Page 14 of Tell Me Where It Ends

As if on cue, my pocket buzzes. A message from my brother, Yeong-gi.

Guess you’re not picking up. Hope you still got a job after this mess.

Not,Are you okay?Not,I’m here for you. Just a passive-aggressive jab disguised as concern. He only ever cares about the allowance I send him.

I used to hope he’d hit rock bottom and finally get his life together. But rock bottom, I’ve learned, has a basement. And he’s still digging.

I take a sharp turn into a quiet residential street in Mapo-gu, not far from my aunt’s place. She’s the only one who ever tells me anything about my mother.

“She’s in Jeju now,” she says years ago, her voice laced with pity. “Opened her own little coffee shop, I heard. Still too soft-hearted for her own good.” She gives me the only thing she ever received from my mother: a faded postcard of a Jeju beach, no return address.

The rushed scrawl on the back is achingly familiar. It’s the kind of ache you press on just to make sure it’s still real.

I find myself in a tiny neighborhood park and sit on a cold, metal swing, pushing off gently with my toes. My thoughts drift to my mother.

Is she happy?

Has she found someone new, started another family?

Or is she like me—a little lost, a little lonely, never quite sure where she belongs?

Did she see the news and worry? Or am I just a ghost to her, too?

I lean back, looking for stars behind the city’s orange glow. You have to squint to see them here. A distant, mathematical certainty. A reminder that the universe doesn’t really care about your little scandal.

And in the quiet, a thought forms—clear and sharp.

The career I’ve built is crumbling. My family is a lost cause. Friendships have faded.

The men in my life… Shin and Suho… represent two very different kinds of cages: one safe and gilded, the other passionate and broken.

What if I don’t want either? What if I just want to be my own person—not someone’s project, not someone’s secret?

I could go back to Shin, let him make me tea, and slip back into the safety of being managed.

Or I could turn on my phone, reply to Suho, and dive into the familiar chaos.

Or I could book a ticket to Jeju. I could find the woman who gave me my name, ask her why she left. I could see her coffee shop. I could stand on that beach from the postcard.

I rise from the swing, a new kind of resolve settling in my chest.

I will…

?Go back to the apartment to see Shin.

Turn to page 58

?Reply Suho’s text and meet him.

Turn to page 40

?Skip both and go to Auntie’s place.

Turn to page 217

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