A middle-aged man with rough stubble on his face scowled menacingly. Sangho flinched and stepped back at the sharp smell of soju wafting over.
“Ah, B07!”
Just then, the landlord came rushing down from upstairs. Sangho protested, struggling to suppress his boiling anger.
“Ahjussi. There’s still over two weeks left on the contract. What is this?”
“Ah, come on. You already moved all your stuff out, didn’t you?”
“You didn’t give me back the deposit, and I paid all the rent. There’s still time left on the contract, isn’t there?”
“Ah, that. I sent it all to your account. I’m being especially nice and won’t even charge you this month’s rent,”
“No. I don’t need any of that—this is trespassing, you know?”
When Sangho raised his voice with a thoroughly furrowed brow, the landlord’s face instantly turned cold. The middle-aged man standing behind the landlord spat on the floor with a twisted face. As Sangho flinched at the atmosphere turning hostile, the landlord patted Sangho’s shoulder and said,
“You little punk with no manners. That’s why I said I won’t charge you this month’s rent.”
“B-but the contract period—”
“You little shit, do you know how many times you’ve been late with rent over 2 years? Huh?”
When the landlord yelled loudly, Sangho’s eyes trembled anxiously. Did ‘Sangho’ fall behind on rent? He naturally tensed up as yet another story he didn’t know about came up.
“I-I paid all of that.”
“Fuck, taking in some beggar-like bastard. You think I’m running a charity? Huh?”
As the landlord took two or three threatening steps forward, the frightened Sangho shuffled backward. He clearly hadn’t done anything wrong, but for a moment, it seemed like the silhouette of his father yelling overlapped with the landlord.
Thud.
Just then, Sangho bumped into something solid behind him and stopped in place. The landlord, who had been approaching with a menacing expression, looked up at someone standing behind Sangho with a slightly flustered face and broke out in a cold sweat.
“……”
At the chilly feeling, Sangho looked back to see Han Kyungoh standing there with a fierce expression. As his massive build completely blocked the villa’s communal entrance, a cold shadow fell across his face, and only a sharp gleam shone from his expressionless, hardened face.
Without a word, Kyungoh pulled Sangho behind him and said in a low, quiet voice,
“You got business with him?”
“Wh-what, what, what?”
“I said, do you have business with him?”
Kyungoh poked the landlord’s shoulder with his finger threateningly, just as the landlord had done to Sangho, and approached him. Each time the finger poked his shoulder, the landlord’s body swayed greatly, and he stepped back several paces with a frightened expression. The middle-aged man reeking of alcohol had already fled into the room in terror.
“Th-that’s—”
“Ky-Kyungoh!”
At the same time as the landlord stammered with his eye twitching, Sangho quickly hugged Kyungoh’s waist when he saw him balling up his fist. Is this crazy bastard seriously planning to kill someone?
“L-let’s go. I got all the deposit back. He said he’ll return the rent too.”
“But the contract period isn’t over yet.”
Rolling his eyes to look at Sangho clinging to his waist, Kyungoh unclenched his fist and lightly placed his hand over Sangho’s. Even so, he looked down at the landlord with an arrogant face, applying silent pressure.
“You should give moving expenses too. This is trespassing.”
“I-I’ll give it! I-I’ll transfer moving expenses too…… I-I’ll give it to you right now.”
“Y-yeah. S-see, he’s giving moving expenses too. Let’s go to our place. Okay?”
At Sangho’s words, Kyungoh’s eyebrows twitched as he asked,
“Our place?”
“Y-yeah.”
“……You said ‘our place.'”
“Yeah, l-let’s go. Our place.”
Something about the spacing seems off. Though Sangho felt something awkward, he placated Kyungoh for now. Then Kyungoh made a “hmm” sound and firmly grasped Sangho’s hand. He looked quite pleased.
“Okay. Let’s go to our place.”
Even so, he didn’t forget to add one more thing to the trembling landlord.
“Send 1 million won for moving expenses.”
‘He really… sent 1 million won.’
Trudging along holding Kyungoh’s hand on the way back, Sangho checked his phone’s banking app with an ambiguous expression. From the moment they left the villa, Kyungoh had firmly grasped Sangho’s hand and walked ahead without letting go. Every time the calluses on his warm, large hand brushed against his palm, it felt ticklish.
