TIN 129

“…”

The familiar name pierced my ears. I forgot about trying to lower my head and blankly stared at the woman. Taking a step forward from where she had stopped, she stammered, “How are you here, unni…?”

Her face looked as if she’d just seen a ghost. Even in the darkness, I could clearly see how shocked she was. The woman reached out with trembling hands but suddenly stopped, as if doused with cold water.

“…Ah.”

With a quiet exclamation, reality returned to her face. It was a sudden realization and an equally flustered reaction.

Awkwardly clearing her throat, she spoke again in a firm tone as if nothing had happened.

“Anyway…this is private property, so leave. Or I’ll call the police.”

If she called the police, I would be the one in trouble, so I knew I should at least pretend to be apologetic. If I gave a quick bow and left the way I came, nothing would happen.

But the name from her lips held me back. The way she kept glancing at my face while pretending not to, opening her mouth as if to say something before closing it again, it was too suspicious to just ignore.

Of course, it might be that I was being oversensitive. How many Yoon Ji-soos are there in the world? It was such a common name, it could just be someone with the same name.

However, I only knew of one “Ji-soo” who would recognize my face. Just like how Chairman Joo had been shocked upon seeing my face earlier.

“…”

Should I ask if she knows Yoon Ji-soo?

“What are you doing? I said leave.”

The woman urged again while I was deliberating. Though I wanted to ask right away, my current appearance prevented it. If I opened my mouth, she would realize I was male, and then I’d obviously be treated as a suspicious person.

But having come this far, I wasn’t in a position to be picky anymore. I had finally reached the sea. Unless I was about to be caught by Joo Do-hwa, why should I care about being treated as if I were strange?

“Hey, can’t you hear me?”

But before I could decide, the woman’s patience seemed to reach its limit. She closed the mere four steps between us and grabbed my arm.

“I said get out of here.”

My upper body swayed greatly as she yanked my arm. Though not particularly forceful, I had been caught off guard while lost in thought. As I reflexively tried to regain my balance, my right ankle shot with pain.

“Ugh…”

That would have been bearable, but for some reason, my head suddenly spun. The sensation of my vision blurring wasn’t just from the ankle pain. A sudden dizziness hit me as if all the blood was draining from my body.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Surprised by my staggering, the woman reflexively supported me. Since we were similar in height, it was relatively easy to lean on her. The problem was that my blurred vision showed no signs of clearing.

“Hey, stand up straight…”

The woman’s voice grew distant. In my gradually fading consciousness, I realized one thing: Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten anything for days.

Even the food I’d eaten at the hotel had been thrown up, so I might as well say I hadn’t eaten a single meal. Though going hungry for that long was nothing unusual, it seemed like my already worn-out body had finally given out.

“…Get a hold of…”

I couldn’t even hear the end of what the woman was saying. Held in unfamiliar arms, I completely let go of consciousness. At the same time, the whole world turned dark.

***

It wasn’t uncommon to pass out from starvation. Among people dying of hunger every day, I too had countless nights where I went to sleep feeling I might not wake up. Water made it a bit more bearable, but when even that was scarce, I hovered near death several times.

The fortunate thing was that the moment of losing consciousness wasn’t that painful. Once hunger passed a certain threshold, there was no pain at all, just an overwhelming drowsiness. After falling asleep as if being sucked in, there was only peace for a while.

So I thought: perhaps dying would be similar. When you sink eternally into endless sleep, wasn’t that death?

If so, then maybe there was no need to greatly fear dying someday.

I didn’t know how long I was unconscious for. I might have briefly dreamed, but I couldn’t remember what about. I only knew that the sea appeared, that I felt terribly nostalgic, and that I walked through the waves.

As unfamiliar air touched my skin, my sleeping senses gradually revived while my eyes twitched. Hearing, smell, and finally touch. While trying to move my unresponsive body, I clutched the trembling blanket.

“…”

The drowsiness slowly, very slowly, flew away. Even after lifting my eyelids, I couldn’t quite understand the situation. Only an unfamiliar ceiling, unfamiliar lighting, and unfamiliar scent came through clearly.

Where am I?

“…!”

The moment that thought hit, I bolted upright. Though dizziness made me hunch over immediately, my eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. Beyond my blurry vision, I could see a small room.

The wig must have stayed on while I was unconscious, as long hair flowed down. A scorched mark on the corner of the floor and slightly torn wallpaper. The overall shabby interior showed no trace of Joo Do-hwa anywhere.

Still feeling uneasy, I rolled my eyes around and pushed off the blanket. Just as I was about to get up—

“…”

With a sliding sound, the firmly closed door opened sideways. The woman who entered through the sliding door casually acknowledged me as I awkwardly tried to rise.

“You’re awake?”

She was a woman with a tall frame for a female and tanned skin. Her sturdy build gave off a strong impression, and she was definitely the same person I’d met at the beach.

“You suddenly collapsed, so I brought you to my house. I managed to give you some honey water, but if you’re feeling better, try to eat this at least.”

The woman came in and set down the small tray she was carrying beside me. It was steaming porridge with green stems mixed throughout.

“It’s seaweed porridge. You can eat seaweed, right?”

“…”

Could I ever. There were very few foods I couldn’t eat. The problem was that lately just seeing food made me nauseous, but surprisingly, the porridge the woman brought didn’t affect me that way. The wafting aroma even made my mouth water.

“Your belongings are there on the side. I didn’t touch anything, so don’t worry about it.”

Looking where she pointed, I saw my bag, hat, and sunglasses neatly arranged. Though they were quite expensive items, she hadn’t even attempted to steal them.

“Eat for now. You’ll collapse again at this rate.”

The woman added kindly that she had no intention of charging for the meal. As she waved her hand once more, I picked up the spoon as if entranced.

When I still hesitated to eat, the woman’s face crumpled.

“Oh, just eat it. I didn’t poison it or anything.”

The woman probably didn’t know, but that wasn’t why I hesitated. Even if it really was poisoned, eating was the right choice now. Whether I died from poison or starvation, it would amount to the same thing anyway.

I was just puzzled. After yelling at me to leave at the beach, why was she suddenly feeding me?

Of course, that wasn’t something to worry about right now.

“That’s more like it.”

The woman looked satisfied as I obediently took a spoonful. After seeing her smile broadly, I blew on the porridge and put it in my mouth. The moment the salty rice touched my tongue, my appetite surprisingly kicked in.

So I started wolfing down the seaweed porridge as if I’d never hesitated. I devoured the bowl ravenously, not even minding my tongue getting burned by the hot porridge. Thanks to the slippery seaweed, it went down easily, and it took less than 5 minutes to scrape the bowl clean.

“…Wow, you really can eat.”

The woman, who had been watching me indifferently at first, looked slightly taken aback when I showed signs of wanting to lick the bowl clean. Then, looking at the empty bowl, she casually asked, “Want another bowl?”

“…”

I looked at her suddenly. I never intended to maintain dignity anyway and had no conscience to refuse when she offered first.

“Wait a bit.”

The woman left with those words and came back with the whole pot of seaweed porridge this time. She ladled out a big serving into a bowl, but just as she was about to hand it to me, she pulled it back.

“Let it cool a bit. This one’s hotter since I just made it.”

I nodded in understanding, but she gave me a rather dubious look. After placing the bowl on the tray, she watched my actions as if monitoring me. When I pretended to blow on it properly and took another bite, a small laugh escaped her lips.

“I don’t usually go this far…but you look like someone I know, so I couldn’t just leave you be.”