세상의 끝: End of the World

History Repeats

There was a little boy sitting in the shadow of the apartments. He looked as small as a cloth doll, especially when hunched over. The strange boy never left the shadow of the apartments, and he watched everyone playing in the park with dull eyes.

"He's like a ghost," the kids whispered to each other. "It's so gross!" They waved their hands and yelled to shoo him.
"Lee Minho, make him go away," one of the girls whined, tugging Lee Minho's shirt sleeve. She was one of the cuter girls in the neighborhood, her long black hair held back by a shiny flower pin.
Lee Minho smiled happily. "Okay, wait for me then."

He jogged across the street to the old apartment. The little boy sat in the dark shade of the awning, his unreadable eyes tracking Lee Minho's movement. When Lee Minho stood next to him under the shade of the corrugated metal, the boy looked like he had shrunk, becoming smaller and paler than before.

The little boy's head had turned slightly to keep Lee Minho in his sight. His eyes had no light in them, like a dead person's.

Minho thought this was a little scary, but also kind of cool. "Are you haunting this place?" Lee Minho asked. Ma had told him about bad kids that played in the streets and got run over, and when they died they had to stay there and never come back home. Maybe this little boy got run over and turned into a ghost, and that's why he couldn't leave.
The little boy didn't say anything, silent just like a ghost would be. But when Lee Minho reached out to poke him to see if his finger would pass through, the little boy flinched.

Lee Minho frowned and stepped forward. The boy moved away. His blank face turned wary, little mouth and eyes tight with tension. The boy's spine coiled with energy, like he would bolt at any second.

But the boy moved just a second too slow when Lee Minho darted forward to poke him, a finger jabbing into the soft white skin of the boy's arm. Lee Minho only had a second to realize it wasn't a ghost before the boy ran away.

"Lee Know, you're so cool." The girl blushed when Lee Minho returned to the park.

"Mm." Lee Minho looked at her. Even with her hairpin glittering under the sun, he somehow felt the girl looked less interesting than before.

Every day Ma walked Lee Minho home. Mother and son held hands, swinging their arms back and forth, smiles bright on their faces. "Ma, I thought I saw a ghost today," Lee Minho said.
"A ghost?"

Lee Minho nodded lots. "I thought it was a ghost, but it was just a kid after all. I poked him to make sure he was real."
Ma frowned. "Little Min, that's a very rude thing to do. You should apologize and treat him better next time."

Lee Minho listened sagely, and nodded at her advice. Ma always had the best advice, and Lee Minho made lots of friends by acting how Ma told him to, so he listened this time as well. "Okay, Ma."
When they got home, Ma went to the kitchen to make dinner while Lee Minho studied. When Pa came home it was dinnertime, and then Pa asked if Lee Minho needed any help with his studies. Lee Minho said no since it was easy, and then it was bedtime and everyone went to sleep. And while Lee Minho slept under his warm and soft blankets in his big and comfy room, he didn't know that in the old apartment building across from the park, a small and skinny boy was pressing a finger to the bruise on his arm and wondering why one touch could leave a mark that lasted for so long.

Lee Minho saw the little boy walking home from school one day. He was alone, back hunched and head down. He looked different enough in the light that everyone else didn't recognize him. Lee Minho told his friends to go to the park without him. They complained and pouted, but when Lee Minho said he had to do something his Ma told him to do, they all reluctantly agreed.

Once his friends went out of sight, Lee Minho ran ahead to where the little boy walked. "Hi," he said, smiling brightly. "My name is Lee Minho."
The little boy stared.