Even after that, Yujeong didn’t stop laughing right away. Though he didn’t say anything in particular, Seongjo continued to look at him with displeased eyes. Perhaps conscious of Seongjo’s gaze, Yujeong finally stopped laughing and spoke.
“I can give you a toothbrush or outer garments. If you need anything else, tell me. I’ll go out and buy it myself.”
No matter how you heard it, it was a tone trying to appease Seongjo’s mood. In reality, a toothbrush and outer garments would be enough, and hearing Yujeong’s answer that seemed to be trying in his own way, he didn’t feel like pressing him further. Seongjo nodded as if it couldn’t be helped and placed his bag in a visible spot.
After the process too embarrassing to call unpacking, when he went out with Yujeong, his parents were already sitting on the open veranda. Beside Yujeong’s father, who was peeling fruit with a stern face, his mother’s eyes were sparkling.
“Come sit down. You had a hard time getting here, didn’t you?”
It was somehow a unique-looking couple. His mother’s gentle way of speaking also felt similar to Yujeong’s. Looking at eyes full of curiosity and affection, Seongjo smiled properly.
“You can speak comfortably.”
“Oh my, oh my.”
Though it wasn’t even that amazing a thing to say, the reaction was still very good. It seemed he’d succeeded in scoring points. He didn’t know for sure, but it seemed his first impression on them had been quite good. She continued, asking if that was so.
“We were too excited earlier. He’s never brought a friend home before.”
“I didn’t know that, it’s an honor.”
When Seongjo lightly joked around, she covered her mouth and laughed softly. After that, interesting stories about Yujeong’s childhood continued.
“You know, when they’re young, everyone wants to bring friends over and have birthday parties and such, right? But this kid somehow never did any of that.”
“It would only tire you both out if I brought them home.”
Yujeong, who had been listening quietly, interjected with an indifferent face. To think he’d been reluctant to bring friends over with such thoughts since elementary school. Though he’d guessed as much, he really had been a well-behaved old soul. He looked back at Yujeong while having the idle thought that even when he was born, his face must have been dry without any trace of tears.
“See, see, this kid has no charm.”
Yujeong’s mother grumbled deliberately.
Isn’t that kind of thing cute?
While thinking so inside, Seongjo laughed in response for now.
“So, how do you two know each other?”
Finally, as if it were the main point, a rather serious question came out. At those words, even Yujeong’s father, who had been peeling fruit, pricked up his ears and waited. Seongjo was caught in awkwardness for a moment. What should he answer? Their meeting was a bit complicated and unique to answer as it was.
While Seongjo hesitated, the person who calmly spoke up was, of course, Yujeong.
“He’s my university sunbae. We recently met again by chance and became close.”
He glanced back toward where Yujeong was sitting. Well, if he said they met as his niece’s homeroom teacher and that he even moved to follow him, this excited atmosphere would become awkward in an instant. Even Yeongeun wasn’t a real niece. If that happened, he’d be marked not as the first friend their son brought home but as a weird guy.
In that sense, what Yujeong made up was much better. But when he was looking at Yujeong with somewhat pleased eyes, he opened his mouth again.
“He said he wanted to help with the work, so we came together.”
“……”
You’re going to go that route?
He’d suddenly become a person with great interest in farm experience. Seeing Yujeong’s shameless face while telling lies, he felt both absurd and amused.
“I’ll be clumsy, but… if there’s anything I can help with, I’ll work hard.”
Turning his eyes away from Yujeong who showed no reaction even when stared at, Seongjo answered politely. While thinking that Yujeong needed to be grateful to him for answering like this.
* * *
“If anyone I know saw me like this right now, they’d have been carried away. From shock.”
Seongjo, who had been examining his own appearance, said. It wasn’t an exaggeration but words containing one hundred percent sincerity. Comfortable, loose pants. A t-shirt good for working in. Even the wide-brimmed hat that Yujeong had personally put on him, saying he’d get sunburned.
