Kkammi, who had moved around freely and drunk water for the first time in a while, he squatted down, turned his head, and looked up at the mountain.

“Should we stay a little longer?”

Kkammi lifted his head.

Mu-yun smiled somewhat bitterly.

“Hyung might move away, you know.

I might not be able to come next year.”

He said that, then laughed softly.

“Maybe I’ll quit my job and move too.

I’m tired of Jeongpyeong.

Maybe I’ll look for a place with a yard somewhere far away.

Somewhere sunny.

Apartments are boring for you too, aren’t they?”

As he kept talking, Kkammi whined and placed his front paws on Mu-yun’s leg.

Mu-yun stopped talking and opened his arms.

Kkammi burrowed into his embrace and collapsed against him.

Holding Kkammi, whose frame had gotten even smaller than before, Mu-yun kept his head bowed for a long time.

Getting back in the car, the two of them arrived not at the apartment but somewhere else.

It was dark, but the house was pretty, with soft lighting on.

As soon as he parked, the front door opened and someone ran out.

“Kkammi!”

Seeing his younger sibling Mu-jin, who came quickly and familiarly let Kkammi sniff him, Mu-yun swung his fist.

“Greet your hyung.”

“The police officer isn’t so welcome.

Our Kkammi, you came well.”

His sibling stuck out his tongue.

“A guy over thirty, acting cute.”

Mu-yun chuckled, then sighed.

“Vacation?”

Looking at Mu-jin, who asked with just that single word, Mu-yun nodded.

“A bit early this year, isn’t it?”

“Is that so?”

Mu-yun chuckled.

It wasn’t always the same date, but he seemed to always take his vacation in spring.

“Because I think I’ll be busy for a while.”

He said that and unloaded Kkammi’s things from the car.

His sibling hurriedly took the bags.

Then stared at him silently.

Seeing Mu-jin looking like he had something to say, Mu-yun paused while picking up Kkammi’s leash to go inside.

“What?”

“Hyung, Mom wants me to ask if you’ve broken up with your friend this year.”

Mu-yun frowned.

His sibling shrugged nonchalantly at his expression.

“And she said if you haven’t broken up, not to let you in the house.”

At the words that followed, Mu-yun sighed.

“She’ll take Kkammi, but not you.

If you come inside, she might come out with a wooden rice paddle and chase you away.”

He stood there blankly, looking at the house across the blue grass lawn.

A silhouette was visible in the backlight.

His sibling glanced back once, then waved his hand awkwardly.

“Hyung, you’re not young anymore.

Wouldn’t it be a bit embarrassing to get hit with a rice paddle by Mom?”

His sibling smiled, as if telling him to just leave Kkammi and go quietly.

Mu-yun listened silently, then glanced at Kkammi and let out a hollow laugh.

“…Tell her this will probably be the last time.”

“Really?

Why?”

At his sibling’s question back, Mu-yun shrugged.

“I’m going to move.

Since I won’t tell her where, tell her she doesn’t have to come looking anymore.”

He watched his sibling, who had similar eyes, nose, and mouth, open his mouth wide, then frown.

Somehow, they didn’t look alike, but they had similar expressions, he thought.

Won Tae-i also had siblings.

A younger brother and a younger sister—two siblings.

Even though they didn’t look particularly alike, their personalities were similar.

‘I don’t want to pry too deeply because even the dead have a right to privacy, but… are you really friends with my brother?’

He was a bit of a prick.

That time when Mu-yun had visited in the third year and the kid had suddenly asked him that, and still, he was consistent.

This year, the kid had come to him first.

‘Mom says she doesn’t want to do things to another family’s child that she shouldn’t.

Dad too.

Bro, you’ve done enough.

Tae-hee and I think so too.

Thanks for coming by sometimes to show us Kkammi.

But we’d rather you didn’t anymore.

Ten years, what’s that?

Our brother doesn’t need you to be that loyal.

He left with a clear conscience, so let’s not let the living keep agonizing over it.’

Mu-yun swallowed a short breath.

“I came to say goodbye.”

“…I’ll tell Mom you broke up with your best friend.”

“Yeah.”

“Still, it’s probably better if you don’t come inside today.

Mom was really angry this morning when she found out you took a vacation.”

At that, Mu-yun laughed softly.

Then he nodded.

“I’m going.

I’ll stop by once more before my vacation ends.”

“You have to come to pick up Kkammi.

Kkammi, hyung is leaving.

Say goodbye.”

Mu-yun stroked Kkammi’s head once, then handed the leash to his sibling.

He bowed his head deeply toward his parents, who were probably watching from inside the house.

Leaving Kkammi at the family home, he grabbed the steering wheel again.

He drove up the road, listening to the navigation voice, and followed the path.

Taking the Donghaean national road into Jeongpyeong, he accelerated.

He thought he really should stop after this year.

***

D-6

Whether it was thanks to diligently updating and memorizing the map, even after a long time away, Seoheung 3-dong didn’t feel unfamiliar.

Mu-yun hesitated about where to go first, then turned the steering wheel and set his direction.

Passing the traditional market building that still stood firmly like a deeply rooted tree in the same spot, a narrow alley and a post office came into view.

Aside from the fact that the postal agency, which had looked like a temporary structure with its sandwich panel walls and blue roof, had been replaced by a two-story concrete building, and the kimbap place where he sometimes picked up snacks had become a noodle restaurant, nothing else seemed to have changed much.

Going further into the alley, Mu-yun’s gaze fixed on one spot.

The old Chowon Villa sign, written in Gulim font, was now on a clean white wall.

The exterior, newly painted white and blue, looked cleaner than he remembered.

He craned his neck to look up.

The glass shards that had burst out with the flames were so vivid in his mind, but the old row house seemed to have erased all such traces.

The sky was unusually clear, without a cloud.

“The weather is really nice.”

Muttering blankly, Mu-yun parked in an empty spot and unbuckled his seatbelt.

He meticulously scanned his old home, the first place he had furnished on his own after becoming independent.

Only the dark, shadowy entrance looked similarly gloomy; the outside felt unfamiliar.

He slowly approached the entrance and stepped inside.

From the outside, it looked like none of the old features remained, but as soon as he crossed the boundary between light and dark, a completely unchanged landscape appeared.

He looked up at the stairs, which were still uneven and irregular in height, as if haphazardly set.

The distinctive smell, a mix of dust and dampness, still wafted up.

Mu-yun climbed the stairs.

Reaching the third floor was instantaneous.

Even the sensor light illuminating the dark stairs was still dim.

Mu-yun alternated his gaze between Unit 303 and Unit 305, facing each other.

The stickers on the metal doors, advertising a Chinese restaurant that had since disappeared, were also still there, as if they would never come off.

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