Walking together in the barren playground, Dong Kyung ponders over the emptiness of the school grounds. Quietly she asks,
"So, this school is disappearing now?"
Myeol Mang responds,
"There aren't any new students or teachers to come."
Dong Kyung looks over at him, observes his saddened look, inquires,
"Where did the actual teacher go?"
Myeol Mang quietly responds,
"He must be going somewhere."
Puzzled, she asks,
"What? To his dreams?"
Gazing upwards into the blue sky, he thoughtfully remarks,
"No, in the opposite direction of life. By now he should've arrived at the garden."
They stand gazing out at the vast ocean, both lost in their thoughts.
Slowly an understanding crosses over Dong Kyung's delicate features, as she gazes out at the ocean waves, she softly speaks,
"That kid, the one in the garden. I've seen her in the hospital. She was wearing a patient gown at that time."
Myeol Mang glances over, nods at her words, gently, says,
"She's sick."
Dong Kyung returns his gaze, questions, "Sick?"
He gazes out at the ocean, says,
"She's always sick. She's sick from birth until the rest of her life, and then she dies. Then, she is reborn, sick again the rest of her life and dies again. That's how she keeps the world as it is safely. She suffers and dies for the sake of all the world's sins. That's the work of God. I've seen her like that for a very long time now."
She responds,
"I thought I was the most pitiful. But I was nothing after all. If nothing existed from the beginning, would the world be peaceful? If nothing happened."
He says,
"Stay where you are…"
He gently grabs her shoulders, turns her towards him, briefly pausing time.
She gazes up at him,
"What? Why?"
Gazing deeply into her eyes, thoughtfully he says,
"During that one second that you froze, there was no doom at all. It was the perfect world you were hoping for in life.
Dong Kyung gazed into his dark eyes, only thoughts in her mind… that one second to me, felt like eternity. How much her life has changed since she met him…