After finishing my shower, the aftermath of last night’s drinking hit me all at once. A life where I drank like that last night, worked, and even went to a dinner appointment…. I didn’t want to live this busily.
It was fortunate that I could sleep in late since tomorrow was an afternoon shift. If I had an 8 AM shift tomorrow too, I might have really lost my mind.
My hair was still quite wet, but I absolutely didn’t have the energy to dry it all before sleeping. I just shook off the moisture and lay down almost collapsing. Between my fading consciousness, various thoughts came and went formlessly but quickly disappeared.
***
“…Mm.”
Since I trusted that yesterday was an afternoon shift and slept without setting an alarm, when I looked at the clock it was already past the entire morning. Out of habit, I checked my phone and there was one missed call from Eun Haejin. I immediately called back.
[Did you just wake up?]
“…Yeah…”
My throat was completely locked up, so even to my own ears my voice sounded hoarse. After clearing my throat a few times, I asked Eun Haejin.
“Why did you call?”
[I was wondering what you were doing and wanted to eat lunch together, but you didn’t answer so I figured you were sleeping and hung up.]
“What should we eat for lunch?”
[Is your hangover okay?]
At Eun Haejin’s words, I curled up my body once and then slowly got up and leaned against the wall. My head wasn’t dizzy and my body, which had inwardly felt like it had been beaten up, was fine.
“I’m okay?”
[That’s good. What time do you go to work today?]
“From 3 to 10. Closing.”
[Then let’s go eat lunch.]
“What are you going to eat?”
[Is there something you want to eat?]
Nothing greasy, not noodles, something that would settle my stomach. I answered in 1 second.
“Rice. Korean food.”
[Baekban?]
“That’s fine too, or even just gukbap is fine.”
[Okay. By what time?]
When I checked the time, it was a little past 12:30. If I showered and came out, 1 o’clock should be fine.
“1 o’clock?”
[I’ll come to your place.]
“Wouldn’t it be better to just go to the restaurant?”
[I’m at the gym right now anyway.]
“Sexy.”
Eun Haejin didn’t respond to my words and just hung up abruptly. Cold bastard… I leaned against the wall for a bit playing with my phone, then eventually went to shower.
After showering and finishing brushing my teeth, when I looked at the time it was almost 1 o’clock. I came out of the bathroom in my underwear and rummaged through the closet. When I get my paycheck, I need to fix this damn closet first. What kind of kid was so crazy about dressing up that there wasn’t a single comfortable outfit.
I was still only wearing drawers—the underwear was all tight drawers too—when the doorbell rang at not very good timing. I’d probably get scolded if he saw I wasn’t ready yet.
But I couldn’t leave Eun Haejin standing outside, so I just opened the door. When Eun Haejin saw me in just my underwear, he closed the door again.
“What?”
When I opened the door again, Eun Haejin was standing there silently with his hand covering his mouth.
“Why’d you close the door?”
Eun Haejin didn’t answer and just came into the house and quickly closed the door again.
“Are you crazy? Why are you opening the door with all your clothes off? What if someone else sees from outside? Fuck… If you’re going to walk around naked, at least buy a robe. Whatever, just hurry up and put on clothes.”
“But it was still inside my house, is this public indecency too?”
“Stop fucking around and just put on clothes.”
“I don’t have clothes to wear.”
Eun Haejin looked at the clothes piled on the floor and looked at me incredulously.
“Then what’s that? A modern art piece?”
“The clothes are all fucking uncomfortable.”
“You’re the one who bought them. You used to wear super uncomfortable clothes just fine in the past, why now?”
“Past me must have been crazy…”
“Just put on any clothes first. Don’t walk around naked.”
I grumbled and put on the most comfortable-looking somewhat oversized dark gray shirt and black slacks. Eun Haejin was wearing black training pants with a somewhat loose white T-shirt and a white cap pressed on. Definitely my clothing taste was more Eun Haejin than Lee Hyun.
“How did the past me wear this kind of thing, Haejin?”
