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Good Friend Veterinary Clinic is a small animal clinic located right by a street in Yongsan-gu District in Seoul. I am the director and only veterinarian of the clinic. A small, customized banner made on the clinic’s opening day has been aging steadily for the past seven years on the hospital window. 

This neighborhood, where old houses, small shops, and mom-and-pop factories housed in basements stayed unchanged, only just growing old, underwent a huge transformation after a Yongsan New Town urban development plan was announced. 

Every other store in the strip mall was taken up by a realtor and their big, yellow signs didn’t go out until late at night. The animal clinic’s everyday life remained just about the same although the outside world changed drastically. 

“302호 아가씨 어디 갔습니까? 혹시 아세요?

 개를 맡겨놓고 찾으러 오시질 않아서...”

“Do you know where the girl who lives in Unit 302 went? She hasn’t come back for her dog.” 

“아니, 그게....어떻게 말해야 하나...거기 아가씨, 죽었어요.”

“I don’t know how to tell you this, but the girl died.”

뜻하지 않게 어제 오늘 연경을 알았던 사람들의 이야기를 들었다.

그들은 연경이 그렇게 죽어 싸다는 정도까지는 아닐지라도

그렇게 죽을 만한 이유가 조금이나마 있긴 있었던 것처럼 느끼게 했다.

당연히 연경에게는 한 마디 해명의 기회도 없었고, 해명해주는 사람도 없었다. 

Since yesterday, I unintentionally got to hear about the men who had known Yeon-gyeong. I got the impression that they believed that there was a reason for her to die like that even though they didn’t go so far as to say that she deserved to die. Not surprisingly, Yeon-gyeong wasn’t given a chance to explain herself and nobody spoke up for her. 

# Interview with literary critic Jeon So-yeong

The only good relationship in Yeon-gyeong’s life is that with her pet dog, Nabag. Although she couldn’t form any meaningful relationship with people around her, she rescued the dog and treated it with love. Perhaps, Yeon-gyeong didn’t mean to have only casual relationships in the beginning, but gradually changed that way as she got used to this society which doesn’t cherish human ties. The killer is suspected to be Han U-jeong, but this society which places more value on the pursuit of one’s own interests instead on a genuine friendship cannot be free from blame. This is the message included in the investigative process.

나는 진료실로 들어가 엑스레이 전원을 켰다.

나박이의 위속에 심상치 않은 뭔가가 있는 것이 보였다.

금속 조각 같아 보이는 것이 위속을 돌아다니며 상처를 내고 있는 것 같았다.

I went into my office and turned on the X-ray. I saw something inside Nabag’s stomach. Something that looked like a piece of metal was hurting him inside. 

개들은 가끔 주인이 생각도 못한 것들을 삼키곤 한다.

대부분 변으로 배출되지만, 이것은 그러기에는 너무 크다.

개복수술이 필요하다는 진단을 어렵지 않게 내렸다.

Dogs sometimes swallow things their owners never dreamed of. In most cases, dogs excrete what they ate, but this seemed too big for that. I soon decided to open him up. 

어쩌면 나박이가 뭔가 해명해 줄 수도 있지 않을까.

May be Nabag could provide an explanation.

메스를 내려놓고 수술대 앞에 카메라를 장착했다.

나박이의 위장을 째고 벌려 그것을 꺼내어 그릇에 떨어뜨렸다.

I put down the scalpel and placed a camera in front of the operating table. I sliced open Nabag’s stomach and put the extricated thing in the bowl. 

은단알을 연결한 듯한 줄에 달린 양철 조각 두 개.

군인 인식표였다.

군번과 이름, 혈액형이 똑같이 두 개 새겨진, 

이름은 한우정.

Two pieces of galvanized steel on a chain of tiny balls. It was a military dog tag engraved with a military service number, a name, and a blood type. The name was Han U-jeong.

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Song Si-woo (Born in Daejeon)

Debuted by publishing short story “Good Friend” in 2008