By Zephyria 
Though summer was far from over, cosmos flowers bloomed endlessly along the roadside. As they passed the pink flower path that separated the blue fields from the road, Jang Ui-geon looked at Seo Chi-young, who was gazing out the window as if entranced.
“It’s a sight that makes you forget the season.”
“When I was young, I thought of it as a formula: ‘cosmos = autumn,'” Jang Ui-geon said with a smile, and Seo Chi-young looked back and smiled along.
“I suppose so. Still, it’s beautiful. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a path of cosmos like this.”
“I feel like I used to see them more often,” Seo Chi-young said, looking back at the flowers. Then, he suddenly spoke.
“When I was little, I used to pass through flower paths on the way to my maternal grandparents’ house. There were many cosmos in autumn, but flowers bloomed in abundance in other seasons too. Because it was such a rural road… when I was very, very young, it wasn’t even a paved road, so flowers bloomed all over the dirt path.”
“It suited the scenery better than an asphalt shoulder,” Seo Chi-young smiled, and Jang Ui-geon recalled the maternal home he had heard about before.
“That house, the Hanok?”
“Yes. It was a very elegant and beautiful house, but since it was the countryside, the houses were spaced so far apart that you had to walk for a while even to reach a neighbor’s. Walking from the bus stop to my grandparents’ house, the surroundings were entirely a flower path.”
Seo Chi-young traced a gentle smile on his lips, as if recalling those days. It was a very old and nostalgic memory.
“Walking along that flower path made my heart flutter. I felt like there would be something as cozy and wonderful as the thick scent of flowers and grass at the end of the road… Then, when the flower path ended to cross a stream, I would keep looking back regretfully, over and over… and that’s how I walked the dirt path.”
It was like that back then. Grass insects flew under the dazzling sunlight, and flowers bloomed profusely all around. Walking that secluded path made his heart race.
He felt certain that something wonderful awaited at the end of that road.
It was a weekend with an unusually long holiday.
They had played for four days, including the weekend. Jang Ui-geon’s father, who had been in business for a long time, held the view that “what do government-mandated holidays have to do with the shop’s closing days,” so he only closed on the actual days of Lunar New Year and Chuseok. However, Jang Ui-geon made sure to take his weekends off. He was especially diligent about holidays. Whenever he had a few days off like this, he would take a trip somewhere far with Seo Chi-young as if he had been waiting for it.
Even now, they were on their way back after spending three full days visiting an island in the southern region that was said to be beautifully maintained. Tomorrow, they would return to their daily routines.
“The holiday is already over. Why does time fly so fast when you’re resting?”
Jang Ui-geon sighed regretfully. Holidays always passed like a dream. Seo Chi-young nodded, then muttered as if something had just occurred to him.
“I wonder if the cats are doing okay. I left plenty of food, but…”
“They’ll be fine. Since they’re stray cats, they can find food elsewhere if they run out.”
“Se-jul-i has an injured leg, so it might be hard for him to find anything to eat…”
Seo Chi-young, who went to Jang Ui-geon’s house every morning to leave food and water around the inner quarters where the strays often visited, muttered worriedly. He had become familiar with some of the cats since he ran into them often. Among them was a cat with three stripes on its fur that limped due to an injured hind leg; because it was hurt, he felt an extra sense of pity for it.
“Ah… if it’s that guy, I don’t think you need to worry.”
Jang Ui-geon chuckled.
“For a while now, a dead mouse has been appearing under the stairs every few days. It was a relief that it was the inner quarters and not the shop side, but every two or three days, there’d be a mouse, a bug, or sometimes even a bird. I wondered which of the cats was trying to repay me. Then, the other day, I woke up early in the morning and went outside, and I saw that guy scurrying away from under the stairs. In its place, there was a mouse that was half-dead.”
“………”
“I guess he’s still good at hunting despite the leg.”
“That… that must have been bothersome for you…”
Hearing that Jang Ui-geon had been the one dealing with those subtle “rewards” while he was the one feeding them, Seo Chi-young felt somewhat sorry. A bug might be one thing, but mice or birds must have been gruesome to clean up.
