The tail end of spring marked the threshold of a sweltering summer.
Beyond the hospital window, lush green leaves swayed in the quiet breeze.
I speared a piece of oriental melon with my fork and held it out to my grandmother.
“Grandma, this melon is really sweet. Try some.”
Grandma turned her head slowly and took a bite.
“Jigu.”
“Huh? What’s up?”
“How long are you going to keep living like an unemployed slacker?”
“…Well, I don’t know.”
Honestly, I was getting the itch to find a job again. After doing nothing for a full year, my hands were practically begging to get back to work. Grandma stared at me intently before casually tossing out a question.
“Are you done cooking for good?”
“For now? I’m not sure. Maybe, maybe not.”
“Then how about you take over my shop?”
I almost choked on the melon I was chewing.
“Ahem—Grandma, what did you say?”
“I was thinking it’s time for my granddaughter to take over Hyangsook’s Side Dish Shop.”
“…Me?”
“What’s the problem? You used to be a sous-chef at a fine dining restaurant.”
“Well, yeah, but…”
My voice trailed off.
“Give it a try.”
With that, Grandma casually popped another piece of melon into her mouth.
Crunch. The crisp, fresh sound echoed through the quiet hospital room.
‘Why so suddenly?’
I barely managed to pull my scattered thoughts together.
This was the woman who looked like a happy child whenever she handed out side dishes to her customers. The idea of her stepping down from the shop was something I had thought completely impossible.
Before I realized it, my hands were clenched into tight fists. Grandma warmly placed her hand over mine.
“You know, don’t you?”
“…”
“That I can’t run the side dish shop anymore.”
I knew. Of course I knew. Avoiding her eyes, I spoke softly.
“The doctor said you could pull through this…”
“Jigu.”
“Ah, I’m not listening. Just eat your melon, Grandma.”
I really didn’t want to hear it. I pulled my hand back as if shrugging off her touch and started to stand up.
“Would you do it if it were my final wish?”
“…!”
…She knew I couldn’t say no to that!
“Grandma!”
Grandma quietly tapped the arm of her chair twice. Hearing that sound, I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears back before looking at her again.
“Come on, sit back down.”
“…Even if I sit back down, you won’t listen to me anyway.”
“My little puppy is the only family I have left—why wouldn’t I listen to you?”
The sweetness of the melon was long gone from my mouth.
I sat back down and stared at her.
“…Why are you going this far? There’s no reason it has to be me running the shop. I… I just want you to run it again.”
Grandma said softly, “It’s just time.”
“…Time for what?”
I couldn’t grasp what she meant at all.
“No, really, why go to such lengths?”
“It’s just… a waste. To leave it like that.”
…I thought it was a waste too, but still.
“For me, you come first, Grandma.”
A fond smile spread across her face.
“Right, I really do only have my little puppy.”
“If I’m all you have, then listen to me for once.”
Please. Silent, I searched her face.
“Alright, alright. But will you promise me just one thing?”
“What is it?”
“Later on… after I’m gone, go look at the back door of the shop…”
“Why are you talking like that? What do you mean, the back door…?”
“Oh, hush. A long time from now… if I ever go far away.”
Without waiting for my reply, Grandma opened her nightstand drawer and pulled out a bag. From it, she retrieved a faded, dark, worn-out old key and held it out to me.
“Here. This is the key to the back door.”
“Uh, wait…?”
“When the time comes, you’ll understand everything—why I wanted to leave the shop to you.”
I lowered my head, staring at the old key sitting in her palm. Looking at it unlocked a memory from the past.
It was right after my parents passed away, around the time Grandma first opened the shop.
That day, I was heading toward the back door to pick up an origami crane that had fallen through the window, but Grandma came running over out of breath to block me. She had firmly emphasized, over and over, that I must never go near the back door.
“Okay. You’re saying I’ll understand if I go there, right…?”
“Yes.”
I reached out without hesitation and took the old key.
Clink.
The cold, heavy metal wrapped in my palm. For a small key, it felt strangely heavy.
And I never imagined I would be pulling this key back out so soon.
A month later.
My grandmother’s funeral passed in a blur. Left alone in the empty funeral hall after all the mourners had departed, I couldn’t even remember how much I had cried.
Time flowed callously, and a month had already passed. Now, I stood pacing in front of the shop. Like a child procrastinating on homework, I couldn’t summon the courage to open that door.
But I couldn’t run away any longer. It was the last request Grandma had left me.
[Hyangsook’s Side Dish Shop]
I looked up at the old sign, its paint peeling away. My vision blurred again, so I bowed my head and muttered, “…What on earth could be behind the back door?”
Lifting my head, I pulled on the shop door. With a creak, the moment it opened, a cloud of dust billowed out from inside.
“Cough!”
The sudden sharp sting of dust in my nose made me gasp.
“Ugh, the dust!”
Stepping inside, I burst into a fit of coughing, covering my nose with my hand.
Because the shop had been closed for a while, layers of dust had accumulated. Even the slightest movement set it fluttering through the air.
I looked around the place. Unarranged tables, empty display cases, and the counter worn smooth by Grandma’s hands met my eyes.