“…It suits you well.”
“It’s totally like I’m going on a date.”
“Well…”
Eun Haejin fixed my flipped collar. After fixing the collar, he messed with my still damp and wet hair.
“Dry your hair a bit?”
“It’ll dry if I leave it.”
I waited quietly for a moment as Eun Haejin roughly tousled my hair with his hand, then just grabbed my phone and wallet and stuffed them in my pocket.
“Let’s go on a date.”
“What date?”
“Honey, did you make a restaurant reservation?”
Eun Haejin ignored my words and searched for nearby Korean restaurants on his phone. A seolleongtang place and a baekban place were right next to each other, but I was craving soup so we headed to the gukbap place. The distance was all about the same, so it was quick when we walked.
We ordered two seolleongtang in large sizes, and I cracked my somehow stiff neck.
“Is the thesis going well?”
At my question, Eun Haejin just shrugged his shoulders.
“I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to graduate, Haejin…”
“Why?”
“I mean, when I talked with the professor about the graduation thesis, I got rejected on eleven out of ten things.”
“The topic seemed fine though?”
“But the structure inside is a bit weak. And the materials are a bit lacking too.”
At my words, Eun Haejin nodded.
“If there’s anything I can help with, just say so.”
“You doing well is the way to help me…”
It was a statement that contained my honest feelings, but Eun Haejin just laughed once as if it was absurd.
The seolleongtang came out and we started eating silently.
“Your laptop?”
When we were about halfway done, Eun Haejin asked.
“Ah, that, I got in contact with that person yesterday, so I met them and gave them the laptop? They said they’d ask about recovery.”
“Who do you trust so much that you just hand over your laptop? What if they take it and run?”
Unless tag was their hobby, there was absolutely no way that would happen, but I just shrugged once.
“When did you meet yesterday?”
“Just matched with that person’s off-work time.”
“You trust people too fucking easily and you’ll get screwed. Next time you meet, contact me too.”
I can’t tell you it’s your future boss and lover, so I can’t say no, so I just vaguely mumbled my words. Eun Haejin seemed dissatisfied with my answer and added a few more nagging words, but when I pretended to be touched and rubbed my head on his shoulder, he stopped.
And objectively, I didn’t have the physique to easily fall into danger anywhere. Of course, yesterday I was with someone bigger than me, but generally speaking, that was the case. I was clearly objectively not small in physique, but the comparison target just happened to be…
As I stared at Eun Haejin silently, Eun Haejin mouthed “what?” I just shook my head side to side.
After we finished eating and came out, there was some time left before work.
“What do you want to do?”
“Should we just go home and rest more?”
“Your place?”
“I don’t mind either way.”
At Eun Haejin’s words, we just went back to my place. As soon as we entered the house, I unbuttoned about three buttons on my shirt and lay down.
“I don’t know why you wear clothes so fucking much.”
“Haejin. Right now I covet your clothes so much that if I could, I want to strip off your T-shirt and wear it myself.”
Eun Haejin sat down next to where I was lying. I grabbed a pillow with my hand and handed it to Eun Haejin.
“Why?”
“Put it on your lower back.”
“Then what about you?”
“I’m fine.”
Eun Haejin obediently placed the pillow behind his lower back.
I giggled and placed my head on Eun Haejin’s thigh.
“Hey.”
“Ah, muscles. Fucking hard.”
Eun Haejin opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, then just turned his head away. I looked up at Eun Haejin from below, then just used his thigh as a pillow and comfortably closed my eyes. After eating, my body became drowsy again.
***
I realized that I had fallen asleep without knowing as I regained my fading consciousness. Yesterday definitely seemed to have been a tiring day. Seeing how sleep was washing over me like this.
And I belatedly realized that the hard thing I was using as a pillow was Eun Haejin’s thigh. I remembered placing my head there as a joke, but after that I had no memory. My consciousness hadn’t fully returned yet, and if I wanted to, I felt like I could fall into deep sleep again.
