“Isn’t it too rude to say that so abruptly while holding out your phone?”
“Ah…. That’s, I mean….”
“Do you have a girlfriend,”
“Yoonjo-ya, why are you being like this here? I told you to follow me.”
The voice that interjected as if it had been waiting was Seonwoo’s familiar one. Seonwoo’s hand pulled Yoonjo up, then strode into the crowd as if seeping through. Yoonjo, unable to hide his puzzled expression at Seonwoo’s damp palm, carefully asked.
“…Hyung, what’s wrong?”
“I said I’d buy you cotton candy earlier.”
“When? And you told me to wait… We just passed the cotton candy stand.”
“I told you to follow me. Because I was going to a different stand, not that one.”
Only after silently passing three more cotton candy stands in that state did Seonwoo stop. He let out a sigh, strode over to a nearby stand, and came back with a fluffy yellow duck-shaped cotton candy with a protruding beak.
“I wanted to buy you this.”
“A duck?”
“Yeah. When Yoonjo sleeps, your mouth sticks out like a duck.”
It was unclear whether it was an insult or a compliment. Yoonjo received the yellow duck-shaped cotton candy Seonwoo handed him. The protruding beak looked comical. The paper eyes attached to express that it was a duck were utterly ridiculous. The angle of Yoonjo’s eyebrows became steep.
“This duck is me?”
“Yeah. When I look at you sleeping, Yoonjo….”
Seonwoo, who trailed off, grabbed Yoonjo’s mouth with his thumb and index finger and stretched it out, then gently folded his eyes into a smile.
“Like this, it sticks out, so you look like a yellow baby duck.”
“Mmph, mmph!”
“How did I know? Who used me as a body pillow…. Thanks to that, I heard Yoonjo’s snoring sounds well too.”
“Mmph! Ah! Hyung! Why do you tease me so much!”
Yoonjo, who escaped from Seonwoo’s hand by shaking his face, swung the duck cotton candy in his hand like a sword. As he yelled and tried to smack Seonwoo’s back, Seonwoo had to dodge skillfully this way and that. In the midst of this, a passing person bumped hard into Yoonjo’s shoulder. Rather than being deliberate, it was just an accident that occurred because there were many people.
Seonwoo quickly pulled Yoonjo into an embrace and looked at the back of the person who had passed by with narrowed eyes. It was as if he was determined to engrave in his eyes who it was.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“The cotton candy got squashed.”
“I’ll buy you another one. No, let’s buy two. Two ducks for Yoonjo.”
Seonwoo, who teased Yoonjo to the end, placed one duck in each of Yoonjo’s hands. After that, the two wandered around the stalls for quite a while, eating snacks like grilled skewers, chicken balls, and flat dumplings.
When the time for the fireworks festival was approaching to some extent, the two moved their feet toward the beach. Yoonjo, who plopped down in a spot near the sea, after some deliberation, laid the bag that had wrapped the cotton candy on the ground and patted it.
“Hyung, sit here.”
“…Do we really have to go this far?”
“Or on my thigh?”
At his grinning and laughing face, Seonwoo hesitated for a moment before choosing to sit next to Yoonjo. Yoonjo was disappointed, knowingly or unknowingly, seeing Seonwoo’s undisturbed expression. Why? Just sit on my thigh….
A salty smell flowed along with the cool breeze. Because the sunset was setting, the surroundings were tinged reddish. The irregular sounds of waves rolling in and sweeping out and the sounds of squawking seabirds were tangled together. The murmuring of people densely filling the empty spaces between the sounds reminded him of some day in the past, but he wasn’t as anxious as the first time.
“Hyung, would you like a bite?”
“Yoonjo, eat a lot.”
“Say ‘ah.'”
Despite the roundabout refusal, Yoonjo tore off a bit of cotton candy and held it out to Seonwoo. At the harmless smile and action, Seonwoo unknowingly lowered his head slightly and took the sweet cloud in his mouth. Yoonjo’s firm hand seemed to have grazed the tip of Seonwoo’s tongue, but Yoonjo himself had an indifferent expression.
“It’s delicious, right?”
“…It’s sweet.”
“I thought it would taste like banana because it’s yellow, but I’m a bit disappointed that it just tastes like cotton candy.”
Yoonjo, who spoke as if letting it slip, tore off a bit of cotton candy and brought it to his own mouth. Yoonjo’s reddened cheeks and ear tips were hidden by the sunset glow. Yoonjo unknowingly licked his fingertips slightly. It was sweet. Yoonjo, who slyly checked on Seonwoo, tore off the cotton candy as if nothing had happened.
It was fortunate the sunset was setting. His face was hot right now, so even without looking, it was naturally bright red. Yoonjo looked regretfully at the cotton candy stick he had already finished eating, then looked at the duck cotton candy Seonwoo was holding and said.
“Hyung, open that for me.”
“…What do you want me to do?”
