The Best of Tomorrow - Chapter 11 – Part 1

When I came home with an apron, my mother looked surprised.

“Is that a trend these days?”

“Huh? No.”

I quickly entered the room and closed the door. I took off the apron and hung it on the hook of the door and laid on my back on the bed. In a lying position, I looked at the apron hanging on the door with my head raised.

Oh, my God, what the hell just happened?

I sat up, threw my bag on the floor, and took off my uniform. As I took off my socks on top of the stockings, the phone rang briefly.

What is it?

There was a message. I sat on the bed and opened the message.

[It’s you.]

What?

I checked the name of the person who sent just two words.
‘Secondhand country seller.’

Oh My God! What do you mean?

I quickly covered my mouth with one hand. It was Seon-jae.

Are you asking me if I’m the one you met at your restaurant?

I was looking at the words ‘It’s you’ without being able to close my mouth when I received another message.

[Why did you steal the apron?]

“I didn’t steal it.” I wrote down the message and deleted it. I didn’t know if I should answer this or not. You didn’t see my face, so if I insisted it wasn’t me, that was it.

I could send a reply saying, “It must have been the same uniform. You don’t even know which my boneless Haejangguk is.”

However, no matter how much I thought about it, I was the only one who ran away with an apron on the face. When I was thinking about whether to ignore it or not, I got another message.

[If you don’t answer, I’ll call you.]

Oh my!

I quickly opened the message window. Sweat formed on my hand holding the cell phone, so I put the cell phone down on the bed and rubbed the palm of my hand against the blanket. I took a deep breath and picked up my cell phone again.

Calm down, Im-sol.

[Who is this?]

Even though I was embarrassed, I sent it.

‘Who is this?’

First of all, it seemed to be the best way to pretend that I didn’t save his number. Plus, I hoped that Seon-jae wouldn’t text me anymore when he saw this message.

But isn’t that always the case? Wishes are just like glass, meant to be broken.

A cheerful sound rang and a message arrived.

[I am Seon-jae. I know you’re Im-sol.]

My heart almost fell. When I was so embarrassed, my heart fluttered at the two letters of my name. I had to reply. Before that, I captured Seon-jae’s message. I’d print it, frame it, and hang it on the wall.

I’d keep it as a treasure. When the moment of my death in the distant future came, I thought I should leave a will to bury it in my grave.

I lifted my thumb to type on the keypad. I needed something certain that Seon-jae couldn’t continue to question.

[My name is Kim Chun-baek, I am seventy this year. I think you sent it to the wrong number. I don’t know how to answer the phone.]

The message that came right away didn’t come after 5 minutes.

Are you trusting me?

I put my cell phone down on the bed and took off the left sock that I couldn’t take off earlier. I picked up the socks and went to open the door. After putting the socks in the washing machine and drinking a glass of cold water in the kitchen, I came back into the room. I took off my school uniform and hung it on the hanger and changed into pajamas.

The pajamas were the t-shirt that matched with a group at the athletic meet and the knee-stretched sweatpants. Before I went to wash up, I checked my cell phone just in case. Nothing came in.

*
*
*

During self-study time, I stared at Seon-jae’s number in the address book and pressed the delete button. I suddenly came to the past, so I was able to doze off during class and wish to go back to normal.

I don’t know what kind of structure it is, but it’s better to delete contacts I hadn’t got in the future.

I searched the internet about time travel, but it wasn’t particularly helpful. After reading an article, “You can go back and forth between the past and the future through certain things and spaces,” I carried the watch in my pocket. I took the watch out of my pocket, pushed the lid open. The hour hand was approaching the number one.

The hour hand and minute hand moved very slowly, unlike the current time. It seemed to have broken down, but it was strange that it moved. I closed the lid and put it back in my pocket.

Eun-hee laughed when I wore a padded jacket that I had on my chair to go home.

“Some might think it’s midwinter.”

“Aren’t you cold? It was freezing this morning.”

“But it’s November now.”
In the beginning of November itself, the temperature fell sharply. I couldn’t handle it with my school uniform, so I took out the padded jacket and wore it. Perhaps I was the only one who came to school wearing a padded jacket.

What do you know? I’m so cold.

“Enjoy your dinner. See you tomorrow.” I pushed my chair and walked out of the classroom.

The sun fell quickly because it was running at the end of the year. The wind was blowing when it was especially dark and felt as if it had cooled down. I put on the hood of the padded jacket and zip it all the way up.

As I left the school gate with both hands in the pockets, I saw two men squatted in front of the stationery store opposite the school gate, eating bread.

Gray trousers and white shirt. One was wearing a red sweater and the other wore a gray sweatshirt inside.

“Oh, why did you eat all the cream?”

“What? You asked for a bite first.”

“The cream’s only in the middle.”

“As soon as you opened the packet, you ate it first.”

I wondered who they were… They didn’t look unfamiliar…