The Scent of Ignorance

“Live a long life.” Those were the words left by the gangster who appeared before a fourteen-year-old boy who had lost his parents. Whether it was a blessing or a curse, that single sentence seeped deep into I-eum’s lungs, like the cigarette smoke the man exhaled. Cheon Chae-hyeok, his stepfather’s creditor. The man who had been lingering around him, demanding payment for a debt I-eum didn't even know was money, eventually steps forward to become I-eum’s temporary guardian. It was a kindness of unknown intent. Though anxious, I-eum falls helplessly for the first glimpse of adult tenderness he has ever encountered in his life. What began as a mere, unfamiliar sense of relief gradually gro...