“No… it’s not that bad… It just hurts a little.”
“Ahhh, ahhh… I’m sorry. I didn’t see the rock in front. Let me take a look, hyung. If your head really split open, we need to go to the hospital quickly.”
Making a fuss and fidgeting, Yoonjo suddenly grabbed Seonwoo’s shoulder and examined his head. It was slightly reddened, but nothing seemed torn or badly injured.
“Phew, that was close. It doesn’t seem like you’re badly hurt. Ah, this has never happened before. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
Following his drooping eyebrows, Yoonjo’s voice also lost strength. Yoonjo needlessly fiddled with the red mark visible between Seonwoo’s hair. Oh no, an actor’s head got like this, this is a big problem… Muttering inwardly, Yoonjo finally took his hand away. As Yoonjo’s hand fell away, Seonwoo immediately rubbed his head with his own palm.
Watching that sight, Yoonjo muttered.
“I’m really good at this though… Because hyung kept asking if I could drive well… If you take out cars, I’ve been driving cultivators for a really long time so I’m really good…”
“Mmm… Right. You can’t drive cars though.”
It was asked in a tone of “right?” not “right.” And filled with playfulness too. A deep furrow formed between Yoonjo’s brows and the ends of his eyebrows shot up to the sky. He seemed to recover quite quickly.
“Stop teasing me! If hyung isn’t going to teach me how to drive, don’t tease me either!”
When Yoonjo gently clenched his fist and pounded Seonwoo’s chest, Seonwoo had to quickly bend at the waist.
“Urk… Wait… I think one of my lungs just burst…”
“Ah, hyung!”
At the call, Seonwoo lifted his head with a smile, then lowered it again and clutched his chest. It really did hurt like one of his lungs had deflated. If he hit him in earnest, his bones would really break. Pressing the part Yoonjo hit with his palm, Seonwoo let out a breath with a slight smile.
“Should I teach you how to drive?”
“Forget it. If you’re going to tease me, just stop. What driving, seriously.”
Grumbling, Yoonjo’s lips stuck out as he started the cultivator again. His plump lips, enough to be called goldfish lips, exuded presence all on their own. Seonwoo chuckled and said softly.
“I brought my car, so I’ll teach you.”
“……”
“This time I’m not teasing, really. I may not look it, but I have a 10-year accident-free record.”
“Wow… Ten years, then how old are you really, hyung…”
Perhaps still sulking, a faint irritation remained in his tone. As Yoonjo increased the cultivator’s speed a bit and started racing down the straight road, Seonwoo’s body stiffened for a moment then soon began to sway naturally. Each time the rubber seat shook roughly, humid wind blew.
When he turned his head, he could see Yoonjo concentrating on driving. Seonwoo reached out and wiped the bead of sweat on Yoonjo’s philtrum with a towel, adding.
“Even if I’m old, I’m accident-free in driving, so isn’t it worth learning? I’ll teach you. If you really want to learn.”
“Thank you. But anyway, they say you shouldn’t learn driving from someone you know… They curse at you and stuff…”
“We’re not really close yet anyway.”
This was also true. The period Seonwoo and Yoonjo had been face-to-face hadn’t even been a week yet. Even that, their first impression was the worst. Yoonjo, who had been looking ahead with narrowed eyes as if thinking for a moment, slyly rolled his lips into his mouth then pulled them out and asked.
“Really…? Really? You’re not teasing, really?”
“You’ve been deceived your whole life. Namhang’s best driver-nim.”
“Ah! Geez!”
Yoonjo, who scrunched up his eyes as if irritated, gripped the cultivator handle tightly. Because of that, his arms trembled. It was a posture as if trying to concentrate on driving, but his expression didn’t lie. He looked like he would strike Seonwoo’s chest right away. In that narrow driver’s seat, Seonwoo had to keep moving his bottom to get as far away from Yoonjo as possible.
Arriving at the village entrance, Yoonjo got off his seat again to change direction. Seonwoo, who had been quietly watching that sight, suddenly asked.
“Cultivators don’t have something to change direction?”
“They don’t. Why? Are you curious about cultivators too, hyung? Should I teach you?”
Yoonjo hadn’t taken his eyes off the cultivator, but somehow his gaze seemed to sparkle. It might have been because his watery eyes reflected the sunlight. Seonwoo responded while looking at Yoonjo’s lips curved into a pleasant arc.
“No. Yoonjo-ssi, do a lot. Do everything. Ah, now that I think about it, it’s conveniently Sunday again. Want to be a Chapagetti chef too?”
“Huh? Hyung, you know that too? Today I’m~ a Chapagetti chef!”
“…Isn’t it ‘Sunday I’m a Chapagetti chef’?”
“When I was little, every time I made Chapagetti, I always sang that song. It’s a bit confusing… Anyway, it’s been a really long time since I heard it.”
Watching Yoonjo humming, Seonwoo had to collect his complicated feelings for a moment. It was because he keenly felt the generation gap with this chick nine years younger than him.
“Do you know Cherry Filter…?”
“What’s that? Uh… a camera filter? Is it cherry-colored?”
Yoonjo, who answered without thinking, quickly climbed back up to the driver’s seat. In the rattling driver’s seat, Seonwoo let out a sigh knowingly or unknowingly.
