Rainy Days
The pitter patter of rain filled the rooftop. At the place where nothing was, Eun Tak cried in agony. It seemed like someone had ripped out her heart and shattered it into dust. He was gone. He had vanished. The Goblin was at a place where she couldn’t summon; all the lighters and matches in her bag suddenly had no use. She wanted to go with him; wherever he was. Whether it was heaven or hell; she wanted to go with him.
The atmosphere trembled, and everywhere in the world, memories people had had with the Goblin were disappearing. Everything that would remind someone of the Goblin, burnt with the last remains of the blue fire.
The person who sat in front of the fountain, the person who watched her and smiled, was disappearing from the earth. Memories got washed away in rain; soon there would be nothing left.
Eun Tak sprinted to her bag in haste. The tears wouldn’t stop, but she was determined not to forget him. Like a crazy person, she searched through her bag to find her notebook. With shaking fingers, Eun Tak started to write on the piece of paper.
Remember him. The man’s name is Shin Kim.
He is tall, and his smile is sad.
He will come as rain; he will come as the first snow. He will keep his promise.
Remember him. You are that man’s bride.
*
The dream she had since she was younger, a radio director, was fulfilled. She had thought that everything would be happy by the time she achieved it, but things kept happening everyday. Incidents and accidents. The weather forecast had said that the weather was going to be bright and sunny, but 10 minutes before the broadcast, rain had started to pour into the city of Seoul. She had managed to fix the script in time, but now she was exasperated. Her phone rang, notifying a message; Kyung Mi was asking her to transfer 300 dollars into her bank account.
Eun Tak walked through the lobby, pulling her sagging body with her. It was raining a lot outside. She stared up at the grey sky with soulless eyes; it was a dark sky.
Rain was one of the things she hated the most. When she was a student, she didn’t like the rain because she didn’t have an umbrella. Now, the raindrops fell into her past wounds, hurting her. Rain depressed Eun Tak. For a reason she did not know, her heart was completely empty; there was a hole that could not be fixed.
She fingered the necklace on her neck to try to make herself feel better. The necklace had been on her neck since a time she could not remember. Eun Tak couldn’t figure out what the necklace’s story was, but everytime she touched it, she felt better. She guessed that it was a memento of her mother’s and walked out into the rain with her umbrella.
The place Eun Tak went to was Sunny’s chicken shop. The voice of Sunny welcoming her inside, always made her feel warmer and better. Sunny was the person who lived on the first floor of their house; it had been Eun Tak’s first home and she was lucky to have met such a great neighbour. Eun Tak had gone to eat chicken at Sunny’s shop a lot; they had become friendly with each other in no time.
Sunny placed the fried chicken on the table, and Eun Tak grabbed out a bottle of soju from the fridge. When they had drunk a few glasses, another person came into the shop. She was the class leader from Eun Tak’s third year in high school; well now people called her Lawyer Kim. When it rained, the three of them naturally met each other at the chicken shop for a drink. They all knew that Eun Tak had a hard time whenever rain fell from the sky, and they were always there to comfort her.
Lawyer Kim sat down and told Eun Tak that she was going to set her up with a great man. She felt sorry for Eun Tak, because she knew how lonely she was. Sunny joined with the ‘set up Eun Tak with a good man’ plan.
“Get married when people want you. Look at me; when I was younger, being someone’s first love was the easiest thing in the world, but now I don’t even have someone to take me out for a drink.”
“Yeah, don’t become like her.”
Sunny glared at Lawyer Kim. She had said so with her own mouth, but someone else agreeing with her was just annoying.
“Eun Tak, do you only have this one friend?”
“Eun Tak, do you only have this one place to drink?”
Between the two fighting people, Eun Tak smiled and sipped the bitter soju from her glass. Rain was still pouring outside the window. She had made plans with someone to meet on a rainy day, but she couldn’t remember who it was. Maybe it had been these people. There was sadness in Eun Tak’s smile.
“The rain is falling; the alcohol is bitter; and I have two friends who worry about me.”
It was a good day.
Eun Tak walked through the street, back to her house; she was a bit tipsy. She started humming a sad song under the darkness of the night. Next to the supermarket, the ghosts were watching Eun Tak walk past. They were all whispering to themselves; Eun Tak was the Goblin’s bride, but she couldn’t even see ghosts. Eun Tak was already 29, but the Goblin had not come back. Maybe she wasn’t the bride afterall. The virgin ghost looked at Eun Tak weirdly. She was sure that Eun Tak had seen her before; everything was strange about the girl.
“What’s wrong with me… What’s making me sad?”
Eun Tak fell onto her bed and tried to stop the sudden overwhelming emotions. Outside the window, she could still hear the never-ending sound of the rain.
She was sad. But why was she sad? She wanted to see someone. But who did she want to see?
There was no answer to her questions, and her depressing emotions just kept building up inside her. In the end, the sadness overflowed out of her and Eun Tak cried herself to sleep.
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