A familiar voice

A familiar voice came through the phone line.

"Ah~ Is this the returning student?"

I remembered that voice—the tall, slightly hunched guy who used to whisper to another classmate behind me during class.

"How did you get my phone number?" I asked.

"There’s a way to find everything on the internet these days," he said.

The world has become a place where I can’t hide, even if I wanted to.

"Do you know who I married?"

"Yes, I know."

I was excited and ready to start chatting nonstop.

But he said, "Let’s meet and talk."

"Why? Can’t we just talk more on the phone now?"

"It’s a bit hard for me," he answered.

"Then how about coming to my house at 3 o’clock tomorrow?"

I felt excited at the thought of seeing an old college friend from Seoul whom I hadn’t met since graduation. I quickly cleaned the house and prepared some snacks and drinks. When the time came, I pulled back the curtain and looked out the window again and again—but he didn’t come. Getting nervous, I stepped outside several times to check. Finally, close to 4 o’clock, he showed up—with his wife.

We had only shared four years in college, such a short time in a lifetime. But even after 30 years, it felt like we still knew each other’s lives somehow.

As soon as we sat at the table, he asked about our classmates in Seoul. He said he had been too busy working and didn’t see friends often. He even asked me if I, living in New York, knew more than he did!

I happily told him about the classmates who had visited New York. But then, I noticed something odd—his wife kept leaning in and speaking into his ear, like she was translating. But I hadn’t been speaking English! I asked why. She said he couldn’t hear well anymore, and that’s why he hadn’t wanted to talk much on the phone. I started moving closer and raising my voice. He just nodded and said nothing.

Suddenly I wondered, 

“Does he even understand what I’m saying?” 

I felt a little drained and quieted down.

Trying to lighten the mood, he said,

"Sooim, you’re still cute now, but you were really cute back then too. You were very popular. Do you remember that guy?"

He turned to ask my husband,

"You know—the big older student who followed Sooim around?"

But wait—can he not see well now too? I'm almost 60, and he still calls me cute? Have we really aged so much that our hearing and sight are failing? He said he can’t drink anymore because of his health, and chewing meat is hard because of his teeth. He couldn’t remember the names of our old friends, so the conversation didn’t flow well. The  excitement I felt before the meeting slowly faded.

Maybe his eyesight is so poor that I looked like a lady in the mist? Like today’s photo filter apps, maybe he couldn’t see all my deep wrinkles clearly—that might be why he called me cute. It wasn’t bad to hear, but still, it made me feel a little sad.