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Hyojin digs his fingers into the ribcage, a dark goo wrapping itself around his fingers. It’s too old and rotten to eat, but still fine to mess with. The coagulated blood is thick as it slips between his fingers and buries itself under his nails. Leaves brush against his limbs, legs straining as he’s crouched above the body.
Umma’s voice rings in his head, telling him, “Jin-ah, stop playing with that, you’re too old to be playing with your food.”
Umma’s been dead for some time. Though, that doesn’t necessarily stop Hyojin from seeing her at the end of his bed, telling him that all their chickens and cows have fallen ill. So have the Shim’s livestock next door.
Hyojin should be finding dinner, yet he’s still here. Knuckles deep in this carcass because of a feeling in the back of his mind, whispering that there’s something he needs to find--to see--underneath the sternum and between the lungs.
Hyojin is about to conclude that the corpse is empty. He walked to the end of his farm, by the fence and under the trees where passersby died after consuming their rotted livestock. If he were to catch them soon enough and remove their intestines and stomach in time, he’d be able to take them apart and eat them. Grill them, roast them over the fire. He’d be able to make a meal, share it with Jaeyoung.
However, Jaeyoung hasn’t been grabbing the dishes from the porch anymore. That afternoon when he visited, there were the full containers from the morning and the night before. Untouched and spoiled.
Hyojin used to be allowed in, before his family’s livestock got sick and some time after. Then Jaeyoung would meet him at the screen door. Hyojin had noticed how his frame and shape had changed, how much weight he lost from not getting the protein he needed. Since the Shim farm also fell, Jaeyoung didn’t have much work to do.
Hyojin had asked him where his umma and oppa went.
“They went to,” Jaeyoung began, voice strained and weak. “They went to the city. I can’t remember entirely… Something about learning the new way. They have been gone for some time now.”
Hyojin took up the responsibility of feeding Jaeyoung. He never asked, but Hyojin cares about him. Umma isn’t around to tell him that he needs to focus on his chores when he’s daydreaming about Jaeyoung.
Sometimes Hyojin would knock on Jaeyoung’s screen door, the front door remaining open during the day. He would see it open at night too sometimes. He would also see someone moving in the shadows, eating in the moonlit kitchen with fervor.
Hyojin took it upon himself to leave his home-cooked meals on the bench by the front door. He would return the next day to a clean dish. If Hyojin did not know any better, he would think Jaeyoung was avoiding him.
Then Hyojin’s fingertips catch it, a sharpness under the corpse’s sternum. It shouldn’t be there, but it is. And it’s what Hyojin was looking for.
With care, Hyojin is able to extract the object. It has a smooth surface while having one sharp edge. There’s a string or chain attached to it.
Once it is finally out, Hyojin realizes he is holding a heart locket. Dark and aged blood coats the locket and his hands, the color had reached his inner elbows from how far and for how long he was digging in. Finding the corpse’s shirt Hyojin had ripped off earlier, he uses it to rub it clean. He’s not concerned about his hands and arms.
The front of the locket has an engraved heart on it. The back reads Forever yours. Hyojin cracks it open, the inside of the locket showing two young ladies. It surprises him for a moment, one looks like umma and the other looks like Jaeyoung’s umma.
Maybe Hyojin will remove the pictures and put himself and Jaeyoung in here. Forever pieced together.