From some moment onwards, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the TV. The hands that kept moving the forks and glasses now stayed on top of tables and knees neatly. Maru understood why Jayeon chose this place. It was a bar, yet it was not noisy. He could hear the sounds of the TV clearly. Although the sounds of conversations interfered, it wasn’t bad to the point that it bothered him. It was like a jazz bar, but the TV replaced the jazz.

“It’s starting,” Jayeon said.

Starting - this was a magical word. Maru felt that the sounds around him were blocked off completely in one moment. His ears became a precise machine and just accepted the sounds from the TV speaker. After the last ad ended, the program logo in the top right corner of the screen disappeared. Then, the YBS program song came out alongside a notice that this was rated R15 before it disappeared.

Maru turned around to the TV. He crossed his legs and picked up the glass full of soda.

A dark night; a plane flew past the crescent moon sky. The camera chased the plane which was blinking its crash-prevention lights before slowly moving down to the bottom. It portrayed the back of a man who was walking up a hill. In the man’s left hand was a black plastic bag.

“It’s on, it’s on,” Jayeon said as she tapped on Ganghwan.

Ganghwan told her to calm down a little and quietly looked at the screen.

Ganghwan, who was singing ‘Sanoramyeon’ by Deul-gukhwa^[1] as he climbed the hill, suddenly braced himself against the...