“Your name is Dongmi?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you two been dating?”
“Not long.”
Instead of Dongmi who answered roughly, I slipped in “About a month.” As hyung began asking Dongmi questions in earnest, my hand cutting the bread trembled nervously.
I made the bread into rags, not knowing if I’d cut or torn it, then placed it in the center of the table telling them to eat. Dongmi put the most intact piece in her mouth, chewed it thoroughly, and sucked on the straw in the ade.
“If you’re at the same school, you must see each other after school.”
“We’re together every break time. We’re in classes right next to each other.”
“Do you like Daeyoung enough to stick together that much?”
“Yes. I like him, so we’re dating.”
Even though it was an embarrassing question, Dongmi answered smoothly without hesitation.
I put a piece of bread in my mouth to hide my nervous appearance. Maybe because I was so nervous my throat was dry, the piece of bread lingering in my mouth felt rough.
Wishing the next menu would come out quickly, Seongheon hyung’s direct questions continued.
“What do you like about Daeyoung?”
“Just everything.”
“Are you two still just holding hands?”
“No. We’ve kissed too.”
“Kkeok! Cough. Cough.”
At Dongmi’s unhesitating answer, I choked mid-swallow of bread. Not only was Dongmi amazing for answering without a second’s hesitation, but Seongheon hyung asking such a question was also extraordinary.
As I had a dry cough, Seongheon hyung handed me lukewarm water again, soothing me not to eat so hastily. No, hyung’s the one asking questions too hastily.
Gulp gulp, I swallowed water while gauging the situation again. A subtle current flowed between the two, so there was absolutely no room for me to join in. This wasn’t the confrontational structure I wanted… Before I knew it, the two were staring at each other intensely as if having a private conversation.
“You said you haven’t been dating long.”
“Does the period matter? And the faster the progress, the better. To understand each other as quickly as possible.”
“If you’re students, date like students. Don’t worry adults.”
“Isn’t that too anachronistic? What does ‘like a student’ even mean? Do you want me and Daeyoung to just hold hands? Even elementary schoolers these days don’t do that.”
“I’m saying to date healthily.”
“You date like that, oppa. I’m going to try everything I want to try and do everything I want to do. Right, Daeyoung-ah?”
Unable to follow the speed of their conversation, I barely answered Dongmi’s question faintly with “Huh? Uh…”
It wasn’t that I unconditionally supported Dongmi’s words, I just took her side because she’s my girlfriend. But Seongheon hyung seemed displeased with my answer, as his previously flat brow wrinkled slightly.
“Daeyoung-ah. Are you going to make hyung worry like that?”
At hyung’s reproachful question, I wanted to say I’m not that kind of person, but if I didn’t agree with Dongmi’s words now, we’d be found out as fake, so I couldn’t strongly deny it.
“Sorry. Hyung…”
I had nothing else to say.
I didn’t know deceiving others was such an uncomfortable thing. Even though it’s natural to side with Dongmi now, my conscience pricked me as if I was excluding hyung.
I apologized in that sense, but Seongheon hyung rolled his tongue in his mouth and picked up the ade nearby. The way he tossed the straw on the table and gulped it down looked somehow displeased.
Seongheon hyung’s tone was one of soothing us with kind words, but it didn’t work at all on Dongmi, who had bad feelings toward hyung.
“Dongmi-ya. Since Seongheon hyung came to buy us delicious food, let’s just think of it as well-wishes and listen.”
I was grateful that Dongmi was pretending to be my girlfriend for me, but I wished she wouldn’t say too much to hyung who was also buying us expensive food.
But Dongmi didn’t bend her opinion.
“If we mooch food, we can’t say anything? And didn’t Seongheon oppa call us because he wanted to hear our story? Then we should talk honestly. Isn’t that right?”
At Dongmi’s bold attitude, Seongheon hyung twisted his lips as if incredulous. In hyung’s eyes, we probably looked like very young children.
“Right, you should say what you want to say. Dongmi, you look like you’ll get sick if you don’t.”
Strangely, the conversation between the two was ominous. I constantly felt like I was walking on thin ice.
What was fortunate amidst this was that hyung didn’t suspect at all that the relationship between me and Dongmi was fake. Since he was giving advice thinking she’s really my girlfriend, the operation had succeeded to some extent.
“Aussie cheese fries, Cajun shrimp salad are here.”
When Dongmi’s menu came out, she seemed excited, as if her mood had softened a bit. Just as she was about to pick up the fork placed next to the plate, Seongheon hyung quickly snatched that fork.
“Eat with chopsticks instead of a fork. Daeyoung gets creeped out by the sound of forks scraping plates.”
“Do I have to eat while being mindful of Daeyoung?”
“You’re his girlfriend, you should show at least that much consideration.”
Seongheon hyung requested chopsticks from the server, and Dongmi looked incredulous while picking up aussie cheese fries with her hand to eat.
As hyung said, if I heard the sound of a fork or knife scraping glass tableware, I instinctively stopped my actions. I thought he knew this because he’d been close with me since childhood.
