“I’m sorry…there’s just nothing else we can do.”
It was one of the locations of a popular bakery chain, right in front of a highschool.
One of those everyday chains that was impossible to know as a Korean.
But it had gone bankrupt.
A month prior, a madeleine shop had opened across the street. The owner had graduated from Le Cordon Red.
(TL note: this is referencing Le Cordon Bleu, an incredibly well-regarded French school of cooking.)
A small shop, less than half the size of our own bakery.
But after that TV segment aired…
Within the hour, the line to the shop had begun to wrap around the corner. Business was booming.
And thanks to this, there were fewer and fewer people in our bakery.
But I hadn’t expected our bakery to run to ruin…
With a regretful look on his face, my boss handed me a box and an envelope containing my severance pay.
“If you need anything from here, please take it… If you need plates or cups or anything… go ahead and take some.”
“What’s this box for?”
“It’s something that someone left here, but it’s been here for so long…so, you might as well have it. Just in case. Sell anything worth selling in there.”
He gave a kind smile. But in the end, that was all he could give me.
I had worked there for five years. Yet I had been laid off overnight.
“I’m sorry… but you… you don’t have a family you need to support.”
The words pained me as they came out from his lips.
I couldn’t believe he would use the fact that I’m an orphan like that.
I gritted my teeth and gripped tightly onto the box.
“Thanks for everything. Please put in a good word for me with the higher-ups, if you can.”
“S-sure…”
It was only a ten minute commute between the bakery and my apartment, but the heaviness of the box left my arms tired nevertheless.
I threw the box onto my bed and fell on my stomach next to it.
The semi-terrified tears welled up in my eyes.
‘Dear God… the last lottery was a bust, too…, are you going to just let me lose my job, too?’
Even though I’d never been particularly religious, I spoke to “God” on the daily.
Most of the things I’d say to Him were honestly ridiculous, like asking Him to let me win the lottery, or to raise the value of the stock I’d just bought.
It was okay that He had never listened. Still, I never thought that He would take away the little I had.
‘No better time for a drink…’
I took out six cans of beer from the refrigerator and took my seat on the floor.
I opened the box that my ex-boss had given me.
‘Hm…?’
Inside the box was quite the sight.
I’d been curious since it was so heavy.
The cracked plate and broken cup were surely already broken like that.
But, I couldn’t help but sigh when I spotted the dried out wet wipe and the ten-won coin sitting in the darkened corner.
“What’s this?”
A red hardcover book.
The title was written in shiny gold lettering, but it didn’t look like English, or French, either.
I’d learned a little bit of French over the years of baking.
‘I wonder how much I could sell this for…’
I took a real look at the book, searching for more information that could help me place a value on it. But, the price, name, or even the publisher was nowhere to be found. Then it came to me.
‘It’s a fanfic. We’re right in front of a highschool.’
I thought back to the kinds of books I used to read when I was younger. Back then, even I self-published my own fanfiction and shared it with the world.
Clearly, though, I hadn’t made any money off of it.
“Are they still publishing physical books these days? I thought everything would just be published online…”
I opened the book.
Unlike the title, which was written in golden English letters, the inside was all written in a standard Korean font.
“So…it really is a fanfic.”
Sipping on my drink, I began to read the book. I’d been captivated by the very first sentence.
[The crown prince thought he was too handsome for his own good.]
An overly handsome crown prince? I kept reading. Who is this crown prince?
One hour…
Two hours…
I kept reading until dawn.
The book itself was almost as thick as an encyclopedia.
But I finished it in a little less than a day.
First and foremost, there was no mention of any failing bakeries in the book.
And the way that the crown prince had fallen in love with the marquis’ daughter was interesting, too, I guess.
I was most interested in being immersed in the words of another world completely different from my own at the moment.
‘I guess I really am tired of this life…’
The sun rose suddenly, flooding my room with its rushing light.
Tomorrow, no… today I should update my resume.
