When The Phone Rings

Chapter 58

Anything past its expiration date inevitably decays, and a name was no exception.

Living under the shadow of a dead child’s name, Baek Sa-eon was rotting away with each passing day.

Still, he desperately learned and adapted to avoid being caught by Baek Jang-ho. In the boy’s mind, there were only two paths: drown in the riverbed or survive. He was sure to be cautious and that’s how he made it through the day.

As a result, he learned how to laugh and how to respond appropriately.

“The girl you’ll marry later is the eldest daughter of that family. So it wouldn’t hurt to win her favor early on.”
“Yes.”

His stomach churned, but he steadied himself with practiced composure. Not only was he playing the role of a perfect grandson, but now they were already setting up an arranged marriage.

The chains of obligations seemed endless.

Watching his adoptive parents claw at each other every night made marriage seem like nothing more than a display case—a tool for business, profit, confinement, contracts, and paperwork. A union is devoid of meaning or emotion.

This world was full of filth and trivialities.

Before long, an unnatural weariness, unbefitting his age, clung to his face like moss.

 

***

 

One day, purely by chance, Baek Sa-eon overheard Baek Jang-ho on the phone.

“Shut down that fishing spot.”
“……!”

Baek Sa-eon froze on the staircase.

“There’s no more evidence to discard there, and the people living there are gone. Reclaim it as private property. By the way, has Sang-hoon been found yet?”

Sang-hoon was the cold, indifferent caretaker of the fishing ground.

“Sigh… Forget it. We lost track of him. He must’ve found a woman he fancied somewhere. Stop the search.”

Baek Sa-eon’s eyes trembled.

Adolescence had brought a storm of emotions, and today was no exception. But the feeling was simply too much to endure. He felt utterly suffocated.

Without a second thought, he bolted out the back door.

He ran aimlessly, wherever his feet took him ultimately following his instinct. As if returning to a primal sanctuary, he sought refuge in the shade.

The boy finally recognized the spot he had arrived at.

“I always knew I would come back someday.”

His pounding heartbeat echoed in his ears. It had been a vague certainty that one day, he would return to his true home.

Yes, home. The place where he truly lived. But now, that place is gone. The location, the people—everything had disappeared. The thought left him hollow inside.

At last, he truly felt the shell he was wearing. It was nothing but a façade. An act.

The three suffocating years of captivity crashed over him like a landslide. He wanted to scream until his voice cracked, but all he could do was clench his fists.

As his insides churned and his eyes burned with an unbearable frost, he found himself completely helpless.

“……!”

My eyes locked with someone who came up to me without a sound.

She only reached my waist. The child was so small that she probably didn’t even know the letters. Her puffy red cheeks looked like someone had carefully drawn with crayons and her eyes were cute like a rabbit’s.

A wild puff of flyaway hair floated above their head as though static electricity had taken hold.

Was that… a person? Or a doll?

The tension in him slowly began to dissipate as he realized the figure was just a child. He took a deep breath.

Leaning against the wall, Baek Sa-eon exhaled heavily.

“A- Are you sick? Are you hurt?”
“……”

The small, fluffy thing was so different from me that I felt dirty and miserable.

He felt a sudden, intense surge of emotion, pushing against the fragile boundaries of his composure. In a panic, he covered the child’s eyes. No one could see him like this. It was a self-defense mechanism.

“Urgh…”
“……”
“D*mn it… Hiiik…”

Whose child was this? And how was he supposed to shut them up? Just as he struggled to suppress the roiling inside him―

“Little chipmunk can’t―”
“…”
“Acorns are yucky, grapes are yummy―”
“…”
“Grapes, oh grapes, green green grapes―!”
“…”
“Rub your tummy, rub, rub, rub―”

The thick, sticky darkness clogging his throat suddenly caught fire and began to melt.

The child’s lilting, jewel-like voice clawed at his nerves. It was so pure— a purity he had never encountered before. But it scared him almost as much as the corpse.

The boy instinctively took a step back.

The sound of his labored breathing, as he retreated, made his ribs feel tight and itchy.

Strangely, the numb boy didn’t realize it was a form of comfort.

 

***

 

“This isn’t Baek Sa-eon.”
“……!”
“His face is different, Grandpa. It’s not the same face I saw in the garden before.”

When the girl—his supposed fiancée—pointed at him, Baek Jang-ho approached with a hearty laugh.

The old man’s bony knuckles stood out as he grabbed the finely dressed child.

