Seonwoo brushed through Yoonjo’s hair, then added as he passed over his ear tip as if grazing it.
“How funny.”
“Wow, hyung really knows how to tease people.”
“…Anyway. You don’t have a girlfriend right now?”
As if a message had come, Seonwoo checked his phone briefly, then turned off the power and waited for Yoonjo’s answer.
“I don’t. I do want to have a proper relationship though. I want to go to movie theaters in Seoul, drink beverages at cafes, and go to amusement parks.”
With you, hyung. With Ki Seonwoo. Swallowing the words he couldn’t quite say beyond his throat, Yoonjo grinned widely showing his teeth.
“I’m going to date someone.”
“Yoonjo will definitely be able to.”
Smiling bitterly, Seonwoo roughly tousled Yoonjo’s hair. The moment Yoonjo reached out his hand telling him to stop, he heard a sharp sound of something shooting up. Following that came the sound of things falling, thud thud thud.
It was the start of the fireworks.
“Hyung, hyung. Look over there.”
Tugging on Seonwoo’s sleeve a few times and lifting his head up, Yoonjo captured in his eyes the afterimage of fireworks embroidering on a jet-black canvas.
White smoke remained where the bright light had passed. As soon as the light faded away, the next explosive shot up, turning the sky bright as midday in an instant before dying out. Yoonjo was watching the colorful lights filling the sky when he suddenly turned his head.
In the place he turned to was Seonwoo. Over his large straw hat, the multicolored lights shone calmly before being swallowed by darkness. Because of the wide brim, his face looked dark, making his eyes, which he’d always thought were a light color, look exceptionally black.
The fireworks shot up again, and the light of the night sky rippled in Seonwoo’s eyes. More vivid than starlight, more brilliant than fireworks.
Not far away, the sound of waves pushing and sweeping the sand continued repeatedly. The murmuring of people disappeared and the sound of exploding fireworks became increasingly clear. At the sound of large firecrackers that seemed to split the sky, Yoonjo finally blinked. The fireworks flashed and burned up, and the fleeting light scattered with the wind.
The salty ocean scent and the sensation of sand touching between his fingers tickled. Yoonjo unconsciously clenched his fist tightly.
The scent of summer wafted with each wave that rolled in. His hair fluttered mercilessly in the relentlessly blowing wind. Unable to withstand the fluttering, a purple petal fell from the flower stem, circled in the air, then was swept away to the distant sea. At the same time, a cozy scent swirled around with the wind before permeating the air.
Endlessly bursting fireworks, the wind blowing from the open sea, the salty fishy smell, the occasional scent of Ki Seonwoo.
The corners of Yoonjo’s eyes curved softly.
“How is it seeing it in person?”
At the question, Seonwoo lowered his eyes slightly as if thinking about something. His long, full eyelashes rested lightly on his cheeks. Not long after, Seonwoo turned his head to look ahead and quietly watched the fireworks that continued to explode.
Although no answer ultimately came back, Yoonjo felt that he was pleased. Because Seonwoo’s face, which flickered each time fireworks burst, was exceptionally pale and pretty.
Until the moment they got in the car and returned to the village, the flutter he’d felt on the sandy beach remained the same. Yoonjo seemed to be in a good mood as he wiggled his toes and tightly gripped the seatbelt with both hands. He needed to hold onto something. For example, Ki Seonwoo’s hand, or the pretty hand of the driver sitting next to him. Unable to do that, the seatbelt was his second choice.
“There were quite a lot of people, but I think we got a good spot. Do you remember the fireworks that went off at the end? They were really cool…. All at once pa-ba-ba-bak! Bursting and at the end going cha-ra-ra-rak, it was really… wow….”
If he closed his eyes, it felt like it would appear white on the inside of his eyelids. Yoonjo grinned as he recalled and recalled again the fireworks he saw at the end and Ki Seonwoo’s straight profile.
“I thought you weren’t watching because you were busy looking at my face.”
“No, that’s because you’re so handsom— whoa….”
“What?”
He thought Seonwoo wouldn’t know. That was because, except for the beginning, Seonwoo had been looking only at the sky the whole time.
Yoonjo rolled his eyes around so much it seemed like they’d make a rolling sound, then said slyly,
“Did… it show?”
“I thought my face would get a hole in it. How could I not know when Yoonjo was sending such passionate gazes?”
“If you knew, you should have pretended to know…. Then I would have looked less….”
“I didn’t say anything because I was worried you’d do that.”
At the strange words, Yoonjo kept his mouth tightly shut and looked at Seonwoo, wondering what he meant. Still, no answer came back from him. Not saying anything because he was worried, did that mean he enjoyed the gaze? He rolled his head this way and that, but the answer didn’t come out easily.
“That…. I looked because you’re an amazing person, hyung. Because you’re handsome and cool.”
And pretty too. Instead of the words he couldn’t quite say, Yoonjo smiled and lifted his head, feeling the car gradually coming to a stop. Before he knew it, the car had passed the village entrance and reached near Yoonjo and Seonwoo’s houses.
But the strange thing was that there was an unfamiliar car parked right in front of Seonwoo’s house. Looking at the license plate, it was a car from Seoul. Narrowing his eyes wondering who it was, he looked, but the heavily tinted car wasn’t visible even from behind. Glancing at the emblem, it was an expensive car model that anyone would recognize just by hearing its name.