Passing the village entrance and arriving in front of Yoonjo and Seonwoo’s houses, the cultivator stopped for a moment with a rough engine sound. Yoonjo waved at Seonwoo and grinned. Except for his face wearing a hat, his arms and legs were all pitch black.
“Hyung! Then thank you for today. For waiting and coming with me. Rest well tomorrow and see you again later.”
“You don’t put on sunscreen, I see.”
“Hey, what sunscreen? Huh? If you’re a man, naturally black skin! A healthy body! Isn’t that right?”
Rolling up his short sleeves and flexing his arm to show off his muscles, full muscles appeared. They weren’t muscles made from exercise somewhere, but life muscles created from long farm work.
“…Nice body.”
“Right? My Seoul friends are super envious too. This is what you call farmer power. Ah, hyung, do you want to touch? This is a body that can’t be made through exercise, you know?”
“No thanks. I’ll get off.”
Without any regret, Seonwoo got off the driver’s seat, waved languidly, and slipped inside the house.
Only after Seonwoo completely disappeared did Yoonjo awkwardly tap his forearm and hop down from his seat. Opening the gate wide with a familiar posture, he thought as he backed up to park the cultivator in the yard.
What a shy Seoul ajeossi.
Having finished parking in the yard, Yoonjo hurriedly got off the cultivator and went inside the house. Since there was no air conditioner, the interior was stuffy, but it was still better than being in the blazing sun.
“Grandma, Yoonjo’s home!”
“Mm. Yoonjo, wash up and come. I cut watermelon.”
At the words to wash up, Yoonjo dashed into the bathroom with a towel and came out. He refreshingly wet his whole body with cold water, but even that was brief. The heat sticking to him again drained the energy from his body. When he lay down on the relatively cool living room floor, his grandmother brought him the watermelon she’d cut.
“Eat. It’s a frozen watermelon, but I cooled it in cold water so it’s good.”
“Thank youuu~.”
Yoonjo, who had jumped up from his seat to grab the watermelon, paused for a moment. At that sight, his grandmother sent a puzzled look. It was unfamiliar because the kid who always finished half a watermelon in his sitting wasn’t moving at all, as if he’d gotten heat exhaustion.
“Not eating? It’s your favorite…”
“Grandma, is there more of this?”
“Huh? There’s half left.”
“Then can I give this to the hyung next door? Hyung helped me today…”
“That, the polite Seoul guy? Oh my, I didn’t think of that. Take it quickly.”
The grandmother who tapped Yoonjo’s bottom neatly placed the watermelon from the tray into a large airtight container and also packed a bag of melons. As Yoonjo, wearing slippers haphazardly like a colt with its bottom on fire, disappeared beyond the yard, the grandmother muttered.
“The child has grown up… All grown up…”
The grandmother sat on the front step under the awning, tapping her knees for a while before going inside the house at her grandfather’s call.
Standing in front of Grandma Sunja’s house, Yoonjo was about to press the bell. At that moment, the door opened wide. It couldn’t be an automatic door, but before that thought finished, a handsome face appeared through the door gap. It was Ki Seonwoo.
“Oh…”
“Yoonjo-ssi?”
“Hyung! Where are you going in this heat!”
“I was going to the house next door. To see Yoonjo-ssi.”
“Wow, we really are in sync. I brought watermelon and melons! Ah, of course grandma cut the watermelon. I’m just delivery.”
In one of Yoonjo’s hands was a bag with melons, and in the other hand was an airtight container that looked like a kimchi container. Seonwoo, who opened the door a bit more, moved aside so Yoonjo could come in.
Entering the house, Yoonjo naturally went to the kitchen and washed the melons. Following that, he brought a tray and fruit knife and placed them on the living room table. It wasn’t a skill done once or twice. It was so natural that Seonwoo briefly wondered if this house’s grandmother had secretly hidden another grandson.
“You must have come often.”
Plopping down and holding the fruit knife, his skill in thinly peeling the melon skin was no less than a professional. If someone saw, he might look like someone who’d peeled skin their whole life. Before long, Yoonjo cut the melon with its flesh exposed and neatly placed it on a plate.
“I know all the village elders’ houses besides this one. Since I was the only young child, they really doted on me. We did farm work together, and sometimes rode the cultivator to the beach. Everyone likes me like their own child, but everyone is old, you know. Since something bad can’t happen, I checked in on them once in a while. When I was little, everyone was young…”
“……”
“No, well. It’s not a sad story though. Anyway, I know everything. I came to Grandma Sunja’s often since she’s next door. Not because there’s air conditioning…”
Glancing his eyes upward as if reading the room, Yoonjo now started cutting out only the flesh of the triangle-cut watermelon.
“You don’t have air conditioning at home?”
“Ah! Listen. Our house was remodeled exactly three years ago. Like new construction. It was originally a tile-roofed house, but we completely changed it all cleanly then, you know? We even bought a new fan. But guess what’s missing? Air conditioning! In this day and age, where is there a house without air conditioning? I thought it would be better if I bought a decent one, so I looked it up online and wow… why is it so expensive?”
“Hmm… How much is it?”
At the words “expensive,” Seonwoo thought maybe around 1 million won. By new university student standards, even that money would obviously feel quite large, so he asked thinking around that amount. The answer that came back exceeded his expectations.
