Nonsan, Chungcheong. A vinyl greenhouse.
There, feeling a certain stubbornness, I was diligently harvesting strawberries.
"What would we have done if Dohui hadn't come? You're picking them so well. Right, Sunbaenim?"
And Gim Seoyun wore a bright, strawberry-red, beaming smile.
"Oh, I know, right~ Dohui is totally like a farmer's daughter, isn't she?"
"Hahaha, right? If I weren't Seoyun Unni, I wouldn't have known this joy~ hahaha."
"Ooh, look at the murder in her eyes."
The place I had come to for a promotional appearance with Gim Seoyun was "Job Experience: The Site of Life."
It was a YouTube channel with 4.5 million subscribers where you experienced different jobs—one I had appeared on before during my Seven days, in the Japanese restaurant part-timer episode.
I cursed Gim Seoyun with my eyes, then took a deep breath to compose myself, and went back to picking strawberries just as the farm owner had shown me to fill my quota box.
Still, as I selected one plump, pretty strawberry after another and placed them into the box, it felt somewhat healing.
Was this why everyone had fantasies about moving to the countryside?
I should buy this box to take home as my payment for the day.
Naeun Unni and Ua Unni would love it, right?
'Oh, this strawberry is really beautiful.'
My strawberry, picked so gently as if handling a baby and softly placed into the box.
"Huh? This one is really pretty."
Into that pure sphere approached a dirty, clumsy hand.
"Owner! Can I try one?"
"Oh my, of course~"
And Gim Seoyun hummed.
"Ah, I love strawberries. I love strawberries. Do I like them? Like, like, like!"
Really, Gim Seoyun with her raw, vivid smile.
I wanted to stain her red like that strawberry, the kind that would ooze bright red juice when bitten into.
"Dohui, do you wike 'em too?"
"...Ooh, guess not."
* * *
A hectic day.
By the time we returned to the lodging, the dinner hour had long since passed.
"What, you bought strawberries~?"
I handed the strawberries to Naeun Unni, who had come out to the entrance.
"Yeah, Seoyun Unni and I picked those ourselves."
I went straight to my room.
Even though I had dozed off in the car, my eyes were still heavy.
I just wanted to wash up and lie down quickly because of the fatigue.
I had a schedule tomorrow anyway, so I needed to sleep early...
Maybe Seoyun Unni was thinking the same thing, because the shower was already running in the living room bathroom.
Naturally, I opened the master bedroom door—Ua Unni and Chiyo Unni's room—and went inside.
The two of them were lying huddled together on the bed in their pajamas.
"Our baby is back~?"
I nodded.
Fortunately, there were two bathrooms in the lodging, so I probably wouldn't have to wait.
Since there was a bathroom here in the master bedroom...
But Chiyo Unni sprang up from the bed and dashed into the bathroom.
"Hehe, I'm going in!"
I stared at the locked bathroom door for a moment, then silently returned to the room.
Slam.
The bedroom door closed violently.
"D-Dohui-chan... i-it's a joke..."
For a while, the unnis treated me cautiously.
* * *
Sinchon.
A district adjacent to a total of seven universities: Yonsei, Ewha Womans University, Sogang, Hongik, Myongji, Kyonggi, and Chugye Arts.
The streets specialized for those in their twenties and thirties, where the so-called Sinchon commercial district existed, drew the steps of many nearby college students with the unique trendy atmosphere of a department store.
Naturally, that department store was also famous as a date course.
And here, a college student couple.
"It suits you well, Oppa? It's better than the clothes from earlier."
This couple was enjoying window shopping as they walked around the department store.
"Is it? I'm not so sure."
After walking around for a while, before she knew it, her stomach was growling.
'What time is it now?'
The woman, who had subtly taken out her phone to check, belatedly realized that it was already past two o'clock.
"Oppa, aren't you hungry?"
"Me? I am hungry, yeah."
"Then let's go get lunch soon."
"Shall we? Where do you want to eat? The food hall upstairs?"
"No, there's a place I saw while we were on our way here. Let's go there."
And so, the woman took the man's hand and led him out of the department store.
"Hoo, it's cold."
"Right, it's already December."
Despite the cold, the U-Flex Plaza visible upon exiting the department store was bustling with countless people coming and going.
Naturally, various music filled the plaza.
The woman hummed along to Ailee.
"This song is pretty good. Who sang it again?"
At that, the woman probed him.
"Are you pretending not to know, or do you really not know?"
"What? Idols? I really, really don't know."
"Ha? You think I didn't see your viewing history? You were watching Gwon Hana's fancam. You like her because her chest is bigger than mine?"
"Jihyeon-ah, that's not it. I really just happened to click on a link a friend sent me, okay?"
"Bullshit."
"Hey, hey."
With that minor happening, they made their way toward the restaurant.
A well-set piano occupying a corner of the central plaza entered her field of vision.
It wasn't particularly out of place.
If you listed the major busking spots in Seoul, after Hongdae came Sinchon, Konkuk University area, Hangang Park, and so on.
The central plaza of the Sinchon department store was considered one of the best streets in Gangbuk, making it one of the most famous busking streets.
'Did someone busk and not pack up?'
So she simply assumed someone had left the piano behind.
It was heavy, so she figured they'd probably take it away late at night by truck.
It was about then.
