“I’ll really teach you well. So that hyung becomes a master of the knife.”
After that, Yoonjo stuck right next to Seonwoo and taught him about knife skills. Sometimes Seonwoo did it alone, and sometimes he did it together with Yoonjo. They repeated practice after practice until late hours when the sun set and the moon rose. However, Seonwoo’s skills didn’t improve at all.
By this point, he should have become somewhat accustomed to cutting, but Seonwoo’s skills absolutely wouldn’t improve. Yoonjo tightly gripped Seonwoo’s hand and sliced the onion with a scritch-scratch.
“Like this, like this.”
“Mm… So, like this?”
The shape went wrong again. Seeing it clearly cut diagonally, a deep furrow formed in Yoonjo’s brow. Looking at him, Seonwoo looked like he’d be good at everything, but that wasn’t quite the case. As tears gradually formed due to the onion, Yoonjo rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand and resolutely grabbed Seonwoo’s hand again.
“No, like this. Cut here… and when you hold it, your fingers… here, if you bring it down brushing along the back like this, it cuts cleanly.”
“Mm… This is right, isn’t it?”
The shape went wrong again. Yoonjo sniffled and squeezed his eyes shut and open. The onion was so strong he was dying. Yoonjo, who had been watching Dongtae at his feet constantly going back and forth with anxious eyes, pushed the onion far away and brought out cabbage. It wasn’t because the onion was strong.
“Here, just one more time well… Dongtae!”
Finally Dongtae got up and firmly took a cabbage leaf in his mouth and ran away. When Yoonjo tried to follow, Seonwoo deeply leaned his face on his shoulder and muttered.
“One leaf is okay. But, Yoonjo-ya. Can’t we rest a little? It’s too hard.”
Seonwoo, who kept rubbing his cheek against his nape, hugged Yoonjo’s waist and spoke softly.
“Please let me rest a little, sunbae-nim.”
Yoonjo, who had been moving his lips with a flushed face, tightly held Seonwoo’s hand and walked with big strides. Yoonjo, who sat Seonwoo on the sofa, squatted down in front of him.
“I’ll only let you rest today. From tomorrow, you can’t. I’ll stick right to you.”
At the words that couldn’t be more resolute, Seonwoo smiled awkwardly. Having properly seated the squatting Yoonjo beside him, he placed his head on Yoonjo’s thigh and curled up his body a little.
At the sudden situation, Yoonjo made a strange sound going “hiup,” but soon acted calmly. Like an adult, cool, a person who can give trust. Yoonjo, who muttered to himself several times, looked at Seonwoo who had his eyes half-closed. His gaze was directed toward somewhere far away. More precisely, toward the window side.
“You used to take walks at night often.”
At the sudden words, Yoonjo blinked. Before he knew it, Seonwoo had turned his body and was looking up at Yoonjo. He continued speaking while gently stroking Yoonjo’s mouth with his thumb.
“You could see the stars well, it was quiet, and there was only the sound of crickets.”
“…Right.”
“Here you can’t see the stars, it’s noisy, and it seems hectic.”
It wasn’t a conversation with any particular context. However, Yoonjo considered it thoughts that Seonwoo had been firmly pressing down knowingly or unknowingly all this time. Moreover, having to suddenly appear on a TV program, he thought the burden must be great. Yoonjo gently wrapped Seonwoo’s hand and tilted his head a little. Making a posture of rubbing his face against Seonwoo’s palm, he replied softly.
“Let’s definitely go back. It’s fine if I go down after vacation… or it seems it would be good if hyung goes first. Have you ever grown chili peppers? You have to sow seeds one by one, stick in stakes and manage them… it’ll be hectic. There’s a lot to grow besides that. If you don’t know what to grow, ask me.”
“……”
“Planting yuzu trees would be good too. Though it takes incredibly long for the tree to grow, if you raise it, someday it will bear fruit, and then you can make yuzu syrup with it. Kumquats are good too… blueberries would be good too. Whatever we grow together will be fun, hyung.”
Seonwoo, who had been staring at Yoonjo, smiled palely. Because it was a precarious smile that seemed like it would scatter at any moment, Yoonjo unknowingly gripped Seonwoo’s hand with more strength.
“Definitely.”
“Once this matter is over, it will be fine. If we just finish this well… let’s do that.”
“…Yes. Really, definitely.”
The two continued talking softly about what they should do in the countryside. They drew over the future while talking about this and that until late at night.
And that was also the last appearance of Seonwoo that Yoonjo saw.
***
Among the bustling people, Yoonjo was only fiddling with his phone. Though he looked at it several times a day, the contact he kept waiting for never came even once. That really made Yoonjo upset.
The sound of glasses clinking continued endlessly, then briefly stopped. Someone sat right next to him and let out a short exclamation. It was Seonghyeon.
