The first to exit from the driver’s seat was Jeonghan. Inside the empty car, Wooyeon wiped his lips with his palm—the lips that Jeonghan’s had touched—then bit them. He fumbled for the door to get out, but since it wasn’t a common vehicle model, he couldn’t figure out how to open it. As Wooyeon panicked, the door opened.
“Th… thanks.”
As Wooyeon got out of the car and spoke, Jeonghan only smiled with the corners of his mouth raised.
There were no people walking in the early morning alley. Watching Jeonghan’s figure approach the driver’s seat again, Wooyeon felt an inexplicable anxiety.
“Jeonghan-ah.”
With his hand on the driver’s seat handle, Jeonghan turned to look at Wooyeon. Wooyeon’s mind was in chaos.
“What you said before…”
“What do you mean?”
“When you said let’s have a drink…”
“Yes.”
“Can you buy me one now?”
It was a time when the sun had barely risen. Even as Wooyeon blurted out the words, he thought it sounded crazy. He wanted to drink because things were so hard, and the person who just happened to be by his side right now was Jeonghan, that’s all… Wooyeon rationalized himself that way.
* * *
After buying a can of tuna and three bottles of soju from the convenience store, Wooyeon hesitated for a moment in front of his studio apartment door. Now that he thought about it, he’d rushed out at dawn and gone straight to the hospital without tidying up his place… The room was already cramped, and if Jeonghan saw it, he might faint from shock. Wooyeon turned around and pushed Jeonghan’s arm, saying:
“Can you wait here for a bit before coming in?”
“Ah, okay.”
Jeonghan nodded with an understanding look and smiled. Relieved, Wooyeon took the plastic bag from Jeonghan’s hand and, worried that Jeonghan might see inside, squeezed his body through the slightly opened door.
“Sorry, I’ll tidy up quickly.”
The rusty green tin door closed with a creak. The small semi-basement room was dark and gloomy, with little light coming in even though it was morning. The moldy smell that Wooyeon was used to bothered him now, thinking that Jeonghan was coming.
As soon as Wooyeon entered, he pressed the switch to turn on the light and hurriedly took off his shoes and organized them. The entrance was already narrow, so if Jeonghan’s shoes came in too, there would be no room to step. As expected, the room was in chaos—the already cramped space filled with unfolded blankets, pillows, and clothes scattered everywhere.
“Sunbae, you live in such a cramped place?”
At the sudden sound of Jeonghan’s voice, Wooyeon, who had been folding the blanket, turned around. With a thud, Wooyeon’s body lurched forward. He’d told him to wait outside for a bit, but Jeonghan had already come in.
Jeonghan smiled as he looked at Wooyeon. The bright red face was worth seeing.
“I haven’t cleaned the house. It’ll be better once I tidy up. Just a moment.”
“There is room for me to come in, right?”
Jeonghan asked with a genuinely curious voice and expression. His face seemed to say he couldn’t understand how a person could live in a place like this. Wooyeon struggled to fold the blanket and shoved it into the cloth makeshift closet. After clearing away the pillow too, there was finally some space to sit.
“C-come in.”
Actually, even from Wooyeon’s perspective, the decision to bring Jeonghan to a house like this wasn’t easy. But he absolutely didn’t have money to buy drinks outside, even if he died and came back to life. That said, he couldn’t just keep his mouth shut to Jeonghan, who had paid for his mother’s surgery and stayed up all night watching over her.
Jeonghan bent his head as he took off his shoes and entered the room. Though it wasn’t actually low enough to touch, the ceiling height was so low that it seemed like he would touch it at any moment, making him instinctively duck.
“Should I sit here?”
“Yeah, just a moment.”
There was no need to ask separately where to sit. Excluding the sparse furniture that came in, it was obvious where the two people would sit. Wooyeon brought over a small folding table that had been standing in the corner of the room and unfolded it in front of Jeonghan.
“You must be hungry, I’ll make you food. Wait just a moment.”
Actually, since he ate only the expired products piled up from the convenience store every day, Wooyeon wasn’t familiar with cooking either. When even that wasn’t available, he’d go hungry countless times. Among the dishes possible with the ingredients he had, the only edible one would be fried rice.
Wooyeon placed the tuna can he’d bought earlier on the cramped sink and bent his knees to open the small refrigerator. In the corner of the completely empty refrigerator, there was a little bit of kimchi that was going bad. In the only frying pan he had, Wooyeon poured what little cooking oil remained and dumped all the kimchi in to fry it.
“Can I look around the house in the meantime?”
“Uh, huh? Yeah.”
Perhaps bored, Jeonghan raised himself from his seat. Actually, it was a room where you could see everything even while sitting, so Wooyeon wondered what there was to look around, but he decided to focus on cooking.
