“Ready?”
Ire sat on the chair with a tense expression, a cloth around his neck. Behind him, Seo Young-jun stood with clippers in hand, a solemn look on his face.
“You sure you won’t regret this? This hairstyle really suits you, you know?”
He nodded. The graduation ceremony was coming up soon, and after that, he would officially become a soldier. It wasn’t mandatory to have short hair since they had freedom of hairstyle, but he’d overheard from his peers that it was better to keep it short as a Private.
At first, he considered going to a salon, but the unexpectedly high price made him give up. He didn’t want to spend that much money just to get a haircut. So, after much deliberation, he asked Seo Young-jun.
“What a waste. Can I have it after you cut it?”
“Don’t talk nonsense and cut it properly. If you cut my ear, I’ll do the same to you.”
“Threatening me, huh? Your life is in this hyung’s hands now. Alright, head up.”
The buzzing sound grew closer to his ear, and his body flinched. Oh Nam-gi, who was watching, teased him, saying he was scared. He said that the guy who didn’t even flinch when a gun barrel was pointed at his face was breaking down in front of clippers.
“Hey, what if you become ugly after cutting your hair? That wouldn’t do.”
“Why not?”
“We need you to pick up girls at the club.”
That damn club. It was noisy and only made him feel dizzy, but he couldn’t understand why they liked it so much. In the meantime, strands of silver hair fell to the floor, one by one. Ire was slightly taken aback by the hair being cut off so relentlessly.
“You’re cutting it right, aren’t you? You’re not shaving it all off like a bald head, are you?”
“Oh, thanks. I hadn’t thought of that. How about converting from Catholicism to Buddhism while we’re at it?”
Not trusting him, he called Oh Nam-gi over to ask, but he just gave a strange smile. Ire bit his lip anxiously. Maybe he should have just paid and gone to a salon.
“God is unfair. He even made this guy’s head look good.”
“Are you done yet?”
“Don’t rush me. Wait.”
The small machine buzzed and stopped repeatedly. Oh Nam-gi came forward to watch and made a sound that was either admiration or something else, and Ire, feeling uneasy, only moved his eyes.
“Is it over?”
Seo Young-jun smacked his lips, and Ire couldn’t stand it anymore. He got up and went to the mirror in the corner of the shower room. He wiped the mirror, which was still damp, and looked closely, but he heard grumbling from behind.
“Damn it. I thought he’d look a little uglier after the haircut.”
“God really doesn’t exist. Ah, should I not be saying things like this in front of Ire?”
Ire brushed off the cut hair with his hands. When Sister Agape was around when he was young, she always cut his hair. This was the first time he’d cut it this short since then. He liked it more than he thought he would. He ran his palm over his hair, which was so short it was barely there, and turned around.
“It’s great. I like it.”
Seo Young-jun held out his hand.
“Sir, please pay in cash.”
He slapped his palm and promised to buy him food when they went out on their day off. He added not to go to an expensive place, and he knew it, complaining that he was stingy. On the other hand, he hoped his day off would come soon. He wanted to show off his hair to Matteo and his siblings.
In the midst of all this, Kim Ha-yoon’s face suddenly popped into his head.
What would that guy say if he saw this hair?
For a moment, he was so embarrassed that he turned away from the mirror.
Seo Young-jun asked if he didn’t like the haircut, but he couldn’t bring himself to be honest. That recently, there was a face that kept popping into his head. That the handsome smile he saw on the rooftop of District D kept making him feel strange. He couldn’t confide in anyone.
The dagger flew through the air and pierced the rotten wooden plank. A crude human figure was drawn on it. The second hit the head, and the next hit the groin. The men next to him booed, and Baek Seol arrogantly threw the dagger towards the group of men.
Everyone screamed and dodged at the same time, and the knife stuck into the ground.
“Baek Seol, are you crazy?”
“Instead of attacking us, go out and catch the rats!”
