# Side Story 10
Even if Jiho and Yeomin had decided to get married, it wasn’t like they could say, “Okay~ We’re getting married tomorrow~” and make it happen.
Even if they were determined to go abroad and live as a couple, they couldn’t just quit this terribly work-heavy company overnight…
At the very least, Yeomin needed to stay until they hired an experienced person to replace him.
All of this seemed perfectly obvious and reasonable to Yeomin, but apparently not to Jiho.
All day he had been sulking, picking at his food and lacking energy, just like an elementary school student on a hunger strike.
Unable to bear the sight any longer, Yeomin dragged a suitcase into the living room as soon as he got home Friday evening.
“Pack it.”
“What?”
“I said pack your stuff.”
Yeomin commanded Jiho with his hands on his hips. His charisma was on the level of a retreat instructor.
Jiho, who had been sitting dejectedly on the sofa again today, looked bewildered.
Yeomin shouted in an extremely tough manner:
“You wanted to run away in the night. I’m saying let’s do it now.”
“…Hyung.”
“If you don’t want to, forget it.”
Jiho hastily stopped Yeomin as he was about to close the suitcase lid.
“Let’s do it, let’s run away!”
Joo Yeomin, eloping with Seol Jiho.
* * *
I now understand why lovers in dramas and movies always run away at night. The scenery is beautiful.
Leaving Seoul behind, Yeomin admired the nighttime cityscape through the window. Only one suitcase was loaded in the trunk of the car.
Though their luggage was extremely minimal…
‘It’s not like we’re emigrating. Who has the presence of mind to pack extensively when eloping?’
Yeomin had always been a minimalist. Beside him, as he enjoyed the scenery, Jiho drove with childlike excitement.
“This is my first time doing something like this. It’s your first time too, right?”
“Hmm. Actually, it’s not my first time.”
Jiho glanced at Yeomin while driving, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Who did you run away with?”
With which man, or woman, did you elope? Jiho looked quite shocked.
It was so cute that Yeomin was tempted to let the misunderstanding continue, but if he did, he knew he’d have to deal with it for the entire car ride.
Just as they were passing through a tollgate, Yeomin said:
“With my dad, my mom, and my sister.”
A memory from when he was six years old. A very, very long time ago. More than 20 years ago from now.
Jiho’s expression showed he didn’t immediately understand Yeomin’s words. Well, it would be something this guy couldn’t even imagine.
Yeomin kindly explained:
“We originally lived in Seoul. But when I was six, my dad’s business failed and he fell into huge debt. So we sold everything, our house and all, and moved to the countryside.”
“……”
“We drove through here back then, too. I was sitting in the back seat. My parents and sister think I don’t remember, but that night is still vividly clear to me.”
The night sky was very clear, so the stars were brilliantly visible.
In the back seat, Yeojin shared melted caramels with Yeomin, who was hungry.
Mom and Dad didn’t say a word until they reached the countryside.
Even after arriving in the countryside, they had nowhere to stay and spent a week moving from one inn to another.
“……”
Yeomin fell silent.
In life, there are memories you can sometimes forget forever. But the memories from that time had become a part of what made Yeomin who he was.
That’s why Yeomin always imagined misfortunes that might suddenly befall him. Life can always get dramatically worse in an instant, regardless of one’s will.
It was the fundamental reason why he couldn’t be 100% happy even when he was with Jiho.
“You can’t even imagine it, can you?”
Yeomin deliberately spoke with a light smile. Jiho didn’t offer any hasty consolation.
It was already too long ago to need comfort anyway.
“No.”
To answer so straightforwardly. This is why Yeomin couldn’t help but like Jiho.
“When you were six, I was still a baby. That’s a shame. I should have been born earlier.”
“What would you have done?”
“I would have been there for you.”
Yeomin burst out laughing. Though it was amusing, strangely, his heart felt warm and fuzzy.
This was the first time he’d opened up about this to anyone, but maybe because Jiho’s reaction was less serious than expected, it wasn’t as awkward as he’d thought. No, it was actually comfortable. It felt like Jiho was firmly establishing that it was just the ‘past,’ nothing more than something that had already passed.
“Actually, I like merry-go-rounds.”
“I like them too.”
“……”
“It’s nice being out of Seoul for a change. It’s nice being with you.”
Of course, they were together all day at work and home, and they’d traveled together many times, but going out at night like this had a different feeling.
