2. Oops! Diary - 010.

Saturday, November. Sunny

Cosmos

I woke up around eight this morning, but since it's Saturday, I stayed in bed. I was just drifting back to sleep when my mom poked her head into my room and told me to go pick up some rice.

She had decided to make some fancy juk and needed some fancy rice for it. I threw on some sweatpants and an old t-shirt and put a hat on over my dirty hair. Then I headed to the rice shop, my slippers slapping against my feet. I bought a couple of kilos of chapssal. They put it into a plastic bag for me. On my way back home I noticed a patch of cosmos flowers nodding in the wind. A few chubby bees were working in the flowers. I put the bag of rice on the ground and took out my phone. I took a few pictures of the bees for my blog, and then picked up the rice and walked home.

Slowly the rice bag got lighter and lighter. I thought I was getting stronger until I looked back. A dotted line of rice traced out where I'd walked, like on a map. I held the bag up, saw the hole. I knew I'd be in trouble.

Sunday, November. Rainy

Fire

There's a big bundle of cotton on my desk. Mom bought it to stuff the blankets with, so we can be warm this winter. My brother pulled out a long, thin wisp. He made it into a fuse, leading to the pile of cotton. It looked like a cartoon bomb.

He suggested, for the sake of science, that we light it and see what would happen. I argued that this might not be such a good idea. He convinced me that it would be okay, as long as we cut the fuse before it burned the bundle. Okay, I said. I was curious, too.

The moment I lit the end of the fuse, the fire jumped into the bundle. In a split second the cotton had turned into a fireball.

I stumbled and threw my blanket over the fire like an idiot. My brother burst into tears, waking up mom, who was napping in the living room. She got a bucket and, after a few trips to fill it up in the bathroom, put the fire out. The damage wasn't that bad, actually. The fire had jumped to some of the other furniture, but my mom managed to get it.

There's still a black mark on the wall. It wasn't until I sat down to write this that I realized that we could have died. It makes me shiver.

Wednesday, December. Snowy

Baduk

Baduk makes me nervous. There's something about sitting down in front of the board. Millions of possible moves, and each one could be a mistake. Once you've placed your piece you take your hand off and that's it. You can never take it back. One false move and you'll never escape.

Anyway, this wouldn't be much of a problem if Dad didn't like baduk so much. But he loves it. My brother is away at school and Mom hates games of any kind. I'm the only person who'll play with him. I've never beaten him before. 

Never before today, anyway. Mom was visiting a friend in Busan, so it was just me and Dad at home. Dad made weird Italian food for dinner and after I finished the dishes I saw that he'd taken the board out.

The house was very quiet. We didn't talk as we played. It was a close game. We counted out our points and captures. I realized that I'd won.

I wonder if, this one time, he let me win. He's not saying.