***
The heat between the long rainy season arrived. It was weather that made people whose lives were already bothersome droop even more. When you snapped ice cream in half, it immediately melted and dripped down. The chirring sound of cicadas seemed to stimulate sweat drops even more.
Before summer vacation, which held no great meaning for third-years, the June mock exam report cards came out. Since it was the usual marking time that solidly supported the lower ranks, Yeon Cheonguk mechanically checked the numbers and then stuffed the report card into his bag.
A classmate approached holding a cell phone in both hands gathered neatly. He asked with desperate eyes.
“Are you on text message? What plan do you use? Please…”
“I’m Yeon Cheonguk though.”
“…Oh, right. Canmoa, you don’t have a phone. Sorry!”
Irritation rose at the sight of him turning around sharply, so he teased him slickly.
“Even if mock exam report cards are more worthless than candy wrappers, as soon as the report card comes out, you look for someone with unlimited texting first?”
“What, you bastard. I’m texting with a girl I met at the study room, okay? What could be more valuable than this!”
“Sorry? I didn’t know. I’ve never gone through the trouble of picking up girls by text.”
Yeon Cheonguk stepped backward playfully. The guy, who belatedly realized the meaning of his words, shook his fist and hurled curses.
“You think everyone can pick up girls with songs and looks even without a phone like you? Fuck. I’m writing and offering texts like a fucking slave and buying and offering snacks! Mind your own business, you unlucky bastard!”
He won the pride fight on the surface, but anger boiled up. There was no way the inside of having to pretend he deliberately didn’t buy a cell phone could be happy.
Yeon Cheonguk had about 600,000 won saved up. It was an ambiguous amount. If he bought an MP3 player, he couldn’t buy a cell phone; if he bought a cell phone, he worried about his parents’ reaction; if he tried to repay even some to the owner, it was woefully insufficient; if he added it to household living expenses, he wanted to give himself at least one gift for all his hard work.
After worrying about what to do with the ambiguous savings amount, he decided to use it for vocal cord care the day before receiving vocal lessons. He should grill thick pork belly with his part-time job colleagues.
Today was the day to go to his flyer part-time job. He had to hurry home to change clothes and leave.
He picked up a desk pad rolling around the schoolyard to block the blazing sun and quickened his steps. Yeon Cheonguk, who had been walking around the athletic field taking the long way and choosing only shade, suddenly woke from his dazed state at a voice ringing in his ears.
“Hey! Yeon Cheonguk!”
It was Kim Yuyoung who suddenly ran forward, hitting Yeon Cheonguk’s back hard and startling him.
He was shocked. She was the girl he’d acted like a bad guy with and broken up with coldly. He’d hurt her quite a bit and Yeon Cheonguk had also heard abusive language. There was no reason for that girl to be standing in front of this school at the time school let out.
“What. What brings you here?”
It was half gladness, half curiosity. Kim Yuyoung took off a bun hat that detectives might wear and smiled brightly.
“I came to meet my boyfriend. You really are famous, even my boyfriend knows you. Do you know XXX in class 1?”
It was a name he didn’t know, so he shook his head.
Still, hearing that Kim Yuyoung had come to meet a new boyfriend made his heart much lighter.
It was as good as confirmation that what happened between them was now just the past. The remaining apologetic and uncomfortable memories faded at once. Then his glad feelings also grew larger.
How many days has it been? Where did you meet? Did you come to extort money for 200 days? After exchanging formal conversation and jokes, when he showed signs of wrapping up the conversation, Kim Yuyoung took something out of her bag and held it out.
“I bought a digital camera?”
A digital camera… it was a rare item you wouldn’t see in a boys’ school. It looked like a small, flat metal cigarette case, but it was a digital camera that could take pictures even without film.
“Kim Yuyoung, you’re still the same, liking quirky and useless things.”
“What! When did I ever like quirky things!”
Kim Yuyoung laughed and brought down her small fist on Yeon Cheonguk’s arm. Yeon Cheonguk stuck out his tongue slightly and dodged while playing along with her threat. Kim Yuyoung pointed at the small camera screen repeatedly.
It seemed like she wanted him to look at the photo. Yeon Cheonguk came closer and looked into the camera.
In the photo she had opened, there was event lighting equipment. It was the lighting of the Migliore stage where Yeon Cheonguk stood every week.