A long-haired girl in a black coat, her flats clicking as she sat down at it.
Although her face was hidden behind a mask, and the potential of her concealed lower face was infinite...
The fleeting aura she radiated was unmistakably shouting that she was a beauty.
And no wonder, for her small head and tall height were anything but ordinary proportions.
And the contours that peeked out slightly were the same.
Setting that aside, the girl seated at the piano placed the heat pack she'd been tapping in her hands down and laid her fingers on the ivory keys.
"It must be cold."
"Huh? What?"
The woman pointed in the direction of the piano at her boyfriend.
The girl placed her hand on the keys, then flinched at the cold and began rubbing the keyboard vigorously with her heat pack.
"Ah, busking? It must be cold in this weather."
Somehow, that clumsy, foolish display drew a smile out of her, fixing her gaze, and several passersby were also staring intently at the girl.
"Aren't we going to eat?"
So even with her boyfriend's urging, the woman stopped in the street.
"Wait, let's just listen for a bit."
And after waiting just a few seconds like that, the girl placed her hands on the keyboard.
From that light gesture came an extremely familiar melody.
A nursery rhyme beloved by people all over the world.
"What, it's Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
The woman ignored her boyfriend's deflated voice.
Although the woman didn't have any particular expertise in classical music, she knew that even if this piece started very simply, it became dazzling later on.
Had she been knowledgeable in classical music, she would have heaped praise upon hearing just the prelude, saying it was like an opera aria.
Be that as it may, after the sparkling, cute performance of the beginning ended, variations unfolded, drawing shooting stars—dazzling and brilliant.
Mozart's characteristic shadeless, bright, and cheerful melody rang out.
But still, that was all.
Unlike the woman holding up her phone to film, the footsteps of several people who had stopped began to drift away one by one.
In fact, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star might have been an unsuitable song for busking to modern people too busy to look around.
Nevertheless, the girl stubbornly played through the minor sections and the very slow sections—perhaps what one would call the adagio—as well.
The woman, along with the small number who had remained in place to listen until the end like her, offered meager applause.
And after a slight bow, the girl immediately launched into a new piece.
Immediately, a low, gloomy prelude began to unfold.
"Ah, this."
A song with a prelude as famous as that of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
The boyfriend beside her pretended to know.
"This is that one, right. The theme from The Phantom of the Opera."
Without even time to answer, the woman was drawn back into the performance.
Rapid wrist and finger movements visible even to the eye.
A glissando, sweeping down the keyboard with a tragic and solemn feeling.
That short prelude alone filled the plaza with a mysterious atmosphere.
And the development that followed.
Techniques decorated far more brilliantly than mere speed could account for.
The majestic and cheerful piano melody flowed out truly "singing," just like the original opera piece.
A dark atmosphere and passionate melody.
Visual elements of the dazzling performance that looked difficult even at a glance.
As if reflecting that captivating sensation, people began to multiply in real time.
Lost in the performance as she was.
The girl's fingers struck the keys intensely and brought the performance to an end.
The woman, now mixed in among a crowd that could be called a throng, clapped while thinking to herself.
'Maybe I'll go home and watch The Phantom of the Opera for the first time in a while.'
It was because the short two-to-three-minute performance left a lingering aftertaste.
However, as if with nothing to regret.
The girl remained seated.
'Is she a music college student from around here...? Or an arts high school student? But she doesn't seem like she's at a high school level.'
While wondering what kind of person she was, the girl placed only her left hand on the keyboard, as if signaling the start of the performance.
The left side of the piano, the bass register.
The powerful left-hand strikes presented an intense atmosphere.
But there was a clear difference from the previous performances.
"Do you know what this song is?"
"Not sure."
Unlike the previous songs, where she could tell what they were just from the prelude, this one was impossible to identify.
Yet the prelude showed a distinct and majestic personality just as much as the previous pieces.
That personality became even more pronounced when the right hand joined.
The fingers of the right hand pressing the keys caught the eye.
Shapes truly as if a person were dancing, or walking elegantly and confidently.
The melody, too, as if reflecting this, evoked such images.
'I'm sure I would have remembered if I'd heard it even once...'
But until the piece ended, she could not for the life of her recall what it was.
Before she knew it, the girl had risen from the piano bench.
The girl bowed in response to the torrent of applause.
And then, straightening her back, she pointed somewhere with her finger.
Naturally, the gaze of the crowd, including hers, followed to the tip of her finger.
The U-Flex electronic billboard of the Sinchon department store.
There, an advertisement that had apparently changed at some point was displayed, and on a black background, a phrase was written.
[Debonair, As fickle as fortune]
Wondering what it was, she looked back at the girl.
The girl was taking off her mask.
The woman knew at a glance who the girl was.
Because the aura and contours that had made it impossible not to predict she was a beauty even with the mask on were exactly that.
At the same time, the surrounding crowd grew rowdy.
The girl quickly greeted with a big wave and then dashed toward the road with a man who appeared to be her manager, as if fleeing, and got into a car.
And the bastard boyfriend who had claimed it was a real misunderstanding that he watched a fancam despite not knowing idols was beside her, freaking out.
"Holy shit, I Dohui... wow, she's fucking gorgeous. Wow, is this real? No, crazy, really, wow, no."
"Fucker."
"Ah, right."