Chapter 25.1

Chapter 25.1

Not long after, Yeon-ha came back carrying some hefty bags in both hands. Instead of going inside, she sat back down on the chair she’d been in earlier. She placed the stuff she bought on a makeshift wooden deck that was just lying in the yard.

Honestly, the dusty, dirt-covered planks weren’t much better than the ground itself. Not that it mattered, really. Even if it were the bare ground, she wouldn’t have cared.

The air against her skin was still warm and calm.

The first thing she pulled out of the bag was some jelly. She tore the package open with a crinkle and quickly popped one in her mouth. The chewy, sugar-coated bite was satisfying. Even before she finished it, her hand reached into the small bag again. One wasn’t enough, so she grabbed three or four at a time, shoveling them into her mouth.

“So sweet.”

Even with that obvious thought, she kept eating. The jelly disappeared quickly, and her hand dove back into the bag for more. Another pack of jelly came out. She had bought whatever snacks caught her eye from the convenience store near the bus stop.

She hadn’t even considered going to the little shop near her house, the one she used to visit all the time. Ever since her grandma passed, she hadn’t set foot in it.

The second bag of jelly was gone in no time. Her next target was chocolate. Without much thought, she plopped one of the convenience store bags onto her lap, tore open a wrapper, and bit into a chocolate bar. The rich sweetness spread through her mouth, and she couldn’t stop herself from devouring it like someone who hadn’t eaten in days.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about returning to the café just because you’re feeling a little better.”

She thought about his voice last night, casually thrown out while lying next to her. She had said she quit for good, but maybe he didn’t believe her.

“If you get sick again, I’m gonna think you’re just doing it to stay here longer. You’re not even fully healed, so don’t try to act tough. Just relax, okay?”

His words, sounding almost scolding, carried a faint hint of amusement at the end. She didn’t respond, just closed her eyes, lost in thought. By then, her hands were already unwrapping a macaron. She bit into it without much chewing, just mashing it in her mouth and swallowing it down. It was totally different from her usual self, who ate slowly and didn’t have much of an appetite.

– Yeon-ha, we should really meet up soon!

– If you hadn’t taken a break from school, I would’ve suggested meeting today… When can I come visit you?

The voice on the other end of the phone had been especially cheerful. It seemed like it’d be better to go visit rather than invite them here. If they met up, they’d probably talk a lot about college. While she daydreamed about what that would be like, her hands and mouth didn’t stop moving.

She bit into a slice of cake, realizing she was already full but couldn’t bring herself to stop. It just looked too good, and besides, it was another new kind of sweetness.

With cream smeared on her lips, Yeon-ha turned her head. Her gaze, which had been fixed on the wall, fell on the bright yellow flowers blooming in the garden. It suddenly hit her—those flowers had bloomed in that exact spot last year, too. In a yard that was mostly barren, those flowers seemed almost out of place.

“Wow, someone must’ve planted those. What kind of flowers were they again?”

They’re beautiful. The image of her grandma gripping her hand tightly while complaining about her back pain one day, flashed before her eyes like a dream. Back then, she’d been so focused on her grandma’s health that she hadn’t even noticed the flowers.

As Yeon-ha sat in the quiet yard, her thoughts drifted to her grandmother. Around this time last year, she had learned about her illness. If only she had known sooner, maybe they could have gone on more outings together and enjoyed the flowers while they still could. Now, these were just futile thoughts—daydreams of what could have been.

The sound of rustling grew louder as Yeon-ha absentmindedly stuffed donuts and cookies into her mouth. Sweet, sweeter, the sweetest—the sugar overwhelmed her taste buds, but she kept eating.

Her stomach was bloated, uncomfortably full, yet deep inside, she felt an insatiable hunger, like something was endlessly pulling her inwards. She reached for a small plastic bottle, fumbled with the cap, and drank it straight from the bottle, not caring about the fullness in her belly.