“Um, next time, just leave it and I’ll clean it up.”
“Haha, it’s okay. My family has been in the food business since I was a kid. My father is extremely sensitive about hygiene; he’d flip out if he saw even the tip of a mouse’s tail, so all us siblings became accustomed to catching mice.”
Jang Ui-geon laughed it off with a light wave of his hand, then suddenly tilted his head and gave a subtle smile.
“…But next time, if there’s something like a bug, I’ll leave it. When I tried to clean it up, that guy looked at me with such resentful eyes. I think it’s a gift for Chi-young.
Seo Chi-young ended up laughing, saying, “Then I must make sure I’m not caught throwing it away.”
As they got closer to Seoul, the number of cars on the road gradually increased. Since it was the last day of the holiday, it seemed like it would be quite congested once they entered the metropolitan area. However, for now, they could still enjoy the flowers blooming around them as they drove smoothly.
“The weather forecast said a typhoon was coming, so I’m glad the weather has been great throughout.”
“I agree. …Though I can’t help but think that if a typhoon had come, we might have been stuck on the island for a few more days.”
Jang Ui-geon muttered with a mock-dejected tone, looking back at the passed holiday. Then, seeing Seo Chi-young smile, he smiled too. However, while the typhoon had fortunately missed their vacation, it didn’t seem it would miss them entirely. The weather forecast on the radio a moment ago had announced that the typhoon would land in the South Sea tomorrow night and move north, adding concerns that this typhoon would be unprecedentedly large.
“A typhoon… that brings back some bad memories.”
Seo Chi-young looked back curiously as Jang Ui-geon suddenly spoke with a chuckle.
“When I was young—maybe eight or nine—there was a pretty big typhoon. You know how the weather right before a typhoon is a bit peculiar? It was exactly like that; the sunlight was exceptionally dazzling all day. But despite the great weather, the wind blew so strongly that the branches of large trees were rustling noisily. Clouds were flowing across the deep blue, clear sky at an incredible speed. To my young self, the weather felt so strange that I still remember that day vividly.”
Listening to Jang Ui-geon, Seo Chi-young also recalled a time from his childhood. Eight or nine. There had indeed been a severe typhoon around that time. Even after it passed, news of the typhoon damage hadn’t stopped for a while.
“Then the typhoon swept through, and our house, the shop, and other houses—everyone had one or two window panes broken, and huge trees were uprooted; it was chaos. Our house was fine because we’d practically papered the windows with packing tape beforehand, but all the crocks in the shop broke. We’d moved them all to the backyard shed because of the typhoon, but since it was built with temporary slate, the roof couldn’t withstand it and flew away.”
“Ah… I remember. That was it… Our house had broken windows and flowerpots flew away; it was intense.”
“Ahaha, there were hardly any apartments in our neighborhood back then… there probably weren’t many detached houses that stayed intact.”
“It certainly isn’t a good memory.”
Seo Chi-young nodded with a smile. Now that no one was hurt, they could laugh at it as a past memory, but at the time—Seo Chi-young was a child, so that’s one thing, but the adults—must have struggled a lot with the cleanup. However, Jang Ui-geon gave a bitter smile and continued, “That’s true, but…”
“I must have been really clueless when I was a kid. All the crocks in the shop broke—imagine the disaster for a food business when all the crocks are shattered. My father and mother were sighing deeply while cleaning up, saying it would have been better if the windows broke instead of the crocks. But that day, since the typhoon had passed, it was sunny again. The sky was blue, the clouds were white, the sunlight was dazzling, and the birds were chirping. But the wind had stopped. Yet, for some reason, I found that weather—the dazzling sunlight and the unusually strong wind right before the typhoon—so fascinating and wonderful. So, while my father and mother were cleaning up the crocks, I blurted out, ‘I wish another typhoon would come.'”
“Ah…”
“I got beaten until the dust flew on a rainy day.”
“It really is a bad memory,” Jang Ui-geon said, shaking his head, and Seo Chi-young couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed even more when Jang Ui-geon added softly, “But actually, I still really like that weather right before a typhoon.”
