At the utterly shameless answer, Hayoung burst into laughter again. She pounded the sofa as if it were a punching bag, which was a bonus. After doing that for a moment, Hayoung roughly rubbed her eyes with her palms and spoke in a voice filled with amusement.
“Ah… I really like you.”
“I’m not here to be liked by you, noona.”
“Yeah, I’m just saying it because I find it fun. Kiseon, there hasn’t been a single mentally sound person by that bastard’s side until now, but you really look healthy so it’s interesting. Don’t you have anything you’re curious about regarding that guy? I can answer everything for you.”
“…No. I don’t have anything like that. If I’m curious about something, I’ll ask hyung. And who are you to speak casually to me when we’ve barely met?”
“Kiseon does it.”
“That’s because he’s hyung. You’re not even a thousand-year-old tiger, noona.”
It wasn’t even that strange of an answer, but Hayoung cackled like someone with wind in their lungs. It was impossible to know what beat to follow.
“Ahaha…! I’m really going crazy. That bastard Kiseon won’t have time to be bored. At least you’re better than Gaegyeom….”
“…Gaegyeom?”
“Ah, maybe the kid doesn’t know. Hmm…. Ask about it later. Who Gaegyeom is. And… this is just a warning, but on rainy days, make sure to stick close to Kiseon.”
At the mention of rainy days, Yoonjo blinked.
“Rain? On rainy days… something strange happens….”
Yoonjo, who had spoken that far, shut his mouth tight. There was something strange. On a rainy day, Seonwoo had collapsed while calling Seo Yeongyeom’s name. Only then did the puzzle pieces fit together. Yoonjo unconsciously scrunched up his face. He didn’t know what that person had done, but something had definitely happened.
Then one incident naturally came to mind. The day Yoonjo’s leg broke had definitely been a rainy day too. Thicker raindrops had poured down than when Seonwoo had collapsed. After tilting his head for a moment, Yoonjo continued with a dubious expression.
“There was, then there wasn’t…. When I broke my leg, hyung came looking for me. It was raining really hard….”
At Yoonjo’s answer, Hayoung made a humming sound and nodded her head.
“Well, then that must be it. I’m glad it seems to have gotten better. Anyway, anything else you’re curious about?”
“What I’m curious about regarding hyung is something I’ll decide on my own. Geez…. I’m not curious at all….”
He was actually very curious, but Yoonjo turned his eyes away pretending he wasn’t. He lightly pushed his knees with his palms and stretched his legs out. His gaze was toward somewhere Seonwoo would be, but his ears were still open toward Hayoung.
“Still, if you’re curious. Honestly, if you’re a person in South Korea, you’d at least know who Ki Seonwoo is, but you might be curious about why he hasn’t been active all this time, or why he suddenly retired and spouted nonsense about wanting to write.”
“I’m not curious.”
“Or should I tell you something else? For example… why Kiseon only has a four-year age difference—”
“Don’t inject useless stories into Yoonjo.”
Seonwoo, who had come around the corridor, cut off Hayoung’s words with a stiff tone. He unbuttoned one shirt button with one hand as if his throat was slightly constricted. The pale linen-colored shirt and the pants wrapping his coolly stretched legs suited him as if painted. It didn’t look much different from ordinary ready-made clothes, but perhaps because it was custom-made, it felt even more so.
“You’ve lost weight. I thought so… you looked a bit thin when I saw you earlier.”
“There was a bit of an ambiguous feeling with the overall fit, I wonder if it’s a body shape change. It didn’t feel that significant.”
“You’ve lost weight, a lot at that. Any particular discomfort?”
“A little on the arm side? Here, it feels like it’s pulling a bit.”
Hayoung lightly grasped the shirt near Seonwoo’s shoulder and then stepped back. After that, the two continued a professional conversation. Yoonjo, sitting there alone, felt it was like a conversation between people from another world. At the same time, he felt a strange sense of distance.
It was an emotion he hadn’t felt because they spent so much time together, both in the countryside and in Seoul. Right, that’s Ki Seonwoo. That person is an actor. A celebrity. Such thoughts belatedly hit his head.
Yoonjo, who had been fidgeting his fingers, raised his head at the approaching presence. When he saw Seonwoo’s face, the unidentifiable anxiety he had felt just moments ago completely flew away.
“Yoonjo-ya, feet.”
Before the words could even pass through his brain, Yoonjo instinctively straightened both legs and held out his feet. Then Seonwoo knelt down between Yoonjo’s legs. He immediately slipped off Yoonjo’s old Converse shoes and tossed them behind him. Kwon Hayoung called Seonwoo’s name and shouted, but Seonwoo didn’t even look back and only did what he had to do.
“If you’re wearing pretty clothes, you should wear pretty shoes too.”
“…Usually when someone buys you shoes, it’s a signal to run away….”
“I told you not to learn strange things.”
Seonwoo, who replied indifferently, put clean shoes on Yoonjo’s feet. They were shoes that matched well with the clothes he was wearing. After properly putting on both shoes, he stood up from his spot.
“You’ve put on clothes and put on shoes. Now we should go somewhere nice.”
