Episode 48: The Withered Tree and the Silent Storm

Of course, Yunhwan had suffered significant losses over the past few years as his farming hadn’t been going well, but he had no intention of participating in something so loud and attention-grabbing.

However, when he saw the village residents taking turns for the one-man protest—even seeing elders in their 80s standing under the scorching sun—it became difficult to keep feigning ignorance.

And Seonghye, who only found out about this fact on the day of the protest.

“I even installed an air conditioner so you could rest comfortably at home, but not only did you set up a protest without a single word of explanation to me.”

Naturally, he was furious.

The white cloth crumpled in Seonghye’s hand, wrinkling like a piece of paper.

“I wonder if you’d actually feel something if I were the one collapsing under this heat instead of you, Hyung.”

“Why would you say something like that….”

“Maybe one of us has to kick the bucket before you realize how reckless this is?”

“…….”

His lips were smiling, but his eyes were not smiling at all.

Looking at that expression, Yunhwan felt his skin crawl despite being under the hot sun.

Unable to find the right words, he avoided Seonghye’s frigid face and moved busily, pretending to open the truck door to ventilate the cabin.

Watching Yunhwan, Seonghye’s smile deepened.

“So you’re just going to ignore me and go anyway.”

“…There’s a lot of dust in the car.”

Watching him clumsily avoid the conversation, Min Seonghye rubbed the delicate flesh inside his cheek with his tongue.

It was obvious that if left alone, Yunhwan would stand out there in this heat for a full hour.

The gaze Seonghye fixed on Yunhwan held a chill that was entirely out of place with the weather.

While a strange aura spread across Seonghye’s face, Yunhwan swallowed dryly for the umpteenth time, trying to ignore the persistent gaze following his every move.

If he wanted to participate in the one-man protest scheduled for an hour, he had to leave now.

As Yunhwan climbed into the car, waving his hand to brush away the sweltering heat like a fly, the passenger door opened immediately after.

Seonghye, who followed him into the car, didn’t stay quiet but instead leaned his body toward the driver’s seat.

“…?”

While Yunhwan blinked at the shadow covering his upper body.

“If anyone saw us, they’d think we were doing something bad.”

With a voice of strange intonation, a firm pressure was felt against his chest.

Seonghye, who buckled Yunhwan’s seatbelt with meticulous movements, suddenly asked him a question.

“What is the Governor’s name.”

“Huh?”

While Yunhwan was caught off guard by the random question, Seonghye wore a subtle expression and urged him for an answer.

“Not only is he sh*tty at his job, but I want to know the name of this incompetent human who makes a man living quietly in the countryside summon himself to the County Office.”

The eyes that caught and wouldn’t release his gaze were even darker than usual today.

It was clear that if he didn’t get an answer, he would maintain this distance and this uncomfortable tension.

Unaware that Seonghye’s breathing had deepened as the distance between them closed, Yunhwan parted his lips.

“P-Park Geunho… sir.”

“Park Geunho?”

Because the gaze searching for the truth was so sharp, fearing he might be caught in a lie, Yunhwan nodded instinctively.

“…Uh, yeah.”

As he reluctantly gave the name, Seonghye nodded quietly.

Only after checking one last time that the seatbelt was properly clicked did the dark shadow withdraw.

One hour later, Baeksan County Office.

“I wonder who called the police?”

The murmuring voice was cold.

“The public power in Baeksan County seems to have plenty of free time.”

“…….”

“Taking such a deep interest in a local resident’s protest.”

The man was sitting in the first-floor lobby of the small County Office.

The place, where a small-scale photo exhibition for local residents was being held, was lively with people gathered for the first time in a while, but his gaze was fixed firmly beyond the window instead of on the photos.

The eyes looking at the police car parked on the shoulder in front of the County Office were more than just bleak.

Following the man’s chilled gaze, the air at the table where he sat sank strangely as well.

Thanks to that, the spot where the man sat could not blend in with the bustling surroundings, standing out like oil in water, but the person himself didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Right now, his entire focus was elsewhere.

To be precise, he was watching the police officers inside the car because the target they were blatantly monitoring happened to be Kwon Yunhwan.

“…….”

Seonghye’s brow furrowed, unable to hide his irritation.

It had already been thirty minutes since Yunhwan arrived at the County Office and took over the baton for the one-man protest.

Watching Yunhwan standing under the midday sun, Min Seonghye realized his patience had run out much faster than expected.

From the white headband wrapped around his forehead to that stubbornness of standing in a spot where the sunlight hit vertically instead of seeking shade, there wasn’t a single thing he liked.

