Seongjo realized he was a bit nervous as he looked at Yujeong’s name that appeared on his phone screen. It was a feeling he was experiencing for the first time, so it was quite unfamiliar.
‘Living my life, there comes a day when I get nervous receiving someone’s call.’
After letting out a slightly impatient laugh, he answered the phone as is.
“Hello?”
– I was actually about to contact you.
Yujeong said that as soon as he answered the phone. It seemed to be a response to the message Seongjo had sent. Because it was fascinating that he had planned to contact him first, Seongjo asked in wonder.
“About what?”
– About what we talked about yesterday.
Did he perhaps want to take back what he said? Even if so, he had no intention of listening, so it was unfortunate for Yujeong. Seongjo, who had regained his composure by now, waited for Yujeong’s next words while spinning a fountain pen with one hand.
– I thought a bit about what I should do to give you a change of pace or help you sort out your thoughts.
It was a very different story from what Seongjo had expected. He hadn’t thought of it because he thought what to do was entirely up to Seongjo himself to decide. It made his worry about whether he really had to go throw axes seem pointless, but knowing that Yujeong had also seriously pondered in his own way made him feel good. Seongjo asked in a voice tinged with laughter.
“So, do you have time on the weekend?”
– Yes, is your schedule okay until Monday?
Monday was the school anniversary day that Yeongeun had told him about. He wasn’t flustered because he had already had that day in mind when asking. Of course, Yujeong wouldn’t know that Seongjo knew. He felt somehow pleased by that secret.
For one weekday, it wasn’t difficult to clear his schedule. Unlike his grandfather or father who were heads of the company, Seongjo was in a relatively free position from obligations and could enjoy what he could enjoy. Feeling newly grateful for his own position, when he answered that it was fine, Yujeong replied in his customarily calm voice.
– Then let’s go somewhere together. I’ll give you a change of pace.
To say something like this in such a robotic tone. Of course, Seongjo thought that point was Yujeong’s peculiar and interesting aspect, so it was fine either way.
More than that, what was the date course he had seriously pondered and decided on? Yujeong seemed quite normative and didn’t appear to enjoy breaking out of frameworks, so it didn’t seem like he would have thought of something particularly unusual.
Seongjo, who was strangely excited and distracted, failed to catch an important part.
– It doesn’t matter where we go?
Thinking back, it was Yujeong’s very words, spoken in a tone that was subtly testing the waters.
* * *
Time passed, Saturday.
The car Yujeong was driving had been racing along the quiet highway for quite a while. It had already been a long time since they entered the highway. An hour had already passed easily, and it was almost two hours.
Seongjo, who had at first gotten into the passenger seat without complaint in a purely excited mood, was now feeling somewhat bored.
Yujeong, who didn’t talk, wasn’t a good companion for a drive. No matter how much he changed the channels, the radio only offered boring broadcasts. Seongjo, who had been listening with an expressionless face to the characteristically bland stories read by the lunchtime radio, finally opened his mouth.
“I’ve already asked this several times, but…”
As those words indicated, this question wasn’t the first. It was a question that had been repeated several times from the moment he got in the car and just fastened his seatbelt.
“Where exactly are we going right now?”
And what that meant was, this also wasn’t the first time Yujeong hadn’t answered clearly. He responded in a familiar and nonchalant voice.
“Didn’t you say it didn’t matter where?”
Well, he did say that. He was curious what he had prepared to say such a thing, and at that time he didn’t know he’d be coming out in a car for several hours like this. Still, should he not have given such an excessively spirited answer saying it was okay to go anywhere and do anything?
Of course, just because they had come far didn’t mean he regretted the decision to come out itself. He was just literally curious. Where exactly he was planning to take him.
“If you’re planning to sell me off somewhere after coming all the way out here, that’s a different story.”
When he retorted grumblingly as if joking, Yujeong still said nonchalantly,
“Don’t worry. If something comes up where I need to sell you off, I won’t come all the way out here but will sell you near your house.”
Was that supposed to be a joke? He didn’t laugh while saying it, so he couldn’t tell at all. If it really was a joke, it was a failed one. It wasn’t that funny. Seongjo stared at Yujeong with an unmoved face.
Still, well.
It was somewhat boring, but a drive was a drive. Even though it was a weekend, the road was quiet so the speed was quite fast. The wind rushing in through the slightly open window was steadily cooling his head. The scenery diligently passing by the window had been a continuous succession of mountains or rice fields from some point on, but that’s why his mind became peaceful instead.
It seemed he could nod his head somewhat even if this was claimed to be a change of pace. So Yujeong not telling him the destination wasn’t unpleasant. Therefore, Seongjo just shrugged his shoulders.
Yujeong, who was looking straight ahead stiffly like a driving machine, didn’t seem like he would actively answer even if spoken to. It also felt hesitant because speaking itself felt like an interruption. So instead of talking to Yujeong, Seongjo changed the radio channel, which was completely uninteresting and a bit noisy, to somewhere else.
When he tuned the frequency to a classical channel, a song Seongjo knew flowed out. It was an art song, and although he roughly knew the lyrics too, he didn’t want to sing along. Instead of humming, when he slightly nodded his head minutely, Yujeong glanced back at Seongjo through the rearview mirror.
When their eyes met in the rearview mirror, his words about liking quiet songs came to mind. The radio volume wasn’t very loud and the art song itself wasn’t a noisy piece. But wondering if it was distracting from a driving standpoint, he threw out a question.
“Isn’t this quiet enough?”
Yujeong nodded his head. That alone wasn’t enough to understand whether it meant quiet or noisy, but seeing that his expression was okay, it didn’t seem to be the latter. Yujeong said,
“It’s ‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai.'”
Was that what he wanted to say? Seongjo asked with an interested face.
“Do you like classical music?”
“I was quite interested when I was in college. Rather than me liking it…”
Stopping mid-sentence, Yujeong paused for a moment. Seeing how readily an answer came out like this, bringing up the title of the song must have indeed been material for small talk. The fact that he brought up a conversation topic first was fascinating, but the content of the words that soon followed was even more so.
“Someone I had a crush on liked it. Classical music.”
But hearing that story, Seongjo’s insides seemed to tingle slightly.
Why was that?
Although they were riding in a car together under the pretext of a date, they still weren’t in a relationship that could be defined. Moreover, Yujeong knew about Seongjo’s ex-boyfriend’s existence, and had even come out to give him a change of pace from the mood that had worsened because of him.
In such a situation, even if Yujeong talked about someone he liked in the past, there was no room for Seongjo to be displeased. Even knowing that, he somehow felt like teasing him in a displeased tone, asking “did you like them that much?”
Actually… more than that, he was bothered by Yujeong’s expression when saying those words. Thinking, so you’re a man who can make an expression like that. That reason was probably the biggest.
“Tell me more about it.”
At the point where talk of someone he had a crush on in the past came up, he was already naturally ready to nod and roughly change the subject, but that was why he ended up specifically pressing for details.
Yujeong laughed quietly without even looking back at Seongjo, who was showing curiosity. It was natural that he couldn’t turn his eyes carelessly since he had to concentrate on driving, but he became somewhat riled up at the thought that he seemed to find his reaction amusing.
Yujeong answered first before Seongjo could react further.
“There’s nothing particularly special to tell. It was just a one-sided crush.”
“Hmm… That’s interesting.”
His words felt truly quite fascinating, so the riled-up feeling quickly calmed down. Yujeong asked in wonder.
“What part do you mean?”
To put it bluntly, it was fascinating in itself that he had memories of a one-sided crush.
Wasn’t it a face that looked upright and clean to anyone? His personality too, although a bit prickly, was just as upright and straight as a person. Originally, people who were prickly to others like that were supposed to be solid with their partners.
Though it was hard to notice at first thanks to that coldness, Yujeong was also secretly a person with deep consideration, attentiveness, and thoughtfulness.
Well… no matter how decent a man he was, it could have not been the other person’s type. However, it was fascinating in itself that someone as calm as Yujeong had purely and devotedly liked someone one-sidedly who had no interest in him.
Of course, he didn’t tell him all those thoughts. He just shrugged his shoulders saying, “Just, you know.”
