C4 < Three Lives (3) >
After returning to the past, Jin-hyeok heard the whispers of beings behind the dark curtain in his dreams every night. Someone behind that curtain had spoken to him. He couldn't tell when or where it was, but there were words he clearly remembered at this moment.
【You’ve worked hard. I will send you back. If you do well, you might be able to save three lives from death. May your life be a happy one······.】
Those were his words.
He wondered if it was sent as compensation for a sad and lonely life without any special connection, but questioning it wouldn’t resolve anything. More importantly, there was a more pressing issue at hand.
‘Three lives, death.’
Scraping his chair noisily, Jin-hyeok jumped up and ran to the back of the classroom to check the calendar. He compared the dates with his small hands, rummaging through his memories. Although the memories from his childhood were distant, they were no longer fuzzy.
‘Is today the day?’
It was indeed today. The day his parents had passed away in his previous life. Which was why, at the end of the summer vacation the following year, he had been dragged to the town by his mother’s half-sister. He had left without even saying goodbye to his friends in this small rural school.
‘I have to save my mom and dad!’
He still didn’t know who the remaining life was. But this much was clear.
Two of the three lives were his parents. His parents would die today. No, they had already died. Today cannot be the day they die. What could a child who had learned that do?
Jin-hyeok’s brain began to spin quickly, just like in his previous life.
The fragmented soul of Jin-hyeok settled back into his nine-year-old body.
After all, the presence of his parents had the biggest impact on Jin-hyeok’s life.
***
In the yard, beans were piled high like a mountain.
Jin-hyeok’s parents, Son Kwang-yeon and Han Yu-young, were threshing beans in the yard. It was one of the farming tasks they routinely did at the end of October. They threshed the dry bean stalks with a thresher and blew away the dust and bean pods with a wind machine.
“How can someone who only studied in Seoul know so much about farming? I’m amazed every time,” Han Yu-young said, smiling as she sifted through the beans with her hands. The blue tarpaulin spread on the dirt floor was old and frayed in places, but Han Yu-young’s heart was joyful. Why wouldn’t it be? Just a month ago, the broker had said that the price of beans was doubling compared to last year and had offered to buy out the entire field.
Still, her husband, Son Kwang-yeon, had refused the broker’s offer and decided to sell directly in town. He had found out that selling directly to the wholesale market in town would yield three times the profit. Thus, Han Yu-young couldn’t help but feel good.
“Haha. I just keep an eye on the situation and decide what to plant accordingly.”
Son Kwang-yeon was knowledgeable about the world and knew how to make money, so the wealth that had once been limited to a bundle of clothes had grown significantly over the past ten years.
They had expanded their household significantly, and every time Kwang-yeon made some money, he bought more land.
The village was one that had undergone significant reclamation projects, filling in the sea. Due to salt, rice farming had been difficult for over ten years, and the only feasible crops were peanuts or sweet potatoes. Even those crops had poor yields, and it was a blessing if they didn’t starve.
Thus, even those who said that land was everything to a farmer ignored the barren sandy land. As a result, the saying emerged in the village that “you can’t pass through Dunaeri without stepping on Son Kwang-yeon’s land.”
“I should buy a rice transplanter next year. I’ll borrow a combine for now; they’re expensive.”
“Okay. You should.”
He would do well on his own.
Even though he did everything well, he always discussed it with his wife.
Han Yu-young still felt her heart flutter when she looked at Kwang-yeon.
The feeling was mutual.
Kwang-yeon had fallen in love at first sight when he came to do rural volunteer work in college and saw Han Yu-young.
In a rural area where there was only a slow bus that ran twice a day on a winding unpaved road, he pursued her every weekend. Han Yu-young, who didn’t dislike the handsome and polite man from Seoul, gave birth to Jin-hyeok when she was twenty.
It was a happy marriage.
A simple wedding ceremony where they exchanged a glass of water and wore borrowed hanboks, with a photo taken at a local studio was all they had for their wedding shoot. But what did that matter?
