“July, Julyyyyyy!”
“……Dad, it’s still 6 o’clock…….”
I barely moved my lips to mumble at the hands waking me. But Dad didn’t stop and kept shaking me.
“July, get up! We have to go to the salon too! We’re busy!”
“Dad…. Hyung’s not getting married today…. It’s just a dinner….”
My parents, who had been making a fuss since yesterday evening, made a fuss today when we had the family dinner, saying we had to go to the salon, we had to iron the hanbok. Even though hyung soothed them several times saying it wasn’t a formal meeting between families, just a casual dinner, it was no use.
After stopping them over and over, I prevented them from wearing hanbok. But I couldn’t stop them from going to the salon. They’d already made a reservation at a place run by Mom’s friend. It was the Korean salon where I’d gotten my hair trimmed.
“Get up! Get up!”
Smack, smack! At the hands even hitting my butt, I had no choice but to get up sluggishly. My eyes must have been swollen because I couldn’t see ahead properly and was just spacing out when Dad grabbed my arm and pulled me around.
“Get up, get up. Get up and wash! Oh my, your eyes are swollen!”
“Daaad…….”
“Get up!”
Pushed by the shoving hands, I eventually went inside the bathroom shower booth. And I turned on the water, then,
“Ah.”
I realized I hadn’t taken off my clothes yet. Swoooosh, only after thoroughly soaking my pajamas did I turn off the water. This morning in particular I was out of it. As soon as I got home yesterday, I searched the internet endlessly for how to go on a date, what movie to see.
No matter how insignificant the date was, I wanted to do it properly. It was my first date, in a way. Plus, from what he said, Joel seemed to have already been on countless dates. I didn’t want to show I was a rookie. If I got picked on like that, I’d be teased for ages again.
“……That bastard.”
Yesterday, Joel’s sneer laughing at me during theater class kept floating around my ears. Ugh, I even had nightmares because of that. Puhahaha! Puhaha! Keukkeuk, keuk! That bastard had an unnecessarily loud voice so even his laughter was loud.
I barely washed away Joel’s mockery along with the flowing water. I came out without even washing my hair properly and made eye contact with hyung. Normally he’d laugh hahaha and dry my hair, but today he was more nervous than anyone else, exactly like a broken robot. Water was dripping drip, drip from my hair, and he even screamed “Ahhh!”
“Hyung, pull yourself together. What are you going to do on your wedding day like this?”
“Wed, wedding, wedding!”
I barely calmed down hyung who was gasping while clutching his heart. It took quite a lot of time, so the water flowing from my hair thoroughly soaked hyung’s shoulders.
I was sitting on the living room sofa calming my swollen eyes with the ice pack Dad gave me when I was pushed back into my room by Dad again. The dry cleaner’s plastic on the clothes in his hands rustled loudly.
“But Dad, what’s that?”
“What do you mean what! July, it’s your clothes!”
“What?”
“Put them on and come out quickly! We have to go to the salon. Your mom says it takes forever if she does her makeup too.”
Thud, Dad, who had handed me the clothes, closed the door very hastily. I blankly looked at the pattern on the door, then lowered my head. The clothes Dad gave me were black in color. Wondering what on earth he’d prepared, I removed the dry cleaner’s plastic and,
“Huh.”
I was slightly shocked. It was a suit. There was even a tie.
“Dad! This is too much!”
I opened the door and shouted, but there was no answer back. Having no choice, I put on the suit pants ironed so stiffly they had sharp creases, the shirt, and the jacket, then looked in the mirror.
“…….”
No matter how I looked at it, it was excessive. Though I’d worn a school uniform, this was the first time wearing a suit. It was awkward. I didn’t know how to tie a tie and didn’t want to either, so I hung it nicely on a hanger. And with the top button of my shirt undone, I came outside to find a pair of dress shoes placed outside the door.
If it’s already this much, I don’t know what more they’ll do on the actual wedding day.
“Where’s the tie?”
“I said it’s too much.”
When I went downstairs, Dad in a neat suit looked at me somewhat displeased. He must be really nervous. This was the first time he’d made such an expression at me.
“That’s right. He’s still a high school student, wearing a tie is excessive.”
“But he should wear a suit and be proper…!”
“I keep telling you it’s just a casual dinner.”
Mom calmly stopped Dad. Mom in a beige suit laughed pahaha at hyung creaking down the stairs.
“August! What are you going to do at the wedding if you’re like this…?”
But Mom wasn’t completely calm either apparently. As soon as she brought up the word ‘wedding,’ her throat seemed to choke up, and she barely held back tears by looking up.
Our family was too sentimental. But I didn’t dislike that.
“July, you buttoned your shirt wrong!”
“I must be nervous too.”
“Oh my, how careless.”
Mom, who’d barely swallowed her tears, started unbuttoning my shirt from the beginning and buttoning it back up one by one. But this seemed to overwhelm her again.