‘It would be different if we went abroad together too, right? And it will be different again when we get married.’
For Yeomin, the things he hadn’t yet experienced with Jiho came to him as excitement rather than fear.
The anxiety that had been subtly lingering in his heart no longer existed. I left it all behind at home. When I left with Jiho and the suitcase, I abandoned it all there.
“So where should we go now?”
Though they had no particular destination. Yeomin impulsively spoke up.
“Home.”
“You mean go back home?”
“No, my home. I mean my childhood home… my parents’ house.”
Yeomin’s parents still lived in the provincial area where he had spent his school days. By now, they’d been settled there for over 20 years.
It was a place they had fled to, and most of the memories there were lonely, but life existed there too.
“Your family home?”
“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to…”
“How could I not want to? But you’ve never taken me there before now.”
Throughout university until now.
Yeomin had never taken Jiho home or introduced him. He rarely even spoke about his home.
Because of this, all Jiho knew came through Yeojin. Actually… he already knew to some extent. It was part of the background check he had done when he first became interested in Yeomin.
In any case, whenever Yeomin went home, he always went alone. Even when Jiho offered just to drive him there, he adamantly refused.
And now, suddenly suggesting they go to his family home?
Jiho’s heart pounded with anticipation.
“I should call first. Well, they’ll probably be home. If they say it’s okay to come… want to go together?”
“Of course, I’d love to.”
“There’s nothing special there. No ocean, just a mountain behind the village, it’s a really boring town. Oh, and there’s the elementary, middle, and high schools I attended.”
“I’m so curious. Please. I really want to go.”
Jiho’s eyes sparkled. There it was again. The Joo Yeomin fanboy moment.
Though Yeomin felt pressured, he soon nodded.
“How did you come up with such a thoughtful idea?”
“We’re getting married, so I should greet your parents.”
His parents probably already knew. That Yeomin had been seeing someone for quite a while. That this person was a man, and not an ordinary one at that.
Moved by Yeomin’s words, Jiho suddenly started fixing his hair.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have worn a suit. Ah, did I pack one in the suitcase?”
“We only brought comfortable clothes.”
“Is there a department store there? Let’s shop first.”
“How would there be? There’s just a supermarket.”
Yeomin chuckled as if Jiho was being ridiculous.
Jiho despaired, saying he should have come dressed more nicely.
“It’s fine. You’re already too much as it is.”
“I’m suddenly so nervous, Hyung.”
“You never imagined this situation?”
“Not much. Only about 4,750 times…”
“And that’s not much?”
Of course he had imagined visiting Yeomin’s home to pay his respects. But it wasn’t anything concrete.
Imagining going to greet them but facing opposition, imagining that he and Yeomin were from families that were enemies. It always ended with unrealistic, nightmarish conclusions.
“What should I do? My mind is going blank.”
“Don’t lie. You’ve already devised about fifty schemes in your head.”
Seol Jiho, the planning pervert. He probably had dozens of plans to win over Yeomin’s parents, with a hundred hidden cards prepared.
Yeomin snorted, but Jiho genuinely looked nervous.
Yeomin found this amusing. The way he was stomping his feet was pretty cute.
“What if your parents chase me away?”
“Well, then there’s nothing we can do.”
“Hyuuung-“
“Let’s go now. Even if we leave now, it’ll be dawn by the time we arrive.”
“……”
“If my mom and dad oppose, I’ll turn the house upside down before we leave, so let’s go, young master.”
Yeomin extended his hand to Jiho. Only then did Jiho take Yeomin’s hand and stand up.
The two left the brightly lit rest area building. As they headed toward the dark parking lot, they looked up at the black sky.
It was just pitch black, without a single star, not romantic at all—a very, very realistic scene.
No matter how hard he tried to see it as beautiful and romantic, it just looked like a horror movie…
“It looks like something bad is about to happen.”
“A perfect day to go ask for marriage permission.”
Their excited feelings gradually changed to a solemn resolve, as if they were going to a showdown.
“Let’s make sure we win.”
Yeomin and Jiho gripped hands tightly and walked bravely into the darkness.
Not with an innocence that knows nothing of deep darkness and fear, but with a gangster-like determination to fight and overcome it all.
And so, toward the next chapter, toward an unpredictable future, toward the best possible life.
– End of “Do Not Pick It Up Recklessly” Side Stories –
