.  ‘What’s going on? I wouldn’t be confined inside the coarse straw mat and beaten to death yet,’ rambling those thoughts, I looked down and found myself wrapped in a blanket almost like a larva. I soon became silent.

  As I was at a loss of words for quite a while, Eun Jiho asked me again.

  “What were you dreaming?”


  “Um… that is…”


  “That is?”


  “Rolled up in a straw mat and beaten as punishment.”


  Eun Jiho furrowed one side of his brows after my short reply.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I dreamed about the straw mat beating punishment.”


  Answering back with a sigh, I began to struggle wildly to get out of the self-confining blanket. A moment after, Eun Jiho, who was staring at me making a fuss, understood what I was talking about. He then trembled his shoulders speechlessly, holding the desk.

  Eun Jiho wasn’t a type of kid who smiled quietly like that. At least in front of me, he rarely laughed without a sound like now. ‘Anyway, why isn’t this getting off from me?’ After a long struggle, I almost fell head over heels from the bed then got straight up from where I was lying.

  Striding toward Eun Jiho, I stuck my head out closer to his back. Then I switched my gaze to his phone screen and frowned.

  To: Ban Yeo Ryung, Scary Kwon Eun Hyung, Yoo Chun Young, Woo Jooin

  DUDES LOLOLOLOL Ham Donnie LMFAO!!!

  What she said while wrapping herself in the blanket was that she dreamt about the straw mat punishment LOL That’s so Ham Donnie.

  Holy crap you bastard! I stretched out my hand immediately to his phone; however, Eun Jiho, who had quick reflexes, wouldn’t allow me even the smallest approach. Although his eyes weren’t directing at me, Eun Jiho defended his phone desperately almost with superhuman skill. He then suddenly turned around and yelled at me.

  “Ay Yai Yai, what’s wrong with you girl? It is good evidence that the state of the body affects the unconscious; therefore, I tried to let them research about―.”


  ‘Oh, yeah, what logical bullshit!’ With that thought, I was about to throw a wink at him, but instead, I stretched my hand out again to his phone. Eun Jiho then shouted back.

  “Dude, okay, okay! I won’t send the text then.”


  Saying those words like a grumble, he put his hand down. Eun Jiho then showed me his phone screen and moved his fingers to delete the text. Phew, I fetched a sigh of relief, at last, leaning against the desk, then I swept my disheveled hair back.

  Why did I fall asleep while wrapping myself with a blanket on such a humid day? My sweaty hair was clinging on my forehead.

  ‘Oh, I should go wash my face,’ having that thought, I swept my sweaty hair back again then opened my mouth.

  “But why are you here?”


  His eyes, that were on my forehead, diverted back onto me. It looked as though his eyes indicated a sign of hesitance that I suddenly felt a little weird.

  His hand that was pulling mine for the whole time in the near past was rewound in front of my sight.

  The dizzily crying cicadas, the narrow sunlight flickering near my eyes, and his voice asking me the question,

  ‘Are you okay?’


  ‘You aren’t, huh?’


  The two questions that tore me down.

  At that time, Eun Jiho was obviously different than usual. The other side of him, which was quite different, made me wonder when did he hide such a color. It was something equivalent to Yoo Chun Young’s sweetness, Jooin’s acuity, or Eun Hyung’s decisiveness.

  Now, a strange feeling struck me when I recalled the Eun Jiho at that time as soon as our eyes met inside this bright and cozy room.

  Eun Jiho pouted his lips without a sound. His jet-black eyes were still on me. Strangely, his gaze was so far-off that I suddenly thought about Eun Jiho also looking back at the future or the past than the present just like me.

  At that very moment, he turned his head as if he got burnt from fire, and at the same time, his voice escaped through his lips.

  “We were about to go to Ban Yeo Ryung’s workplace.”


  “Oh, yeah!”


  His voice was too nonchalant that I got a little surprised. Listening to what he just said, the bizarre atmosphere, flowing between us earlier, seemed like nothing. Scratching my forehead in embarrassment, I furrowed as something came across my mind.

