“…..I just wrote something, hoping to leave it as records of our past. Kim Dok-Ja might wake up someday, you know. When that happens, he'd most likely have forgotten everything about us, anyway.”
The companions read Han Su-Yeong's novel.
Shin Yu-Seung, her eyes reddened from tears, angrily rebuked Yi Gil-Yeong, telling him to slow down with the scrolling, while the boy sniffling away continued to click on the mouse. Yu Sang-Ah, Jeong Hui-Won, and Jang HYeong copied the file and read the novel on their own phones.
Yu Sang-Ah read the scene where she was making an appearance and smiled faintly. “….I did say something like that, didn't I?”
Perhaps she was missing those days, because she stroked the sentences on the phone's display. As if doing that might let her really touch Kim Dok-Ja.
Yi Ji-Hye sucking out the last drops from the booze bottle unsteadily got up from her seat. “What the hell. Is it really that fun?”
“Ah?! Noona!”
Yi Ji-Hye going on a drunken rant shoved Yi Gil-Yeong off the chair and took over the notebook PC. She then slapped her cheeks and tried to focus her blurry, half-closed eyes on the screen.
How long went by like that?
“Sob, sooob, waaah! This novel is too sad, you know?!”
“…..You've only read the first chapter, so what the….”
Yi Ji-Hye blew her nose noisily and chucked the soiled tissue in Yi Gil-Yeong's direction. She remained utterly unperturbed regardless of whether the angry boy was yelling at her or not. Even more so when she scrolled down and read the scene where she made her appearance in Chungmuro – her excitement seemed to reach its peak.
“A girl wielding a lengthy sword stood in the exit as the faint rays of light shone through. While looking at Yi Ji-Hye's hair dancing in the winds intermittently blowing in…. Keuh-euuh, I'm sooo uber-cool, aren't I??”
“Argh, seriously now?! Go back up already!”
Despite Yi Gil-Yeong scolding her, Yi Ji-Hye continued on yap on.
“Like, what happens afterwards? What happens to Kim Dok-Ja….”
In the end, she couldn't win against the booze in her system and before long, her nose kissed the tabletop. Shin Yu-Seung snatched the notebook PC away, and asked a question while taking over the scrolling duty. “….Do I make an entrance later on, too?”
“Everyone makes their appearance. Although, each person's specific importance will be a bit different,” said Han Su-Yeong.
“B-but, I really did my best, you know.”
“Yes, I know. Don't worry, your story will show up lots of time later on.”
They already knew the ending to this story. What would happen to Kim Dok-Ja, and what experiences the companions would go through as the result. How the dream they dreamed crumbled away. They all knew too well.
Despite knowing, however, Shin Yu-Seung continued to read the story.
They strode forward one sentence at a time towards the predetermined end. The story they couldn't change was right here. Shin Yu-Seung used every ounce of her energy to read it as if each and every sentence disappearing behind was too lamentable, too sad, to her.
“…..How wonderful would it have been if Dok-Ja ahjussi was able to read this.”
“Should we go to hyung and read it for him?”
Han Su-Yeong thought about the slumbering Kim Dok-Ja inside Yi Seol-Hwa's hospital. This novel was written for that guy, yet she didn't think he'd be reading it anytime soon.
⸢Could it be that, just maybe, this was this story's completion?⸥
The completed ending of those who had lost something – could that be this novel's true purpose? Could these people be the true readers of this story?
“Do you think that ahjussi in the other world-line will like reading, too?”
The companions wouldn't be saved with just this measly little story. But at the very least, they should be able to endure their lives while reading and thinking about it. Just like how Kim Dok-Ja reading the 'Ways of Survival' did.
“I wonder. Maybe.”
Chapter end
Report
|
Donate
Oh o, this user has not set a donation button.
|