During the short break before dinner, Isu asked Ara, who was lying down due to her back pain.

Ara’s boasting that she could work more efficiently than farming was just talk when she didn’t know the hard labor of the cooking team.

Ara spent three days without any progress with Minjae.

“Are you going to the evening gathering?”

During the short break before dinner, Isu asked Ara, who was lying down due to her back pain.

“Uh, of course, I want to go if it’s a drinking gathering.”

Ara’s response, sounding ready to get up even if she was sleeping, wasn’t refreshing.

Her back was agonizingly painful, and she wanted to drink, so it was a dilemma.

“Since it’s the last day today, it seems like everyone will gather. Don’t miss it and come out.”

“I know. Minjae said he would come in the evening too.”

Thinking that she would get along with Minjae since they were in the same cooking team was a big mistake.

Minjae was in charge of cooking, and Ara was in charge of handling ingredients, so unless she intentionally approached Minjae, it was physically challenging to have a natural conversation.
“Is that important even now?”

“Well, of course. I came here to do business while working.”

Isu laughed at Ara, who was grumbling.

“That was the original plan, wasn’t it?”

“I came here to experience a bit of everything.”

Ara seemed to endure it with mental strength during the day, but once night fell, it was a different story.

“If it’s tough, just lie down or something.”

“Should I?”

Ara burst into laughter.

Isu joined in, and at that moment, his phone, plugged into the charger, rang.

“It must be Jiho. It sounds like an alarm with the way he calls at the same time every day.”

As Isu reached for his phone, Ara smiled and said, “I’ll take the call.”

Ara nodded in agreement.

Isu went outside, walking through the corridor, to answer the call.

“Hello.”

[What were you doing?]

As soon as the call connected, Jiho’s affectionate voice was heard.

Isu closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the voice that made him forget the hardships of the day.

“I was waiting for your call.”

It was the third day today.

Every day, at the same time, Jiho called, and every time this time approached, he felt strangely excited.

Even in the middle of a conversation with Ara, his attention was focused on the phone.

[I miss you.]

A small sigh was heard from the other end of the line.

For the third day in a row, Jiho called at the same time, and the words were always the same.

Even though he had heard those words hundreds of times, there was something strangely unsettling about them every time.

Isu’s lips turned upward.

[Maybe I’m the only one missing you.]

He walked to the end of the corridor where no one was walking and opened the window.

As he breathed in the warm evening air, Isu said, “I miss you too.”

A soft laughter was heard.

[Really?]

“Really.”

[How much?]

“A lot.”

Jiho laughed at Isu’s words.

Thinking that he wanted to hear such words, Isu chuckled.

So he said it once more.

“I really miss you a lot.”

[Okay. Got it.]

Jiho laughed again in response.

Unable to see or touch, only the sweet voice reaching his ears comforted the longing.

“I want to hear your voice for a long time.”

[Um, Isu. I’ll call you again, so don’t turn off your phone.]

It was always a call that ended when Isu suggested hanging up, but today, for some reason, Jiho spoke first.

“Okay. Got it.”

Jiho hung up the phone.

Isu changed the phone settings to have a ringtone, put it in his pocket, and went back inside.

**

That night.

In the gymnasium, the final celebration party was held.

Everyone who participated in volunteer activities attended, making a lively atmosphere from early evening.

Ara and Isu also wore their most comfortable clothes, sitting on the floor.

Soon after, Minjae entered the gym with friends.

Seeing Minjae coming closer, Isu stood up from his seat.

“Minjae, come and sit here.”

“You?”

Both Ara and Minjae asked Isu simultaneously.

“I’ll go out and make a call.”
Minjae and Ara were sitting side by side, and Isu, holding a beer can, went out to the playground.

Buzzing. Buzzing.

The loud sound of cicadas resounded sharply in his ears.

Isu sat on the playground swing, took out his phone, and tapped the screen.

It had already been two hours since Jiho said he would call again.

What could be happening? Isu glanced down at his phone, then took a sip of beer.

Even while swaying on the swing and finishing a can of beer, the phone remained silent.

Not wanting to go back to the gymnasium and considering entering the classroom, Isu got up from the swing.

Walking across the field, Minjae, lightly jogging from a distance, came into view.

Isu stood in place, watching Minjae approach.

“Why?”

“You didn’t come inside.”

Minjae stopped a step in front of Isu.

“I just wanted to go into the classroom.”

Isu took another step forward.

“I sometimes went to your house.”

Minjae spoke while walking alongside him.

“Huh?”

Isu turned his head and looked at Minjae.

“Remember? It was a day when a lot of rain fell. You didn’t come out until the end.”

“…”

“Sometimes, I think of that day. Even now, I wonder if you won’t come out.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Isu stopped walking, furrowing his eyebrows, and asked.

“Isu. Our relationship got twisted because of a misunderstanding. I always regretted that. If it hadn’t been like that back then, how would things be now?”

Minjae let out a long sigh.

“Sometimes, I wondered if we’d still be meeting well if you had believed in my sincerity back then.”

Even though a lot of time had passed, the regret lingered, and it wasn’t easily shaken off.

Sometime, when Isu meets him, he felt he should vent and speak his mind to feel relieved.

Perhaps, as Isu’s younger sibling said, there might still be possibilities.

That statement gave Minjae the courage.

“So?”

“I was curious about how you are. If you have any lingering feelings.”

“It’s all in the past.”

It might have been better to say nothing at all.

If he had, it could have been more comfortable.

“Is that really your true feeling?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard you haven’t deleted my number. You still have my picture.”

“What does that mean?”

Minjae’s words made Isu scrunch up his face.

“You know my number has changed. Of course, I wouldn’t have saved your number. And a picture?”

Minjae looked perplexed at Isu’s bewildered expression.

‘Was everything Isu’s younger sibling said a lie? It was definitely…’

“And I have someone I like.”

“What?”

Minjae’s pupils shook greatly.

At that moment, a car slowly entered, casting a bright headlight onto the playground.