Jung Yeondu asked whoever it was beyond the door in a voice full of foreboding. There was no answer from the other side. Yeondu, who had only just managed to sit down, staggered over to the doorway.
Creeeak-.
What was revealed with the squealing sound of a door that hadn’t been oiled was—
“Finally, you’re here, you’re here!”
“Our village finally has soone this young...!”
“Woof!”
Village elders.
The music that had played earlier on the train to Hyangdo County ca on once again. The ding-donging xylophone notes bounced cheerfully.
“Welco!!!”
The simple-hearted grandmothers were grinning from ear to ear. Each of them held a basket with sothing inside.
A housewarming gift. After her na, age, and basic personal details were stripped from her in an instant, Jung Yeondu leaned her back against the wall and slowly slid down to sit. Her energy was completely drained.
Grrrk-.
Yeondu picked up an ear of corn from the basket she’d been handed. It was Jung Yeondu’s first al—soone who had never been noticed by anyone.
“...It’s good.”
Muttering softly, Yeondu’s expression loosened, as if she truly felt she’d done well to move here. After showering with water that actually poured out in a steady stream, Yeondu lay down in fluffy pajamas, and a calr narration flowed over her.
“...It finally felt like I’d arrived. From Line 1 that always crushed , from alleys that never slept even at night, from a company that was always calling my na.”
It felt like there was paradise at the place she’d run away to. Tomorrow, no one would co by to greet her, and if I just quietly breathe and exist sowhere in Hyangdo County like this....
Bang bang bang!
But as soon as the sun rose, what ca rushing in again were the sa grandmothers from yesterday.
“This one—he’s telling to co pick him up at the airport. Do I have to go?”
Anyone could tell it was voice phishing,
“The phone shop owner in town said you have to buy an Apple-phone Pro so you don’t get caught by voice phishing or whatever... but my bank transfer limit is....”
Anyone could tell she was being fleeced,
“Please pass a ssage to my grandson.”
They even ca to dump things on Jung Yeondu that didn’t need to be done right now at all.
“See? Young is best.”
“Aigo. Thank you~.”
“Here, eat this. Yeah? If it’s not enough, say so.”
Before she knew it, Jung Yeondu’s house had turned into a kind of sitting room. The grandmothers who’d co earlier hadn’t even left—they’d settled in. They even found a kitchen knife and peeled peaches to hand to her.
With a dazed face, Jung Yeondu chanically chewed the peach. And with that sa expression, she lay down on her bed in her pajamas.
* * *
“Ah, Yeoreum is so good.”
Deduck.B reporter Wi Jaehwi was watching diligently with Aetami. Half of the sixty minutes had already passed.
Tap-tap-.
Reporter Wi was doing fandom with full professional spirit. Soon, a plot-summary article for the MBS one-episode drama would be uploaded to the Daily dia [Broadcast] section.
‘The clicks won’t be that high, but... it’s Yeoreum.’
Even after fleeing all the way to Hyangdo County, Jung Yeondu was still taking on all the chores here, too. After going to the village hall to check the grandmothers’ phone bills, Yeondu’s eyes flew open.
“What did you just say???”
Because the demands had escalated into sothing completely outrageous.
“Why would I be the village head???”
To make matters worse, she’d been nominated as village head, and all the irritation she’d been piling up exploded at once.
“No—seriously, I... ha.... There is ab-so-lute-ly no ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) reason for to beco village head. None!”
The emotions she’d been holding down under years of ingrained discipline spilled out as they were. Jung Yeondu let out a hollow laugh like she couldn’t believe it.
“Don’t recomnd —just run yourself. I’ll vote for you. The previous village head can keep doing it. It’s the age of living to a hundred, so why does being old an you have to step down from everything? Huh? Bring the previous village head here!!! With responsibility! Firmly! For a long, long ti!”
Then the village hall door slowly opened, and soone appeared.
“The forr village head is here.”
“Aigo, sir~. We said we’d go get you.”
A grandmother smiling with a cane carefully introduced herself.
“It’s ....”
An elder who was about to whip Yeondu’s vanished discipline right back into shape. Because at a glance...
“I’m a hundred and one... do I have to keep doing it longer...?”
She was over a hundred.
Only then did Yeondu notice the frad photo hanging on one wall of the village hall.
[Congrats Kim Gyeongja on your 100th birthday!]
Jung Yeondu trudged out of the hall, no longer able to rebel at all.
“Woof!”
But then she heard the tiny bark of a puppy. It looked exactly like the dog that had co to her house the mont she moved in. The puppy they said had been born last month. Yeondu and Boksun t eyes.