“When did you get a new phone? Wow, you were using Universe Note 3 and suddenly changed to Apple. This is the one that just came out recently, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Yoonjo, who had been fiddling with the smoothly finished edges, replied roughly to Seonghyeon. It was the phone Seonwoo had brought for him. At first he was happy saying it was a couple phone, but thinking about it now, it wasn’t something to be happy about.
Because after the new phone appeared, opportunities for Yoonjo to see Seonwoo disappeared.
It was because Seonwoo had become frantically busy. There were many things to discuss with the agency, and people frequently came to visit, so Seonwoo often went out. Then now a situation had even occurred where he didn’t come home at all.
Because he ended the part-time job in an ambiguous state, the ring matter also fizzled out, and Seonwoo wasn’t even in front of his eyes. As Ki Seonwoo withdrawal symptoms continued day by day, Yoonjo’s frustration kept rising. What with one thing and another, Yoonjo had become a time bomb just right for exploding.
“Drink! Drink! The alcohol is going in!”
The noise kept pounding in as if it would tear his eardrums. Yoonjo tilted his glass, drinking or not drinking. Then he held the phone in his hand and took a picture with the glass.
「I’m drinking.」 9:12pm
After hesitating for a moment, Yoonjo crossed two fingers together with a smiling face to make a heart. Yoonjo, who took the picture again, sent it to Seonwoo.
「I miss you, hyung.」 9:13pm
Not even a read receipt appeared. Yoonjo, who kept looking at the phone, hastily turned off the screen at the sound of someone approaching.
“Yoonjo-ya, Yoonjo-ya.”
“…Yeah.”
They were male kids from the same department. Looking intoxicated with alcohol, they gathered closely in front of Yoonjo and exchanged glances with each other. Just when he thought they had business, one of the group opened his mouth.
“Do you guys in the countryside really all grow yuzu trees?”
It was the prejudice of Seoul folks. Yoonjo’s family home was famous for seafood and other livestock products. However, generally speaking, yuzu was famous to the point of being the first thing that came to mind when thinking of that region’s specialty products.
Yoonjo sighed and gulped down the half-sloshing alcohol in one go.
“That’s all prejudice. Not every house has yuzu, but our house has yuzu.”
“Ah, really?”
The kids who giggled and laughed threw mischievous questions at Yoonjo. They were generally words comparing the countryside and Seoul. How much the internet doesn’t work, whether they still use cow dung as fertilizer, how bad the smell is, whether they use squat toilets, and so on.
Ah… These little shits. Yoonjo, who swallowed his true feelings, hung a soft arc on his lips and shook his glass.
“From now on, one drink per question. If you collapse here, don’t even ask next time.”
“Ah! Definitely go!”
It was a drinking battle that started like that. Not even a few rounds had passed, but all those many kids had fallen over on the table. On the other hand, Yoonjo’s stomach was just full. To not get drunk even drinking like this. Thinking something was indeed strange, he shook the alcohol bottle he was holding. The characteristic alcohol smell didn’t come out. When he looked with suspicious eyes, Seonghyeon, who had been quietly sipping only ion drink next to him, added.
“That’s water.”
“…No wonder I wasn’t getting drunk.”
He felt ambiguous about whether to curse at his friend’s true friendship or say thank you. Yoonjo, who got an unopened new bottle from a nearby table, immediately poured it gurgling into his glass. Yoonjo, who took a sip, grimaced. As expected, life was bitter.
“You’re really drinking? I clearly did my best to stop you.”
“I absolutely have to drink today.”
“Ah, whatever. You take care of yourself. I won’t save you even if you make friends with the floor.”
Yoonjo, who muttered to do as he pleases, didn’t stop Seonghyeon as he grumbled and moved to another table. Yoonjo, who remained alone at the table, had become a lonely survivor among the fallen losers.
“Life is really… bitter.”
Yoonjo, who muttered to himself, noticed someone sitting next to him and looked with drowsy eyes. It was his senior Sijin.
“Hello.”
“Why are you alone?”
“They say life is originally lived alone and then you go.”
When he grumbled discontentedly, Sijin laughed lowly.
“Why? Is there something difficult?”
Something difficult… These days there was only one difficult thing. Yoonjo fiddled with the surface of the glass, then replied as if muttering. It seemed his true feelings came out smoothly because of the alcohol.
“There’s someone I like… but there’s no progress… I have to see their face to do something or not…”
At the part about liking someone, Sijin flinched for a moment. Though the words had plenty of room for misunderstanding, Yoonjo didn’t have the capacity to care about such things. There were only thoughts of alcohol and Seonwoo in his head. Yoonjo, who had only been fiddling with the glass, slightly raised his head at the following question.
“Someone you like…?”
“Yes.”
“Just someone you like, and you and Yoonjo still have no relationship whatsoever, right?”
At the question that penetrated his true feelings, Yoonjo gripped the glass. Sijin filled Yoonjo’s empty glass and asked again.
