“What are you doing here?”
“……”
“Did PE make you run a lot of laps?”
Cheon Jaerim is wearing the same uniform as me. The same uniform? I’m puzzled. Cheon Jaerim finished school abroad, and I graduated from a high school in the provinces. Why is he wearing those tacky spinach-colored clothes?
“Hey! What are you guys doing over there!”
When I turn my head, I see the PE teacher wearing a windbreaker in weather hot enough to die. Before I knew it, I was wearing white gym clothes instead of the tacky clothes. This is exactly the same as the gym clothes I used to wear. The playground that had no one was filled with boys my age running and kicking a ball, and girls were sitting in the stands exercising their mouths. Among them, I can see the kid I gave test answers to. The PE teacher blew the whistle again at me, who didn’t even respond.
Tweeeeet-!
“What did I say would happen if you’re late one more time?”
“Don’t tell me PE is our homeroom teacher?”
I ignored PE’s words and asked Cheon Jaerim. Sweat is beaded on Cheon Jaerim’s nape. Cheon Jaerim says while wiping his sweat.
“It’s been how long since school started… You’re a bit strange. Let me talk to the homeroom teacher first. Wait.”
Cheon Jaerim, wearing summer gym clothes, runs to PE. Why is it so hot? When I came to my senses, I was panting. My two hands were on my knees, and sweat was dripping down below my chin. My sweat fell with a plop and drew circles on the playground floor. The man who is the homeroom teacher who had a conversation with Cheon Jaerim walks toward where I am. What did Cheon Jaerim say to make him have that expression? Cheon Jaerim and that guy called teacher seemed to have a very close relationship. That kind of atmosphere is what you feel between a highly trusted class president and teacher…….
“Did you get heat stroke?”
The PE teacher’s face seen up close was extremely dark. I felt like only his teeth, white like Michael, would be visible. Where did I see him? He looks very familiar. I had to keep recalling PE’s face.
“This kid’s totally weak.”
“A boy after only running five laps. Go give him some water.”
When did I run five laps? PE clicks his tongue and turns around. Seeing that nape, I suddenly remember who he is. The king mole located under the shortly cut hair! That king mole is a mixed martial arts fighter I saw on the UFC program I occasionally turned on to fight off drowsiness. This is really a dream.
“What are you doing, let’s go quickly.”
Cheon Jaerim says toward me, still panting. Even in my dream, I was grabbed by the forearm by Cheon Jaerim and dragged along. Cheon Jaerim took me to a faucet in the corner instead of the classroom. The faucet with an elephant picture drawn on it turns, and lukewarm water gushes out. Cheon Jaerim told me to wash my face and grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down. As soon as the water touched my lips, I struggled and escaped from him. I don’t know why I ran away, but my mouth seemed to know the reason. Words came out smoothly before even going through my brain.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s dirty. Pigeons drink water here.”
“Ah… You’re so picky.”
Cheon Jaerim frowned and turned off the water. It’s not an angry face. It’s a frown because it’s hot due to the weather and sticky due to sweat.
“Then let’s go drink water.”
In the end, we crossed the playground diagonally and headed to the classroom. The moment I took one step into the shaded area, the scene changed.
The changed location was the cool school hallway.
One, two, three, four, five water fountains.
“Drink quickly.”
I pressed the round button and drank water. Same thing.
“It’s lukewarm.”
When I grumbled, Cheon Jaerim giggled and said not to expect much from school.
“Should we go to the cafeteria and ask for a Jjayo Jjayo?”
Cheon Jaerim’s eyes sparkle. The energy coming from the young boy was full. It brightly illuminated the dark hallway. Do I look like that too? I brought my eyes close to the water fountain. I can see radiance in me inside the silver mirror too. I’m sparkling too.
“Let’s go!”
Cheon Jaerim and I went down stepping on two or three stairs at a time. Our indoor shoes almost slipped off, but we quickly arrived at the cafeteria. I opened the solid glass door. The nutritionist wearing a white hat disappeared, and it turned into a bustling cafeteria. It’s a university cafeteria. When I turned around, I saw college students lined up to get meal tickets from the vending machine. Cheon Jaerim, who was right next to me, is nowhere to be seen. Where did he go? I was wearing a striped T-shirt and black pants instead of the gym clothes that smelled of sweat.
“Did you buy shoes?”
Someone speaks to me. Teaching assistant hyung? The face was the teaching assistant, but in this dream, he’s a classmate from the same department as me.
“Yeah, they arrived yesterday.”
I lifted my foot and showed it to the teaching assistant.
“Cheon Jaerim has been looking for you since earlier. Give him a call.”
“……”
A call? When I rummaged through my pockets, a phone came out. It’s a phone with a clean screen. There are five missed calls from Cheon Jaerim. Hey! From far away, Cheon Jaerim comes running. Cheon Jaerim wearing a blue jacket over a hoodie looked fresh.
“I told you let’s go down together.”
“Sorry, I forgot. I’ll buy. What do you want to eat?”
“King pork cutlet.”
“Don’t you get sick of it?”
