It was when we’d lived together for close to two months. The season had fully entered autumn.
My body felt a bit off from when I woke up in the morning. A slight fever, a foggy head, and a feeling of my heart pounding. It was Friday, so I thought I was just a bit tired from a week’s worth of fatigue accumulating.
“What’s wrong?”
I had no appetite so I was making simple soup and barely eating it, and Jukyung asked. I stared at Jukyung blankly for a moment. It took a little time to interpret the meaning of his words.
“Ah, just. I guess I’m a bit tired. I think I didn’t sleep well either.”
Jukyung frowned slightly.
“How about resting today? Skip the academy.”
Without realizing it, a “huh” of breath escaped. Does he think I’m a student? No, even though he’s someone who does social life himself, how can he say to skip work so easily? If it were school, at least some other teacher could take over the class, but I was a freelance academy instructor. If I suddenly didn’t show up, there was no one to substitute for the class.
“I can’t. I can’t suddenly find a replacement at this hour, and more than anything, it’s my first month. If I flake out like this, I’ll be fired right away next month.”
Deeper furrows formed in Jukyung’s brow. As if he was worried or something. Hmm. Did he tense up at the word fired? Well, having just barely started working, if I returned to being a freeloader right after receiving my first paycheck, he’d be troubled too. With what I earn in a month, after bearing part of the rent and my food expenses, it’ll probably be over.
“I’ll drive you. Get in.”
Jukyung suggested. We were just about to leave the house at the same time to go to work. It was like that for me because of dawn time lectures, but actually for Jukyung, a regular office worker, it was very early to go to work.
When I started dawn lectures at the academy, Jukyung said his work hours had been moved up and started going to work early together. At first, I wondered what kind of regular company employee goes to work at dawn. But Jukyung said that finance company employees often had their work hours changed to night or dawn to grasp the trends of the global financial market and review materials in advance.
I remembered the morning of my first day at work.
‘It’ll be a bit roundabout, but if you want, I’ll drive you.’
Jukyung had made the offer with a rather arrogant expression.
I liked walking, but it was a bit of a long way at the tired and foggy dawn. But Jukyung’s cocky tone and expression were a bit grating. Maybe he’d even charge for that later. In the name of gas money and driving fees.
‘It’s okay. I can think of it as morning exercise.’
I cleanly refused, and Jukyung, as if he hadn’t expected to be refused, made a face like he’d chewed something and disappeared, turning his body as if to kick up a storm, saying suit yourself if you don’t want it.
But today, indeed, I wasn’t in condition to walk for 30 minutes. And there was no sign of showing off on Jukyung’s face either, so I decided to accept it as pure goodwill.
“Thanks.”
I simply nodded and said thanks. Kwon Jukyung’s long eyes seemed to somehow sparkle open. I’d thought this before, but he seems to particularly like hearing words of thanks. Does he like me asking for help? Does it make him feel like he’s won something?
What I’d newly realized lately was that even though Kwon Jukyung had an expressionless and cold face so it didn’t show well at a glance, if you got to know him and looked, he was surprisingly the type whose mood changed drastically over trivial things. Maybe he’d experienced a lot of things that undermined his self-esteem by being called incompetent during his growth process. So maybe that’s why he likes it when he hears words of thanks or receives requests.
But thinking back on Kwon Jukyung from the Leroy days, though I didn’t know him well, he seemed far from incompetent. No, regardless of objective facts, maybe Kwon Jukyung’s family members were super geniuses so he was relatively ignored or something like that environment?
“……”
Well, if we’re going to discuss self-esteem issues, I’m also not particularly…
Tsk.
“Wait a moment.”
Jukyung parked the car in front of the building and went outside for a moment. I sluggishly blinked my feverish eyes and nodded belatedly. It was already late October, so the temperature had dropped quite a bit morning and evening, and today the ground was even wet as if it had rained overnight. It might be because I’m particularly sensitive to cold. The heat rising from the seat made my body pleasantly warm.
Being trapped in the narrow space, Jukyung’s scent faintly came through the car’s characteristic smell. The faint perfume smell mixed with his body scent. Unusually, the scent was strong from dawn today. I took a deep breath. Somehow my lower abdomen felt tingly. My heartbeat quickened a bit, but it didn’t particularly hurt or feel bad.
Thud.
Jukyung, who had returned in the meantime, opened the driver’s side door and got in. A refreshing yuzu scent and coffee scent rushed in along with the damp and chilly morning air. He was holding a drink holder with the logo of the coffee shop in front of the house. After closing the door, Jukyung placed the drinks between the seats.
