As he swayed his waist, the elasticity of the rubber band wrapped around him made Yoonjo’s body bounce up in the air. Watching that Yoonjo, Seonwoo quietly added.
“Yoonjo-ssi sometimes stares blankly at my face. If you stare blankly at someone’s face like that, it can be interpreted in various ways. You’ll easily be misunderstood too.”
“Misunderstood? What kind of misunderstanding?”
Leaving behind Yoonjo who was jumping up and down, Seonwoo moved his steps and only took off his hat when he entered the shade in front of the door. With his characteristic calm expression, he quietly gave his gaze to Yoonjo.
“I wondered if you liked men.”
“……?”
“Looking at your face now, it seems that’s not the case.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Seonwoo pushed open the slightly ajar gate and waved his hand as if greeting.
“See you tomorrow. Thanks for today.”
A smile seemed to brush across Seonwoo’s face as he slipped inside the door. No, it must have been a smile. Yoonjo saw the corners of his mouth turn up slightly.
Even long after Seonwoo went inside the house, Yoonjo sat in the driver’s seat and belatedly shouted.
“Whaaaat???”
Perhaps because he was sitting on the rattling cultivator, Yoonjo’s heart beat rapidly. His cheeks seemed to tremble as well.
***
Waking up exactly 10 minutes before the alarm went off, Yoonjo thought deeply about what happened yesterday. If he liked men? Then does that mean Ki Seonwoo likes men? Or did he do something wrong? His thoughts followed one after another and flowed all the way to that distant threshold. As he did so, before he knew it, whether he had caught the tail end of his thoughts, the bluish dawn light was creeping up the window frame.
Beep beep beep—
The alarm finally went off. Yoonjo, who only reached out to turn off the alarm on the old digital clock, jumped up from his seat.
“Ah, as if that’s what’s important.”
Anyway, since he got a chance to see that handsome face one more time, what’s good is good. Yoonjo hummed a tune while neatly folding his blanket.
“Let’s fold the blaaan-ket~ The blanket, let’s fold it~.”
After humming for a while and tidying up the bedding completely, he came out to find that his grandmother and grandfather were already preparing breakfast in the living room. This morning’s breakfast was dried squid soup. Naturally scooping rice and taking his seat, Yoonjo talked about what happened the day before and things that happened at school. The two of them chimed in and nodded at Yoonjo’s words.
“…So yesterday I agreed to go to the field with the ajeossi, no, the hyung next door.”
“Right now the field work is urgent, won’t it be a bit difficult?”
At his grandfather’s words, Yoonjo shrugged his shoulders. Yoonjo had no intention of making Seonwoo work in the first place. As they said, how could he make someone who had collapsed work? There’s a limit to being shameless.
It was an excuse he made up because if he left him alone, it seemed like he wouldn’t even take care of eating anything resembling a meal. He should pretend to do some work and then pull him back, with that thought, Yoonjo just giggled without substance.
***
“…Ah, I really can’t do this anymore.”
“Hey, hyung, really rest. Why did you grab the knife?”
Yoonjo extended his hand toward Seonwoo who had finally collapsed on the ground. In Seonwoo’s basket were neatly piled melons. After hesitating, Seonwoo grasped Yoonjo’s hand and barely got up from his seat, making a groaning sound.
“Still, how can I eat free food? There are only two young people here, so I should at least earn my meal.”
Apparently Yoonjo’s plan was a failure. Can a person be this responsible? Yoonjo stuck out his lips.
When they actually arrived at the field, Seonwoo crouched down beside Yoonjo with a slightly tired face. He even got a small pocket knife from somewhere and picked melons with snap-snap sounds. Yoonjo nagged that he didn’t have to do that, but Seonwoo said nonchalantly.
‘There are two young people in the village, and one of them can’t just play around on the side.’
Even the elders applauded saying that was right, so there was nothing more Yoonjo could do. He shouldn’t have brought Seonwoo here in the first place… Thinking he should keep thinking of other methods, Yoonjo quietly looked at Seonwoo’s basket. Still, he thought that much was doing one person’s worth of work.
Perhaps because Seonwoo was also having a hard time, his neck, face, everything was drenched in sweat. Yoonjo slyly pulled Seonwoo’s basket and pointed with his finger to that corner spot.
“Since you picked one basket, you earned your meal. Now just sit quietly over there.”
“I won’t refuse. Thank you.”
Grasping the hand of Seonwoo who readily answered that he would, Yoonjo went to the large fan located at the greenhouse entrance. Yoonjo naturally wrapped a towel around Seonwoo’s neck and also handed him ice-cold water that had been frozen solid from who knows where.
“You can just rest here for a bit.”
“I’m sorry. I said I’d help…”
“Hey… You’ve already done everything. One basket per person, you know? Now there’s only one thing left.”
Yoonjo made a serious expression and added in a solemn tone.
“Just wait and then eat the snack deliciously later.”
Yoonjo, who smiled refreshingly enough to show all his teeth, waved at Seonwoo and hurriedly returned to his original spot. Yoonjo immediately crouched down and worked with the knife. The beautifully picked yellow melons were stacked neatly in the basket.
