What Jukyung freshly ladled out and handed me was dried pollack and bean sprout soup. The steam rising hotly from it smelled refreshing.
“Did you make this?”
“No. The person who manages this place did.”
With one spoonful, admiration burst out naturally. It was the kind of refreshing taste that I’d probably remember anywhere I went on days after drinking.
“Is it good?”
“Yeah.”
I answered half-heartedly and buried my face in the soup bowl. I cleaned out two bowls, even all the ingredients. I didn’t eat much rice, but my stomach felt full.
“How’s your body?”
Jukyung asked around the time I put down my utensils.
“Yeah, I’m fine. My stomach settled too.”
“Your butt?”
“…That too.”
“Really? Will you be okay riding in the car?”
“…Yeah.”
You should’ve worried about that last night.
The corner of Jukyung’s mouth rose faintly.
“Let’s get ready to go. I’ll drive.”
Since we were only staying briefly, we hadn’t spread out much, so preparing to leave was also instantaneous. The kitchen, living room, and entrance hall were all just as clean as when we first arrived. I heard Jukyung’s friends would be staying a few more days, so why is it so clean? I tilted my head.
“We’re leaving without even saying goodbye to your friends.”
“Why would you say goodbye to my friends?”
Jukyung said indifferently. The irritation I’d forgotten for a while came flooding back since morning.
“No, we said we’d see each other again in Seoul, but I haven’t even gotten their contact information yet….”
Yesterday I thought I’d see their faces this morning.
“What do you mean see them in Seoul? And why do you need their contact information? You have me. You can just contact me.”
My face crumpled without realizing it. What is this elementary school mindset? Was he the type to have possessiveness over friends? Do we have to draw lines like “your friends, my friends”? If you get introduced, hang out together, and become close, my friends become your friends and your friends become my friends.
But if I argued about that, I felt like I’d be at the same level, so I just kept my mouth shut.
As the car started, rather than Jukyung’s friends, what I really regretted was leaving this place after sleeping only two nights. We watched the sunrise, went snowboarding, went to the hot springs, and ate all the delicious things at the beach, so we did everything we could, but the vacation was too short.
Especially snowboarding. It was too disappointing to do it for just one day and be done. These days I’ve been struggling to make a living and haven’t been able to play much, but I was originally an outdoor type. Besides, when would someone like me who even left home get to come to a well-maintained ski resort on private property like this again? Not only will there be no Canada or Switzerland in my life for a while, but this will also be my last chance to snowboard this winter.
“Come again next year then. If you have a favorite ski resort abroad, we can go there too.”
My disappointment must have shown on my face. Jukyung said casually while driving.
Next year. Will I still be on good enough terms with Kwon Jukyung a year from now to be traveling around? Thinking about paying back the money, I feel like I’ll still be tied up until then, but who knows what might happen in between?
But well, what’s good is good. First of all, I liked the fact that Jukyung was thinking about going on trips with me even a year from now. He might have said it without thinking, but what sounds good is good.
Humming along to the music flowing from the audio system, I leaned back leisurely in the passenger seat. Though he said he’d drive alone, since he said something uncharacteristically admirable, I thought I should offer to switch with him halfway.
CH 17
Winter passed breathlessly. Except for briefly lounging around during the Lunar New Year holiday, it was a January where I only worked myself dizzy with nothing else happening.
After the ambiguous February passed and March came, classes reduced to four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening. Unlike fall when I only had morning classes, evening classes were now fixed. Eight hours was perfectly full-time, but just having the afternoon free made me breathe a huge sigh of relief. I’d already repeated textbook research and lesson research ad nauseam for half a year, so it was nice that I didn’t have to spend much time on lesson preparation either.
After morning classes ended, I would return home, catch up on sleep, eat lunch, and briefly prepare for class. I spent the remaining couple hours leisurely taking walks or drawing. It was my happiest time. No, not the happiest, second. No… third maybe?
The happiest was sleeping. I was most satisfied when I slept pressed close to Jukyung in one bed, feeling his body heat. Second was walking home with Jukyung on quiet night streets. Third was sharing delicious food together.