“Someday our July too… will wear a tux, tuxedo like this and get mar, married… sob!”
“Mom, this isn’t a tuxedo. And I’ll get married suuuuper late, so don’t worry.”
I hugged Mom tightly after she fastened the last button. Dad and hyung who’d joined us at some point also tried to hug together but there wasn’t enough room.
“When did our July grow up so much like this…”
“When did our August grow up to get married, sob!”
“He still seems like a child, but he’s become an adult before we knew it!”
Hyung, Dad, and Mom spoke in turn.
“But what time is the salon appointment?”
When I asked because it seemed like if we kept hugging like this we wouldn’t even be able to leave the house, Mom raised her head in surprise.
“Oh my, it’s already this time! Everyone hurry and get ready! Your clothes will wrinkle too, so everyone let go of the hug quickly!”
Fortunately, thanks to hugging for a long time, everyone’s tension had eased before we knew it, and we were able to go to the salon smoothly.
* * *
“Wow, the house… looks like a mansion.”
Stopping in front of Dave’s house, I opened my eyes wide in surprise. It was the biggest house I’d been to so far. It really was literally a mansion, no, like a castle. So much so that it was hard to believe only three people lived there. I knew they were rich but they’re really tremendously rich…
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“About what?”
But rather than being nervous, hyung was spacing out with his gaze fixed somewhere. When I moved my eyes there,
“August!”
Winter was standing there. Wearing a bright sky-blue dress and standing under the sunlight, she was very radiant and bright. If she looks this good to my eyes, she must look even more amazing to hyung’s eyes. Of course it seemed that way. Right now his eyeballs looked like they’d fall out.
“Hyung, snap out of it. You’re going to drool.”
“Isn’t our Winter so beautiful…”
Click, click, click, click! Because he was blankly looking only at Winter, hyung couldn’t even open the door and just fumbled with the lock. Finally, only after I properly opened it for him did he get out of the car and walk toward his fiancée as if bewitched.
“Winter…”
“August!”
The two hugged each other exactly like Gyeonu and Jingnyeo meeting after a year. It’s touching and nice, but…
“Why on earth are Mom and Dad crying…”
I don’t know why my parents are shedding tears. I guess I’m the only one who can look after this overly emotional family.
I put tissues in Mom and Dad’s hands respectively, comforted them, and got out of the car. I was worried about what would really happen on the wedding day when someone called me.
“July.”
I naturally turned my head toward the direction calling my name. Behind the hyung couple still hugging each other and spinning round and round, Dave was walking out. Instead of the jeans and football team jacket he always wore at school, it was an unfamiliar outfit with him neatly wearing a shirt and his hair swept back.
He was originally handsome, but dressed up like that he’s really handsome, incredibly handsome… I almost lost my senses for a moment. If Joel had been next to me, I might have heard him curse ‘This gay bastard who only brightens up for faces!’ As if Joel was right next to me, my mind snapped alert.
“Hi, Dave. Seeing you here… feels really unfamiliar.”
“Yeah, really.”
The corners of Dave’s mouth pulled up.
“Come in, I’ll show you around the house. We still have quite a bit of time until the meal.”
That’s right. Mom, Dad, and hyung made such a fuss that we came two hours earlier than the appointment time of 2 PM. When I asked if it was okay to come this early, hyung only said several times that he missed Winter so much.
“Winter, I missed you so much…”
“August, me too…”
Looking at the couple stroking each other’s cheeks, I shook my head. I guess you have to be this cheesy to keep your feelings from cooling even after dating for over 10 years… It was amazing.
Whether Dave didn’t want to care or was used to it, he passed his noona’s couple and led me to his house. Swoooosh! Just then, the sprinkler in the lawn-covered garden activated and sprayed water into the air. When the water droplets met the strong sunlight, small rainbows formed here and there in the yard.
“The house is really pretty.”
“Right. It really is pretty.”
Dave, who opened the heavy double wooden door, nodded.
“Aren’t you going in?”
“…I should go in.”
Dave’s action of opening the door as if escorting me was too embarrassing. But I couldn’t refuse the courtesy, so when I sneakily went inside, the interior of the house with high ceilings and large space was immediately visible.
Looking at the really castle-like house, young Dave suddenly came to mind, left alone in this place with only his much older noona who had a different mother.
The house I originally lived in in the world was an apartment so it wasn’t as big as this place. Nevertheless, whenever I spent time alone in that house, I was too lonely and gloomy.
I glanced at Dave’s profile. Fortunately, it was a peaceful expression with the corners of his mouth slightly raised upward.
I didn’t feel favorable toward Dave like before after he did bad things. But I became a bit curious about why he acted like he was playing with people when he said he didn’t want to be like his dad.
“July, let’s go. I’ll show you my room.”
“Okay.”
I smiled brightly at Dave who was smiling.
