MY01cm | 두뇌훈련 워크북

Episode 1: Idling — Frozen Time

The fluorescent lights in the police station lobby were excessively bright and cold. After three months, I finally saw Grandma. She was sitting on a plastic chair like a doll. Because of her dementia, her expression was unreadable as always, but today, she seemed unusually composed.

Throughout the officer’s explanation, Dad kept rubbing his face wearily, letting out low sighs. Instead of relief at finding her, I could see the crushing weight of the aftermath he would now have to shoulder.

“It’s hard to believe a senior with dementia lasted three months in this condition,” the officer remarked. His words echoed in my mind.

Grandma’s coat was slightly damp, but her face had more color than before she went missing. The strangest part, however, was the phone in her hand. A device she had clearly left at home was now glowing, 100% charged. Her memories should be fading, yet somehow, that phone seemed possessed by something living in ‘normal time.’

Dad helped Grandma into the car. Even after arriving at the apartment parking lot, we didn’t get out. The temperature inside was 24°C. The heater’s breath tickled the back of my hand, but the winter air beyond the window was sharp and biting.

The engine was idling. The car remained stationary, but the machinery inside was still exhaling fiercely. Dad buried his head in the steering wheel. The sheer exhaustion radiating from him weighed heavily on the air inside the car.

I turned on Grandma’s phone. In the photo gallery, Grandma’s eyes were staring back at me—unfamiliar yet piercingly clear. Unfamiliar yet piercingly clear eyes. For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

[Next Episode Teaser]

The moment we got home and I tried to put Grandma’s damp coat into the dryer, something clattered to the floor. A silver anti-lost bracelet lost 15 years ago, and a photo gallery that dragged us back to a past from 15 years ago.

▶ Continued in [Episode 2: 12-4 Cheongun-dong]

How on earth did a bracelet lost 15 years ago reappear?