Only after recognizing what it was did the real subject of the photo catch his eye.
It was Yeon Cheonguk holding a microphone and standing on stage.
“…Actually, I went to see you a few times.”
At the bottom corner of the photo, the date ‘2003/11/23’ was displayed. When she pressed the thumbnail-sized direction button to flip through photos, several more similar photos appeared.
The next photo was also of Yeon Cheonguk in his only padded jacket with a ball cap pressed down, singing on stage. Between photos she’d taken with friends, there were several photos of Yeon Cheonguk singing interspersed.
Yeon Cheonguk silently raised his eyebrows high and maintained no reaction. He didn’t know what kind of reaction she expected by showing him this, but he didn’t want to give any positive signal.
“A few days ago I went to see the performance and tried to say hello… but you took a different bus than before.”
“……”
“Did you move?”
He didn’t want to answer. If he said yes, it was obvious she’d ask where, which neighborhood, and if possible, he wanted no one to know about the multi-family housing where he lived now.
Yeon Cheonguk grinned for no reason and mischievously deflected.
“What does it matter? It’s not like this is the house you’d come visit, right?”
“Ugh, what are you thinking, pervert!”
“…Who’s that?”
Someone walked up beside the two who were making mischievous wordplay. Judging by how his eyes were burning, there was a 99.99% probability he was Kim Yuyoung’s boyfriend.
Sure enough, Kim Yuyoung turned around with a start. Unfortunately, she hadn’t managed to turn off the digital camera in time, so he caught the photo they were looking at together.
The photo displayed on the screen happened to be of Yeon Cheonguk singing on stage. The man’s expression hardened instantly.
If he stayed here any longer, he’d just be a shrimp caught in a whale fight. If he took Kim Yuyoung’s side, the man would clearly get angrier. Anyway, the photos were taken before the two started dating, and if it became a problem, they’d fight for a few days, delete the photos, and the couple’s relationship would become solid again. It was best to withdraw without regret.
Yeon Cheonguk turned around and waved at the man and woman, smiling broadly and naturally. Both their cell phones had matching Mashimaro-shaped couple phone straps hanging from them.
“Have a great date!”
Yeon Cheonguk, who boarded the subway with a light heart, completely forgot about that incident.
Moreover, the next day was busy too. Tomorrow was his first vocal lesson, and there was no such thing as shortened classes for third-years. Instead of evening self-study, Yeon Cheonguk spent two full hours at a PC room listening to and analyzing songs by Jo Seongmo and Boohwal for tomorrow’s lesson.
He wanted to listen to <Moulin Rouge>, <The Hunchback of Notre Dame>, and <Les Misérables> musical numbers too, but he didn’t have enough time. He rushed out of the PC room and headed to Cheonggyecheon.
As it got hotter before summer vacation, the nights in the entertainment district were increasingly crowded with young people coming out to have fun. Demand for flyer part-timers increased. He had to earn money at times like this. Yeon Cheonguk started work, grateful to those who spent money on alcohol and sex.
Space A, he knew Kim Hyunjung’s songs by heart. He distributed flyers in front of a noisy nightclub near Cheonggyecheon. When he wore a mask and applied wax to slick all his hair back, no one could recognize Yeon Cheonguk.
If he offered flyers without rest like this, he received an hourly wage of 3,500 won. Although his body was tired, it was much more lucrative than the minimum wage he received at the juice shop.
People who didn’t accept them and ignored them, people who threw them on the ground, people who got annoyed, people who accepted them while showing a full display of bothered expressions—all kinds.
Honestly, his legs hurt, his throat hurt, and it was dirty. But he endured with this stubbornness.
He’d become fucking successful and get revenge on Hwang Jegu who was sitting in some position on some committee.
Revenge…
It was ridiculous what revenge it was when he’d received a favor that couldn’t even be converted into money. How strange. He wanted to do well and repay something.
What?
The action of sucking his mouth like a Jjujjuba and then ignoring him with total disregard.
Hmm… It might be something other than revenge. He remembered what the comic book room part-timer said. That being scared in front of Hwang Jegu might be a different emotion than fear.
Not fear but blank blank blank.
Not revenge but blank blank blank.
What emotion goes in the blank?
