PHUW 49

“Bad habits need to be fixed. From now on, he won’t be allowed on the sofa.”

Haeri scolded Gom again while scrubbing the sofa with a towel.

“If you leave it, it’ll dry. Why bother wiping it.”

“But it’ll get damaged.”

“If it gets more damaged, we can throw it out. It’s old anyway.”

Jeong Mok said it offhandedly. At that, Haeri wrapped his arms around the sofa.

“No. We absolutely can’t throw it out. It can still be used for a long time. Why throw it away?”

Jeong Mok stared at him blankly, as if puzzled. Haeri reminded himself not to fall for that face, not to step into the trap on his own.

“Uh, right.”
Jeong Mok answered a little awkwardly.

“What about the wet clothes? I’m about to run the washer.”

“Here.”

Haeri got up and brought the bundle of clothes from his room.

Jeong Mok carried them to the laundry room next to the kitchen. When he tossed them into the front-loading washer, the crumpled bundle loosened as it landed on top of the wet towels already inside. Something small rolled and stopped on top of a pair of black underwear shoved in the corner.

Bigger than a handkerchief but much smaller than shorts, it was a pair of men’s boxer briefs. Light gray and made of thin fabric, they stood out against the black sports briefs made of sturdy material. It was nothing remarkable, yet strangely caught the eye.

‘…….’

Jeong Mok shut the washer door with a casual motion and turned it on. The latest model machine began to spin. The two pairs of underwear, simply stacked before, tangled together and then got pulled deep into the towels. Just as he thought they had separated, they shot back out between the towels, now fully knotted together, swirling around the drum. Almost as if it were some kind of metaphor.

He started feeling more and more unsettled. And the fact that he was feeling unsettled was itself irritating.

‘Metaphor from underwear? What am I, a pervert.’

Jeong Mok frowned and left the laundry room. Even so, he made up his mind that from next time on, underwear should be washed separately.

The living room had gone quiet. The two were already asleep. Gom, still damp to the tips of his fur, was curled up. Haeri, his hair also still wet, was sprawled flat.

All that lay under them was a thin carpet. Gom was one thing, but Haeri, still a patient in treatment, could end up with muscle pain turning into body aches if left like that.

Jeong Mok headed toward his room. Standing before the wide molding between the doors, he pressed along the edge.

Click.

The inner lock released and a hidden door opened. Inside was a staircase leading upstairs.

After the Chairwoman’s staff had stormed in under orders, all of Song-i’s belongings were placed upstairs and left untouched. That was partly because of the professor’s earnest persuasion, but mostly thanks to Choi Jieon’s furious outburst.

‘If you let yourself rot into a wreck and die like this, do you think Song-i would come greet you? Song-i, who cares so much about appearances, wouldn’t even let you near if you showed up in that state.’

She had shoved a mirror in his face then. His saw the reflection of a filthy, foul-smelling man.

‘How could this possibly be Song-i’s oppa. If I were Song-i, I’d already have moved on to some better-looking ghost.’

It was absurd, but not wrong. Song-i had been strict about appearances, especially in men. If someone was even a little unattractive, she wouldn’t give them the time of day. If they tried to approach, she would bare her teeth and snarl. Maybe it was because the grade schooler who bullied her as a child had been conspicuously ugly.

For the sake of his looks, Jeong Mok had eaten well, exercised, and forced himself to rest enough to recover his appearance. Slowly, his strength had returned. The shock of Song-i’s death had also gradually lightened. After a year, the urge to die was mostly gone. He even resumed the construction project he had abandoned when Song-i passed. During all that time, he had never stepped foot upstairs. He feared finding Song-i’s traces and collapsing again.

At the top of the wooden stairs was a large upstairs living room.

The first time he had opened the hidden door to get the clippers earlier, it had taken some preparation. He even thought about just buying a new pair. But he couldn’t leave an unfamiliar dog alone with a beginner for too long. He had climbed step by step, suppressing faint tension. The dry air carried no trace of Song-i’s scent. That made him both sad and relieved.

By the sunny upstairs window were several large storage boxes with faded cushions stacked beside them.

When he pulled the clippers out of one dusty box earlier, he had felt a pang deep in his chest. But it hadn’t overwhelmed him the way he feared. He didn’t stumble, didn’t break down, and didn’t cry.

He still missed her terribly. If it were possible to bring her back, he would have done anything. But the crushing grief and despair had softened. Time as medicine, an old prescription, had proven true even now. He felt guilty realizing that even Song-i’s traces within him had grown lighter.

Beside the boxes was a large air mattress bag, bought for Song-i who had always treated the carpet as if it were the bare floor. The hot-water mattress should be somewhere too. He pulled down the stacked boxes one by one, searching for the one with the hot-water mat.

