Crunch crunch. Sangho followed Dohyun and picked at the macaroni puffed snacks. The owner lady gave them small plates, pickled radish, and two forks each. Sangho quietly stared at them, then followed Dohyun’s movements and ate a piece of pickled radish too. He’d wondered why they gave so many forks, but it was two per person. Now Sangho began to get excited, feeling like he’d become part of a group he thought he could never belong to.
“So, aren’t you curious who the actress is?”
“Who is it?”
Just then, Dohyun started an interesting story. Sangho had a quite flushed expression and sparkling eyes. He’d long forgotten about trying to find out about Dohyun.
Thunk.
Two 500ml draft beers brought by the lady were placed on the purple table. Dohyun picked up the glass with thin ice and tilted it slightly as he said.
“Let’s have a drink first before we start.”
The beer hall during dinner time was filled with noisy, bustling sounds. Unlike franchise chicken places, the fried chicken had a slight curry flavor, and the separately poured sauce had an addictive taste.
The stories Nam Dohyun laid out about Wonha were really interesting. To be precise, it wasn’t just about Wonha, but various mixed-up gossip. That actress Wonha had liked was a real top star who had filmed soju commercials several times, and after that incident, the embarrassed Wonha had stopped pursuing her. We all do stupid things or change our minds over nothing in our early twenties. Everyone’s like that when they’re young. Nam Dohyun saying that seemed somehow mature.
The draft beer glasses on the table had increased to several at some point. Sangho, already tipsy from one 500ml glass, wanted to drink more slowly, but concentrating on Nam Dohyun’s stories about university life, he kept sipping the newly placed beer glass. Once, a dormitory student dragging a huge suitcase looked suspicious so he stopped them, and out of that small suitcase popped a girl wearing palm-sized hot pants. And the big-nosed staff member he always saw at the Academic Affairs Office got caught in a sticky kiss with the staff member next to him in the dark hallway, and the story that the newly appointed Dean of Students had properly caught the right line. Ah, the Facilities Management Center Director he’d been curious about ultimately submitted his resignation letter when coverage came in from various media outlets.
“Mmm…”
The noisily buzzing voices gradually felt like they were sinking underwater, and Sangho swayed. Then Nam Dohyun stopped Sangho’s forehead as he was about to bang his head on the table with a thunk. A cold palm lightly rested under his chin and fingers pressed firmly against his cheek.
“Are you drunk?”
“…”
Nam Dohyun, who caught the face dropping on the opposite side, asked. Sangho couldn’t answer with his spinning head and just blinked his eyes while staring blankly at the man before him. Then a slight light reflected in the jet-black eyes as his gaze slowly swept down Sangho’s flushed face, his gentle half-closed eyes, and his twitching small nose.
“Who are you?”
The drunk Sangho muttered and asked. Nam Dohyun’s gaze, which had paused briefly on his lips, met Sangho’s dazed eyes again. Sangho looked at Nam Dohyun with his brows slightly furrowed, then asked again.
“Do you like Wonha?”
“No.”
“Why… why don’t you like him? Why does it keep changing from the original?”
Dohyun with his cold, expressionless face just remained silent. The frustrated Sangho asked again.
“You, you originally liked Wonha. That’s why you fought with Kyungoh too. And to me, you were so… scary…”
“Was I scary?”
“Yeah…”
Whoosh, Sangho who let out a sigh closed his eyes. His head, which he’d been barely holding up, was now completely buried in Dohyun’s hand.
“So you ran away?”
“…”
This time, no answer came back.
In the dusky night street, Sangho was being carried on someone’s back with his body drooping limply. Sangho’s arms, his face buried in the solid shoulders, swung weakly and powerlessly along with the man’s movements. The man walking quietly under the streetlight put strength into his fingers so Sangho wouldn’t fall and climbed a low hill.
A cynical laugh escaped from the man’s lips.
“The original, he says. Really ridiculous.”
The smirk that had been slanted disappeared from his face in an instant. Nam Dohyun, who had returned to his usual cold face, felt the body heat of Sangho sleeping soundly on his back and made a somewhat contemplative expression. Sangho with a slightly excited expression while walking on the trail, his face overcome with emotion facing the double cherry blossom tree, his face grinning foolishly at stories about Wonha. It was the first time today that he’d seen such various expressions.
