# Chapter 23
We were on a plane heading to Berlin.
Looking to the side, I saw Woosang reading a book I had recommended. There was no trace of the sweat he had shed this morning when he had rushed back home and returned because I had forgotten my wallet.
He actually looked neater than usual. I leaned slightly against Woosang’s shoulder and closed my eyes.
“Sleepy?”
“No, it’s not that….”
Recently, I’d heard that Bel had moved to Berlin and was having a headache sorting out her belongings. Bel didn’t have any suitable friends to help her move in Berlin, and she said her place was completely empty since she had no furniture at all.
When Bel used to stay in Berlin, she lived in a fully furnished home, but now that she had decided to settle in Berlin permanently, it seemed like she was planning to buy all new things.
Ironically, our house was overflowing with the items Bel had forced on us before leaving. At first, she tried to send them half to Woosang’s house and half to mine, but since Woosang had been practically living at my place recently, this was the measure she took.
From Paris to Berlin was at most about a one and a half hour flight. Additionally, there were no special identification procedures for movement within Europe, so we packed lightly and got on the plane.
From before departure until now, Woosang seemed somewhat excited.
I didn’t know why he was excited, but it was a good sign that he wasn’t depressed. I rubbed my increasingly sleepy eyes and thought this was fortunate.
***
Someone shook my shoulder.
I dazedly shook my head at my swaying vision. It seemed like I had dozed off. When I opened my eyes, I met Woosang’s gaze. I blinked a few more times at him.
“Wake up. We’ve arrived.”
“Ah….”
Looking around, most of the passengers had already disembarked. I stretched and picked up my bag. Woosang also took out his bag, and we left the plane.
“Did you sleep well?”
Woosang asked me with a face that somehow looked joyful. Rubbing around my lips, wondering if I had drooled, I answered that I had slept well.
As we exited the plane, a fairly spacious airport lobby spread out. We didn’t look around the inside of the airport and went straight outside. Outside, there were buses, subway entrances, and signs that looked completely different from Paris.
I tried to read the signage, but the signs in German were like alien language to me. As I stuttered, Woosang read the sign I was looking at.
Hearing the German springing from Woosang’s lips made it seem even more difficult.
“Well, shall we eat first? We left at an odd time, so it’s already brunch time.”
“Shall we? That’s right, Woosang lived in Berlin, right?”
“Yes. Actually, I prefer Berlin over Paris.”
Woosang searched for the way to somewhere and then led me, saying we should go. I received the transportation pass he bought for me and looked around everywhere.
Though I had been to Berlin for work before, this was my first time coming for tourism, so I was unknowingly excited. Back then, I stayed in dirty streets famous for drug deals and had never even been to the central downtown.
“Let’s go. We’ll visit Bel tomorrow, and today, let’s have fun just the two of us.”
“…Is that okay?”
“Of course. That’s what we promised in the first place.”
“I see.”
When I hesitated, Woosang led me to where the elevated train was and told me which line we needed to take. The elevated train arrived not long after.
Woosang seated me as I was dithering about where to sit, and smiled. Somehow, it felt like my heart was beating faster.
Paris is very small, so there are quite a few places you can walk to without taking a bus or train. Of course, for being narrow, the train route map was complicated, but anyway, that place was familiar to me.
Looking at the train route map visible in the corner of the elevated train, the lines were so tangled that I couldn’t tell what was what.
After carefully examining the inside, I looked at Woosang, who mentioned the name of the area we were going to on his phone map, asking if I was done looking. Unfortunately, it was in German, so I couldn’t understand.
After chatting with him for a while like that, it seemed we still hadn’t reached our destination.
“Do we need to go further?”
“Yes. It’s wider than Paris here, so it takes some time to move somewhere.”
“Ah.”
As I looked on with curiosity, Woosang lightly brushed my cheek with his hand. Startled, I pulled away, and Woosang gave a mischievous smile.
Even that made me embarrassed, so I turned my head toward the window. The passing scenery was very unfamiliar. I had left my hometown and mostly stayed in the French countryside. Coming to Paris had been a kind of whim.
But in the end, I hadn’t properly settled in Paris either. So, a foreign country’s metropolis was frightening to someone like me.
Fortunately, Woosang was here now.
I was reassured by that fact and hid my trembling heart.
Just then, Woosang stood up, saying we should get off now. I carefully got off the elevated train and looked around. This place was much busier than near the airport. In Paris, the inside of the station is usually dirty, but this place was very clean.
I was fascinated by that and looked around for a while before being led outside by Woosang’s hand.
The city was overall clean and rugged. Paris was dirty, flashy, beautiful, and busy everywhere, but this place had fewer people than Paris and was cleaner.