“Go away.”
Leaving behind the puppy with its pink belly showing, Yeondu walked quickly. She had a bad feeling she’d end up being responsible for that puppy too.
“Whiiine....”
Not knowing how Yeondu felt at all, Boksun chased after her innocently. Even with its short legs, it worked so hard to keep up. Leaving Boksun behind, Yeondu started running.
“I said go!”
On a sumr day when green leaves fluttered in the wind, Boksun—a little white fluffball—ran after Yeondu. From far away, the scene was frad like a beautiful landscape.
Even the clouds floating in the blue sky looked like cotton candy. It felt like soone had lifted sumr and set it down intact.
“...So annoying, seriously.”
Giving up on running from Boksun, Yeondu furrowed her brow and ruffled the puppy’s fur. As if it liked Yeondu, Boksun wrapped its front paws tightly around her wrist. Then it started licking her hand—like it was unbelievably happy.
“Why are you licking my hand so much.”
Speaking gruffly to Boksun, Yeondu lowered her gaze again. Boksun’s tail swished without stopping.
“Are you hungry?”
In the mont Yeondu opened her heart to soone for the first ti, the sunlight shone dazzlingly bright. That fleeting emotion, the season, and the Hyangdo County Yeondu was feeling—all of it ca striding toward Reporter Wi.
Input: Youth heading to a place of a-No interest in each other, MBS one-episode drama
Reporter Wi imdiately opened his laptop and started typing. He wanted to upload it as soon as the broadcast ended.
His earlier prediction seed like it was going to miss the mark. He had a feeling far more people than expected would co clicking on the article.
* * *
At this ti, the office worker was still riding a Gyeonggi bus ho. If she arrived, it would be 10:30 p.m. If she washed up and lay down, 11.
She knew she should sleep early, but she couldn’t stand ending the day like this, so the office worker—who normally wore an irritated expression as she scrolled her phone until 1 a.m.—was different tonight.
‘Ah, this is funny.’
Trying to catch the town bus, Jung Yeondu waited an hour and twenty minutes, only to end up catching a ride on the village grandmothers’ cultivator.
“A bus? There are two a day.... One going, one coming back.”
“But that’s not what it says on the titable.”
“That one’s more than ten years old.”
Because the rural bus titable was, unbelievably, from thirteen years ago.
Riding the rattling cultivator into town, the place was exactly the countryside we all knew. The big Nonghyup logo felt especially warm and familiar.
“Aigo, are you the village head of Danbok-ri in Hyangdo County? Take this ho and eat it! My fresh kimchi is unbelievably good~?”
“I’m not the village head....”
Yeondu had gone into town in a hurry because she needed a laptop charger, and once again she got caught by the grandmothers and ended up burdened down with bags in both hands.
Tacky pajamas with a country character on them, “living room candy” for when her mouth felt lonely, fancy U.S.-made slippers, and twisted doughnuts dusted with sugar.
“Looking at you like this, you’re just a baby, a baby!”
A grandmother who didn’t want Yeondu to suffer under the sun on the way ho placed a ribboned straw hat on her head with a bright smile. As if the sugar at the corner of Yeondu’s mouth wasn’t dirty at all, she wiped it away with her hand.
“What do you an baby.... I’m all grown up.”
“In our eyes, you’re just a baby.”
“Whose daughter are you, to have grown up so pretty and neat like this. Yeah?”
The office worker’s lips lifted without her realizing it. It reminded her of her own grandmother.
“Oh dear.”
That was when it happened. With ominous music, one grandmother startled and jerked back. In the distance, a middle-aged man with a threatening stare staggered past, clutching a bottle of makgeolli.
“...Who is that?”
“A dog butcher, a dog butcher!”
“Because of that bastard, not just this village, but the next one and the one behind it—everywhere, the dogs have all disappeared.”
With bloodshot eyes from drinking, the man scanned his surroundings. Then he snapped his head around.
And he t Yeondu’s eyes.
“Look at him. He’s trying to trade a dog for booze again....”
Yeondu’s softened expression hardened again. The hand holding the dog chew she’d bought for Boksun tightened. The middle-aged man grinned at Yeondu, spit on the ground, and walked off.
“You must’ve only seen good things in Seoul. Oh dear. Forget it....”
“We showed you sothing ugly for no reason.”
Even now, the grandmothers put Yeondu first. Sharing sweet sikhye together, riding back on the cultivator, the unpaved country road glimred strangely bright. It felt like the pleasant sumr breeze was brushing against her, too.
Bzz-. Bzz-.
What shattered that peace was the phone call that ca the next day.
[Mom]
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