The guard carefully grabbed his mother’s phone. His mother looked up at the guard with a resentful gaze, but soon gave up and handed over the phone. His mother tapped the reinforced glass with her fingertips and opened her lips wide, speaking in clear shapes.
‘Don’t cry.’
Yiyoung sniffled one last time and nodded vigorously. Yiyoung rose from his seat only after watching his mother’s back as she left the visiting room following the guard until the very end.
On the way home, he thought about what conversation he would have when he met Chahyun tomorrow.
***
The next day, Saturday at 5:40 PM. It was about time for Chahyun to arrive.
Today as well, Chahyun had sent clothes to Yiyoung’s house. Since he’d been asked to really meet for a date this time, Yiyoung obediently accepted Chahyun’s gift.
Yiyoung put on the new clothes and made final adjustments to his appearance in front of the mirror.
‘Come to think of it, this is my first time wearing a suit.’
Working as a freelancer, he rarely had the opportunity to wear one. Even for business meetings or friends’ weddings, he always wore clean and neat casual clothes. He hadn’t been inclined to wear a suit because he thought he would look like a child forced to play the father’s role in a game of house.
But unexpectedly, the suit suited Yiyoung well.
Though because of the bright colors and unique design, even wearing a suit made him resemble a rich only child insisting on becoming a celebrity rather than looking like a proper office worker. Still, for the first time in his life, his small and slender physique felt like an advantage, so he was satisfied.
Yiyoung smiled proudly and thought without realizing it.
‘I want to show him quickly.’
Just then, a text message arrived from Chahyun.
[Elementary Schooler:
Come out to the vacant lot when you’re ready]
5:50 PM
As always, it seemed he was waiting with his car parked in the vacant lot on the hill.
Yiyoung put on his shoes at the front door of his house. They were soft leather shoes that had been in the gift box Chahyun sent along with the clothes. Having completed his unfamiliar outfit with them, Yiyoung was inevitably a little nervous.
‘No matter how I look at it, this isn’t an outfit for going to the neighborhood chicken feet restaurant, right?’
He didn’t care about the menu, so he hoped it would be a comfortable place.
Separate from liking his current appearance, he had no confidence that he wouldn’t stiffen up in a place where he had to dress up like this. Since last night, Yiyoung couldn’t stop imagining himself making some embarrassing mistake in an elegant place. He could only hope that the table manners at high-end restaurants he’d frantically studied since then would work in practice.
When he came out of the house, the cool night air touched his face.
It was a time when day and night rapidly alternated. The lowered sun dyed the sky a pale pink, and the narrow, winding alley a dark navy blue. Passing through the residential area with its closed-off atmosphere where everyone locked their gates early as soon as the day grew dark like this, Yiyoung headed toward the vacant lot.
Then Yiyoung stopped short at the entrance to the uphill path leading to the vacant lot.
‘String lights?’
The railing of the sloping path wrapped with string lights sparkled like a Christmas tree.
As if enchanted, Yiyoung climbed the hill using the small lights illuminating the path as constellations. When he reached the vacant lot, which was practically the summit of the neighborhood where he lived, his eyes widened.
“Huh…?”
It was because the spacious vacant lot had been decorated like a charming local restaurant.
As soon as Yiyoung stepped into the vacant lot, a lively “La Vie en Rose” began. After looking around at the string quartet, flute, and singer filling the vacant lot, Yiyoung looked at the two chefs standing in front of the mobile cooking station. One of the chefs created flames in a large flambé pan.
In that momentary light, Chahyun’s sculpted face glowed red.
Chahyun was sitting in front of a round table placed in the center of the vacant lot, dressed handsomely in a cobalt blue suit. Chahyun, sitting with his long legs crossed, smiled at Yiyoung.
“The weather is nice.”
The early spring night air was certainly clear.
Nevertheless, since he hadn’t expected an outdoor meal, Yiyoung said awkwardly as he sat down across from Chahyun.
“I thought you would naturally have made a restaurant reservation. A place that serves dishes made with tuna eyes or something.”
“I did think of that first.”
Chahyun answered quite seriously.
