Hong Seungpyo was unapologetic about it. It was true that he had transferred schools, and it was true that he had no friends. By definition, friendship required mutual closeness from both sides. By that standard, it was accurate to say he had not a single friend.
Hong Seungpyo held his head high like a rooster and kept right on running his mouth without pause.
“I’ll buy you ice cream.”
He flashed Dooyoung a languid smile, catching his gaze just barely.
“You can have ten.”
Hong Seungpyo found the nearest convenience store and headed inside. Dooyoung stood under the patio umbrella and waited. He was worried about how long Hong Seungpyo was going to keep him — he had work to get to. More than that, his mouth felt stale and he wanted to brush his teeth as soon as possible.
Hong Seungpyo came out of the convenience store, twisted the cap off a bottle of water, and held it out to Dooyoung. When Dooyoung didn’t take it right away and looked at it with suspicion, Hong Seungpyo let out a light smile.
“Rinse your mouth with it.”
The casually offered words were gentle. Dooyoung carefully took the water and rinsed. He spat into the drain with a ptoo, then muttered a small thank you. This time, Hong Seungpyo didn’t ask him to repeat it — whether he’d actually heard was unclear.
Dooyoung had been thirsty, so he filled his mouth until both cheeks puffed out. Hong Seungpyo stared at those swollen cheeks for a moment, then poked one with his index finger. Dooyoung sprayed water like a misting bottle and choked so hard his head rang with coughing.
Hong Seungpyo patted his back and then tried to wipe his mouth for him like before. Dooyoung gave a small shake of his head at the sudden instinctive refusal that rose in him. He put some safe distance between them and then scrubbed at his wet chin with his own shirt sleeve.
Hong Seungpyo was genuinely strange. He acted as if he were completely sincere about this friend game they were playing. Just then, an unwrapped ice cream bar was held out in front of his face.
“Eat.”
Dooyoung received the ice cream he was handed with both hands and gave a polite little bow. Hong Seungpyo raised one eyebrow at the reverential treatment.
When Dooyoung just held the ice cream without eating it, Hong Seungpyo tilted his head.
“You’re not eating?”
Dooyoung, hearing it as eat it right now, quickly shook his head and answered.
“I — I am eating.”
Not wanting to be kept here until it was finished, Dooyoung took a big bite of the ice cream. The cold went straight to his teeth and chilled him to the bone, so he immediately changed tactics and started licking it instead.
It really did feel like winter was drawing close. His lips were cold, and the ice cream was as hard as a club — it wasn’t melting quickly. Hong Seungpyo bit into his ice cream with sharp canine teeth. Their eyes met, and he curved his eyes into crescents and laughed — bright and clear.
Dooyoung felt a little uneasy whenever he saw Hong Seungpyo smiling at him like that, like some boy without a care in the world. He couldn’t afford to trust a stranger’s kindness carelessly. Because later, they might drop the mask and cut him to pieces without mercy. Or leave him with some kind of devastating wound instead.
“Do you eat it often?”
“…Huh?”
Dooyoung had drifted into his own thoughts and answered late.
“The kibble. I tried it for the first time today.”
Dooyoung questioned whether he’d heard correctly. The question had come in with no detour at all, and he wondered if there was some intent hidden inside it that he wasn’t grasping. As Hong Seungpyo said — it wasn’t his first time eating kibble today. It was like a hazing ritual that always happened whenever he went to Lee Juhak’s hideout.
But was this why Hong Seungpyo had asked to hang out with him? To say something like that? It had been such a long time since anyone had asked him to hang out after school……. It wasn’t as if he’d actually wanted to trail along after Hong Seungpyo like some eager puppy, but somewhere without realizing it, he must have expected something. Just a little. Because otherwise, he couldn’t explain this feeling of disappointment.
“It’s dripping.”
Hong Seungpyo had closed in before he knew it and said, grabbing Dooyoung’s wrist. Coral-colored sweetness was tracing slanted lines across the back of his hand, clinging on precariously. Dooyoung reflexively licked his own hand. He sucked at the base of the ice cream, then worked his lips up the stick.
