The curtains swayed and morning sun flowed into the cottage with the gentle breeze. The front door creaked open, and Baek walked through, fully healed and wearing the same weathered clothes.

"Dahyun, I'm back," he announced.

Greeted by the empty house, Baek looked around, confused.

As he poked his head into the bedroom, he called out, "Dahyun?" The room was messy and disorganized, with an unmade bed and clothes scattered on the floor. Picking up a pair of my muddy pants off the floor with two fingers, his eyes danced from one stain to the other, grimacing in disgust.

He tossed the pants in the laundry basket and exited the cottage. He stood under the shade of the plum tree, scanning the stream bank for me. His pupils constricted, which limited the amount of sunlight reflecting off the water's surface that reached his optic nerve. He then noticed the water spinach garden, which now had a new, albeit crude, fence.

He spotted me further down the stream, standing knee-deep in the water, sleeves rolled up and hands in the water. He rushed to the river bank, worried. "Dahyun?! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fishing!" I replied, beaming with excitement.

Baek, still wearing his shoes and socks, jumped into the water and waded towards me. "Stop! You're going to scare them away!" I yelled.

"You stop! This is too dangerous," he replied, concern lacing his voice.

With my back towards him, I stared intently at the water. Baek reached for my hand when suddenly, I threw my arms up and yanked a giant net out of the water. The sudden movement threw me off balance, and I fell backward into Baek's body.

"Hey! Be careful!" he scolded, steadying me.

I paid him no mind, eagerly checking the contents of the net. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment as I slapped the net against the flowing water. "Why are fish so stupid?"

"Whatever. Come on, let's get out of here," Baek suggested, trying to lead me away from the water.

I turned to face him, our faces only inches apart. I stared at his eyes, then down at his leg, examining it closely. My eyes shot back up to his.

"Baek!!!" I yelled suddenly, causing him to flinch and cover his ears.

"What? What's wrong with you?" he asked, clearly startled by my outburst.

"You're actually back!" I rambled on, my excitement overflowing. "Are you healed? OHMYGOSH your leg! Is it okay? I thought they were gonna chop it--"

Baek covered my mouth with his palm, his expression deadpan. "I'm fine. My socks are wet. I want to get out of this water."

I glanced down at his feet, noticing he was wearing shoes, socks, and long pants, unlike me, who was barefoot and wearing shorts. I looked around at our surroundings, realizing we were standing in the middle of a wide, roaring stream.

A wide, happy smile spread across my face, and I hugged Baek tightly. "I missed you."

After a brief moment, he smiled and hugged me back. "I missed you too."

Later, in the cottage bedroom, Baek and I changed out of our soggy clothes. He moved in his underwear and me in my favorite camisole, going back and forth between the closet and the dirty laundry basket.

"So he's really not mad?" I asked.

"No. He's not mad," Baek confirmed.

I flopped onto the bed, sighing. "Hnng... First the deer accident, and now this..."

Baek tossed my soggy pants at me.

"Hey!" I sat up, knocking the pants to the ground, my tangled hair tickling my nose.

"Don't be lazy. Put your clothes in the laundry basket." Baek chided.

I wiped the hair out of my face and snatched my dirty clothes off the ground. "Hmph. Can't a girl get some rest?"

"I've only been gone a few days, and this place is disgusting."

"I've been busy!"

"You've been reckless!"

I tossed the clothes in the basket and Baek lugged it to the washing machine. "I just want you to be safe." He muttered quietly.

"Why do you keep protecting me?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

Baek looked back at me while he stuffed the clothes in the washing machine. "Why do you keep getting hurt?"

"Well, technically I never get hurt," I replied cheekily.

"I wonder why..." Baek says as he closes the lid.

"Maybe if you let me get hurt, I would learn from it and not get hurt anymore," I suggested, pushing the glowing blue button on the washing machine to turn it on.

Baek marched towards me, looming over me with an intimidating expression. He pressed his face close to mine, causing me to look away. "Not happening."

He squeezed past me and stepped back into our shared bedroom.

Grabbing a corner of the giant quilt that covered our bed, he looked back at me. "You get the bedsheets. Let's air them out in the sun."

"Wait--"

Baek tugged at the quilt, with strength no 11-year-old boy should have, and the heavy blanket rolled neatly under his arm.

A soft thud caught our attention as something fell out quilt and onto the floor. We both turned to see a sharpened wooden knife, made out of a thick stick.

Baek examined it, turning it with his fingers. "Where'd you get this?"

I stuttered, "Uh... I made it."

His eyes narrowed. "First the net. Now this? How'd you learn to make all this?"

I leaned again the doorframe, furrowing my eyebrows as I thought hard. "Papa gave me a tablet."

Baek studied me, confused.

Entering the room, I searched under the bed and popped back up with the tablet. Meanwhile, Baek made his way to the doorframe that I just left.

