“…It’s okay, you say?”
“Yes, yes! I even received trait accident prevention training the day before, but I completely forgot about it. I, I was in the wrong. I’m really sorry for getting so angry like that. Really…”
“Still… I’m sorry too. For startling you. And thank you for understanding.”
When Kyungoh spoke with an awkward face, Sangho sighed. Thank you for understanding? He doesn’t need to say things like that.
Grrrumble.
An awkward silence flowed for a moment, and from somewhere came the sound of a belly clock. When Sangho blinked and looked at Kyungoh, Kyungoh’s earlobes reddened as he spoke haltingly.
“Ah, I just came from working out. And it’s lunchtime too…”
“Th-then let me at least buy you a meal.”
When Kyungoh tried to step back a little more, Sangho quickly grabbed his collar. It was behavior the usual Sangho wouldn’t have done, but Sangho recalled how Wonha had appeared several times when he was exhausted and fed him. He wanted to express his regret to Kyungoh somehow.
“Please let me treat you. Let’s eat together.”
“…Yes.”
At Sangho’s firm expression, Kyungoh nodded with a dazed look on his face.
“You could have something more expensive though…”
“No. I like this.”
Kyungoh, who had ordered sundae-gukbap, said as he picked up his spoon. Sangho, sitting awkwardly across from him, saw the man silently eating his rice soup and picked up his own spoon. The rice soup bubbled fiercely in the hot pot, making a vigorous sound. Still, he’s on the wrestling team, so shouldn’t I order at least two bowls for him? Sangho looked at the menu and seriously considered whether to order more.
“Do you live near here?”
“Ah yes. In Jinje-dong. Th-the one near the big mart…”
“Ah…”
Kyungoh’s lips curled up subtly. When the man who usually showed almost no change in expression showed a weak smile, Sangho became curious.
“Why?”
“I live in Jinje-dong too.”
“What?”
“Usually I’m in the dorm, but everyone went to training camp. I’m just staying here for a bit.”
“Ah, you live with your parents.”
“No. My parents run a small restaurant in the countryside. It’s just a studio apartment… I usually go there when I’m sick. The dorm is communal, you know.”
Ah. Rut.
Sangho broke out in a cold sweat. So his cycle really was disrupted.
“…I’m sorry…”
“It’s not.”
“Th-the rehabilitation exercises…”
“There’s a community space on the first floor of my studio apartment, I was going to do them there.”
Oh my god. It seems right that he’s not coming because of me.
His conscience was pricked. Kyungoh didn’t exactly blame Sangho, but all the circumstances lined up. He went into rut because he was sick, and he stimulated him into an unwanted accident, and out of guilt he couldn’t use the gym and had to do rehabilitation exercises alone… What to do.
“Sh-sh-should I help you? With rehabilitation exercises.”
“…?”
When Sangho, his face completely flushed with regret and embarrassment, stammered, Kyungoh paused the spoon he was bringing to his mouth and stared intently at Sangho.
“You’ll help… me? You said you wouldn’t do it before,”
“Yes, yes. If you need it. I, I feel bad too.”
“You don’t have to push yourself.”
“No, no. I’m not pushing myself. Wh-when you were teaching me exercises, it was good. My body felt like it was loosening up too. And your body is really good, so I thought it was really cool. And since you’re a professional athlete, it seems like you know a lot about bodies too. You seemed really professional…”
Sangho began rambling and talking about his thoughts on Kyungoh. When he deeply bowed his head, red marks could be glimpsed between his t-shirt.
“Anyway, I’ll take responsibility for you, Kyungoh student!”
At the somewhat strange conclusion, Kyungoh blinked a couple times before putting down his spoon.
“…”
Kyungoh rubbed his forehead for a few seconds with a somehow troubled expression, then let out a shallow sigh and ran his hand down his face. Then, with a face that said this was difficult, he propped his chin and turned his eyes elsewhere. He seemed to be seriously contemplating whether to accept Sangho’s proposal or not.
“I wonder if I can endure it.”
“What?”