“I said open it.”
Seonwoo, who saw where Yoonjo’s fingertips were pointing, blinked, not knowing what “open it” meant. Then he opened the wrapper knowingly and handed the cotton candy to Yoonjo. Yoonjo, who received it quietly, pushed the cotton candy into his mouth while chewing.
When the red sunset struck his tanned skin, it looked especially red. Seonwoo took a bit of cotton candy that was on the corner of Yoonjo’s lips and put it in his mouth. He wasn’t particularly fond of sweet things, but it wasn’t bad.
“Hyung, you know. Have you dated a lot?”
“Not a lot, but as much as others do.”
“Wow…. Even though you were so busy, you still had time to date….”
“What about Yoonjo?”
At the question, Yoonjo had to count his last relationship. Yoonjo, who was bending his fingers and retracing the numbers, nodded and muttered.
“Once in middle school…. Twice in high school? I couldn’t do it after coming to college. I had to study hard to receive a scholarship. Only the first semester had tuition exemption, so I had to work blood-tearingly hard to receive it again the next semester. Fortunately, I received it well. The dormitory fee is a bit concerning, but well….”
“You dated a lot.”
“Hey… It’s not that many. Being in the same class and running into each other often, I ended up confessing… You know how that is. I don’t have anyone now. What about you, hyung?”
At the words that he doesn’t have anyone now, Seonwoo looked at Yoonjo quietly. It was a strange gaze, as if gauging something or trying to find something out. Before long, he opened his mouth.
“My last relationship was 5 years ago…. And I was dumped.”
At the words that he was dumped, Yoonjo paused his hand for a moment. They dumped Ki Seonwoo? With what confidence did they dump this man? Isn’t their head wrong? Can someone even get angry looking at that face? Yoonjo looked at Seonwoo with puzzled eyes. Seonwoo was fiddling with the bag in his hand, throwing his gaze toward the horizon where darkness rippled. As the wind blew, the purple flower stuck in his hat swayed gently.
“They dumped… hyung? Is that even possible….”
If it were me, I would adore him every day, praise him for being cool, go to lots of good places, and feed him all the delicious food. Just looking at his face seems like it would make me happy….
“It seems I didn’t have enough value for them to hold onto fading feelings.”
“What…. What are these words…. Where is there measuring a person’s value in such a way? It’s not like a person is five hundred won per geun. Looking at you carefully, hyung, you often say things that put yourself down.”
“…Did I do that?”
“You did it often. From saying who would recognize you here to the wish asking for help from the shooting star.”
Looking at Seonwoo’s actions so far, it was generally like that. It seemed Seonwoo didn’t know how outstanding he was.
“I don’t know what kind of help you’re asking for, but they said carelessly asking others for help is a very dangerous act. Ah, of course, our grandma said that. She said it’s passive. She said wishes should be made within the scope where you can commit to the goals you want to achieve. And how could people not recognize you? Here, if you take off that mask and take off that hat, people will all gather in exactly 30 seconds. I guarantee it.”
“……”
“Hyung is really, really outstanding and cool. Handsome, has a good voice, and heere-.”
Yoonjo, who stretched out the end of his words, tapped Seonwoo’s nose tip and laughed.
“Your nose bridge is also perfectly-! standing up, how cool is that? Your jawline is alive, you have abs, your back muscles are pretty…. Ah, you know hyung is very considerate, right? The hyung on screen looked really indifferent, but after seeing you in person, hyung is very kind and very considerate of others.”
“……”
“To dump such a cool person, hyung’s ex-girlfriend must have been a very tactless person. So hyung, don’t say whether you have value or not like that.”
Yoonjo, who tore off a bit more cotton candy and put it in his mouth, added while chewing.
“Hyung’s value is determined by hyung, but if you set it in wholesale in advance, the other person will notice everything too.”
“……”
“So trust me. Hyung is really a cool person.”
Now the traces of the sunset, barely a span remaining, were gently settling on Yoonjo’s cheeks. The reddened cheeks were rosy.
“Sometimes….”
It was a voice so small it could be buried by the sound of the waves. Nevertheless, Yoonjo managed to understand and waited for Seonwoo’s next words. Seonwoo moved his lips for a moment, then smiled and let the words flow.
“I think Yoonjo is a scary person.”
“…Me?”
“Because you speak without hesitation and have no hesitation in expressing emotions.”
“Uh…. That’s a compliment, right?”
“It’s a compliment.”
Seonwoo, who was stroking Yoonjo’s soft hair, unknowingly smiled. Yoonjo’s face, making a puzzled expression with his mouth sticking out, was so cute that laughter naturally leaked out.
“So even more….”
I covet it. Humans desire what they don’t have. For Seonwoo, Yoonjo was clearly a type of person he had never experienced even once until now. He kept wanting to hold in his hands that sparkling heart and that purity that ran forward uprightly.
