And that question was resolved the next morning. After sleeping soundly without nightmares since then, Yeonrok came down to the kitchen to find Park Yeoin humming while cooking.
“Park Yeoin-ssi, good morning!”
“Mmm, our Young Master is awake? Should I quickly prepare you a delicious breakfast? Just wait a little.”
She looked particularly happier than usual. Gulping at the smell of frying pancakes, Yeonrok asked.
“Did something good happen?”
“Hoho, of course, something did.”
Yeonrok was soon absorbed by the carefully prepared meal set before him. He was enjoying his breakfast deliciously when someone hobbled in and sat at the table. Thinking it was Choi Hwan, Yeonrok raised his eyes and flinched. Moon Gyeonwoo had for some reason sat down at the breakfast table.
Usually the members Yeonrok encountered in the morning were set. He occasionally ate breakfast with Secretary Kim Jeongseong, or once in a blue moon with Choi Hwan and Manager Jo Junho. Yeom Cheonho left early in the morning so they hadn’t met at breakfast yet, and Moon Gyeonwoo tended to skip breakfast.
Today Moon Gyeonwoo looked like he was in the worst condition. Having drunk so much alcohol at dawn yesterday, his expression clearly showed he was suffering from a hangover. The area under his eyes was dark and his brow was full of wrinkles, making his impression look very bad. Park Yeoin, who had completely arranged her expression as if she’d never been happily humming, asked in her usual voice.
“Young Master, will you have breakfast today?”
“……Yes. Do you happen to have something like clear soup? Because of the hangover.”
“Shall I also make you some honey water?”
This time he just nodded without speaking. Park Yeoin opened both the kitchen hood and windows to ventilate the indoor area vibrating with the smell of oil, then began boiling radish soup. Moon Gyeonwoo drank the honey water and briefly went to the bathroom. Eventually returning, he didn’t touch the rice and only ate the clear soup.
“Oh, Young Master.”
Since Park Yeoin lately always added “our” when calling Yeonrok, instead of responding, Yeonrok glanced at Moon Gyeonwoo.
“By the way, flowers were delivered again today…….”
As Park Yeoin naturally trailed off, Moon Gyeonwoo let out a deep sigh and swept back his disheveled hair. An expression bearing all the world’s anguish appeared on his delicate pale face.
“Those…… just throw them away.”
Speaking in a cracked voice, Moon Gyeonwoo couldn’t even finish the clear soup and hobbled back to his room. As he disappeared, Park Yeoin hummed again. Her hands washing dishes were vigorous.
“Thank you for the meal!”
Sucking on the health juice decorated with a single flower of questionable origin that Park Yeoin had specially stuck in today, Yeonrok realized. Moon Gyeonwoo…… broke up with his lover! That’s why he drank so much alcohol yesterday and Park Yeoin was in such high spirits. Seeing him tell her to just throw away the delivered flowers, it seemed they’d really broken up.
‘He was so affectionate with his lover, that’s a bit pitiful.’
Yeonrok, who knew well from past experience how hard the feelings of heartbreak were, sympathized briefly, but that was all. Today he had other important matters.
After self-defense lessons that doubled as health training to strengthen bonds with the bodyguards, Yeonrok grabbed his phone. In the meantime, dozens of notifications had come into the messenger group chat. It was because of the first ‘meeting’ happening today. After leaving replies saying he’d see everyone later, Yeonrok threw open all the wardrobe doors in the dress room.
“Hmm, well. The shopping was worthwhile.”
Clothes that until recently had been carelessly shoved into drawers were now neatly hung on hangers with tops and bottoms matched. It was thanks to Choi Hwan getting annoyed at Yeonrok constantly appearing in carelessly picked clothes and sending Manager Jo Junho to organize them.
Perhaps having said something to Kim Jeongseong too, from then on whenever he briefly left the room, the wardrobe would be neatly organized. Thanks to that, Yeonrok could just pull out any hanger without worrying and go out wearing it.
Having changed into neat clothes, Yeonrok also picked out a bag. Then Yeonrok, who stopped by the hobby room, resourcefully packed his final item: knitting tools.
The hobby room that Kim Jeongseong had prepared had knitting supplies, and as Yeonrok was sampling the hobby room’s tools one by one, he unexpectedly realized that knitting was quite fun. The problem was that this was quite difficult for a beginner to do alone. After repeatedly unraveling and knitting and unraveling and knitting again, Yeonrok finally admitted he needed a helping hand.
