Golden Time

“You did what now...”

“What did you do just now?

When Kim dusted off his hand, drops of blood scattered away.

“I told you already that my hand slipped off the gla.s.s.”

“You arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” shouted Kim’s aunts and then they moved into the living room. And they picked up their expensive bags.

“Just like your mom, you were being so mean!”

“I’ll never set my foot again in this house!”

The door opened roughly, and the women went out.

“You’re never going to come back?”

Kim smiled, with his gaze fixed out the window.

‘After a month or two weeks, they will contact me again. Their purpose was simple. Money, money, money. They equally divided the wealth bequeathed by my father, but they squandered all the money in a flash. Besides, they are saddled with debts. Did I inherited more wealth than them? No way. I just inherited a collapsing company that they did not even look at, and revived it. And now they are saying it’s unfair?’

Looking down at his hand still bleeding, he headed to the kitchen sink.

At that moment, Kim heard a voice.

“What is all this ...?” Kim turned to her familiar voice.

His mother was looking at the drops of blood fallen on the floor with a surprised look.

He hurriedly hid his injured hand back and laughed.

“The scary people are gone now? Hyunwoo... where were you hurt?”

She slowly approached Kim. Did she come to her senses for a moment?

“Mom, do you recognize me?”

Despite his question, she pulled out her son’s hand hidden behind.

Drops of blood fell down. Was he fortunate? The wound did not seem serious.

“I can’t believe a grown-up boy like you can get hurt like this...” she said.

She looked down at his palm and then looked up at him.

Kim gently smiled, saying, “I’m okay...”

“Hey, you are not. Look at this blood coming out...”

She did not mean it. It was the kind of conversation that only the mother and the son could have. Looking at her son quietly, she brought a first-aid kit out of her living room.

She disinfected and bandaged his hand. Kim looked at his mother’s caring of him without any words. Suhyuk remained silent all along. He wanted to wrap a bandage only after checking the wound on his hand first, but could not do so. For the two seemed so happy and warm towards each other.

“Mom, Happy birthday to you.”

“You’re the best son!”

She wiped tears from her eyes.

Kim hugged her with his bandaged hand.

“Why are you crying on such a good day Mom? I have bought a lot of foods you like.”

“Let’s eat quickly before they get cold.”

At that moment, Dongsu was coming out of the bathroom.

“What’s all this...”

Dongsu’s eyes became round at the sight of scattered blood drops in the living room. Suhyuk hurriedly shut his mouth.

“Let’s go home...”

“What’s going on...”

Dongsu was quietly dragged out by Suhyuk.

—–

Sat.u.r.day pa.s.sed and Sunday came.

Opening his eyes in bed, Suhyuk went out into the living room.

The dishes on the table were covered with plates, and a note was placed next to it.

Suhyuk’s face made a little smile.

‘They told me they were going climbing today.’

They said they would go to a meet-up early in the morning.

Once a month, his mother and father would meet up with their neighbors to promote friends.h.i.+p.

Suhyuk ate the miso soup. Spicy and with a good taste. The miso soup tasted refres.h.i.+ng because there was clam in it as well.

“Thanks for the soup Mom.”

Suhyuk ate one bowl of rice quickly.

He finished cleaning the dishes and sat before the TV. With a remote control, he switched the channels freely.

When was the last time he had a break such as this?

He has had a very busy life since he went into the hospital practice. Observation of emergency surgeries and getting on a helicopter.

Besides, he was often called for by the professors.

Moreover, he was in the news because he caught a suspect who robbed a chain of empty houses. He had a scolding from his parents for that, though, with just the warning that he should not do it again. It was a really reckless act when he thought about it. Of course, at the time that did not come to his mind.

‘I should not drink hard liquor.’

It was the first time he lost his memory after drinking. Perhaps hard liquor was not his type of liquor.

Suhyuk, who stretched himself, enjoyed watching TV that he had not watched in a long while, and relaxed a lot.

And then he fell into a very sweet sleep.

***

“You know who caught the criminal?”

What was this sound? Suhyuk slowly opened his closed eyes.

At that moment, his surprised pupils expanded suddenly.

A s.p.a.ce of pure white that has nothing. A guy stood in the center.

Suhyuk rose from his seat suddenly. A guy who has the same face as himself, like a doppelganger. He slowly came toward him.

“Don’t play the good guy. Don’t be mean!”

Suhyuk opened his mouth, but his voice did not come out, as if someone was holding his neck. It was the same with his body.

He wanted to get away from the guy who was coming toward him with a flas.h.i.+ng scalpel, but his body would not move. Soon the guy approached right under his nose.

And he laughed, revealing his white teeth.

“Let’s meet outside, not just inside. We’re going to do so soon.”

A cold scalpel was raised.

“Let’s meet again soon.”

The scalpel he was holding fell to his neck.

Sheeeek!

Suhyuk hastily raised his body like a surprised person.

There was a creepy sound from the side. Suhyuk turned his head and sighed relievedly.

On the TV, the main character in the movie was wielding a sword.

He wiped the sweat on his forehead. Though, besides that, his whole body was wet with cold sweat.

The nightmare that he did not have for a while was back again.

Even after dreaming, the scene was still vivid in his mind.

“Huuh...”

