[ENG] Thundercloud Rainstorm (BOOK 1)

1

I hear the clouds rolling in. It looks like it's going to rain. A little voice fell into my ear as if to catch my gaze, afraid to give my gaze to the distant, low sky.

“… I'll contact you." A poorly cracked and locked voice.

"okay."

As I responded politely, I looked back at my cousin in front of me. The boy's expression was a bit surprising. He said he was about to cry, but his expression was quite calm.

After all, what I witness more often at funerals is fatigue rather than sadness.

Besides, my uncle died two days ago, but it was already half a year ago that he was unconscious, and it was nine years ago that he collapsed and was bedridden for the first time.

Perhaps there was enough time to prepare and wait for the death. The last time he handed a handshake that served as comfort, moist moisture adhered to the palm of his hand.

It was a slender and soft hand for one hand that took care of a dying person for nine years. “It looks like it will rain.” As I said, this time Il-Jo looked up at the sky. I thought that the reason his palms felt so soft might be because of the humidity.

"Yeah."

“Do you have an umbrella?”

“No, I'll just get going.” Il-jo laughed at my words, which were not even a joke. I don't know why he's smiling, I stare at that face. Only then did the boy's eyelashes, which had been clumped with tears, barely caught his eye.

Even after hearing my complaint that it was okay to have a car, Il-jo went downstairs to the funeral home and borrowed an umbrella.

It was a black umbrella with the label of the funeral service company printed on it. I refused a couple of times, but Il-Jo grabbed my hand and held out that umbrella to me.

Forcing a guy like that to go away was bothersome, so I just accepted it. He waved the umbrella in his hand and said hello.

"Well, I'll be going."

"I'll contact you."

This was the second time he said that.

'What do we do when we meet again?'

The question came first. But there was nothing to argue in front of a serious person, so I just nodded. I thought as I got into the car. I hope we can meet again. I met him privately 15 years ago, when I was in middle school.

Even if we didn't see each other again for the next 15 years, it wasn't too bad. Such is the case with unrelated relatives.

Again the sky cried low. Il-Jo stood under the eaves and watched me silently until I made my way through the narrow parking lot.

A small face flashed past the side mirror. The umbrella of the funeral service company that I threw in the passenger seat disappeared one day I can't even remember. Umbrellas with old-fashioned labels were never lifted by me.

However, even after the umbrella disappeared, the quiet voice that said 'I'll call you' and the eyelashes that were clogged with tears sometimes came to mind. why did you call me relatives when we have not interacted with each other for decades. If they meet again, they are most likely to get messy with money.

After he became an adult, he didn't go to college and didn't have a job, and he spent 9 years with his uncle, raising his arms and legs. It was probably something he did in anticipation of a miscarriage, but I was told that nothing fell on him in the end. I bought it and went through high school. At the funeral home, I remembered the image of Il-Jo, who was alone like a military family without being among the children of his wife.

However, most of the acquaintances of the uncle who visited the funeral home of Deokinji, who had been in the hospital for a long time, found Il-Jo first. Without them, he would have been treated worse than the slippers stung at the entrance to the funeral home.

How can such a guy live? A poor man with no house, no money saved, no proper job. Thinking about it that way, I got a little curious. It's like seeing a homeless person on the street and wondering how they got to that point. Of course this is sympathy—It's not just a low curiosity, but...and because of this curiosity, I thought that if Il-Jo got a call, don't just ignore it and have a drink or something.

But after that, there was no contact from Il-Jo.

A few months later, it was a rainy day that reminded me of him again. Outside the car window, a man was seen walking in the rain without an umbrella. The moment I saw that pitiful figure, I remembered why. The white face that looked at me quietly until the end through the side mirror. Why did you say you would contact me? For a while after the man left, I was silently listening to the sound of the early spring rain hitting the car window. Come to think of it, on that day when the sound of clouds was scary, did it rain or not?