This noona’s got me thinking weird thoughts since the crack of dawn. Why am I even concentrating on this nonsense. I muttered primly, pushing away the image of Choi Seol’s sweat-soaked shirt that kept resurfacing in my mind.
“I don’t know, to eat him up or something?”
- As if a noble lady could ever actually do that. Think about how much she’d have to lose just for taking in one farmhand.
“It’s fiction anyway, why are you being so realistic about it? Then why’d she feed him?”
- Because she’s grateful. Grateful.
“Grateful for what.”
- For existing in this world with a body and face like that.
“…..”
- Thanks to that, your eyeballs, worn dirty from living in this rough world, get purified.
“I’m hanging up.”
- Wait! At least make sure you feed pretty boy some rice—
I hung up without mercy. Grateful, my ass. She’d never once bought the neighbor kid a single piece of meat, but apparently some guy who’d swindle that same kid’s wallet was grateful just for existing.
Rice, my foot. I was going to go switch out whatever rice we had for barley rice right now. A farmhand should get barley rice anyway, that’s just how it works. The book shoved back into the dust pile briefly crossed my mind, but I turned my steps toward the kitchen instead.
Unlike the bathroom, the kitchen hadn’t been fully renovated — it still mostly retained its old appearance, with things like the traditional clay stove and cauldron. Still, electricity ran through it, and it had the basic modern cooking tools too. Without even that much, living here for over a year would’ve been unthinkable.
Wow, he really did everything.
The electric rice cooker sitting by the door leading to the backyard was already letting off steam, and the kitchen was filled with the savory smell of soybean paste stew. The irritation I’d worked up over my sister vanished instantly at the delicious smell.
Choi Seol had started cooking from the second day he’d arrived at this house. I’d wake up to find he’d already gotten up before me, finished his walk just like today, and had even finished cooking. And once a day without fail, he insisted on setting the table himself.
“Forget farmhand, you’d suit the role of the snail bridegroom better.”
I pulled some eggs out of the fridge. There was no meat, but I figured we needed some protein intake. Just as I’d set a new pot of water on the stove, intending to make steamed eggs, a familiar cry made me look toward the backyard door — Ilsun was pacing near the entrance.
“Meow.”
“Asking for food?”
Did Choi Seol not feed her?
Now that I thought about it, he’d been the one feeding the cat too, lately. I’d tried to stop him once or twice, but since he’d insisted on doing it himself while he was staying here, I couldn’t keep arguing. Plus, he woke up earlier than me and finished everything before I even had the chance. It was a little scary, realizing that I might be getting used to this kind of life. The mere fact that I was even worrying about something like this was proof that something was going wrong.
“Meow”
“Alright, I’ll feed you.”
“Already did.”
“Mommy!”
Just as I was about to follow Ilsun, who’d already dashed off, out to the backyard, a voice close by made me jerk my head up in shock. Choi Seol was standing right in front of me — without a shirt on, no less.
“Wh-what are you doing? Why are you here?”
“I was heading to take a shower when I heard the sound of stones falling, so I came out to check. The wall had partially collapsed.”
“The wall? Did that thing knock it down again?”
I glared at Ilsun. Choi Seol smirked and said,
“Seems like it was a different male this time, not her. Anyway, I picked up the fallen stones and put them back properly.”
“Good work. But… why are you not wearing a shirt?”
“Since things turned out this way, I figured I’d just wash up quickly and eat first.”
“Wash up… quickly?”
“I’ll wash here. The water comes down from the mountain, so even in summer it’s pretty cold.”
What Choi Seol pointed at was the faucet area right next to the kitchen door. The water here really did have a distinctly crisp, refreshing coolness unlike city tap water, so I sometimes deliberately washed my face there or splashed myself with it too.
But that kind of washing and this were on a completely different level.
The ridiculous abs, the chest, the broad shoulders.
In that moment, I fully understood what my sister meant. The perfect farmhand the noble lady was so eager to feed rice to was standing right in front of me.
“Wait a sec. I’ll just splash some water on myself a few times.”
Choi Seol walked over to the faucet right by the kitchen door and started pouring water over his head with a ladle. The stream of water, starting from his head, ran down his sculpted face, flowed over his beautifully built torso, and trickled down below his collarbones. Watching the sight, I kept salivating without meaning to. This shouldn’t be happening, but my eyes wouldn’t leave him, wanting to take in every single nanometer-sized detail. I couldn’t move at all.
In the end, I only managed to pick up the rice paddle once I’d watched Choi Seol pour water over himself exactly five times and slick his wet hair back perfectly. And to Choi Seol, who approached me while drying off his wet body, I said this:
“I’ll give you lots of rice. Let’s go buy some meat outside today too.”
“……?”
“I’m grateful, that’s all. Grateful.”
“That was good.”
Choi Seol said, setting down his spoon. He’d eaten more rice than usual, yet finished every last bit without a single complaint, which made my conscience prick uncomfortably. Unlike ten years ago, I’m an adult now, I should be able to control my own feelings — or so I’d arrogantly believed, only to get shaken up by a single water show.
