SMW 39

“Right? Amazing, isn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like some kind of secret hideout?”

“I never imagined a place like this existed. But do you not manage the fields separately?”

“They were well-kept when my maternal grandmother was alive, but there’s no one to do it now. My uncle tells me to do it, but how is that even possible? I just come along once in a while when my mom visits to help plant seedlings, sow seeds, and pull some weeds.”

“You don’t use pesticides?”

“My mom hates pesticides. So everything grown here is organic. Though, it’s more accurate to call it neglect since we don’t plant things with the goal of harvesting.”

“I like it. I actually prefer it because it has a wild feel to it, like it hasn’t been touched much by people.”

Choi Seol gazed at the natural scenery as if entranced. I agreed. Above all, the view was beautiful. Nameless grasses that had grown lushly throughout the summer formed clusters here and there, and the roses and wildflowers my mother had planted in the spring radiated their own colors, achieving a perfect harmony within the disorder.

The sight was so mystical that it created an atmosphere where fairies might appear. It was a landscape that could only be stolen contentseen at the very end of [stolen content]summer, just before the season faded.

A tranquil scene, brimming with the energy of summer. Perhaps that was why I felt so giddy.

“Look at this. This is an evening primrose; I have some at home made into tea. Let’s drink it later. This is… Ah! Buckwheat flowers. Don’t they look pretty forming a white cluster? This is a daisy? Something in that family, anyway. Oh! The bean pods have already opened. Wait, I should have planted eggplants and peppers around here. Ah! Found them.”

Pushing aside the overgrown grass in the field, I finally found the seedlings, with eggplants and peppers hanging in abundance. Choi Seol’s eyes widened in curiosity.

“Do they usually grow this much?”

“Amazing, right? At first, I wondered how much could possibly come out of a seedling the size of a palm, but once they grow, it’s a whole new world. Hold on, pumpkin flowers have bloomed here, so there should be one or two fruits.”

I followed the vines, searching around the yellow pumpkin flowers and leaves. Since everything was green, it was easy to overlook the fruit if you weren’t looking closely.

“Is it this one?”

Just as I was struggling to find it, Choi Seol spoke up while lifting a vine. Beneath it, a small pumpkin peeked its head out. It was truly a moment of triumph.

“That’s it. It actually grew. Let’s pick this when we leave.”

“It’s too small. Isn’t it still undergrown?”

“This size is just right. If you leave it out of affection, it can rot if there’s too much rain. That’s why it’s better to pick them unless they’re too tiny. Let’s put this in soybean paste soup. Or pumpkin pancakes would be good. Tell me if you want some; I’ll tell you how to make them.”

“…….”

There was no answer. Could he actually be hoping I’d make him pumpkin pancakes? That sounds like a chore. What day was it today? Since returning from Seoul, Choi Seol and I had been taking turns with cooking and cleaning duties. Since Choi Seol made breakfast, dinner was my turn. Since I’m doing it anyway, I might as well make the pumpkin pancakes. Just as I decided and opened my mouth, Choi Seol asked a question first.

“Are you going to keep living in the countryside?”

“Huh?”

Setting aside how random the question was, I was inwardly flustered because it was something I had never even considered.

“Um, for now, I took a year’s leave of absence to come down here, so I’ll be living here until the end of the year, but after that, I’m not sure…”

“Can you extend your leave of absence?”

“A general leave is possible for one more year, but I’m debating it.”

“Debating what?”

“That’s… but why are you suddenly asking this?”

I almost ended up having a serious conversation about my future on a mountain. Only then did Choi Seol confess.

“I didn’t know Han Yeo-reum would be this interested in farming. I wondered if you were planning to settle down in the countryside and just farm for a living.”

I frowned.

“I’m not interested. Do you know how grueling farming is? This is just for fun. Anyone would find it fascinating and fun when peppers and eggplants grow out of what looked like just green weeds. You’re enjoying looking at this stuff too.”

“I am. It’s been so long that I wonder when I last felt this way.”

Choi Seol was genuinely enjoying himself. If [Read on Read BL Novels]he had denied it, I was going to tell [Read on Read BL Novels]visit our sitehim how much his eyes looked like a rabbit’s since he entered this place, but my will to fight had vanished.

“Your life must have been really bleak. I guess it can’t be helped. I’ll show you raw jujubes too. They should be ripe by now.”

I answered primly on purpose and headed up the hill where the trees were lined. There stood persimmon trees, plum trees, and smaller jujube trees. As I drew closer, small oval fruits, gradually turning from green to red, were hanging everywhere.

I picked two firm fruits and headed toward the water tank set up near the garden. It was a place where water flowing from the mountain was collected via a hose. The water that had been sitting all summer was thick with moss. However, when I pulled out the hose fixed inside the tank, clean water fortunately trickled out. I washed the jujubes with it and handed one to Choi Seol, who had followed me.

“Try it.”

“This is… a jujube?”

“Specifically, it’s a raw fruit. If you pick this and dry it, it becomes that shriveled red jujube we know.”

I felt a strange sense of pride in knowing something Choi Seol didn’t. Still finding the raw jujube fascinating, he examined it from all sides before finally taking a bite. As he slowly chewed the fruit, a look of surprise gradually spread across his face.

“It’s delicious. It tastes like an apple.”

