While watching Go Un, Seo Juhan sucked on the straw of his already-finished milkshake. Since there was nothing more to come out, he only sucked in air. The water melted from the ice came up with it, making a loud gurgling sound.
He looked busy, but it wasn’t very satisfying.
I should leave now.
It was incomprehensible why he’d gone to the trouble of coming all the way here. He concluded it was the result of some impulse driven by stress from the sound of the drill.
Bzzt.
He was really about to leave when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Kim Taeyoon must be drunk. It seemed his chronic drunk behavior of randomly calling everyone had flared up.
Seo Juhan clicked his tongue and took out the phone he’d just put in his pocket. Then, as soon as he saw the screen, he froze as if hit by frost.
He blinked his dim eyes.
Looking again, what appeared on the screen was definitely <1 Go Un>.
The 1 before the name meant Go Un’s number was number 1.
“……”
Back when he thought he was a decent class representative, they had exchanged official calls a few times. However, after figuring out the guy’s true identity, there had been none at all.
They were even in the same space.
Seo Juhan glanced back. The caller was standing behind the counter. With his phone to his ear.
Should I go out to answer?
Seo Juhan grabbed the handle of the shopping bag he’d set down around his legs. With the heavy black backpack plus shopping bags, he had plenty of luggage.
Seo Juhan glanced back again. Since it was a seat far from the counter, he probably wouldn’t notice. He slowly pulled his chair to the side. He hid his body as much as possible behind a plant pot with wide leaves.
He steadied his breath and as soon as he pressed the answer button, he swiftly put the phone to his ear. At the same time, he pressed the button on the side of the phone repeatedly to reduce the call volume to the minimum.
A moment of silence passed.
[Hello.]
When he remained silent, Go Un spoke first.
“……”
[Ah, hello.]
When there was no answer, the guy urged again.
“……Why.”
Seo Juhan curtly said only one word.
[What. Why aren’t you answering after picking up?]
The guy’s voice also became curt, but the playfulness was still thick.
“Just say what you want.”
Seo Juhan whispered quietly. His gaze fixed on a suited gentleman going outside the store with a packaging bag, then returned. Near the entrance, a person wearing a helmet was looking at their phone with gloved hands.
[What? I can’t hear you.]
“I said just say what you want.”
Seo Juhan raised his voice a little more. Even to his own ears, it sounded annoyed.
[Teacher, are you home now?]
“Why are you asking that?”
The surroundings were bustling with people coming and going. As the night deepened, delivery and takeout orders seemed to actually increase.
[Ah, I asked if you’re home.]
The frustrated tone clearly contained laughter.
“What would you do knowing that?”
Seo Juhan couldn’t understand what was so funny about this situation.
[Did you eat dinner?]
“Ah, what does that have to do with you?”
It was annoying. It felt like endlessly running on parallel lines that never meet.
[You haven’t eaten yet, right? Or did you already order something?]
“……Ha……”
Seo Juhan, whose meal time had long been exposed, let out a hollow laugh.
It seemed he’d been branded a delivery food maniac. In fact, since the only thing Juhan knew how to do was use the microwave, he couldn’t completely deny it.
[Some bastard placed a takeout order and suddenly canceled. It’s going to be leftover anyway, so should I bring it to you?]
Seo Juhan blinked in bewilderment.
[Can I come now?]
How disgraceful, pretending to take care of me from somewhere.
[Ah, why did you become mute again.]
So annoying……
[Say something. You’re so frustrating.]
“……”
[Should I come now?]
“……”
[Should I dispatch now?]
“……”
[Beep-boop-beep-boop.]
“Beep-boop-beep……”
A cheeky mouth siren was heard nearby.
Seo Juhan’s head reflexively turned toward the source of the sound.
Go Un was standing and Seo Juhan was sitting in a high chair. Their gazes of different colors met sharply somewhere in between.
That moment was extremely brief.
Seo Juhan reflexively averted his gaze and shut his mouth tight.
[Huh?]
“Huh?”
Go Un’s voice had a feeling of ‘what?’ That voice was heard from the phone on the right, and directly on the left. The one from the electronic device was louder.
Seo Juhan’s heart beat fiercely. Thump thump. It pounded terrifyingly.
Damn it. In that brief moment, he worried a million times whether to run away right now.
[Teacher?]
“Teacher?”
While speaking, Go Un took one big step closer. His jet-black eyes curved like a crescent moon.
[What.]
“What.”
