The Missing Rain Bright: A Flower Village Senior Center Mystery
The Flower Village senior center has an old set of Hwatu cards. The corners are worn down, but all forty-eight cards were always there, not one missing, and the village was proud of it. Then, one Tuesday morning, something big happened.
Rain Bright
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Swallow (Animal)
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Ribbon
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Double Junk
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1. A Scream Rings Through the Senior Center
Mrs. Park, the manager: “Oh my goodness! The Rain Bright is gone! The top Bright card of December!”
That day the village elders had gathered to enjoy a game together for the first time in a while. When she poured the cards out of the pouch, all eleven other months had four cards each, but December had only three.
Mr. Kim: “Well, well, this is serious. The Rain Bright is the one with the man holding an umbrella, isn’t it? It isn’t even raining. Where could it have gone?”
Grandma Lee: “The culprit is in this room. Who was the last person to leave yesterday?”
And so the investigation into the Flower Village senior center’s “Case of the Missing Rain Bright” began. Mr. Choi, rumored to be a retired detective, volunteered as chief investigator.
2. Three Suspects
Mr. Choi took out his notebook and wrote down three suspects.
- Mr. Kim, who stayed until the very end yesterday — the one in charge of tidying the cards
- Grandma Lee, who was cleaning — someone said they saw her put something in the dustpan
- Minho, the grandson who brought snacks — ten years old, and rumor says he wanted to play with the cards
Mr. Choi: “Now, tell me one by one. Mr. Kim, you first.”
Mr. Kim: “I tidied up, tied the pouch string tight, and put it on the shelf. I swear I didn’t take out a single card.”
Grandma Lee: “I only cleaned. There was nothing in the dustpan but cookie crumbs and dust, I tell you.”
Minho: “I only touched them. I didn’t take them out, really, I promise!”
None of the three seemed to be lying. Mr. Choi narrowed his eyes and walked once around the room. Then he stopped dead in front of the flowerpot by the window.
3. A Clue Under the Flowerpot
Mr. Choi: “Something is sticking out from under this pot.”
He lifted it a little, and there was a Hwatu card stuck underneath. It was not the Rain Bright with the umbrella man, but the Double Junk from the same month, December.
Mrs. Park: “Oh my, isn’t that the Double Junk, not the Rain Bright?”
Mr. Choi: “That’s right. But isn’t it strange? A Double Junk under the pot means someone hid it on purpose. If they hid the Double Junk and not the Rain Bright, it is more likely that the Rain Bright is still somewhere in this room.”
Everyone slapped their knees and said, “Aha!” Just then, Minho shuffled forward nervously.
Minho: “Um… I’m the one who put it there…”
Mr. Choi: “Ha ha, a quick confession! Why did you do it?”
Minho: “The Rain Bright and the Double Junk both have a ‘rain’ picture, so I thought they were friends and wanted them to play together. I wanted it to rain in the flowerpot. But I don’t know where the Rain Bright went.”
The senior center burst into laughter. It was such a child’s reason.
4. The Twist: The Rain Bright Was Right Where It Belonged
They had caught the culprit, but they still hadn’t found the Rain Bright. The investigation was stuck again. Then Grandma Lee suddenly clapped her hands and cried out.
Grandma Lee: “Wait a moment. Yesterday, when you tidied up, you stacked the cards starting from December, upside down, didn’t you? The top was December, not January!”
Mr. Kim: “I did. So what?”
Grandma Lee: “Then the Bright on top would have been closest to the mouth of the pouch. When you put the pouch on the shelf, it may have slipped out through a gap in the string…”
Everyone’s eyes turned to the shelf. There was a narrow gap between the shelf and the wall at the back. When Mr. Choi gently scraped it with a long stick, the man with the umbrella popped out of the dust.
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Found it, the Rain Bright!
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Mrs. Park: “Good heavens, Sir Rain Bright was behind the shelf!”
Mr. Kim: “Ha ha, so I was the culprit without even knowing it. I must have tied the string loosely.”
Mr. Choi: “Case closed. The culprit was… a loose string!”
Come to think of it, there was one more funny thing. When they counted the cards again, there were exactly 48, and Mrs. Park smiled quietly and said, “Actually, I had a feeling the Rain Bright was near the shelf from the start. But I stayed quiet to save the chief investigator’s face.” Mr. Choi turned red and adjusted his hat. The senior center burst into laughter once more.
5. A Warm Ending After the Case
That afternoon, to celebrate finding the Rain Bright, the elders all sat down together. Minho was not only forgiven, but he also begged them to tell him the story of the December rain.
Mr. Kim: “They say the man on the Rain Bright was a calligrapher in old Japan. The story goes that he saw a frog trying again and again to jump up onto a willow tree, and it taught him something.”
Minho: “So the frog never gave up either? I won’t give up either! Just like I helped find the Rain Bright!”
Everyone laughed heartily. From that day on, the Flower Village senior center ties the Hwatu pouch with a double knot and counts the forty-eight cards once a week. The Rain Bright got its place back on top, and they say that whenever December comes, it looks as if it stands at the center’s window with its umbrella wide open.
- The December cards are the Bright (Rain Bright), the Animal (Swallow), the Ribbon, and the Double Junk: four cards.
- Hwatu has 48 cards, twelve months × 4 cards. If you count the cards, you can quickly tell when one is missing.
- The man on the Rain Bright is said to be Ono no Michikaze (Tofu), a calligrapher of the Heian period (a legend).
Old tales and legends are told a little differently depending on the book and the region. This article retells the commonly known story in simple words.