Dongmi picked up food capably with the chopsticks the server brought and erased her dissatisfaction. I also reached my arm toward the salad Dongmi was eating, but my hand couldn’t reach.
“Daeyoung-ah, give me your plate.”
“Yeah.”
Dongmi filled the plate I handed her with shrimp and vegetables evenly and attractively, then handed it to me.
“Eat this.”
“Thanks.”
As I took that plate and placed it in front of me, Seongheon hyung snatched my plate away.
“Huh?”
“I’ll peel the shrimp for you. You’re not good at peeling them.”
“No, hyung should eat too.”
“Hyung will eat when the couple set comes out.”
“Ah…”
Dongmi chewed lettuce while looking at Seongheon hyung meaningfully.
“Seongheon oppa, Daeyoung’s not a baby, let him peel it himself. He needs to keep trying at things like that to improve.”
“It’s okay if he doesn’t improve, I can peel them for him for life. And you eat this pineapple. Daeyoung gets itchy around his throat when he eats this.”
Seongheon hyung went tuk, placing a piece of pineapple on Dongmi’s plate as if giving alms to a beggar. Outwardly it looked like a caring gesture of sharing food, but the atmosphere between them was completely different.
Dongmi stabbed that pineapple with chopsticks, put it in her mouth, then asked while chewing.
“You don’t seem to not know anything about my boyfriend.”
“Of course. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve been with Daeyoung. We’re closer than you who’ve only been dating for a month.”
“Ah, I see. But I’m his girlfriend, and Seongheon oppa is just a hyung he knows.”
“I’ll be with him for life as a hyung, but you as a girlfriend will be strangers if you break up.”
“We just won’t break up and get married.”
Ah… Dongmi-ya.
I was about to say that’s going too far, when hyung brought shrimp to my mouth with chopsticks.
“Say ah, Daeyoung-ah.”
“Ah─”
Dongmi, who had been chattering back at Seongheon hyung, stopped the pointless fight, saying let’s just stop, when I obediently ate the shrimp. Then as penne cream pasta, jambalaya paella, etc. piled up abundantly on the table, hyung and Dongmi’s attention dispersed.
“Daeyoung-ah, you don’t eat olives. I’ll take them out for you.”
“No, hyung, I’ll eat on my own.”
Since childhood, Seongheon hyung had looked after various things for me like a real younger sibling.
Even when Daesu hyung left me alone on the street crying, only Seongheon hyung came back, bought me snacks, and held my hand until I stopped crying. When did hyung’s hands, which were white and pretty when young, become so long and thick-jointed?
Seongheon hyung held the shrimp with chopsticks, skillfully peeled the shell, and occasionally put it in my mouth. Then he pushed the strawberry ade with ice specially removed in front of me.
“This isn’t cold. Try drinking it.”
“Thanks, hyung.”
Maybe because I’d been looked after since childhood, I had no resistance to the kindness hyung showed.
As I put my mouth to the straw to drink the sweet beverage, I felt a gaze from across. Dongmi shook her head slightly, seeming to warn me ‘don’t fall for such favors.’
I know too. That Seongheon hyung’s actual personality isn’t like this. And that he treats me kindly like this just because I’m merely a friend’s younger sibling.
“I need to go to the bathroom for a moment.”
Around the time I was eating the 3rd shrimp hyung gave me, Dongmi stood up. Seongheon hyung, who had been watching her retreating back, wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked at me again.
“Daeyoung-ah.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have to meet Dongmi?”
When I didn’t answer, Seongheon hyung turned his body toward me and asked worriedly.
“Huh?”
“You’re not in a position to meet anyone right now. You haven’t even decided what to do after graduation, but is it okay to suddenly start dating a girlfriend first?”
“Hmm…”
“You can date later.”
I put down my chopsticks quietly, stopping mid-roll of pasta.
Realistically speaking, what Seongheon hyung said wasn’t wrong. If our parents found out I had a girlfriend, they’d probably advise me like hyung did.
Seongheon hyung gave one mature piece of advice and didn’t continue. I’m going to let it go in one ear and out the other anyway, so he doesn’t need to speak seriously… but I couldn’t readily say anything because of Seongheon hyung’s serious expression.
“Daeyoung-ah, I was going to tell you when you graduate but…”
“What?”
“That I care about you a lot.”
“Aren’t I a handful and bothersome?”
“Not at all. I want to keep looking after you by my side like this. I said I’d take you to live with me later, remember?”
“I should have been born as your younger sibling instead…”
“I don’t want to keep you by my side because I need a younger sibling.”
“Then why…?”
Is it to keep me around to tease me? No, he said he cares about me. Then what exactly does he want from me—I just blinked my eyes and held my breath.
“Daeyoung-ah.”
“Yeah?”
Seongheon hyung made eye contact with me and hesitated for a moment, then continued as if talking to himself.
“Right now, no matter what I say… it’ll still be hard for you to accept.”
