.
Many people sent me Happy New Year messages around midnight. They wished me a new year loaded with good luck, health, wealth, and happiness. Some texted me their hopes about having a better time together also in this year.
Reading those messages, I fell into thought.
Once I returned to school after the break, I would become a sophomore in high school, and, of course, our classes would be rearranged. Having those thoughts in mind, I soon felt sad since no classes would be, perhaps, as good as ours.
I began to text reply to each of them while attaching the photo I just took.
‘Thank you, wishing you a blessed new year too.’
When I was sending the same message to Yoon Jung In, I hesitated for a second then added, ‘Hope you don’t put Shin Suh Hyun through a lot this year.’
Scrolling down the texts, a few familiar names came into view. I closed my flip phone instinctively and took a deep breath. I could feel Yeo Dan oppa’s glance from beside me.
Showing an awkward grin to him, I opened my phone again. Inside, there were names that I missed so much.
[Sent by: Son
Mama, how are you doing in this cold weather? Stay strong and healthy! Happy]
[Sent by: Son
Yikes, my hand slipped while typingㅠㅠ Happy New Year, I love you!]
“He might have been nervous.”
I lifted my head in surprise upon the sudden voice. Still, with sleepy eyes, Yeo Ryung was smiling faintly while looking down at the phone screen. Staring at her for a moment, I soon nodded my head.
That could be true. He didn’t add any emojis but wrote grammatically correct sentences along with punctuation marks, which felt all so unfamiliar. Looking only at the text itself, I could never think that Jooin had sent me such texts.
Then I pressed the ‘next’ button.
[Sent by: Kwon Eun Hyung
Donnie, Happy New Year. Hope everything goes well, and most of all, let’s have a Healthy New Year.]
Eun Hyung’s message sounded calm and clear as always, but that was why it felt more nostalgic. His text was like Eun Hyung sweeping around the doorstep of a place, where I had never returned for quite a while, then greeting me quietly once he turned around and found me standing there.
After a moment of hesitation, I entered the draft messages. There were so many unsent texts inside such as ‘Today’s meal in the cafeteria sucked,’ or ‘I can’t focus.’ Including those trivial complaints, there was also something like, ‘How are you doing?’ or ‘When do you have time?’ which were the traces of myself taking courage.
While I kept being hesitant, Yeo Ryung snatched my phone from beside me.
“Eek, why?!”
“I’m gonna send the text. Can I?” she asked excitedly.
I took a second at her remark then nodded my head. Well, Yeo Ryung wasn’t just close to the two boys. She would also play jokes through the message that she could handle enough.
Once I let her send the text on behalf of me, Yeo Ryung began to touch the phone keyboard in excitement. Watching that sight, I suddenly uttered, “Ah.”
[To: Son
Your mom is with me…]
It was just a small prank that we usually enjoyed. But, hold on… didn’t we have something going on recently? My brows met in the middle while looking through some faded memories. Something irrelevant to that message seemed to take place… Eh? Wait!
I shouted, “Ah, hold on, Yeo Ryung. Now I come to think of it, that’s…”
However, she already sent the message. Holding the phone that had ‘message sent’ sign on the screen, Yeo Ryung asked me, “Huh?”
“I mean, we recently got kidnapped…!”
Before I even responded that way, the phone bell suddenly rang loudly. The word on the phone screen, ‘Son,’ was embedded in my sight.
For some reason, Yeo Ryung also stared at me with a stiffened face. Meanwhile, I took a deep breath and opened the phone. A moment after, a familiar voice reached my ear.
“Where are you?”
I answered in the politest tone ever, “This is Gapyeong…” Speaking that way, I felt a déjà vu. A very long time ago, Jooin had sent me a short text with only the words, ‘LOLOLOLOL.’ Right now, it just felt like the time when I had received that message.
“Mama, how can you make such a joke when you’ve been kidnapped not long ago?”
“Well… it’s been a few months, and the seasons have also changed twice… Now, it’s the new year, so that happened last year…”
Responding indecisively, I quickly stopped making an excuse when I heard Jooin’s voice over the phone.
“Should I start my first day of the new year with that kind of news, mama?”
“… My sincere apologies,” I replied then acted like a snitch, “But Yeo Ryung sent that message.”
Jooin then spoke in a kind but savage tone to put Yeo Ryung on the phone. I quickly handed mine to her.
Even looking at Yeo Ryung trembling like a poodle dragged to the slaughterhouse, I didn’t feel guilty at all. Haha, wouldn’t I also need to survive in this situation?
Yeo Ryung replied in a crawling voice, “I… I didn’t lie… I mean, it’s true that Donnie’s with me!”
“Now I come to think of it, why are you two together during the New Year’s holiday? You guys won’t be going to your relatives’ house together…”
“What if we did?”
Except for the noise from the heater, the car was so silent inside that even Yeo Ryung and Jooin’s conversation reached my ear very clearly.
Jooin began to laugh out loud when he heard the part that my parents and Yeo Ryung’s parents left for Taiwan. Listening to his laughter, I felt delighted somehow and a little nostalgic at the same time.
I smiled quietly while thinking that way, but when my phone came back to me out of the blue, I startled.
“Why?”
“Why? Because he wants to talk to you on the phone.”
“Oh…”
I didn’t know the baton would come over to me. Having that thought in my head, I looked at my phone like it was someone else’s.
Our phone call suddenly began with the word, ‘kidnap,’ so I didn’t think about this until now, but it had been quite a while to talk to Jooin over the phone.
With a moment of hesitation, I soon brought my phone to my ear. I spoke in tension, “Yes, Jooin.”
“What are you gonna do, mama, when you aren’t getting any New Year’s cash gifts?”
I was concerned that there might be some awkward feelings lingering between us; however, that didn’t last long. His remark made me show a faint grin on my lips. Jooin also laughed again at my complaints about the cash gifts I would be missing this year. He then quickly brought up the stories about his cousins.
I also knew his cousins very well as if they were my family. Woo San, the human typhoon, Woo Bee, the computer genius, Lee Nara, no Woo Rinara, the actress, and her brother, Woo Rihon.
Since they were such unique characters, I thought things would become so chaotic in their house, which was indeed correct. Besides, I kept hearing brutal remarks coming from beside Jooin. ‘Get that hand off from him!’ ‘No, you do it first!’ ‘Watch your mouth!’ ‘My ass!’
Jooin spoke in a calm voice, “It’s just… Nara noona and Bee are fighting for a moment.”
“For what reason?”
“They want to feed me some sliced fruit… EAEWOOEH…”
As if the fruit slice suddenly came into his mouth, Jooin began to chew on something. It made me giggle.
‘He’s still winning all hearts. Thank goodness he’s doing well,’ I murmured then recalled the lady, who was once his mother and would be staying in jail right now.
‘Jooin shouldn’t think about that kind of person at all although it would be difficult for him.’ While I had that thought in mind, Jooin began to pour out some questions all of a sudden.
“Mama, how’s studying? What about the cram school? Are you having fun?”
As if he was a reporter pulling out a list of questions that he prepared before the interview, his questions continued politely and heroically.
Feeling his excitement and curiosity, I thought that he would be also looking forward to this call as much as I did. Jooin might have piled up a lot of words that were left unspoken to me as I also did in my numerous draft messages.
I looked outside the window abruptly. Looking at the endless scenery of shallow streams, wide fields, and mountains, I listened to Jooin’s questions then suddenly intervened in his words.
“Jooin.”
“Uh-huh.”
His response sounded quite stiff. I could clearly imagine the bewildered look on his face right now.
