“In a little bit, you’ll get a text with your waiting number. You’ll enter a vacant room according to your turn.”
As soon as the text arrived, Yoonjo hurriedly checked it.
「Web sender」
「Student Ji Yoonjo, Dongbaek Dormitory waiting number 73.」
「Additional guidance when vacancy occurs」 3:02pm
“…Excuse me, it says waiting number 73 here… how many people usually drop out before the semester starts?”
His mouth went completely dry. Yoonjo, who wiped his dry lips with his tongue, waited for the staff member’s answer. But at the troubled expression on the staff member’s face, Yoonjo’s heart pounded anxiously.
“Usually there’s none before the semester starts… and during the semester, about ten people get expelled for breaking dormitory rules.”
In other words, number 73 had neither dreams nor hope. Though Yoonjo stomped his feet asking if there was no other way, the answer that came back was consistent.
“It’ll probably be difficult right away. Here… looking at you, student, the distance is quite far, so in this case the turn can be moved up a bit exceptionally. But until the semester starts… I can’t give you a definite answer.”
“That’s a dream, right…?”
“It might be faster to start looking for studio apartments near the school.”
No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no way to get into the dormitory right away. Yoonjo trudged out dragging his suitcase.
The sky was still clear and the air was hot. He could even see heat haze rising from the asphalt in the distance.
Yoonjo crouched down and repeatedly dry-washed his face. He couldn’t ask for help from his grandparents back home. And his classmates living with their parents were even more out of the question.
Thinking it would be better to hurry and look for a studio apartment at least, Yoonjo dragged his suitcase and went down the hill with quick steps.
***
Yoonjo, who had crouched on a bench near the campus entrance, kept letting out deep sighs. It was a sight that would make Grandpa or Grandma kick his butt saying his luck would run away if they saw him.
“Ah… seriously, what’s wrong with my luck stat?”
He wondered if he’d poured out all his luck for the year meeting Seonwoo. That was because barely thinking there was a room and rushing over, someone had already taken it or it exceeded his budget countless times. Once, after hearing the price, he asked several times if he’d heard correctly, not believing Seoul housing prices could be this murderous.
Though he’d walked around all day, in the end Yoonjo failed to find a place. That one thing was a truth that wouldn’t change. Though he racked his brain for a long time thinking what to do, an answer didn’t really come.
Looking blankly at the darkening sky, Yoonjo let out a hollow laugh.
“I don’t even have a place to sleep tonight.”
The money he had on him wasn’t much either. He couldn’t bear to use the spending money his grandparents had given him. His phone battery was also running out.
Yoonjo looked at the many listings in the real estate app. There were so many houses, yet there was no place for just one person, Yoonjo, to sleep.
Yoonjo, who was about to turn off the screen to save the remaining 5 percent or so of his phone battery, paused at a call that came just then. At the three characters “Seonwoo hyung,” emotions surged up as if filling his throat.
“…Hello, hyung.”
– What’s wrong with your voice?
“It’s nothing. Hyung, did you get home? When I saw this morning, it seemed like you went out with Dongtae.”
– I just arrived home, and Dongtae is eating next to me.
‘Actually, hyung. I stupidly got kicked out for not depositing the dormitory fee. I don’t even have a place to stay tonight.’
Yoonjo, who barely swallowed his inner words, smiled as if nothing was wrong and said.
“Really? I’m a bit sad I left without seeing Dongtae, but it seems Dongtae doesn’t miss me. Even though I took him on so many walks and fed him. Dongtae’s fur was so fluffy, it felt good to touch…. Ah, it’s okay. Still, when this semester ends….”
Suddenly tears poured down. Worried a crying sound might come out, Yoonjo put strength into his whole body and squeezed his eyes shut. He covered his mouth with his hand so his gasping breath wouldn’t leak out. Not satisfied with that, Yoonjo, who also pressed the mute button, curled up his body.
– Where are you?
It was what came out from Seonwoo after a long silence. It was a voice that seemed like he’d come if Yoonjo said anything. Yoonjo, who had been imagining such a thing in his head, shook his head. He thought there was no way Seonwoo, who would be in Namhang village, could come all the way here.
Yoonjo, who took several deep breaths, pressed the mute button again and answered nonchalantly.
“Where else? The school dormitory. You saw a week ago. I applied and everything, so I got in.”
– Yoonjo-ya.
At the name called calmly, tears welled up again for no reason. Yoonjo bit his lips tightly and held his breath. Seonwoo’s breathing constantly sounded in his ear.
– Where are you? I’m asking where you are.
At the tenderness that struck whenever he was about to forget, Yoonjo stammered and opened his mouth.
“School… in front of the main gate…. But I really… am going into the dormitory now.”
– Got it.
The call hung up immediately, but Yoonjo’s face was already drenched in tears. People passing by occasionally looked at Yoonjo with strange eyes, but that was all.
He was fortunate it was still before the semester started. Thinking so, Yoonjo curled up his body.
