The Dream That Vanished
Memories didn’t disappear. They simply hid, Yu Yeong-a had been told. Yet the sudden rush of a memory from so long ago felt impossibly accidental.
“Wow! Team leader, the sky is really beautiful today, isn’t it? Those clouds look just like balloons.”
Yu Yeong-a gazed up at the sky so blue it might have been painted just for May and sighed in delight. She was on her shift at the nap-workshop venue.
The team leader beside her lifted his sunglasses and tilted his head back. “You think so? Seriously, who can believe the weather forecast anymore? They said it was going to rain today and still held the event. Sigh… I’ve been complaining for days straight, but I can’t even finish the sentence.”
The team leader kept venting, yet the conversation never continued. A fleeting moment had pulled Yeong-a back to a distant day.
Precisely a balloon floating in the sky.
At the orphanage Children’s Day outing, she had been playing treasure hunt with her friends. One girl claimed a doll’s house was hidden in the mountains, so little Yeong-a dashed up the trail without a second thought.
‘Where am I?’
Trying to get her bearings, she looked up. The sky was the exact shade of blue, and there hung a cloud shaped just like a balloon—round belly, long tail.
‘Eh? It’s a balloon!’
The instant her hand reached out, a small figure snatched her upward. ‘So? If a baby angel came along it would have been perfect. Anyway, I’d better hurry back.’
A soft adult voice drifted through the air. Then she was being led somewhere.
When she woke, someone else had found her. ‘Hey, you need to wake up now. Do you see that open door over there? When I say one, two, three, you jump with me.’
The husky voice was younger, yet steady. Strong arms in a white shirt pulled her close, and the boy whispered again. ‘The first one to reach the bottom of the mountain gets the Children’s Day gift. You climbed up super fast, so you should beat me to the bottom too.’
‘Mhm! But I’m not the one who’s supposed to do that!’
The boy chuckled softly and ruffled her hair. ‘Really? Then this…?’
In that instant, a voice like a mosquito buzzed into Yeong-a’s ear and yanked her memory back to that long-ago day. “Hey, part-timer.”
“Huh?”
The team leader, who had been complaining just moments ago, was now twisting restlessly. He offered her a tablet, his face blank. “I suddenly got an urgent call. Could you just log the participants’ heart rates? The program starts soon.”
“Okay, don’t worry, I’ll—”
Before she finished, the team leader sighed and hurried away. A faint yellow scent trailed after him. “Ugh, what did he eat? Oh, and that voice…”
Thinking of the owner of that voice from just earlier made Yeong-a smile. Her guardian angel—Jo Suho.
From the days they attended the same nursery school, through college, until now when they had different jobs, he had always been kind. “I knew you’d come. I should check if you remember.”
At seven, she had been kidnapped. Most memories were fragments. The path into the mountains, the short moment she ran down, and when she woke, Suho’s tear-streaked face calling her name. Those three scenes, plus one today’s addition.
Yeong-a brought her hand to her forehead. The touch still felt warm and strong.
The memory had struck suddenly, yet it felt as fresh as yesterday. A comforting scent lingered at her nose. Suho had never spoken of that day, but the recovered memory lifted the fatigue from her shoulders.
Tonight’s shift had been at the midnight logistics center. A man beside her asked her to cover for him. “People are sleeping. This is a honey-nap contest, not a nap-work contest. Just work under my name and get cash.”
She had come to buy her girlfriend’s birthday gift. She had forgotten the date. The coordinator had begged her not to miss it again, and the hourly rate was good, even if there was little actual work.
Yeong-a moved quietly into the venue. The dew-wet grass shone like green jewels under the sun, and the occasional breeze was warm. It was the kind of spring day perfect for sleeping or loving.
Participants slept in every position—blindfolds, blankets, stuffed animals clutched to their chests. “Cute.”
Yeong-a smiled and opened the tablet the team leader had tossed her. It listed participant numbers and thirty-minute heart-rate readings. The most stable average would win.
She walked slowly, recording wrist-device numbers. In the farthest corner, she smiled again. Couple sneakers, matching blindfolds, bodies pressed close on a narrow cushion. They were the picture of a loving pair. “How can it be this good?”
