PHUW 31

“I do not know. Other than me and Mr Park, the workers keep changing. If Mr Park does not know, there is no way to tell who moved them. It is not my job to clean.”

The man who had repeated what they had already heard left to get back to work. Haeri had not really expected to find anything a whole week later, but he still felt a little let down.

“Forget it. Let’s stop thinking about it.”

He scrubbed at his curly hair and, without thinking, brushed the gauze on the back of his head. A sharp sting made his vision go dark for a moment before it cleared again.

“Haeri.”

Jeong Mok called from across the way, and Haeri walked over.

“What were you doing?”

“Just looking around.”

“Yeah? I am done here, so let’s go.”

As Jeong Mok turned to leave with him, the foreman standing nearby laughed.

“Well now, this is the first time I have seen Director Jeong act so soft. Must be a very precious little brother.”

Jeong Mok ignored him completely. Haeri wondered what he disliked about the foreman. Was it because he was bad at his job? But whenever Jeong Mok pointed something out, the fixes were made right away. Maybe Haeri just did not know enough to tell.

As soon as they were in the car, Jeong Mok drove straight out of the site.

“Do you not get along with the foreman?”

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“It looked like it.”

“I do not think we are on bad terms.”

It was a strange answer. They had just reached the intersection when the loud standard ringtone played through the car’s speakers.

“Damn.”

Jeong Mok pressed a button on the steering wheel to hang up, but when the ringtone came again, he answered this time.

–Hello.

It was a woman’s voice.

“I am driving. I will call you later.”

His tone was as cold as when he had spoken to the foreman earlier, and he hung up without waiting for a reply. Even though Haeri had nothing to do with it, he felt embarrassed just sitting there.

“Haeri, how about we get something cold to drink at a cafe?”

The icy wind from a moment ago vanished and was replaced by warm spring air. The change in tone was so extreme that Haeri forgot what he had been thinking about.

“You remember I said there is a cafe street up ahead. Do you want to stop there?”

Haeri answered a beat late that they should. The car, which had paused waiting for his answer, moved forward again.

What is with him? Is this some kind of split personality?

He had claimed he was not on bad terms with the foreman, but his attitude had been cold. He had cut off what seemed to be a female acquaintance without a second thought. At the bank, he had been curt, and at the outlet, he had treated a friendly store clerk in a stiff manner. Judging by the foreman’s remark about how unusually warm he was toward his younger brother, his usual nature seemed to be cold.

Haeri had not known him for long, but from what he had seen and heard so far, Jeong Mok was the kind of man who was equally stern with men and women, young or old, yet was unexpectedly gentle and soft-spoken with him, enough to make others wonder. No wonder someone had mistaken him for a father.

‘He must really be doing his best to take care of me.’

If he had noticed this side of him that morning, he would have been completely swayed toward suspecting him of “that” sort of interest. But knowing the circumstances, a different thought came first.

If he treats someone who only resembles her this well, how much better must he have treated his late girlfriend. He blamed himself for not being by her side at the end, but if someone this devoted had been there, she would not have been able to die even if she had wanted to. She must have chosen to go when he was not around.

Haeri could feel the weight of her decision, and he wondered how much deeper Jeong Mok’s grief must be at losing someone he had loved so much to tragedy. For someone with a damaged head and lost memories like him, it was too much to fully grasp. He watched silently as Jeong Mok focused on driving.

***

“This is quite a place.”

As he stepped out into the open lot in front of the cafe, Haeri looked around. The cafe sat halfway up a low mountain. Unlike other buildings, the land across the road was farmland, leaving the view wide open. The basin stretched all the way to the base of the low hills, winding like a great earth dragon. It was no vast wilderness, but for someone used to keeping his eyes fixed thirty centimetres away at a palm-sized screen, the sight was dazzling.

The cafe, built with a vague touch of European style, was crowded with couples and families out for a day trip. As soon as Jeong Mok walked in, people who had been chatting turned their heads as if on cue. A man sitting with his back to them twisted around to look when his companions reacted with surprise.

“Is he a celebrity?”

The middle-aged man’s voice was loud enough to stir the rest, and soon others chimed in.

“A celebrity?”

“Who is he?”

“I do not know.”

Someone even raised a phone to take a picture without knowing who he was.

Jeong Mok stopped before reaching the counter beside the entrance. With his tall frame and the cafe’s high ceiling, he had an unobstructed view, and a faint crease formed between his brows. Haeri, who had not even taken out his phone, felt his own stomach tighten.