Seo Juhan sat like a stone monument, seriously conflicted about whether to abandon his luggage and run away. However, even if he tried to throw everything away and run, the entrance was on Go Un’s side.
[Why did you come here?]
“Why did you come here?”
The guy’s voice was full of bewilderment yet amusement.
Go Un closed the distance in one stride with his wide gait.
A warm bag with freshly made burgers packed inside was placed on the table. It made a rustling plastic sound.
Seo Juhan felt the presence but stubbornly craned his neck and pretended not to know.
The call he’d been holding to his right ear abruptly disconnected.
Go Un leaned his buttocks against the table and looked down at the black hat.
“I asked why you came here.”
Seo Juhan chewed the flesh inside his mouth hard. He kept the disconnected phone pressed to his ear.
“To see me?”
It was a voice dying of amusement.
“Doesn’t it feel stuffy staying like that?”
“……”
“Does Teacher always go around like that outside school?”
……How did he know it was me?
Seo Juhan glanced at his reflection in the window.
He was in a state of perfectly concealing his identity with a mask and even a hat. The fact that their eyes met was only his own feeling. From that height, it wouldn’t have been visible, hidden by the hat brim.
“Earlier, uh, that bag is the same as Teacher’s, right?”
Perhaps reading such signs, Go Un kindly began to explain.
“No matter how I look at it from behind, it’s Teacher.”
“……”
“I wasn’t sure, but I was right.”
Go Un chuckled while tapping his foot.
It was already over. Seo Juhan quietly removed his phone from his ear. Only then did the restroom sign come into view.
A regret flashed through him that he should have fled to the bathroom as soon as their eyes met, but it was useless.
“……What are you doing here?”
Seo Juhan decided to pretend they met by chance. He took off the mask that had been uncomfortably stuffy anyway and dropped it on the table.
“What do you mean what. Can’t you see?”
Go Un put his hands in the red apron and fluttered it once.
Because of the hat brim blocking his view, Seo Juhan only saw the red apron.
“Looks like Teacher went shopping.”
Go Un glanced at the neatly folded clothes inside the shopping bag.
“……Yeah.”
Seo Juhan bluntly agreed obediently. The reason he came here was simply because he was hungry from buying clothes.
“You bought a lot. Getting summer clothes?”
“Yeah.”
“Wasn’t it really crowded today?”
“Yeah…… It was crowded.”
What am I doing right now?
Flustered alone, he was answering exactly as the guy said.
Suddenly Seo Juhan’s hat was snatched off.
“……Hey!”
Seo Juhan’s eyes widened in surprise. His reflexively raised hand grasped at air.
“Let’s get a look at the face I haven’t seen today.”
Go Un grinned while looking down.
For a moment, to Juhan’s eyes, it seemed like the guy’s face was radiating light.
This was all because of the commercial lighting that stimulated appetite.
“Why are you going around covering such a good face?”
Seo Juhan silently averted his gaze. He patted down with his palm the crown of his head that had risen from static electricity.
“Ah, well, our school kids do hang around here fucking tons.”
Go Un clicked his tongue.
“Here. Wear it again.”
The hat was pushed back down on his crown.
“Hey, you……”
Because of that, the hat brim went down to Seo Juhan’s chin.
“Wait a moment, Teacher. Don’t leave, just wait.”
Go Un left only those words and disappeared in a flash.
Seo Juhan watched the retreating back while taking off his hat and putting it on properly.
Go Un gave a bag to an employee who seemed about to leave work. Then he opened the commercial refrigerator and brought two long cans, one in each hand.
“Here.”
Thunk.
Go Un set down the can he brought on the table while taking the seat next to him. He sat leaning diagonally against the table edge, and his widely spread knees were directed toward Seo Juhan.
“……No thanks. I won’t drink.”
Seo Juhan glanced at the unfamiliar beer label and refused. He looked straight out the window rigidly.
“Why. Didn’t you say you’d buy me alcohol sometime?”
“That was after the college entrance exam…… No, did I say I’d buy it or that you’d mooch off me?”
“Then just buy me double later.”
Tsssk.
Go Un didn’t wait and opened the beer. White foam rose up in bubbles.
“Here.”
He held out the alcohol and tempted him. He even shook it personally as if to say hurry and take it.
“I said I won’t drink.”
“This is good. Try it.”
“I said I won’t drink.”
“It’s a hidden menu item.”
“Put it away.”
“Don’t you usually drink?”
“Yeah.”
At the firm answer, Go Un didn’t urge any further.
