What always supported Haeyoung’s daily life was 80% goal-consciousness. When Yoon Haeyoung had a goal to accomplish, he could never allow himself to be buried in negative emotions.
So he thought it was fortunate that he happened to be in the middle of practical work training right now. If he didn’t have immediate work to do, his head would definitely be filled all day with thoughts only about hyung. …Just like last spring.
In any case, unlike then, he was currently performing winter internship training with the premise of employment. Common assignments that were reflected in evaluations kept coming out, and each day was busy, so Haeyoung couldn’t just be dazedly wavering. If he finished this internship well and employment became certain, he would have more leeway than before. Then, before taking the bar exam, he could focus on part-time work and earn a bit more.
About two weeks of the internship remained, and when it ended, there would also be about a week left of program filming. It was when Haeyoung was looking at the calendar and calculating his future schedule.
“Haeyoung-ssi, this.”
The one who whispered and spoke to him was Yeoeun-ssi, a fellow intern sitting next to him. After eating lunch, she seemed to be going somewhere, and it appeared she’d been to the pharmacy. Haeyoung drooped his eyebrows as he looked at the medicine bag held in the white hand that reached over to his seat.
“Yeoeun-ssi…”
“Touched? No, when we were eating with Lawyer Choi earlier, your face looked a bit off.”
“I’m really touched.”
I was going to go to the pharmacy anyway… As Haeyoung received the bag from her, he made a face full of gratitude.
Yeoeun-ssi was one year older but a fellow first-year law school student. They’d been assigned to the same team in this internship, and had become quite close while working together to solve assignments given by their mentor lawyer. They’d become comfortable enough to go eat lunch or dinner together.
Today, he’d felt unwell all morning and was going to skip lunch, but their mentor, Lawyer Choi, had asked them to eat lunch together, so he’d just returned from going out with Yeoeun-ssi. I thought I didn’t show it during the meal… Haeyoung, caught red-handed, put on an awkward smile over his touched expression.
“It’s nothing. How much of the common assignment did you finish?”
At Yeoeun’s casually asked question, Haeyoung scratched his cheek with a smiling face.
“I’ve only gotten to the planning stage. I still need to write it.”
“Liar. Lawyer Choi said Haeyoung-ssi got first place on the first common assignment.”
Nice try with the smokescreen. Haeyoung, who had been leaning his head against the partition, slightly raised the corners of his lips toward Yeoeun, who was rolling her eyes in a not-unpleasant way. A voice tinged with playful laughter flowed out carelessly.
“Well, even I think I wrote that one pretty well…”
Watching Haeyoung get cocky then flinch and laugh at himself, she also laughed back as if absurd.
I’ll let you know how things go. Haeyoung grabbed the partition and whispered toward Yeoeun. Got it, then fighting! Toward her warmly offering encouragement, Haeyoung also lightly raised his hand and made a tight fist.
Then he looked forward again and took out medicine from the bag she’d given him and swallowed it with water. Of course, there was no dramatic effect of feeling better immediately after taking medicine. But somehow, just from the thoughtfulness Yeoeun had offered, his stomach seemed to feel somewhat better.
Haeyoung, who had raised his hand and pressed firmly on his closed eyes, focused on the laptop screen again. It would be nice if it were a smokescreen like she said, but the truth was he hadn’t written anything yet besides the format.
This common assignment was to write an answer brief. He’d been flustered because a special law not taught in law school had come up, but that didn’t mean he could just let it sit. During the morning, he’d grasped the issues and roughly planned how to write out the answers he’d thought of, so if he did just a bit more research, it seemed he could finish it by the end of today.
Haeyoung, who had grabbed his stiff neck and stretched, soon plunged into the given assignment.
The subway during rush hour was always hell. Suddenly remembering Seonwoo this morning going on about how the subway would be crowded with people or whatever, Haeyoung unconsciously let out a chuckle.
It was after he’d barely submitted his assignment in time for leaving work and even had dinner together with the other interns. After that, his body boarding the subway felt heavier than usual. Still, the fortunate thing was that the place to return to was closer than his original home. Getting off at the station that had already arrived and transferring to a bus, the destination was already right in front of him.
Walking up the upscale residential area he still wasn’t accustomed to, Haeyoung’s eyes caught sight of a house brightly lit up. Even though it was a place he’d only stay for a month, thinking about returning to a brightly lit house made him feel good for some reason.
Haeyoung, who had quickly moved his steps and entered the house, climbed the stairs heading to the second floor. Perhaps everyone was gathered on the second floor, as the voices of people grew closer with each step up.
“Oh? It’s Haeyoung-ssi!”
Upon reaching the second floor, the one he discovered was Soyoon. Most were sitting on the sofa installed in the common area or lying in relaxed positions on the couch, and among them, Soyoon was sitting on a single-person sofa next to the multi-person sofa.
It was somehow a welcoming greeting as if she’d been waiting for Haeyoung. Soyoon pointed at him with her hand and smiled warmly. Seeing her face that seemed much more comfortable than yesterday, Haeyoung also waved with a smiling face.
Hyuna, who had been sitting next to her, also spoke to him without reserve.
“Haeyoung-ssi, did you just get off work? Did you eat?”
