He politely declined the contact from Kim Younghwan that dripped with affection. Lee Eunsub and Ahn Shinwook’s messages offering to lend him money brought tears to his eyes, and he finally smiled a little at Song Taesu’s suggestion to invite him to the fishing club’s summer retreat without charging a participation fee. Far from enough to go to Europe, but Song Taesu planned to blow his fairly substantial savings on alcohol.
‘It’s nothing. Who hasn’t been scammed once in their life? Right now the money you lost feels big, but once you start earning, you’ll forget about it quickly.’
That’s what Younghwan-hyung said, but Kwon Yunsu couldn’t agree.
He was only twenty years old, and it was the first large sum of money he thought he’d hold in his hands. He pretended to be nonchalant because he thought he wouldn’t be able to hold his head up if rumors spread that he’d gotten sick from being scammed, but the truth was he’d been troubled and depressed the whole time. It was rather fortunate that it was exam period. He wished vacation would come quickly.
He was going to clean and then sleep, but the house he returned to had not a single spot that needed touching. Did the cleaning lady come? He lay on the bed feeling honored. The quiet of midday, the dim room, and the comfortable indoor temperature.
Scattering the gloomy thoughts that crossed his tingling eyes, sleep came quickly. And about two hours later, Kwon Yunsu woke up to an unfamiliar sound that kept repeating.
***
‘Hey Master. Why do you keep…’
‘We’ll eat together when you come. It tastes better when we eat together.’
Seriously. Being pretty and saying pretty things, what a fuss.
Even while taking the exam, that phrase came to mind several times, making Lee Euishin chuckle. It was pathetic to keep falling for words thrown out thoughtlessly, but cute was cute. Thinking about how the kid was suffering these days because of him, it was fine to accept this much compensation.
In addition to exam preparation, shuttling for the lawyer and feeding Kwon Yunsu, Lee Euishin these days didn’t have a single day sleeping more than three hours. Even if he got scolded for why he was taking over his work, he had absolutely no intention of neglecting feeding his country boy. Because these days, Kwon Yunsu would hole up alone and get depressed whenever there was a chance.
Since being scammed on the first day of finals, Kwon Yunsu had been in a dazed state for nearly a week. Even when taking him to the police station to write a statement after gathering various evidence, if he hadn’t nagged from the side, he probably couldn’t have even written his own name properly.
After that, he pretended to be nonchalant, but he could fool a ghost, not someone whose every nerve of daily life was directed toward the kid. Kwon Yunsu, who had no particular illness but lost his appetite and slowed down with his spoon, incited destructive urges in various ways. He didn’t even have the heart to scold him for being unable to concentrate on studying and spacing out. Lee Euishin shamefully realized that what upset him most was his country boy not eating or sleeping. He wanted to drag all of Europe in front of him.
Hurrying his steps was quite an unfamiliar sensation.
He hated rushing around, so he tended to prepare everything leisurely, and it was rare for him to urgently push through densely populated areas. Why didn’t I bring the car? While getting angry at himself, Lee Euishin quickly crossed the street. I need to hurry and feed Kwon Yunsu. As he took advantage of the weak moment and treated him well without limit, the kid seemed confused again. If he widened the gap a bit more from here, he might forgive the kiss where he’d even stuck his tongue in. Because he could do something even more intense. Because it wasn’t far off now.
Even while hurrying like that, he didn’t forget to stop by the mart and buy shepherd’s purse and winter cabbage. True to being a country boy, when he made seasoned vegetables for him when his appetite dropped, he ate that well even if he left all the rice. The freshness of the ingredients was life, so he had to buy a little every day and season them.
After eating an early dinner together, he might have to leave the house briefly at night. The woman who was his cousin-hyung’s wife was very skilled at draining people. It was exhausting to the point of grinding his teeth, but being stuck with the shuttle work that he thought would end on Monday was a good sign. It meant that the work he’d commissioned the man with was making progress.
The timing worked out well—the translation scam case targeting college students took shape as a fairly full-fledged picture. The possibility of actually getting the money back was almost zero, and even if it did happen, it might be after all of summer vacation, no, after several seasons passed, but that didn’t matter. What’s important is that he did his best within legal bounds for Kwon Yunsu. Even if he couldn’t wring those bastards’ necks, if he could just show that he’d gone this far to resolve his grudge.
Looking at what he was doing these days, it was at the level of “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I prepared everything.” Once vacation started, he wouldn’t let him take a single step outside the house. The honeymoon wasn’t far away.
Until he got off the elevator, it was just an excited feeling.
