It had already been quite some time since Kim Cheolsu came down to Hampyeong. More than a week had passed since he administered the injection to Go, a player of the Tigers Baseball Team, and now it was July 1st, 2001.
The summer was in full swing. It was truly hot.
Cicada… cicada!! Cicada!!!
Woken by the noisy cicadas in the morning, Kim Cheolsu took out some potatoes from a sack that still had half left after a week of eating them, put them in water, and boiled them thoroughly.
Then, he dipped them generously in the salt he had gotten from the Village Chief and ate them.
It felt as if they melted softly in his mouth—a delightful taste from the very morning. The crisp and crumbly texture inside was very pleasant, though the only downside was that it was hard to eat the hot potatoes in such heat… But Kim Cheolsu endured the heat by drinking sweet sikhye with floating ice cubes.
The dog with a half-cast was also clearly bothered by the heat, lying on its back on the porch, tongue out and panting drowsily.
Cheolsu smiled as he petted the dog’s head and said,
“Ah… this is nice. The sikhye is sweet. But you’re still crying here, huh?”
Everything else was great, but the sound of cicadas remained just as loud.