Once he’d taken care of the melted parts, his hand was still sticky. He tried to open the water bottle to rinse it off, but Hong Seungpyo still had his wrist in his grip and he couldn’t move his hand freely. Dooyoung fumbled a few times getting nowhere. Hong Seungpyo covered Dooyoung’s hand with his and opened the bottle for him.
Then, suddenly, a warm breath drifted across his forehead. When he looked up, his bangs grazed Hong Seungpyo’s chin. Dooyoung’s eyes went wide at how much closer Hong Seungpyo’s face was than he expected. Their gazes locked.
If a gaze could have weight, Hong Seungpyo’s would be falling from space to a concrete floor at full speed, bare. An inexplicable revulsion surged up without warning at those eyes he couldn’t easily pull free from. Because they were unsettlingly close to the way Kim Jinho looked at him.
Dooyoung stepped backward and knocked the plastic chair with his heel. At the scraping sound of plastic against the floor, those pitch-black eyes flashed like a spark. In one move, Hong Seungpyo closed the gap and grabbed Dooyoung by the forearm.
Dooyoung flinched and knocked his hand away without thinking. The easygoing air Hong Seungpyo carried vanished in an instant, replaced by something cold.
“Next thing I know, you’ll be hitting me in the face?”
“S-sorry.”
At Dooyoung’s apology, Hong Seungpyo smiled again — but it wasn’t as fresh as before. That smile carried a damp, wintry smell to it. Dooyoung realized something then. No matter what Hong Seungpyo did to him from here on, he wouldn’t be able to resist even once.
Hong Seungpyo looked at Dooyoung’s sullen face for a moment, then scratched the back of his neck. Then he took the water bottle from Dooyoung’s hand.
“I’ll pour it for you. Wash your hands.”
“Oh — yeah…… Thanks……”
“Can’t hear you.”
Dooyoung did not say it a second time. Hong Seungpyo gave a small pull of his lips and let it go without making anything of it. He held out the convenience store bag to Dooyoung and said plainly:
“Brush your teeth properly.”
He hadn’t been lying about buying ten ice creams — the convenience store bag had ice cream of every variety inside it. There was even an expensive cup ice cream. Dooyoung felt a heavy lump stuck behind his sternum.
Why are you being good to me? Do you have something to take from me too?
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had received someone’s goodwill and taken it at face value. It had always been rare to begin with. They say a person who’s been given gifts knows how to receive them well — at that rate, he would never be able to properly accept anyone’s goodwill for as long as he lived.
“I’m heading out.”
With that, Hong Seungpyo vanished all at once. Like the trail of a dream that disappears the moment you open your eyes. But the dream he had stepped out of was nothing but a nightmare. That much would never change.
As night drew nearer, a light rain began to fall. Yoo Jaemin, who had briefly stepped out and returned, had slightly damp hair.
“You didn’t take an umbrella?”
“No, the convenience store’s right nearby.”
“Were there any left in stock?”
“Nope, totally struck out again today. At this rate I might as well raid the factory.”
Yoo Jaemin, the owner of the café Penstemon, had recently been making the rounds of neighborhood convenience stores to hunt down a snack that came with a popular character card inside. For someone not particularly in tune with trends, the reason he was targeting that specific snack was to get his hands on the weasel-like side character.
“Huh? Dooyoung, where did all this ice cream come from?”
Yoo Jaemin asked, peering into the freezer.
“…I picked it up on the way. Help yourself.”
“Really? Then I bought ice cream for nothing.”
Yoo Jaemin shook the convenience store bag he was holding. Dooyoung went into the changing room, took out a dry towel, and handed it to Yoo Jaemin.
“Thanks. It’s so cold out today. I’m craving savory pancakes and makgeolli. Should I just close up early and head in?”
“Do you like drinking?”
“In moderation? What about you?”
“Me?”
“Oh right, you’re still a minor. How old are you this year?”
Dooyoung hesitated briefly before answering.
“…I’m turning twenty soon.”
“Already? I feel like when I first met you, you were in middle school.”
“I was in high school……”