“You must be tired since you got off work late…”
Following Hyuna’s question, the one who added words muttering was Jaehwi. Seeing him in the same outfit as this morning and still holding a book in one hand, it seemed he’d been home all day.
They’d barely exchanged a few words yesterday, yet watching the cast members suddenly speak to him warmly, Haeyoung nodded his head in a daze. Then Haeyoung, who had been approaching them without thinking, hesitated and turned his steps again.
“Yes, I ate. Let me just change my clothes and come back out.”
He didn’t head to the common area but immediately crossed the hallway and grabbed the doorknob of the room. Holding it and pushing it as is to open the door, quiet darkness greeted Haeyoung.
Whether Seonwoo hadn’t come yet, inside the room there was neither warmth nor a single ray of light. Click—when Haeyoung pressed the bottom button among the switches on the wall, soft light came from the lighting attached to the edges of the room.
After glancing around the empty room, he put down his bag and headed straight to the dressing room. First washing his hands and face, he gripped the sink and let out a sigh for a moment.
Tonight there would be a time when the cast members’ information would be revealed. Along with age, they’d be able to learn more about each other. Then, naturally, they’d become closer and more comfortable than before.
But could it be like that with Seonwoo hyung too? Yoon Haeyoung wasn’t confident. Just looking at how his gaze kept going to the seat of someone who hadn’t come showed that. Haeyoung, who had let out a sigh, roughly washed his face with cold water once more. However, he didn’t want to become more pathetic. He didn’t have the right to be that way anyway.
It was after he’d embraced his uncomfortable stomach all day and steeled his heart countless times. Haeyoung, with a calmer face than before, soon changed into homewear that looked decent. Then he exited the dressing room to go back outside.
It was then that the closed door opened before he could even grip the doorknob.
“Oh…”
Haeyoung, who had come face to face with Seonwoo entering the room, stopped as if creaking.
Whether he’d just returned, the winter air from outside still clung to him. The familiar scent flowing from clothes imbued with cold wind spread thickly toward Haeyoung. At the same time, a flying gaze. The black pupils he met in the not-bright surroundings where the lights weren’t all on were distinct. The warmth that quickly penetrated the eyes that until just moments ago had been dry like dead wood headed toward one place.
The words he’d meticulously organized to take out when seeing him got chaotically mixed up in his head. Haeyoung, who had been frozen for a moment, soon came to his senses and called him. It was with the microphone attached inside his clothes firmly gripped and blocked.
“Hyung, you know…”
A rather cautious voice reached Seonwoo.
Yesterday, shocked by the fact that he’d met him here, he couldn’t speak properly, but as long as they had to live in one house and film together, there remained something between them that needed to be sorted out at least once. It wasn’t to dig up and solve fundamental problems. Rather, it would be closer to emergency treatment of covering the problem with cloth so it wouldn’t be visible.
However, in the meantime, Seonwoo, who had taken off his outerwear and held it on his arm, looked at Haeyoung and smiled quietly.
“Yeah. I know, don’t worry.”
It was a voice that resembled a sigh. He nodded as if he knew what he would say without needing to hear it.
Seonwoo had always noticed his worries without him saying anything. Yoon Haeyoung thought this time too that his words saying he knew would be true. The words saying he didn’t need to worry too. Because his soothing voice wore such familiar affection.
Though it wasn’t that he had no concerns, still, Haeyoung, somewhat relieved, looked at Seonwoo and nodded as if understanding. At that gesture, Cha Seonwoo, with a deep smile on his lips, stepped aside from the door and said,
“Go out first, Haeyoung-ah.”
He still hadn’t even changed his clothes yet. To Haeyoung approaching the doorway after answering quietly to his words, the scent emanating from Seonwoo once again brushed past the tip of his nose. Within the cool winter fragrance picked up from outside, the familiar scent was distinguished at once.
Certain scents evoke memories. They revive in an instant even that momentary time and emotions one could never forget. Haeyoung, who had cut across the emotions that revived stickily and clung around his ankles, left the room.
Leaving the door, the bright light from outside poured toward Haeyoung. Seeing Haeyoung who had come out to the common area, Sehee, who had been sitting, smiled broadly and asked,
“You’re Haeyoung-ssi, right?”
“Yes?”
“The person who made doenjang jjigae this morning and left, that’s Haeyoung-ssi, right?”
“Ah, that’s me.”
At her question, Haeyoung readily nodded. Meanwhile, Jaehwi was folding the legs he’d had stretched out and slightly moving to the side to make room. At that considerate gesture, Haeyoung approached with a beaming smile and sat next to Jaehwi. Once Seonwoo came, all the cast members would now be gathered.
To Haeyoung who was thinking of Seonwoo who hadn’t come out yet, Soyoon smiled with crinkled eyes.
“Wow! We really said it was delicious while eating it!”
“Really? Was it okay?”
A bright smile immediately appeared on Haeyoung’s face as well. The slightly rising corners of his lips revealed his pleased mood without hiding it. So that’s why everyone was welcoming him so much—it seemed the dish he’d made and left in the morning had been quite good.
Seeing the pride revealed in his expression, Soyoon finally couldn’t hold back and let out laughter.
