SMW 1

• Ah, ah. Hello, residents of the village. Today, the reason I’m calling is…

As always, the village chief’s announcements over the loudspeaker didn’t care for the time. I had long since resigned myself to it, but waking up to that rustic morning call every time was a separate matter entirely.

I fumbled for the phone I had tossed aside while reading webtoons last night to check the time.

6:00

As expected, it was still the crack of dawn. A groan escaped my lips involuntarily. For some, this was a time of poetic beauty and praise, but I hated the dawn. Nothing made me feel more like I was losing out than being awake during that awkward gap between night and morning.

In the city, someone would have probably caused a scene long ago, but this was the countryside. At five in the morning, the village grandmothers gathered in small groups at the bus stop to chat before taking the first bus to the market, and tractors and cultivators rattled busily toward the fields. Dawn in the countryside was a time when everyone was awake. Except for one person.

Before I knew it, the chief was announcing the schedule for farming education. Since it was a topic that had nothing to do with me, I pulled the blanket over my head to try and go back to sleep.

• And next. This time, I… I have some unpleasant news to share. I’ve been saying it! Over and over! To please pay attention to the waste separation! And yet, the trash is still a complete mess…

In the end, I was up. Setting aside the chief’s anger, the nagging reminded me of something I had to do. I picked up the phone I had pushed away and checked the day. Wednesday. Trash day.

“What a pain.”

I pushed myself up, slid into the training pants I’d left beside me, and stepped out of the room. Perhaps because I was rushing, I slammed my foot hard into the corner of a book after just half a step.

A curse flew out before a groan could. As the pain lingered, I glared at the book with bleary eyes. If there was a crime, it was mine for leaving things lying around, but right now, I needed something to resent. However, the moment I saw the cover featuring a small child wizard, even that feeling faded.

Instead, I remembered why I had left this book here without opening it once in ten years. It had been a whim, a momentary trip down memory lane. And finally, it was laziness.

While lost in thought, the pain subsided somewhat. I picked up the book and stood. I started to put it back properly on the shelf, but then decided to just lay it flat in an empty spot for easy retrieval, and flung open the door leading to the veranda.

As I stepped onto the porch, the rush of air made the tip of my nose tingle. It was midsummer, a time when heatwave alerts were sent out several times a day. Yet, standing on the wooden floor of the hanok, I felt a cool chill. Goosebumps rose on the bare skin of my arms beneath my short sleeves. To actually experience the ancestral wisdom my maternal grandmother always boasted about in the middle of a heatwave—it really showed that environment and experience were important.

Still, since it was a heatwave, the chill I felt now would be completely forgotten in a few hours. Was it a lack of patience, or just a habit, that made me want to bask in the midday sun so quickly?

When winter comes, I miss the hot summer sun. And when summer comes, I miss the winter that chills me to the bone.

Concluding that it must be a habit, I put on my shoes and headed toward the storage shed. I grabbed a few trash bags kept at the entrance and turned toward the backyard.

Crash!

It sounded like a pile of stones falling. To be precise, it was the sound of a collapse.

“Again?”

I sighed and headed to the backyard. The large wall surrounding the old house was sturdy, built with carefully stacked earth and stone, but the backyard was a different story. Because it had been hastily patched with stones after a natural disaster, it was incredibly fragile—even a few kicks from a cat could bring it down. Sure enough, when I arrived, several large stones were scattered on the ground. A white ball of fur with grey tabby markings landed lightly atop them.

“Meow.”

“Il-sun-i, you knocked down the wall again.”

It was a stray cat, a regular visitor to our house. The cat’s ears flicked, and its eyes narrowed slightly, as if focusing on my words.

Damn, it was too cute.

Of all the cats that visited the house, this one was universally acknowledged as the prettiest. Stay calm. No matter how cute it was, this was something that couldn’t be overlooked. With so many strays coming and going, the stone wall was already in a precarious state.

“The wall is going to collapse visit our sitesoon because of you visit our siteand your friends. I don’t even know how to stack them properly.”

“Meow.”

“Why here of all places? There’s a cement wall right next to it. What if you get crushed by a stone?”

“Meow, meow.”

I shouldn’t even bother talking.

No matter how much those adorable ears flicked, the cat didn’t actually understand human speech, and even if it did by some miracle, it wasn’t the type to listen. There was only one word we truly understood between us.

“Meow. Meow. Meow.”

“…Fine. I’ll give you some.”

Faced with the cat’s urgent, almost sorrowful meowing, I finally waved the white flag. My heart foolishly softened in the face of that cute face.

“I’m going. I’m going.”

As if it understood, the cat spun around and dashed toward the food bowl. That sight made me feel a surge of emotion again, and I vowed that today, I would definitely only give it a little bit of food. Of course, it was a vow that would not be executed.