Cheon Jaerim and I must have eaten school meals every day. Every time, Cheon Jaerim ate king pork cutlet. I stood at the vending machine and selected one pork cutlet and one jjolmyeon.
“But the seasoning in our school all tastes the same anyway.”
I agreed with Cheon Jaerim’s words. The seasoning for tuna rice bowl and the seasoning for jjolmyeon tasted the same.
“I should mix your jjolmyeon with my pork cutlet and eat it.”
Cheon Jaerim said while taking the two meal tickets that had fallen fluttering. I’m holding jjolmyeon looking for an empty seat, but I can’t see any seats. I see a hand waving over there.
“Hey, over here, over here!”
They’re faces I passed while going through the hallway. Students I hadn’t exchanged a single word with were friends here. The guys who waved their hands all stood up from their seats in unison when we approached.
“We saw you coming and waited on purpose.”
“Thanks, thanks.”
I shared Cheon Jaerim’s pork cutlet, and Cheon Jaerim shared my jjolmyeon.
The scene changed again.
This time it’s an amusement park. Cheon Jaerim was eating a cone ice cream, and I was looking around to see what to ride. A large carousel catches my eye. People get off the carousel that just ended. People who were in the waiting line rush up onto the platform. A little girl wearing a princess dress either rides on the pumpkin carriage or is held in her father’s arms and lifted onto a big horse.
“Are you a kid?”
Cheon Jaerim, who scolded me, walked toward the carousel despite his words. I chased after him, putting the slipping Mickey Mouse headband back on. People kept getting off. The competition to ride the white horse was fierce, but I won. I climbed onto the hard saddle with peeling paint. Cheon Jaerim climbed onto a black horse positioned a little ahead of the white horse I was riding. Cheon Jaerim, who mounted it in one go, looked like a cowboy galloping across the wilderness.
With the staff’s final words, the platform starts spinning round and round. Cheon Jaerim made a gun shape with his hand and pretended to shoot me. Bang, bang! I acted out being shot and falling down. The rising and falling rump of the black horse is cute. Cheon Jaerim takes out his phone from his pocket. Click, click, click, click, click. The camera shot in rapid succession. I covered my face with my arm and shouted not to take pictures.
“I have to keep it as a memory!”
Cheon Jaerim’s voice echoes like an echo. With that thunder-like echo as the last, the theme park became quiet. In the theme park that had no room to step, there were only Cheon Jaerim and me going around the platform in circles. This is the first time I’ve had such a happy dream. It was as vivid as reality. My heart pounds in time with the black horse’s rump.
The music box sound stopped and the white horse’s movement stopped. The platform also returned to its place. As soon as I got off the white horse, the people who had disappeared appeared again. My mouth had risen to my ears. Same with Cheon Jaerim. We were making the same expression like a mirror.
“What do you want to ride last?”
“Already?”
“Are you sad?”
“Of course I’m sad.”
“Everything has an end.”
Cheon Jaerim points to the electronic display. Letters lit in neon signs pass by on the large wall. It was content saying they would close in thirty minutes. The colorful letters pass by like a flash and return again. Pretty. Like fireworks.
“They’re not doing fireworks today.”
Cheon Jaerim answered in 1 second, somehow knowing I was thinking about fireworks. Ah, this was a dream. Behind the colorful wall, a large Ferris wheel is visible.
“The last one is that.”
“The Ferris wheel?”
On our way to the Ferris wheel, we bought and ate churros covered with sugar, and bought and ate hot bars sprinkled with ketchup and mustard sauce. As if planning to shake out all the money we brought, we ate baby potatoes and gelato ice cream before entering. We finally got on the Ferris wheel.
『We’ll proceed at a faster speed.』
A staff member with a microphone pressed the ON button of the Ferris wheel with a cute gesture.
Unlike the exterior, the interior was quite old. The seats where you could sit facing each other were deeply sunken in the shape of people’s buttocks, and in places were torn as if gnawed by rats. On the gray wall, a computer marker was dangling. It seemed like people wrote graffiti on the wall to commemorate memories. When I opened the marker cap, Cheon Jaerim sitting across from me asks.
“What are you going to write?”
“Anything.”
I turned my eyes to find an empty corner to commemorate this dream I don’t know when I’ll have again. I feel Cheon Jaerim approaching next to me.
“Hey, hey! It’s tilting!”
I, who got startled unnecessarily, grabbed the door handle. The tilting Ferris wheel made me restless.
“Would we fall? It’s okay.”
“Don’t move.”
I rewrote what I’d written about halfway.
[Please make this moment last forever]
Among the haphazardly written graffiti, my neat handwriting caught the eye at once. I closed the white cap and turned around proudly.
Smack. Soft lips touched. Cheon Jaerim was kissing me with his eyes closed. My eyes became round like the pumpkin carriage that had been spinning round and round earlier. I rolled my pupils north, south, east, and west, then closed my eyes following Cheon Jaerim. Behind the darkened curtain, the lights of the sparkling amusement rides passing by came in dimly. Fireworks weren’t something separate. At this moment, fireworks for me were exploding before my eyes. There were so many things that would preserve this moment as eternity. The Ferris wheel carrying us and the night sky staying forever will prove it.
