Cruise of Wonder

by Daju Lee

  Hyun held onto Yura, but she just looked at the ground with a hopeless look in her eyes.

  "What happened to you all? Let's think of a good way out of this." Juna, although sounding confident, actually felt perplexed too.

  "A good way out of this? There's no such thing as that. I thought I could do it just before. I told myself that I could find dad but that was a silly delusion. There is nothing I can do in this place."

  Grief-stricken, Jinho slumped himself down by his feet. Jinho did not say a word and Hyun kept trying to pull up his feet from the ground. Tired in the end, Hyun whimpered with his head buried in his hands.

  "Is there really no way to get out of here? Please, say something! Yura, you've always helped us. You always used to talk about brightness and hopes."

  Yura gave a forlorn look to Hyun. "I surely used to, but this place swallowed everything. Utter despair grew where now not even a tiny sprout of hope can grow. I've lost my power."

  "Is this place despair?" Juna had a light bulb moment.

  "Are you saying, that what holds our feet is despair?"

  Yura nodded his head to her question.

  "That's right. A tiresome and persistent shackle. It not only swallows the body but also the soul." Juna's face brightened to Yura's word.

  "Then, I don't have a reason to be shackled."

  As Juna raised one of her feet, it easily separated from the ground. The other foot was also separated easily, which bewildered everybody.

  "How did you do that?" Hyun asked in amazement, seeing Juna moving around.

  "Although I haven't lived long, I have gone through despairs little and large. But I have learned how to get over them, too."

  Juna cleared her throat and continued:

  "Jinho, you remember, Hyuntae Park, don't you? He was in the same class, when we were in the third grade. A vicious troublemaker that made even the teachers give up. I was once assigned to sit next to him in class. As I was sitting down on the chair, Hyuntae frowned and raised his hand. He said, he didn't want to sit next to an orphan. Then he held his nose saying, I smell and he can't breathe because of that."

  Jinho looked horrified. Juna continued:

  "I was very demoralized and ashamed. I didn't smell. That day, I wasn't happy at all even though I ate a nice pork cutlet that your mum made and received a comic book as a gift. I went into the small house and cried quietly, stuck in there. Days passed after that. I was still in pain but Hyuntae was playing and messing around, as if nothing had happened.

  "Since then, I decided to regard myself differently, that I am not unfortunate, but special because I am an orphan. There were several things I liked about being an orphan. Well, surely there are more disadvantages but I decided to just not think about them. As there's nothing I could do about it. If I do a good thing, I get a bigger compliment, especially when I try a little bit harder. 'You are very smart. How can you be so good in such difficult circumstances?' People would stroke my head, saying those things. That's why I decided to grow up as a special child… And I overcame the misfortune to some degree. Although I realised in the previous island that I haven't completely overcome it yet, but I think I've achieved even further now. Of course you helped me with that."

  Jinho felt tangled emotions to Juna's words.

  "Therefore, you can do it too."

  Continuing her words calmly, Juna stared at Yura: "Did you say, not even a tiny sprout can grow here? But you are wrong. If a seed falls down in this place, it must burst forth eventually at the right moment. It doesn't mean it's impossible only because there's no bloom yet."

  Yura became dumbfounded, as if she was hit hard.

  "I think, a vague expectation about the future is not all about hope. The present must be included in it. Even if a misfortune tried to strike me now, I need faith to look at it differently."

  "Look differently?" Jinho asked again to Juna.

  "Yes."

  As Juna was nodding her head, Yura who was in a deep thought stood up, determined.

  "You are right. I don't know how I forgot such an important thing."

  Taking a deep breath, Yura smiled at Juna.

  "Yes, a sprout is never so weak. And the power of growing up in defiance of darkness doesn't only belong to spouts."

  Yura set her foot forward to the full extent of her power. Staggering, she successfully separated it from the ground.

  "This shackle doesn't deserve me anymore."

  Her other foot, too, was completely put on the ground. Although her legs were shaking without strength, Yura blushed out of delight.

  "Thank you. I found everything I lost thanks to you."

  Yura held Hyun's hand next to him. His feet were easily separated by Yura's hand.

  "Let's go, Hyun. Where is Berr again?"

  Regaining her liveliness, Yura changed drastically from before. Lively and full of expectation, she seemed enthusiastic.

  "Berr is not far from here. Juna, I am sorry but we better go first. Please take care of Jinho."

  Hyun started to run, holding Yura's hand.

  Jinho indulged in his thoughts, sitting all by himself. He recalled things that he went through so far. He had to undergo many things since his father disappeared. It seemed like hardships were following after him against his will. He felt painful and sad back then but he surely grew up because of it, looking back.

  Then perhaps, this time might be the same. There was no need to be in despair already. This will help me later, in any form.

  Thinking like that, he felt the energy that is holding his feet weakened gradually.

  "Dad must be alive surely. I'll find him another day without help of the Mari."

  Ending the worries, Jinho's heart became full again. He was not sure whether the feeling was happiness or if he was excitement, but it was more than enough to wake up his body.

  "Juna, you were right."

  As Jinho changed his mind, his feet became easily separated from the ground.

  "Let's go now."