Just as Yoonjo’s curiosity kept poking its head out and he was about to examine the car a bit more, an irritated sigh flowed out from Seonwoo’s side.
“Ha….”
He took the car a bit deeper inside, then parked it in front of Yoonjo’s house.
“Go in first. I’ll go park it in the back and come. Today was fun, and Yoonjo, hurry and go to bed. You have to go to work tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Uh…. I’m fine. With you, hyung….”
“Go inside.”
He said it gently while stroking his head, but at the clear meaning of refusal contained within, Yoonjo hesitated then got out of the car. As soon as Yoonjo closed the door, Seonwoo started the car without delay. The red taillights left a deep trace in the narrow, dark alley as they disappeared.
After contemplating for a long time whether or not to wait for Seonwoo, Yoonjo eventually turned around and opened the gate. Craning his neck slightly, he looked at the jet-black car parked in front of Seonwoo’s house, but he couldn’t sense any presence at all. No, he couldn’t see anything because of the heavy tinting.
Standing still while holding the rusty door handle, Yoonjo eventually opened the gate and went inside. Even so, he couldn’t easily go in. He just paced in front of the closed gate before squatting down. Sitting with his bottom on the ground, Yoonjo drew his knees together.
Wondering if he’d done something wrong, his heart felt uncomfortable for no reason. Yoonjo buried his face between his knees, closed his eyes, and retraced his thoughts. Did he look at his face too much? He looked because he was so handsome…. But then again, they were both men, so if he stared at his face like that, it would be a bit off-putting.
If a classmate from the same department stared intently at Yoonjo’s face, he would have smacked his back right away.
“Ugh….”
Indeed, people needed to put themselves in others’ shoes. Yoonjo resolved to apologize for looking at his face too much the next time they met and stood up. When he brushed off his bottom, what touched his palm was quite cold, as if it had cooled down in the meantime.
It was right when he’d taken just one step to go inside the house. He heard the sound of footsteps and the dull sound of a car door opening.
“Seonwoo-ya.”
It was a sharp baritone voice. Each syllable had a chilling coldness as if striking down with a knife. Yoonjo unconsciously felt his whole body stiffen. An anxiety he couldn’t understand climbed up his spine and knocked on his brain.
“I kept calling but why didn’t you answer?”
“You’re filming, aren’t you?”
“I asked first. Why are you here?”
“Seo Yeongyeom.”
Seo Yeongyeom. At that name, Yoonjo held his breath and stood still. That was exactly the name Seonwoo had faintly said when he collapsed on the rainy day. Just what kind of relationship do they have…. Even as he pricked up his ears to listen, the thought that eavesdropping on others’ conversation wasn’t polite kept clashing. Yoonjo couldn’t easily take a step and stood still.
“I came because I heard you left that house. Did you come out just to be like this in a place like this?”
“Why did you come all the way here?”
“We haven’t finished anything yet.”
“What was finished ended a long time ago. So… that’s enough.”
Lethargy settled in the quiet night street. Yoonjo knew that voice. When Seonwoo first came down to the village, the voice he heard with the police officer was like that, and the frail and faint voice he heard when he collapsed with a fever on the rainy day was like that.
“Go back.”
“I came to take you back to Seoul. Staying here like this won’t help either.”
“I…. I don’t know why I have to see you by coming all the way here. Please go back, Yeongyeom-ah. Please….”
“We’re not finished yet. Who are you to finish it on your own?”
“For you to say that…. Go back. Just go, Yeongyeom-ah.”
At the same time, Seonwoo’s face from the narrow beach, looking as if he might shake everything off and fly away at any moment, came to mind. That moment when he was like a dandelion seed that would disappear with a puff of breath flashed before his eyes. Yoonjo’s body naturally turned toward the back.
When he came to his senses, Yoonjo had already flung open the gate. Only then could Yoonjo discover Seonwoo with an exhausted face and a man with a chilly impression. It was a face that was somehow familiar, but there was no time for such leisurely impressions.
“I’ve been listening and listening, but I can’t listen anymore.”
“Yoonjo…?”
“Ah fuck, hyung told you to go! Jeez…. You bastard who looks like a wide bullfrog!”
Disparaging someone based on appearance was wrong behavior, but right now nothing registered in Yoonjo’s eyes. Yoonjo strode forward, hastily grabbed Seonwoo’s forearm, and pushed him inside his house gate. He could hear Seonwoo’s tired voice calling Yoonjo’s name from behind, but he deliberately ignored it.
“Hey, mister. Why are you bothering our hyung? He told you to go. He told you to fuck off! And do you know how inconvenient it is for others to park your car in a narrow alley?”
Shouting loudly, Yoonjo blocked Seonwoo who was trying to come out by opening the gate and firmly gripped the door handle.
“Leave before I call the police.”
“Kid, I’m not here to talk to you, I’m here to talk to Seonwoo….”
“I’m not a kid, I’m an adult. Get lost right now. If you don’t, I’ll call the police!”
As if he’d call the police right away, Yoonjo held his phone in his hand with 112 displayed on the screen and glared at the slender man.
