David Never Returned

A tall, clean man moved into a building where I live. He is a young man in his late 20s who is of mixed ethnicity between South America and white people. His name, David, is handsome and polite. Welcoming just to see him make me feel good.

I peeped into his apartment through his door. Furniture is also not a regular thing. It's a 1960s-70s-era antique. The appearance in life also seemed to have an unusual atmosphere and elegance. He's an interior designer. The atmosphere in the building seemed to have been upgraded since he moved in.

It's nice to have a cool neighbor. However, there was also the inconvenience of living. I became more cautious in case the smell of soybean paste soup and kimchi is strong in the hallway. The other day, I made a cheonggukjang stew, but people were at our door, talking about something between them, and then going back. It is hard to stop eating Korean food.

One day, he lost his job. He spent more time inside his apartment. He got a roommate, whether he was financially strapped. Sometimes he took his precious expensive furniture out to sell. Also, the woman was in and out. There was also a cry, raising voices and fighting. He seemed to wail, struggling to get out of the difficult situation.

"Are you alright?" I asked David, who met in the hallway. "After I lost my job and I was in and out of a local bar, I met a girl who later found out she was a junkie. You remember me? When I first moved into this apartment, I want to go back to that time," he said.

At first, what started out insignificant went so far as to never come back again. The cry grew louder and louder with David's remorse. Eventually, it went so far as to touch people's belongings in the building. No matter how hard he tried to get back to his old days, he went too far. He had no choice but to leave the building.

One day when I thought he'd gone to the hospital for drug treatment, he appeared in the neighborhood. He passed without looking at me. He looked 20 years older than his age because his front teeth were missing. He hurried to the north side of the river in the form of a homeless people, and when he returned, he smiled and dragged his drooping legs and disappeared. His girlfriend died of drug overdose. David didn't show up anymore either.

Sometimes I looked out the window and hoped that he would have returned to a healthy state, but David did not return forever.