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Chapter 4

The boy's unabashed, unwavering stare was embarrassing. Hae-ju asked him sharply, "What... are you looking at?"

"You moving in here?"

Instead of answering, Hae-ju averted her gaze from the boy who seemed more intent on satisfying his own curiosity. She gave a vague reply.

"...Yeah."

Still, the boy's fixed stare persisted. Feeling compelled, Hae-ju looked up again. The intensity of his gaze was overwhelming.

"Do you live here?"

"...Yeah."

With that curt reply, the boy turned and dashed up the stairs without a backward glance. The way his bag bounced wildly behind him caught Hae-ju's eye.

Watching him disappear through the gate, Hae-ju tilted her head in curiosity, then picked up the last of the luggage. Stepping through the green gate, she found a surprisingly large yard with a water tap occupying the center.

To the right of the gate, three rooms and a wooden veranda lined up in a row. The innermost one, where their belongings were stacked, seemed to be the room they would live in. Turning her gaze across the yard, she saw two rooms connected to another veranda—likely the landlord's quarters.

Just then, she heard heavy breathing from somewhere. Turning, she saw the taekwondo boy—who had vanished earlier—moving their stacked luggage across the yard, still carrying his bag. He was struggling with a box full of books.

"That's heavy!"

Startled, Hae-ju rushed over and grabbed the other side, lifting it up. The boy's face showed a flicker of embarrassment, and he snatched the box back from her grasp, carrying it with determined steps.

When he finally reached Hae-ju's veranda, he collapsed alongside the luggage. At his unexpected cuteness, a smile spread across Hae-ju's lips.

"Which of these rooms do you live in?"

Hae-ju asked, looking at the row of rooms. The boy's finger pointed across the yard—to the landlord's house.

"I live over there."

Her gaze followed his finger. An awkward silence fell between them. The boy roughly wiped the sweat from his forehead with his taekwondo sleeve. Hae-ju asked again.

"What's your name?"

He was about a handspan shorter than her, but his dark eyes, which had been watching her the whole time, shone vividly.

Under Hae-ju's steady gaze, the boy, who had been so bold until now, suddenly seemed flustered. He wiped his forehead again with his sleeve and muttered.

"Seok-eon... Lee Seok-eon. But it's not the 'stone' character!"

At his sulky reply—clearly the result of much teasing—another smile crept onto Hae-ju's lips. The boy glanced at their meager belongings scattered in the yard and asked.

"But this... is all your stuff?"

"Yeah."

Hae-ju nodded quietly. Taking a deep breath, as if steeling himself, the boy tossed his bag aside and began moving the remaining luggage from the veranda into Hae-ju's room.

"Hey, we can do this ourselves."

Despite Hae-ju's protests, Seok-eon pretended not to hear and kept lifting. Just then, her father and the moving driver came out of the room.

"Hello... sir."

The boy awkwardly bowed while holding a box. Seeing Seok-eon, her father asked slowly, "You must be... the landlord's son."

The driver also praised Seok-eon, "Oh! This little fella lifts heavy things like it's nothing?"

Encouraged by the compliments, the boy worked even harder. Once the luggage was mostly moved, Hae-ju took out sugar and cups she had placed in the cupboard and made some sugar water at the tap. She handed some to the driver and her father, who were exhausted from the heat, and offered the rest to the boy.

"Thanks for helping."

There was something odd about him, but he didn't seem like a bad kid. And since he was the landlord's son, it was all the more reason to get along. She felt embarrassed to offer only sugar water, but she wanted to at least thank him.

"..."

Seok-eon looked from the cup to Hae-ju, then back, repeatedly ran his hand over his short hair, and quickly took the cup. He began gulping down the sugar water.

As if drunk on the sweet taste, he drank faster and faster. Still not pulling the cup from his lips, he suddenly caught sight of the clock on the veranda and jumped in alarm.

"Oh! I'm late for taekwondo!"

Practically throwing the cup back to Hae-ju, Seok-eon dashed across the yard and disappeared through the gate.