The atmosphere of the old shop brought a strange wave of nostalgia.
Everything was frozen in time. Everything except Grandma.
“It really reminds me of her.”
I immediately went to the kitchen and opened the commercial refrigerator.
‘Grandma was always such a neat freak…’
Though empty, the spotless, gleaming interior reflected her personality perfectly. Just as I was about to shut the door—
Thump, thump, thump, thump!
A knocking sound came from the bottom of the refrigerator.
‘What was that…?’
Startled, I recoiled slightly and stared at the spot where the noise had just come from. Soon, the sound stopped.
“Scared me… Is it just old and making noises?”
I shifted my steps back toward the door at the rear of the shop. Standing before it, I tilted my head in confusion.
‘Did she really hide treasure back here or something?’
I inserted the key into the lock, turned it, and threw the door wide open.
“…What the?”
I couldn’t believe the sight stretching out before me.
It was an otherworldly landscape, swirling with a black veil so surreal it defied reality.
It looked as though pitch-black darkness had been dissolved like paint, revealing absolute nothingness beyond. Yet strangely, I felt no fear.
“…Is this… Grandma’s treasure?”
Instead, a fresh smell of damp earth and grass wafted from beyond the veil, tickling the tip of my nose like a sudden shower falling on dry land.
‘It’s that familiar scent I always smelled on Grandma…’
Plucking up my courage, I thrust my foot into the black curtain. It slipped right in, but I felt nothing.
‘Nothing happened…?’
I wiggled my foot up and down once more, but met no resistance.
‘Let’s just go in.’
Stepping all the way inside, I opened my eyes slightly. In an instant, my field of vision was filled with a small vegetable garden nestled inside a forest.
In the middle of a vast woodland stood a well-tended garden plot, guarded by an adorable cat statue. It looked like a secret hideaway straight out of a fairy tale.
Watching the surreal scene, my throat tightened.
“…No wonder she kept it hidden.”
This space, composed entirely of forest, had completely different air. Instead of the city’s harsh pollution, the air soaking deep into my lungs was intensely refreshing. It was all because both the sun and the moon were floating in the sky at the exact same time.
“Whoa…”
I walked over to the small garden plot.
[Bracken] [Wild Aster] [Canola] [Carrot] [Potato]
Wooden signs stood in the garden, handwritten as if by Grandma herself.
“Canola, carrots, potatoes…”
But something was off. The crops were planted only one or two per variety.
Usually, wouldn’t a vegetable garden have multiple plants of various species?
I snapped off a canola leaf—the first one to catch my eye—with my fingertips. Whoosh. The rich aroma of canola hit my nose, making my eyes snap wide open. It was a deeper, richer scent than any organic ingredient I had ever handled back at the restaurant.
“This smell… it’s insane.”
Having worked extensively as a sous-chef, I could tell how fresh an ingredient was just by its scent and color. This wasn’t just top-tier; it was far beyond that.
Right then—
“…Huh?”
From the exact spot where I had plucked the canola, a stalk sprouted and a new leaf bloomed, as if time were fast-forwarding.
In the blink of an eye, the canola was fully restored.
“I’ve seen this in a mobile game before…”
Fascinated, I plucked it again, and another stalk immediately shot up in its place.
How many times did I repeat this?
Before I knew it, my hands—clutching a huge bundle of canola—were trembling slightly. I muttered in a daze, “Now I get why she hid this place.”
Holding the canola, my eyes darted around. Come to think of it, canola, carrots, and potatoes all had completely different harvesting seasons.
Which meant the crops growing in this garden didn’t care about time or seasons at all.
Gulp.
I swallowed hard without realizing it. Just imagining cooking with ingredients this good made my mouth water.
‘Did Grandma want me to run the side dish shop… because of this?’
I was about to stand up to look around a bit more when—
“…Huh?”
The eyes of the cat statue sitting near the garden began to blink slowly, coming to life. Gradually, the grey stone turned into a yellow cheese tabby cat.
‘…It turned into a cheese tabby?’
And a statue, no less!
Unable to tear my eyes away from the surreal spectacle unfolding before me, I swallowed hard again.
‘This is real, right?’
The cheese tabby settled lazily onto the grass. After taking its time grooming its soft front paws, it slowly raised its head.
Its golden eyes locked straight onto mine—as if it had been waiting for me all along.
“You finally showed up, nyan?”
Huh?
I doubted my own ears at the unfamiliar voice. I was the only human here.
“Are… are you talking?”
Despite my bewildered reaction, the cat paid no mind and spoke again in a crystal-clear voice.
“You took too long, nyan.”
“…Too long?”
“Yeah. I’ve been waiting, nyan.”
The cat sitting on the grass got up, walked over slowly, and stopped right in front of me.
A round-faced cat speaking in human language.
“For Hyangsook’s granddaughter, that is, nyan.”
Nyan, nyan—
The cat’s verbal tic seemed to echo repeatedly, like cicadas buzzing in the peak of summer.
“How… how is a cat talking?”
At my dumbfounded mutter, the cat stopped licking its paw and retorted with an air of haughty dignity.
“That’s just a prejudice, nyan.”
Crazy.
