Chapter 5
It seems I’d dozed off. But to call it dozing would be an understatement, since I didn’t even notice when Tae Igyeol removed his thigh and I continued sleeping. My eyes opened automatically at the delicious smell, and I realized I must have fallen into such a deep sleep that I hadn’t even heard the doorbell. When I turned my head, I saw Tae Igyeol standing in front of the kitchen table, unwrapping the packaged food.
“Ahh… acting like you… mmm… weren’t going to eat jajangmyeon…”
Mo Eunje muttered to himself as he stretched. His stiff body felt temporarily refreshed.
“You always wake up like a ghost when it’s mealtime.”
As he approached with sagging shoulders, walking unsteadily like a zombie, Tae Igyeol welcomed him. He even pulled out the dining chair for him, which Mo Eunje promptly sat in. Though Tae Igyeol’s words weren’t always pretty and could be prickly, he was actually a kind and caring person.
On the table, sweet and sour pork, jajangmyeon with onions, beef brisket jjamppong, cold jellyfish salad, and fried dumplings were beautifully arranged. Mo Eunje placed one of the two 50,000 won bills he’d received from his mother on the table. It clearly looked like it would cost more than 50,000 won, but for some reason, Tae Igyeol didn’t raise any objections.
“What’s this? Why aren’t you asking for the difference?”
“Would you give it to me if I asked?”
“Of course not.”
Mo Eunje grinned and poured about half the mustard sauce onto the jellyfish salad and mixed it. After mixing it all together, he added more mustard sauce just on his portion. This was a consideration for Tae Igyeol, who couldn’t handle spicy food.
“I made money while you were sleeping. Keep the difference as your pocket money.”
“Wow, that’s crazy. How much did you make?”
“Nine hundred forty.”
As soon as he heard the amount, Mo Eunje quietly picked up the 50,000 won bill he’d put on the table. When he noticed Tae Igyeol’s gaze on the hand holding the money, he quickly clenched his fist to hide it.
“You always make money while I’m sleeping.”
“Lazy people are so good at rationalizing.”
Tae Igyeol would wake up at 7 a.m. to check economic news on his phone for stock trading, while Mo Eunje’s daily routine included sleeping in, so it wasn’t surprising. Moreover, while Tae Igyeol was interested in investing, Mo Eunje, true to his safety-first principles, hesitated when it came to risks.
For example, when they became adults, they each received 10 million won from their parents as their final allowance in this life. Mo Eunje spent it all on a month-long backpacking trip to Europe with friends that summer. Tae Igyeol went along too, but by then, he’d already doubled his 10 million won in just half a year.
Since then, he’d developed a taste for stocks, and his initial capital of 10 million won had grown to nearly 500 million won. These days, YouTube was full of self-made building owners in their 20s, investment experts in their 20s, and land-rich people in their 20s, and Tae Igyeol fit exactly that profile. Being smart and lucky, he took risks and still made profits mostly through day trading. With his excellent judgment, intuition, and the boldness to invest large sums, it was possible.
Mo Eunje had tried a few times out of curiosity when he didn’t know better, but he kept missing the timing due to his habit of sleeping in and ended up losing money. After recovering his principal, he decided to give up forever. Not just anyone could do stock investing.
“You’ll come with me when I go look at apartments, right?”
“Your mom will take care of everything, why do I need to come along?”
“Then I guess I’ll just have a date with Aunt Yeonhwa. I should ask her to buy me something delicious.”
Mo Eunje scooped half of the jajangmyeon that Tae Igyeol had mixed into an empty bowl and sprinkled a generous amount of red pepper powder on it.
“Mrs. Song will be thrilled. She already likes Mo Eunje more than her own son.”
“My mom likes you and Tae Iden more than me too. Hey, should we just swap mothers?”
“No. I’d be uncomfortable with a mother who loves me that much.”
“Ah. Me too.”
He nodded and followed Tae Igyeol’s lead, dipping the sweet and sour pork in the sauce. This wasn’t the right taste. Mo Eunje put a few pieces of sweet and sour pork in an empty bowl and poured sauce over them.
“But if I ask Auntie to buy me a sous vide machine on the day we look at apartments, do you think she would?”
“She probably would. You’re Mo Eunje, whom my mother loves.”
“Wow, that’s crazy. Auntie is really the best. My mom wouldn’t let me buy one, saying why put perfectly good meat in vacuum packaging and leave it at low temperature when she could grill it, finish eating, clean up, and do the dishes in that time.”
“I thought that was my mother speaking just now. But your mom would probably buy it for me if I asked.”
“…You’re right.”
The two ate lunch, exchanging pointless conversation that flowed from one thought to the next, as they always did.
&
Mo Eunje’s neatly resting eyelashes fluttered at the noise disturbing his sleep. Message alerts had been going off like crazy since the crack of dawn in the bedroom, where light was blocked by blackout curtains.
He opened his eyes slightly and looked around to find that Tae Igyeol had already gotten up, as the space beside him was empty. Mo Eunje had gone to bed around 3 a.m. yesterday, and even then, Tae Igyeol was still watching a movie in the living room. To think that he still got up early for stock trading—he really was something else.