“H-how did you end up here?”
“I was coming back from a run and saw you getting off the bus. You didn’t come home and just stood there on the main road for a while.”
“Ah……”
“I thought you might be running away, so I came to catch you.”
What the hell. Sangho couldn’t tell if Kyungoh was joking or serious, so he glanced at his face. It was the same expressionless face as always. Earlier it had been truly scary, but now he couldn’t tell what Kyungoh was thinking.
“……Thank you. If it weren’t for you, Kyungoh—”
“Earlier you called me ‘Kyungoh.'”
“Huh?”
“Call me that.”
Sangho fell silent, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Han Kyungoh suddenly felt close to him. Well, I am much older than him. He casually mixes in informal speech with me too. At this point, didn’t he not need to use formal speech all the time either? After staying silent a bit longer, Sangho said quietly,
“Okay.”
“……In my opinion.”
Kyungoh, who had been walking ahead, stopped abruptly and spoke. When Sangho stopped as well and looked up at Kyungoh, he was stroking his lower lip with a slightly serious expression.
“I think you need some training.”
“Training?”
“There are bastards out there who don’t understand words.”
Ah. Is he talking about the landlord earlier? Sangho glanced over Kyungoh’s massive build and pouted for a moment. If I were as big as you, I wouldn’t have been treated like that, you bastard.
“Even if you’re small, you just need to land one good punch.”
“H-huh?”
Sangho was a bit flustered, feeling like his thoughts had been read.
“You shouldn’t just do strength training. If it’s dangerous, you should be able to throw the first punch and run away.”
“F-first punch?”
“Yeah. When it’s over twenty people, I just beat up one guy first and run away too. Then the other guys get confused and don’t chase.”
“Twenty… people?”
“That was when I was young. I don’t do that now……”
At the words he quickly added like an excuse, Sangho blinked. Twenty people? Did he just say he’s fought twenty people at once? What kind of adult would Han Kyungoh have become if he hadn’t done sports? Sangho imagined this massive man’s body covered in tattoos and made an effort to manage his expression.
“Y-you did well to do wrestling.”
“It was originally boxing. I switched because I didn’t like hitting people. But I can at least teach you how to throw a punch.”
“How to fight…… you mean.”
As Kyungoh nodded, Sangho looked quite curious. Sangho, who was always sickly and had an emaciated build, had never even considered fighting someone. Well, when I exercised with Han Kyungoh, it did bring some vitality to my life. He also thought that if he could throw the first punch and run away like Kyungoh said, at least he wouldn’t get beaten up everywhere.
“Learn it well so when you attack me, you can throw the first punch.”
“Ha! What did you say?”
Kyungoh’s usually unshakeable expression melted smoothly this time, as if finding it absurd. As Kyungoh laughed “haha” as if it was funny, Sangho also chuckled along.
In the end, Sangho came back to Kyungoh’s apartment once again. As Sangho hesitantly entered through the front door and looked around, Kyungoh said,
“Jang Wonha said he’s going to his family home this weekend.”
“Ah…… Yeah.”
Throb. It felt like his heart was aching. It was just like Dohyun had said. He might have gone for something else, but…… He told Han Kyungoh he was going to his family home but didn’t tell me. Hurt welled up from a strange place. Sangho quickly entered the bathroom with a deliberately nonchalant face. First, he wanted to wash his dust-covered body.
Shhhh.
Standing under the shower for a while, Sangho suddenly looked at the hydrocolloid bandage Dohyun had put on. It must be waterproof since it didn’t fall off even when hit by the stream of water. It’s sticking on disgustingly. Looking at the bandage wrinkled and bumpy over his knee joint, Sangho thought that. If Wonha ever got sick of me, would he find me disgusting like this bandage?
‘What a useless thought.’
Sangho quickly shook his head and lathered up his body with a shower towel. Wonha waited for me, so I’ll wait for Wonha too. He was steeling his resolve when—
“Ah. I didn’t bring… clothes.”
After finishing his shower, Sangho realized he hadn’t brought clothes to change into. He always felt embarrassed about walking around the house naked, so whenever he bathed, he always brought underwear and clothes to change into. The janitor uniform he’d taken off had rolled around in the dust pit under the cabinet, so it was covered in dust and sweat. He didn’t want to wear that again.