I showed the device to him, "Look. When you touch the screen, the picture moves. And there's this app-- and millions of videos!"

"Papa gave this to you?" Baek asked, still perplexed.

"I think so? It has to be Papa. I tried calling you from the Gate, then this chute opened up, and the tablet slid out," I explained.

Baek frowned. "I think you should put it back."

"No!" I clutched the tablet close to my chest, unwilling to part with it.

"Papa didn't give that to you," Baek insisted.

"How would you know?" I challenged him, determined to keep my newfound treasure.

Baek's expression grew somber as he blocked the door with his body and rolled quilt. "Because I was with him the whole time."

A gentle breeze blew through the open window, raising goosebumps on my arms. I was reminded that Baek and I were still standing in our underwear. He seemed unfazed though.

"You were with Papa?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Where you with him all the other times you went through the Gate?"

Baek stared at me with his unflinching eyes. "Yes."

"That's not fair!" I cried, bringing the tablet up to my chest. I felt a pang of sadness and frustration, wishing I could be part of that mysterious world beyond the Gate.

"How come you get to see and hout with Papa so many times when I haven't seen him once?!" I complained.

Baek tried to comfort me. "That's not true. You saw all the time when you were little."

"Yea, well, I was too little to remember any of it. "

Baek, giving up on blocking the doorway, walked through the living and out the cottage. I follow slowly behind, still clutching the tablet tightly.

"Is this something bad? Why can't I have this?" I asked, my voice betraying my concern.

Baek hesitated before responding, his eyes never meeting mine. "Look. All I know is that Papa didn't give you the tablet. He might not be happy to know that you have it."

Baek hangs the quilt over a steal rod protruding from the side of the cottage. Sunlight beams down on the floral patterns. He smacked it and dust flew off, getting abducted by the wind.

"So please. Put the tablet back whre you found it. Tonight." He pleaded without looking at me.

I brought my arms down, letting the tablet hang at my side. "Fine." I sighed.

He finally looks at me... then nods.

I couldn't understand the expression on the young boy's face. The young boy I grew up with seemed so different. But when he came over and hugged me, I was reminded of all the times he protected me, so I decided to trust him.

"I just want to be more helpful." I mumbled through his embrace.

"Then put some clothes and help me make dinner. I'm starving."

Baek's words weighed heavily on me as I put on some clean pants and a sweater. His arms around me were a comforting presence, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the story than he was letting on. Still, I smiled in agreement and let the matter drop for the moment.

Later that evening, Baek and I prepared dinner. He was stirring a stew while I busied myself with the various tasks he assigned me. Our laughter and conversation filled the small cottage, providing a brief respite from the questions that still lingered in my mind.

When night came, I put on my sneakers by the front door. Baek watched me with my makeshift wooden knife in his hand.

"Do you want me to come with?" He asked.

"No thanks. I got it." I smiled back.

"Then I'm gonna go hunting."

"Right now? In the dark?"

"That boar won't be expecting it, and the weather's been nice so it should've been eating well. I'm hoping to cure the meat now so we'll have enough for the winter."

"Do you want help?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"No it's too dangerous." He responded while tying his carbon-fiber blade to his belt.

I nodded and left the cottage.

Under the cover of darkness, I ventured into the woods, the tablet clutched tightly to my chest. Moonlight filtered through the trees, casting dappled shadows on the leaf-strewn ground. I carefully navigated the terrain, making my way to the Gate and the hatch.

As I neared the edge of the woods, where the trees gave way to a meadow, I spotted Baek sprinting after a wild boar.

I chuckle. He has always preferred hunting the animals that way, believing it to be fair to them. Traps to him were cowardly, but not everyone has his level of athletic prowess.

I watched as Baek caught up to the boar, tackled it to the ground, and executed it in a swift and painless motion using my wooden knife. Lucky… When is he gonna trust me to do those things?

Turning away, I stepped out of the timberline and stared at the Gate from afar, gripping the tablet tightly. I walked to the chute in the wall and opened it.

Clack-clack.

Huh? Some black rocks hit my shoe. 

I crouched down and picked one of them up, turning the shiny, smooth rock—black as night and light to the touch– reflecting the moonlight. My eyes widened. Flint. 

I turned my tablet on, blue light flooding my face, as I searched through videos.I found the one that taught me how to make fire from flint and steel. Comparing the rock in my hand to the one on the tablet, they matched.

I looked back up at the chute. Closed, it just looked like a square drawn on the side of the steel wall. 

I looked around, not a soul in sight. 

Quickly, I stuffed the flint into my pockets and stood up, facing the chute, pretending nothing had happened. I stood in front of the hatch but didn't open it. Instead, I looked behind me, back in the direction of the cottage, trying to spot Baek.

I only heard the soft chirp of crickets.