The Otter at the Fish Farm
Around the time I had just graduated from university, I decided to move to Seoul.
I insisted on going to Seoul because I wanted to see a world wider than the sea in front of my home.
Even though I had majored in Aquaculture and my father wanted me to inherit the fish farm, he eventually respected my decision.
Before I boarded the express bus to Seoul, my father said one last thing to me.
“Yang Suho. Your father will always support you. If things become too difficult and you grow too tired someday, remember that you have a place you can return to. Until you come back, I’ll take good care of this place.”
Encouraged by my father’s support, I finally settled down in Seoul.
But Seoul was not such an easy place to survive.
“Mr. Suho. Your work... Hah. What are we supposed to do if this is the best you can do?”
“I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll make sure I finish it without making any mistakes.”
“Next time? You shouldn’t casually expect there to be a next time. Do you know how many young people are working themselves to the bone in tiny rooms because they want even the position you have right now? You might have the wrong idea because you came up here from the countryside, but this is not an easy place.”
Moving from one internship to another, then from one temporary contract job to another at small companies, I gradually became exhausted.
My heart, once colored with bright blue dreams like the Dadohae sea, had somehow faded gray like the concrete of Seoul and turned cold.
Both my body and mind lost their purpose, like trash washed up on a beach, and I often found myself sprawled across the narrow bed of my gosiwon, a tiny rented room.
Whenever enough time passed for me to almost forget, my father would call his son.
But I did not want him to know how difficult my life had become.
So I ignored the calls from my only family member and quietly deleted his messages.
Through a distant relative, I heard that my father’s health had worsened and that he had eventually stopped working at the fish farm.
Even then, I could not find the courage to contact him.
“Next in the news. The Gonjiam Gate, known as one of South Korea’s ten A-Rank Gates, was completely conquered as of ten o’clock last night. S1 Guild, an Awakened guild belonging to Seongil Group, successfully cleared the Gate on its own. A spokesperson for Seongil Group also announced at a press conference that the guild obtained one of the key items required to clear an Apocalypse-Rank Gate. In response, the Ministry of National Defense...”
I was already struggling just to keep up with Seoul’s job market, yet the world itself was changing at an even faster pace.
Gates, Awakened, and whatever else...
It was a little surprising that things I had only seen in games or webnovels were actually happening in reality.
But none of that was much help when it came to surviving in Seoul.
Then, one day, I dreamed about my hometown.
I saw myself as a child, freely running around my father’s fish farm.
And there was the deep blue sea, along with my father’s smile, which seemed even bluer than the ocean.
Seeing the familiar warmth of my hometown sea, which had never changed, I smiled brightly while tears ran down my face.
I had been enjoying that pleasant dream of home for the first time in ages when I suddenly woke up before dawn.
That was when I received the news of my father’s death.
“......”
As I placed my father’s remains in the columbarium, I thought.
Was this really the life I wanted?
Was this really the person my father wanted me to become?
“Your father will always support you.”
After the forty-nine-day memorial rites were finished, from some point onward,
my father’s voice began circling inside my ears.
“If things become too difficult and you grow too tired someday, remember that you have a place you can return to. Until you come back, I’ll take good care of this place.”
As I listened to that voice,
I began to miss the sea and my father’s fish farm more than anything.
One day, two days, one year...
The longer I forced myself to endure life in Seoul, the stronger that longing became.
“Let’s go back.”
And so, today, I finally ended my life in Seoul and bought an express bus ticket back to my hometown.
Then I practically collapsed into my seat on the bus traveling along the road before dawn and closed my eyes.
My father’s precious inheritance.
As I wondered whether I would really be able to take good care of it,
my heart was filled with both worry and anticipation.
My father had inherited a flounder farm from my grandfather.
It was fairly large, and as far as I remembered, my father had been good at running it and made decent money.
I could still clearly hear him telling me that he had already earned enough money to pay all my university tuition, so I should just focus on studying.
And yet...
My father’s fish farm had ended up like this.
I looked into one of the fish farm tanks that had once been packed with flounder and let out a sigh.
Forget flounder.
The tanks were not even filled with seawater anymore, and in each one, I could usually spot one or two dead rats that had somehow fallen in and drowned.
My father had always said that even if he died, he would never leave his son with debt.
He worked until the very day he died, and somehow managed to preserve the fish farm without leaving any debt behind.
High water temperatures, oxygen deficiency, fish diseases, and an economic recession.
The future of flounder farming had gradually become darker.
On top of that, whenever people finally started forgetting about them, another Gate or monster would appear...
How did he manage to protect this fish farm without going into debt?
What was Father feeling as he took care of this place?
It seemed like it would take time before I could find new hope here.
Still, these days there were many support programs for young people who returned from Seoul to enter the fishing industry.
At the very least, I probably would not starve to death while doing nothing.
I vaguely thought that if I slowly learned everything one step at a time, something would eventually work out.
For the next few days, I learned how to use the equipment needed to get the fish farm operating again and wandered around the area.
At some point, I developed the habit of blankly staring at the sea in front of the fish farm.
The blue sea.
Even if someone gathered an armful of deep cobalt paint, ran across the smooth sandy beach, and poured all of it into the water, they still would not be able to create a blue this deep, abundant, and somehow sorrowful.
Whoosh...
Whoosh...
The waves calmly passed over the fine white sand with slow, gentle hands.
Waves that moved without any particular purpose.
Waves that were not being chased by anyone.
As I stared at the sea, I finally began to feel that I had truly returned home.
I quietly listened.
Part of me was afraid that I might hear some urgent sound telling me to hurry.
There was nothing.
Relieved, I picked up my broom and slowly began walking again to clean around the fish farm.
“Hm...?”
While I was wandering absentmindedly around my father’s flounder farm, I heard a strange sound.
Peep, peep.
The cry of an animal.
It sounded strangely familiar.
I clearly remembered my father grabbing the scoop net he used for flounder and rushing outside whenever he heard that sound, saying he would not let those little thieves get away with it...
“Peep, peep...”
“What animal made this sound again? It’s definitely not a cat. I can’t remember. It’s an animal that lives near the water.”
I wandered through the fish farm, following the faint cries of the animal.
Starting from the large tanks used to hold fully grown flounder right before shipment, I moved toward the land-based tank building where the tanks gradually became smaller.
As I moved deeper inside, the cries grew closer.
“Peep, peep, peep...”
And finally, inside a larval fish tank, a tank used for newly hatched flounder,
I found the owner of the cries.
Glossy, soft, short brown fur.
A long, streamlined body and four tiny legs.
Small but sharp claws, with webbing visible between its toes.
A round and gentle face, sparkling eyes, a soft-looking muzzle, and a pitch-black nose sitting right in the middle of it.
Its two ears drooped, probably because it had no energy.
Long, stiff whiskers.
And a long, wide tail that looked sturdy.