“Since they say a typhoon is coming tomorrow night, maybe it’ll be like that soon?”
“Who knows, but it’s very common for typhoons to change course and head toward Japan, and it’s rare for them to come all the way up to the metropolitan area.”
“Besides, it’s better if no one suffers typhoon damage, so we should pray it doesn’t come,” Jang Ui-geon said, and Seo Chi-young nodded.
He liked this. These trivial conversations. He loved how these small moments of speaking, listening, and sharing accumulated. Jang Ui-geon glanced at the mirror reflecting Seo Chi-young. Looking at the now sparse path of cosmos, Seo Chi-young had a pleasant expression, as if he were smiling or almost smiling.
“Dinner time will be awkward. It seems too early to eat at a rest stop, and too late to eat after getting home… Considering the traffic, I think we’ll arrive around seven or eight. What should we do?”
“Um… wouldn’t you be too hungry if we waited until we got home?”
“Well, I’ve been eating the snacks you’ve been giving me for a while, so I think I’ll be fine.”
“Then shall we eat at home?”
Hearing Seo Chi-young’s words, Jang Ui-geon nodded with a smile. He knew Seo Chi-young, who preferred eating at home over eating out, would say that. Jang Ui-geon preferred it that way too.
And it was better to spend just a little more time together. Rather than dropping him off at home and parting ways immediately, having dinner at home would allow him to stay a bit longer.
To think he already felt reluctant to part ways at night, even though they had been together for four whole days.
Jang Ui-geon let out a bitter smile. It was beyond strange; it was almost absurd.
By now, being together felt as natural as breathing. Day by day, they became more accustomed to one another, more friendly, and closer. Yet, his emotions did not grow accustomed. While it was only natural for such feelings to gradually fade into the background of daily life, his emotions only swelled daily. I really do like this person, he thought anew every day. It was truly fascinating.
Jang Ui-geon shifted his gaze from the side mirror, which he had checked to change lanes, back to the rearview mirror. It was a secret that he had intentionally replaced the standard rearview mirror—which typically doesn’t reflect the passenger seat—with a convex one just so he could occasionally check on Seo Chi-young.
However, it seemed that secret was not meant to be kept. In the rearview mirror, his eyes locked exactly with Seo Chi-young’s.
“………”
While Jang Ui-geon blinked, Seo Chi-young quickly averted his gaze, looking flustered—as if he had been watching Jang Ui-geon for some time already.
Suddenly, his chest grew hot. His heart gave a light, quick thrum.
Yes. It wasn’t just him. Even though it was a fact he already knew, the moment of realizing it made his heart ache intensely.
“Chi-young, shall we live together?”
Jang Ui-geon had blurted it out on impulse. He hadn’t asked it seriously. It was simply a vague wish he’d had for a long time that had impulsively escaped his lips. It was just a light comment made in the moment. But,
“No.”
Seo Chi-young’s answer came back far too readily. The response was as light and cool as Jang Ui-geon’s question. It wasn’t an answer born of serious consideration, but one given based solely on the mood of the moment.
And Jang Ui-geon…
“………”
His expression went blank.
It really had just been a random comment. He hadn’t proposed it seriously. Yet, the moment that answer returned, Jang Ui-geon realized that his question hadn’t been entirely empty words.
Seo Chi-young’s nonchalant refusal pressed heavily on his chest.
It was… a shock.
The weather forecast was accurate this time.
The typhoon that hit the southern coast did not veer toward Japan nor dissipate along the way; instead, it surged northward with terrifying momentum. The news reported it as a typhoon with record-breaking power, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in decades. All day, news of accidents caused by the typhoon streamed in. The “present tense” of the storm lasted a full day, but the damage was so immense that reports of devastation continued for a long while afterward.
Among those countless victims were Jang Ui-geon and Seo Chi-young.