Since I’d given the cat plenty of food, my chore was solved… Maybe I’ll take a walk.

If you leave the house and go straight down the road for about five minutes, there’s a large utility pole. After neatly setting down the trash beside it, I looked up and saw the wide-open rural landscape. Unlike the city, which was grey everywhere, the fact that I could see lush greenery just by stepping into the yard served as a plausible excuse for my impulsive country life.

The problem was that just going out to the yard was more than enough for sightseeing, so there was rarely a need to actually go for a walk. Though the biggest problem was that I had no will to walk in the first place.

Regardless, if going to throw out the trash counted as an outing, it had been a truly long time since I’d been out. After a year of devolving into a shut-in, I occasionally needed these forced walks.

From where I stood, the path along the rice paddies was the closest walking trail, but I didn’t have the nerve to leisurely cross through an area in the midst of farming when I wasn’t even helping.

Ultimately, I decided to walk the forest path behind the house. As I turned around, I saw a cat running quickly toward me.

It was Il-sun-i.

Even though I’d seen that face just a few minutes ago at home, I felt a fresh sense of welcome seeing her out here. I Read on Read BL Novelswas about visit our siteto call out [visit our site]to her, but wondering why she was in such a hurry, I just watched. Then, I saw another cat following close behind.

It was the mother who had given birth to Il-sun-i. For some reason, she was chasing Il-sun-i with an intensity that looked like she was about to land a “meow-punch.”

The road is dangerous.

Cats, who are sensitive to the slightest movement, are strangely indifferent when on the road. Recalling a few close calls, I checked the road. Fortunately, there was only one car passing in the distance; nothing seemed dangerous.

They’ll probably dodge it well enough. They were creatures who had survived by taking care of themselves until now. It was just as the two of them zipped past me and I turned back toward the forest.

Screech!

The sound of sudden acceleration. I whipped my head around to see a black car, which had been far off until a moment ago, charging straight toward the utility pole.

Boom!

A thunderous crash of something breaking vibrated through my entire body. Within my slowly dilating pupils, I saw the two cats disappearing toward the rice paddy path. As soon as I confirmed they were alive, I rushed to the car.

Fortunately, it seemed the pile of trash had [stolen content]absorbed some of the impact, but the front bumper [Read on Read BL Novels]appeared [stolen content]crushed against the pole. Moreover, perhaps a stone had flown up, as the windshield was shattered.

“Someone please call 119!”

I shouted urgently to the villagers who had come out at the commotion and hurriedly knocked on the driver’s side window.

“Hey! Are you okay?!”

Through the darkly tinted window, I could see the driver leaning against the seat. The man, who looked young at a glance, was motionless.

Had he lost consciousness? Or…

I tried pulling the handle urgently, but it wouldn’t open. Just as I was about to step away to seek help, I saw movement inside the car.

“Can you hear me? Please open the door!”

As I shouted and knocked on the window, he must have understood, as he painstakingly moved his arm. Soon, I heard the click of the lock releasing. Simultaneously, I pulled the car door open with all my might.

The moment the door swung open, the driver’s body collapsed [visit our site]toward me. I caught him instinctively, but it was hard [visit our site]to handle the limp weight of someone who had lost consciousness. I ended up sitting on the ground, pinned under his body.

“Good heavens, what on earth happened!”

The panicked voice of the village chief, who had just arrived, rang out.

“Chief… please help me.”

“Uh, alright.”

The man’s weight felt like it was increasing, like water-soaked cotton, and I felt as if my back was about to break. I’m going to die at this rate. Fortunately, with the chief’s help, I managed to lay the man on the ground. Though it was only for a moment, the combination of tension and physical exertion left me drenched in sweat. In the midst of it, the man’s scent clinging to me felt very strange. He must have been wearing a strong perfume. I felt a momentary wave of dizziness.

“Gasp! Blood, there’s blood!”

At the chief’s breathless exclamation, I finally looked at the man’s face. Blood was flowing, likely from a head injury.

“Oh dear, he must be badly hurt! Did you call the ambulance?”

“Don’t worry, I called it. It’ll be here in a bit.”

“What a tragedy. He’s not dead, is he?”

“Hush! Don’t say such ominous things.”

“How did such a handsome young man meet with such a misfortune?”

The villagers, who had gathered around by now, were all chiming in. Someone asked me what had happened. Someone else tried to hand me the phone with the emergency dispatcher on the line. But I couldn’t answer or react to any of it. I simply stared at the man. To be precise, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

How…

Amidst the confusion, the words of a village grandmother lingered in my ears.

Handsome young man.

The man was certainly handsome. Even I, who thought I was the average for an adult male, found his build large and sturdy, his height impressive, and his face sculpted. While I felt a sense of guilt for evaluating the appearance of an injured person, he was so exceptionally handsome that I couldn’t look away.

And he looked very familiar. Extremely so.