Once again, goosebumps rose all the way to the crown of his head, and Yumyeong almost choked on the water he was drinking. Every time Hakyoung showed concern for him, he felt a strange sensation, as if all the skin on his body was standing on end.
“It seems there was no need to worry, though.”
At Hakyoung’s face, which looked genuinely regretful immediately after, Yumyeong’s mood sank for a moment. However, Hakyoung’s words didn’t end there.
“And I understand fully that you have a despicable personality, so stop threatening me using Lee Sunmin too.”
“What?”
“A person coming to like another person is not a joke. If you want to get revenge on me, do it to me. Don’t drag in innocent people.”
At this point, Yumyeong felt truly wronged. In fact, until now, he’d only run his mouth about seducing the dormitory fairy or whatever, but he’d never actually done it even once, nor did he have any intention to. It was solely because he wanted to tease Hakyoung. Of course, he was the one who provided grounds for that misunderstanding…
But Hakyoung regarded him as someone who would immediately put his plans into action the moment things didn’t go his way. Yumyeong immediately refuted.
“You’re talking as if I’ve actually done that. When did I do that? I only said it. When did I drag anyone in?”
“Everything about you seems like a joke.”
“So when did I do it! Did you see me?”
“I don’t need to see it, it’s obvious.”
“Hey, I’ve been patient but… Do you even know me?”
Yumyeong lowered his voice sharply and leaned toward Hakyoung.
“There’s a limit even to harsh words. Don’t you think you’ve crossed the line, constantly saying since yesterday that my personality is bad, that I’m despicable, that I’m someone who treats people’s feelings as a joke and toys with them?”
He knew that Ryu Hakyoung held a grudge against him. But how long had they even known each other to be defining his personality?
People have various sides to them. That was true for him as well. He’d formed a bad relationship with Hakyoung and acted particularly spiteful toward him, but that wasn’t all there was to him.
“How long has it even been since you transferred? Don’t act like you’ve figured me all out in that short time.”
However, the next moment, Hakyoung spat out with a choked face.
“I know enough. I’ve known you for 15 years.”
“…What?”
“I probably even know that you can’t remember.”
At the unexpected words, Yumyeong froze.
Hakyoung put down his chopsticks with a clack, picked up his tray, and immediately stood up. Yumyeong, who had been staring blankly at his retreating figure, belatedly picked up his own tray and hurriedly followed after him.
“Hey, so you’re saying we’ve known each other since we were three?”
Hakyoung remained silent. Yumyeong persistently pursued Hakyoung, who was walking steadfastly ahead, and continued to probe.
“Or the same academy? I went to so many I can’t even remember what I did… Hey, wait!”
Hakyoung didn’t answer, let alone look at Yumyeong. He just kept walking forward. And he consistently ignored everything Yumyeong said.
Seeing that attitude of not even looking back and just running off, Yumyeong gradually became convinced.
He’d brought up anything just to win the argument.
Just saying anything to at least shut him up.
“What, you made that up, didn’t you?”
Since that was his own specialty, he could easily catch on. However, Hakyoung whipped around and glared at Yumyeong with wavering eyes, then spat out as if chewing.
“Think whatever you want.”
Then he left through the school gate. As if he wanted to run away. Yumyeong persistently followed without backing down.
“Hey, but you should lie in moderation. Isn’t 15 years an exaggeration?”
Hakyoung, who had exited the main gate, stubbornly continued to ignore him and started walking toward downtown. Yumyeong followed behind Hakyoung, who was walking aimlessly looking only ahead.
“Where are you going? When someone talks to you, answer a little…”
Past the school front, there was only one road. A bridge crossed over a stream, and if you crossed this bridge and passed through an apartment complex, you’d reach the city hall along with a small-scale downtown area. The place where commercial buildings were concentrated had various dining streets, so it was also a place students frequently visited.
And as he followed Hakyoung toward the front of city hall, Yumyeong’s attention was quickly stolen by the surrounding scenery.
“Wow, the flowers will bloom next week.”
From the stream to the apartment complex, cherry trees stood in rows. Just recently, when he was rejected by Heeun, all the tree branches were bare and brown. Yumyeong lightly touched the flower branches above his head with his hand. The light green flower buds were plump as if they would burst at any moment.
“Where are you going? Going to buy something to eat?”
“…”
“Should I buy you ice cream?”
Remembering the 5,700 won left over from buying pizza yesterday, Yumyeong rummaged through his pants pocket. But his pocket was completely empty. Only then did he remember that he’d counted the remaining money on the bed this morning and then just tossed it onto the bed. As he fumbled through his empty pocket, Yumyeong exaggeratedly drew in his breath.
“Gasp!”