On the night the typhoon raged fiercely, Jang Ui-geon’s shop was wrecked. Several panes of glass in the guest house were shattered, and the rain and wind that swept through left the interior in shambles. The main house was no better; wind and rain tore through the ripped paper doors, soaking the quilts and furniture. Belongings were scattered everywhere, leaving the room a complete disaster.
Seo Chi-young’s situation was not much different. If a sturdy, well-built building could end up like that, a temporary slate structure stood no chance. The roof had shaken so violently throughout the night that, while it fortunately didn’t fly off entirely, gaps opened in the walls. The wind howling through those gaps turned the shop into a mess, and the cooking stations and chairs that had been tightly wrapped and secured outside were ruined to a point that made the effort of wrapping them feel futile. A couple of chairs had vanished entirely.
This wasn’t just the case for Seo Chi-young’s shop; the other shops lined up beside it were in similar straits. The next day, the air was filled with cries of “What do I do?” and “Where did this go?” It was a nationwide scene of chaos.
They could only console themselves with the fact that it was better than the regions reported on the news, where floods had overlapped with the storm, leaving entire villages submerged up to their waists.
Even so, one cannot simply stop making a living, so Seo Chi-young—and the other neighboring shops—carried on with business, making temporary repairs and fixing things bit by bit. For the first three days after the typhoon hit, ingredient deliveries stopped, forcing them to stay idle, but by the fourth day, they were able to resume business reasonably well.
“I’m glad there are still some customers. I was worried if it would be okay.”
Jang Ui-geon, who had visited during the evening hours, spoke as he sat in a chair and looked around the shop. Though it wasn’t as busy as usual, he seemed relieved to see customers trickling in.
“Yes… Is your place getting sorted out, Ui-geon?”
“Yes. Construction finally started today. Given the overall situation, it wasn’t easy finding laborers. I asked them to do it as quickly as possible, and today was the earliest they could come.”
Jang Ui-geon smiled, saying that at least the start of the work was a relief. He planned to keep his shop closed for about fifteen days.
He had been thinking about expanding for a while but had kept postponing it due to a lack of time; he decided to just get the construction over with now. While repairing only the damaged parts would have taken three or four days, he posted a notice of a fifteen-day closure to expand and connect the back area.
“But will it really be done in fifteen days?”
“It’s not good to drag it out. It’s better to get it finished quickly, even if I have to pay extra for the construction.”
Jang Ui-geon, who had already asked for his neighbors’ understanding and distributed gifts since he intended to work late into the evening, was covered in pale dust from rolling around the construction site all day. Instead of his usual suit, he was dressed in work clothes. Seo Chi-young, who was used to Jang Ui-geon coming to pick him up in a neat suit after closing the shop, found this unfamiliar attire novel and found himself staring. Noticing the gaze, Jang Ui-geon tilted his head.
“What is it?”
“No, your clothes…”
“Ah, I look like a construction worker, right?”
“Yes, it suits you. …No, I didn’t mean that…”
He did think it suited him, but since he didn’t actually look like a day laborer, he found it interesting, but the words came out wrong. Seeing Seo Chi-young flustered, Jang Ui-geon laughed.
“It’s okay. My mother stopped by earlier, looked around, and already told me. She said that since I’m mixed in with the other workers, she couldn’t tell who her son was.”
“No…”
“You can’t fail to recognize me too, Chi-young.”
“Of course not.”
Seo Chi-young laughed awkwardly. Even if he were covered in mud and standing with his back turned, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize him.
“Come to think of it, is your mother okay? And your father’s shop?”
“Ah, they’re fine. It seems there was some damage over there too, but it wasn’t anything major, judging by how she personally came by to tell me to donate to the relief fund.”
Jang Ui-geon chuckled, saying that even though her son’s house had practically flown away, she was nagging him to give money to people who lost their homes, adding, “Thanks to her, I’ve become a beggar.” Seo Chi-young laughed along.
“The main house… the mess inside is mostly sorted. But it’s hard to find traditional paper for the windows, so there are still holes in the doors. It’s nice to see the stars at night, but the mosquitoes are coming in in droves. Still, I think I can replace them tomorrow, so I just have to endure today.”