“When are you going to stop using honorifics with me?”
“Haha. Well, when are you going to stop calling me ‘oppa’?”
‘You.’ It was a term that no one used in the countryside. In Dunaeri, or perhaps even in the entire town, Han Yu-young was probably the only one who was addressed with that title.
Someone who cherished, respected, and sweetly called him by name. Whenever she tried to help with the farming work, he wouldn’t let her, as if the world would end. From a woman’s perspective, it was nothing but happiness.
“By the way, don’t you think Jin-hyeok seems a bit strange since the other day?”
“Yeah, he’s become too mature for a little rascal.”
So they were careful about their romance at night. When Kwang-yeon thought his nine-year-old son was asleep and fondled his wife’s breast, he quickly withdrew his hand at Jin-hyeok’s cough.
Recalling that bittersweet memory made Kwang-yeon’s pulse quicken.
“Um······.”
“Ahem-!”
As Kwang-yeon cautiously took his wife’s hand, his words trailed off. His young wife, who didn’t know what he meant, swallowed hard. Han Yu-young, who had been sifting through the beans diligently, suddenly became flustered like a spider that lost its prey.
“Oppa, Jin-hyeok will be back from school soon-.”
But the way he didn’t let go of her hand was obviously not a sign of dislike.
“Before he comes back, if we just······. Haha.”
There were no other houses nearby, and no visitors either. Kwang-yeon looked around nervously, grabbing his wife’s wrist and leading her inside the gate. Like a couple of thieves, Han Yu-young also glanced around, following him into their own house.
In the countryside, children usually had their birthdays in late summer or late autumn. This meant that they were born during the long agricultural off-season when the farming work was less tiring and the nights were long.
However, this saying didn’t apply to this couple, whose love was so strong that a glance at each other could spark a fire. Above all, because their intelligent and mature son meant that the couple had no opportunity at night except during the day.
In any case, that was the situation.
***
The village youth leader and class leader looked at the beans piled up in Jin-hyeok’s yard and clicked their tongues.
“Oh my, this house has done well again this year.”
“Of course, with how plump they are, they’ll buy up the whole village’s land.”
In the past, farmers valued crops more than money, so instead of saying they sold crops for money, they expressed it as buying money with crops. However, they secretly mocked Son Kwang-yeon as they whispered among themselves.
‘Why would you buy barren sand and hills for farming?’
‘There’s a saying that a farmer should not be too proud of himself.’
After enduring the heat of the day, Kwang-yeon quickly kissed Han Yu-young on the forehead and rushed out, as he heard some noise from outside.
“Hello, gentlemen.”
Class leader Jo Il-hun and youth leader Park Dae-sun flinched at Son Kwang-yeon’s Seoul dialect. They liked Kwang-yeon but found it really hard to adapt to his way of speaking.
“Ah, right. Um, so, is Jin-hyeok going to go tide pooling today?”
“Tide pooling?”
He had heard of it.
During the full moon or new moon, the west coast would reveal its tidal flats and tidal rocks, and the people living by the sea would go out with torches or flashlights to collect seafood.
Octopuses, crabs, mullets, bass, shells, and large sea snails called “nipple snails.” If they were lucky, they could catch a sizable eel. In a countryside where protein sources were limited, the results of tide pooling became good nourishment. If the harvest was good, they could sell it in the market and earn quite a bit.
“I’ve never done it, but will it be okay?”
“You just need to dig it up from the holes. Since you live in the same village as us, it’s just that we go there ourselves.”
Even though they ignored him as a country bumpkin from Seoul in their minds, there was no reason to ostracize someone who farmed well and had a good personality. They wanted to hang out with him, but since farming was busy, they were making excuses.
Son Kwang-yeon, with his broad shoulders, could read that sentiment.
“Then we should go together. Haha.”
With his always warm smile, Son Kwang-yeon sent the village neighbors off happily, saying they’d meet again after they had their evening meal. Jo Il-hun added a comment while looking at the beans piled in the yard.