Yeong-a shook her head. She would find her own couple soon enough. Yesterday evening, after finishing her delivery route, Suho had handed her a backpack and said, “Yeong-a, delivery is tough. I hope you get the job. When you pass the final interview, I’ll come with flowers straight to your rooftop room!”
When they were both stable employees, he had proposed before. If the company was the Sah a Hotel like Suho’s, how surprised she would be. She bit her lip and approached the sleeping couple. “……”
Her mouth opened slightly. The watch on the man’s wrist was far too familiar. So was the gray sneakers. The woman beside him was also instantly recognizable. Slender figure, long straight hair… “Chaemi?”
Chaemi was her college friend. Unlike Yeong-a, who had taken a semester off to care for a grandmother, Chaemi had graduated the same year as Suho and ended up at the same company. An impossible scene. Her hands trembled. The team leader waved from afar, urging her to hurry with the tablet. Yeong-a logged the numbers and walked over on unsteady legs. “Thanks for saving me. Thanks, part-timer.”
The team leader stroked his belly apologetically, but Yeong-a heard nothing. Suho, who lived in the building next door and crossed paths with her every day, had borrowed money this morning. “My uncle’s company is in a tough spot. I need to pay condolence money but don’t have cash. Can I borrow two hundred thousand?”
No. She refused firmly and swept her surroundings with wide eyes, unwilling to leave any doubt. She hated ambiguity more than anything. She had to see it for herself. “Team leader, could I borrow your sunglasses for a moment? The river glare is so strong.”
Yeong-a picked up the leftover gold wrapping paper and asked while staring at his head. Of course it wasn’t him, but if the couple really was Suho and Chaemi, she wanted nothing to do with them. Suho must have reasons for hiding it, yet stirring up trouble felt wrong. She would cling to her precious first love this way.
“Eh? No problem! But our part-timer knows luxury goods? This isn’t just plain black—it has blue light too……”
“Thank you.”
Yeong-a cut him off and left, wearing the sunglasses. The gold paper went around her hair to hide her pale brown strands. “Hah.”
She breathed deeply as she walked, heart pounding so loudly she feared it might leap out. When she finally reached them, her racing pulse dropped sharply. Those distinctive thumbprints belonged to Suho. “Ah……”
The watch had been a gift from Yeong-a’s own money the day Suho started working. The gray sneakers were the ones she had bought for him as a birthday present after he sent a link. “Impossible.”
Yeong-a stared at her own worn sneakers. She had bought matching ones hoping for a couple look, but they sat safely at home. Yet the three of them were a couple. Tears blurred her eyes. In every future she dreamed, Suho was there. “You’re so precious to me. When I saved your life that day…” “I hope you go to the same university as me. Share the same club, do CC, all that.” “We have to live in the same neighborhood. Who else would protect you?” “We can be an office couple at the same company and save up for marriage and have a son who looks like me. It would be perfect.”
Those words had echoed through the years. She had done everything but say they were a couple. Suho with Chaemi? No. The long history flashed before her eyes. She shook her head violently.
They had been pressed too close because the cushion was thin and Suho was small. No arm around each other. Her vision blurred. From afar the team leader waved frantically, mouthing for her to hurry. “Part-timer! Part-timer! What are you doing?”
The coordinator stared wide-eyed at one spot. A man in the seat next to Yeong-a shifted, trying to pull his blindfold up. “Don’t!”
She spun quickly. Her ankle twisted. “Eh!”
She tumbled onto the next participant’s cushion. Trying to steady her chest, she reached beside her and the man groaned in agony, covering his eyes with his own arm. “Ugh… hurry… help…”
Was he asking for help? The coordinator had to check on participants. “It’s okay……”
The instant Yeong-a shook his shoulder, his hand shot out and yanked her arm. “Eh…”
The force was unstoppable. She fell on top of him. Grasping his face, their lips met. “Hmph!”
His scent flooded her. The rough voice struck her forehead. “What the—?!”
Whether he liked it or not, the contest music began.