HPK 99

“She didn’t come here?”

The employee at the bean sprout soup restaurant said, peering intently at the phone screen.

“At this hour, customers are rare, so I remember most of them. It’s even rarer for a woman to come alone. But today, besides that mister over there and those college kids, there was no one else.”

The place the employee pointed to with the tip of his nose was where a mister was eating bean sprout soup with a bottle of rice wine he had ordered. Seeing the back of his neck flushed red and his body occasionally swaying as if about to fall, it seemed he had already been drinking heavily somewhere else.

Besides the drunken mister, there were no other customers in the restaurant. Only the tables with leftover traces of food showed that customers had come and gone.

“…”

The hand holding the phone dropped limply downwards in disappointment. His mother’s picture was displayed on the screen. He had come here straight without even stopping by the house, but he still couldn’t find his mother’s whereabouts.

The employee, who was of a similar age to his mother, continued wiping the table with a wet cloth and offered some comfort.

“If you go to that intersection over there, there are a few more 24-hour soup restaurants. Try going there.”

It was a place Wooseung had already checked and planned to go to. Wooseung said thank you in a dejected voice and bowed his head deeply.

“But did those students park that car there?”

“Excuse me? Yes.”

“Don’t park the car there from now on. The owner of this building is so ill-tempered, he throws a fit if you park there for even a minute.”

“Yes, I’ll move it right away.”

Wooseung put his phone in his pocket and turned around. Then he approached Taejung, who was sitting at a table near the entrance.

Ping, pyorong~! He tapped the shoulder of the man who was comfortably leaning back against the backrest, engrossed in a phone game.

“Mom didn’t come here, they said.”

“Really?”

Taejung turned off his phone without any lingering attachment and got up from his seat. He followed behind him as he walked ahead and left the restaurant. The morning street had a faint smell of food waste. It seemed to be because there were many restaurants nearby.

While Wooseung was entering the next destination into the navigation system, Taejung watched him. His arm casually draped over the steering wheel, his fingers tapping. Unlike the serious Wooseung, he seemed carefree from start to finish.

“Are you going to keep going with me?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you busy?”

“Yes.”

At the nonchalant reply, Wooseung was at a loss for words. At this point, he started to think, “whatever will be, will be.” So Wooseung decided to stop caring and rely on the convenience Taejung was providing. After all, he was the type of person who would show it with his whole body when he got bored. They could part ways then.

With that, Wooseung went around to the restaurants he had checked, one by one. From the beef soup restaurant at the intersection that the bean sprout soup restaurant employee had also mentioned, to the pork backbone stew restaurant in the next block.

However, his mother was nowhere to be found. The outside had become completely bright, and the once quiet street began to bustle with people heading to work.

“Yes, please call this number. You must.”

“Alright.”

Wooseung’s face as he came out of the pork backbone stew restaurant was stained with anxiety. Taejung, who was smoking a cigarette in front, asked.

“She’s not there?”

Even his nodding head was completely drained of energy.

Taejung took a deep drag of his cigarette and then slowly exhaled. Then he casually threw the cigarette, which he had smoked less than half of, onto the ground. After stomping out the red ember with his foot, he spat and turned around.

“Get in.”

“…”

“Why. There’s one more place left, isn’t there.”

There was still one place he hadn’t gone to. But Wooseung felt like he would go crazy thinking, “what if Mom isn’t there either.” Should he report her as a missing person to the police right now? But not even a day had passed, and in the case of adults, if there were no suspicions of a crime, they were mostly considered runaways, so there was a high possibility that the police wouldn’t cooperate easily.

It wasn’t hot, but sweat kept forming on his forehead. Wooseung raised a trembling hand and wiped his forehead.

“Your mom is running away again?”

A light voice flew towards Wooseung, who was standing blankly with no signs of moving. Along with a strange joke that if he didn’t get in quickly, his mom would run away.

“…Yeah.”

Wooseung answered in a subdued voice and got into the passenger seat. As the cool air dried his sweat, a slight chill came over him.

The 24-hour hangover soup restaurant was less than a 5-minute drive from here. Wooseung stared blankly down at his phone, which had piled up with text messages saying, “I’m sorry I can’t go out.”

[I’ll go out as soon as Grandma falls asleep]

He had felt uneasy ever since his dad said on the phone earlier that his grandmother had woken up. As expected, his grandmother, who had never been fond of his mother, did not allow his dad to go out. It was because his dad had foolishly told his grandmother the whole story about his mom leaving the house.

Wooseung was furious, but he held it in.

‘I came with a friend in his car, so I’ll go check everywhere. Dad, you just keep trying to call her.’

