‘Why does it keep… loading?’
What this means is, it was about Seo Sihan’s speech pattern.
Seo Sihan was originally leisurely in both actions and speech, all slow and relaxed. Even Jeong Minha didn’t care about that much. But he often hesitated at the words themselves.
“Minha is… so cool and handsome…”
As always, when Seo Sihan again spewed out a sincere compliment, Jeong Minha’s lips curved up in pleasure but also answered in disbelief.
“Ahem, hyung really needs a bit of… self-objectification.”
“Self-objec…? Ah…”
Even if he didn’t know at first, as loading incidents like the above continued, Jeong Minha became serious alone.
No matter how much he thought about it, it couldn’t be that Seo Sihan simply didn’t know the words. Because Seo Sihan was too smart.
Last time when he briefly watched him do company work, putting aside that the document content was all in English, there were even strange drawings. So Jeong Minha asked what this was, and Seo Sihan thought for a moment then explained as if he would inform him as easily as possible.
Of course, Jeong Minha couldn’t understand any of it. Something about electrical circuits, something about signals, converting digital signals in wireless design here… After hearing up to that point, Jeong Minha said it was okay to stop explaining. He realized then that the company Seo Sihan went to was famous for electronics.
There was also a time when the college entrance exam topic came up once. Jeong Minha grumbled that he was tricked by the coach into entering a theory-focused physical education college instead of practical skills-focused, so studying was difficult now.
Of course, since he did athlete training from middle school, his school grades weren’t good, but that didn’t mean he was completely bad either. He somewhat maintained slightly below average at school. Thanks to that, he took the college entrance exam roughly too.
“Hyung seems like you studied well, can I ask what you got on the entrance exam?”
It’ll be higher than me, he asked out of curiosity, but at the answer that came back, he had no choice but to lose words for a moment.
“One?”
“What? Wow, what subject got grade 1?”
“All…”
“…”
He wanted to say stop joking, but he was more shocked because Seo Sihan wasn’t the type to joke around. Why on earth didn’t you go to medical school? Why are you playing with me now with that brain…
He had a brief reality check, but he was convinced since he’d seen Seo Sihan work all day until now. He must have studied incredibly hard too, that’s amazing.
Jeong Minha complimented Seo Sihan saying hyung is really amazing, and Seo Sihan laughed saying it was nothing. If that’s nothing, then I’m trash? When Jeong Minha joked, Seo Sihan was flustered saying that’s not what he meant.
…Coming back, it made no sense for that Seo Sihan to keep not knowing words whenever he spoke. If he got all grade 1s, that means he did well in Korean too!
Jeong Minha typed ‘when you suddenly can’t think of a word’ in his phone search bar, then read the posts that came up and covered his mouth.
“Stress-related disorder…?!”
He seriously misunderstood alone, but the truth about this was revealed before long.
It was when he was sitting on the living room sofa turning channels here and there with the remote and a military program came on.
Jeong Minha was watching the broadcast and looked at Seo Sihan sitting next to him. Currently, Seo Sihan was sitting together because Jeong Minha suddenly told him to rest from work a bit and dragged him out to the living room.
Seo Sihan was handsome just sitting still like this, but he was too curious about what he looked like when his head was shaved during military days.
“Hyung, don’t you have pictures from when you went to the military?”
“Military? I didn’t go?”
First of all, Jeong Minha himself also didn’t go to the military. Well, since he won a silver medal at the Olympics when he was twenty, he just had to receive basic training.
“You haven’t gone yet? Ah, well at hyung’s age, if you’re a director, you went to college and straight to the company…? Then when will you go?”
When he asked in understanding, Seo Sihan spoke with an even more bewildered look.
“Do I have to go…?”
“What? Unless you got exempted by winning a medal like me… if you’re a healthy Korean, you have to go… Wow, crazy. I’m sorry. Hyung, are you sick somewhere…?! Is that why you keep with the words too…!”