No, if I think about it that way, savoring time alone becomes fourth? How did this get pushed down in my rankings like this? It used to truly be my happiest time before. I thought blankly and smirked. Anyway, it means small happinesses have increased for me, so things have gotten better, right?
Well anyway, time was flowing like that. Jukyung was the same yet not the same. Being selectively prickly, obsessing over luxury goods even though they weren’t his own things, being cranky all the time then becoming affectionate at unexpected moments. Thanks to getting used to his moods like that, our relationship was flowing smoothly to a degree I couldn’t have imagined compared to before.
If there was something different, it was that Jukyung got busy from mid-March. Grumbling that he’d been assigned to a three-month project, he came home late from work and couldn’t even come to the academy. In that situation, naturally there was no time to eat dinner together, and with his sleeping time insufficient, even catching a glimpse of his face in the morning became difficult. I felt somehow desolate.
Though March was included in the spring semester, the weather didn’t deserve to be called spring. Even into mid-month, days when the sky suddenly clouded over and the temperature dropped sharply were frequent. That day too, I was returning home after finishing morning classes when the sky that had been sunken in gray-blue since morning finally scattered snow.
“The weather’s going crazy.”
I muttered and brushed off the snow piled on my head and shoulders. I had just entered the mixed-use residential building where I lived after finishing morning classes. I got on the elevator and was about to close the door when someone nimbly jumped in between. It was a slenderly built male student who looked about middle school age.
“Sorry.”
The boy muttered quietly and shook his head. Water droplets splashed slightly from his black hair. I stared at the sight blankly without much thought. How should I put it, he had looks that perfectly fit the description of a beautiful boy. A slim body with a small, white face. He was definitely someone I was seeing for the first time, but he also felt somehow familiar.
Could he be a celebrity? With a face like that, he could be an actor or idol. Maybe I recognize him from seeing him on TV.
Seeming to feel me staring, the boy opened his eyes wide and clear and looked at me. I coughed and turned my gaze away. I wondered if he might think it strange since he was still young. I couldn’t tell him not to be wary since I’m not a pervert. Well, it was my fault for staring at a stranger. I had nothing to say even if misunderstood.
I stood awkwardly just staring at the rapidly changing floor numbers when the elevator finally stopped at my floor. I was about to get off when the boy got off before me. Same floor? Now that I thought about it, the boy hadn’t pressed any button separately after getting on.
Did that mean we were neighbors? Well now. I laughed inwardly. How had I never seen him even once until now when there weren’t even many units on the same floor? Was it because our times of leaving home were different?
“Huh?”
I was briefly flustered. The boy who’d been walking ahead stopped in front of my house—no, Jukyung’s house entrance. What? Did I mistake it for a moment? But the boy instead threw a suspicious look at me following behind, then covered the door lock with his body and pressed the password. No wait. I’m telling you you’re mistaken. That’s not your house so it won’t open.
I stood behind briefly, waiting for the auto-lock to make a wrong sound and the moment when the boy would be flustered. But.
Beep-beep. Click.
The door opened. Very smoothly at that.
The boy looked at me standing behind with wary eyes once more, then swoosh, disappeared inside the door.
I stood there at a loss for words for a moment, then thinking maybe I’d mistaken it, checked the unit number on the entrance once more. It was definitely Jukyung’s house. Did I enter the wrong building? But the hallway I looked around, and the scenery visible from the window at the end of the hallway, were definitely Jukyung’s house where I’d stayed these past few months.
Then what the hell was that kid?
I looked at my phone for a moment, thinking about asking Jukyung. But when I’d briefly sent a message after class ended earlier, Jukyung had said he was going into a meeting. Even if he had it on vibrate, it would be a disturbance.
Could he be family? Jukyung had said he had one younger brother. He seemed a bit too young to be his brother though… If he really was his brother, wouldn’t I be the one being a nuisance instead? Surely he’s not a thief. A young child who looks that refined.
While I was worrying like that, suddenly a beep sounded along with a voice.
“Why do you keep loitering around here? I’m going to call security.”
It was the intercom. I looked at the intercom dumbfounded as if it were the other person.
“Ya, what do you mean security? This is where I live.”
The boy snorted.
“I’ll report to 112 too.”
“Ya ya.”