Yoonjo, who sat in desperation with swollen eyes, languidly blinked his eyes with his cheek against the suitcase handle. His phone had already been turned off for a while.
Regret kept surging up that he should have closed his eyes and asked his classmates for help. In that gap, thoughts about Seonwoo came, but Yoonjo shook his head.
“Well, is hyung a magician? If he goes ‘yap,’ does he appear with a ‘ta-da’?”
Still, he wished it were so. In fact, hadn’t Seonwoo already done so twice? Yoonjo quietly recalled in order the night of his birthday and what happened in the forest.
In moments when he missed him and therefore longed for him more, Seonwoo appeared more magically than magic. But just because it had always been so didn’t mean there was a reason it would be this time too.
He heard the sound of urgent running footsteps from far away. At this late evening time, and on a campus with not a single person, he didn’t know what urgent business they had to run like that.
Yoonjo, who had been blankly looking at the ground, chuckled. It was because the wish that the person running over would be Seonwoo crossed his mind.
“That’s impossible. Hyung is in Namhang right now….”
“Yoonjo-ya.”
“…should be….”
Now even auditory hallucinations seemed to be heard. He wondered if being hungry made him hear such phantom sounds. Yoonjo rubbed his cheeks with his palms and turned his head. Even knowing it couldn’t be, it was because of the wish that it would be.
“You said in front of the main gate. Why did you omit that it was the dormitory main gate? And this isn’t even the main gate. It’s a place you have to go down quite a bit to get to.”
The man with his back to the streetlight let out rough breaths and lowered his mask. Inside was Seonwoo’s face, which Yoonjo had wanted to see until the very last moment.
“Wow…. I guess you see hallucinations when you’re hungry….”
Yoonjo, who lightly rubbed his flat stomach, soon roughly rubbed his swollen eyes. It was so stinging that tears trickled out. Yoonjo, who had been continuously rubbing roughly, momentarily paused at the body heat grasping his hand.
“You’ll become a goldfish if you do that. No wait… you’re already a goldfish. Fish will ask to be friends with you tomorrow.”
“This is a nightmare, right?”
It was too unbelievable. In fact, he wondered if Ji Yoonjo had fallen into a deep sleep on the street and met Seonwoo in a dream. It would feel more realistic to call it a nightmare instead.
But at Yoonjo’s words, as if something didn’t please him, Seonwoo replied in a deflated voice.
“Shouldn’t you usually say it’s a good dream?”
“You’re supposed to be over there, you shouldn’t be in Seoul. You’re someone who… shouldn’t be in Seoul…. Why would you be here?”
The body heat seeping in waves over his skin and the slightly rapid breathing were too vivid for a dream.
“You’re here.”
“……”
“I came because you’re here, Yoonjo-ya.”
Yoonjo, who sprang up from his spot, lunged at Seonwoo. At the unexpected surprise attack, Seonwoo couldn’t catch Yoonjo and fell backward as is.
“Ugh…!”
“…Huk. Hyung! Hyung! Oh my! He’s paper-thin! It’s Seonwoo hyung!”
“Either a compliment or an insult, just one….”
Seonwoo, who had been replying with a smile while clutching his solar plexus, closed his mouth when he saw Yoonjo’s face. Yoonjo’s skin, like ripe barley, sparkled. Yoonjo was pouring out tears by the bucketful under the scarlet streetlight. His swollen eyes were dyed bright red. It was a color like a peach that seemed like it would get mushy if poked.
“You’re a baby.”
“Uh, kup, huuh….”
“Yoonjo baby.”
“Huuuuuh….”
Yoonjo, who tightly embraced Seonwoo, began to wail loudly. Seonwoo lightly patted Yoonjo’s back while surveying the quiet campus. Though there was no sign of people around, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.
“Yoonjo-ya, get up.”
“Huuuung…! Keu, huuh, uuuup….”
However, it seemed it didn’t reach Yoonjo’s ears. Seonwoo bit down hard and pressed the ground to sit up. Though the area around his solar plexus still tingled, Seonwoo let out a deep breath to deliberately pretend not to notice.
“Huh, eup, keuk…. House, I don’t have… um, um, huuuung… a place, to sleeeep…. Dormi, tory… money, didn’t, kup… pay iiiit…. I, where am I, huup… sleeping todaaay…. Kkeuk, uh… huuuuung….”
He must have been so miserable that each word he uttered was mixed with crying. Though it wasn’t to the point of not understanding what he was saying, he needed time to think for a moment. Seonwoo, who briefly put together what Yoonjo said, continued to pat his back soothingly.
“And, then, huup, uh… you, hyuung… when I, said huk, I’m here, why… eup, uh… huuuung… why are you, here, hyuuuung….”
His voice sounded like a mumble with his face buried in the chest, but it wasn’t to the point of not understanding. Seonwoo quietly patted Yoonjo’s back and quietly replied.
“It always seemed like you were coming to me,”
“Huuh, eup… huh… what?”
“So this time I tried to go to you.”
