“It’s been so long since I’ve tasted coffee and a cigarette.”
It was a deep and serious voice. A wrinkly hand picked up a cigarette and lit it with a lighter. The cigarette burned, letting out white smoke.
“This taste… I’ve longed for this for so long.”
Jinpok let out a long smoke and coughed. He then swallowed and puffed on the cigarette some more. The smoke dissipated into the sky as Joonbum looked on.
“What happened?” Joonbum asked and Jinpok shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“…”
Joonbum frowned and closed his mouth as Jinpok looked emotionless.
‘What really happened?’
Jinpok was so different from the Jinpok he knew. Not even three years had passed since he came here. Yet the Jinpok in front of him was so old.
‘So he’s Hallis’ father?’
J.P Bayne was the name Jinpok was using.
“You sure haven’t changed a bit. No, you did… but still young. Why is that? It has been twenty-three years!”
Joonbum’s eyes shook.
‘What? Twenty-three years? So he’s been here for twenty-three years?’
That solved the mystery. That explained why he was so old. Yet there were still more mysteries to unravel.
“Ho-how did you get here?” Joonbum asked, still stuttering. Jinpok chuckled.
“Well, I was beaten to death, thanks to you. You remember, right? I told myself to never go near you from then on. But as I laid down, I was so angry. You know, it even made me cry! Now that I think about it, all of it was on me. It was karma, I should’ve known. But I was young. I decided to get revenge and got up.”
Jinpok began explaining from his old memories. It was a memory from only three years ago for Joonbum but it was a long forgotten memory from twenty-three years ago for Jinpok. Jinpok emptied the coffee, looking like he was longing for something more.
“Do you have anything else?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
Joonbum took out packed soju and Jinpok became instantly excited.
“SOJU! To think I would get to see it again…! HEY! Honey! Pork belly! I need it right now!”
Jinpok stood up abruptly and ran out. Joonbum shook his head as he heard the sound of Jinpok asking his wife to prepare him food.
“Is he really Jinpok?”
He was nothing like the person he once knew.
“Mommy, get me some other food! We have pork belly, right? I want to do it barbeque style! Hallis! Prepare some coals!”
“UGH! Father! I just got here!”
“So? Will you do it now? Or after I beat you up?”
“I will do it now!”
“Honey?”
“Ugh, no-no. Honey, I’m just saying. I’m really happy today. But Hallis, I have not forgiven you for joining a war without permission!”
“Ugh, I will go prepare the coal now, Father.”
Hallis flinched and ran out of the house.
‘This is… peculiar.’
Jinpok was like an ordinary father of an ordinary family. But what was most striking was that Jinpok’s one leg was not working correctly.
‘He probably hurt his back and leg.’
He let out a sigh. Jinpok’s time had passed so much. As he was deep in thought, a familiar table was set up in front of him. It was a round table with a small stove filled with hot coals that had a familiar looking rock pan on top of it.
“What do you think? I was so happy when I found this rock, you know. I did have a hard time making it usable. Huh? OH! Garlic! KIMCHI! This is… this is amazing…”
Joonbum began taking out his food and Jinpok looked at it with various emotions. He seemed happy and sad at the same time. Then, thick pork meat was placed on a burning hot rock pan and Jinpok began cooking it, shaking away his emotions.
“Let’s have a drink first.”
Jinpok told Joonbum. Joonbum awkwardly poured soju into Jinpok’s cup.
“It’s okay, don’t be so awkward.”
Joonbum nodded. Jinpok smiled and poured the contents of his cup into his mouth at once.
“HAH! I longed for this so much. You know, this is not even a good quality liquor either. I wanted to taste it just once. Cigarette too!” Jinpok shouted as he tended to the meat on the pan.
“Let’s have at it!”
Jinpok began making a wrap with a leaf similar to lettuce in this part of the world and ate it. Joonbum followed.
‘It’s good.’
Even though Jinpok said it was pork, it was Bodua meat. The meat in this world had a very distinct smell so it was easy to distinguish. But Joonbum loved its taste.
“You know, I wasn’t so used to the meat here at first, but now I don’t think I can eat the meat from Earth. Haha.”
Jinpok spoke as he ate.
“Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. So then I saw. I saw you disappearing into that place in a car. It shocked me, you know. I jumped in.”
They began drinking calmly. Joonbum no longer had bitter feelings toward Jinpok.
“WHAT! Are you crazy? Why did you jump into something you didn’t even know about?” Joonbum blurted. Jinpok looked at him and picked up a piece of meat and chewed on it.
“Yeah, I was foolish. But I saw you go in there with your mother, so I figured there wouldn’t be much danger. I also thought there would be a road since you went in with a car. I did think something would go bad, but the thing was flickering so I couldn’t think too much. I just jumped in.”
“Ugh.”
Joonbum moaned and stared at Jinpok, waiting for the next. He filled the cup with more soju and drank before continuing.
“Ha, it’s so good. So, yeah. That’s how I got here. But when I got here…”
“Yes?”
“You weren’t here. No car. Nothing. There was only the forest. I was sure I jumped almost right after too.”
‘What happened?’
It was a mystery. Jinpok definitely used the same gate that Joonbum used. He did not use any other gate.
‘Maybe because it was flickering?’
Joonbum thought of the flickering that Jinpok mentioned. That seemed like the only possibility.
“I thought about it hundreds and thousands of times… I think it was that flickering that caused the problem.”
Joonbum nodded silently. Unlike him, Jinpok must have thought about it for a long, long time.
“Yeah, so the first person I met when I got here was my wife. I was looking for you and your car and heard a scream. I snuck closer and found her being attacked, about to get raped by some bandits. There were like five other people already dead nearby.”
Jinpok took out a cigarette and lit it up before he continued, “I don’t know what got into me back then. It’s not like my wife is that pretty either. I just couldn’t see it. So I snuck up on them, picked up a sword from the ground, and swung at the man’s head with all my might. I didn’t know anything about the sword so I didn’t know to unsheathe it. I just swung it.”