“Please do not take pictures. He is not a celebrity. He is just an ordinary person.”

The words left his mouth before he thought, and table he even waved his hand at a nearby.

A large hand rested on his shoulder.

“It is fine.”

“It is not fine. Taking photos of ordinary people without permission is illegal.”

He said it loudly enough for everyone to hear. The more aware patrons pulled their less considerate companions back, and the phone lenses disappeared.

“Thank you. Enjoy your time.”

To smooth over the awkward atmosphere, Haeri added a polite farewell. Once the small commotion ended, people returned to their own conversations.

“You.”

Jeong Mok looked down at Haeri with a slightly strange expression. For a moment Haeri thought he might be angry for speaking out of turn, but the irritation that had been between his brows disappeared.

“You.”

“Yes?”

“Nothing.”

The hand that had been resting on Haeri’s shoulder moved up toward the side of his head, lightly brushing hid unruly curls. The long fingers withdrew as if he had been about to pat him but stopped midway, grazing the edge of his ear as they pulled back.

It felt like static electricity zapped him. Haeri flinched at the sudden jolt, but Jeong Mok turned away as if nothing had happened.

“I will order.”

Haeri watched his broad back and lifted his hand to rub at his ear.

‘Static? But it is not even the season for static.’

The sting soon turned into a ticklish feeling. He rubbed at his ear more firmly.

While Jeong Mok ordered an Americano with an extra shot, he looked over at him. Haeri wanted to share the guilty pleasure of a sugary drink but he recalled Jeong Mok’s earlier irritation, Haeri played it safe and ordered a lime mint sparkling.

“And a yogurt ice cream and sweet potato mousse cake, please.”

Was that for himself?

“Then I will have a tiramisu.”

Surely he would not object to Haeri trying to get at least a little caffeine. It must have worked, because he added the tiramisu and canceled the sweet potato mousse cake.

“Weren’t you going to have the sweet potato cake? If you were going to cancel it, you could have just not ordered the tiramisu.”

“I ordered it for you, so it is fine.”

“For me?”

“Yeah.”

The sweet potato mousse cake? Then maybe the yogurt ice cream too?

He hesitated to ask, but the clerk had already finished the payment and handed over the card and a pager.

“Did you find him?”

“Sorry?”

Sliding his card back into his wallet, Jeong Mok looked at the clerk.

“You brought in a flyer last week, right? Wasn’t that you?”

The cheerful staff member glanced between them. For such a popular cafe, it was surprising they remembered customers from the previous week, but someone like Jeong Mok would be hard to forget. Haeri, however, had no idea what flyer they were talking about.

“Yes.”

Jeong Mok nodded, he took the pager, and led Haeri to a seat in the far corner. The terrace with the nice view was full of the same people who had made a fuss earlier, so Haeri preferred being inside anyway. Even here, large windows offered a close view of the surrounding forest and a refreshing scene.

“What was that about a flyer?”

He asked as soon as they sat down.

“When you were in the hospital, I wondered if you might have come with someone. People usually do not come to places like this alone.”

The cafe they were in now, as well as the construction site where the accident happened, were all businesses catering to campers and cafe-goers. For a campsite, it was an expensive, well-developed area, so solo campers were rare. Seeing how well-dressed Haeri had been for someone supposedly alone, Jeong Mok had assumed he had company and made a simple flyer to ask around.

“Your face wasn’t clearly visible, but someone might recognize your clothes. I left my contact info and used a still from the dashcam footage to make it.”

He showed Haeri the image on his phone. It was of him lying limp on a stretcher being pushed by a paramedic. The blurry dashcam capture made him look dead, and it made Haeri feel Ahn Haeri little uncomfortable.

“I guess no one recognized me.”

“I checked everywhere nearby. Since some students come here by bus, I went to the bus company and asked them to review all the bus CCTV, but you weren’t on any of them. I contacted taxi companies too, but for private taxis the search range is too limited. Sorry.”

His explanation ended with an unexpected apology. Haeri looked up from the phone.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I could not find anyone who knew you. It would have been better if I had.”

“You did more than enough. Even the police did not do this much.”

By comparison, the detective had only taken the fingerprints the hospital had sent and delayed checking his identity simply because it was not urgent. These days the system was efficient enough to get results quickly with minimal effort.

Even without finding anything concrete, Jeong Mok’s effort and legwork shone far brighter.