Gluing to the Wavelength
Lee Heewoo had stepped outside the building briefly to empty the food waste bin and barely managed to thaw his reddened hands by blowing on them. Though he’d washed his hands in the bathroom located separately in the same building right after emptying the trash, since there was no hot water, his hands had nearly frozen solid.
“Huu, huu……”
As he gathered hot breath to blow on his frozen hands and rubbed them together, stray thoughts kept surfacing in his mind. Like what had happened last night, for instance.
Last night, Lee Heewoo had to confront Lee Pilsu, who had barged all the way into his home.
A few days ago, Lee Pilsu had come to find Lee Heewoo and thrust an IOU at him, demanding he repay the 1 billion won borrowed in his mother’s name—and Lee Heewoo had refused him. It wasn’t even his father’s debt, but his mother’s. The debt of a woman who had irresponsibly given birth to him and never once looked back at Lee Heewoo in his entire life.
However, even when Lee Heewoo screamed and refused, Lee Pilsu only sneered. The IOU he’d presented contained not only a seal stamp with Lee Heewoo’s name but even a seal certificate with that stamp on it. These were things Lee Heewoo had never seen with his own eyes or ever issued. His mother had clearly obtained them on his behalf, using the fact that she was his legal mother on the family register.
Even so, Lee Heewoo didn’t back down and talked back, ultimately getting beaten several times. With two men several times his size gripping both his arms tightly, he couldn’t even manage to escape. Then the loan shark who had left briefly returned the next day, smashed up everything in the house, and left.
Because the loan sharks had smashed and trampled all kinds of household items and even dented the front door that was already creaky from age, the cramped semi-basement room was practically as cold as being outdoors. Even the electric heating mat wasn’t working—either the outlet part was broken or the power wasn’t coming on at all—so he’d been shivering and thinking he should go to a jjimjilbang, when Heichi happened to visit.
‘I will warm you up.’
Heichi didn’t ignore Lee Heewoo’s situation and took him to his own home. To be precise, it was his quarters within the battleship, but for Lee Heewoo, entering such a spacious and nice room was a first in his lifetime.
Following Heichi’s guidance, Lee Heewoo finished what was called a sterile shower—a peculiar kind of shower—and came out, only to have no clothes to change into, so he had to borrow Heichi’s clothes. It was a shirt-like top with a distinctive pattern marked on the chest, and just wearing that was enough to cover down to his lower body, so he didn’t even need to wear pants.
Up to that point, there was no problem. The problem was the sleeping arrangement.
‘……Um, where……should I sleep……?’
Unlike the structure of a typical house on Earth, Heichi’s quarters used a large living room as a bedroom, with a small room of unknown purpose connected to it. In other words, the living room was the bedroom. Fortunately, the bed was a familiar shape, though even that was floating slightly off the ground.
Having only one bedroom and one bed was somewhat bewildering for a guest. No matter how much Lee Heewoo had lived his whole life in semi-basements or studio apartments without ever having his own room, he couldn’t just outright take the homeowner’s bed. So Lee Heewoo was planning to sleep on the floor as soon as Heichi gave him even a corner of a blanket.
‘Sleep in the bed.’
‘What? N-no, if you just give me a blanket, I’ll sleep on the floor……!’
‘What kind of nonsense is that?’
Lee Heewoo saw for the first time Heichi’s brow furrow—Heichi, who had always worn a gentle smile in front of him. Just above his left eyebrow, and very slightly at that, so little you wouldn’t notice unless you looked closely—yet even that alone made him look tremendously fierce.
So Lee Heewoo had no choice but to decide to sleep in the bed. As he lifted the blanket and put his foot into the bed with its rustling, plush texture he’d never felt before in his life, Lee Heewoo thought it was exactly like stepping on clouds. It took quite a while just to crawl from the bottom of the bed up to where his head would go.
‘Um, if it’s okay, would you like to sleep together, Heichi?’
‘Pardon?’
‘B-because it’s cold.’
To Lee Heewoo’s perception, the inside of the battleship felt slightly chilly. It could be that he felt that way because he was seeking warmth in the cold winter, but with no electric heating mat under the blanket and no boiler to expect, it felt even colder.
So Lee Heewoo lifted the blanket he was under and patted the spot next to him. It meant let’s sleep here together.
Fortunately, Heichi didn’t refuse and entered the bed, settling in. At the same time, though no button was pressed, all the lights inside disappeared. In the deep darkness, Lee Heewoo rolled his eyes around to look at Heichi lying next to him.
‘…….’
He’d never expected to sleep on a battleship, and visiting Heichi’s quarters was even more unimaginable, so he was strangely nervous. So Lee Heewoo even worried whether he’d be able to sleep in this unfamiliar environment.
‘……Ku.’
Enough to make such worries seem ridiculous, Lee Heewoo fell sound asleep just like that.
