“Sungha-ya.”
“Hello.”
Kihyun hyung was wearing a cap today too. His clothes were always a loose t-shirt and jeans. Most students on campus wore t-shirts and jeans, but among them, hyung’s outfit especially looked careless.
Even with the same outfit, how should I put it, it felt like he just picked up any clothes lying around at home and came out? I was curious how much worse it could get at other times when this was the most effort he put in during summer.
“Ah. I’m really sleepy.”
Hyung blinked his sleepy eyes and yawned.
I had been curious why someone who absolutely didn’t seem like he would, living in a dormitory right in front of his nose, came 30 minutes early every time, but he said he had too much sleep and couldn’t wake up with just an alarm clock, so his roommate woke him up every morning. He said to avoid being late, even if he slept 30 minutes less, he had no choice but to wake up then.
“Aren’t you sleepy?”
“It’s a bit hard when I open my eyes in the morning, but once I get here, I’m okay.”
“That’s amazing. How do you come to class every day living so far away? I couldn’t do it even if I was reborn.”
Still, these days I had adapted a bit, so I had some peace of mind and it wasn’t too bad. The section coming into downtown was definitely very congested, but while standing still, I spent time listening to the radio or music.
“Ah, right. Want to come to the dorm after we’re done today? Friday would be good, but you said Fridays don’t work for you.”
That didn’t mean Wednesday was good though.
“What time?”
“Anytime after we’re done is fine. You finish later than me anyway.”
“It’ll be past 5, is that okay?”
I deliberately avoided working days and packed many subjects into Monday and Wednesday, so even starting early in the morning, it didn’t end until late afternoon. When Kihyun hyung first saw my schedule, he said several times it was the worst schedule he’d seen.
“Yeah. Doesn’t matter.”
“Then I’ll contact you after I’m done.”
“Okay.”
The school dormitory wasn’t as close as I thought. I heard it was nearby and thought I could just walk, but I had to take a separate bus from in front of the central building.
When I showed I was a school student and got on the bus, the driver nodded without saying anything. And after about 5 minutes, the bus stopped at evenly spaced stops, and I got off at the third one hyung told me about.
“Yo—”
Kihyun hyung waved his hand in an outfit not much different from what I saw at school. Instead of his usual sneakers, he was wearing slippers from a common brand.
“It’s farther than you thought, right?”
“Yes. I was surprised.”
“I was more surprised that you said you’d walk. Did you think it was right next door?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. Everyone thinks that at first.”
Hyung turned the corner, leaving the building right in front of him.
“There’s a place that makes really delicious hot dogs behind here. Let’s buy some and go.”
A food truck was parked one block away. It was a unique hot dog that put tons of caramelized onions on top of sausage, with a warning on the outside of the wrapper that the peppers that came with it were really spicy.
Hyung wrapped up a total of 8 hot dogs, including his roommate’s portion. When I asked why he bought so many, he said you’ll see if you watch, laughing as he said that.
The dormitory buildings were divided into three total. I wondered if there were different eligibility requirements or if it was random assignment, but the prices just differed according to the facilities.
The place where Kihyun hyung lived was the largest building where one unit was a triple room. He said the capacity was also the largest along with the size of the building.
[Yo—]
[Kihyun, long time no see.]
Having never lived in a dorm, the sight of students gathered in small groups in the hallway was both unfamiliar and familiar to me. It was a sight you couldn’t easily see in apartments, but it was a sight anyone who attended high school could commonly see in school hallways.
“Oh? Kihyun-ah.”
“Oh— Hyung. When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
“Are you going to Hyungjin hyung’s room? To drink?”
“I did come to see Hyungjin, but I came for other business today. Drop by later.”
“Okay. Then I’ll come by later tonight. See you later, hyung.”
“Okay.”
Every time Kihyun hyung passed by, everyone reached out to hyung, whether Korean or foreign. His name was also called from afar, and the sight of hyung greeting people each time was unfamiliar.
I had only ever seen him in the same class, and hyung within the same framework was always alone. In a way, he was close to being a bit of an outsider, but it felt like discovering an unexpected side of such a person.
‘I’m not originally this kind of outcast.’
‘……’
‘Ah, really!’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m serious, geez.’
Some trust built up in those words I had half-disbelieved.
After passing through the noisy hallway, we arrived at a room at the far end of the 4th floor. The front door was deliberately left open. When I entered, the air conditioner was running inside. It had been running so much that it was slightly cold.
“Everyone come out. I brought him.”
