His delay in returning has become months-long, now. Together they welcomed spring, and sweat through the summertime together finding themselves in a contradictory surrounding. Switzerland resists restrictive measures to contain the virus, choosing instead for life to carry on normally, while South Korea implements a rigorous testing and tracing strategy as well as strict distancing. NK, even more silent than usual, remains closed. The music college remains open, classes and one-on-one lessons still meeting in-person. Few businesses close. Their life feels like an insulated pocket, Switzerland a mythical locale where the outside world (the pandemic, financial crises) fails to infringe upon it.
He makes an effort to interact with the NK music students several times a week, to visit the hostel, to suggest sightseeing and hiking trips to them, to be simply, the presence of another countryman. He is not sure, but the time he allots to them appears to inspire Se-ri, and within a month the school of music has offered him a visiting professorship. He shares his future's uncertainty with the hiring contact, in a rarely-spoken acknowledgement (at a meeting Se-ri does not attend) that he may be called back to NK at any time. Yet, the hiring board proves sanguine about his impermanence. The current times are not normal, they say, with respect to staffing. Many of their usual visiting faculty are locked out from traveling internationally, and the residential students still need to be taught, classes and instruction need to be held.
After some thought he accepts the position. He accepts, and finds himself startled by how well it suits him, by how much pleasure it brings him.
He is now forced to make plans—lesson plans for classes to come. Forced to acknowledge the existence of a next week, of a week beyond—until even the end of the academic semester. In completing the task, he sees what it has made him concede to, a wonderous, terrifying thing: hope. He now hopes. For tomorrow, for next week, for…the end of the academic semester. A hope in which he will be present for it.
Se-ri beams over his selection, clucking that she knew what a good fit it would be all along. Telling anyone that will listen that it was all her idea. He smiles at her. It feels good to be the source of another's pleasure. Of Se-ri's delight. He naysays her laying claim to his appointment not a bit.