“I’ll go get the car, so wait for me.”
“Okay!”
Waving his hand widely, Yoonjo squatted down in front of the gate as Seonwoo headed toward the empty lot behind the village. No matter how much he thought about it, he was really too handsome. Right, having these feelings was natural. It was an entirely natural phenomenon to have his heart lean toward that handsome and pretty person, that cool and considerate person. Having reached that conclusion, Yoonjo nodded his head.
Then he suddenly remembered the purple liriope flowers blooming in front of the yard. Hastily picking a bunch of flowers and stuffing them inside his hat, Yoonjo came outside.
“Yoonjo-ya~ Grandpa’s here!”
“Oh my, my little puppy!”
At that moment, a rattling cultivator stopped in front of the house and Grandpa and Grandma got out. Yoonjo hurriedly opened the gate and helped Grandma down from the trailer.
“Grandma. Coming back from work?”
“That’s right. I was worried about what to do since our grandson was sick, but the young man next door said he’d be there, so I was so relieved…. Oh my, Yoonjo-ya. Your face has become half its size.”
“Grandma, I’m fine. I slept well and ate lots of delicious food.”
“Oh my! The cockles were delicious. That Seoul young man suddenly said he’d make cockle salad, which was a bit, you know, strange.”
Didn’t he say he bought it? When Yoonjo said nothing and stayed quiet, Grandma patted Yoonjo’s plump bottom and added,
“He made the salad so carefully. He did it really well. You ate it together deliciously, right?”
“…Yes.”
Even when Grandma said to come inside together, Yoonjo dismissed it saying he was fine and going to hang out, sitting in front of the gate. Grandma showed a rather hurt expression, but it didn’t register in Yoonjo’s eyes.
He made it himself. That cockle salad? Yoonjo recalled the plump cockles he’d scraped clean down to the bottom of the bowl. No wonder the portion was small, no wonder it was a bit bland…. But it was delicious. It was really delicious.
The entire time he was closing the gate, Yoonjo thought about Seonwoo. That man who must have gone alone to the tidal flats wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and diligently dug for cockles. The person who barely ate and even collapsed from malnutrition had cooked for Yoonjo.
His heart felt ticklish, so he stomped his feet crazily while standing. He suddenly wanted to run. It felt like he couldn’t resolve this feeling without running. As soon as that thought occurred, Yoonjo started running toward the back of the village. He missed Seonwoo so much.
As soon as he saw the black car rolling up, Yoonjo approached the driver’s side. This bewitching person. Why was he so sweet and even kind while maintaining such a calm face? Unable to control his heart at all, Yoonjo knocked on the driver’s window with his knuckles, tap tap tap tap. Soon the car door opened and Seonwoo got out with a puzzled expression.
“Yoonjo-ya. Why,”
“Hyung, hyung, hyung!”
“Oof…!”
Hugging Seonwoo and jumping up and down, Yoonjo put strength into it and lifted Seonwoo up. Of course, due to the height difference, Seonwoo’s toes were still touching the ground, but Yoonjo’s waist was bent with all his might.
“Yoonjo-ya, what’s wrong? Use words, use words!”
“Ah, I’m doing this because words won’t work!”
He wasn’t so clueless as to suddenly say he liked him. More than anything, wasn’t Seonwoo a celebrity? Ki Seonwoo was someone who would have seen pretty female celebrities until he was sick of them. Even Yoonjo was this confused about the fact that he liked the same man, and Seonwoo would be more confused, not less.
Having finished all his thoughts in that brief moment, Yoonjo smiled brightly enough to show his teeth.
“Just… just because. Hyung, you’re really cool!”
It was a clean smile that resembled the morning sun.
***
The entire way to the large beach located in Nokidong, Yoonjo talked without rest. Unlike Seonwoo, it was a quick recovery. Not even a full day had passed since he collapsed, but he ate well, and the slight fever that had lingered in his head had completely disappeared as if it had never been there.
Muttering to himself that being young was good, Seonwoo glanced at Yoonjo, who seemed twice as excited as usual.
“…But the most delicious thing was the cockle salad. Oh, come to think of it…. You didn’t even touch it, hyung?”
“Mm… it just turned out that way.”
“Next time I’ll make it really amazingly for you. I’m a total tidal flat conqueror. Come to think of it, you still haven’t even tasted the yuzu tea I made. That’s really Namhang’s best.”
“The one that got 19 votes.”
“That’s right! Ah, but this year I’m going to try challenging with something else too.”
Seonwoo’s gaze reached Yoonjo as if asking with his eyes what it was, but the next words didn’t come out. It was awkward to say in front of the person in question. Instead, Yoonjo grinned.
Soon the car stopped. The area around the beach was already bustling with people. Having parked the car in a relatively quiet alley, the two who got out tapped their stiff lower backs. It didn’t take long to get to the town center, but the road to the beach was unusually long.
At Yoonjo’s insistence, Seonwoo, who was wearing a baseball cap and even a black mask, looked like a thief going to rob an empty house rather than attending a fireworks festival. It was quite a suspicious appearance. Yoonjo quietly looked at Seonwoo, then held in both hands a pen he’d prepared in advance and a flower branch with purple popcorn-like flowers hanging in clusters.
