(3) Under the Left Thumb
2018.08.09.
A scraping sound at the door woke her.
Rubin was scratching at the door furiously.
“What’s wrong?”
Doyeon climbed down from bed and opened the door.
When she stepped out into the living room, she heard a groan.
It was coming from Juwon’s room.
Doyeon patted the whining Rubin on the back and walked to Juwon’s door.
“Juwon.”
She called his name softly.
There was no answer.
Groaning. Silence. Groaning. Silence.
He seemed to be having a nightmare.
She wondered if she should go in and wake him, but soon dismissed the thought.
No matter how much she had taken him in, she couldn’t barge into someone else’s room while they slept.
At least she was aware that Juwon was a person, not an animal.
Doyeon comforted Rubin and returned to her room.
She lifted Rubin onto the bed, hugging the dog who kept looking back toward the door with worry, and whispered.
“It’s okay. He’s just dreaming. Perhaps dreaming like that is the only way to release the pain he’s been holding down.”
+++
In the morning, as she was about to leave, Juwon followed her.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere. I can’t stay in an empty house with no one home.”
“You have good manners.”
“I have at least that much courtesy.”
“If you don’t have anything to do, want to come with me to work?”
“Where do you work?”
“I run a shop.”
“A shop your rich dad set up for you?”
“Yeah. You catch on quick without me even saying.”
Doyeon smiled faintly.
“Rubin, I’ll be back.”
She said goodbye to Rubin and left the house.
As they rode the elevator together, Juwon asked.
“Is it okay if I tag along looking like this?”
Juwon was still wearing the clothes Doyeon had given him yesterday—
tracksuit pants that were too short, exposing his ankles, and a baggy T-shirt that was oversized on her but slightly revealed his waist.
“I told you. I don’t care what people think.”
As she said this and reached the first floor, Doyeon stopped upon seeing a woman’s back at the officetel entrance.
Without thinking, she grabbed Juwon’s wrist as he walked ahead.
He looked back as if to ask why.
“Let’s wait until that person leaves,”
Doyeon said in a small voice.
Juwon watched the woman’s back with puzzlement, then narrowed his eyes.
“Didn’t you say you don’t care what people think?”
“My, you can make that kind of expression too.”
“What kind of expression is it?”
“A mischievous one.”
Even though they had spoken in quiet voices, the woman at the entrance turned around.
She was a stylish woman who suited her short bob cut.
She was slender and tall, and well-dressed, exuding a model-like aura.
The woman’s expressionless face widened the moment she saw Doyeon and Juwon.
“Kang Doyeon.”
Without giving Doyeon time to return the greeting, the woman strode toward her.
“Heesu. Good morning.”
“You, right now….”
Heesu’s eyes moved from Doyeon to Juwon, and from Juwon back to Doyeon.
“Ah, let me introduce you. This is Hyeon Juwon. Juwon, this is my friend Jang Heesu.”
She had known that Heesu would find out about Juwon eventually, but she hadn’t expected it to happen this soon.
Heesu was sending a terrifyingly fierce gaze toward Juwon.
Even when Juwon greeted her awkwardly, she looked unwilling to accept it.
“Kang Doyeon, let’s talk.”
“Don’t you have to go to work?”
“Is work the issue? Should we talk here? It might get ugly.”
“Alright. Juwon.”
“Huh?”
Juwon, who had been looking at the two with a bewildered expression, quickly answered.
Doyeon took the shop key from her pocket and handed it to Juwon.
“Can you go to the shop first and open the door? It’s a place called Philia in Hongdae.”
+++
“Are you crazy?”
That shout came from Seunghyeon.
It wasn’t unusual for Seunghyeon to be here as well as Heesu.
Every morning, Seunghyeon came to pick Heesu up for work.
He had seen Heesu standing in front of the officetel and assumed she was waiting for him.
So when Heesu told him, “Kang Doyeon came out with some guy,” he had put off work and come to the coffee shop with her.
At the loud voice ringing through the quiet café, the people inside turned toward them with irritation.
But Seunghyeon wasn’t the least bit intimidated.
“Hey, you. You might like picking up strays, but this is different. You picked up a human? And a guy at that? Are you crazy? Right, Heesu?”
Seunghyeon turned to Heesu as if seeking agreement.
Heesu, who had been sitting with her legs crossed, elegantly drinking her coffee, answered in a small voice.
“Hey, lower your voice. It’s embarrassing.”
“No, is my voice the issue right now? She’s keeping a human! A man! Who knows where he rolled in from!”
“Still, he’s probably better than you. I’m so embarrassed I could die.”
“What the hell, Jang Heesu. You clearly don’t love me.”
“I do. I love you, but loud is loud, and embarrassing is embarrassing.”
“Wow. Listen to her, Doyeon. Doesn’t it seem like she doesn’t love me? Right?”
Now the arrow turned to Doyeon.
“Whether she loves you or not, it’s none of my business.”
At Doyeon’s answer, Seunghyeon let out a deep sigh.
“Aah. Why are the only women around me so cynical?”
Seunghyeon and Heesu were Doyeon’s middle school classmates; when they were in middle school, the three of them had been inseparable enough to be called the Three Musketeers.
That relationship had changed eight years ago when Seunghyeon and Heesu became a couple.
It was still fascinating that the immature Seunghyeon and the mature Heesu had been dating for so long.
When she had said this to Heesu during a phone call recently, Heesu had nodded and answered:
—I think it’s fascinating too. Why do I like such an idiot?
It was nice to see her two precious friends loving each other and remaining unchanged for eight years.
These two were surely enveloped in a rosy glow. Just as my parents had been.
But I was also jealous.
Why couldn’t I have that rosy glow that even my friends could have?
Why couldn’t I enjoy that rosy light that my parents had too?
