Until The End of Time | Wonho [√]

EPILOGUE

If it all fell apart today and you could only save one person, would you save yourself? Or your loved one?

Hyungwon sipped on his coffee, carefully avoiding the chipped side of his mug. Sunlight poured through the opened window from his left. The summer heat was bearable today unlike last week. He was already tanned like a surfer from Florida, his skin browning like caramel, except for that one part of his wrist where it was still pale a bit. It had the shape of a wristwatch.

His break was nearing it's end. However, there was no hurry in him. There weren't many customers in the diner. A regular old lady read her newspaper with her never ending frown on a far corner. By the entrance, it was a family of four with bags and luggage as if they had just arrived from somewhere were enjoying their lunch. They had a teen girl and a six or seven year old kid with them.

Hyungwon shifted his focus to the clock on the wall of the other side. It was nearing one a.m. From somewhere a fat fly had arrived and was buzzing right by the heated window pane, fooling itself into thinking it can go inside. Hyungwon pulled on the front side of his t-shirt to let the air go inside his body. He was sweating mildly.

It seemed like the acceptance letter from the Glasgow university to grant him a scholarship for the master's program he had applied for wasn’t arriving even today.

Going to an internet cafe and sitting in front of a huge boxlike computer for at least an hour to only check the emails felt like way too much work to him.

That was one of the things he really missed. A reliable computer which would not lag like a 100 year old man with chronic arthritis, and internet that was fast enough to do the deed in a matter of seconds.

He wondered just what he would do if the plan for the master's did not work. He scratched on his earlobe absentmindedly, trying to think up something purposeful to do in his seemingly neverending stream of time.

A funky pop song played in the transistor inside the shop. Hyungwon was woken from his trance when he felt a slight tug in his shirt.

He looked down to see the kid with her bowl cut looking up at him. And then she diverted her attention to the android phone on the table counter. "What's that?" she asked without hesitation.

One of the only remainder of Hyungwon's mother, her cellphone.

He picked it up. The phone's battery was out months ago. It was only a brick-like object now, serving no purpose than to be a reminiscent of his pasts.

"You can use this to talk to people when they aren’t here with you," he replied tersely.

"It doesn’t have a chord though, and how is it so small?" she had a look of disbelief etched onto her face now.

"Because it's a secret product," he replied nonchalantly.

"Can I touch it?" she asked next.

Hyungwon gave her a once over. She was wearing an overall on top of a pink shirt. Her hands looked greasy and slimy from eating her french-fries only a minute ago.

"No," he answered.

"Sun hee! Come here, we will miss the bus!" Her mother called out loudly from their table.

Hyungwon was slow for a second to pick it up, and when he did, he looked carefully at the little girl. At that moment, it struck him. She had all the facial features of Chae Sunny, albeit, in smaller versions.

The girl scowled at him and bolted towards her family. Hyungwon was ready to jump onto his toes, but then he heard the diner manager calling out his name with a grunt. He noticed the pudgy man glaring at him from over the counter for not picking up after his lunch break.

Hyungwon quickly wore his apron and stood by the register. When the family paid for their dinner, he told them to come by again. He didn’t say one more word. Though as they left, he found his eyes welling up with tears.

It took him a moment to collect himself. He watched the little girl having a heated verbal fight with her older sister outside the glass door. He watched them all as they disappeared through the summer of 2000s Seoul.

The world was small after all. He had his own small life to live now.