It was the aftermath of being tormented by loan sharks and barely sleeping properly for nearly two days. Even normally, he was sleep-deprived and would doze off the moment he laid his head down, and the comfort of the bed he was lying in for the first time knocked Lee Heewoo out cold. He just blinked once and it was the next morning.
Eventually, when Heichi woke up, he took Lee Heewoo, who had to go to work, down to ground level, which brought them to now.
“Ugh…… I should have woken up early and at least folded the blanket.”
Lee Heewoo blamed himself mid-way through warming his swollen hands. Despite having passed out like that, why did he oversleep—when he opened his eyes, it was just before noon when he had to report to the soup restaurant. If Heichi hadn’t used his supernatural powers to take him right to a nearby alley, he would have been late for the first time in his life and then some.
“Heewoo! Where are you!”
Hearing the urgent voice from inside the shop, Lee Heewoo hurriedly rushed in, rubbing his hands he’d been warming. It hadn’t even been five minutes since he’d gone to throw out the food waste, but there were unusually many customers today, so the owner kept calling for him.
After frantically carrying ttukbaegi pots and clearing tables, it was soon approaching 3 o’clock. It was an hour before Lee Heewoo’s shift ended, and it was around the time things would quiet down after lunch hour.
At this point, Lee Heewoo would finish clearing tables and start preparing for the evening business. It involved trimming ingredients or wiping utensils, and since Lee Heewoo was the only part-timer, he had to move busily even with this to finish by quitting time.
“Heewoo, when you finish that, come to the kitchen here and peel some garlic……”
Ding-a-ling.
The shop door opened, cutting off the owner’s words. Since there were no customers after lunch hour had passed, even the owner paused for a moment. However, since ‘Today’s Soup Restaurant’ didn’t have a separate break time, there was no reason to chase customers away. The owner wiped her wet hands on her apron and gestured to Lee Heewoo with her eyes.
“How many in your party?”
“……”
Lee Heewoo also left the utensils he’d been wiping and approached the customer first. From the looks of it, the customer was alone, so he just needed to take a rough order and serve one bowl of soup.
The customer was a young man wearing a thick black hoodie pulled down low, but his build was so large that he felt threatening. He was slightly shorter than Heichi, but his shoulders were broader and he seemed full of muscle under his clothes, which made it even more so. Lee Heewoo tried not to show his nervousness.
“……”
“……?”
But something was strange. Lee Heewoo blinked once more and looked at the man who had merely felt threatening. It wasn’t so blatant that the man would feel his gaze, but Lee Heewoo examined the man carefully from head to toe.
Then he suddenly realized.
“Um…… Shall I get you a special pork soup?”
This man was an Esper.
No one had told him, and it wasn’t that the man had the distinctive fragrance of an Esper, or even that he was wearing the uniform jumpsuit called Esper dress uniform—yet he felt it naturally. If he concentrated just a bit more, he felt like he could see even the hazy energy behind the man’s back that he’d seen from Heichi and other Espers.
However, instead of concentrating on seeing the energy, Lee Heewoo guided him to a table inside. Especially since the owner had specifically said recently not to serve customers who appeared to be Espers or Guides, he absolutely couldn’t let it show.
“……”
“Ah, um, I’ll bring it right out. Please sit wherever you’re comfortable.”
Instead of answering, the man just nodded once. When Lee Heewoo approached the kitchen and said, “One special pork soup,” the owner took out a ttukbaegi pot and began boiling it vigorously. Instead of returning to the table where he’d been organizing utensils, Lee Heewoo stood in front of the kitchen, waiting briefly.
Eventually, he loaded the ttukbaegi pot that came out onto a tray and approached the man. The ttukbaegi pot containing the soup was very hot, and being the extra-large size, it was especially heavy, so he had to be extra careful carrying it. As Lee Heewoo reached for the ttukbaegi stand, he said:
“It’s very hot, so be careful.”
……He should have said that while lifting it himself and moving it in front of the customer.
But the man moved at that moment too. He suddenly reached out toward his portion of the ttukbaegi pot and lifted it with just one hand to move it. Lee Heewoo, who had somehow ended up having his job taken away, was momentarily flustered.
“Ah, um, e-enjoy your meal……”
Lee Heewoo’s lips moved awkwardly as he greeted and turned around. “Be careful” was something you typically said, meaning literally to be cautious—not asking for help.
In the end, Lee Heewoo returned to the utensil table and began carefully wiping off moisture. From time to time, he glanced at the table where the man was sitting to check if any side dishes were lacking. How much time had passed like that?
Ding-a-ling!
The shop door was flung wide open. Because the bell sound was so loud, not only the owner who was in the kitchen but also Lee Heewoo’s head whipped around. The shadow cast over the shop was quite huge.
“Lee Heewoo!”
Heichi stood there gripping the doorframe as if crushing it.
