After midnight, the signs along the alley went dark one by one, yet Seoyun's restaurant kept breathing a little longer for the sake of one last pot. He slowly turned the ladle and studied the surface of the soup left for the night. The boiling had already calmed, but inside the pot there still lingered the faint scent of a dinner someone had swallowed in haste, and of words that had never been said. Food never came to Seoyun as taste alone. If he brought it close enough to his fingertips, the feelings left inside it spread first, and the better a dish was made, the more sharply the memory clinging to it settled on his tongue.
Tonight's final soup tasted like a reconciliation that had failed. It was not especially salty, yet the back of the throat kept drying around it, and behind the faded pepper there remained the aftertaste of an apology that had arrived too late. Seoyun emptied the pot with care and lowered the flame. It was never wise to hold on to another person's memory for too long. That was one of the first rules anyone learned in this restaurant: a memory offered by a guest could be returned, but it could not be lived on their behalf.
The bell above the door rang more softly than expected. An old man in a gray overcoat entered and took a seat. He looked less like a customer than like someone who had taken a wrong turn late at night, but Seoyun knew at once when he saw the man's eyes. They were the eyes of someone who had lost something. Without even opening the menu, the old man spoke in a quiet voice.
"There's something I've forgotten. I don't know the name, and I can't remember the face. But I know it was the most important scene in my life."