  Refreshing himself, Jinho stretched out his hand to Juna.

  "Yes."

  Juna grabbed his hand, as if she was waiting a long time for it.

  Yura alone was enough to wake up Berr, indeed. Berr was sitting on the stone, wearing the cloth.

  "Berr."

  As Jinho gladly called him, he answered indifferently, "I have no idea why everyone annoys me." He still had a gloomy face but managed to respond to Jinho's calling.

  "Now, only thing left to do is to go out?"

  Looking at everybody, Jinho did not hesitate to open the Emergency Exit. Unlike the cold air in the room, the warm winds were blowing. Through the open door tall brackens and some unknown plants were tangled and swaying in the breeze. It was a backyard of the hut.

  ~

  The group prepared for embarking in turns, leaving the forest area of the island and arriving in front of The Mari. Jinho called Yura who was just about to get on board:

  "By the way, sailor Yura, don't you have anything to give me, do you?"

  "Something to give to you?" Faltering for a moment, Yura smiled, reminded of something.

  "Wait a second, I guess I have it." Feeling her pocket, she found a piece of puzzle. "Did you mean this?"

  "That's right, thank you."

  Getting the puzzle with excitement, he did not have time to wait. Anxious, he took out the box from his inner pocket. Juna also watched the puzzle being placed together, unable to hide her excitement.

  As expected, Yura's piece was the last picture of the face. Their mouth dropped in surprise as soon as it was fit in the puzzle.

  "What? Hyun? Doesn't it look like Hyun?"

  Juna was glassy-eyed from shock. At the same time, Hyun completed the embarkation after Yura and made a gesture of coming up towards Jinho.

  "Yes, it's Hyun, but how did dad have his picture? And since how long ago?"

  Surely the child in the picture was Hyun, full of freckles on his face. He thought the puzzle was a clue to
where his father had left for, but now he felt more at a loss in mystery, even though he completed the puzzle.

  But what is that?"

  Taking a close look at the picture, Juna read the name tag hanging on Hyun's chest in a surprised voice.

  "Changook Kim from the Somang orphanage?"

  Oddly, the name tag said 'Changook Kim'.

  "No way!"

  "But it's true that Mr. Kim is from the Somang orphanage. Then how come Hyun is Mr. Kim?" As Juna said, Hyun in the picture was having a name tag of the Somang orphanage. It was hard to simply think they just share the name, as his father's name was not really common. Jinho stared at Hyun who kept waving his hands to him.

  "Why on earth Hyun?"

  He could not get it, even after thinking until he got a pounding headache.

  "On board now!"

  Getting impatient, Hyun shouted from the Mari. As Yura got on board, the dirty and sombre sails of the Mari turned clean all of a sudden.

  Jinho felt a shudder upon viewing the scene. It reminded him of Hyun's word that the sailors and the Mari are the 'same body'.

  If I were to assume that Hyun is my dad from childhood as the picture suggested, then the Mari…

  "Do you remember I said there are special rules in the Mari?" Jinho asked to Juna with a quivering voice, looking at the Mari.

  "These rules. I guess I understand them now."

  Jinho heaved a short sigh, looking at the Mari which had transformed into a beautiful and antique ship.

  He then waved his arms widely towards Hyun.

  "Goodbye, my friend Hyun."

  Not grasping the situation, Juna became embarrassed as the Mari left like that.

  "They are just going, leaving us here?"

  No sooner had she ended her word than the winds blew along with rain. The sky became dark and they could not open their eyes because of the severe rainstorm. As they waited until the winds stopped and gradually opened their eyes, the sky turned into blue, as if nothing had happened.

  "Huh?"

  Looking around, Juna seemed dumbfounded. She was in front of the ticket office of the Sangsang pier. The clock tower showed that the day had not changed from the one when they left, but there were more people than that morning. Some families were talking to each other beside Juna.

  "Jinho, we came back."

  Juna shouted for joy. Jinho calmly started to walk along the riverside of the pier. Not knowing what had happened, Juna breathed in the familiar air, feeling relieved that she was home.

  "Then what about Mr. Kim?"

  "Dad? He might be here somewhere. As the Mari became itself again."

  Jinho stopped walking and looked over to the bench under a maidenhair fern and ran towards where someone was sat.

  "Dad!"

  His father stood up in the sun, with an thin but calm face.

  "Come here, my children." He said, taking Jinho and Juna in his hands, wrapping them around.

  "I've waited for you. Thank you."

  Daham's calm face was dwelling in him.

  Epilogue

  "Where and how did you find your father?"

  Jinho and Juna could not readily answer mum's question. The father who came back, unlike before, preached a lot, but laughed just as much. Mum pushed them for the answer out of curiosity.

  "Well, we found him at the Sangsang pier but if you ask 'how'…" With his word stuck in his throat, Jinho looked at Juna.

  "We probably listened to his story there." Juna replied, staring at Jinho.

  "That's right, we were so absorbed in that story and came to understand it. That's how we found him."

  He ended in an cavalier manner and called his father.

  "Let's go cycling!"

  "Later, I would like to rest now." His father was lying on the sofa.

  Jinho quietly spoke to Hyun:

  "I know, but the weather outside is so good!"