The Night Belongs to the Moon | Taeyong

46 | You Who Came Under the Moon - II

Dal-ae woke up every day to change the oil in the same lantern that burned through the night and during the day. She peered down the same path every morning, waiting for a traveller she was not sure was ever going to come. She went to the library and she came back, the tea cold and the cottage dark. She lived the same day over and over again, through the winter that came, through the spring and summer that followed into the next autumn and till the ground was covered in snow once again.

Mark and Haechan got married. Her gift reached them and they visited with a present of their own. If they were upset, they didn't show it and Dal-ae was grateful for it.

'Noona,' Mark had called her for the first time and asked if it was okay to call her that.

'You know that you're much older, right?' she had told him.

'Hm.'

'Yet you wish to call me noona.'

'Hm.'

She had considered, glancing over at Haechan, who was looking at her with the same anticipation that was present in Mark's eyes.

'Fine,' she had said and Haechan had jumped up and plopped down next to her.

'Noona, noona, noona,' he had exclaimed. 'Do you want to see the pictures of the ceremony?' he had asked but had not waited for an answer. 'This is the one where Mark cried,' he had already begun. 'Isn't he the sweetest? But I mean who can blame him, look at me, I looked gorgeous.'

She had sat listening like she always did with those two, like she always did when Taeil visited, like she always did when Doyoung nagged her and like she always did when Jaehyun played his games with her.

Another winter was passing and the ground was starting to thaw again; the lantern in her balcony still burned, the path was still empty and the moonflower on the ledge still swayed looking out into the night, waiting along with her.

Yet another morning came bringing with it the same routine, only today she had woken up earlier than everybody. It had been raining the whole night, in fact, it had been raining continuously for the last seven days.

The library needed a new consignment of books which had to be picked up in person and she had volunteered to go get them herself. The reason she had given Mrs. Yoon was that the children must get the books at the earliest but that was not why she had signed up for this – the town in which the bookstore was situated was just a kilometre away from the village Dal-ae was born in.

Three years ago, she had asked Jaehyun about her home. He had brought her the official scrolls of reconstruction and rehabilitation that was undertaken by Taeyong all those years back but there was nothing more than what she already knew except for the local name of her village – Pangma.

'Keep them,' Jaehyun had told her.

'It's alright,' she had replied. 'I just wanted to see it for myself in case I wished to visit.'

But she never did, not once. The seller that the library got its books from had always been in the same town and every year, Mrs. Yoon would make the journey herself to get a stock of new books. It was merely a two-hour train ride away but Dal-ae never volunteered. However, Mrs. Yoon was getting older, and the continuous rain had made her joints hurt. It was her husband who had offered to go in her stead this time but when Dal-ae was informed of this, she told them that she would go.

Mrs. Yoon came to see her off with a packed lunch and two snack boxes, and Mr. Yoon walked her to the station, carrying an umbrella for her. He waited with her till her train arrived and walked her to her seat when it did.