Baek Sa-eon remained expressionless, but he gulped momentarily.

Later, the girl’s car met with an accident. Her younger brother and babysitter were killed, and both sisters were injured.

Baek Jang-ho broke the news at the breakfast table, flicking through the newspaper.

“That’s what happens when you don’t watch your mouth.”
“Are the daughters alright?” Baek Sa-eon asked.
“Your fiancée’s ears were injured. They say she may never hear again.”

It wasn’t the eldest daughter he was curious about. But, skilled at hiding his thoughts, the boy refrained from asking further.

If her hearing was damaged so severely, it was unlikely the younger sister escaped unscathed. The thought made his neck stiffen.

“Perhaps it’s for the best. Chairman Hong will be even more grateful to us for accepting his disabled daughter.”

Such shameless words.

“Considering your own questionable origins, bringing in an imperfect bride is hardly a loss. If anything, it places him in our debt. This is a profitable deal.”

 

***

 

Since that day, nightmares plagued him more frequently.

D*mn Baek Jang-ho.

“Hic…!”

He woke up with a cold sweat. Even though it was just a dream, the stench of brine seemed to cling to his nasal cavity.

“Huff… Huff… Hah…”

The world was made of water. After all, seventy percent of the human body was water. And that realization was horrifying to the boy.

As a sudden wave of breathlessness gripped him, a light flickered on in the pitch darkness.

“……!”

It was coming from the house next door. Perhaps it was from that moment on, that beacon-like light began to shine on the boy trapped in his nightmares.

“……”

The older sister had lost her hearing, and the younger brother was said to be mute. Tonight, as always, Baek Sa-eon sat alone in the darkness, basking in that faint light.

When the world was asleep, the small figure next door moved tirelessly under a solitary lamp.

“…Hong Heeju.”

He muttered her name indifferently.

At first, he kept an eye on her as if monitoring an enemy, wary of what she might say or do. He resolved to crush her spirit at their next social gathering. But her hand, so small and soft, had drained his will instead.

After the accident, such efforts became pointless.

I heard she lost her voice due to the trauma.

“……”

Unconsciously, he furrowed his brows.

On nights when nightmares robbed him of sleep, he would find himself watching Hong Heeju practice sign language until dawn, before finally drifting off again. This became his routine until his enlistment.

She was especially quiet and never voiced complaints.

Watching her through the window was like observing a tropical fish in a small aquarium—her movements fluid and delicate.

‘That child’s body must be filled with water too.’

Her unspeakable words burst like droplets from her fingertips, stirring something in him. He hated and feared water. But for him, Hong Heeju’s water carried willpower and vitality.

Gradually, her silence became the most fascinating sound in his bleak existence.

“You should sleep early if you want to grow.”

Baek Sa-eon muttered with a sigh, lacing his fingers behind his head.

That girl, unlike him, continued to live relentlessly. It was… a marvelous sight to behold.

The child grew. As she grew, so did he, yet their eye level always stayed the same. He felt no regret about it.

Even at a slow pace, watching Hong Heeju grow became his only hobby. He enjoyed spotting the differences between yesterday and today. Observing the little girl next door made his days pass surprisingly pleasantly.

It was easier to breathe while watching her than dwelling on the hollow shell of his own life. In that sense, she was… useful.

 

***

 

“Don’t doze off.”

He slammed the desk, glaring at Hong In-ah.

“Your sister’s staying up, so who are you to nod off?”

Despite her being his fiancée, Hong In-ah irritated him to no end.

Scowling, he resumed grading practice questions. He drew red slashes across the paper without much thought when the room’s unusual quiet caught his attention.

“……?”

Baek Sa-eon tilted his head.

The helplessly slumped Hong In-ah was being held up by a flustered Heeju, who used both hands to prop her up. The younger girl’s pleading eyes turned toward him.

‘Is she asking for help?’
“……”

Why not wake her directly? Resting his chin on his hand, he stared lazily.

‘How can a person like Heeju exist?’

The only “people” he knew were Baek Jang-ho, his father Baek Ui-yong, and his mother…

Hong Heeju wedged her tiny hands between her sister’s head and the cold glass surface, trying desperately to keep her from hitting it.

Baek Sa-eon’s gaze lingered on her trembling leaf-like hands. Heeju was a little saint.

Clicking his tongue, he circled a red mark on the test paper.

Then he delivered a sharp whack to Hong In-ah’s head.