Only then did Hakyoung’s feet finally stop. When he finally showed a reaction, Yumyeong grinned and spoke up.
“I don’t have money… Will you buy it for me?”
Hakyoung’s face, which had unconsciously stopped walking at Yumyeong’s surprised sound, was distorted. It was an expression very fed up with shameless Yumyeong. Whether he did that or not, he’d finally looked at him. Satisfied with getting his attention, Yumyeong started chattering again.
“Hey. Like I wouldn’t know, right? From what you said before, I naturally thought we must have some connection too. But it’s not like you should say you’ve known me for 15 years, or whatever, just because we knew each other briefly when we were young, honestly. How seriously could we have gotten to know each other at that age.”
“Right…”
Hakyoung bit his lip as if forcibly suppressing something. The atmosphere was so ominous that even Yumyeong became a bit cautious.
After passing through the apartment complex, a bustling shopping district soon appeared. They passed the franchise hamburger shop on the corner that Yumyeong also occasionally visited, passed a cell phone store, and also passed a small fruit shop and supermarket.
Hakyoung’s steps, which had continued walking like that, stopped at a certain place. It was an ice cream chain store. Hakyoung, who had been staring blankly inside, entered there, so Yumyeong naturally followed.
“Welcome. What can I get for you?”
“…A single cone, strawberry flavor please.”
Yumyeong glanced at Hakyoung’s profile as he spoke to the clerk and unconsciously thought the guy was kind of cute. The sight of him politely ordering strawberry flavor with a low-pressure face was funny.
“Wow, how did you know? I like strawberry flavor the most.”
When he muttered going one step further, that face became even more worth watching. Hakyoung whipped his head around and glared fiercely at Yumyeong with eyes filled with gloomy energy. However, his face with such beautiful lines looked merely sulky even at that.
Hakyoung let out a deep sigh and added to the clerk with a completely deflated face.
“…Two please…”
“Thanks! Next time I’ll really buy it.”
Ding-a-ling, the bell sound rang out cheerfully overhead. The two people each held a strawberry milk-flavored ice cream and left the store.
Hakyoung, who had been walking straight ahead like crazy until now, stood vacantly in front of the store door as if he’d lost his way. While taking a big bite of ice cream, Yumyeong looked at Hakyoung’s profile.
Hakyoung, who was vacantly looking at a spot slightly higher than straight ahead, seemed somehow wrapped in deep regret and confusion. He seemed unaware of how he’d even walked all the way here. Yumyeong thought this must be Hakyoung’s habit when he gets angry. Like when he suddenly ran to the back mountain when he was pissed off before.
Thanks to Yumyeong, who only quieted down briefly while eating ice cream, the two were silent on the way back. Hakyoung, who had been angry, had now calmed down. No, he’d become dejected for an unknowable reason.
By the time he finally put the last of the wafer completely in his mouth and crunched on it, the two were crossing over the stream bridge again.
Yumyeong asked about one thing that suddenly came to mind.
“Were we very close by any chance?”
At that question, Hakyoung quietly answered.
“It’s meaningless. As you said, how seriously could we have gotten to know each other at that age.”
It was a low voice that revealed no emotion. However, Yumyeong somehow thought those words were the biggest rebuke among all the words he’d heard from Hakyoung until now.
Returning to his room, Yumyeong pondered carefully about his connection with Hakyoung.
He had a very good memory. He remembered well the faces of people he’d met even once, and it wasn’t at all difficult for him to recall their characteristics and personalities together.
Yumyeong flopped down on the bed and opened his own personal dictionary. Among them were friends he still missed even though much time had passed, and friends he hadn’t been very close with at the time but now wondered how they might be as grown-ups.
However, among the peers he’d met since childhood, among the numerous faces passing through his head, there was no one who could be presumed to be Ryu Hakyoung. Sometimes faces from childhood don’t remain well as you grow up, so he thought maybe it was that kind of case.
Yumyeong let out a short sigh. Hakyoung subtly showed signs of being upset that he alone remembered Yumyeong, but human relationships were unavoidable. It was impossible for both sides to have equal interest. He too had countless similar cases. Relationships where he liked someone so much that he wanted to remain meaningful to them, but the other person didn’t feel the same way.
“He must have really liked me…”
In the end, Yumyeong, who failed to fish out Hakyoung from his memories, closed his eyes. He tossed and turned on the bed like that and tried to take an early evening nap.
The crimson evening glow slanted down onto the bed. Dozing off in the warm sunlight that evoked nostalgia, Yumyeong thought of an old friend for the first time in a very long while.
A relationship where he liked them so much but they didn’t feel the same way.
When reminiscing about the past, that child always came to mind first. The most precious friend, who could be said to occupy all the good parts of his childhood.
A girl with a white face, pretty as an angel.