When I stood there blankly, Woosang grabbed my arm and led me again. I felt like a country person who had just come to the city.
“I like this place.”
“Hmm?”
After crossing the street a few times and passing through busy areas, there was a street with cafés clustered together.
The place Woosang took me to was a neat brunch place. I thought there wouldn’t be many people because of the odd hour, but inside it was packed with customers who had ordered brunch.
“What would you like to eat? Since we’ve come all the way here, shall we eat German style?”
“German style…?”
“Just, hard bread with butter, ham, tomato, cucumber, things like that.”
I said that’s what I would do and watched Woosang order. Woosang ordered stylishly in German and asked what I wanted for coffee. I requested a cappuccino and waited for the food.
And not long after, two plates came out for us. Woosang had said it was German style, but the plates only had cut tomatoes, cucumbers, salami, thinly sliced cheese, and what looked like hard bread.
As I stared at it blankly, Woosang cut the bread in half, urging me to try it quickly.
“When will the food come out?”
“This is it.”
“Really?”
“Really. Teo usually ate even more casually than this.”
“But this is a restaurant.”
When I made an incomprehensible expression, Woosang laughed and answered.
“Usually in Germany, they often eat just like this for breakfast or dinner. They say they have one warm meal a day, but… they don’t really like things changing.”
And as if to show me, he slowly put butter, salami, cheese, and tomato on the cut bread and stuffed it into his mouth. Should I call this a cultural shock right now?
“I guess I was eating quite well, comparatively.”
“That’s not true.”
Woosang spoke with a seemingly firm expression. Unable to find words to respond, I silently looked at the food.
Anyway, since I had ordered the food, I made it the same way Woosang did and ate it. The taste was just bread with cucumber, tomato, and cheese inside; there was no taste to speak of. The cheese seemed cheap too.
It was a strange country.
It was shocking that a country attached to France’s border eats and lives like this. Woosang laughed amusingly at my peculiar expression. Seeing that smile made my strange feeling somewhat better.
***
After finishing the meal and coming out, only then could I properly see the Berlin city center. A cool breeze passed by us.
Woosang guided my arm and said we should move on. I turned my eyes and looked around here and there. There wasn’t particularly anything more stylish than Paris, and nothing stood out.
I saw a cathedral with a mint-colored roof and a large tower beside it. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower could be seen anytime, and there were many more wonderful architectural structures, so it wasn’t fascinating.
Still, seeing it with Woosang was the most special point.
“It looks more boring than you thought, right?”
“Hmm? Yes. There’s nothing special. Still, this place is much cleaner. Paris is… you know, right?”
“I know. I liked this moderate boredom. Paris is a bit… compared to this place, it’s flamboyant. Of course, that’s partly because I’m a dancer. But here, no one really cares what I wear or what I have. I quite liked that.”
As we slowly walked by the Spree River, Woosang spoke as if mumbling. I looked at Woosang’s face and followed him.
He somehow seemed full of melancholy.
‘Does he miss this place?’
But why did he come to Paris? I voiced what I had only been thinking.
“Do you want to live in Berlin?”
“…Well, I don’t know. But if I’m going to live in Europe anyway, I’d like to come to Berlin. I’m living in Paris because I get more offers there…, but now that I’ve settled to some extent, I think I could move back to Berlin if I wanted. Or going to a completely different third country wouldn’t be bad either.”
He was silent for a moment, then spoke again.
“But Teo is in Paris.”
I chewed on those words.
Because I’m there.
“I don’t mind moving. I don’t have any lingering attachment to that place, though the problem is German.”
“I’ll teach you. Teo’s good at English, right? If you’re good at English, you can learn quickly.”
“Really? Shall we live here?”
Woosang nodded with an excited expression.
I patted his head once and turned my head to hide my embarrassed expression. Whenever I saw his different expressions, my body trembled strangely.
As I was looking at the gently flowing river, I felt a vibration in my pocket. It seemed like some kind of alert had come. I naturally took out my phone to check the screen. But at that moment, an uneasy thought flashed through my mind.
An alert that arrived as soon as Woosang and I came on the trip. The original purpose of this phone. Email. There was only one thing pointing to it.
I looked around, feeling tense.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just wondering if there’s somewhere to sit nearby.”
“Shall we go over there? I think I saw a bench.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath to hide my anxious feelings. I was nervous, trying to relax in case Woosang noticed my trembling voice.
But I didn’t think it would be okay at all.
Email. Some kind of threat. Travel.
Woosang. I looked at Woosang and thought.
Somehow, everything felt like a lie.
