Chapter 27

“The coffee smeared on your pants.”

Eunwoo looked at her coffee-stained pants and stated.

“It’s okay. I’ll wash it out later,” she said.

The coffee stain was troublesome, but her expression was rather bright. When she was with Eunwoo, she felt relaxed. Although she made a mistake, she was not embarrassed. Instead, she laughed out loud.

‘Is this how having a good friend feels like?’

It was a different feeling from her friends, Eunyoung, and Ari.

“What do you do for a living?”

“You wouldn’t know even I told you about it. I’m a character designer, and I mainly work on product development and design.”

“Really? Can I see some of your works?”

Eunwoo asked with curious eyes.

“Well, wait a minute.”

After a brief thought, Sun pulled the sketch notes out of her bag.

She then showed pictures of cute animal characters.

“He’s called Croc. He travels to find crocodiles that have left themselves on the Nile river. It’s my first character.”

Sun paused for a moment and looked at the painting with reminiscent eyes.

“This is Eli; he’s a big elephant. He gets so scared over everything, so he keeps tattooing his body.”

Sun continued her explanation by showing some pictures of crocodiles, elephants, rabbits, lions, and cat characters.

“That’s a good explanation. They seem so real.”

“It’s because they are a reflection of ourselves. Although they’re just characters, I get the inspiration from around me.”

Eunwoo nodded at her explanation.

“So, where can I buy this?”

“… You can’t buy it yet because we haven’t made a deal with a retailer at the mall.”

“Why? They’re so cute, though.”

“We have some disagreements with our business partners.”

Sun responded with a bitter smile.

“Hmm.”

Eunwoo sighed shallowly, seemingly incomprehensible.

“Huh? Here, I know. It’s from Santiago.”

Eunwoo looked at the scenery of Santiago, which was painted behind the back of the character.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Sun choked up and sighed shallowly.

“What’s wrong? Are you in trouble?”

“… I still haven’t had any new concepts for new characters. Our customer wants characters that have a concept of ‘healing,’ but it’s not easy.”

Sun responded with an awkward smile.

Eunwoo nodded and slowly handed over her notes before her eyes.

“Well, I’ve been already healed.”

“Sorry?”

“When I look at this picture, it touches my mind, and it heals my heart.”

Eunwoo spoke calmly as if he were in Santiago at that very moment.

“What was this place for you?”

“You mean, Santiago?”

Eunwoo nodded and continued.

“Like you said, the characters resemble us. If you can see yourself in this picture, wouldn’t it work for anyone else?”

“Hah…”

Sun calmly recalled the time while nodding upon hearing his words.

She was tamed like a dog by someone who told her to wait. Thus, she decided to travel to heal her own wounds for the first time. At that moment, when she wanted to give up, she met Eunwoo miraculously, and he gave the rock to her. Finally, she could complete the journey.

Santiago was her past, it also was her present, and it was a journey that has continued through that day.

“Huh?”

Then a story came to her mind.

“Well, wait a minute.”

She suddenly started drawing on her notes using a 2HB pencil. A cute dog began to form behind a dancing pencil.

“It’s a concept of a dog with a leg injury, traveling to Santiago.”

Eunwoo could only keep his eyes on her without speaking.

“Oh… So, wait a minute.”

She needed time to sort out the ideas that sprang up in her head for a while.

“So, a dog with a leg was thrown away by its owner.”

She began sketching the images in her head over her notes.

The sound of a rough colored pencil followed the shape of a square. Then, a cute dog character with slightly folded ears was drawn.

“But one day, this puppy picks up a magic stone, and he gets a mysterious power.”

She drew a picture of a dog carrying a stone necklace around his neck like Superman.

She then ripped the picture of the dog and placed it on top of the painting of Santiago that she had already sketched.

“The power puppy helps his sick and injured friends. They make arrow markers, so they don’t get lost. The arrow is his symbol.”

“… Well, what do the injured animals mean?”

“It’s us. It’s comforting the exhausted people like us in modern society with his magical power.”

Eunwoo oversaw her sketch, nodding slowly as if he understood the concept.

“And I just need to add a concept to the character that I’ve been thinking about.”

The characters became humorous when she put bandages on the bear’s ears, on the lion’s nose, and even an eye-patch on the crocodile eyes.

“Just like this.”

After quickly completing the sketch, Sun showed the painting to Eunwoo.

“Hmm,” he said.

Eunwoo looked at her sketches and paintings for a long time.

“If I were a businessman, I’d make a deal.”

“Really? Wow! Oh, I’m sorry.”

Sun unwittingly shouted but quickly closed her mouth.

“But I’m still uncertain. I’d love to see the final proposal by the weekend.”

Eunwoo said, acting as if he were a businessman.

“Yes, I’ll definitely meet the deadline.”

Sun also responded with confidence.

After a moment of eye contact, both started laughing out loud. Eunwoo stopped laughing first, raised his hands above his head, and high-fived her.

“Congratulations!”

“No. Thank you, Dr. Park.”

Sun looked excited.

And a warm smile crept onto her face.

***

When he returned home, he looked down at his knees with his arms crossed.

Still, his bitter knees were throbbing.

“… Have you fallen, Sun….”

He remembered that Sun would trip frequently.

Each time she did that, he was impatient with her. He was frustrated and annoyed, and he couldn’t accept the fact that she was injured when she was with him.

“She’s bothering me.”

Even as he tried to hide the thought of her, his throbbing pain kept him from thinking of anything else.

He opened his phone and checked the contact list. A missed call from woman #16 caught his eye. After a while, Gyeonhui pressed the call button.

“… Hello?”

A voice that seemed a little surprised over the phone was heard.

“Why did you call me?”

She deliberately asked in a firm tone.

“Huh? Oh, because of Labong.”

“I took him to the hospital.”

“Yes. I heard.”

Finally, an awkward silence hung between the two of them.

The conversation did not continue when she stopped talking. The distance between them seemed to be as long as the length of their silence.

“If you don’t have anything to say, I’ll hang up.”

Unable to endure the silence, Gyeonhui first tried to hang up the phone.

“Hey, Geyonhui.”

In her desperate voice, Gyeohui listened to her voice on the phone again.

“What?”

“… Thank you for taking Labong to the hospital today.”

“Forget it. I didn’t do it to hear that from you.”

“Thanks, though.”

He was still listening as he asked.

“By the way, did you hurt your knee?”

“Huh? Yes. But…how did you know that?”

She seemed doubtful.

“Oh, just… I just asked because you get hurt so often. That’s all.”

An embarrassed Gyeonhui hurried around.

“Be careful.”

“I will…”

The conversation stopped again after the end of Sun’s answer.

“Well, I’ve put something on the gas stove.”

“…Okay.”

He hung up the phone first, unable to overcome the awkwardness.

“Good. Good job. Just make her feel that I know her pain too.”

He sighed with frustration and whispered to himself.

But soon, her words lingered in his ears.

“… Thank you.”

It was not a bad feeling.