When he lifted out the mat and the small boiler, something leaning against the inner wall of the box toppled to the floor.

It was a solid wood frame picture.

His heart sank to his stomach.

Inside the square wooden frame was Song-i, looking up at the one who took the picture. It had been taken in the yard on a sunny spring day, back when they first came to this house. It was also the rare day when Song-i, who was usually prim, had smiled brightly.

Jeong Mok dropped the mat he had been holding. Dust on the floor rose like the soul of something ascending.

He lifted the frame and carefully brushed it off. The smooth glass surface was colder than he expected. There was no scent, no sound. Only Song-i, frozen in that happy spring day, smiling at him from inside.

He had thought sorrow had gone away with her. He had been mistaken. How could he ever forget. His beloved child, always lodged in one corner of his heart.

Instead of despair, a tender longing burned behind his eyes.

“Song-i.”

Just as he softly called her name.

“Woof!”

A bright bark came from behind.

Startled, Jeong Mok turned around. From the darker side of the stairs came the distinct sound of a dog’s paws. His heart dropped.

‘No way?’

Impossible. Absolutely impossible. But when light brown curls suddenly appeared, for a moment he thought the unthinkable had really happened.

But the swelling rush of emotion, whether hope or dread, scattered in an instant when he saw the pale face beneath the curls. The owner of the brown curls was Haeri.

“So this is what the second floor looks like.”

Haeri looked around curiously as he climbed the stairs, with Gom following behind him.

“Ah.”

Jeong Mok let out another breath. The sudden swing of emotions made his head spin.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“I just closed my eyes for a bit. The second floor’s really big too. But why is it so dusty.”

Haeri flapped his hand to scatter the dust and shuddered. The sight was just like some prim young lady who couldn’t stand mess. Jeong Mok unconsciously smiled.

Gom, who had come up after, sniffed along the upstairs floor and let out a huge sneeze. His big body shook and his claws scratched against the floor each time.

Jeong Mok opened the window that had been shut for a long time. Fresh air flowed in.

“It’s because no one’s used it in a long time. Why did you come up. I’ll be going down soon.”

“I was curious. I didn’t know there was a door.”

While sniffing around, Gom wandered over to the storage boxes. His thick nose touched the hot-water mat Jeong Mok had just set down. After sniffing seriously, he suddenly flopped onto the mat and rolled around.

“Hey, what are you doing.”

Haeri scolded him. Startled by the shout, Gom got up, but this time grabbed the mat in his mouth and shook his head.

“Hey! If you do that, it’ll break!”

Haeri, shocked, smacked Gom’s rump. Then he tried to pull the mat from his mouth.

“If you yank it like that, it’ll tear more.”

“Damn it. Why is he causing so much trouble today?”

Even as Jeong Mok told him to stop, Haeri, unable to hide his frustration, managed to pull the mat out of Gom’s mouth. Luckily Gom hadn’t bitten hard, so it wasn’t torn.

“I’m sorry. First the sofa, now this. I really need to train him.”

“It’s fine. It’s old. He must have just liked it.”

Jeong Mok truly was unfazed. It was an item with memories, but rather than stay buried in dust and forgotten, it was better passed on to another dog.

Even after having the mat taken away, Gom didn’t give up, watching for another chance. Haeri rolled up the mat and hugged it, and Gom stood on his hind legs trying to snatch it back.

“Hey! Do you really want to get scolded!”

Haeri shouted, but Gom didn’t listen at all. To him, Haeri might have been someone he liked, but not an authority figure.

“Where’s the tug toy.”

Already worried about his habit of biting, Jeong Mok rummaged through the boxes and pulled out a tug rope. He had bought a new one after throwing the old one away, but by then Song-i had been too old to play rough, only carrying it around, so it was still like new.

When Jeong Mok swung the large-dog tug toy around, Gom’s eyes lit up and he rushed over. He bit down on one end and yanked with such strength that Jeong Mok almost got pulled along.

“He’s strong, must be because he’s male.”

He let himself be pulled and then tugged it back. Gom wagged his rump happily, biting and releasing and biting the rope again. He was in heaven.

Haeri, on the other hand, grimaced and complained.

“Ugh… it’s too dusty. Can’t we do this downstairs?”

Catching the moment Gom loosened his bite, Jeong Mok flung the toy toward the stairs. Gom dashed after it. Meanwhile, Jeong Mok stacked the air mat and the hot-water mat onto the toy box and stood up.

“Let’s go down.”

As the two of them descended, the new owner of the upstairs toy clattered around the first floor, running with the tug toy in his mouth.