The country boy would be sleeping quietly, and he’d quietly turn the door handle, look down at the sleeping face, and wake him with a grumpy voice. They’d eat dinner together in a drowsy state, have idle chit-chat, and if a call came, he’d leave saying something husband-like about watching the house well before going out.
The satisfying delusion shattered when he entered the passcode and entered the house.
The heavy, sweet fig scent that brushed his nose. That scent was someone’s signature that he knew, and because it had naturally permeated like air, he’d never once thought it uncomfortable, but—
“……”
In this space where only he and his country boy lived together, it absolutely didn’t belong and shouldn’t blend in.
“Euishin-ah?”
In the living room, his mother dressed nicely in a two-piece suit and Kwon Yunsu sat facing each other awkwardly.
***
‘Who are you?’
It was truly fortunate that he didn’t ask that.
The intuition that he shouldn’t say such a thing was in a way natural.
The slender face and white skin, neatly applied makeup, and upright and elegant posture. That refined figure immediately reminded him of Lee Euishin, and the realization was natural. This is Euishin’s mother. The person who bought this house, deeply involved in the affluence of this lifestyle.
He woke with a start and his posture naturally lowered. He could immediately understand what the face puzzled about why he was here meant. Lee Euishin hadn’t informed his family that he was living with someone.
─As expected, it was a lie.
It was a moment when clarity settled into the suspicion that had grown over two seasons.
‘Instead of living alone, I’m supposed to let someone in to interact with. That’s the condition. They say I like living alone too much.’
There was no way that proud and arrogant Lee Euishin would have agreed to such a condition.
Lee Euishin living with someone? Mixing belongings in the same space, tolerating messy disorder, eating crude cooking someone else made… Why had he never particularly wondered about it? As if your boundaries were naturally my territory…
‘No matter how I think about it, that seems like the way to reassure me, you, our house, your father and mother.’
Kwon Yunsu was helplessly drawn to the sweetness of those words, and
‘You’re the only person I can ask this favor of.’
He was decisively captivated by the words added while making eye contact.
Because he thought it was sincere. Perhaps that’s what he wanted to believe.
“Are you Euishin’s mother?”
“…Yes, I am. And you are…”
“Hello, I’m Kwon Yunsu, Euishin’s friend. We went to the same high school and we’re at the same school now. Euishin went to take an exam right now.”
“He’s not home? But then…”
Why are you here?
He clearly heard the unpronounced rest of the sentence. Kwon Yunsu let out a small sigh of relief. It was good that he’d once fantasized about a day like this, just in case.
“Ah, I’m only imposing for this month. I had to suddenly vacate my studio apartment. Vacation starts in a few days, and I’m planning to go back to my hometown then.”
“You’re staying here?”
At the question asked as if she couldn’t believe it, Kwon Yunsu replied with an embarrassed smile.
“My situation was really bad.”
It sounded more convincing than saying Euishin is quite generous with his friends.
“…I see.”
Though her face was still dubious, Lee Euishin’s mother soon seemed to finish her own understanding and began looking around the house. Since he’d never seen her while living in this house, she might have visited when Lee Euishin had just moved in, or perhaps this was her first time. Although things were laid out messily here and there, there weren’t many belongings to begin with, so traces of cohabitation weren’t blatant. At least that’s what Kwon Yunsu thought. He blocked her path only once as she walked around looking at the living room, kitchen, and Lee Euishin’s bedroom with curiosity.
“Ah, th-there… Mother, that’s the room where I’m staying, and it’s too messy…”
Only that place seemed unable to hide the smell of life. His room where he’d spent two full seasons, …no, Lee Euishin’s house.
“Should I make you some tea? There’s some Euishin bought.”
“Euishin does grocery shopping too?”
“…Yes, well. Sometimes.”
As expected, that wasn’t something to take for granted. Lee Euishin grocery shopping, grilling meat, and cooking. Somehow he felt embarrassed. Not at Lee Euishin’s unusualness, but at his own ignorance.
When he brought out the lemon tea Lee Euishin had made when he had a fever, Lee Euishin’s mother elegantly drank the tea. And occasionally asked about things that came to mind. You don’t fight with Euishin, do you? Are you studying? You’re in a club together? Oh my, how fascinating…
With the ambiguous feeling of being neither the homeowner nor a guest, Kwon Yunsu faithfully responded to the interview. It was awkward, but it wasn’t an unbearably unpleasant subtle feeling.
However, he soon realized it wasn’t a pleasant time either.
Following the beeping sound of someone pressing the entrance key, when Lee Euishin entered, Kwon Yunsu was startled at how excessively glad he was to see that fierce face like a goblin.
***
