As the train slowly departed, he looked at the window where he could see Eun Ok. She was not sitting in her seat but standing by the flowerpots. As the train passed Jeong Jin Wu, Eun Ok waved her hands but quickly lowered them so it wouldn’t seem like a departing gesture between lovers. She turned her head away. The train faded into the distance, but Jeong Jin Wu could not keep his eyes off the parallel tracks that stretched into the horizon.
Deep in Jeong Jin Wu’s heart was the lasting image of beautiful Eun Ok. He could not forget her genuine, tenderhearted, and reticent personality. Jeong Jin Wu considered her disposition and her efforts toward her research to be more attractive than her eyes and rosy cheeks.
About a year and a half later, Jeong Jin Wu was assigned to his hometown to preside over the Superior Court as the People’s Judge. He settled down in his new office and grew acquainted with his colleagues. Meanwhile, Jeong Jin Wu discovered that Eun Ok was working at a vegetable research facility in a suburb near the city. He decided to pay her a visit.
Eun Ok received the news that Jeong Jin Wu was there to see her. She paused, hesitated for a moment, delighted and yet troubled at the same time. She plucked an unripe pear from one of the trees and went to the front entrance of the facility with a welcoming expression. She offered Jeong Jin Wu the pear, which was evidently hard and sour.
Jeong Jin Wu proudly explained that he now worked as the People’s Judge at the Superior Court and attempted to keep the conversation light. He tried to avoid revealing the real reason for his visit and to prolong the transient moment he had with Eun Ok. But he grew impatient. It was not easy for Jeong Jin Wu to articulate his impassioned feelings for Eun Ok. Nonetheless, he took this opportunity to explain his feelings logically and rationally, like a veteran judge of the legal world.
Eun Ok was surprised, not because she had not expected this from Jeong Jin Wu all along but because of his unabashed forwardness. She blushed, flashed a timid smile, and remained utterly speechless and motionless. Jeong Jin Wu invited her to watch a movie with him, but she kindly declined. He then asked if she would join him on an evening walk, but she declined that as well. Eun Ok scurried to find an excuse to return to the lab and left Jeong Jin Wu in unexpected stupefaction. First the shock, and then numbness spread across his body. He felt his legs go limp and searched for something to keep himself from falling. Jeong Jin Wu needed a moment to regain his breath, his senses, and his composure. He felt utterly dejected but resolute.
Jeong Jin Wu returned to the research lab a couple of days later, persistent in expressing his affection for Eun Ok.
However, Eun Ok was not there. She had left for a field farther away at a much higher altitude. A young woman at the front desk recognized Jeong Jin Wu and handed him an envelope. It was a letter from Eun Ok.
Jeong Jin Wu was impatient to read it, but he opened it with caution, hoping not to see the contents that would confirm his fears. She began with an apology for not speaking to Jeong Jin Wu in person and for expressing herself so bluntly. She proceeded to write about how flattered and overwhelmed she was to know that he loved her (if one could call that “love”) and that she did not know how to accept his feelings for her. She wrote that someone as ordinary as she, researching vegetables in a region with harsh conditions, does not deserve such love. The next few lines were sharp and cutting. She wrote that Jeong Jin Wu was wasting his time, particularly in the first few weeks of starting a new job, and that he should be more focused on his work instead of her.
The letter was not even a page long, but it moved Jeong Jin Wu. Eun Ok considered Jeong Jin Wu’s love for her to be affectionless and a mere infatuation. Her insistence on ending all relations with him made him want her even more. Eun Ok was Jeong Jin Wu’s first love, a love that was pure and innocent. Days and months would pass before she finally opened her heart to him.
Just days before they got married, Jeong Jin Wu and Eun Ok took a morning stroll in the suburbs of his hometown. The remnants of the long and blustery winter persisted in March.
Eun Ok wore a thick wool overcoat and a scarf wrapped around her neck. With her leather boots, she walked delicately on the snowy path. Some of the long frills from her scarf rested on her shoulders, while others fell over her back and some on her chest.
There were traces, myriad indistinguishable footprints, of people having walked on this snowy path. On some parts of the path, the snow had been trampled. On other parts of the path, the snow had melted and refrozen, making it shiny and slippery, like glass.
Eun Ok walked beside Jeong Jin Wu with an arm wrapped tightly around his.
She was jubilant, her face gleaming like majestic snowcapped mountains. Simply gazing at Eun Ok’s radiant face and lustrous eyes made Jeong Jin Wu ecstatic.
The ice crunched under the feet of the two lovers treading on the snowy path.
The brisk morning breeze had become calm, and the sky was clear. The silver clouds receded from the snowcapped mountains into the far distance.
Next to the path were residential houses with hanging icicles, sparkling like crystals as the sunlight reflected off them. And when the fragile icicles shattered on the ground, Eun Ok would cry happily, “Oh my!” and press her body closer to Jeong Jin Wu.
A plush layer of cottony snow had covered the entire area—streets, houses, and rows of trees—and the lovers were captivated by the pristine, abundant silvery scenery. The grandeur of the natural landscape surrounded the lovers, painting the canvas with beautiful, light, soft snow, as if to bless them on their new journey of happiness. The white guests had visited all night, creating a vast sea of snow. The brisk, fresh aroma of spring embraced the lovers with affection.
Like little schoolchildren, the two held hands and slid down a slippery path by the riverbank. A thin layer of snow coated the limbs of the pine trees that lined the riverbank, snow that had been there since the festivities of the New Year. The pine trees had inevitably welcomed the wintry snow in their arms and were looking forward to summer, but for now, they affectionately welcomed the two lovers in spring.
A couple of silver-blue silk-clothed, red-capped woodpeckers flew past the lovers and rested on the pine trees. Using their stethoscope-like sensors, the woodpeckers diagnosed the thick, leathery bark and identified the insects that had burrowed their way into the tree to escape the cold winter. They began pecking at the bark with their sharp beaks and used their long tongues like surgical tools to penetrate the bark and find the insects.
The thick layer of snow that covered the river looked like crumble cake, but it could not mute the sweet, angelic sound of the flowing water.
A light breeze gently brushed across the willow trees, causing the powdery snow to sprinkle the ground.
The sun climbed higher in the sky, allowing Jeong Jin Wu and Eun Ok to bask in its warmth.
The lifeless branches recognized the scent of spring and lifted their limbs toward the sky. The willow trees began to dust off the thick layer of snow and swayed in the sun. Nature was opening her eyes from a deep wintry slumber.
“Comrade Jin Wu, come look at this. Magpies! They’re trying to grab twigs,” said Eun Ok, pointing to a tree on the riverbank. “I think they’re trying to make a nest.”
“I think you’re right,” confirmed Jeong Jin Wu.
“With their black suits and white dress shirts, they look like newlyweds,” Eun Ok added.
At that statement, Jeong Jin Wu looked fondly at Eun Ok.