“Ah, haah… This feels so good…”
Lee Heewoo’s low moan and dampened voice crossed through the air. With his eyes closed, Heewoo panted hot breaths and dabbed away a few beads of sweat stuck to his forehead. Then he turned to look at Heichi with a face full of satisfaction.
“How about you, Heichi-ssi…?”
The complexion of Heewoo asking the question had worry and happiness mysteriously mixed together. The sight of him dripping beads of sweat down his white forehead would have been quite lascivious if not for the background occupying the space behind him. It was when Heichi was about to answer something while looking at that sight.
“Oooh, this is gre-eat.”
“Heutcha. Heutcha. Heutcha.”
Inside the sauna, where sizzling heat rose plentifully from the fire kiln placed next to them, warming the interior to close to 70 degrees.
This was precisely <24-Hour Charcoal Fire Kiln Jjimjilbang>.
It was Heewoo who had dragged Heichi—who’d had a consistently blank expression from the moment they entered the jjimjilbang lobby—into the ‘High Temperature Fire Kiln Steam Room’ located inside the jjimjilbang. Heewoo, worried about Heichi for whom this was probably his first time at a jjimjilbang, fed him sikhye he’d bought in advance and even wrapped a towel soaked in cold water around his neck.
If Heewoo could rest from work for just one day, what he’d wanted to do was go to a jjimjilbang.
In his childhood, he’d sometimes followed his grandmother to the public bath. Then one day, when his father got drunk and smashed all the household items, they had no choice but to evacuate to the jjimjilbang operated by the bathhouse, and that memory had settled in Heewoo’s mind as something so very happy.
That was because, for one, the jjimjilbang was warm unlike the cold-filled semi-basement room, and on top of that, it gave him a sense of security that his father wouldn’t suddenly barge in and beat him. Young Heewoo, with a bruise around his eye, was able to sleep comfortably and deeply for the first time in a while in one corner of the jjimjilbang sleeping room together with his grandmother.
Perhaps that’s why. Usually, even if his grandmother had brought her grandson to the jjimjilbang, she would have ignored whatever Heewoo did or where he was, but that day she was unusually affectionate. She warmly held Heewoo, who’d settled in a corner of the sleeping room, all through the night. Although she was a grandmother who hadn’t been affectionate all her life, the reason he couldn’t pretend not to know when she got cancer was also because that memory was so intense.
“If it’s too hot for you, shall we go somewhere else…?”
Heewoo asked while looking at Heichi with anxious eyes. Strangely, even though Heichi was inside this hot steam room, he hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, and to Heewoo, that looked like he was enduring the heat. He turned the sikhye in its blue lid so the straw faced toward him and held it out.
“No. I’m fine.”
“If you’re hot, p-please say so. It’s okay.”
“I have thick outer skin so I’m strong against heat.”
Since he said so, Heewoo was relieved for now. Still, worried he might be bored being here with him, Heewoo cracked open one of the eggs he’d brought, dabbed some salt on the soft brown surface, then handed it over. It was a maekbanseok egg.
Though he’d been to a jjimjilbang before, buying and eating maekbanseok eggs or sikhye like this was Heewoo’s first time too. This was all something he could do because Heichi had given him money as a compensation concept. With a trembling heart, Heewoo had purchased maekbanseok eggs and sikhye as soon as he entered the jjimjilbang, and even after that, he’d confirmed there was a tremendous balance remaining in his account and felt relieved.
“Try eating this…”
When he carefully held the egg in one hand and supported it with the other, Heichi opened his mouth appropriately. The egg that entered his large mouth disappeared by half in one go.
“How is it?”
“It’s delicious. Heewoo-ssi too…”
Heichi seemed to want to do it for him too, as he picked up an egg and lightly tapped it toward the floor like Heewoo had done. But this time, instead of a tok sound like when Heewoo did it, it made a puck! sound.
“…”
“…”
Heewoo blankly lowered his eyes to look at the egg corpse crushed on the floor. The eggshell, yellow yolk, and brown white were mixed together, crushed to a level where it absolutely couldn’t be eaten. Since he’d watched what he was doing and copied it, he must have tapped it as weakly as possible, but just how strong was his strength that the egg could burst out like this?
“I’m sorry.”
“N-no! It’s okay, we have lots of eggs!”
At Heichi’s clean apology, Heewoo even waved his hands denying it was okay. It was fortunate he’d bought as many as four eggs just in case. Heewoo wondered if he should hold and crack the egg for him again, then paused and alternately looked at the egg and Heichi.
