If you climb the hillside path behind Sangrim Supermarket in Sangrim-dong, Seojin-gu, Nasan Metropolitan City, you'll find a neighborhood where old houses are huddled close together.

Alleys barely wide enough for a single car, cement stairs cracked here and there, and walls that get damp whenever it rains. It's a neighborhood where people living hand-to-mouth, people with mysterious pasts, and people who simply couldn't afford to leave have settled down. ㅤ

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Go Dongsu's Story I

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I grew up there.

My parents were poor, and they were even more horribly irresponsible than they were poor.

One day, when I turned sixteen, the two of them vanished. I didn't know where they went. All that was left was a calendar with the rent due date marked, a little bit of rice, and me, not yet fully grown.

So I worked whatever I could find. I washed dishes at restaurants, moved boxes at factories, and once I got some strength, I carried heavy loads. When my palms peeled and new skin grew, it would just peel all over again.

It was shitty, but what choice did I have? Working was better than being hungry.

From then on, one thing was certain. I wasn't going to live like that. I wasn't going to be the kind of bastard who throws a person into the world and says, "Not my problem." ㅤ ⁘ ㅤ Even when I turned twenty, I was still in that same alley.

Around that time, a young couple moved into the one-room place across the alley. Both looked younger than me, and they had a baby in their arms. I heard they got kicked out of their homes after having a kid by accident.

I didn't really care. I wasn't idle enough to go poking into other people's business. ㅤ ⁘ ㅤ A few years passed. I was the same, and that house was the same.

The only thing that changed was that kid. The one who used to crawl started walking, and before I knew it, they were running around the alley.

It wasn't that I was trying to take care of them. It was just that the kid was there, and the parents weren't looking after them.

I'd see them crouching in front of the supermarket digging in the dirt, so I'd buy a hundred-won piece of junk food and shove it in their hand. If they were wandering around alone until evening, I'd tell them to go inside. Sometimes when they followed me saying they were hungry, I'd boil an extra pack of ramen while I was making mine.

After doing that a few times, the kid started following me whenever they saw me.

ㅤ"Mister Dongsu. Mister Dongsu."

Whenever I walked down the alley, tiny footsteps would stick to my back.

ㅤ"Ah, damn it. How annoying."

Even as I said that, I don't think I ever actually sped up my pace. ㅤ

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Your Story I

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When you think back to your childhood, the memories are always similar.

A tiny one-room place. A house that was hot even with the windows open in summer, and so cold in winter you didn't even want to touch the walls. The old supermarket at the entrance of the alley and the cracked stairs.

That was pretty much the only world you knew.

If there was anything special, well.

Mister Dongsu?

In your childhood memories, he was always big. He could lift heavy things with one hand and reach high places. Whenever he came back from working somewhere, his clothes were covered in dust. His hands were rough, his face looked tired, and he never knew how to say things nicely.

And strangely enough, you followed him everywhere.

ㅤ“Mister, do this for me.”

ㅤ“No. Do it yourself.”

You knew that even if he said that, he’d end up doing it a little later anyway.

It was the same with broken toys, tangled shoelaces, and the two-wheeled bike you kept falling off of. When you were struggling by yourself and called for him, his hand would suddenly reach out.

It was all just little things. But strangely, those things stayed in your heart for a long time.

Maybe that's just how kids are. They seem to remember the small acts of care longer than you'd think.

A good number of scenes from your childhood featured that man. ㅤ

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Go Dongsu's Story II

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That kid didn't move away, and I didn't move away either. I don't know what the situation was with that house, but I had debts.

To be precise, they weren't my debts.

When I was in my early twenties, my parents, who hadn't shown their faces for nearly ten years, suddenly showed up and asked me to be a guarantor for a loan. They said things were hard.

I should have said no. Looking back now, I don't know why that was so hard. Fuck, I was still stupid back then, so I ended up doing it.

I don't know if it was because they were my parents, or if I thought maybe they wouldn't abandon me this time. Anyway, I signed, and not long after, the two of them vanished again. All that was left was the debt transferred to my name.

I shouldn't have trusted them. That's just the kind of guy I was. A guy who can't easily abandon people he's grown fond of.

So I decided not to keep people close at all. Because I felt like once I gave them my heart, I'd have to take responsibility for them.

Because at the very least, I didn't want to become an irresponsible bastard like my parents. ㅤ ⁘ ㅤ I kept going to work. I'd go to the labor office, and if I got a job, I'd use my body all day, get my daily wage, pay off the debt, pay the rent, and buy food. Naturally, there was no money saved up.

During that time, the kid grew up on their own, but the way they acted didn't change much. They got taller and their school uniform changed a few times, but they were just as annoying when they came to bother me.

I was the same, too. If they said they were hungry, I'd make an extra portion of food. If they brought something that wasn't working, I'd curse while fixing it for them. If they needed something, I'd get them one within my means.

That was the extent of it. ㅤ ⁘ ㅤ I'd known for a long time that the couple in that house weren't good parents. I sometimes thought that leaving the kid like that, they might actually abandon them and leave one day. Just like my parents.

But as the years went by, three people continued to live in that house.

Seeing that, I thought, At least they aren't completely abandoning them. At least that kid won't have to make a living on their own from the age of sixteen like I did.

I thought that was enough. Until the first day of the year that kid turned twenty. ㅤ

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Your Story II

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My birthday is January 1st.

So the day I turned twenty was both the first day of the new year and the day my parents disappeared.

I woke up in the morning and the house was strangely quiet. My parents' clothes and shoes were gone. The bags they usually carried and a few small items had vanished with them.

A note was left on top of the shoe rack.

ㅤ｢You're an adult now, so look after yourself.｣

I read it over and over. The words didn't change. I thought turning twenty meant becoming an adult, but I was still just a kid.

Look after myself? How?

For the first few days, I just waited at home. I thought if I went out and came back, my parents might be there, or they might open the door and walk in as if nothing had happened.

But no one came.

The empty space was strange. Only two people were gone, but the room looked much bigger than before, and the sound of the refrigerator running seemed louder than before. ㅤ ⁘ ㅤ When about a week had passed like that, the landlord came by.

He said the rent was overdue. It was the first I'd heard of it. He said if I couldn't pay, I had to move out.

After the door closed, I stood there for a long time. I really have nowhere to go. No, wait. I thought for a long time, and one person did come to mind.

I looked around the room. There wasn't much to pack. I put a few sets of clothes in a bag and stepped out the door.

After walking a few steps through the alley I'd traversed countless times, I stood in front of a familiar house. A worn iron gate. An old handle. A door I'd knocked on countless times since I was little.

Knock, knock— I heard something moving inside, and soon the door opened.

Disheveled black hair, a face scowling as if annoyed. A small kitchen and a worn-out interior visible through the gap in the door. Things I'd known for a long time. And then, the voice I'd heard countless times rang in my ears.

ㅤ“What.”

I looked down at the bag I was carrying. I didn't know how to explain it, so I just said the first thing that came to mind.

ㅤ“Mister, they told me to move out.”