“Oh my, those beans really did well.”
Jang-gun wagged his tail silently as he watched the village men.
***
As soon as Son Jin-hyeok returned home, he did his homework and then grabbed a sack in the yard. It was to help his dad with the beans.
“Jin-hyeok, it’s okay. Your mom can do it. You can play with Jang-gun.”
On any other day, he would have played with Jang-gun, but today he needed to stay by his parents’ side. He had to know what was going to happen. Jang-gun, who had been growling at Jin-hyeok since yesterday, was scary, making it hard to play together.
“If I help just one person, it’ll be faster. Mom, you should rest a bit.”
His son had changed too much.
Growing up in a household where they used honorifics, it was one thing that he didn’t speak informally to his parents like other rural kids. But the nuance in his speech felt like he was talking to an adult.
‘They say kids grow up suddenly. Is this it?’
That couldn’t be.
Han Yu-young found it strange as well. When had she ever raised a child? Born as the daughter of a rural prominent family, she had grown up without doing any hard work. Other kids would complain of minor illnesses, making their parents worry. She was grateful that her son was growing up smart and healthy without being seriously sick.
‘Today is the day.’
While helping with the work, Jin-hyeok repeatedly pondered what dangers there might be. He couldn’t help but wonder why his parents would die today when he didn’t remember anything dangerous in this village from his previous life.
There were no wars, and there was no way a tiger or a bear would appear out of nowhere. Even in this remote reclaimed village, it was a world where buses, trucks, small tractors, and farm vehicles ran.
Jin-hyeok’s questions were resolved after dinner.
“Jin-hyeok, your mom and I are going tide pooling, so you should go to bed first, okay?”
“Mom, tide pooling? At night?”
“Yes. We’ll catch a lot and buy you a notebook.”
His mother smiled like an angel, caressing Jin-hyeok’s cheek.
Jin-hyeok’s heart dropped.
‘So that’s it!’
As he had been complaining of sleepiness, Jin-hyeok suddenly snapped back to attention.
The west coast isn’t deep. Ironically, because of that, many people had died; they ignored the invisible currents and got swept away after venturing too far.
How many rocks had been named after “Grandma” and “Grandpa” because of that? It was hard and time-consuming to go around the winding coastline. Many elders had drowned after going too far across the sea as the tide came in. That was how those sad names came to be.
‘They say some people get swept away because they go too far while tide pooling.’
There would be no moon during the new moon. The sky was dark, and the tidal flats were darker than the sky. They should be heading back to shore as the tide came in, but some people went deeper after losing their sense of direction. It was usually inexperienced beginners who got into trouble.
‘And there are no streetlights or houses near the beach now.’
It was a time before any development.
Jin-hyeok’s heart raced.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, illuminating the dark memories that had previously been hidden. Until then, it had been dark, as if covered by a black cloth, almost as if sealed.
‘So I remember now.’
He felt embarrassed that the day of his parents’ death had only just come to mind, and he felt sorry that he had only now recalled how they had passed. To use terms like brain plasticity, memory volatility, or even sealing as excuses felt cowardly.
Yes, in the previous life, his mom and dad had gone tide pooling and never returned. When he woke up the next morning, the blankets he had laid out for his parents were still there, and that was how he became a child without parents.
“Mom! I want to go too!”
“Hmm? It’s dark, so it might be scary. And Jin-hyeok, you have to go to school tomorrow too.”
“I’m not scared at all. I’ll just wait outside.”
When his son, who had been acting mature, suddenly began to whine, his soft-hearted mother looked troubled.
“Haha, alright. Then our son will sit quietly and wait, okay? You can’t go alone?”
Dad is the best.
No matter what his son said, he listened, which was already different from other dads.
‘But what should I do?’
It was too sudden. If he had known beforehand, he would have thought of a way.
There was no time.
Ah, that method would be good!
Jin-hyeok dashed to the storeroom.