Jang Ui-geon sighed, saying that at least the immediate fire had been put out. He then looked around Seo Chi-young’s shop once more. In terms of repairs, Seo Chi-young was actually better off. Because it was a temporary structure, it was damaged severely, but it was also quick to fix. While it was troublesome that some interior fixtures had flown away or disappeared, there was no major problem in continuing business.
“The shop seems to be mostly sorted. Is your home okay?”
“Yes, fortunately, the house is fine.”
Seo Chi-young nodded with a smile. It was an old villa that looked like it might collapse, but it had less damage than a detached house. The only thing was that all the flowerpots lined up in front of the villa had flown away and broken. So, yesterday, he bought new pots and repotted the plants.
“By the way, a cousin is coming to stay. I think we’ll be together for two or three weeks.”
“A cousin?”
Jang Ui-geon raised an eyebrow at Seo Chi-young’s words and leaned in with interest.
“Yes. A maternal cousin seven years younger than me. He’s graduated from school and is currently studying for the civil service exam. His semi-basement room was ruined by flooding, so he’s coming to stay just until it’s repaired.”
“Flooding… that must be hard. He’ll have to replace all the furniture.”
“That’s why his mother—my aunt—is planning to come up and look around with him when it’s time to move back in. My aunt asked me to take him in until then.”
“I see,” Jang Ui-geon nodded. After a brief moment of thought, he looked at Seo Chi-young and asked subtly.
“Then, until then, do you have to stay at home with your cousin on weekends too?”
“Huh? Ah… probably. But it’s only for two or three weeks…”
Watching Seo Chi-young speak hesitantly with a slight look of embarrassment, Jang Ui-geon gave a beaming smile.
“I’m glad it’s only two or three weeks. It would have been hard if it were longer.”
“Uh… but we see each other every day…”
Seo Chi-young murmured, lowering his head which had suddenly flushed, and rubbed the back of his neck. Then, as if making an excuse, he added:
“Still, a few years ago when he first came to Seoul for school, my aunt seemed to want me to live with him. If that had happened, I might still be living with him now… so it’s a relief.”
As he said “it’s a relief,” Seo Chi-young’s face grew even redder. Jang Ui-geon agreed, his eyes curving into a smile, “Indeed, it is a relief.”
“Yes. I told her I didn’t mind living with him, but he didn’t want to. I guess since he had just left home, he wanted to try living on his own.”
“Haha. But wouldn’t it have been uncomfortable for you, Chi-young? Even if it’s only for two or three weeks this time.”
“No. Not really… he’s a good kid.”
Seo Chi-young shook his head. Jang Ui-geon stared at Seo Chi-young while drinking barley tea, then suddenly tilted his head and grumbled playfully.
“Then am I not ‘good’?”
“Pardon?”
“You said you wouldn’t live with me.”
Seo Chi-young paused his hand, which had been scrubbing residue off the griddle.
“Uh, that’s…” He opened his mouth, blinked at Jang Ui-geon, and continued.
“Ui-geon… because you’re Ui-geon.”
It was a quiet and calm, yet firm answer. Hearing the response delivered so cleanly, as if there were no room for reconsideration, Jang Ui-geon momentarily stopped the barley tea from going down his throat. A huge gulp went down, so hard it almost hurt.
Just then, a voice from the neighboring shop shouted, “Owner of the tripe place! Can I connect my generator line here for a second?!” Seo Chi-young put down the brush he was using to scrub the griddle, asked Jang Ui-geon for a moment’s excuse, and hurried over there. Left alone, Jang Ui-geon drank the barley tea very, very slowly.
…Somehow, he felt like he was truly going to be upset.
Come to think of it, a very similar conversation had taken place not long ago. He had forgotten about it because of the typhoon and the chaos, but even then, Seo Chi-young had nonchalantly shaken his head when Jang Ui-geon suggested they live together. His mood had grown heavy then too, but since he hadn’t brought it up seriously and the topic had quickly shifted, he had erased it from his mind.
“……..”