He stretched lazily and got up. Even as he got out of bed and tidied up the bedding, the message alerts didn’t stop. He’d never once made his bed at home, always just slipping out, but in Tae Igyeol’s bed, whoever got up last had to make it. This too had become a habit only after being nagged for over a year. In truth, given Tae Igyeol’s personality, Mo Eunje should be grateful that he was allowed to sleep in the bed at all rather than on the sofa.
Mo Eunje sat on the neatly made bed and checked the accumulated messages first.
***
Ban Hajun [it’s my bday on Tuesday]
11:21 AM
Ban Hajun [(image of sneakers)]
Ban Hajun [(image of wallet)]
Ban Hajun [(image of perfume)]
Ban Hajun [We’re meeting at Ritz Ville this weekend, so bring it then]
11:22 AM
Tae Igyeol [You crazy bastard, why are we having your birthday party at my place?]
11:23 AM
Ban Hajun [Because our baby’s place is the biggest?]
Ban Hajun [And we can have a BBQ party on the rooftop terrace?]
11:23 AM
Tae Igyeol [Have it at your place]
11:23 AM
Ban Hajun [But Hajunie lives in a small officetel~♡]
Ban Hajun [When four guys come in, there’s nowhere to sit ㅠㅠ]
Ban Hajun [(emoticon of a rabbit crouching and crying)]
Tae Igyeol [Get lost]
11:24 AM
Gye Minho [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Gye Minho [We’ve always had it at your place, why are you suddenly being exclusive?]
Gye Minho [But isn’t it time to spend birthdays with girlfriends?]
11:25 AM
Ban Hajun [I’ll be with my girlfriend on Tuesday, the actual day♥]
Ban Hajun [And with my babies on the weekend♡]
11:25 AM
Tae Igyeol [Is there no kick function here?]
Tae Igyeol [Someone kick that bastard out]
11:25 AM
Ban Hajun [Unfortunately, there’s no kick function^^]
11:26 AM
Tae Igyeol has left the chat.
Invite to chat room
Gye Minho [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Gye Minho [Stop kicking Tae Igyeol outㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
11:26 AM
Ban Hajun [Yeahㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
11:26 AM
[Me] [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
11:26 AM
***
After writing an appropriate message, Mo Eunje went to the living room. Tae Igyeol had tossed his phone on the sofa and was watering the plants with a spray bottle near the living room window. He must have thrown his phone on the sofa after leaving the chat room.
Mo Eunje squinted for a moment as the sunlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows was blinding. Various plants with name tags—monstera, rubber tree, money tree, snake plant, dracaena, eucalyptus, yulma, and bird of paradise—were vibrantly displaying their healthy colors. When you thought about it, Tae Igyeol, who looked like he’d kill every plant, actually kept them beautifully healthy without a single withered leaf for a long time.
“You’re working hard raising weeds since the morning.”
“Weeds… Sigh…”
Tae Igyeol sighed, giving Mo Eunje an incredulous look. Regardless, Mo Eunje first went to the kitchen and grabbed as much castella as he could from the table, stuffing it into his mouth. Castella was Mo Eunje’s favorite bread, which he habitually ate three or four times a week. At sixteen, he’d loved that sweet, soft bread so much that he literally ate it every single day.
Because of this, he couldn’t pass by a bakery without going in to buy some, and even Tae Igyeol, who wouldn’t put a crumb of castella in his mouth now, had been brainwashed to always have castella at home.
Mo Eunje had probably tried every famous bakery’s castella in South Korea. Of course, after loving it for ten years, he was often asked if he wasn’t tired of it by now, but far from being tired, castella remained Mo Eunje’s number one food.
Mo Eunje took an apple juice pack from the refrigerator, inserted the straw, and quickly finished it with the castella, then cleaned up the crumbs on the table. All this took less than two minutes. Then, in a sweet mood, he approached Tae Igyeol.
“What time did you go to sleep yesterday?”
“Around 4:30?”
“I thought so. I couldn’t fall asleep until a little after 4, and when I checked the clock, you still hadn’t come in.”
“…”
“Aren’t you trading stocks today?”
“Made a hundred eighty this morning.”
Tae Igyeol turned his head slightly and replied nonchalantly. That too was truly a talent. How could he make profits so frequently, even if not every day? Sometimes Mo Eunje was tempted to propose that he entrust his savings to Tae Igyeol, offering 30% of the profits as commission for proxy investing.
“So you’re buying me cheese tonkatsu today?”
“Didn’t you just stuff your face with castella as soon as you woke up?”
“You know that was just an appetizer. Igyeol hyung, please buy me cheese tonkatsu.”
“…”
He’d spoken with what he thought was charm and aegyo, but a look of disdain flew his way. Undeterred, Mo Eunje twisted his body and, with a wide smile, made even more childish sounds.
“Handsome Igyeol hyung, I want cheeshe tonkatshu.”
“…”
Tae Igyeol ignored him and turned his attention back to the plants. But Mo Eunje wasn’t about to give up. He approached Tae Igyeol, crouched down, and began massaging his hard, muscle-filled shoulders while making a coquettish nasal sound.
“Handshome Igyeol hyungie,”
“Stop it.”
“Eunje wantsh cheeshe tonkatshu,”
“Stop it before I rip your tongue out.”