Around the time Seo Sihan’s health deteriorated endlessly in Jeong Minha’s brain delusions, Seo Sihan said flustered,
“Uh, Minha-ya? First calm down… It’s okay, I’m not sick. I’m probably healthy? And I don’t have that obligation…? because I’m not Korean nationality.”
“…What? Hyung, you’re not Korean?”
“My nationality is British…”
“Huh? Uh… what? No, si… since when?!”
“From when I was born…?”
“Wow, no way! This is a lie, right!”
Jeong Minha sprang up from the sofa, then sat back down and started a background check.
As it turned out, Seo Sihan was mixed-race born between a British father and Korean mother, and kept living in England before coming to Korea at age 17 according to company and family circumstances. At this time, Jeong Minha realized that R Corporation was a British company.
“I had no idea… But if you endured that entrance exam, you’re just Korean? Ah, actually from when I first saw hyung, your face and proportions were all so insane that I even joked ‘are you really the same Korean?’ but this was real?! Hyung, why are you so good at Korean? This was amazing that you just can’t think of words a little bit…?”
“Th-thanks… I’ve known both since I was young, but English is just a bit more familiar. Listening and writing are okay, but speaking… honestly even at the company, I use English more…”
“Wow… I’ve never seen you use English at home even once… Then can you show me speaking anything in English right now?”
“Mm…”
Following Jeong Minha’s request, Seo Sihan spoke in English for a moment. Of course, Jeong Minha couldn’t understand the content. He just had useless thoughts like it would’ve been nice if the English listening test had this kind of voice. And most of all…
“It’s fast…”
“Hm?”
“It’s nothing…”
It was still a leisurely pace but definitely faster than when speaking Korean.
So until now, all of it… was because he deliberately only used Korean to match me…?
Jeong Minha received great emotion along with shock that day. As someone who couldn’t speak foreign languages including English, Seo Sihan who spoke two languages this fluently seemed too amazing.
“Ah, I just thought of this. Then hyung, if Korea and England face each other at the Olympics, who will you cheer for?”
“Mm… I think either is fine.”
“What if I face a British athlete in the finals?”
“Of course I have to cheer for Minha.”
Because of Seo Sihan suddenly answering quickly, Jeong Minha burst into laughter.
“You said either was fine.”
“Even if you face the same Korean, I’m unconditionally on Minha’s side.”
“…Th-thank you…”
Only Jeong Minha, who got embarrassed for no reason after teasing, turned his gaze back to the TV.
After learning the truth, whenever Seo Sihan occasionally couldn’t match Korean words, he worried together with him. What would that be in English? But Jeong Minha also didn’t know, so it wasn’t particularly helpful. He just waited a few seconds and Seo Sihan figured out the answer on his own.
Of course, sometimes there were times when he absolutely couldn’t understand. For example…
“Ah, that’s eva. It’s because hyung really hasn’t seen a frog in a well.”
“…? I haven’t seen one though…”
“What?”
Only Jeong Minha who realized why laughed alone before telling him what it meant. And thinking he should study English too after all, he often randomly practiced English on Seo Sihan.
Since he really just threw it out, from Seo Sihan’s position it sounded somewhat strange. Still, since he seemed to know what he wanted to say, Seo Sihan also smiled and told him again in correct words.
* * *
Always repeating this daily life, before long the semester approached.
After returning to school, Jeong Minha roughly confessed what happened during vacation to one of the few close friends he had left. It was because he himself had become that comfortable with Seo Sihan.
And the friend who heard that stopped talking on messenger and called in shock.
―Why aren’t you running away quickly, you crazy bastard…
“What?”
―No, get a grip and think about it. It wasn’t a cult or organ trafficking or anything like that, right? Then if a rich person brings you to their house so freely, the purpose is 100% something like sponsorship. Even though it’s the same guy, you can’t be at ease because…
At the friend’s continuing words, Jeong Minha just hung up the phone.
“…No way.”
It was the beginning of a massive misunderstanding.
