Almond

Yunjae makes plans to track down Gon’s friend Steamed Bun to find Gon. He finds him in a red-light district. Steamed Bun is surprisingly cooperative and tells Yunjae that Gon has almost certainly gone to find Steel Wire. He gives Yunjae the location but tells him that good luck will be useless and mimes shooting him in the head.

Dora visits shortly before Yunjae leaves and questions why he and Gon are even friends. He explains that he thought Gon could help him understand grief and pain, but he did not find answers; instead, he just found Gon. Dora tries to get him to stop going after Gon, but Yunjae insists that he must because they are friends.

Yunjae goes to the city where Steel Wire is but cannot locate the hideout until after dark. He finds Gon, beaten, ragged, and pitiful, on the floor of a junk-filled room. He has a flashback to the shopkeeper’s son from his early childhood but shakes it off because Gon is still alive and can still be saved.

Gon is furious that Yunjae found him, throwing things at him and saying he won’t thank him for hunting him down. He demands to know why Yunjae thought he had the right to find him but eventually loses steam. Yunjae realizes he has been horrifically changed in just a few days. He tries to get Gon to come home, but Gon just tells him to leave before it is too late. Yunjae hears footsteps, and then Steel Wire enters the room.

Steel Wire is wearing a mask and seems to be a fully grown adult. He speaks softly and demands to know why Yunjae is there, and how Yunjae found him in the first place. Gon insists he won’t go home with Yunjae, and Steel Wire pulls out a knife and tells Gon to use it to harm Yunjae. Gon begins to pant. Steel Wire takes off his mask, and Yunjae notices that his face is angelically beautiful.

Yunjae explains that Steel Wire and Gon met at a youth center and that Steel Wire is renowned for his dangerous and violent crimes, which many people in similar situations to Gon wanted to emulate. In a flashback, Gon says that he wants to be like Steel Wire and like Yunjae, because neither of them are afraid of anything, but Yunjae dislikes his description of Steel Wire’s opinions and actions.

In the present, Yunjae asks Gon if he really wants to harm him, and Gon kicks him in the side. Yunjae, knowing Gon is a soft, desperate boy at heart, asks him again, and Gon tells him to shut up. Gon sees that Yunjae’s leg is bleeding from a stray nail and begins to cry. Gon says that he wishes he could feel nothing as he cries and Yunjae offers him his hand, but Gon rejects it and begins to curse at him. Steel Wire demands they stop the drama and says that Yunjae can have Gon for a trade. Yunjae says he will do anything, even if he dies, and Steel Wire decides to see how much he is willing to handle for Gon’s sake.

Steel Wire beats an unafraid Yunjae to near unconsciousness. He catches glimpses of a terrified Gon, begging Steel Wire to stop, crying desperately, but he cannot summon the strength to tell Gon he can stop.

Yunjae remembers the day Gon had killed the butterfly, and how he had cried while he cleaned up the butterfly’s body. He had said he wished he couldn’t feel emotions, and Yunjae tells him he would make a good artist for his overflowing emotions, which makes Gon tearfully laugh. Yunjae wonders if their time together actually happened.

Yunjae then thinks about times when people had not reacted to others in pain, or ignored tragedies around them because they were not involved or responsible. He says he does not want to live like that, utterly disconnected from the needs of others.

In the present, Gon howls in emotional pain and Steel Wire snaps, bringing a knife to his throat. Before he can strike, Yunjae takes the blow to the chest.

Yunjae passes out and wakes up briefly in Gon’s arms, bleeding. He realizes Steel Wire has collapsed nearby. Gon, sobbing, says he will do anything for Yunjae, and Yunjae tells him to apologize to the butterfly and everyone he has hurt, and Gon does, rocking him back and forth. Yunjae passes out again.

Yunjae experiences a dream sequence of the day of his grandmother’s death. He remembers her angrily telling him to get out of the way and wonders why, as that usually means someone hates another person. He wonders if his grandmother had “been relieved that she was the one in pain, and not me” (244). He realizes Gon is crying on his face and feels something emotional he cannot identify for the first time as he passes out again.

Yunjae has an out-of-body experience where he sees Gon holding him and crying. He wakes up in a hospital, but it takes him several months to recover. In his sleep, he dreams about being at a track and field event where Gon smiles and hands him a plum-flavored candy before they start running with no real purpose except to run.

Dr. Shim is with Yunjae when he wakes up, and he explains what happened. Professor Yun and the police arrived at the scene not long after Yunjae passed out, sent by Dora, who talked to the teacher, who talked to the students, who told them about Steamed Bun. Steel Wire was stabbed by Gon but is recovering in jail, and Yunjae notes that he smiled throughout his trial. Gon himself is in therapy but is not ready to visit Yunjae yet; he and his father are repairing their relationship. Dora has transferred to a school with a track and field team and is running again.

Dr. Shim notes that Yunjae is more expressive than he once was, and says he has a surprise. He hands him a letter from Gon, which only says, “Sorry. Thanks. Truly.”

Dr. Shim brings Yunjae’s mother to him in a wheelchair, and his mother cries and hugs him. Eventually, Yunjae realizes he is crying, and begins to cry and laugh at the same time, in sync with his mother.

Yunjae, now 18, rides the bus to see Gon, who is still his friend, just because he wants to. He says that he does not know how the rest of his story will go and decides to face what comes with his full self.