On a TV in a subway station, Jae saw the b-boys who had bullied him in Daehangno. The group, Crew Something or Other, had just returned from winning first prize in an international b-boy competition in Germany. They were guests on a talk show, and their excitement was still at a peak. The host kept repeating that the competition was the World Cup of b-boy competitions, dropping mentions of “Korea” and “our people” as he spoke.
He mostly emphasized the last round, a face-off between their team and the Americans. At one point, as he talked about the climax of the match, a sentimental symphonic melody started up and the Korean national flag filled the screen. Jae realized why the b-boys had pushed him out of Daehangno the year before. He was too different from them. He didn’t have a spectacular homecoming dream like they did, and he lacked a place he could call home—or anyone to welcome him—so he didn’t need fancy clothes or medals. He didn’t have fantasies of hard-won success. What Jae had instead was a vague sense of mission, though this energy inside him hadn’t yet found the means or the right time to emerge.
For the first time in ages, Jae returned to Daehangno. He didn’t see the b-boys he’d met before, but he did see other b-boys practicing on an open stage. There was no sign of Mokran either.
Jae went to the café where he’d heard she was working. He strode down the stairs and headed straight for the cube so no one had time to stop him. Mokran, lying inside the cube, didn’t recognize him right away, not until he breathed onto the clear acrylic wall and drew a J on the fogged-up surface. Their eyes met. He pushed the cube with both hands and it gave easily. The cube’s fragility shocked the bystanders, for it had resembled an object from a sci-fi movie, an impenetrable planet surrounded by a strong magnetic field.
The surprised employees dragged Jae away, though he didn’t resist, even when the café owner repeatedly punched him in the chin. Mokran rose from the collapsed cube as if bewitched, and followed as they took Jae away. The owner and his employee pulled Jae upstairs by the waist of his pants and waited for the police to arrive.
Only then did Mokran intervene. She said to the café owner, “I’ll say you work in the prostitution business.”
The owner was silenced by her sudden attack, but the other employee spoke up. “Do you know what happens if you falsely accuse an innocent person?”
“What’s ‘falsely accuse’?” Mokran said sarcastically. “Is it something you can eat?”
The café owner looked from Jae to Mokran in disbelief. “Is this homeless asshole your boyfriend?”
Mokran glanced at her cell phone. “The police should be here any minute. It takes the 112 patrol cars about five minutes, you know. You could end up on the nine o’clock news. People always believe what they want to believe.”
“You bitch!” he said. “What the hell do you want?”
She pointed at Jae. “Let him go.”
“If you come back for your paycheck, I’ll kill you.”
With that, he released Jae.
Mokran got her motorcycle, then drove back so Jae could get on behind her. He didn’t care that a wad of the owner’s spit landed on his back; his clothes were filthy anyway. They headed toward the Han River.
When they arrived at the riverbank, Mokran asked, “How’d you know I was there?”
“I ran into Donggyu.”
She looked up at Jae, intrigued. His face was unwashed, grubby, but his eyes glimmered. They mesmerized her.
“You’re pretty tough,” she said. “Coming into a stranger’s shop and causing hell.”
“Nothing ever truly belongs to anyone. Being an owner doesn’t mean anything. And anyway, you were locked up in the cube. The cube didn’t want that, either.”
“That’s not it,” she said. “I was making money. Going in the cube was my choice.”
“I heard the cube’s voice as I was coming down the stairs. It said it was ashamed.”
“You really hear strange voices coming from nowhere?”
“I know if I say things like that, I’ll be hauled off to a mental hospital, but I’m not schizo. The voices I hear don’t scare me or anything like that. I just talk to them.”
“That’s insane.”
“I’m not asking you to understand. But I definitely heard its voice.”
“So you weren’t trying to rescue me, but trying to rescue the cube?”
“I saw you when I got close to the cube. That’s when I started getting chest pains again.”
“You felt sorry for me? It’s not like I was imprisoned or anything.”
“You’re not meant for that place. What I mean is, it’s unnatural for you to be inside there. Right here, like this, this is more you. There’s the river and the wind blowing. The wind’s lifting your hair, and it’s like the sun’s rays are shining down through the strands. It’s beautiful. You in front of me this way, it’ll probably be one of the last scenes that will come to me right before I die. But that cube in the basement wasn’t right for you at all—that’s why it was wailing.”
“So why haven’t I heard it before?”
“Because your senses are broken.”
“What senses?” she said. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“They say that the Native Americans pleaded for forgiveness from trees before cutting them down. They understood what it meant for a tree to disappear. In asking the trees for forgiveness, they were able to cope with the trees’ absence. Cutting down a tree that they’d spent their entire lives looking at was no different from cutting off a part of themselves. They didn’t have any concept of money—they were directly connected to the objects around them. The act of accepting money to work blocked you from your own awareness. That’s why you couldn’t hear the cube.”
“I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”
“Let yourself open up and take a good look around you,” he said. “Don’t believe all the clichés. That’s the only way to save yourself, because you’re worth it.”
Jae’s last sentence reminded Mokran of a famous makeup advertisement, so she giggled. Jae looked confused, and she realized that he didn’t know the ad.
Thrown off, she said, “You don’t know that ad, do you? ‘Because you’re worth it.’”
“No.”
She grabbed his hand. His hand was warm. “How do you like my bike? Does it suit me?”
“What do you think?”
“I like it. It’s comfortable. I think it’s right for me.”
Jae looked at her solemnly. “Your bike likes you too.”