This was all Hae-sook noona’s fault, for going three years without dating and feeding weird ideas to someone starving like me. And partly my first love’s fault too, for being unnecessarily attractive both then and now. I glanced furtively again at Choi Seol’s torso, now covered by a thin shirt, before fixing my gaze firmly on my rice bowl.
“Is it because there’s no meat that you can’t eat?”
“Huh?”
“You said earlier we should go buy meat. Wasn’t that because you wanted to eat some?”
I stopped poking at my rice with my spoon and lifted my head. Choi Seol was looking at me with worried eyes. Another arrow drove straight into my already guilty conscience.
“Um… I do like it, but it’s not like I can’t eat without it. Just, since you’re a patient too, I figured you should probably get some protein… that’s just what occurred to me.”
I really must be a shameless adult after all, in moments like this. Ten years ago, I would’ve blushed and stammered the second I tried to lie. Of course, it would’ve been even better if this guy had lost his ten years’ worth of perceptiveness along with his memory. But deceiving someone whose perceptiveness was already off the charts to begin with was never going to be easy.
“I don’t think that’s it.”
“It is.”
But my own ten years’ worth of shamelessness wasn’t anything to scoff at either.
“I just don’t have much of an appetite today, that’s all. You got up earlier and even went and exercised, but I only just woke up not long ago. My stomach’s not great in the mornings.”
“Guess you’re still sensitive as ever.”
“…..”
“Looking at it, I think that’s a stamina issue.”
A bad feeling crept in slowly.
“Let’s work out together.”
“No way! I’m never working out. You go do it yourself.”
I jumped to my feet in alarm. Choi Seol seemed taken aback by the intense reaction, but whatever — I hated exercise enough that I wouldn’t even do it with my first love.
“Was the military really that rough on you.”
“I’ve always hated moving my body in the first place.”
“You always played soccer during lunch though.”
“That’s because Gyeong-ho kept dragging me out, saying his team was short on people, so I had no choice… But how do you know that?”
“Know what?”
“That I played soccer every day. You always went up to the rooftop during lunch.”
“That’s….”
Choi Seol stopped mid-response and stared at me intently. Something about that strange look set off a second bad feeling. Sure enough, instead of an answer, a question came flying back at me.
“How did you know I went up to the rooftop every day?”
I just dug my own grave. How did I know — because I watched him every single day, of course. But there was no way I could offer that as an actual answer.
“Well, you were famous, so…”
“Han Yeoreum! Come out here for a sec.”
Just as I managed to scrape together an excuse, a voice calling for me came from outside the front gate. It was Hae-sook noona. Perfect timing, I thought, telling Choi Seol to wait a moment before dashing to the gate. Seeing her in casual clothes, it seemed today was her day off.
“What’s up.”
“Here, take this first.”
Wondering if she’d come to gawk at the farmhand, I asked warily, and she held out a black plastic bag. Taking it without thinking, I felt its heavy weight.
“What is this?”
“Meat.”
Oh, this noona. I glared at her, eyes wide.
“What’s with that look. You should be bowing to me in gratitude.”
“I’m just wondering if I should even accept this lump of impure ulterior motives. Feels like someone’s about to gobble up my friend whole at this rate.”
“Hey. What do you take me for.”
Surprisingly, my sister turned serious.
“You think I’m some kind of nuclear waste that’d touch my little brother’s friend?”
“I mean, why’s it gotta get that serious? I’m not even your real brother, and we’re both grown adults in our prime anyway.”
“The problem is, he doesn’t think of himself that way.”
“What doesn’t he think?”
When I gave her a genuinely clueless look, my sister clicked her tongue at me like I was a hopeless case.
“That kid still believes he’s seventeen. Suddenly treating him like an adult would just confuse him, so we have to be careful.”
Come to think of it, the hospital doctor had said the same thing — that he needed consideration from those around him.
“Didn’t know you were such a sensitive person, noona.”
“I can be, sometimes.”
I’d meant it as a sarcastic jab, but she swallowed it so readily that I had nothing left to say. I felt the urge to spill, to anyone who’d listen, just how much this woman who firmly believed herself to be “sensitive” had tormented me as a kid. That’s when my sister suddenly reached out and ruffled my hair.
“Ah, what was that for.”
“You little punk, you were sulking earlier, weren’t you.”
“……About what?”
“That I only fussed over feeding your friend meat. You got jealous.”
I shut my mouth, caught red-handed. My sister, looking like she found it adorable, ruffled my hair again.
“Ah! Noona, quit it!”
“What, you said it was fine if I did this much.”
“I said you could just put your hand on my head, who told you to mess it up?”
“Did I say that?”
“You did.”
“Fine. I’ll be careful from now on. Cheer up and eat the meat. I bought that specifically for you at the market.”
“……Really?”
“Yeah. And as a bonus, feed your friend too while you’re at it.”
Somehow I feel like I’m the bonus here, but either way, my mood lifted.
“Thank you.”
“Oh my, look who’s happy again.”
And once more, my sister’s hand reached for my head. I figured she was about to mess it up again, but she was the type to keep her word once she said it. Whatever, I guess it’s fine to get a little messed up right now, I thought, staying still without dodging. That’s when a hand suddenly appeared, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back.
“Hello, Officer.”
It was Choi Seol.
