Chapter 3 Part 5

The room, as always, was neatly organized. Even though everything necessary was provided, sometimes it felt as if no one lived there.

“My uncle surprisingly has a desolate side to him…”

The dust-free, clean room always felt this way when his uncle wasn’t there. It was like an unoccupied model room. That feeling vaguely resembled a hidden side of his uncle, and Jeong Tae-ui sighed.

Opening the refrigerator freely and chugging down a can of beer he took from inside, Jeong Tae-ui threw himself onto the neatly made bed, not a single wrinkle in sight. On the bed, which had just the right amount of springiness, after rolling around a few times, only that spot barely smelled of a person. Lying face down on it, he pulled out a book from the bookshelf within reach.

Every day, after finishing his regular duties, if there was nothing else to do, he would come here, roll around, and read books. Dozens of pages a day, slowly savoring each sentence.

Looking at this bookshelf lined with hard-to-find books, he thought Jeong Jae-ui would really like it. No, perhaps he had already read all of them by now.

There’s no reason to worry about that lucky person, but he was curious. Where could he be right now, and what was he doing? Had he returned home? Was he holed up in some library or research lab for days without sleeping, engrossed in books or such things?

He had tried calling home yesterday, just to test, but no one answered. Considering no one answered even though it was close to midnight, it seemed right to assume he was still wandering somewhere.

Suddenly, his brother’s gesture of cutting with his fingers, saying “Let’s cut the Red Thread of fate now,” came to mind.

He didn’t really think his brother disliked him or wanted to sever their connection. But what could he say? At that moment, he felt a strange sensation.

Because he was so lucky, everything happened exactly as he wished. So if he made a gesture of cutting their connection, it felt as if the connection between them would truly be severed.

Perhaps at that moment, the Red Thread between him and Jeong Jae-ui had indeed been cut. In that case, would they never meet again?

“He didn’t want that… and it didn’t feel real at all.”

Jeong Tae-ui lay there, spreading out his hand and looking at it. Just as his brother had said, perhaps tied to his pinky finger, he looked for traces of an invisible Red Thread. But could it truly be cut?

Jeong Tae-ui wiggled his pinky finger a few times, gently, as if checking if the tip of the invisible Red Thread was swaying.

It was then. As Jeong Tae-ui lay blankly, staring at his hand, a quiet mechanical sound reached his ears. It was a sound he had heard before. He turned his head, and a red light was blinking on the phone.

…

Staring blankly at the phone that was incessantly blinking and emitting mechanical sounds, he briefly considered if he should answer someone else’s call. In fact, he knew without needing to think that not answering would be more convenient in many ways and there would be no chance of repercussions, but the phone rang so persistently that he couldn’t just ignore it.

Jeong Tae-ui got off the bed and looked at the caller ID displayed on the phone’s monitor. Jeong Tae-ui wouldn’t know a number his uncle might call from, but he slowly traced the unfamiliar number.

It was an international call. If it was a number starting with 49… Germany? The numbers after that would be the area code, but he didn’t know that much.

In the meantime, the call disconnected. Jeong Tae-ui went back to bed and picked up the book. However, once thoughts of his brother arose, they wouldn’t easily disappear, so he ended up covering his face with the book. His brother often slept like this. He had asked if it wasn’t heavy, but his brother had retorted, “What’s heavy about a book that’s only a few hundred pages?” It was strange to see his features perfectly intact, even though he always slept with such a thing on his face.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t very similar to his brother. Although they were twins, there was nothing at all that made them seem like twins. Neither their faces, their minds, their personalities, nor their fortunes.

“…Still, my face is better, isn’t it? Even if I can’t compete in anything else.”

In fact, their facial impressions were so different that it wasn’t a matter of who was handsome or ugly.

Jeong Tae-ui pulled the book down slightly from his face and looked away. From his current position, his reflection wasn’t visible, but a large mirror hung next to the desk.

Jeong Tae-ui got up again and walked over to it, bringing his face close to the mirror. A man with a calm face was reflected in the mirror. He hadn’t even lived half his life yet, but he seemed a bit tired.

He ran his hand over his face in the mirror. The cold, mirror-like sensation was conveyed to his fingertips.

Around his eyes, nose, and mouth, as he was feeling around like that, the light blinked again. Almost simultaneously, the mechanical sound rang out. It was another call from the same number.

This time, he didn’t wait long and answered the phone. Such consecutive calls would inevitably ring again shortly if not answered.

“Hello?”

When he pressed the button, the monitor lit up. And within it, the screen from the other side of the call was reflected.

Nothing was reflected. It was a white wall. Only a corner of a picture frame was faintly visible at the edge of the screen. There was no way to tell what was drawn in that painting, whose colors were indiscernible on the small screen.

“──Haha. It’s the nephew again.”

A voice he had heard somewhere spoke. Then, on the screen, a hand reaching forward to rest on a desk was visible. He remembered that hand well. It was a hand so beautiful it was hard to forget.

“Oh, a hand.” “What?”

As Jeong Tae-ui blurted out reflexively, a short, puzzled question came back from the other side.

“A hand.”

Jeong Tae-ui instantly thought he had answered incorrectly, but with an unfazed expression, he lightly tapped the white hand on the monitor. The hand moved within the monitor. It seemed to be looking at its own hand.

“Your hand is so pretty, I’ll remember it right away.”

‘Haha, that’s kind of you. My hand will be pleased to hear a compliment like that for the first time in its life.’

The man on the other side of the monitor laughed. It was still a mechanical voice, but it wasn’t as grating as when he first heard it.