Seventeen years ago.

“Hey! Wait for me! I want to come too!”

Yoonseul hurried after her friends, calling out desperately. But they ignored her and kept walking.

She was a good head shorter than most children her age, making it difficult to keep up. And trudging through the sand was no easy task for an eight-year-old.

As though deliberately trying to leave her behind, Ryeojin and Haeseung joined hands and waded into the sea.

Both girls had inflatable swim rings, while Yoonseul had nothing but a pitiful, half-deflated beach ball.

“How are you supposed to play with us when you don't even have a swim ring?”

“Exactly. You don't have one of these.”

The swim rings her friends were using had recently gone on sale at a newly opened supermarket in their neighborhood.

They were something Yoonseul could only dream of owning.

“Grandma, can't you buy me one? All my friends have them!”

“Absolutely not. And you're not to go playing in the water, either. Do you understand?”

“Grandmaaa!”

She'd begged her grandmother over and over.

It hurt being left out of her friends' conversations, and she desperately wanted to try one of those beautiful pink swim rings.

But her grandmother, Jongsuk, wouldn't budge.

Although Yoonseul had often played near the beach since she was little, she was actually rather afraid of the water. There had been an incident when the waves were especially rough, and she'd nearly drowned.

Ever since then, Jongsuk had refused to let her have anything that might encourage her to play in the sea.

But Yoonseul had wanted to spend just a little more time with her friends.

So today, she'd brought along an old beach ball someone had passed down to her and followed them out.

After all, she didn't have a swim ring of her own.

“We can just play ball together.”

Even as she spoke, the waves kept rolling against her, making it difficult to stay on her feet.

Unlike her friends, who were comfortably supported by their swim rings, Yoonseul kept staggering and losing her balance.

Ryeojin and Haeseung burst into giggles.

“My mom said she's going to buy me a swimsuit, too. You don't have one of those, either, do you?”

“I'm going to ask my mom for one, too.”

The two girls exchanged smug grins, taking turns showing off with the obvious intention of making Yoonseul feel bad.

Her cheeks flushed bright red.

“I'm getting one, too! I'm going to get a swim ring and a swimsuit!”

“Liar. You said your grandma wouldn't buy you one.”

“Yeah. Doesn't matter how many times you ask. She'll still say no.”

“I said I'm getting them!”

Yoonseul shouted, unwilling to back down.

But as she raised her voice, her foot slipped.

Her body tilted sideways, and her little head plunged beneath the surface before popping back up.

“Pfft! Haa… Ha…”

Startled, Yoonseul flailed her arms and frantically wiped at her face.

Saltwater had gotten into her eyes, making it almost impossible to open them. Some had gone up her nose, too, leaving it stinging painfully.

As she gasped for breath, Ryeojin and Haeseung doubled over with laughter.

“Look at her! That's what happens when you're so short.”

“She's hilarious!”

Yoonseul rubbed her eyes as hard as she could, but everything remained blurry.

Ugh, it hurts.

Wiping her face with hands already covered in seawater wasn't helping at all.

While Yoonseul struggled to regain her footing, Ryeojin and Haeseung exchanged glances and silently signaled to each other.

Then, taking advantage of the fact that she couldn't open her eyes, they quietly slipped out of the water.

Carrying their swim rings, the two girls hurried across the sand.

“H-hey! Help me… Someone grab me!”

Once she'd lost her balance, standing upright became terribly difficult.

She slipped beneath the surface again.

And again.

Her head kept going underwater, and before long, she'd swallowed what felt like an entire bucket of seawater.

“Blech!”

Yoonseul gagged on the salty water, waving her arms desperately through the air.

“Mmph… Hic… Haa…”

She staggered one last time.

Then she lost her balance completely, and her small body disappeared beneath the waves.

Everything went black.

She couldn't hear a thing.

Her lungs felt ready to burst.

She tried to breathe through her nose, then through her mouth, but all she managed to do was swallow more saltwater.

“Never go into the sea by yourself. Understand? Are you listening to your grandma?”

She could hear Jongsuk's voice, repeating the warning she'd given her so many times.

She should have listened.

All she'd wanted was to play with her friends a little longer.

And now look what had happened.

Her consciousness was growing fainter.

Yoonseul squeezed her eyes shut and pictured her grandmother's face.

******

“We're moving.”

“Today?”

“Yes. I'll take care of the school arrangements myself, so don't worry about that.”

That morning, Minhee had abruptly announced that they were moving.

Wooyoung hadn't even had time to say goodbye to his friends before they left home.

He'd asked his mother why, but she'd simply told him it was nothing important.

