“My story?”
“Yeah. Shihyun has told me about you from time to time, but that doesn’t mean he shared everything about his childhood.”
“Really?”
When I asked back, Arna nodded.
“Shihyun hid the fact that he came from another world this place until almost the very end. If he started telling detailed stories, he would have inevitably had to talk about his own world too. So he seems to have kept things as restrained as possible.
Well, even if we knew he was from another world, that doesn’t mean he would have wanted to share all of his personal memories.”
It seemed that the idea of “coming from another world” was difficult to fully grasp, even for people living in a world where magic existed.
“Hmm…”
Stories about me and Shihyun, huh.
I could talk about them if I wanted to. But they would be quite different from the stories Arna and Shihyun had shared.
It wasn’t that we never faced hardships or threats to our lives—those weren’t the issue. The stories of Shihyun and Arna could all fit into a single grand narrative: “the battle against the Demon King.” But my story with Shihyun wasn’t like that.
Ours was just a collection of scattered memories and moments spent together for a long time.
Each one was precious, but they didn’t form one continuous, grand tale.
However, Arna didn’t seem to mind that.
“You don’t have to tell me everything if you don’t want to. No, actually, if you don’t want to talk about it at all, that’s fine too. I’m not in a position to demand anything. Your story is something you should only tell if you want to.”
“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”
Even so, it felt a bit wrong to just brush past the topic after she had shown interest.
Slowly, I searched through my memories. What story would be the best to share?
I had countless memories with Shihyun, but telling them all would make for a pointless, meandering story.
Ah.
I remembered one.
A story that was important to both of us.
“When we were kids, Shihyun and I once made a small donation while walking together.”
It was a cold winter day.
We hadn’t been heading anywhere in particular. That day, like many others, my parents were fighting. My mom hadn’t come home yet, and waiting outside in the cold didn’t seem like a good idea.
We had almost no money—just enough to buy two small bags of snacks between us. Finding somewhere warm to stay wasn’t even an option.
We could have gone to Shihyun’s house, which would have been warmer than outside… but then we’d still hear my parents fighting upstairs, their shouting echoing through the ceiling.
I think I told myself that if we kept walking, maybe we’d warm up a little.
“Want to take a walk together?” I had asked.
Shihyun nodded.
But not long after we started walking, I regretted it. It was unbearably cold.
Even so, I didn’t want to go back home.
There was no real excuse to return, and nowhere else to go.
Looking back, we probably should have just stepped into a nearby convenience store. But whether it was because of the cold or because I simply wasn’t thinking, that idea never crossed my mind.
We kept walking, enduring the freezing air, until a subway station came into view. On impulse, we went inside. It had to be better than trudging against the biting wind.
And it was, but only slightly. The chill still clung to us.
Shihyun, who had been holding my hand, sniffled. Only then did I realize I had been thinking only of myself.
I turned my head toward the sound and saw Shihyun looking up at me, his nose red from the cold.
I felt embarrassed.
Shihyun was three years younger than me, yet he waited for his mother without a single complaint. And here I was, dragging him outside on such a cold day just because I didn’t want to hear my parents fighting.
Shihyun was smiling like he was genuinely enjoying himself, but I couldn’t shake the guilt.
Would it be okay to just go back home like this?
Somehow, if we just returned without doing anything, I felt like I would be the bad guy.
Then, I noticed Shihyun’s ears had turned red from the cold. Without thinking, I grabbed his hand and pulled him along.
There was a small store inside the subway station. It was like a tiny convenience stand, selling snacks and drinks, but also carrying seasonal items at cheap prices.
Just as I expected, they had winter earmuffs. They cost 1,000 won.
I bought a pair and put them on Shihyun’s ears. He grinned.
Seeing that smile made me feel a little better.
Like I had finally found a purpose in what we were doing.
After sharing a laugh with Shihyun, I thought about taking his hand and heading back outside.
And then, I heard the sound of a bell.
A volunteer in a red coat stood next to a Salvation Army kettle, ringing a bell at a steady rhythm.
I dropped my last 1,000 won into the kettle. It was an impulsive act.
Not because of any deep reason… but simply because—yeah, I wanted to look cool in front of Shihyun.
And it worked. Shihyun seemed to think I was really cool.
“Why do you help people so much?”
His question caught me off guard.
I had done a few other good deeds in front of Shihyun before. Helping push an elderly woman’s cart, picking up something a stranger dropped… and now this donation.
But I never thought I did those things because I was kind.
I just wanted to look cool in front of Shihyun.
I wanted little Shihyun to think I was someone worth admiring.
Because in those moments, when I showed him that side of me, I felt like—at least for a little while—I was a good person.
That was all there was to it.
But I couldn’t say that. Not at that moment.
I felt my face heat up. The volunteer nearby was already looking at me warmly, and now Shihyun was saying things like that.
So, I blurted out something random.
“Because of the world we live in.”
A meaningless excuse, devoid of any real thought.
“Because in a world like this, it’s better if we help each other, right…?”
It was just a flimsy justification, a clumsy way to explain my actions.
But Shihyun took those simple words to heart.
That day, he donated too.
He took out his entire fortune 500 won from his pocket and dropped it into the red kettle.
I remember thinking it was a waste.
But Shihyun never regretted it.
Until the moment he died, he lived the way he had on that day—the day he put that 500 won into the kettle.
Unlike me, the one who had actually said those words.
“……”
Even after I finished telling the story, Arna remained silent for a long time.
Feeling embarrassed, I just stared down at the glass of water on the table.
I had never even told Shihyun this story. So why was I able to say it in front of Arna?
Maybe… because she had just shared her own story with me so openly.
And that made me feel like… it was okay to be honest too.
Now that I had said it out loud, I felt a little lighter.
After all, it was a story I had never been able to tell anyone.
“I once asked Shihyun.”
After a long silence, Arna finally spoke. Her fingers idly traced the rim of her water glass.
“I was curious about him the Shihyun who saved people in distress, who went on to save an entire city, and ultimately, the world. He didn’t seem to care about fame, yet he risked his life to fight. So I asked him… why he did it. Do you want to know what he said?”
I imagined that, at this moment, Arna was staring intently at her glass, just like I had been.
“What did he say?”
At my question, Arna paused briefly before answering in a quiet voice.
“Because of the world we live in. Because it’s better if we help each other.”
…Yeah.
That was just the kind of person Shihyun was.
Even when he was struggling himself, he would set that aside and help whoever was suffering in front of him, without hesitation.
A good person.
Unlike me—
“I used to wonder what kind of life someone must live to come to that way of thinking.”
Arna’s voice cut through my thoughts.
I turned to look at her, and she was smiling brightly at me.
“It was you.”
“Huh?”
“You were the one who told him those words.”
“…What?”
I couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying. But Arna didn’t bother explaining further.
“Shihyun was able to grow into the person he became because you were by his side. He learned from you. And that’s how he came to meet us.”
She shook her head slightly, almost as if she couldn’t believe it herself.
“Really… it’s like a miracle.”
“……”
I couldn’t say anything.
“Thank you.”
Arna looked straight at me and said those words.
And once again
I had no words to say.