1.
There was a man playing guitar in the park as he looked up at the night sky.
There were not all that many people watching his performance, but the man did not mind.
He simply played.
When the performance ended, he watched the people as they left.
Seeing them go, the man also began preparing to leave.
After putting away his guitar and standing up, he looked at the girl who was watching him from a short distance away.
She was a female student with a snake’s tail.
‘A snake beastkin?’
As she stood there silently watching him, he stared back in curiosity, and their eyes met.
The female student with the snake’s tail hurriedly ran away.
The man quietly watched her go, then shouldered his bag and set off.
2.
He played in the park.
It was not as though he had any particular purpose.
No, it was not that he had no purpose at all.
The man’s name was Park Taeyeon.
Just an ordinary guitarist who played the guitar—that was how he described himself.
He turned on the lights in his dark house, lay down on the sofa, and stared up at the ceiling.
Everyone possessed an ability.
The kind of thing commonly called magic.
Park Taeyeon had the ability to heal people through his performances.
It was not an ability that stood out greatly, but it certainly had an effect.
Taeyeon thought about how he might make use of that ability somehow.
Though all that amounted to was playing in the park.
“…”
Lying on the sofa, what Taeyeon looked at was his cellphone.
He stared for a moment at the phone, which had received quite a few notifications, then let it go from his hand.
Listening to the sound of the phone falling to the floor, Taeyeon closed his eyes.
People would stop and watch his performance for a while, but they did not take that much interest.
Most listened briefly to the performance of a guitarist who was not particularly famous, then left as they were, though there were some who listened until the end.
So that they, so that the heavy things in their hearts, might disappear—he was playing only for that.
He slowly pictured the people who had listened to his performances like that.
And among the people he pictured, there was always the female student who had been in that place.
The female student he had met eyes with today as well.
It was the first time he had realized she was a snake beastkin, but she was a face he had known because she had shown herself before.
They had never spoken, but he knew that she always listened to his performances happily.
“…She was probably about high school age.”
The girl looked as if she was probably around high school age.
Taeyeon thought for a moment.
About what point in time it was now.
Taeyeon’s gaze turned toward the picture frame lying face down on the floor.
“…”
3.
At some point, there had been a person playing guitar in the park.
Jeong Yuna always listened to the performances in that park.
“Did something happen?”
“No?”
When her friend asked her at school, Yuna shook her head and answered.
It was not that nothing had happened.
It was simply that she was embarrassed.
Yuna had been listening to the performance in the park.
And she had always watched until the very end.
Yesterday had been the same.
She had stayed in the park until the very end, then their eyes had happened to meet, and she had run away out of embarrassment. That was all.
“…Phew.”
“It really seems like something happened, though?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
Shaking her head, Yuna looked out the window.
The sky was blue.
4.
Taeyeon went grocery shopping.
He bought what he needed, paid, carried the basket home, and put everything away.
He cleaned and looked around the house.
It was quiet.
It was always quiet.
After looking at it, Taeyeon left the house.
He went to the park where he always performed, sat on a bench, and looked up at the sky.
After gazing at the blue sky, he looked at the person in front of him.
“Ah, hello.”
“Ah, are you performing again today?”
“Yes, I’m planning to do it tonight.”
“Thanks to you, young man, the park has more life in it.
And after listening to your performance, people say they feel full of energy.
I’ve been hearing things like that from time to time.”
“I’m glad.
Honestly, I didn’t know if it would work, but if you say so, sir, then I suppose it must be certain.”
The park caretaker looked at Taeyeon with a smile.
One day, when Taeyeon had asked whether it would be all right for him to perform in the park, the caretaker had answered with a smile.
Starting with the caretaker’s permission, he had been playing in the park.
Because while he was performing, he could empty his mind.
Because it was not good for him to think right now.
“…”
“It seems you have something on your mind.”
“Something… I’ve always had things on my mind.
I’m always thinking about what to do with them, too.”
“It must be difficult for someone else to easily solve a person’s worries.
And I’m not exactly gifted in that sort of thing myself.”
“No, just saying that is enough.
I’m always grateful to you.”
