Highway with Green Apples

by Bae Suah

“It’s just a sketch,” I said. “And anyway, it’s not me drawing but a stranger inside of me who compels me to draw. When that happens, I have no choice but to draw, even while driving.”

I say good-bye to her at the café and am walking back to the store when I realize that, at the same time that I am impressed by her, I also feel like she’s become a complete stranger to me. I feel suddenly afraid.

I think something’s wrong with her. Hyeong-jun is quiet and doesn’t talk much, but she’s erratic and boy crazy.” “I thought that’s why Hyeong-jun liked her in the first place,” I say. “Yeah, I suppose.” He brushes the snow off his shoulders and empties his pockets of coins. “But that’s how it is. Nothing ever ends the way it begins. How could it?

He doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. He doesn’t make me sad, but he doesn’t make me happy, either. That’s how it started, and that’s how it’ll end.”

“I don’t think about the future. You said you don’t, either. All I think about is death.”