Catching the cup in surprise, Hae-ju watched the gate where the boy had vanished. She felt strangely unsettled.

---

Even after taekwondo practice ended, Seok-eon wandered around outside for a while before finally cracking open the gate and slipping in, well past mealtime. His mother, Ja-young, who was just about to clear the table, caught his eye.

"This kid! Why are you so late?"

Even though he'd tried to sneak in, Ja-young scolded him loudly.

"...I'm hungry."

Seok-eon kicked off his shoes sullenly and climbed onto the veranda. He'd been roaming the neighborhood all day after practice and was famished. Now that her late-returning son was making her work twice, she gave him a knock on the head.

"Ouch!"

"That's what you get for wandering around! Come home early like I told you. I'm already worn out from looking after other people's houses—the least you could do is come home on time!"

"Then why don't you just stop working? You could live off the rent if you collected it properly!"

Seok-eon resented his mother, known for being too kind-hearted to properly demand rent from her tenants. He shouted in protest. The knock made his head throb, and he huffed—but strangely, he wasn't as angry as usual.

"What's the point of demanding money from people who don't have it? We're all in the same boat."

"Then at least stop complaining about your health!"

"You little—!"

As always, Ja-young clicked her tongue, went down into the yard, straightened her son's carelessly discarded sneakers, and set out his dinner.

For the first time in a while, the light was on in the room across the yard. Even as he shoved dry rice into his mouth, Seok-eon's gaze kept drifting toward that lit room. Noticing her son's frequent glances, Ja-young shooed away a fly and said, "I told you the other day, didn't I? That a new family was moving in after Sang-hyun's family left."

"Another one who won't pay rent?"

The situation of people who moved all the way out to the foot of Bukhansan was always the same. The landlords and the tenants were equally strapped. Though his mother's meddling ways usually annoyed him, his grumbling today was milder than usual.

"Actually, I got three months' advance rent on top of the deposit. From what I saw, it seems like it's just the father and daughter now, after the mother passed away. Their situation was so heartbreaking."

He bristled, afraid his mother's soft heart would get the better of her again, but the words that slipped from his lips turned into a different question than he'd intended.

"...How... old is she? Is she... older than me?"

Stabbing his spoon into the rice, Seok-eon asked hesitantly. At the unexpected question, his mother teased him as she placed side dishes on his spoon.

"What if she's older?"

"Older is... just older."

Pouting and deflecting, Seok-eon tried to brush it off. Ja-young laughed and wiped the sauce from his mouth.

"So clumsy... She's the same age as you. Her name is Hae-ju. Kang Hae-ju. Unlike some childish someone, she's still young but already takes care of her sick father—such a capable girl."

As she finished, Ja-young's expression grew quiet. She nervously wiped the veranda with a rag—a sign that she was thinking about the child she had lost, the one who never made it into this world, a sibling Seok-eon had no memory of.

"Mom, water!"

Even though water was right in front of him, Seok-eon made a fuss to snap her out of it. Catching on to his mood, Ja-young poured a glass and set it before her stubborn son. Still, her voice was full of longing as she continued.

"Anyway, I wished I had a daughter like that. So polite and well-mannered—how nice would that be?"

"But... you said she's the same age...?"

As if he hadn't heard her, Seok-eon murmured to himself, then suddenly buried his face and began stuffing rice into his mouth to hide the laugh that burst out.

"Oh my, eat slowly!"

But unable to suppress his smile, Seok-eon kept shoveling food in until he choked. His mother clicked her tongue in worry and patted his back gently.

---

Crash— A rice bowl and a soup bowl flew past Hae-ju's head and shattered on the floor.

"Go buy soju! Buy me soju!"

It was exactly the third day since they'd moved into the new house. Her father, who had been subdued for a while, had finally let his old habits show.

For a few days, he seemed mindful of the landlord and the other tenants—but his drinking had resumed today, as predictably as a habit that was second nature to him.

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