Baek Seol snorted. The rats they were talking about were the guys who had flowed in from District A. They had tried to track them down several times, but they had lost them, and recently, they had even infiltrated District A with difficulty, but that had also failed. Because of some guy he met in the sewer.
But he didn’t seem like a bad guy.
“I should have knocked him out and brought him back.”
He muttered to himself and spotted Gil-soo in the distance and chased after him. He wondered what was going on from the morning, but sure enough, he was entering the house where Jang-cheon was. Were they plotting something without him?
Unable to resist his curiosity, he loitered in front of the door. It was quiet, and then suddenly the door burst open. Gil-soo was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, looking down.
“Seol-ah. It’s wrong to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.”
Baek Seol pushed him aside and went inside. That’s what happens when they meet without him. But Jang-cheon was nowhere to be seen, and only his voice could be heard from inside. When he went there, Jang-cheon was burying his face in a pile of things, muttering to himself.
“That’s strange. I definitely put it here. That’s weird. Where did it disappear to?”
Baek Seol called him.
“What are you doing?”
But he just rummaged through the things like a madman. Baek Seol sighed and went to his side. He can’t find anything if he leaves it like this. He has to organize it while he looks. As he was teaching the much older man and organizing the things, a photo fluttered to the floor from between the notebooks.
“Hmm?”
A smile spread across Baek Seol’s face as he picked up the photo.
“Who is it? A hidden…”
He was about to ask if it was his son, but he shook his head after seeing Jang-cheon’s face. Of course not. Soon after, the photo disappeared from his hand. Jang-cheon was already holding it, looking as if he had found a treasure.
“What is it? Was it really your son?”
Jang-cheon stared intently at the photo and counted with his fingers. 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years…. Gil-soo even came and sat down next to him. He had been severely scolded by the higher-ups for failing to go to District A, and it seemed like he had gone mad.
“Do you see this? Hyung. How many is this?”
When he waved his fingers in front of his eyes, Jang-cheon handed the photo to the two of them instead of answering.
“Look. Isn’t this him?”
Baek Seol brought his face close to the photo.
“Who?”
“Him. The kid you guys brought from the sewer that day.”
The baby in the photo had hair that was close to white and eyes that were blue-gray. What was the guy he met in the sewer like…. It was dark, so he didn’t know exactly, but the eye color seemed similar…. But these hair and eye colors weren’t that rare.
“How can you tell with just this? The kid I saw at the market before also had blue eyes?”
“That’s right. I saw him too. His dad’s eyes are blue too.”
There were quite a few if you looked for them besides them. Baek Seol held the photo and looked at it this way and that. Judging from the old paper, the person in the photo didn’t seem as young as the child he saw at the market. Besides, that child had dark skin. The date was stamped below the photo.
“What is this? Is this the date of birth?”
Roughly calculating, he would be about twenty years old now. The person he met in the sewer was also about that age. No one in Area C takes pictures to commemorate their birth. No, there isn’t even a camera to take pictures in the first place.
But it would be possible if he was a resident of District A or someone who lived a little better in District B.
Baek Seol repeatedly pursed and opened his lips.
“But who is he?”
At that moment, instead of an answer, the ground shook.
It’s an earthquake!
The three of them hid under the large table without saying a word. The lamps that were hanging precariously and the old cups on the table shook violently. The commotion of people evacuating could be heard from outside. The earthquake that lasted for a few seconds stopped, and Baek Seol came out from under the table and let out a sigh of relief.
“Damn it. It’s been quiet for a while….”
Then he found the photo turned upside down on the floor. He was about to pick it up and return it to Jang-cheon, but there were letters written on the back.
“What does this say?”
Jang-cheon and Gil-soo also came to his side and put their heads together. Baek Seol was the only one of the three who could read, so they all looked curious. But Baek Seol couldn’t read it perfectly either, so he hesitated.
“What is it? Read it quickly.”
“…E?”
“Uh? E?”
Baek Seol tilted his head and wrote a few letters with his finger, then his mouth opened wide.
“I remember. Leda! Le!”
And the first letter….
“Um…, I…? Ire?”