Was there something wrong with me?
“You, I mean. Even if you have Rubin! How do you know he won’t suddenly change? What if he’s a psycho pervert?”
“That’s not it.”
“Hey, you shouldn’t say it so definitively. Don’t you watch the news? Psychos are usually normal on the outside. They say the serial killer next door was an ordinary, good father. You can’t tell just by looking.”
Seunghyeon’s excited face drew closer.
“No, that’s not it. It wasn’t that kind of color.”
“Did you see his color?”
Thankfully, Heesu pushed Seunghyeon’s face aside and asked.
These two believed that Doyeon could see the colors of emotions.
That was why they had been able to remain friends for so long.
“Yeah. I didn’t wear my lenses yesterday when I went home. I saw it in front of the house. His color.”
“What color was it?”
“Just… anyway, it wasn’t the color of a murderer.”
She didn’t want to blabber about others’ emotions, and fortunately, Seunghyeon and Heesu understood that.
“Hey, but a person’s emotions aren’t always the same. Emotions change all the time. Is the color you saw always going to stay the same?”
“I don’t know. But it didn’t look like a color that would change easily.”
“What if he sees you coming out of the shower and suddenly changes and lunges at you?”
“Then Rubin will bite him. Crunch, right on the nape of his neck. Blood will gush everywhere, and the living room will become a sea of blood. Then I’ll wonder whether to call an ambulance or not.”
“…No, please don’t say such blood-curdling things with such a serene expression.”
Seunghyeon shuddered and leaned back.
“There’s no need to call an ambulance. He was trying to attack you, so just let him die. Suffering for as long as possible.”
Heesu gave her serious advice.
Seunghyeon looked at Heesu and Doyeon with a pale face and muttered.
“So the psycho wasn’t far away.”
“Doyeon. But I think the same as Seunghyeon. You have… yes, you have Rubin. But that doesn’t mean you can let a strange man into your house. You don’t know anything about his family, his job. What if he’s dangerous?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think he’s that dangerous.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment, but you shouldn’t be too comfortable. Do you have a reason to keep that man in your house? You said he has somewhere to return to anyway?”
“A reason…”
As Heesu said, Juwon had somewhere to return to.
Even if she kicked him out of this house, he had a place to go.
But why did she feel that even if Juwon were starving to death, he would never return to that place?
“I’m curious about him. His emotions.”
“Curious? Don’t tell me…”
“No, Heesu. It’s not what you’re thinking. I told you. My destined partner is a man with a mole under his thumb. If it’s not that kind of man, my heart will never waver.”
At Doyeon’s firm words, Heesu wore a troubled expression.
Heesu knew too.
How much Doyeon had been hurt by love. How much she had been trampled by men.
So she understood Doyeon’s heart, clinging to a vivid dream and waiting for her destined partner.
It was pitiful.
If only my friend couldn’t see others’ emotions. Then she wouldn’t have become so distrustful of people like she is now.
“It’s just that his emotions… were something I’d never seen before. They were extremely vivid. That’s why I’m curious. I can’t just leave him be. Just that much.”
“If you find out what that emotion is, then will you send him away then?”
“Probably? I can’t keep him with me forever.”
+++
Doyeon’s shop, [Philia], was located in an alley a short distance from Hongdae-ipgu Station.
In the basement was a photo studio called [Idagraphy], and the first and second floors of the building were [Philia], Doyeon’s silver craft shop.
Though it didn’t get much sunlight, situated between buildings, the alley’s atmosphere was quiet and serene.
The first floor displayed jewelry and decorative items Doyeon had made, and the second floor was Doyeon’s workshop.
After looking around the shop once, Juwon took out cleaning tools from the corner and thoroughly cleaned the inside.
He felt it would be good to at least clean the shop since he was indebted to Doyeon.
Even after finishing cleaning, Doyeon hadn’t returned, so he sat blankly at the counter watching the shop.
Quite some time had passed since opening, but no customers had come.
What on earth did she trust to let someone like me into her house, and to entrust the shop to me?
There were so many things in this shop worth stealing, and Rubin, who could keep an eye on him, was at home.
‘What would she do if I packed all this up and ran? Of course, I have no such intention.’
Doyeon was a strange woman.
She said hurtful things in a gentle tone, and then offered kind words.
—Whether there is any qualification between us is for me to decide. And I’ve judged that you deserve my attention.
To Juwon, who had come to believe he didn’t even deserve to live, those decisive words from Doyeon pierced his heart with a thud.
While saying those words, her pitch-black pupils, bizarrely so, hadn’t wavered in the slightest.
Being captivated by those black pupils that held not an ounce of falsehood happened in an instant.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away from those eyes.
Captivated by those truthful pupils directed solely at him, containing only him.
There was no reason to deeply consider the words of a woman he had just met, yet Doyeon’s words were a great comfort.
‘She’s a really strange woman.’
While he was thinking that.
Ding-a-ling—
The bell on the door rang.
Juwon straightened his posture and examined the man who had just entered.
With his large build, broad shoulders, and thick forearms, he looked like a man who worked out regularly.
His face beneath the closely cropped hair had a sharp, powerful impression like a leopard.
The man in a baseball jacket walked heavily up to the counter and stopped to ask.
“Is the owner here?”
Contrary to his intimidating appearance, his voice was gentle.
“She’s coming in late today.”
“Ah, is that so? Are you an employee here?”
“Yes, what is it?”
The man hesitated a moment, then took something from his pocket.
It was a small transparent zipper bag, and inside was one silver earring.
“Is this something sold here?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t been working here long.”
As he answered, Juwon stared at the man’s hand holding the bag.
‘This person has a mole under his thumb, too. Do moles normally appear on hands?’
#dark