Forgotten Memory Fragments or a Madman
Was it a fragment of lost memories? Or had he finally gone insane?
Hwigyeom felt his head about to split open. He managed to lean back against the sofa and slid down to the floor.
“Really? Then what’s your name?”
He slowly replayed the conversation that had flashed through his mind moments ago. But unlike when the memories had surfaced because of Yeong-a in the Sahan Group interview, his voice still felt unclear.
“Geumdong. That’s my name.”
“Oh? The baby’s name is cute too.”
That had definitely been his voice from back then.
Hwigyeom pressed his throbbing temple and once again gazed at the sleeping face of Yeong-a. With her eyes closed, her plain features looked even younger.
Right now his desire to track down the kidnapper who had held him had reached its peak. The more he kept the bright Yeong-a by his side, the stronger his urge grew to peel away that dark curtain.
Hwigyeom, who had escaped the kidnapper’s grasp by his own feet after a month, had told the story of being drenched in blood from head to toe. The blood had come from his own head.
In that state he had spoken only nonsense before finally collapsing from exhaustion and remaining unconscious for weeks. When he had finally woken, even the memories of the days just before his abduction were gone.
“Why am I here?”
He didn’t even remember being hospitalized.
At the doctor’s advice not to give him shock, the adults had simply hidden the situation at the time.
“You don’t have to think about anything anymore, Hwigyeom. Just forget it all.”
But who he was as a person was something he already knew. Even as a very small child, once he latched onto something he would obsess with the intensity of a madman, and that stubbornness had even made his parents shake their heads.
“That’s enough now. Mom is sorry. Really.”
Jeong-hye had cried and pleaded with him, but Hwigyeom could not bear it without finding the one who had stolen his memories and the one who had turned him into this.
“Where is it? There! I want you to take me there right now!”
But all he had been able to obtain from the elementary-school-aged Hwigyeom at the time was the old recording file that had been casually tossed to him. If he had asked for more information, he would have been ready to escape in the middle of the night. Naturally, it was the right decision to protect a minor.
In the end, Jeong-hye had given up everything and taken him to Switzerland. Once an ordinary child had become a target, the words circulating around her that he might do it again had made it impossible for her to endure.
Time passed and she had tried to forget, yet even as the years went by Hwigyeom had been unable to escape the incident.
Every night he woke from nightmares, and suddenly the chilling sensation of his head being split in two haunted him.
At home, right after Hwigyeom left for Switzerland, the adults had wiped away every trace—police records, news reports, everything—by having the investigation and coverage quietly shut down.
Now, the only way to unravel that case was to recover his own memories. How could one ray of light like Yeong-a possibly be unwelcome?
Only now, after pondering the single word she had muttered in her sleep, did Hwigyeom finally understand its meaning.
Hwigyeom let out a dry laugh and looked down at Yeong-a.
“Totem, can you really do your job properly?”
Even if that were not the case, it seemed he could no longer do without Yeong-a being beside him.
It was strange. Yeong-a had slipped into his life as if it were the most natural thing in the world, no matter how much everyone else found him difficult and uncomfortable.
Hwigyeom had always wondered why he himself had not pushed her away hard enough at the napping competition.
“You must live by giving as freely as you breathe! Remember that!”
The old man’s words from back then had resurfaced at that moment, and it was also strange that he had never doubted following them.
Now he thought he understood the reason.
The wish he had buried deep in his heart back then—to let that child who the police had said was completely unknown, whose very existence no one even knew—had somehow survived. At that moment, had that buried feeling pulled Yeong-a toward him?
“I hope you’re living well.”
The warm, sweet breath Yeong-a exhaled somehow felt like that child’s. That was why he kept wanting to attach a different name to the emotion he felt toward Yeong-a right now.
From his dark, bottomless heart such a feeling should never have sprouted. Then it must have been the fleeting impulse he had seen so many times around men.
Yet Yeong-a, already precious enough to him, had been taken so lightly. He could never fit a precious thing into a cracked glass bottle.
Moreover, even the shaman had not told him to give freely as you breathe. This was probably the limit of what he could do for the person he liked.
Though it was not satisfying, it would have to do.
“By the way, why is the baby so warm…?”
He had forgotten to go cover her with the blanket and soon fell asleep himself.
Even though the floor was disgusting, this was the second time he had fallen asleep somewhere other than his own bed since the napping competition.
***
It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon when he returned from Sokcho. Yet in Hwigyeom’s living room a heartbreaking voice echoed.
“Please be my baby’s dad, please!”
Listening to a line straight out of a melodramatic play made Hwigyeom’s eyes roll back.
It had been about an hour earlier. Yeong-a had called him.
