“Have you achieved what you hoped to do?”

“Well, I certainly never imagined I’d get to where I am now.”

He turned away to extract a bone caught in his teeth. Then he asked me again. Would I agree to help him if he needed me?

“Otherwise you’ll leave?”

“Is that what you want me to do?”

“No.”

He smiled, satisfied. But would he let me watch him draw in return? He took a drink of his soju and said:

“If you like.”

Sometimes when people say “If you like,” what they mean is “I’d rather you didn’t.” I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t read his tone of voice. All I knew was that I didn’t like the way he said it.

All night long the town was entombed in frost. The temperature fell to minus twenty-seven degrees, the first time it had happened in years. Curled up under the covers, I blew on my hands and rubbed them between my thighs. Outside, against the onslaught of ice, the waves struggled to resist, moving ever more slowly and heavily, cracking as they collapsed in defeat on the shoreline. I bundled myself up in my overcoat, the only way I could find sleep.

IN THE MORNING, the radiators in my room and the one the Japanese man had occupied weren’t working. The water in the pipes had frozen. Park said I could use the portable heater from reception until he could get the pipes repaired. The reception had a stove he could light. I reminded him that the stove was a relic from the 1950s, it was useless. I’d already tried. Anyway, the sewage pipes were blocked up, it was impossible to breathe in my room. I suggested I move into the room next to Kerrand’s. Park sighed. Nothing worked any more in this dump. There was no other option.

Mother Kim was trying to relight her cooker. Seeing me approach with my clothes and my bag of toiletries, she slumped dejectedly against the counter. We’d just have to wait. So long as it didn’t last too long. Her freezer only worked every other day, it was no good for the meat. Customers were scarce enough as it was.

Kerrand was at his desk. All that separated us was a thin paper wall. He offered to help me move. No need, I’d already brought everything over.

In the bathroom, his brushes, left there to dry. A trail of ink and soap dripped from the tips, sucked toward the drain in the basin. A tumbler with his toothbrush, a tube of French toothpaste. I used some to brush my teeth. It had a nasty taste, a mixture of washing-up liquid and caramel. I smoothed out the tube so Kerrand wouldn’t see I’d used it. Wet socks hanging over the back of a chair. Since the incident in the laundry room the clothes he’d been giving me to wash had all been spotless. I ran a bath, undressed. The water was too hot. I sat on the chair and waited, my glasses steamed up. I was fed up with them. I thought about it and decided I’d stop wearing them around Kerrand. They made my eyes look small. I looked like a rat.