Should he be relieved that at least they weren’t flashy floral-patterned mompe pants? Even so, it was an outfit he was wearing for the first time in his life. If he hadn’t followed Yujeong today, it would have been something he’d never experience for the rest of his life. It certainly was an unusual and new experience.
“You can’t farm in a suit.”
Hearing Yujeong’s calm words, he didn’t even feel fighting spirit. Well, they wouldn’t make Seongjo, who was completely ignorant about farming, do full-scale hard labor. If he thought of it as coming for a day of farm volunteer experience, it wouldn’t be difficult. He shrugged his shoulders and moved his steps.
Before he knew it, it had become midday and the sun was cutting through the center of the sky. Yujeong, who had been continuously observing Seongjo wearing his hat pulled down low, gestured at one point as if telling him to come closer. Seongjo bent down toward him without resistance.
“Here.”
Yujeong, who pointed at Seongjo’s cheek, reached out his hand as is and removed what had been stuck to the cheek he’d pointed at.
Dust? Thinking it was no big deal as he looked, something jumped and fell from his hand. The pale green form quickly moved away and disappeared. It seemed to have been a small grass insect.
He wasn’t afraid of bugs. Not just bugs—Seongjo was generally indifferent to most things others feared. But he couldn’t help feeling somewhat uncomfortable thinking he hadn’t noticed at all that a bug had been stuck to his face.
Were there many bugs because there was a lot of grass? As he furrowed his brow, keenly aware of the spot where the bug had been, Yujeong rolled up his other sleeve and reached his hand toward Seongjo once more.
When he obediently lowered his head toward him this time too, Yujeong wiped his cheek with the clean sleeve and then moved away again. There probably wasn’t a need to wipe his cheek just because one grass insect had been stuck to it, but it was a matter of feelings. As he straightened his body with a much calmer heart, Yujeong glanced at Seongjo and spoke.
“You’re so defenseless.”
Defenseless…
It was a word he’d never heard before, so it felt particularly unfamiliar. He knew why Yujeong felt that way. If it had been someone else, he probably wouldn’t have readily offered his cheek like this.
More than anything, other people didn’t gesture for Seongjo to come and go like Yujeong did.
He could have told him “It’s only like that with you,” but the words that he could have said without a second thought normally got caught in his throat today.
Was it because the scorching sun beating down was so hot?
Satisfied with just the not-bad atmosphere, Seongjo shrugged his shoulders with a laugh, saying “Is that so?”
Until then, it seemed like there would be no problems at all.
Until then…
* * *
“Huk…, ah, huk, huk…”
Yujeong, who had placed a wet towel on the forehead of Seongjo gasping for breath, asked.
“Is it very difficult?”
Seongjo jerked his head up and glared at Yujeong with fierce eyes as if asking what kind of question was that. Because it was difficult enough that he didn’t need to answer.
Yujeong’s parents said farming wasn’t their profession. Most of the land was rented out to people who farmed professionally, and they only modestly grew fruit trees and vegetables on the small plot in front of the house. They said the harvest grown that way was shared with their children and other relatives.
It was an area Seongjo didn’t know well, but it certainly didn’t seem like they farmed on a very large scale. He could see why they said they didn’t need that many hands.
But still.
“How… is this a light farm volunteer experience?”
Seongjo, who had covered his eyes with the wet towel, said. No matter how small the scale, for Seongjo as a beginner, it was labor with an immense burden.
All day long, he’d selected fruit from the fruit trees, done “transplanting” which was completely moving seedlings to where they would grow, and besides that, his energy had been completely depleted from being dragged around to all sorts of tasks without rest. He couldn’t even remember when he’d last been this exhausted.
‘Think of it as coming for a day of rural experience and enjoy it lightly.’
Yujeong’s parents had certainly said that… but the problem was Yujeong, who had calmly nodded beside them.
“You could have rested.”
It was because he’d been wrongly swept up by the pace of Yujeong, who worked without rest with a calm face. Since Yujeong hadn’t forcibly driven him, whose fault could he blame? Seongjo removed the towel from his face and stared up at Yujeong. Their eyes met with a somewhat worried look.