“Team Leader, do you have dog phobia or allergies?”
He should have said he didn’t…
Not long after hanging up, a puppy younger than a day old was carried into his house by Yeong-a.
On the night he returned from Sokcho, Yeong-a had said she had found a puppy abandoned in front of the one-room building.
“It was just sitting there in a box.”
Hwigyeom sighed as the fluffy bundle in her arms wagged its ears furiously and let out a sharp bark.
Awoo!
Another puppy immediately wailed pathetically.
“I even went to the animal hospital and took it to the carrot market, but no one’s calling. I don’t know what to do!”
“If you’re so worried, just raise it yourself, Ms. Yu Yeong-a. Get out right now!”
Hwigyeom had meant to scold her, but a short man who had appeared looked furious instead.
Grrrrrung!
Its short brown fur, black around the mouth and ears, and flat nose clearly belonged to a shih-tzu. It was cute, but for Hwigyeom it added zero plus factors.
“I want to too, but one-room tenants aren’t allowed to keep pets. Still, because the auntie let me keep the dog until I found its owner, out of pity…”
“So keep it and slowly find its owner.”
It was taking on one life. The chores would pile up, and the emotional drain would be even worse. It simply didn’t match his personality with Hwigyeom.
“I have to go to the company during the day. It’s still a baby.”
“I go to the same company.”
Seeing Hwigyeom dumbfounded, Yeong-a lit up with anticipation.
“I looked into it, and there’s a dog daycare center near the team leader’s house. You can send it there during the day.”
One absurd word suddenly stuck in Hwigyeom’s ear.
“Daycare?”
“A school for puppies left alone during the day.”
Yeong-a showed him her phone screen with the proud face of someone who had just discovered a new continent. The first search result flashed up.
[**Dong Premium Dog Daycare, the most expensive place]
A hollow laugh escaped Hwigyeom’s lips.
“Yeong-a, do you think I’m easy?”
He would never have allowed this otherwise. He should have filled the cracked glass bottle with something hot enough to burn.
Yeong-a pretended to be startled and shook her head vigorously.
“No! Since the team leader is the owner of this super-wealthy and powerful puppy, it should definitely go to the highest-class daycare! That’s why I searched. The most expensive is always the best!”
Hwigyeom was already sick of such sweet talk. He had no intention of falling for it at this level.
Seeing him smirk, Yeong-a pressed herself flatter.
“I can’t afford it, Team Leader. Last time you said I could ask for anything. Just help me once and I’ll work even harder.”
Yeong-a begged in a sincere voice, but Hwigyeom refused to change his firm stance.
“I’ll cover the education fees. I will never let you spend a single won in this house.”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t bother you at all. After daycare I’ll pick you up and take care of the puppy until it sleeps. Even on weekends!”
Yeong-a kept listing more ideas while watching his expression.
“Ah! If living here makes you uncomfortable, I’ll ask the owner auntie to let me take it to the one-room only on weekends.”
At that moment the doorbell rang. It was Deputy Director Gu.
What kind of mess was this?
Hwigyeom’s head was now throbbing nonstop. But the moment Gu stepped inside, the corner of his mouth lifted.
“I heard barking and came up. I wasn’t mistaken. Aigoo, how cute.”
Deputy Director Gu set down his cane and approached. The puppy Hwigyeom had been holding had its tail raised stiffly; toward Gu it wagged its tail cutely, offering a paw the size of a night bean.
Seeing that, Hwigyeom made his decision.
“One abandoned puppy is enough.”
Receiving the wiggling puppy, Deputy Director Gu asked Yeong-a what had happened.
“So why is there a puppy?”
Yeong-a explained the situation in a rough voice and wore a sad expression.
“Why would anyone abandon such a beautiful baby?”
Receiving the puppy back from Deputy Director Gu, Yeong-a muttered.
“If only it had been dumped in front of a rich house. Why here of all places, right in front of our building.”
Her eyes were completely desolate.
Ha…!
Hwigyeom’s jaw clenched hard.
“Look into a daycare center right now. Then immediately come back and give it a proper bath.”
Yeong-a’s eyes widened instantly and filled with tears. Hwigyeom’s chest gave an unfamiliar tickle at the sight.
“Really? Since I thought you would say that, I already bathed it. Want to hold it?”
“No.”
Hwigyeom turned his eyes away at once. Deputy Director Gu, watching him, smiled faintly and asked Yeong-a.
“Did you give the puppy a name?”
Yeong-a answered as if she had been waiting for it.
“How about Geumdong? Gold Geumdong!”
Hwigyeom’s expression turned fierce. How did Yu Yeong-a know that name?