“Somewhere nice, what. For me this is a da—”
“The designer needs to go to work. Why are you adding so many opinions. Let’s go, Yoonjo-ya.”
Seonwoo, who cut off Hayoung’s words in the middle, put his hand under Yoonjo’s arm and lifted him up. After tidying up his slightly disheveled hair, he lightly stroked Yoonjo’s cheek and let out a slight smile. Then he pushed Yoonjo’s back and moved toward the exit.
“Suddenly? Where are we going? No, why do you always say let’s go somewhere nice but never tell me where.”
“I’ll tell you as we go.”
After walking a few steps, Seonwoo turned his head halfway as if remembering something and spat out a word indifferently.
“I’m leaving.”
“That rude bastard….”
Behind them, Hayoung vented her dissatisfaction, but Seonwoo didn’t even pretend to hear. Only Yoonjo, reading the room, waved his hand subtly.
***
Truly, it was a perfect day.
Walking along the sunset promenade, Yoonjo moved lightly. The Seoul air, which he hated because it was hot, humid, and stuffy, felt endlessly light today, just for today. That was probably thanks to Seonwoo walking with him.
Wearing new clothes and new shoes, he had wandered around here and there with Seonwoo all day. They stopped by a cafe that made sweet coffee deliciously and rode a Han River cruise ship. Of course, even when boarding the cruise ship, he was anxious someone might recognize Seonwoo, but perhaps because business wasn’t good, there were almost no tourists. Later, they peeked around here and there and felt the cool river breeze.
They looked at various items on the street and even secretly stopped by a jewelry shop. When he subtly showed Seonwoo rings and roughly narrowed down the designs, he even felt like he owned the world.
In the middle, an inconsiderate sound rumbled from his stomach, but fortunately, there was a quiet restaurant not far away, so they could resolve it well. After eating, they decided to walk to aid digestion, and that place was this very promenade.
Yoonjo walked ahead for a while and then turned around. He could see Seonwoo wearing his hat pulled down low and wearing a mask. As if noticing Yoonjo’s gaze, Seonwoo slightly lifted the brim of his hat and looked at him as if asking why he was looking.
“Just. Because I’m so happy.”
Yoonjo, who smiled brightly, walked a few steps backward while facing Seonwoo, then turned his body around again. Feeling somehow regretful that the gaze was falling away, Seonwoo unknowingly reached out his hand and then slowly withdrew it. He stopped in place and quietly kept his gaze on Yoonjo’s back.
“Hyung? Why did you suddenly stop? Gasp… don’t tell me you walked too long and got a cramp in your leg?”
Yoonjo, who approached quickly as if that could really be the case, groped Seonwoo’s arms and waist. The fact that he was touching areas completely unrelated to legs made his purpose seem clear.
“…That’s not a leg.”
“Eh… you didn’t fall for it.”
Yoonjo, who clicked his tongue and withdrew his hand, slyly rolled his eyes and then looked at Seonwoo again. Then he grinned with a mischievous face.
“Anyway… I really liked today. It was like a date. Even though hyung always said it wasn’t. Actually, wasn’t this really a date?”
He had said things like this for more than just a day or two, so Yoonjo naturally expected Seonwoo to refuse this time too. But unusually, Seonwoo was silent. Only his eyes were visible because of the mask, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that it was somehow cool.
As the surrounding air was about to become awkward, Yoonjo tried to change the subject by forcing the corners of his mouth up. The moment his mouth opened halfway and he lightly held his breath,
“That’s right.”
At the readily returning affirmation, Yoonjo’s eyes opened a bit wider. For countless times, when it was a difficult question to answer or when he didn’t want to talk about something, Seonwoo had smiled and evaded. If not that, he would completely change the subject.
That’s why Yoonjo wondered if he had heard wrong. Yoonjo looked at the sunset sky and looked at the ground. Then he made eye contact with Seonwoo and asked again.
“…Please say it one more time. Because I feel like I won’t be able to forget this moment. No, I won’t forget it. I’ll engrave it in my heart, and engrave it in my head… I’ll even try engraving it on my back. So, just one more time. Just once, Seonwoo hyung.”
Worried that he might have heard wrong, Yoonjo tightly gripped Seonwoo’s clothes. Because of the height difference, Seonwoo looked down at Yoonjo, and Yoonjo looked up at Seonwoo. Like that, for a moment, they quietly held each other in their eyes. The first to move was Seonwoo. He stepped back about half a step, bent at the waist, and matched eye level with Yoonjo.
“That’s right. I wanted to be with you, so I made up excuses.”
At that moment, Yoonjo’s heart lurched. It felt like his heart, which had been constantly bumping and shaking, had finally flipped over. Yoonjo moved his Adam’s apple greatly to suppress his emotions. Worried he might lose Seonwoo, he put strength into the hand gripping his clothes.
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
At the calm answer, Yoonjo swallowed an empty breath. Then he smiled with effort. His lips trembled, but Yoonjo himself wasn’t aware of it.
“Ah…. If I’d known this would happen, I should have shouted ‘no’ when I heard those strange words.”
Seonwoo, who opened his mouth to ask what he meant, soon gave up. It was because tears began to well up in Yoonjo’s eyes.