The caretaker smiled and handed him a drink.
It was a drink he had bought from the vending machine nearby.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll look forward to tonight’s performance as well.”
“Yes.”
5.
He closed his eyes.
When he closed his eyes, what he saw was a missed call.
Taeyeon thought.
He thought about what might have happened if he had answered the call.
If it had been a situation that could have changed through his choice, through his actions, then what should he have done?
“…”
He knew it was meaningless to think about that now, and yet he could not help it.
Taeyeon shook his head and looked ahead.
In the same park as always, he played the same guitar as always.
The number of people always increased and dwindled in turn.
There were people who looked forward to the performance, and there were people who were simply resting in the park, unrelated to the performance.
Taeyeon quietly began to play.
The same performance as always.
When it ended, Taeyeon let out a sigh.
And today as well, Taeyeon saw the female student.
6.
From far away, he simply looked like a person playing with all his might.
If one went a little closer, it became clear that he was always thinking about something.
If one went even closer, one could tell that his eyes were dark.
“…”
Yuna always watched his performances from a bench.
She watched the person playing guitar with the same expression as always, in much the same way as always.
There was something she could understand from watching him.
She could not tell what he was thinking about, but she could tell that he was thinking about something.
It was not there while he was playing guitar, but she could see that expression before the performance began and after it ended.
She always saw it.
“…Here.”
On a day like any other, when the performance had ended, there was a canned coffee in Yuna’s hand.
A canned coffee she had bought from a nearby vending machine.
He quietly looked at the coffee Yuna was holding.
“Ah, thank you.”
He accepted the coffee with thanks.
Yuna looked at him.
A person who always performed in the park.
A person who did not receive anything special, but who still continued to play the guitar in the park.
“Do you like playing the guitar?”
“Playing? Yes, I do.
If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be doing this.”
The man said that as he touched the guitar.
It was not something he said happily, but words that seemed to be carrying something within them.
Yuna was looking at him like that.
“You’ve always been listening to my performances.
Were they all right?”
“Yes, they were always good.
It felt like my heart was being healed… Anyway, that’s how it felt.”
“That’s a relief.
But isn’t it dangerous to be in the park until this hour?”
“It’s fine.
My parents know too, and I’m strong because I’m a snake beastkin.”
“I see.”
She watched him speak with a smile.
He was smiling, but this was not a smile.
Yuna could tell.
It was as if he was enduring something painful deep inside.
“You’re always performing here, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“My name is Jeong Yuna!
I’m always enjoying your performances!”
Though she thought it was embarrassing, she spoke loudly.
The man looked at Yuna and smiled.
This time, he was truly smiling.
Knowing that it was because of her actions, Yuna felt complicated.
“My name is Park Taeyeon.
It was nice meeting you.
And I look forward to seeing you from now on.”
7.
Lying on her bed, she touched her tail and thought.
She thought about whether she had finished things well.
She could not really tell, but she thought it had been all right.
Yuna looked up at the ceiling above her bed.
“…It was okay, right?”
Beastkin were not seen that often.
Snake beastkin even less so.
Yuna looked at herself reflected in the mirror.
It was the figure of a girl touching a black tail.
Now, it was a sight she was very used to.
In the past, it had been a sight she had tried to grow used to.
Further in the past, it had been a sight she had glared at, wondering who it was.
Yuna closed her eyes.
Letting out a small sigh, she sat on the edge of the bed.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
When her parents asked, she said she was fine.
She answered vaguely and tried smiling.
A boy who had known nothing about himself at first had now become a snake beastkin girl, used to seeing her own form all the time.
The time it had taken her to accept her change and grow used to it.
The situations and gazes Yuna had faced before that time came.
She recalled that feeling.
It was not a very pleasant feeling, but she looked at that version of herself through the mirror.
The expression she had seen recently.
“…I wonder what happened to him.”
Park Taeyeon, the person who performed in the park.
The strange person Yuna had come to take an interest in.
Yuna could not know what had happened to him.
But she could tell that it was not something ordinary.
Because she had experienced and felt it herself.
“I hope he’s all right.”