“Right? The crisp texture is similar, but I like this more than apples. It’s not too sweet, and Read on Read BL Novelsit’s a good bite-sized snack. Want another [Read on Read BL Novels]one? I can just pick more, so you have it.”

When I handed over the last raw jujube I had saved for myself, Choi Seol readily accepted it. He seemed to really like it.

“I’m glad the water was running. Otherwise, you would’ve had to wait until we went down to taste it. There’s a difference when you eat it right after picking it.”

“Since you didn’t use pesticides, can’t you eat it without washing?”

“Even so, you never know what mountain creature might have touched the fruit, so it’s better to wash it once, no matter how organic it is. It’s not so much about it being dirty, but about being cautious since it’s going into my mouth. That’s what my maternal grandmother said.”

“If it’s advice from an expert in the field, one must listen.”

His serious tone made me laugh.

“Well, she did farm her whole life, so she’s definitely an expert. My grandma would’ve told me to ‘just cut it out’ if she heard this.”

At my joke, Choi Seol looked bewildered.

“Just… cut it out? Is that a dialect?”

“Interpret it yourself. I only vaguely understand it by intuition, so I can’t translate it for you.”

“You’re from around here too.”

Following the comment about Gyeong-ho being a friend, this was another absurd thing to say.

“I’m a Seoulite. I only lived here for a short while before elementary school.”

“True, you did say this neighborhood was your hometown. I forgot because you fit in so well here.”

Was that a compliment or an insult? His tone was too soft to protest rashly. While I was pondering, Choi Seol put the jujube I’d given him in his mouth and looked up. His eyes, which had been taking in the surrounding fruit trees and wild garden as if savoring them, suddenly turned wistful.

“If my grandmother had lived in a place like this, would she have been able to live longer and more happily?”

It couldn’t be a mistake that the murmur, which was almost a monologue, felt incredibly bitter. The sweet jujube seemed to be something that couldn’t yet become a reality for Choi Seol.

“Forget it. The countryside is hard work. If you brought your grandmother here for her own sake, you might visit our siteend unauthorized copyup getting a back-smashing instead.”

So, I decided to tell him the reality.

“My grandmother always said that. She said when she saw people claiming she was blessed to live in an old house with such great air and scenery, she wanted to crack their heads with a basin. Honestly, I didn’t understand those words when I was young, but I get it now that I’ve lived here. You know it too since you’ve stayed here. Even if the weather is just slightly warm, all sorts of bugs go crazy; if you open the doors wide at night looking for romance, mosquitoes devour you, flies pick fights, gnats swarm in clusters, and you have to have frequent meetings with rats… Being nature-friendly is great. But if you get too friendly, it’s a disaster. Just one rain or windstorm, and leaves, branches, and fruits invade the yard constantly; if you don’t clear them in time, it starts looking like a haunted house. Plus, if one thing breaks, I have to fix it all myself, so there are many times when it feels overwhelming. The countryside is a place where it’s hard to survive if you’re not diligent, whether you’re old or young.”

As I spoke, I felt like I was starting to genuinely hate the countryside, so I decided to stop there. Since Choi Seol had lived here for a month, he would have understood by now.

“I guess so. My grandmother hated things like that, so that would have been a disaster.”

He understood well indeed. After all, we had spent the summer together, the hardest time of rural life, so there was no way he wouldn’t know.

“She originally liked the ocean.”

The ocean? Since we were in nature, the sequence of topics was very ‘natural.’

“Your grandmother liked the ocean? Hey, then you almost committed a filial sin. Usually, people who like the ocean find the mountains suffocating and hate them.”

“That’s why I scattered her ashes in the sea. It was her last will.”

At the unexpected word, this time my mouth snapped shut. As I remained silent, Choi Seol continued calmly.

“She hated feeling suffocated, and she said that when she died, she wanted to travel the world with her daughter, so she asked to be scattered in the sea. So, in the cold winter, I took a boat out and sent her off.”

As he spoke, Choi Seol’s face looked incredibly empty. To him, his grandmother seemed to be the only existence that could make him feel pain. It made sense, as she must have been his only family and parent in the world. Suddenly, I felt a wave of regret.

“Since I came up here, I should have paid my respects to your grandmother.”

At the time, I was too busy coming down to think of it. Since then, Choi Seol had never mentioned his grandmother, so I had forgotten. It only came back to me when I had paid my respects to my maternal grandmother and grandfather’s graves after finishing the weeding today.

“You don’t need to worry about it. If I wanted to, I would have asked you to come with me long ago.”

Choi Seol let out a hollow laugh.

“Honestly, I wonder what the point of going is. In the end, they’re just people who no longer exist anywhere in the world.”

“Hey. Why do you talk like that?”

“At least for me, it’s like that. Even if I have no memory of it, I think clinging to something that happened ten years ago and acting miserable is just self-consolation in the end. That’s not my style.”

It was such a dry statement that I wondered if this was the same guy who, until a moment ago, had been radiating wistfulness while talking about his grandmother’s happiness. I opened my mouth to say something because I didn’t like it, but suddenly I remembered the first day we reunited at the hospital.

I don’t have any family.

Recalling the expression he wore when he calmly stated that his grandmother had passed away not long ago, I couldn’t say anything more. Soon, as if shaking off the last of his emotions, Choi Seol returned to his usual indifferent expression.

“Let’s go. We have to go pick persimmons.”