Since saying he thought they’d go eat tuna eyes was obviously a joke, Yiyoung’s expression stiffened slightly. Then, seeing Chahyun burst into laughter, he realized it was just a joke too and let out a sigh of relief.
After clearing his throat, Chahyun smiled readily.
“It seemed like Bae Yiyoung-ssi doesn’t like places far from home. But there weren’t any places around here that caught my eye.”
So instead of going to a restaurant, he brought it here.
At the absurdly extravagant solution, Yiyoung let out a soft laugh. Chahyun also laughed with the corners of his eyes curving and said.
“I’m glad it seems like Bae Yiyoung-ssi likes it here too.”
Since it was true, Yiyoung nodded vigorously.
The string lights that brightly surrounded the dim vacant lot where the streetlights hadn’t yet turned on were beautiful. The sweet live performance was naturally excellent, and his heart was excited by the fragrant food smell that stimulated his appetite. More than anything else, Yiyoung was happy about Chahyun’s sincerity in preparing the place quite carefully.
Moon Chahyun himself was also dressed up much more diligently than usual.
With such an extremely attractive handsome man in front of him that it was embarrassing to find a place to rest his eyes, his heart pounded of its own accord. Finding it difficult to look directly at Chahyun, Yiyoung demurely lowered his gaze and stared at the table.
Having looked at the table absentmindedly, Yiyoung suddenly became puzzled and raised his head.
“The table is small?”
It was a question that came out naturally because it was really strangely small.
The table covered with a cute checkered tablecloth was packed with just a small vase with a single sunflower as the star and an appetizer basket containing pre-meal bread. Even if everything was cleared, it was a table that would struggle to hold a single main dish and wine.
No matter how big and heavy, a table couldn’t be harder to move than a mobile cooking station, so he couldn’t understand why they’d deliberately prepared an inconvenient one. Chahyun answered Yiyoung’s question indifferently.
“This way we can see each other up close.”
“…”
Yiyoung blinked blankly at Chahyun and thought.
‘He has such a fox-like side.’
It was unexpected. It was because Chahyun had always been even more awkward than Yiyoung.
Watching quietly until now, Chahyun also said embarrassing things quite well. For someone who said he’d never dated because his standards were too high, he was quite cheeky.
‘Do people who are smart do well in romance too?’
Suddenly, the time he was dating Chahyun came to mind.
…Well, he must have a lot of dating experience. Since he was someone who went on arranged meetings.
Just once, Chahyun had gone on an arranged meeting even while dating Yiyoung.
He said it was a difficult situation to refuse because of his family elders’ face. Chahyun had asked Yiyoung if it would be okay if he just had tea for about 30 minutes and came back. Yiyoung readily gave permission, thinking it was enough that he’d told him in advance.
Of course, it was only when the day of Chahyun’s arranged meeting came that he realized it was ridiculous bravado.
That day, Yiyoung couldn’t get anything done all day. He was anxious because the scene of the blind date partner falling for Chahyun and persistently requesting an after-meeting was vividly drawn in his mind as if he’d seen it directly with his own eyes. Yiyoung was even still upset about it now.
‘I really didn’t know that incident would bother me until now.’
It was all because Yiyoung was too timid. But the confidence to firmly believe that Chahyun absolutely wouldn’t be attracted to anyone other than himself didn’t come from anywhere.
Just as he was about to become gloomy, a server in a neat uniform approached at just the right time.
A kind explanation about today’s course meal and wine followed. The wine was prepared first. While waiting for the food, Chahyun asked Yiyoung.
“Why don’t you perform?”
Chahyun had asked the same question at the whiskey bar. Finding it puzzling that he was asking again, Yiyoung tilted his head but answered.
“Not everyone who makes songs performs. In my case, it’s because I’m not good enough at singing or playing to sell tickets.”
“Really? If it were me, I’d do it as a hobby at least. It’s cool.”
Chahyun spoke in a very sincere tone. Then he asked.
“Do you dislike being on stage?”
It was and it wasn’t. Yiyoung let out a short groan, finding it difficult to know where to start explaining.
“That’s not it.”
In fact, he’d quite liked it.
Even though he was just as timid then as now, strangely only being the center of attention when performing was enjoyable. So there was a time when he would take his acoustic guitar and go out to the streets whenever he had time.
