Playing Games

“If there is something you want, say it clearly. Don’t try to test the waters by pretending to be a woman that won’t work.”“Even if you say you want something, I have no intention of granting it.” Facing the woman before him, Jinha was reminded of the small, frail child he once was. Her skin had become unusually pale, her lips flushed red. The once soft-hearted child who had poured out buckets of tears saying she didn’t want to live like her mother was no longer a child. Scenes he had never seen before caught his eye one after another. The lush roses he had only seen during summer vacations were preparing to fall, leaving only a few petals behind. The scent of the wind, which had been nothing but damp, the changed season, and the girl from his memories, who had been a jumble of tears and snot— they had changed. Everything had changed, just as the landscape had transformed over the long years. And one more fact he realized belatedly was that he, too, had become a fool being used by the woman who had changed. +