“I’m already out. What are you talking about?”
The person sitting on the living room sofa turning the TV remote shot a crooked smile at Kihyun hyung. Kihyun hyung looked used to that.
“Oh— You’re here.”
From the other side, I heard the friction sound of slippers dragging. A person dressed in a tracksuit from top to bottom walked out of the room slowly.
While I hesitated about how to greet whom, Kihyun hyung put down the hot dogs on the dining table.
“Say hello. The one I mentioned—”
“You take classes with Kihyun, right? You must be suffering a lot.”
The other person cut off Kihyun hyung’s words, made a pitying face, and patted my back.
“Come and sit first. Why are you making him stand like that?”
I didn’t know how Kihyun hyung introduced me, but from the reactions of people I was meeting for the first time, my image seemed quite good. This time too, wondering if it was because of my impression, around the time curiosity arose, I heard the expected words. That I had a good impression, looked kind, those kinds of things.
“You came from New York?”
“Yes.”
“Hey, didn’t Jinhwa go to NYU?”
“Dude, what does that have to do with anything? This kid was in high school until last year.”
“Fuck, you never know though.”
“Cut it out. You’re noisy.”
“You’re the noisiest.”
Perhaps because they were roommates, the three people definitely seemed close. Listening to their talk, it seemed like they were friends even before coming to college, but even when I tried to ask this kind of question, the topic of conversation kept flowing in a different direction.
“Ah. Sehyun’s girlfriend is in New York too, he said.”
“You don’t even know her name, crazy. If I say Sehyun’s girlfriend, would you know?”
“What, if you live in New York, do you have to know all the Koreans living there? Do you know all the Koreans living in Chicago?”
“Fuck, I just mentioned it because I thought of it and you’re fucking going off.”
I adapted without even feeling awkward. It was just right if I thought of it as having three Kihyuns. While the three people bickered, the hot dogs on the table grew cold.
Bang—!
“Why is it so noisy?”
After a long wait, just when I thought someone was finally putting a hot dog in their mouth, another person came in. The short, thin person quickly approached as soon as he saw us.
“Oh. Looks delicious.”
It was the hot dogs, not us.
“But who is this person?”
He, who had stuffed his small mouth full of hot dog, pointed at me with one hand holding a pepper. It seemed like he tried to use honorifics with me since it was our first meeting, but his Korean was somehow strange.
“A younger student who takes classes with me. You know. That crazy professor.”
“Ah! Okay, okay.”
“But why are you just getting here?”
“I went to the 3rd floor.”
“Hyungjin hyung’s room? I saw Youngjae hyung came earlier too.”
“Yeah. That hyung came and was about to start drinking right away, so I ran away.”
“He said he came for something else today? He’s drinking again?”
“I don’t know, I guess so. But what’s your name? I’m Jason. My Korean name is Kim Sangjun.”
The person who suddenly spoke to me smiled, closing his round eyes. The follow-up saying I could call him whatever I wanted came in very fluent English.
“Sungha. Kwon Sungha.”
I remembered the day I introduced myself at the restaurant a while ago. Back then too, I was surrounded by several people like this. Until just a few weeks ago, there wasn’t much occasion to say my name, but suddenly it was happening this often, so the feeling was strange.
“Ah, and this is my roommate.”
What?
My thoughts stopped for a moment. I thought the two people sitting next to me until just now were roommates, but Kihyun hyung introduced the person who just came in as his roommate. He definitely said it was a triple room. Then what about the person who occupied the sofa like it was his home and the person who crawled out of the room like a shut-in?
“Then what about the hyungs?”
When I asked that, the hyung who came out of the room late spoke first.
“Uh…, I’m not here. Next room.”
“But you came out of that room earlier.”
“Yeah. I played games in Kihyun’s room for a bit.”
The surprise wasn’t the end of it.
“I’m next room too though?”
“……”
“It’s originally like this here.”
Even the person lying on the sofa wasn’t the room’s owner.
After that too, someone entered suddenly without any contact. Each time, the visitor ate hot dogs as if it was nothing while greeting, and either stayed for a moment before leaving or settled down to chat.
The dorm unit was better than I thought. Even though the rooms were a bit small, the shared common space was wide and there was a fairly large sofa, so even if five or six people gathered, it wasn’t cramped at all.
Whenever I asked thinking it might be the one roommate I hadn’t seen, it wasn’t, so later I gave up and didn’t ask, but after about an hour, someone quite tall and handsome came in.