His already short patience had burned down to the wick and was about to explode, but he wasn’t the only one watching Yunhwan.

Conscious of this, something in Seonghye’s hand crumpled with a loud crunching sound.

Seongpil, who was sitting next to Seonghye, clouded his expression for a moment.

“Since when have the police been here monitoring?”

At the sharp question, Seongpil rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish look.

“I heard… someone threw eggs at the Governor…. From what I heard, the police have been coming like that since then.”

Since there were more than one or two people angry about the collapsed levee, it was said that as the protests continued, more than a few eggs were thrown at the Governor.

This was because the poultry farms in the vicinity had all suffered damage at the same time from the water pouring through the levee.

“So he’s angry because he got hit by an egg.”

“…Probably?”

“Even so, it’s problematic if he takes out his anger on innocent people.”

Seongpil glanced at Seonghye, who was muttering to himself, and saw the crumpled paper cup placed on the table.

Now that he looked, those hands were as beautiful as fine jade, but the things they did were unexpectedly violent.

Just as Seongpil was about to slide his chair slightly to the side.

“Seongpil-ssi.”

Seonghye, who had his arms crossed, spoke while still staring at Yunhwan and the police.

“How long have you known Hyung?”

But this time, the tone of the question was different.

Seongpil reflexively turned his head to look at Seonghye, but realizing his fierce gaze was still fixed outside, he started speaking casually.

“About… three years. I first met Hyung at the township office three years ago….”

“The township office?”

“Yeah, back then there was a temporary ‘Young Farmers School’ for young people returning to farming. I heard it’s gone now…, anyway, that was the first time I met Hyung.”

As he nodded, Seonghye’s eyes narrowed.

His dark pupils remained pinned toward Yunhwan.

“What was he like when you first saw him?”

“When I first saw him…?”

As the voice trailed off, Seonghye’s gaze on Yunhwan became even more intense.

With a puzzled face, Seongpil moved his eyes to follow Seonghye’s gaze.

Then, Yunhwan came into view, standing firmly despite the scorching summer sun.

“When I first saw Hyung… he wasn’t like a person, but—”

After pausing, Seongpil brought up the past in a calm voice.

“He was like an old, withered tree. He didn’t laugh, and he didn’t talk. He’d sit in the same spot every day, listen to the class, and then just vanish home. No matter how much I tried to act friendly or talk to him, there was no expression on the man’s face.”

Seongpil met Yunhwan when he was still in his late twenties, specifically twenty-seven.

To Seongpil, who liked to be meddlesome, the brother who was three years older looked like a man who had absolutely no joy in living.

With a spoonful of exaggeration, the shadow covering his features was so deep and dark that there was no vitality in his face, as if he were a patient who had already received his death sentence.

“So I couldn’t understand… how a person like that was going to make anything sprout or bear fruit.”

Originally, a person needs peace of mind to look up at the sky and examine the earth, but Yunhwan didn’t seem to have any room to let a single sprout grow in his heart.

So, it was impossible not to worry about whether a person like that could actually grow anything.

“…Hyung was like that?”

While Seongpil was briefly lost in the past, Seonghye’s tightly crossed arms momentarily faltered like a fortress wall under a sudden attack.

Not seeing this, Seongpil answered in a voice still steeped in memory.

“Yeah. I thought he was okay for a while after that, but after his grandmother collapsed, he would occasionally walk around looking like he’d lost his soul….”

Seongpil’s face, inwardly guessing Yunhwan’s circumstances, darkened in turn.

Seonghye, who had completely uncrossed his arms and was now pressing firmly on his brow with his fingers, spoke again.

“How does he look these days?”

“These days… well….”

Seongpil rolled his eyes and glanced at Seonghye.

He didn’t know the reason, but because the gaze waiting for his answer was so heated, an answer came out faster than before.

“He’s definitely less like that these days. I don’t know if it’s because you came… but Hyung seems a bit more ‘busy’? Usually, when a human body is busy, there’s no time to think.”

“Right. The mind clears only when the body is busy.”

At that, Seongpil’s gaze returned to Yunhwan.

To the man who was just standing there silently.

“That’s true. But standing still like that… his mind will feel heavy again….”

Just as he was about to add whether it was really necessary to fill the whole hour.

Suddenly, the sound of a chair sliding was heard from the side, and a long shadow fell over Seongpil’s head.

“…?”

Seonghye, who had risen from his seat, looked down at the dazed face and spoke.

“I’m going to go make a phone call.”