Then he held out the egg to Heichi. When he carefully grasped the small egg with his large hand, Heewoo thrust his own round head in front of it.
“Here, try hitting it.”
“…What do you mean?”
“This is originally, l-like this.”
Realizing it was difficult to explain with words, Heewoo quietly gripped an egg in his hand. Then he said softly to Heichi, ‘Excuse me,’ and tapped the egg on top of his pale blond hair. Fortunately, the egg shell cracked with a light shock.
“You tap each other’s heads to crack them…!”
Though it was something he himself barely knew from accessing through media, Heewoo spoke with a rather proud face. When he came with his grandmother, they didn’t even have money to buy eggs so he couldn’t even dream of it, but this time was different so he wanted to try. Besides, if Heichi tapped his head too, it seemed like it would be easier to gauge the strength level.
Heichi seemed to have grasped the method from Heewoo’s demonstration too, but somehow he kept hesitating, only repeatedly gripping and releasing the egg in his hand. Noticing that was out of worry, Heewoo smiled faintly, grasped Heichi’s wrist, then pulled it toward himself.
“It’s okay, this won’t hurt me.”
Though Heichi seemed quite startled by the sudden contact, he soon brought the egg to Heewoo’s head as if he’d made up his mind. He gently gripped the egg, then—tuk.
Heewoo smoothly stroked his head where the egg had touched. Did it touch? Or did it not touch? The force was so weak he didn’t even feel it touch, so naturally he thought the egg wouldn’t have cracked. But when Heichi suddenly opened his palm to show the egg…
“Huh?”
The egg was cracked. It was clearly such a weak force that he didn’t even feel it touch his head.
While finding it strange, Heewoo affirmed the fact that the shell had cracked and rubbed the cracked part to peel off the shell. And this time, he took one bite himself and gave Heichi the remaining bite. When the warm, savory yolk entered his mouth together with the salty salt taste, it felt like his insides were warming up.
On top of that, when he sucked in the sikhye he’d bought in advance through the straw with a slurp, it was truly nothing short of heaven. After that, it was almost 20 minutes later when the two people, who’d been chattering in a corner of the steam room, came out.
“Haah…!”
Coming out of the steam room, together with the lowered temperature, he felt like his breath was opening up. Heewoo, his cheeks bright red, turned to look at Heichi with a satisfied face. Then he saw Heichi, who hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, shuffling out following him.
Looking at Heichi like that, Heewoo felt like maybe it hadn’t been fun. Since he said he didn’t handle heat or cold well.
This time, Heewoo, who was pondering where to drag him to, finally came to a conclusion. The reason he came here today was ‘because he wanted to sleep,’ so he decided to show Heichi his favorite place too. That was the 2-person cave in the corner of the sleeping room.
The sleeping room, made so exactly 2 people could enter and lie down in each cave, had an atmosphere where sleep would come easily mixed with the unique warmth of the jjimjilbang. Arriving at the sleeping room, Heewoo first entered the cave and laid out the mat and pillow he’d borrowed from the concession stand. Then he patted the mat and said to Heichi.
“Here…! Come in!”
Though it wasn’t even his own home, it was quite comfortable so Heewoo had a very confident expression. When Heichi bent his large frame and entered the cave, the inside that had been spacious when Heewoo was alone became packed full.
“This is where I sleep best.”
Perhaps because it was a sleeping room, everyone else was sleeping too, so naturally Heewoo’s voice whispered. This time too, as if showing a demonstration, Heewoo first lay down on his side. Then Heichi also lay down as if entranced.
The two people, who had come to lie side by side in the narrow cave, realized under the soft lighting that each other’s faces looked very close. Their fingertips and forearms would naturally brush against each other, and Heewoo found that so embarrassing that he kept hunching his shoulders.
Should I just say let’s go out and sleep…
Thinking about it, before it had been comfortable and cozy because he’d slept with his grandmother, and he’d overlooked the fact that the two of them weren’t close enough yet to sleep stuck together with Heichi like this. It was when Heewoo, thinking for some reason he felt awkward and sleepy wouldn’t come, was about to suggest going outside.
“H-Heewoo-ssi.”
“…Yes?”
“May I… hold you?”
Heichi’s tone was somehow stiff and also awkward… and very, very careful.
“May I hold you… and sleep?”
At that careful voice, Heewoo blinked his eyes in the faint darkness. Judging that appearance as affirmation, Heichi carefully extended his arm. Puk—embraced deep in his arms, Heewoo inhaled at Heichi’s warmth and body scent that came rushing over.