Jang Ui-geon was fundamentally a rational and sensible person. He knew well that this wasn’t something to be upset about. Living together requires mutual agreement. If even one party refuses, that’s the end of it, and it’s not a matter of being upset just because the other person’s will differs from one’s own. Everyone at their age knew that living together wasn’t as easy as it sounded. So, even if he wanted to live together, if the other person refused, it was a matter of accepting it with a bit of regret. To feel resentful toward the other person over such a thing was unthinkable.
And yet.
He couldn’t help the way his heart grew sullen and dark.
He was like a tree frog—always doing the opposite.
At first, he had only vaguely thought it would be nice, never harboring such a desire seriously. But the moment he thought, ‘Ah, I guess it won’t happen,’ the desire suddenly swelled fiercely. At the same time, because he knew that desire was unlikely to be fulfilled, an absurd sense of grievance began to creep up.
Why me. Why do I. Why only me.
Reason and emotion were playing different games. This absurd sense of injustice.
Nevertheless, since the budding dissatisfaction and anger were still at a simmering point, Jang Ui-geon was fortunately able to keep them from showing on the surface. He tried hard not to think about it, believing that as he kept it pressed down in his heart, these feelings would eventually fade.
“I haven’t seen Se-jul lately. Did you happen to see him while I was away?”
Seo Chi-young asked, as if he had just remembered. On this day too, Jang Ui-geon had come covered in pale dust, having rolled around with the workers at the construction site, diligently giving directions on how to do this and that. Only upon hearing the question did he search his memory.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I saw him… but I’ve been so distracted lately that I haven’t been paying attention to any particular cat. I occasionally hear a cat’s voice near the main house during the day, so he’s probably around there.”
Come to think of it, the small gifts left on the stairs of the main house two or three times a week had also disappeared lately. However, he decided to keep quiet, fearing that if he mentioned it, Seo Chi-young’s face—which already looked worried—would darken further.
Since the typhoon swept through, the number of cats visiting Jang Ui-geon’s main house had decreased significantly. Though they were increasing slightly, the number was far lower than before.
“He’ll be back soon. I’ll call you as soon as I spot him.”
When Jang Ui-geon spoke, Seo Chi-young nodded quietly. Just then, a young man sitting in the shop watching television turned his head and asked, “What cat?” This was the maternal cousin who had been staying at Seo Chi-young’s house for a while.
“Oh, stray cats often visit Ui-geon’s yard. I go there every morning to scatter food. The ones I see every day are usually the same. Among them, there’s one with three stripes on its back, so I just call it Se-jul.”
“Ah… come to think of it, my eldest aunt used to leave things like anchovies in front of the gate for cats to eat. Even though she was scared of them.”
The “eldest aunt” the cousin mentioned was Seo Chi-young’s mother. Jang Ui-geon also chuckled, recalling a story he had heard in passing.
“Still, Chi-young isn’t afraid of cats.”
“That’s right, Hyung likes animals.”
The cousin nodded in agreement with Jang Ui-geon’s words. The cousin, who went to an academy at dawn to study for the civil service exam and returned late at night, would visit Seo Chi-young’s shop every few days, though not every day. On those days, Seo Chi-young would walk home with his cousin, meaning Jang Ui-geon had to go home alone. Each time, Seo Chi-young looked terribly apologetic, but Jang Ui-geon brushed it off with a generous smile. The second time he met the cousin, Seo Chi-young had said, ‘Until Woo-young goes back, please don’t come to pick me up. You might make a trip for nothing…’ but he had no intention of listening to that.
Since he was coming to see Seo Chi-young anyway, it was fine. Though it was a pity he couldn’t see him for a bit longer, it was only for two or three weeks, and since it was only every few days, he could yield to the cousin. Having gotten to know the cousin over a few encounters, he found him to be a hardworking, good kid, just as Seo Chi-young had said, which made him even more indulgent.
“Did you work at the construction site again today?”
Seeing Jang Ui-geon covered in pale dust, the cousin murmured sympathetically, “That must be hard,” and then asked politely, “Shall I massage your shoulders?” Jang Ui-geon simply shook his head and laughed.