Soon when the beer came out again, as expected, Sunjeong gulped down the beer really well.
Then he spoke with those plump lips that Taeon’s gaze occasionally reached.
“I’m completely against it. Absolutely against it.”
“…What?”
Sunjeong had always presented other solutions to Taeon, but had never said anything like being against Taeon’s choice.
“If not now, Yoon Taeon, you really won’t be able to study.”
“…”
“This is the last train, Yoon Taeon.”
At Sunjeong’s declaration-like words, Taeon’s heart also began to stir little by little.
He couldn’t deny that it wasn’t the last train. He already knew the difficulty of studying at twenty-three after passing the timing of nineteen.
After this period passes, I won’t even think of challenging it anymore.
Sunjeong, who had been staring at Taeon silently agreeing with his words and falling into silence, opened his mouth again.
“For now, do as I say.”
“As you say?”
“You know there are a lot of empty rooms in my house starting today. There are four rooms, but I only used one. Three rooms are completely empty.”
“…”
“You know I’m a coward, Yoon Taeon. I’ll be busy opening the empty rooms once each day to see if there’s anyone there or not. That’s also a bothersome task.”
“…”
“I’m not saying to just mooch off, pay monthly rent. As much as you can afford.”
Before Sunjeong’s words pouring out as if he’d planned it, Taeon couldn’t hide his dazed feeling.
To such a Taeon, Sunjeong opened his mouth again as if driving in a wedge.
“But since I’m receiving monthly rent, tutoring fees are free.”
“…”
“Yoon Taeon, you’re getting live-in tutoring. It worked out perfectly.”
Saying this, Sunjeong’s brightly smiling face looked so happy that Taeon’s heart also felt brightened a little more.
“Yoon Taeon.”
“…”
“Do as I say.”
It wasn’t a voice appealing to do it that way, to please do it like before. Everything was decided. What remained was only Taeon’s choice. Before that choice, Taeon deliberated just very slightly.
And he recalled what he’d said not long ago.
That he was already in a state of bankruptcy, that he could only pay back that debt.
Then…
This might become something that gives Sunjeong joy, not burden.
Taeon, who had already made a decision in his heart, had to briefly clear his throat because he was nervous before voicing his new proposal.
“Okay, Go Sunjeong, I’ll move in and live there.”
“…”
Just as Sunjeong knew Taeon well, Taeon also knew Sunjeong well. Eyebrows rising just very slightly was an expression Sunjeong only showed when surprised. He’d made such a confident proposal, yet was clearly slightly surprised by Taeon’s answer.
“And can I ask one more favor?”
“What favor.”
This time too, Sunjeong’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“My tutor, turns out they’re a bit strange, so I decided not to receive tutoring. Teach me English a little too, only when you have time.”
Before Taeon’s words spoken by squeezing out courage with all his might, Sunjeong smiled brightly.
“Sure, why not. It’s nothing much, is it, a favor?”
Now Sunjeong spoke in a voice full of laughter.
Having gotten up early in the morning and finished preparing to move, Taeon quietly looked at the small room he was now leaving forever.
As for moving luggage, there was only one travel carrier containing clothes for all four seasons and a thick cotton blanket he’d received as a gift from the director when he became independent from the facility.
The simple household items were all either original options or things he’d inherited that previous tenants had left behind bit by bit, and he hadn’t brought anything else in, so he had so little luggage. Thanks to that, Taeon’s two hands were light, but the room wasn’t empty and was still full of various miscellaneous items.
Perhaps because of that, it felt not like leaving but exactly like going out for a moment.
The room where Sunjeong, who had poor bronchial tubes, would always cough within a few dozen minutes of arriving, and where the timid Sunjeong sometimes cried from being so startled by the occasionally popping-out cockroaches.
To Taeon, who’d always lived with a bit of anxiety about whether he’d have a place to properly rest his body comfortably after becoming an adult, it had been like heaven. Though dirty and old, he’d lived well there, making it decent enough to live in.
Since they said they’d completely remodel it for commercial use, this house was truly the last now.
Taeon, who’d briefly looked at the room, soon turned around.
As Taeon exited the common entrance, he heard a small honking sound.
Thanks to the rolled-down window, Sunjeong’s face smiling brightly from the driver’s seat was clearly visible.
The time Sunjeong was supposed to come was 7:30. It was 7 o’clock now. Taeon was flustered since he’d come out early to buy even one cup of coffee to share with Sunjeong while waiting.
“You’re here? But why did you come so early?”