I laid in my bed and closed my eyes.
‘Dear God… please let me live a life where I can earn a living doing what I can do well, just like the world from that book. I don’t even want to win the lottery anymore.’
That’s how I fell asleep.
Without knowing that I wouldn’t wake up in my stale-smelling room.
‘Who the hell falls asleep and wakes up in the world of some fanfic?’
The place where I later woke up, though, was the village of Seiren.
A quiet and secluded village where the crown prince and his only companion lived together, happily ever after.
* * *
What I woke up to was not a dilapidated yellow wallpaper, but a blue sky. Clouds were slowly passing by above me.
And strangely enough, the base of my neck was stinging dully.
‘Why does it feel like I’m lying on the ground?’
Of course I wasn’t lying on the ground, though. My neck couldn’t be sore like I’d been sleeping on the ground…
“Because I am!”
I sat up in astonishment.
A vast meadow spread out in front of my eyes. And in the distance, a vivid display of colorful flowers in full bloom.
‘Is this a dream?’
It was too cold, and too vivid to just be a dream. My hands found their way to my cheeks before I even knew it.
“Miss! Get out of there! We have flowers to plant there!”
“E-excuse me?”
Then, a woman with a headscarf and an old-fashioned apron approached.
“Oh my… were you sleeping there all along? I thought you were an angel who had just fallen from heaven!”
“Me?”
“Miss, bugs will crawl in your mouth if you sleep in a place like this. Where do you live?”
“I live in Dorong-dong. Where am I now? What happened?”
“Where are you now?” she repeated. “Come with me, please. They have work they need to do here.”
I followed her out of the field.
With a worried face, as though she thought I was crazy, she asked:
“…Where did you run away from?”
“What? Run away…? I was fired yesterday, but…”
“Oh my gosh… you were kicked out. I knew it.”
“What? That’s not it…”
“Let’s go back to the village for now. There are a few places hiring there. I wonder if they’d be willing to hire a young woman with a screw or two loose?”
“Did you say “village”? Are we in the countryside?”
“We’re in the village of Seiren.”
She tilted her head as if she didn’t know why I had asked in the first place. It was clearly a one-sided frustration.
“What do you mean… Seiren? And there are flowers everywhere…”
Seiren was famous for its successful flower businesses–one of which was the location at which the crown prince had met his life-long companion.
‘No way.’
My heart started pounding.
Despite my bone-dry throat, I tried to swallow. I grabbed her by the shoulder and asked:
“Are you saying that this is the estate of the Marquis of Seiren?”
She nodded with a bewildered look.
“A-and… is there a David’s bakery in the town…?”
“Oh my! Do you know David? That’s actually the place I was talking about that was looking for workers!”
Goosebumps ran down my back.
‘No…! You never budged when I asked you to run Le Cordon Red to ruin, or to let me win the lottery!’
“How could you actually listen to me when I asked to go to Seiren! I only said it because I was drunk!”
The woman in front of me shook her head. She definitely thought I was crazy.
I shut my eyes as tightly as I could.
‘Dear God…! If it’s a dream, you have to let me wake up! I have to write my resume!’
I pressed my hands together with desperate intent.
But the cold wind never vanished, and it still didn’t seem like I had returned to reality.
‘But…what do I care about my reality?’
Living in a box decorated with moldy yellow wallpaper and unemployed… without any family to turn to.
That was my reality.
Sometimes I found myself afraid. I wondered…even if I died in my little apartment…would there be anyone who would come to find me?
I opened my eyes, now determined. The woman, staring at me, was still there.
“…What is wrong with this poor girl…?”
“…ma’am.”
“Yes?”
“Where is David’s bakery?”
“If you go straight down the side of the hill, there should be a sign. It’s right there.”
“Thank you so much. Sorry for the inconvenience!”
I took a slight breath and without any hesitation, I turned around and headed for the bakery.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･:.｡..｡.:･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
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