News spread that a failed double-suicide attempt had resulted in a man and a woman being taken to the village police station, prompting a crowd to gather and watch.

In the center of the wooden floor, illuminated by ten electric lights, stood a small brazier filled with extinguished charcoal. The couple huddled close together beside it, crouching as they dried the wet and crumpled sleeves of their clothing. They both appeared to be city folk: the man had the slicked-back hairstyle of a university student, while the woman wore a bob haircut typical of downtown fashion.

As more faces pressed against the glass doors to peer inside, the pair drew even closer together, lowering their heads in shame.

Before long, a policeman, appearing to be in his early forties or mid-forties, strolled in leisurely, wearing a padded dotera. His face, shiny and red from what seemed like alcohol, glowed as he took a seat in a chair before the couple. Swaying slightly in his drunken haze, he began questioning them, jotting down their answers in his notebook.

At last, he said with a sly grin, “So, the two of you are sweet potatoes, eh?”

From the darkness outside the glass doors came a few muffled chuckles.

Hearing this, the young man, who had been sitting silently with his head bowed, brushed back his wet hair with his right hand, raised his face, and glared up at the officer. Clearly agitated, he spoke firmly, his pale lips trembling:

“No… We are sweethearts.”

The policeman let out a mocking laugh, twisting his mustache as he replied, “Sweethearts, you say? Hmm… How is a heart different from a potato?”

“A heart is a soul, and a potato is a tuber,” the young man shot back, almost spitting out his words. But when he glanced at the crowd outside the glass doors laughing uproariously, his defiance crumbled, and he slumped over again.

The policeman, now fully enjoying himself, stroked his mustache with relish. “Hmm… Is that so? Still, aren’t they quite similar?”

The young man raised his head in confusion, while the laughter outside suddenly subsided.

The policeman leaned back with a self-satisfied air. “After all, don’t both sprout in places they’re not wanted, cling to each other, and eventually rot? Isn’t that right?”

For a moment, the room fell into an almost eerie silence—until the crowd outside erupted into uncontrollable laughter.

The young man, trembling with humiliation, covered his face with both hands. Realizing they had been mocked from the beginning, the woman beside him clung to his knees, crying loudly as she collapsed forward.

The laughter from outside grew even louder, reverberating through the air.

The policeman crossed his arms, gazed up at the ceiling, and burst out laughing.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! What a pair of fools! Ha ha ha ha ha…”