“…He’s prettiest when crying after all. No, is he prettiest when crying after losing everything?”
Dohyun muttered. In his empty-looking black eyes, a twisted desire flashed and then subsided.
***
Jolt.
Sangho suddenly sat up in bed in the dim room. Sangho, who opened his eyes in an unfamiliar room, looked around with an anxious expression. Yesterday, he drank beer at a beer hall with Nam Dohyun and listened to all sorts of stories… He didn’t remember well after that. He didn’t even know how many glasses of beer he’d drunk.
Feeling a chilling sensation, he fumbled around and only heard the rustling sound of blankets. He didn’t know where he’d put his phone either, nothing was visible. After several minutes passed, Sangho realized he was in a dormitory room. In the darkness, he could dimly see an empty bed and desk, and his phone was on the desk. Fortunately, it seemed no one else was in the room.
He quickly picked up his phone, but it didn’t turn on, probably dead. The dismayed Sangho put his hand on his head and let out a sigh. If he couldn’t contact them, Wonha would worry. The clock hanging in the dormitory showed it was past 4 AM.
‘The entrance door automatically opens and closes depending on the time, and it locks at 2 AM.’
Nam Dohyun’s words came to mind. Ah. The security system must be running by now. The dormitory strictly restricted outsider access, so if someone tried to leave, a loud alarm would sound. Sangho’s brows furrowed as he was thinking of immediately taking a taxi back to Kyungoh’s apartment. It seemed he had no choice but to endure inside the dormitory until 6 AM when work hours started.
“Haah…”
Whoosh.
At that moment, Sangho quickly raised his head at the sound of the shower coming from the bathroom. Come to think of it, this was a two-person room. What room number was this?
With an anxious heart, he looked around the room again and saw Dohyun’s laptop on the desk. Only then did Sangho grasp the situation and felt the blood drain from his head.
“Ah. You’re awake?”
Just then, the bathroom opened with a bang and Dohyun, wearing only pants, came out wiping off moisture. Though it was a dark room, his tall height and well-built muscles looked bluish. Sangho felt his heart pounding thump, thump, and hesitantly stepped back.
“I, I’ll be going.”
“The door is locked right now, so you can’t leave.”
A somewhat absurd answer came back. As Sangho froze with his lips trembling, Nam Dohyun said matter-of-factly.
“If you leave now, it’ll be troublesome for me too, so leave during work hours.”
“…”
Nam Dohyun, who passed by Sangho and went to his closet, shook off the moisture from his hair and took out a black t-shirt from the closet and put it on. Even until then, Sangho stood frozen stiffly in the corner of the room. Dohyun glanced at the frightened Sangho and gave a curt rebuke in an indifferent voice.
“I don’t know what’s so scary. I don’t like Wonha, so don’t have strange delusions.”
“Huh?”
“You kept asking me yesterday. Whether I like Jang Wonha. Why would you have such delusi—”
At the incredulous tone, Sangho gulped. He seemed really drunk yesterday, but did he say that too? Now that he thought about it, he seemed to have. His face grew hot and he felt incredibly embarrassed.
“Uh, so… what else did I say?”
“Well… you collapsed like that and slept. Sleep more.”
Dohyun gestured with his chin toward the empty bed in the back. Then he turned on the desk lamp low and opened his laptop.
As Sangho sat hesitantly on the bed and glanced at Dohyun cautiously, Dohyun sighed after a moment, hooked one arm over the chair, and turned around smoothly.
“Do you like Jang Wonha?”
“…!”
“It seems like things are going well now, so I won’t say much. But he’s… his views on relationships are complicated. If later on you do something like exposing things to media outlets or whatever, don’t do that.”
“…What?”
“I told you. Cleaning up is my job. You might as well tell me instead.”
Dohyun closed his eyes as if tired and pressed his thumb and index finger firmly against the corners of his eyes. Then he put on the glasses that were on the desk and turned his body back to fiddle with his laptop. Sangho trembled his lips for a moment before muttering in a crawling voice.
“We’re not… dating.”