“Then thank you. Since our homes are close, after you get off work, in the afternoon or evening. Is that okay?”
“Uh, yes… Yes. Ah! Pl-please give me your contact information. The weekend… I mean, you’ll be doing rehabilitation tomorrow too, right?”
Sangho showed a relieved expression at the readily agreed-upon workout partnership. When Sangho readily held out his phone, Kyungoh silently took it and entered his number. It was the same taciturn expression as always, but perhaps because of the heat from the rice soup, his earlobes were reddened.
Click.
After eating lunch with Kyungoh and parting ways, Sangho returned to his studio apartment. Since he had vomited all over the floor the previous day, it was bound to be a mess, so Sangho sighed as he put in his key and opened the door.
“Huh?”
But strangely, the floor was clean. Sangho turned on the studio apartment light with a slightly bewildered face. The interior items hadn’t changed much, and nothing was missing. But the messy room had been cleanly tidied up.
From the room, there seemed to be a scent of wet soil and moss-covered forest from somewhere. And above that, a subtle and cool herb scent lingered. It was a scent that somehow made the nape of his neck feel cool.
“Did Wonha clean it up?”
How did he open the door? Sangho tried hard to remember whether he had closed the door when he got in Wonha’s car the previous day, or if he had left it open. But he’d been in such a state of confusion then that he didn’t remember well. It seems like Wonha came back to the car a bit later. Maybe the door was open, so he wiped the messy floor.
Sangho raised his eyebrows as he touched the nape of his neck. If Wonha had said not to enter the room, he really wouldn’t have entered… But he also has no sense of distance in strange ways, so he might not have been able to just pass by vomit in plain sight. That’s what Sangho thought.
“I should thank him later.”
Muttering that, Sangho looked around the studio apartment once more and opened wide the barred window. The herb scent that had been lingering in the room from earlier bothered him somehow. It felt like being left alone and isolated in an empty, damp forest. The more he tried to escape the forest, the deeper he burrowed in and got lost—it was that kind of strange feeling.
I should ventilate more often. It must be a moldy smell.
After opening the window and turning around, Sangho thought he should clean the room while he was at it. Having stayed at Wonha’s house for a few days, he’d realized that a pleasant environment had more influence on his mood than he’d thought.
He swept and mopped the floor once more, and threw all the clothes he’d worn once or twice and tossed aside into the bathroom for laundry. When he wondered how Wonha had dried the washed clothes so quickly at his studio, he said he used a dryer. He’d learned for the first time that day that laundry smells if it dries slowly. Having felt good wearing clean, well-dried clothes on his way to work, Sangho had been keeping an eye on several coin laundromats near his house.
Suddenly the blanket dampened by basement humidity caught his eye. Sangho first washed the blanket in the old top-loading washing machine. Carrying the blanket that had become extremely heavy from absorbing moisture, Sangho arrived at a nearby coin laundromat and put the whole blanket in and ran the dryer.
In the meantime, after grabbing a simple dinner and arriving home, Sangho laid out the fluffy, soft blanket and lay down in the clean room. Though his back ached a bit from the cheap sponge mat, when the fabric softener scent spread from the well-dried blanket, his mood improved even more. It would feel really good if the blanket dried crisp in the dryer also smelled like sunshine. Suddenly remembering the scent of sunshine from the sleeping bag Kyungoh had given him, Sangho thought he should definitely ask what fabric softener he uses.
Later when I move and make a lot of money, I’ll definitely buy a dryer.
Sangho, who had become lethargic from the events that had swept through the past few weeks, felt a bit of motivation well up from the single resolution to buy a dryer. Since I’ve decided to exercise with Han Kyungoh anyway, I’ll build up my stamina and work on my body too. Then even this worthless life will be a little. A little meaningful. With those thoughts, Sangho fell asleep.
***
It was finally the weekend.
Having deep-cleaned his studio apartment the previous day, Sangho slept in very late until noon. The semi-basement studio apartment received little sunlight, so if he didn’t set an alarm, he always overslept like this. Scratching his messily sprawled hair, Sangho groggily sat up.
“Ugh…”