So he joined an online knitting community. After posting a few times and leaving comments there, before he knew it, a meeting had even formed. Yeonrok departed with an excited heart.
The meeting place he arrived at like that was a small-scale cafe located in a quiet area. Yeonrok, who entered the cafe with a happy heart, was flustered. There were only women in the cafe, and as soon as he entered, their gazes poured down all at once. He left the cafe and carefully entered again.
A considerable number of the women were around the same age as Park Yeoin. Looking carefully, there were exactly two men in the cafe. One seemed to be the cafe owner and the other appeared to be accompanied by his wife. Yeonrok asked quietly.
“Um, excuse me…… Is this the knitting meeting?”
“What’s your nickname?”
“It’s ‘Yeondoo&Yeonpil’…….”
When he shyly revealed his nickname, the light in their wary and curious gazes changed.
“Oh my! You’re ‘Yeondoo&Yeonpil’-nim? Come in, come in.”
“It’s cold outside, right? First have a warm cup of coffee!”
Yeonrok received a warm welcome and sat down in a daze. After greeting here and there, he carefully shared the cookies Park Yeoin had packed and behaved politely.
“Everyone please speak comfortably! Just call me Yeonrok comfortably.”
Someone asked curiously about Yeonrok’s nickname.
“May I ask who Yeondoo and Yeonpil are?”
“Ah! Of course. My comfort doll and, recently…… I brought in a pothos plant and gave it a name. Their names are Yeondoo and Yeonpil. Oh, the cookies? When I said I was going to a meeting, an auntie I know packed them for me. I haven’t been knitting long but it’s more fun than I thought…….”
Yeonrok chatted away, exchanged stories, asked about knitting things he was curious about, and even got treated to hot kalguksu for lunch. Yeonrok said he’d pay for lunch, but no one would accept the money. After that, he also knitted about a span of the scarf he’d been aiming for. By the time the meeting disbanded, Yeonrok had become the harmless youngest member receiving the most affection.
Park Chungseong and Jeong Boeun, who confirmed Yeonrok’s expression as he returned with flushed cheeks, were also inwardly pleased.
“Shall we head home like this?”
“Uh……. Then since we’re out, I want to stop by a bookstore. To buy some knitting books.”
So the two people took Yeonrok to a nearby bookstore. After picking several other hobby books here and there, he was staring intently at a very cute but seemingly difficult dessert model knitting book when.
“Student, sorry but can I ask you something?”
When Yeonrok raised his head, a middle-aged man was pointing at books with a troubled expression. With a handsome face, tall height, neatly arranged suit, and wonderful atmosphere—he was like a model.
“I’m trying knitting for the first time, wondering if you could recommend a book.”
Since there were only women nearby, he seemed to have embarrassedly chosen to ask Yeonrok. Yeonrok readily recommended a book with a familiar title he’d happened to see in the hobby room.
“Thank you. After retiring at my age, I have nothing to do.”
Yeonrok, who was looking for hobbies because he was unemployed, empathized. Moreover, recalling how rare men who knitted were at today’s meeting, he was even more pleased.
“Knitting alone will be difficult, but if you join here, it’ll be very helpful.”
Yeonrok kindly also told the other person about the knitting community he had joined. On the way back after buying lots of books like that, Park Chungseong and Jeong Boeun asked the question they always asked.
“Did you happen to see any suspicious people today?”
After briefly thinking, Yeonrok answered cheerfully.
“No, there was no one like that at all!”
* * *
“Hey, you know what? Gyeonwoo hyung’s lover cheated on him.”
Yeonrok, who was draining the noodles of the 100,000 won jjajang ramen, almost spilled all the noodles. While inwardly bothered by the friendly title “Gyeonwoo hyung,” he asked.
“Cheated?”
“He seemed in a bad mood lately so I asked and that’s what he said.”
Yeonrok realized that Choi Hwan was slow enough to only now know that Moon Gyeonwoo broke up with his lover, and also had quite a loose mouth. Because Moon Gyeonwoo wouldn’t particularly want the fact that he broke up with a cheating lover to be known. When he immediately brought out the jjajang ramen topped with a fried egg, Choi Hwan gulped.
“You don’t know hotel ramen isn’t even this expensive?”
While grumbling with his mouth, Choi Hwan devoured Yeonrok’s jjajang ramen like the wind covering crab eyes. Then he carelessly spouted this.
“Good for him. You should take this opportunity to date Gyeonwoo hyung too.”
The nuance was that since a spot just opened up, he should roughly pair up. Is he calling this speaking?