Seonwoo quietly watched that sight. Yoonjo was also drenched in sweat, but he didn’t show even a hint of being tired. Because he was concentrating, his gaze looking at the melons seemed quite serious.
The hair hidden under the wide-brimmed straw hat looked exceptionally dark. As befitting a twenty-year-old, his cheeks were plumply risen with a bit of flesh. Because of the baby fat that hadn’t fallen off yet, he looked just like a child at a glance.
As Seonwoo scanned his side profile with his eyes, he suddenly recalled Yoonjo’s eyes that he saw yesterday. Due to his slightly upturned eyes and clean whites, his jet-black pupils stood out. On top of that, there were even small moles casually dotted in the middle of his aegyo-sal.
‘Two on the left, one on the right.’
Unlike tear moles that are usually located near the eyes, these were moles in ambiguous positions. Seonwoo recalled Yoonjo who had quietly blinked while looking at him, then stopped. Anyone could see he was hetero, so why would he mess with him and invite trouble?
Seonwoo wiped his sweat-soaked cheek with the back of his hand and bowed his head deeply. The fan was spinning vigorously right next to him, but the stuffy wind didn’t help much.
“Ah… It’s hot.”
“Hot, right? The countryside is strangely hotter. Maybe it’s because the sunlight beats down better.”
Even though it wasn’t the question he meant to ask, an answer came back. Seonwoo lifted his head that he had briefly lowered. Right in front of him was Yoonjo. Yoonjo showed his characteristic clean smile and said.
“They said the snack is here. Today it’s cold cucumber soup! The village head grandmother makes it really delicious. You can look forward to it! It’s sour yet savory and refreshing, it’s really amazing.”
It seemed like they left at dawn and came to the field, but before they knew it, the sun had fully raised its head. Still, it was much better than yesterday when the blazing sun was beating down. Seonwoo and Yoonjo settled down among the elders gathered together eating snacks.
“Is that child the Seoul guy staying at Sunja’s place?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh my, his skin is so white.”
“Really? These days guys and whatnot are all white. Look at Yoonjo too. The child looks like he’s been dipped in bleach. But does Yoonjo have a girlfriend? When he was going to school, there were quite a few.”
Among the elders, Seonwoo wasn’t the actor Ki Seonwoo but just a Seoul guy. Everyone was busy laughing and chattering among themselves as if they had no interest at all in what Seonwoo used to do. Occasionally they seemed to make Seonwoo a topic of conversation and include him, but when Seonwoo smiled awkwardly and backed out, they didn’t particularly drag him in.
Yoonjo sitting next to him was similar. To be precise, Yoonjo was busy eating. He already slurped down the cold soup in a bowl twice the size of his face, and with his other hand, he picked up a bowl of bibim noodles piled high with garnish and thin noodles. Moving his chopsticks as if he was about to bury his face in it, he soon emptied the bowl cleanly. It happened in an instant.
“Grandpa, one more bowl please.”
“Oh my, no one’s taking it away. Eat slowly, slowly.”
“That child’s appetite is still the same even after going to Seoul.”
The people who laughed saying it’s because a beggar came in watched Yoonjo eat with satisfaction. Everyone had already emptied their bowls and only Yoonjo remained. Whether the saying about having a good appetite was true, only after eating three more bowls in his sitting did Yoonjo pat his plumply full stomach.
“Village head grandma is the best!”
“Truly, whenever I see Yoonjo eat so heartily, I feel so refreshed inside?”
“That’s right. He doesn’t know about other things, but he eats refreshingly.”
It was unclear whether they were teasing or being sincere. Yoonjo helped the grandmothers clear the bowls, tidied up the place together, and straightened his bent back.
Yoonjo’s eyes could be seen under the shade of the straw hat. His gaze looking at the greenhouse somehow seemed excited. Seonwoo, who had been glancing at him, touched the towel hanging around his neck and suddenly asked.
“How much do we need to do to finish today’s work?”
“From here… no, from here to there, we just need to sweep through everything.”
It was speech with a strangely lingering dialect accent. Seonwoo unconsciously let out a small laugh and went back into the greenhouse. As he crouched down picking melon stems with snap-snap sounds, Yoonjo sitting next to him asked with his lips puffed out.
“Hyung, you just laughed, didn’t you?”
“Mm…”
“Ah, but I’ve really improved a lot.”
“Why are you trying to fix it?”
Why fix it? Of course he should fix it. Yoonjo had never been ashamed of his dialect, but to fit into university life, there was no choice. Anyone could see that Yoonjo’s accent gave off the nuance of coming up from the provinces. He really disliked how people’s gazes would gather when he opened his mouth to speak. Still, now it was much better than at first.
“Just because. I just want to fix it.”
“It sounds good though. Use it, your dialect.”
“Hyung, you can’t force me when you don’t use it yourself.”
Yoonjo’s face as he spoke strictly was gentle. There was no sign of him being uncomfortable with or awkward around Seonwoo. He thought for sure Yoonjo would ask at least once because of what Seonwoo said yesterday, but it was unexpected. Eventually, Seonwoo’s thoughts moved toward asking first.