The ripened kimchi fried in oil, filling the small room with a sour yet savory smell. Wooyeon opened the tuna can and hesitated for a moment, then placed the entire can on top of the frying pan. It was a luxury that would absolutely never happen if he were eating alone.
“It smells good though?”
When the young master who probably ate nothing but steak said that, Wooyeon felt a bit more at ease. After the kimchi and tuna were thoroughly fried, and now wanting to fry them together with rice, Wooyeon opened the rice cooker. The small rice cooker for 2-3 people opened its mouth wide, but inside was completely empty.
Wooyeon just blinked in surprise. He was sure he’d made rice not long ago, so why was it all gone? Flustered, Wooyeon opened the cabinet door under the sink. To make matters worse, the rice container didn’t have a single grain of rice left either.
What should I do? Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan’s broad back as he was bent over the desk, absorbed in looking at something. His eyes also went to the tuna and kimchi waiting sadly for him in the frying pan, fried to a delicious smell. When he looked at Jeonghan again, this time Jeonghan was also looking at Wooyeon.
“What?”
“…”
The words that there was no rice at home couldn’t quite fall from his lips.
“Do you… also eat things like… ramen?”
* * *
On the small table, a pot of ramen and the tuna kimchi stir-fry were placed. The cups placed in front of Wooyeon and Jeonghan were crude plastic cups purchased from a thousand-won shop. It was shabby beyond measure, but it was a table he’d put effort into in his own way, even cracking the last remaining egg into the ramen.
Wooyeon sat facing Jeonghan and observed his expression. Seeing Jeonghan scoop ramen onto his plate and eat it without much hesitation, Wooyeon relaxed a little.
“Have you ever eaten ramen before?”
“Does sunbae think I’m some kind of alien?”
Jeonghan laughed as if it were absurd. When eating ramen, at least some kimchi should be served separately, but since he’d fried it all earlier, there was nothing left besides the fried kimchi. Wooyeon also scooped a little ramen to eat. It felt like the stress from worrying all night was relieving a little.
“I haven’t eaten it often. The adults at home didn’t let me eat it much, and on top of that, I lived abroad when I was young.”
“Ah.”
Did he say he lived in America? Wooyeon picked at his chopsticks. Before working part-time at the convenience store, he probably ate ramen more often than rice.
“I was in America from elementary school. They said it would be better to do my undergraduate here, so I came. The exchange student thing too—America is more comfortable for me anyway.”
It was all talk of another world. From Wooyeon’s perspective, it was a story that only came out in dramas, so Wooyeon just listened silently while swallowing his ramen.
“Then were you popular in America too?”
At that question, Jeonghan covered his mouth with his large hand and coughed. Surprised by Jeonghan’s coughing, Wooyeon flinched in his seat.
“Sunbae, if I look closely, you’re really funny, you know?”
He’d never heard anyone say he was funny in his life. Wooyeon blinked with a flustered face. Jeonghan’s smiling face actually looked closer to happy than amused.
“You were curious about that?”
“…”
Feeling somewhat teased, Wooyeon returned his gaze to the plate in front of him and picked at his chopsticks.
“Then what about you, sunbae?”
Wooyeon put down the chopsticks he’d been picking at and looked at Jeonghan. The feeling that someone liked him—Wooyeon wasn’t very familiar with it.
“I wasn’t very popular.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Just. It’s true.”
Wooyeon shifted his gaze back to the pot. Whether Jeonghan had been hungry, even though Wooyeon had only eaten a few chopsticks’ worth, there weren’t many noodles left in the pot.
“Want to eat some more convenience store food?”
“But why did you think that?”
Jeonghan stubbornly asked again. The only food left at home was a few expired products brought from the convenience store. Wooyeon gathered the ones that looked the most appetizing in his arms and brought them over, placing them on the table.
“Sunbae, you seem like you would’ve been popular.”
If you could call the feeling of simply wanting to sleep with someone “popularity,” there were countless people who showed such feelings toward Wooyeon. However, he couldn’t accept and convert such desire into feelings of affection. While it was true that Wooyeon grew up in an environment deprived of affection, he wasn’t that foolish. Wooyeon opened one of the convenience store lunch boxes and pushed it toward Jeonghan. Jeonghan smiled looking at Wooyeon like that.
“Should we drink it with alcohol?”
Jeonghan twisted open the soju bottle cap, and after confirming Wooyeon’s cup was empty, poured about half a bottle. Then the remaining half went into Jeonghan’s cup. This was also the first time drinking soju from this cup. As Wooyeon inadvertently lifted his cup, Jeonghan smiled and clinked his cup against it.
“Drink up.”