“Flowers? Why flowers all of a sudden?”
“Just wait.”
Yoonjo put his straw hat on Seonwoo and carefully inserted the purple flowers. After inserting a few more, he looked like a tourist. On top of that, he popped off the pen cap and dotted two spots near Seonwoo’s eyes.
Taking a step back, standing before him was not Ki Seonwoo but a tourist with a cold. Yoonjo put away the pen and grinned widely enough to show his teeth.
“Wow, you’re really a tourist.”
“Do we… really have to go this far? I told you they won’t recognize me.”
“No. I guarantee everyone will recognize you. We should have prepared more thoroughly, but it was too impromptu…. Anyway, it’s not bad now. You just look like tall tourist number 1 who came to enjoy the festival.”
Awkwardly fiddling with the edge of the straw hat, Seonwoo picked up his baseball cap that was on the car’s hood. He approached one step to put it on Yoonjo, but Yoonjo waved both hands and refused.
“You know if we both wear them, we’ll really look suspicious, right? I’ll just go like this.”
At Yoonjo’s words, Seonwoo shrugged and threw the baseball cap inside the driver’s seat.
“Hyung, hurry up!”
Before he knew it, Yoonjo was standing at the end of the alley on the main street where flashy neon signs were flickering, waving his hand toward Seonwoo. Whew…. Letting out a light breath, Seonwoo lightly clenched and unclenched his fist, then wiped the back of his neck with his palm where cold sweat was about to form.
It had been a very long time since he’d walked among this many people. Unlike the village where he’d only faced a small number of people, and unlike the clinic last time, this was a festival where an unspecified number of people would gather. In front of Yoonjo, he’d said nonchalantly to go if they wanted to go, but truthfully his inner feelings were reluctant. Nevertheless, the reason he couldn’t refuse to his face was….
“Hyu-ung-!”
Because of that smile. Seonwoo stood vacantly in place for a moment, then stepped forward as if determined.
The wide road was blocked so cars couldn’t pass. Because of that, both the sidewalk blocks and the road were full of people. As Yoonjo walked through the gaps and staggered for a moment, pushed this way and that by the crowd, Seonwoo grabbed Yoonjo’s shoulder and pulled him close.
“You need to be careful.”
“Uh… yes…. Thank you.”
Responding with a bow, Yoonjo slyly took a step away from Seonwoo. But because there were quite a lot of people around, they had no choice but to stay close. Before he knew it, Yoonjo was walking ahead with his back against Seonwoo’s chest.
“There are quite a lot of people. It wasn’t usually such a crowded festival.”
“Have you been here before? I thought you were asking me to come here for the first time.”
“It’s my first time coming with you, hyung. Anyway, I came last year with Grandma and Grandpa. There were people then too, but not this many. Hyung, should we just go back? There are too many people….”
Because he was walking right in front, Yoonjo had to lift his head to look at Seonwoo. When their eyes met, Seonwoo’s eyes curved prettily as he smiled and said,
“It would be too disappointing to just go back after coming all the way here. Then shall we rest for a bit? There aren’t many people over there….”
As if familiar with it, Seonwoo passed between people and walked toward the path connected to the beach. That side had fewer people, as Seonwoo said. As soon as they escaped from among the people, Seonwoo let out a breath, whew, and clenched and unclenched his fist for a moment. Yoonjo didn’t see Seonwoo like that and muttered,
“Ugh… my blood sugar dropped.”
At the muttered words, Seonwoo briefly stroked Yoonjo’s head then began looking around. Then, looking intently at one place, he tapped Yoonjo’s shoulder.
“Wait here for just a moment.”
Having said that, Seonwoo walked toward a snack stand. Yoonjo watched his slender back figure, then sat on the low stone railing with a grin. As Yoonjo was swinging his feet this way and that, he lifted his head at the shadow wetting his feet. Two women who seemed to be tourists were standing hesitantly in front of Yoonjo.
“Um….”
“Yes?”
The short-haired woman, smiling awkwardly as if shy, looked at Yoonjo and fidgeted with her fingers before speaking.
“The person you were with earlier… are they with you?”
“Uh…. Yes. Why?”
“Does that person have a girlfriend by any chance…? I’m really not a weird person! I just saw them briefly earlier and they were so handsome….”
How could she tell whether someone was handsome or not when all you could see above the mask was their eyes? But Yoonjo could understand the woman’s feelings. Ki Seonwoo had a unique aura about him. He drew people’s gazes and stood out wherever he was.
The woman continued to assert that she wasn’t a weird person while hesitating. As if embarrassed, her cheeks were full of blush. Normally, Yoonjo would have been flustered seeing such a face, but he felt his heart gradually becoming calm.
Just a week ago, he’d wanted to go around proclaiming, ‘Look at my favorite actor!’ and ‘Neighbors! Look at our super cool and handsome actor Ki Seonwoo!’, but now his heart felt uncomfortable. Yoonjo looked at the phone the woman held out, then smiled slightly and answered,
