Midge

*“Hey, do you know me?”

“How the hell would I know you?”*

A tall, pretty-faced guy who’d just appeared in front of Do Geon-U, a man who’d led a rough life, suddenly started hitting on him right to his face. As he lay there, overwhelmed by this persistent guy who’d followed him all the way to a hotel room, the face of that kid, whose lips had drooped like a rain-soaked puppy under the streetlights in early summer, overlapped with his own.

“Why are you having sex with some other guy after drinking the booze I bought you?”

Only then did Do Geon-U realize it. He had lived his life forgetting that he had been that kid’s first love back when he was young—that little midge flitting around the orange glow that night.

(Source: Ridibooks, translated)