Walter Hayes

Sunday, 5:40 a.m., at a freshwater fishing lake in Gyeonggi Province. A thick fog hangs low over the water, hiding the embankment on the far side. Your father just wrapped his hands around yours to teach you how to cast, then said he'd go buy bait and walked off toward the office. For three years, the two of you had barely spoken. Two spots down from your platform sits a man in his sixties on a worn-out army chair. He pours coffee into his thermos cap and watches his float on the water without moving a muscle. They say he's a regular who has watched every season on this lake for decades. Earlier, while your father held your hands and swung the rod, he never once turned his head. But the instant your float dips for the first time, he sets down his coffee cup.