Rain in Kasa-Buri- A novel

12.

 It was extremely humid in North Korea currently, and Shu-jin had walked a few kilometers away from Ryu-ji's home to reach this place. He was at a drug store, waiting for a spy who was also his friend, to make arrangements for his return to South Korea. Spies usually work in such local stores, and calculate any amount of danger while skillfully safeguarding their true identity by leading the life of an innocent civilian in an enemy country. Shu-jin's friend had worked here for almost a decade without getting caught, and they were each other's alibi during important missions. However, Shu-jin's horrifying cornea injury three years ago had taken away any chance for the two friends to ever meet again, as Shu-jin was immediately asked to resign. Although it's unfortunate to end up in such a sticky situation, the blessing in disguise is that he gets to meet his long-time pal, and Shu-jin had placed complete faith in him because of his skills and connections. 

His pal, the one with broad shoulders and a warm smile, came to the front of the counter.He greeted the supposed customer, hiding behind the obvious excitement and continued to act normally as his co-workers, although busy in work could still get suspicious. He asked Shu-jin what he wanted and Shu-jin responded by saying that he needed an antiseptic for his wounds. After the hospital and escape adventure, he had genuinely bruised himself multiple times.The pal's face looked sullen in worry, as he was almost about to break character, but a spy's life has to always remain low-key no matter what the situation. He gently nodded and went around searching for it, while Shu-jin slyly rummaged through his pockets to find some money and a chit in which the important message was written. It was a request to save his and Alex's life with a heartfelt mention of how much he had missed his pal.  

His pal came back to the counter, and scanned the code on the medicine before handing the tube to Shu-jin. 

'2,300 won please' his pal said, and Shu-jin gave him the said amount while placing a chit in the middle of the notes. He furrowed his eyebrow just enough for his pal to know that there was a message for him. The pal quickly understood, he sneakily took the chit and transfered it to his own pocket and returned back the money to Shu-jin. Shu-jin who had almost turned back to leave was confused, as he had given the complete money and did not have any pending change. 

His pal mouthed, 'I am never going to let you pay', he smiled. The pal's sole mode of survival was working in this store but losing business was nothing, the pal would do almost anything if it for the sake of Shu-jin. He announced another sentence for the co-workers to listen.

'Sir, I think you forgot to collect the change' he said and Shu-jin smiled and mouthed a sweet thank you before leaving. Warmth spread in his heart, after meeting this friend after so many years again. They had that unbreakable kind of bond and were the same age so during their training days they would often be endearingly termed as 'Tom and jerry', because of how chaotic yet unstoppable the duo was. They were from the same village, speak the same dialect and enjoy similar interests too. They were like two peas in a pod, but, their job compelled them to stay apart.

 Shu-jin walked back home and his pal immediately shifted the board of his counter to 'Temporarily closed' and went to the store room hurriedly in order to read what Shu-jin had written. 

'I will be in the store room, to prepare for this big order. Call me if you need something' The pal spoke to his co-workers as he closed the door of the store room behind his back, and grabbed a stool to sit and read the message. The letter adressed his pal as 'woo-woo' which was a special nickname only Shu-jin used for his pal who was originally named 'Woo-sak'. 

Woo-sak giggled seeing this adorable nickname after so long and then continued reading further as his face became more stiff with each sentence.He took out his phone and started making a plan accordingly. 

Alex, Ryu-ji and Da-oh had just started with rigorous work in the farming fields. Alex, although a newbie instantly took charge of all manual work at the fields, as if he wanted to showcase his manhood when he was hardly one yet, and rolled up his sleeves focusing entirely on work and occasionally on how Ryu-ji did the work or maybe only staring at Ryu-ji. One could not tell, because of how well he hid it. Da-oh, the youngest nine-year-old  watered all the crops and did an excellent job at plowing. Looking at the way he did it, Alex was sure the younger had been doing this since very early on. He just smiled at how cute Da-oh was and continued with the work which mostly comprised of stealing glances at Ryu-ji in broad daylight shamelessly.

 After all the work, Ryu-ji dramatically wiped the sweat off her forehead and asked them to follow her as they returned home. They sat beneath the banyan tree in the backyard of Ryu-ji's home and smiled as Da-oh plucked a flower from their home grown garden and put it at the back of his ear, cupping his face, doing the famous ae-gyo which he had learned watching the pirated south korean dramas from the dvd's his sister secretly watched at home oftentimes. Alex took a flower from Da-oh's hand and gently placed it behind Ryu-ji's ear who remained stunned at this advance. She blinked uncontrollably and burst into laughter seeing how both Da-oh and Alex were doing aegyo to her. Alex just stared at how she covered her face while laughing and could not help but wonder how beautiful her smile must have looked. Before they knew, due to fatigue, the three lay down on the grass beneath the shade of the huge Banyan tree.

Meanwhile, Shu-jin had reached home and he saw the three children Alex, Ryu-ji and Da-oh sleeping peacefully under the large banyan tree which was at the backyard of Ryu-ji's home. Alex had almost wrapped one of his hand around Ryu-ji's rather petite figure as he softly snored. Seeing this sight, Shu-jin could not help but adore how good they looked together, but most importantly how innocent Alex was. He pitied the little boy who just wanted to dream but was tangled in a mess he did not even create. He shook his head as he took his shoes and socks off, and Ryu-ji was alerted by the sound. As she slowly opened her eyes, she looked beside her to find Alex, whose brown hair and manly features stirred weird feelings in her stomach. She had never felt this way before. Being all day in the fields, the only thing that made her happy was the rain in kasa-buri because of how the crops flourished at that time, but, now she felt something similar without the rain. She blew hair on Alex's face and seeing his hand almost touching her body, she blushed a deep shade of red. Her trance broke as she heard another noise from inside and quickly entered her home ready to throw hands but stopped in the middle of her tracks as her eyes met with Shu-jin's. She slowly greeted him as he did the same back and patted her head.

'Where are your parents?'

'They will be here tonight' Ryu-ji spoke as felt giddy to meet her parents again. This was an all the more reason for her to love friday nights and weekends. 

Shu-jin was about to walk away but Ryu-ji asked something as he turned back to her listening to her voice.

'I have never dared to ask. Uncle, who are you? Is that your son, are you here as tourists, also where are you from? How do you like Kasa-buri? Do you feel comfortable staying here?' She flooded him with questions as curiosity burned in her eyes. 

'Come, have a seat' Shu-jin said as he sat on a sofa, and patted the seat beside him. He of course, made up a fake but believable story and never failed to praise Ryu-ji for how well-mannered she was and what a good job her parents had done at bringing her up.

 She just shyly smiled but, was not completely convinced of the story that Shu-jin had just made up.