Knowing she had no intention of telling him anything more, Wooyoung hadn't pressed the matter.

He could only guess that it had something to do with the two men who'd come to their house a few days earlier.

After a two-hour drive in a truck, they'd arrived in a village by the sea in South Chungcheong Province.

His mother had mentioned the name of some town, but he'd barely been listening and couldn't remember it.

It wasn't as though the name mattered to him.

“I'm going to introduce myself to the neighbors for a bit.”

Before they began unpacking, Minhee had decided to visit the surrounding houses and introduce herself.

Wooyoung told her he was going to explore the neighborhood and set off down a narrow lane.

“This really is the middle of nowhere.”

He muttered to himself as he wandered through the village.

The neighborhood was quiet, with a scattering of small houses clustered together.

It was about as rural as a place could get. There were barely any houses in sight.

But when he followed the road a little farther downhill, the view suddenly opened up.

The sea stretched out before him.

“Well, this is nice.”

Sunlight danced across the water, making the waves glitter brilliantly.

Admiring the beautiful view, Wooyoung walked along the beach as the humid, salty scent of the sea brushed past his nose.

The beach was deserted, too.

Not another person in sight.

Wooyoung sat down on the sand and gazed absently out at the water.

That was when two little girls came running toward him.

“Ahahaha! I told her we didn't want to play with her! Why does she keep following us?”

“Seriously! She never listens. I hate it.”

“But she fell in the water. Think she'll be okay?”

“Who cares? Come on, let's go. Want to take a bath at my house and eat some bread?”

“Yeah!”

The girls ran off, laughing and carrying their swim rings.

They looked about elementary-school age.

Wooyoung had been about to dismiss them as a couple of cute little kids having fun, wondering what could possibly be so amusing.

But then a puzzled expression crossed his face.

“…”

She fell in the water…?

The water?

He was pretty sure one of them had said someone had fallen in.

Frowning, Wooyoung studied the sea.

But all he could see were the rolling waves.

There wasn't a single person in sight.

“What the…?”

Were they joking?

Just in case, Wooyoung got to his feet and moved closer to the water.

He walked slowly across the soft sand, his feet sinking with every step.

Even when the incoming waves began washing over his toes, he couldn't see anything unusual.

He was just tilting his head in confusion when—

“…!”

A tiny hand suddenly broke through the surface of a wave.

Wooyoung's eyes widened in shock.

But almost immediately, the hand disappeared beneath the water again.

Did I imagine that?

Before he even realized what he was doing, Wooyoung was charging into the sea.

By the time he came to his senses, the water was already up to his waist.

The waves were fairly strong, making it difficult even to walk.

Still, he refused to give up.

He pushed a little farther out.

Then something brushed against his leg.

Wooyoung's eyes flew wide.

“Haa… Haa…”

He plunged his arms into the water and swept them frantically around his legs, searching for whatever had touched him.

But he couldn't grab hold of anything.

Worse, the seawater was so murky that no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't even see his own hands beneath the surface.

“I'm sure I saw something…”

With every passing second, his anxiety grew.

His heart pounded so hard it felt ready to burst.

If someone really had gone under, he needed to find them as quickly as possible.

Just as that thought crossed his mind—

His large hand closed around a slender arm.

Wooyoung nearly jumped out of his skin.

He grabbed hold and pulled with all his strength.

A small, frail child emerged from the water.

It was a little girl.

She was completely limp, apparently already unconscious.

“Hey! Wake up! Come on!”

He shook her, but she didn't respond.

Holding her lifelessly limp body in his arms, Wooyoung hurried out of the sea.

He laid her on the sand and brought his ear close to her nose.

“Haa…”

He couldn't hear her breathing.

Wooyoung went pale.

Placing his right hand over his left, he began pressing down on her chest.

He'd never imagined he'd actually have to use the CPR he'd learned at school.

Struggling to remember what he'd been taught, he leaned more of his weight onto his hands.

After a series of rapid compressions, Wooyoung opened her airway, pinched her nose, and brought his mouth to hers.

“…!”

He blew a deep breath into her mouth.

Then he pressed down on her chest again.

Another breath.

More compressions.

He repeated the process over and over.

How many times had he done it?

“Kh—! Cough!”

“Haa… Haa…”

The sudden sound of the girl struggling for breath drew a sigh of relief from Wooyoung.

She began coughing violently, bringing up mouthfuls of seawater.

Then, slowly, her eyelids fluttered open.

“Hey! Are you okay? Can you see me? Are you awake?”

But before Wooyoung could even begin to relax, the little girl collapsed again, as though she'd fainted.

Chapter 4

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