Feeling a change in his mood after letting out a sigh, he went into the bathroom to take a shower. The cool water pouring from the shower washed the sticky sweat from his body neatly.

He felt his head reeling from the nightmare getting better.

After the shower, Suhyuk rubbed the mirror that had steamed up.

Then Suhyuk’s eyes were opened. Was the same person reflected in the mirror smiling from behind? He quickly turned his head.

“Hahh...”

There was nothing there behind him.

Suhyuk swept up his hair, which was dripping down with water.

‘Am I too tired these days?’

It’s possible.

He has been through a lot of things in a short time recently. And the nightmares.

Once again, Suhyuk washed his face with cold water and went out of the bathroom.

***

It was almost 5 PM. Suhyuk was looking out the window of the bus.

‘It’s been a long time.’ Yes, it was the first time he would see her alone in several years.

Suhyuk arrived at his destination while he was gazing at the scenery outside the window.

He saw her sitting at the bus stop when he got off the bus.

Hana was moving her feet as if she were drawing something on the ground.

He opened his mouth with a smile, “You arrived here early.”

He arrived 15 minutes earlier than the appointment, but she came here ahead of him.

“You’re late,” she said with a prim voice, and moved first.

Suhyuk laughed and followed her.

“This is the first time we’ve met alone together since we graduated from high school?”

“Is that so?”

Walking side by side with him, Hana recalled her memories.

No, it just popped up in her memory.

When she first went to see a movie with Suhyuk, she was having a bad feeling toward him.

She hated him so much, because, despite getting her father injured, he was just leading a normal life as if nothing happened. But now...

“Hana?” Suhyuk’s calling made her awake from that thought.

“Uuh? Why?”

“How is your body?”

“Yeah, it’s okay, that’s why I came out.”

“You are not overdoing yourself, are you?”

“I’m okay. Even if you don’t care, I’m taking care of my body by myself, okay?”

She took a glance at him with a sharp voice. Did she say that too harshly?

When their eyes were about to meet, Hana threw away her head quickly.

He was wearing a smile as if he did not care at all. ‘That smile of his is too bright.’

“What kind of movie shall we see?”

She frowned at his words.

“Didn’t you check the movie t.i.tles when you asked me out for a movie?”

Suhyuk scratched his head. Her father asked a favor of him, “just take her to the outside for fresh air, who was just discharged.” He also gave him some pocket money. Although Suhyuk declined it, he forcibly put the money in his pocket, so he could not refuse any more.

Actually he did not dislike it. Rather he liked it.

These days he felt like walking around here and there without having to do any thinking; eating snacks; and watching a movie. Of course, he did not have any such thoughts in front of the patients. Sometimes, when he saw people laughing and the lovers dating, he thought he would like to have a good time like that without any thought.

Suhyuk just came running only looking ahead. It was only natural that he had such thoughts.

“How about an action movie?” asked Suhyuk, scratching his head.

“Let’s go to the movie theater and decide”

***

As it was Sunday, the movie theater was crowded with people.

“I think that movie would be fun.”

He was pointing his fingers at a romantic comedy film.

She nodded heartily.

The movie time was perfect because they could just go in and watch it without having to wait.

He bought a two-seat ticket at the last minute with popcorn and a drink.

So they crossed by bending their backs into the dark movie theater.

At that moment, Hana’s feet stumbled over the stairs. Staggering.

Suhyuk took her hands.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh, uh,” she, surprised, quickly pulled her hand away.

“These are our seats.”

So, Hana took her seat right away, and Suhyuk sat next to her.

The movie started within a few moments, and from the start of the movie, befitting its genre as a romantic comedy, made the movie goers burst into a laughter.

It was the same for Suhyuk, and Hana too.

Every time a funny scene came out, Hana looked at him with a smile. It was quite different from her behavior when she watched movies with him during their high school days. Of course, Suhyuk was concentrating only on the screen as before. Back then and also now, Suhyuk did not know how to read her mind.

The movie made the people’s tears well up in their eyes.

And the movie finished with a happy ending. The lights turned on brightly, and Suhyuk was a little surprised. Hana was wiping tears from her eyes.

“Did you feel sad?”

“Nope. It’s so boring as to make me yawn.”

Suhyuk, shaking his head, came out of the movie theater with Hana.

“Should we have dinner?”

“I don’t feel like eating.”

“Let’s eat anyway.”

Suhyuk led Hana to a place where restaurants were crowded.

“What would you like?”

“I don’t feel like eating.”

“How about steamed chicken? You like spicy ones?”

“Okay, do as you like it.”

With a slight smile, he moved to a restaurant nearby.

At that moment, his gaze moved to the side. ‘Choi Suryon?’

He felt that he mistook the person, so he looked again closely. Yeah, it was her.

She was walking with a man, holding his arms, and she kept smiling on her face.

‘Is he her boyfriend?’ The shape of the man was kind of familiar to him.

But he did not remember where he saw the man. Did he mistake the man for somebody else?

Even though one sees a certain person for the first time, sometimes that person looks a little familiar and oftentimes feels like deja vu.

‘Looks like he got hurt when he was a kid...’

He saw a wound on the man’s neck. Obviously It was a surgical scar.

“What are you doing?”

At Hana’s voice, Suhyuk turned back and smiled,

“Nothing. Let’s go in.”