“Drink whichever you want. It’s hot, so be careful.”
What Jukyung bought were three things. The cafe latte I often drink, a yuzu drink, and an americano. Jukyung doesn’t drink things with milk or sugar, and I don’t drink coffee with nothing added. I didn’t mean to, but my mouth opened on its own and I grinned.
“These two are mine then?”
Jukyung glanced at me and lightly clicked his tongue.
“Don’t come back in the evening whining that you’re sick, just keep your body warm. Drink the yuzu first and take the coffee with you or whatever.”
“Okay.”
Despite the stiff tone, I felt nothing but good and answered languidly. The taste of sitting in a warm seat drinking hot beverages while lowering the window a bit to let in the cool air was special. Like the feeling of soaking your body in an open-air hot spring in snowy winter, perhaps? It might be an excessive comparison, but the strangely floaty sensation elevated my mood like that.
Jukyung getting in and his body scent becoming stronger also contributed. As expected, I like that perfume. It was a perfume that suited him perfectly. If I wore it, it wouldn’t smell like that.
A 30-minute walk was too short by car. Since it was dawn with no traffic, it really felt like we arrived in the blink of an eye. Getting out felt somehow regretful. I’d been feeling good.
“When you’re done… should I come pick you up?”
I was fumbling to unbuckle my belt and gathering my drinks, preparing to get out, when Jukyung asked hesitantly.
“What?”
“No, it overlaps with lunch time anyway, so I thought I could come get you, take you home, and we could eat lunch at home.”
The service was excessive. Normally, my guard radar would have gone off thinking it was suspicious, but with my increasingly drowsy feeling, I just grinned.
“No, it’s not like my leg is broken, why go that far? As you can see, I’m not sick to that degree. I’m just a bit sluggish but I’m fine.”
Jukyung, who faced me, frowned again. Ah, I must have shown too honestly that I felt good. He’s someone with a twisted personality who also dislikes when I’m happy, that bastard.
“Are you really okay?”
“Yeah. Earlier I felt sluggish from being tired, but now I’m okay. I feel good too.”
“……”
As I grinned, Jukyung’s face crumpled even more severely.
“You seem like you have a screw loose.”
Jukyung muttered with displeasure, then stretched out his hand. I was a bit surprised, but my reflexes were slow in my dazed state, so I couldn’t think to dodge. A somewhat cool-feeling large palm pressed down on my forehead, then slid smoothly to the side to cup my cheek.
“It’s cool…”
I muttered without realizing it and closed my eyes. I must have had a fever after all. Seeing how Jukyung’s hand felt cool. Probably also because he’d been holding a cold cup.
Plus, this scent. When it touched my face, the scent that really hit me was truly nice. It felt like entering a forest full of phytoncides. My head, which had been somewhat heavy, seemed to clear. I moved my face a little and without realizing it, grabbed Jukyung’s hand and buried my nose and mouth in his palm.
The moment I took a deep breath, Jukyung ruthlessly pulled his hand away. He pulled it away so roughly that my face naturally whipped toward Jukyung’s side.
With Jukyung’s hand gone from in between, I just stared at Jukyung dumbfounded in the ridiculous posture of my hand against my own cheek. Jukyung, who was awkwardly curling his hand as if it had touched something dirty, made eye contact with me and his face gradually turned red and blue. His eyes were fierce.
What, hey. Is he angry now? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black—aren’t I the one who should be angry in this situation?
“Hey, you get out quickly.”
“What?”
“Get out quickly. I’m late because of you.”
I was dumbfounded. Where did the bastard who was leisurely relaxed just now go?
But as a fellow working person, I couldn’t ignore him making a fuss about being late for work. Grumbling quietly, I got out of the car for now. As soon as I got out and walked two steps, Jukyung seemed to start suddenly, then stopped again not far away.
What’s with him? Even though it’s a car he cherishes, is it okay to handle it so roughly like that?
I was staring in disbelief when the driver’s side window rolled down and Jukyung’s face popped out. His unusually red ears caught my attention.
“Hey. Just wait right after class ends. Don’t think about going anywhere else. Got it?”
Annoyed, I waved my hand up and down showing I understood and turned around. Seriously, such a fussy personality. How nice it would be if he just spoke nicely. He does everything but gets cursed at, that style, that one.
***
Class passed more smoothly than expected, but the dazed heat and strange pounding were gradually getting worse. Perhaps it showed, because about 10 minutes before the end of the last time slot, one of the housewife students brought it up first, suggesting we end early.
