Chapter 58

Haji, who got into the car, looked at Seojin while tightly holding the photo in her hand.

“Now tell me.”

“Alright.”

Seojin started the engine and met Haji’s eyes. He let out a small sigh as he looked at her clear eyes filled with tears.

“The first time I met you wasn’t when we were high school students.”

As Seojin’s story began, various emotions like surprise, confusion, and sadness crossed Haji’s face.

Even while driving, Seojin spoke about their first meeting without hesitation, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“When your parents were found by my parents, it was already too late. They performed CPR without stopping until the ambulance arrived, but they couldn’t save them.”

The fact that it was Seojin’s family who first discovered her deceased parents and that it was Seojin’s parents who tried to save them.

“My family accompanied you to the hospital and stayed with you until you met your aunt.”

Haji was surprised to learn that she had been with them for a few days. She had no memory of that time at all.

“I…”

“I know. You don’t remember that time.”

“I didn’t know. That someone was with me…”

“That day must have been a shock to you. It would be dissociative amnesia.”

Haji nodded slightly. It was something she had suspected herself.

No matter how much she tried to recall, she couldn’t remember the events of that day. She didn’t have anyone to ask, nor did she have the luxury to visit a psychiatric hospital.

“Were my parents…”

“Your mother and father were from an orphanage. So the only relative was your father’s older sister, who grew up with him in the orphanage.”

It was the aunt who raised her. She didn’t want a funeral, so they were cremated right away.

“I see…”

Haji murmured softly.

She thought of the aunt who raised her until she turned 20. She realized her aunt probably didn’t have the means to hold a funeral.

Seeing Haji looking down at the photo, Seojin’s grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“The photo.”

When Seojin brought it up, Haji looked up. She was curious about the source of the photo she was holding.

“It’s Seonghee’s work. I said she came up later than me that day, right?”

“Yes, but…?”

How could it be Seonghee?

“Seonghee always coveted my father’s camera. To climb the mountain that day, my father entrusted it to Seonghee.”

It was a coincidence. While Seonghee was pressing the camera shutter here and there, Haji’s family was captured.

As Seonghee was nearly at the top of the mountain, carried by her father, Haji was being carried down by her dad. Everything aligned by chance.

“How could that be…”

Possible?

Haji asked softly while looking at the photo. She couldn’t believe such a coincidence.

“It must be fate. A certain fate that you and I would meet again.”

If she had heard it before, she might have been embarrassed by Seojin’s words, but Haji agreed slightly.

If not, how could this be possible?

“No one knew I had that photo.”

“Why?”

“I was the first to see the developed photo, and I’ve kept it ever since.”

Haji looked at the photo in her hand once, and then at Seojin’s profile as he drove.

After hesitating for a moment, she parted her lips.

“Did you know we would meet again?”

She knew it was a silly question, but he seemed like he would answer.

“Yes.”

As expected.

“I knew. I didn’t expect Seonghee to meet you first, though.”

“How can you be so sure?”

About our meeting.

How can this man be so certain?

“Because I couldn’t forget. I planned to find you once I became an adult.”

“How did you know where I would be…?”

Unless they stayed in touch, how did he plan to find her?

“As long as we were in the same city of Seoul, and I knew your name, it wouldn’t be impossible to find you. That’s what I thought.”

“What?”

“You.”

Seojin’s car stopped, and he turned his head towards Haji.

“You were right. We were in the same Seoul, and knowing your name, I found you.”

At first sight.

“Oh…”

“I’m glad we met sooner than expected.”

Seojin unbuckled his seatbelt and turned his body. He then unbuckled Haji’s seatbelt and met her eyes.

“I hope you leave the past in the past. Even if it’s my selfish wish, I hope you do.”

“What do you mean…?”

Before she could finish saying she didn’t understand, his fingertips brushed her eyes.

“It means let’s not let the past make the present you suffer.”

“…”

“It’s okay. You just stay still. I’ll make it that way.”

Hearing his confident words, she wanted to believe him. She felt like this man would make it happen.

She wanted to lean on him.

“Let’s go.”

Seojin took Haji’s hand.

It was now the moment to take a step away from the past.

***

The opening ceremony of the youth housing complex began. In the unfamiliar environment, Haji sat in a chair and looked around.

A moment later, she saw Seonghee coming hurriedly. She had contacted her after remembering late.

“What is this all about?”

“Seojin oppa built it…”

Haji couldn’t answer Seonghee’s question accurately. She didn’t know well herself…

After learning that it was Seonghee who took the photo with her parents, seeing Seonghee made her feel strange. She felt grateful and touched.

When Haji held Seonghee’s hand tightly, Seonghee smiled and held hers back.

“Oh, is this the place? It’s already hot overseas.”

“…Did you know?”

“Yeah, I met Emily in the U.S. recently.”

Emily’s main stage was overseas, and she said the promotional video for the youth housing complex was spreading there. That’s how she happened to meet Seonghee while working.

“I see…”

When Haji nodded, Seonghee tapped her arm.

“Do you not remember Emily?”

“Huh?”

Seonghee furrowed her brows as if it was strange.

“We went to the same high school. You were probably in the student council with her.”

“…Huh? I don’t think I’ve seen her.”

“That can’t be. Think carefully. There was only one foreigner at school back then.”

“Foreigner…?”

Oh, could it be?

“Lee Juyeon unnie?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Her Korean name is Lee Juyeon, and Emily is that unnie.”

“I didn’t know.”

She really hadn’t thought of it. She didn’t expect them to be the same person.

“Emily did lose a lot of weight. She worked really hard after being dumped by oppa.”

“Dumped…?”

“On graduation day. That’s what I heard.”

Seonghee shrugged her shoulders, as if she was recounting what she had heard.

“Emily said oppa seemed to have someone he liked.”

“…”

“I never imagined it was you.”

Seonghee tapped Haji’s hand with a playful expression and smiled brightly.

“You knew…?”

“I wasn’t sure, just a little? Even if I’m not as smart as oppa, I have a quick sense.”

I see.

Without realizing it, Seojin might have been showing his feelings for her more than she knew.

“More than anything, I couldn’t help but know that day.”

“That day?”

“The day you became independent.”

Oh.

Haji opened her mouth slightly.

It was an unforgettable day. Even now, when she thought of that day, she could almost smell the scent from back then.

“Hasn’t oppa told you yet? Anyway, he keeps all the secrets to himself.”

Seonghee shook her head slightly, as if scolding Seojin.

“Oppa found you before I did that day.”

“He found me?”

Seonghee nodded. She still couldn’t forget seeing Seojin run out ahead of her, following Haji.

It was the first time she had seen such an expression on her brother’s face.

“When he heard you left the house, he ran out. That day, oppa was with you until you stood in front of the Gosiwon.”

(Gosiwon = a type of small, affordable housing in Korea)

“I didn’t know…”

She had no idea. She never thought someone would be with her.

Back then, she thought she was alone.

Feeling abandoned by the world, she walked precariously on the cold ground with a chilly heart.

“You wouldn’t have known. Oppa didn’t talk to you, he just followed.”

“Why did he do that…?”

What was he thinking when he followed me?

“Well… I don’t know Seojin’s heart very well either, but a lot changed after that day.”

Seonghee continued, looking at the stage where the opening ceremony was starting. As if thinking that Seojin, who would be somewhere, was watching this place.

“He quit medical school, went to the military, studied abroad, and now he’s built houses like this. As if it was all planned in advance.”

From that day until now.

Who was all this for?