episode_0293

***

Kim Seong-ah was leaving school with Lee Hye-ji. This was because Hyeji invited her to go with her as she was about to go home.

Seong-ah felt puzzled seeing her follow him for no reason, but there was no reason to refuse, so he nodded.

“Unni, won’t you come to school tomorrow?”

“It’s Saturday, right? Ah… self-study?”

“You don’t have to study on your own. I’m jealous… Then what are you doing tomorrow?”

“I… I should just stay home. I’m not doing anything in particular.”

“Aren’t you looking for your brother?”

“Oppa? Ah…”

Seongah Kim kept her mouth shut. Maybe I really need to go out and look for it.

I wonder if this man, who has nowhere to go, is wandering the streets and having a hard time.

‘Is there really nowhere to go?’

While I was worried, this thought suddenly occurred to me.

I think back to what I said when I screamed at myself, the blood rising to my neck.

I think it was definitely a story related to my girlfriend.

When I thought about that, my heart tightened again.

‘There was a place to go.’

There is a place to go even if it is not our home.

When I thought about it, I couldn’t breathe.

“Sister?”

Hyeji Lee looked at her with a worried face.

“If you wait, it will come by itself.”

I calm my voice and try to make a loud noise as if I were relaying an ordinary fight between siblings.

Although they are not siblings or even family.

“I really hope they reconcile.”

Hyeji Lee spoke quietly. Then he pointed to the right with his finger.

“I have to go this way.”

“Oh, I’m this way.”

Seongah Kim pointed to the left.

“It’s the opposite. Then go in.”

“Yes. Have a nice weekend.”

“I go to school tomorrow…”

As Hyeji spoke sullenly, Kim Seong-ah laughed awkwardly.

“Ahaha… That’s right. Go in well then.”

“Sister, I saw you looked unwell today. Please rest well.”

“Thank you for your concern. Then shall I go?”

They turned their heads and greeted each other until they became dots.

As her friend disappeared on the other side of the road, Kim Seong-ah’s face slowly hardened.

“I’ve been feeling sick since a while ago.”

As Hyeji said, she hasn’t been feeling well since lunch.

“Wasn’t it good to eat it in the morning?”

I remembered the breakfast that was particularly tasteless and had a strange smell.

My body deteriorated over time. Maybe that’s why the way back home was longer than usual.

I felt like I walked twice as long as usual.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and opened the rusty door.

Unlike before, a small creaking sound was heard. This is because In-ho worked on the hinges.

“…….”

She passed through a small yard with neatly cut grass next to her.

Then I climbed the stone steps and opened the front door.

The unlit living room welcomed her.

“……”

Yes, this picture is familiar.

This was the scenery she was supposed to enjoy.

She lay down as if she had collapsed.

***

My body shivered from the warmth of the cold floor.

Saturday, dawn.

Even considering the late rising sun, the surroundings were very dark.

“Ugh….”

As she trembled between dreams and reality, the sounds that came out of her mouth were not words but moans.

I felt nauseous and my forehead was hot.

“It’s the living room….”

She murmured in a very low voice, like the dawn wind.

Only one shoe was taken off. Her smiling face was mercilessly distorted, tired, and sad.

“Wow….”

I felt sick. She hesitantly got up and headed to the bathroom.

It was a short distance of only a few steps, but it felt as far as yesterday’s walk home from school.

After a tiring marathon, she arrived at the bathroom, opened the lid, and stuck her face in the toilet.

The sound of regurgitating everything inside.

The sound of the soul pouring out resonated in the house for a while.

“Uncle… I’m sick…”

In between repeated puking, she inadvertently called out to someone who was not there.

“…….”

And realize it.

Another vomit comes to her.

After draining all the moisture from her body, she collapsed onto the bathroom floor.

As she was going up and down, it seemed like dozens of invisible burdens were on her shoulders, and her breathing seemed difficult.

Even without having to touch my forehead, I could tell that my body was hot.

The chill of the cold bathroom floor was at least cooling my body.

“It hurts….”

She sat blankly and muttered.

“It hurts….”

She was gagging. Nausea on an empty stomach made her suffer.

“Uncle….”

She once again called out to someone who wasn’t there.

There was no one in this house who would come running to her in pain.

“I’m hurt… I’m hurt.”

She turns around and comes out of the bathroom.

And crawls to the kitchen.

My throat burned so much. My dry lips cracked and blood flowed.

Hold onto the slightly protruding refrigerator and raise your body as if you were climbing a rock wall.

Use all your strength to open the door and take out the water bottle.

I didn’t have the energy to bring the cup. She lifted the bucket to her mouth and tilted her head back.

“Khehe, cologne! Cough!”

She was gulping down water in a hurry, but soon coughed and spat out the water, as if she had heard something.

The bucket of water fell on the floor and wet the floor.

“Haha… this is shit….”

He said as he looked at the mess on the floor and his body soaked with water.

Although I spit out most of the water, my thirst was gone.

She sat down.

I didn’t know that the heat in my body would cool down.

“It hurts….”

My head is hot, I feel nauseous, and my throat is sore.

It’s hard to keep up, and your vision is blurry.

“It hurts. I.”

“It hurts, it hurts….”

“Mom… Dad… Uncle…”

I call on the people I relied on and followed.

But none of them could help her.

In this dark and big house.

– Ugh, Mom! dad! mister!

She sat on the floor and cried sadly, like a baby crying.

There was no one who could respond to that sadness.

In this dark, big house, there was only her.