I'm with adrianh, where I would've enjoyed this story more without the context of knowing the anniversary of Nagaski.
This was one of those stories that really crept up on me. To be honest, I was not feeling it at all in the beginning. It felt quite similar to other stories that Pseudopod has run (most notably the Lovecraftian story about the dead guy in the hanging box by a dock, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of). However, it bloomed into something poetic and beautiful, even if it is devastatingly sad.
I did have a bit of a disconnect, as the beginning of the story, I was thinking this was set in a more medieval setting, but when he walked into the office with the file cabinets, I realized my misunderstanding.
These stories that never have a definite ending, where death is not the end and suffering never finishes having its way with you, are the ones that really haunt me. This one, this is gonna stick.
(Blue, I didn't really get OldBoy from this. I can kinda see it, but Oh Dae Su is not half as defeatist and sad as the character in this piece, in my opinion. So happy you brought it up though! My absolute favorite movie of all time, if my forum handle didn't give it away.)