Mokheon suffered another heart attack.
And this time, he didn’t survive.
By the time anyone knew, he had already gone cold.
Beom returned to the house from the shrine with bare feet. He didn’t know how he got there in the first place.
When he entered the house, there were cries and screams filled in the hallways.
The servants and househelpers were running around with teary eyes.
There were white clothes getting spread on the floor as he neared his Mokheon’s room.
Noruen was sniffling and weeping while Sarang was shaking with fear and dread.
Tears rolled down her eyes effortlessly and grief was clearly visible.
Yoon Beom lacked all of it.
As he enter the room, meeting the gaze of his sister and grandmother, he saw his dead grandfather on the floor.
Sounds were starting to get muffled out as he once again walked into another death.
This time too, his sister’s tears were enough for both of them as not a single drop fell from his eyes.
He stood there in the doorway for a long long while, just staring and looking at Mokheon’s dead body.
Not a single word escaped him.
"Beom! Yoon Beom! Say something, goddammit!!!" He could hear Sarang’s distant voice asking him to speak but ... that was all.
And suddenly, he was back there again.
A funeral room.
This time, Mokheon’s picture was on the altar instead of his father’s.
And this time too, he was the chief mourner. Noruen and Sarang were in no condition to greet people.
Beom quietly sat there, as if trapped in a nightmare. He had hardly come out of the last one.
Given his sound physical state and calm behaviour, many people misunderstood him for a cold and mature child.
But the truth couldn’t be any more different.
Nobody hated funerals more than Yoon Beom.
He wanted to run away more than anyone.
The dead was dead and gone, and funerals felt like punishments that the living must suffer for daring to love the dead.
I hope someone saves me from this... please... just this once...
His heart was uneasy and weak.
He desperately prayed for a saviour.
And suddenly, a name came to his mind.
Jang Songrik.
Beom stepped out for a bit and called on Songrik’s number.
One ring.
Two rings.
Three rings.
Four rings.
Five...
Six...
Sev...
...
...
...
Nobody picked up the phone.
Three days had passed since they last saw each other that night.
Beom was absent from school ever since.
Yet...
Not a single message or phone call came for him.
Not even from the one person he wanted it to come from.
Of course it didn’t.
Jang Songrik didn’t care about him.
He didn’t need to worry about him.
It broke Beom’s heart that how well he knew it and still hoped that Songrik might pick up once if he called again and again.
And so he did.
Again and again and again and again and again and again and again he called.
In desperation for a little bit of escape from this suffocating reality.
His salvation never arrived and the phone was never picked.
Yoon Beom finally stopped when his phone battery died.
He felt as if everything had stopped.
The air, sound and life.
Everything.
But he still had to do what he had to do.
No tears came this time too.
His ’love’ had also just died.
Maybe he wanted to get ’this’ funeral over with too.
He walked back into the funeral home and sat in his place as the chief mourner.
People came and went. He greeted them and payed his respects. Days passed and nights passed.
The funeral was finally over.
Yoon Beom came back home with Noruen and Sarang.
It felt weird and strange to come back to that house without Mokheon.
It was like the life was sucked out of that house.
Beom couldn’t bring himself to go inside Mokheon’s room.
It was too sad and painful.
Beom and Sarang had to return to school the next day.
And both of them dreaded and wanted it at the same time.
The dreaded leaving Noruen alone and wanted to escape themselves.
The next morning, the two of them walked together to school in silence.
"I miss him," Sarang said, at length. "He always made us pray before leaving for school. It felt awful praying today without him."
"..."
"I’m not praying from tomorrow."
"..."
"Say something, Yoon Beom! You were the closest one to him! You’ve not shed a single tear! You cold bastard!"
"..."
"Ha! Who am I kidding? This is your problem! You think taking it all in would get you through it. You were just the same when dad died too."
"..."
"Fuck."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I hate you."
"..."
Sarang walked ahead with Beom as he slowly trudged to school.
He ran up to Sarang suddenly.
"Yoon Sarang!" He called and she turned around furiously. "Your lunchbox is with me."
He handed her the lunchbox and kept walking.
"Damn you! Would it kill you to just hug me?!" Yoon Sarang yelled at him before hugging him from the back.
Beom dragged her like that all the way to school.
They quietly separated on their way to their respective classes.
Beom stood in front of the door for a while.
How was he going to face Jang Songrik?
How should he react?
What if he asks him to kiss again?
Beom wasn’t confident that he could refuse him.
What if he was in some precarious situation himself?
After all, he did get injured last time Beom was absent.
What if there was another rose on his desk?
He was too afraid of all this to enter.
Another student came and slid open the door and entered.
Beom saw his seat. It was empty.
So was the one beside him.
Jang Songrik always arrived earlier than Beom.
Is he absent today?
Another student came from behind him to enter.
"Oh," the student said looking at him. "You’re back?"
"Ah.. yes!" Beom answered in a panic. Nobody had ever casually talked to him before.
"I heard about your grandfather, I’m sorry," the student said.
He saw Beom looking at his seat and said.
"Oh! You were absent so you wouldn’t know. Jang Songrik went back abroad."
Beom nodded and quietly sat down on his seat alone.
The one beside him was empty.
He didn’t know how to react.
And also there was no rose on his table.
Somebody had forgotten a flower.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter