“Hyung probably hasn’t eaten dinner.”
Yoonjo, thinking he had no choice but to go, sat beside his grandmother who was preparing dinner with an excited air. He scooped side dishes into a bowl and filled it generously with rice, then asked slyly.
“Grandma. Can I go eat with the hyung next door? I’m going to pack some side dishes and rice to take over.”
“Not eating together?”
“That hyung doesn’t eat well. That won’t do.”
Grandmother’s expression darkened briefly as if disappointed. However, at the part about not eating well, she paused her hands for a moment, then soon nodded her head.
“Can’t do big things if you don’t take care of meals. I’ll pack it for you, take it and eat.”
When meal preparation was roughly finished, grandmother skillfully packed side dishes neatly into airtight containers, then pressed down rice tightly and handed it to Yoonjo. There seemed to be an unusual amount of rice, but Yoonjo didn’t show it and held them in both hands, fluttering over to the next-door house.
Just as he was about to press the doorbell next door, Seonwoo’s affectionate voice was heard.
“Did you miss daddy?”
There was no answer in return. It seemed he was on a phone call. Yoonjo had to pause his hand at the word daddy.
Ki Seonwoo, a child’s dad? He thought maybe he’d secretly gotten married, but he couldn’t ask. Just as he was debating whether to press the doorbell here and now or not, the voice grew closer.
“Looks like you ate well. Why have you gotten so chubby?”
Thinking it would be better to step away, he took a step back when the front door opened wide. Yoonjo looked at Seonwoo with an awkward gaze, then held up the airtight containers filled with side dishes and rice.
“Dinner… will you eat…? No, would you like to eat?”
At the expected woof! sound, he looked down to see a large white dog. Not a child, but a dog. Yoonjo rolled his eyes awkwardly and smiled weakly. Strangely, his heart felt at ease and laughter leaked out without him realizing it.
At Yoonjo’s laughter, Seonwoo naturally brought up his next suggestion.
“Want to go for a walk together? We can eat together after that.”
The fluffy dog wagged its tail gently. It was a different feeling from the calves Yoonjo had seen throughout his childhood. Seeing Yoonjo hesitate, wondering if it was okay to go, Seonwoo reached out his hand, threading between his fingers as if intertwining them, then took the airtight containers with a light touch.
“I’ll put these in the refrigerator and come back.”
“Uh… Yes? Yes? Yes! Oh, but you can put the blue container in, but the yellow lid needs to go in the rice cooker! Or you can freeze it. It’s rice.”
Seonwoo nodded as if understanding and pressed a leash into Yoonjo’s hand. Because Seonwoo had just gone inside, Yoonjo stood awkwardly, then crouched down.
The dog with two eyes like black chocolate and a glistening nose tip was quite lovable. It was quite different from the dogs he’d seen in the village, but it wasn’t difficult to distinguish what kind it was. Yoonjo crouched down and said.
“Hello, puppy. I’m Yoonjo. Ji Yoonjo.”
Panting and seemingly paying no attention to Yoonjo at all, the dog kept looking behind. Then it burrowed between Yoonjo’s knees and pressed its face right against his thigh area. He felt a heavy weight. Wondering if he could touch it, Yoonjo raised his hand, not knowing what to do, when he heard a clattering sound and looked up.
“That’s strange. Dongtae is shy around strangers….”
When Seonwoo’s voice was heard, Dongtae raised his head sharply, turned his body, and wagged his tail gently. Because of that, Dongtae’s tail touched the tip of Yoonjo’s chin. Seonwoo reached out with a familiar touch to help Yoonjo up, then took over the leash.
Under the twilight sky was Ki Seonwoo. The smile overlaid on his expressionless face looked warmer than ever.
“You’re going for a walk together, right?”
At the question, Yoonjo smiled brightly, answering instead with that.
When they entered the path leading to the back mountain, a gentle uphill slope continued. Compared to Yoonjo walking as if it were nothing, Dongtae and Seonwoo were already panting heavily as if tired. That dog, that owner.
“We need to come back quickly. When the sun sets here, it gets really dark. There are some streetlights on the village side, but there aren’t any in the parts with fields.”
Yoonjo continuously explained with a long branch he’d picked up from somewhere—here is a pumpkin field, a radish field, and over there looks like a cabbage field. Then he stood at a certain fork in the road and pointed.
“This place is kind of unique… If you go down this way, it’s a tidal flat, and if you go this way, it’s a mountain. It’s a low mountain, but it’s better not to go when it’s raining. Ah! Next time if you have time, I’ll show you my secret base. It may not look like it, but it’s a place I’ve never stumbled in for twenty years of my life, so it’s safe.”
After that too, Yoonjo walked for a while explaining about the high and low tide times of the tidal flat, then stopped walking. Looking at the sky, it had already grown dusky. It must be almost 8 o’clock.
Country nights come quickly. It wasn’t simply because of the presence or absence of streetlights and commercial buildings. It was because when the sun set, people closed their eyes according to the time, just like cows, pigs, and chickens went to sleep.
It wasn’t always like that, but it mostly was. Yoonjo stood in place and looked up at the small starlight that seemed carelessly stuck in the pitch-black sky, muttering.
“In Seoul, you could only see satellites. But here you can see everything. It’s really strange. When it’s bright, satellites are the brightest, but you can only see stars in dark places.”
“Fakes are flashy wherever they are.”
Seonwoo, who replied quietly, looked at Yoonjo’s profile, then tapped his shoulder. The starlight captured in Yoonjo’s eyes faded.
“Let’s go down. If we go a little longer, we won’t even be able to see the path.”
“…Ah! Wow, you’re right. Yes! Let’s go down! You’re going to walk Dongtae tomorrow too, right? How often did you walk with Dongtae, hyung?”
As if noticing that Dongtae was being called, he walked pattering along, then glanced back at Yoonjo. Then he started walking forward again. Seonwoo gave his attention to Dongtae for a moment, then started walking again.
“When I was in Seoul, there was someone who took care of him separately. He walks twice a day, but these days it’s too hot during the day, so I don’t know what to do.”
“Then how about once in the morning and once around evening? It should be okay around then. Ah! Or what about the Space Science Center? It’s exactly 30 minutes from here and it’s spacious, so it’s good for running around. Uh… I do need to check if dogs can go there too though.”
Yoonjo, who was chattering while shining his phone on the ground, stopped talking at some point. Now between the two people, only the sound of walking on the dirt path could be heard. Dongtae’s footsteps were mixed in here and there, but they weren’t loud.
Seonwoo looked at the pitch-black form of Yoonjo walking ahead. Because moonlight came in intermittently, only a faint silhouette was visible; he couldn’t see clearly.
“Yoonjo.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s go down to the tidal flat together later. We can dig for cockles and whelks too. I caught a glimpse and there seems to be something like a small pavilion too….”
“Wow! It must have been dark but you saw it well, ack!”
Yoonjo, who was walking while looking back, didn’t see a stone and lost his balance. With a short “ack” sound, Yoonjo who was about to fall forward barely stood in place thanks to an arm that wrapped largely around his chest. At the same time, a low voice was heard in his ear.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah….”
“Yoonjo?”
Every time he spoke, the fine hairs by his ear stood on end. Yoonjo barely pushed away the arm still pressing against his chest and retreated with crab-like steps.
His heart was beating strangely too fast. It must really be arrhythmia. Wasn’t his heart pounding right now for no reason?
“Thank you for catching me! This is why night roads are dangerous. You have to look ahead well and look at the ground well too. Right, Dongtae?”
Dongtae, as if worried, bumped Yoonjo’s leg area with his head and nose tip. Yoonjo crouched down in front of Dongtae, stroked his head a few times, and stood up again.
“Let’s hurry back. When it’s night here, it’s really dangerous. Since hyung is from outside, you probably don’t know well, but raccoons come out here and tigers too. Uh…. When I was young, grandpa told me that monsters come out from the sea too. If you fall into the tidal flat, they grab your ankles tight so you can’t get out…. Anyway, that’s why….”
Yoonjo gave a long speech about the dangers of night, spouting nonsense. Toward such Yoonjo, Seonwoo casually stroked the back of his head.
“Mmm…. Then it must be scary. Let’s go down quickly.”
Feeling that touch quietly, Yoonjo felt his fingertips tingle for no reason. Nevertheless, his mouth spewed nonsense without rest. It was because he felt like if he didn’t do that, he would dash off and run somewhere right away.
When the nonsense seemed to be getting too severe, at the end of Yoonjo’s gaze, he saw a protruding branch of wild wild grapes. The fruit was also quite plump.
“Uh… there are wild grapes here. Hyung, have you ever eaten wild grapes? Hmm… they look well-ripened…. Hyung, stay over there for a moment.”
When Seonwoo went to the edge of the path, Yoonjo stood on his tiptoes and half-heartedly tugged at the wild grape branch bearing fruit. When he picked the fruit, the protruding branch shook roughly.
Something seemed to have fallen, but Yoonjo shook his shoulders as if nothing happened, then put one round, black wild grape in his mouth. As he chewed, his cheeks that hadn’t fully lost their baby fat bulged out, then hollowed.
“They’re really ripe…. Ah- try it.”
“Yoonjo, I’m fine, so….”
“When would a city person get to eat wild grapes? They’re really delicious. Trust me and just eat one. If they’re not good, I won’t recommend them.”
At the cheerful words, Seonwoo hesitated, then opened his mouth slightly. One round wild grape rolled between Seonwoo’s plump lips. Seonwoo, who was rolling his eyes while holding it in his mouth, lightly bit the flesh with his teeth.
The first taste was sour. Following that, a subtle sweetness rushed up. There seemed to be small seeds inside as something hard caught. When Seonwoo opened his mouth slightly to spit out the seeds, Yoonjo spoke with good timing.
“You can eat the seeds too. You can just chew and swallow them.”
Without realizing it, he crunched the seeds. Sweetness and nuttiness tangled together, creating a rich flavor. Seonwoo cleanly swallowed the single fruit that had entered his mouth down his throat. He was able to belatedly discover Yoonjo’s face smiling confidently.
“It’s delicious, right?”
“…Yeah. It’s okay.”
“Ah- try it. I’ll give you more.”