  ‘Now that I’m thinking about it, why does that bastard keep trespassing my house?’ With that thought, I opened my mouth.

  “Hey, you should reach out to me ahead of your visit. Though my mom almost treats you like our family, greeting you with this look is… anyway…’


  “Anyway?”


  His answer came back to me with him looking somewhere else again. It was the same as that day when we walked across the street, holding our hands. I, again, felt weird.

  Usually, Eun Jiho would intervene immediately and say, ‘Do you think there’s a difference between your washed and unwashed face?’ That Eun Jiho, who would display cheeky words, was, for some reason, following my remark like a parrot.

  ‘I didn’t mean this. I tried to just grumble like we usually did to each other…’ As he didn’t make any playful retorts, my words revealed an unexpected aggressiveness. It looked as though I was desperate to draw an invisible line between us.

  I realized that my words started to carry weight when he didn’t take them as a joke.

  Then, all of a sudden, I became aware that our conversation always went like this. As if pushing him away from me, I grumbled to him. Eun Jiho then threw some silly jokes without a blink and crossed that line, which defeated me right away. Thus, I got to let him some space.

  That was how we managed our friendship for the last three years; how Eun Jiho became one of my closest friends from just a character inside a novel.

  ‘I wasn’t meaning this though…’ having that thought, I put my hand down, which I usually raised when grumbling instinctively.

  As I remained silent for quite a while, Eun Jiho turned around to see my direction this time. His eyes were still serene like a river. The look in his eyes was so different than usual that it was me again who became anxious.

  Being hesitant for quite some time, I detached my lips.

  “Anyway, not so… good, I guess?”


  My words ended up hilariously than usual out of perplexity. ‘Why did I rise intonation at the end? And how could I even say, ‘I guess?’ What the heck was that?! Do you really think yourself as a maiden in the Joseon Dynasty?’ That was when I grimaced while rambling those thoughts inside my head.

  Eun Jiho broke into a fit of laughter as he usually did. Resting his chin on his palm leisurely, he then perked the corners of his lips upwards slightly to hint a sneer. With the smile that he always had, Eun Jiho replied.

  “Yes, it is.”


  “…”


  “Dude, it’s such a great advantage to have a face that looks the same either washed or not. You know, our country is having Water Stress.”


  “God dang, Eun Jiho.”


  That was when I tried to turn around and pull the doorknob. Eun Jiho’s voice stopped me again. Standing against the light coming from the living room, I flung a question.

  “Why?”


  “Earlier, you…”


  Dropping the words, Eun Jiho’s face was dimmed by the living room lights. I narrowed my eyes. With a rare hint of hesitation, he continued.

  “You called my name.”


  “Oh.”


  ‘Is he talking about Madam Jiho, something like that?’ I nodded. Eun Jiho asked me again.

  “Why did you call me?”


  His face still looked blurry by the living room light. ‘Hmm, that is because…’ frowning my face in uncertainty, I thought for a second.

  ‘Should I answer that question? What if it makes us fight before even going to Ban Yeo Ryung’s shop?’ The air between us was quite strange than usual, which scared me to bring up such words. Taking a step back, I was walking on eggshells.

  I could hardly see his face; however, his dark eyes exposed under the light were so serious that avoiding his question might provoke some negative reaction.

  After all, I gave up and answered with a shrug.

  “Um, so in my dream… you appeared as a wife of the district magistrate.”


  I tried to speak as nonchalantly as I could, but it might have been, of course, difficult to just move one. Eun Jiho furrowed his brows right away.

  He asked, “A wife of the district magistrate? Not the magistrate himself?”


  “Um, yeah… a wife of the district magistrate. You know, the lady with a skirt and jeogori on…”


  “… So?”


  The look on his face, asking me to speak further, turned freaky. I couldn’t tell whether he was refraining from laughing or repressing his anger at all.