The end of his voice trembled slightly with suppressed anger. After hanging up, he was tense, worried that Taejung would taunt him again, saying, “There you go, pretending to be nice,” but fortunately, he didn’t say anything.

“I think this is it…”

As it was a street lined with bars, the only restaurant open in this area was the 24-hour hangover soup restaurant. The car slowly came to a stop in front of the restaurant where a “No Parking” sign was posted. Wooseung unbuckled his seatbelt and hurried towards the restaurant.

Tinkle, As he opened the door, a cool air-conditioned breeze brushed against his forehead. He frantically looked around the space filled with the smell of spicy and salty food, desperately searching for a familiar silhouette.

“How many people?”

The employee, who thought he was a customer, came out from the kitchen where he had been organizing dishes. But behind the approaching employee, in the corner-most seat, he saw the thin back of someone wearing a summer dress made of a thin material.

“Mom!”

Wooseung hastily took off his shoes. He could tell just by looking at her back. It was his mom. She was sitting in the seating area to the left of the counter, where you had to take off your shoes to enter.

“Mom. Are you okay?”

Wooseung plopped down next to her and checked on his mother, Sekyung. Her hair, which was tied into one, was slightly disheveled, and the dress was one she usually wore as pajamas. Did she come here straight from home? Sekyung looked exactly as she always did at home.

“You’re here?”

Unlike him, whose heart was pounding as the tension was suddenly released, Sekyung greeted Wooseung calmly. She even raised her rough hand and slowly stroked Wooseung’s cheek. Wooseung, who lived in Seoul, had suddenly appeared here, but she wasn’t surprised at all.

“Ah, Mom, really…”

As soon as Sekyung opened her mouth, the strong smell of alcohol hit his nose. On the table were a half-eaten bowl of oxblood soup and a few side dishes. And three soju bottles were sitting there forlornly.

Sekyung raised her glass to her lips. Wooseung couldn’t even think of stopping her and just stared at her blankly.

“Wow—.”

Just then, he felt a presence behind him and heard a familiar exclamation. It was Taejung, who had casually slipped off his slippers and approached with light steps.

He didn’t sit down, but stood and bent his waist slightly to observe Sekyung. His lips were curved, as if something was so amusing. The voice that said, “You two look alike, don’t you?” was also endlessly light.

“Who is this? A friend?”

Sekyung asked with a smile.

“…Yeah. A friend.”

He heard Taejung’s scoff from behind him, but he ignored it, pretending not to hear. Wooseung checked the amount of soju left in the bottle and subtly pulled his mother’s glass toward his side. He didn’t forget to cover the mouth of the glass with his palm to prevent her from pouring more alcohol.

“Mom. Let’s go now. My friend said he’ll give us a ride.”

“Your friend is quite handsome and tall.”

Sekyung looked up at Taejung with her neck tilted. The bright light fell on her cheekbones, which were widely covered with blemishes. Her thin neck swayed precariously.

“Mom, where’s your phone? And your wallet, where is everything?”

Wooseung frantically looked around Sekyung. There was no phone or wallet nearby. It seemed she hadn’t brought anything with her, and he wondered how she was planning to pay. Even when he asked if she had left them behind, Sekyung just smiled and didn’t give a proper answer.

“Wooseung. Let’s have just one spoonful of this.”

Instead, she dipped her spoon deep into the oxblood soup and scooped up a spoonful. Then, she held it with her palm underneath, as if feeding a child, and brought it to Wooseung’s mouth.

“It’s still warm. It’s delicious, right? Huh?”

He reluctantly took a spoonful and grabbed his mother’s arm again.

“Yeah, it’s delicious. I’ve eaten it all, so let’s go now.”

“What do you mean, you’ve eaten it all. There’s so much left.”

Sekyung waved her hand widely over the table. Then, she suddenly put her left hand on her hip and turned her body around. Her dazed, unfocused eyes looked around as if searching for someone.

“Excuse me, yes. Here, here, please give me two hangover soups and one bottle of soju.”

The employee whose eyes she met went to the counter to enter the order.

“Mom!”

“Whhyy. Aren’t you hungry? What about your friend? Isn’t your friend hungry? Should I order a drink too?”

“We ate before we came. President, you don’t have to give it to us. We’re going to pay and leave.”

Wooseung quickly told the employee not to put in the order. The employee, who was heading to the counter, turned around and went back into the kitchen.

A strong thought that he shouldn’t linger here any longer entered his mind, so Wooseung grabbed Sekyung’s arm and stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“Ouch, that hurts.”

Sekyung tried to shake off Wooseung’s hand, shaking her shoulders. As if she didn’t want to go, she held onto the table with her right hand and resisted.

“Mom, please…!”

At that moment, the irritation he had been holding back surged, and in the end, Wooseung ended up raising his voice.