“Because I knew you, Yoon Taeon, would come out 30 minutes early.”
“…”
There wasn’t really anything to say. Today he had come out early thinking of Sunjeong, but in fact Taeon always went everywhere 30 minutes early. It was a habit formed because he’d heard so many times at the facility the saying that people who have nothing but their body should at least be quick in their actions to live well.
“Let’s stop by a café on the way. Let’s go while drinking a cup of coffee.”
“It’s quick to the house, and there’s a machine at home too. Ah, I bought some beans from Juseong hyung, so it’s Sentence beans. You might get tired of them.”
“…No, I won’t get tired of them. Then let’s drink it after going home.”
Taeon could feel Sunjeong’s gaze glancing at him, wondering if he wanted to drink coffee but was holding back. However, Taeon’s silence was because he was a bit surprised that Sunjeong called Juseong “Juseong hyung” so familiarly, and that he’d even bought beans while Taeon wasn’t there.
He decided not to examine what kind of emotion the extra feeling he felt after being surprised was.
Though both Taeon and Sunjeong said nothing much, the inside of the car was by no means quiet.
The radio Sunjeong had turned on kept playing soft songs, and Sunjeong kept happily humming songs with a texture slightly different from those songs.
Though Taeon’s mouth was closed, Taeon was also in a state where his mood was strangely excited like Sunjeong.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t uncomfortable. Anyway, he was mooching off.
Still, he’d decided to pay minimal costs, and now was the time to focus on college entrance exam preparation as much as possible, so for Taeon it was no different from the best situation.
Taeon, who realized himself lying even in his heart, ended up chuckling.
The truth was Taeon just felt good because he’d be able to live together with Sunjeong at Sunjeong’s house.
He could now also acknowledge that the strange emotion he’d occasionally felt while encountering Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo was envy stemming from the fact that they were housemates living together with Sunjeong.
If they had to live together in a place like his original studio apartment, Taeon would rather have entered even a goshiwon.
But since there were several rooms, it would be okay.
“What are you thinking about?”
The days he would live as housemates with Sunjeong seemed imaginable yet didn’t quite emerge as a clear image.
What scattered Taeon’s concentration as he tried to clearly imagine that picture was Sunjeong’s voice. Sunjeong was smiling brightly with the corners of his mouth raised.
“What are you thinking about, Yoon Taeon?”
At Sunjeong’s words, Taeon made an effort to maintain as calm a voice as possible and opened his mouth.
“Just, us living together.”
“To be exact, you, Yoon Taeon, and I living together?”
“Yeah.”
When Taeon deliberately answered more curtly to Sunjeong, who stated very precisely what Taeon had tried to say roundaboutly, a bright laugh burst from Sunjeong’s mouth.
“Let’s get along well, Yoon Taeon. Please take care of me from now on.”
“…”
For some reason, a refreshing answer like Sunjeong’s didn’t come out.
After briefly hesitating, Taeon soon answered in a refreshing voice imitating Sunjeong.
“Me too, please take care of me. Go Sunjeong.”
He’d thought it wouldn’t be unfamiliar since he’d been here once, but it was completely different from expectations.
When he entered Sunjeong’s apartment thinking of it as “the house I’ll live in from now on,” Taeon felt his breath completely blocked. He’d never felt such emotion even when entering Sunjeong’s main family home that was like an enormous mansion.
Probably because back then he was merely an outsider who’d come to play at a friend’s house, and now it had become a house where Taeon would live.
“Let’s drink coffee first before unpacking and organizing. Your face says you need caffeine.”
In fact, Taeon had prepared coffee because of Sunjeong’s habit of drinking coffee in the morning, but Taeon obediently sat down as Sunjeong instructed.
Soon the noise of the coffee machine was heard, and then the fragrant coffee aroma spread throughout the wide living room. Taeon blankly looked around while sitting at the dining table as Sunjeong had guided.
When he’d come to attend Yoonwoo’s birthday party, the area around the dining table hadn’t really entered his sight, but looking now, it was all completely empty.
What was there was about a sofa, a glass table, and a television.
“The atmosphere is different.”
At Taeon’s muttering like a soliloquy, Sunjeong, who’d been placing cups on the machine, said.
“It’s because the kids’ stuff all left.”
“They said they were running away, yet they packed up that much stuff?”
“The living room originally only had this, and the stuff I mentioned was their photos.”
Come to think of it, the living room scenery Taeon had first witnessed seemed to have been a colorful and somewhat cluttered space with lots of things stuck all over.
