As if he’d heard something strange, Seo Eunho frowned and spun his finger around his temple area.
“Are you kind of messed up in the head?”
Tae Shinwoo gave his gaze to Seo Eunho’s finger and slightly frowned, but absurdly, the corners of his mouth were gradually rising.
“Just because it’s fun.”
“Fun?”
“Don’t things become interesting when they deviate from expectations? That’s exactly what you are. Because you don’t move at all within my expectations.”
Though he had made the gesture, he had tried not to really think he was crazy, but it seemed he could draw that conclusion after all.
“If I come at you like this, how will you react? Like this? It’s fun whether I’m right or wrong.”
“……”
“Expecting and watching that is also a kind of interest.”
While he was having idle thoughts, Tae Shinwoo was increasingly hammering in the fact that he was indeed crazy. Seo Eunho briefly contemplated how he should answer, but he wasn’t given time to open his mouth. It was because Tae Shinwoo suddenly moved away from in front of the counter and started looking around the small convenience store.
Seo Eunho stared blankly at Tae Shinwoo. He looked around the inside of the convenience store with curious eyes. Like that, he really seemed like a crazy bastard. After throwing out strange words, he was looking around the convenience store with an innocent face, so there was no choice but to think that way.
“Is this kind of thing delicious?”
In the midst of it all, Tae Shinwoo gave off the vibe that he had never once eaten something like triangle kimbap in his life. Seo Eunho answered indifferently, “Yeah.” He felt like telling him to flatter appropriately and get lost, but it seemed he wouldn’t particularly listen.
Soon Tae Shinwoo returned to the counter. Thinking that there were no customers today of all days so there was no excuse to chase Tae Shinwoo away, Seo Eunho, who had been looking outside absorbed in thought, turned his head belatedly. At the same time, triangle kimbap came tumbling down onto the counter.
“What’s this?”
Seo Eunho asked, alternately looking at the counter that had become a mess in a short time and Tae Shinwoo’s face. Irritation was contained in his twitching eyebrows.
“What do you mean?”
However, Tae Shinwoo acted nonchalant. He even tilted his head as if asking why he was just standing there.
Seo Eunho looked at the display where the triangle kimbap should originally have been lined up. Absurdly, the display was completely empty. Tae Shinwoo had swept up all the triangle kimbap. And it hadn’t been long since the goods had come in, so there was quite a bit left.
What kind of trick was this again? Just the thought of trying to gauge what was inside Tae Shinwoo’s head already made him tired. Seo Eunho just picked up the triangle kimbap to ring it up, watching Tae Shinwoo take out his wallet.
What did it matter anyway? Whether he made a purchase close to hoarding or not. As long as he paid, that was it.
Seo Eunho’s hands moved mechanically, and beeping sounds came from the POS system. Tae Shinwoo, who had been staring at Seo Eunho moving busily, suddenly opened his mouth.
“But aren’t you curious?”
Was it this bastard’s hobby to speak while cutting off the beginning and end? Seo Eunho let out a short sigh.
“About what?”
The question contained not even a bit of interest.
“That person back then. How it turned out?”
However, at the words Tae Shinwoo followed with, Seo Eunho had no choice but to momentarily stop his hands. It was because he immediately realized who the ‘that person’ Tae Shinwoo was talking about was.
“……What does that have to do with me?”
A brief silence fell, but Seo Eunho answered quite quickly. His hands that had stopped also started moving again. There was no reason to dwell long on matters unrelated to him. If he had been curious, he would have asked long ago.
Even taking care of himself was difficult. There was no leeway to waste mental energy on such things.
“Cruel.”
At Seo Eunho’s attitude, Tae Shinwoo responded with bullshit.
“……Is that something you should be saying?”
So when he asked crookedly, Tae Shinwoo shrugged with a smile. At least he seemed to know it wasn’t something he should say.
“Aren’t people usually curious? If it were me, I would have been curious how it turned out. I have tremendous interest in my surroundings.”
Don’t you just think of it as an interesting spectacle?
Seo Eunho swallowed the question that tried to burst out and just shook his head from side to side. If he mixed more words with Tae Shinwoo, he felt like he’d really get tired, so he wanted to kick him out now.
“Yeah, must be nice having lots of time. Just pay.”
Holding out the plastic bag full of swept-up triangle kimbap to Tae Shinwoo, Seo Eunho jerked his chin at the screen displaying the price. It was full of meaning to pay and get lost.
Tae Shinwoo obediently held out his card. They hadn’t even exchanged many words, so why was he so tired? Was it because Tae Shinwoo’s gaze was increasingly tenaciously directed at him? Seo Eunho tried to ignore Tae Shinwoo’s gaze that clung to him.
“Right now I’m especially interested in you, Seo Eunho.”
However, his efforts turned to bubbles in an instant. It was because the distance with Tae Shinwoo had suddenly gotten close enough to make having the counter between them meaningless.
“What are you doing, right now?”
Seo Eunho, who belatedly realized that Tae Shinwoo had leaned his upper body far over the counter, asked irritably. Then he placed Tae Shinwoo’s card on the counter as if throwing it.
As soon as Tae Shinwoo’s upper body came over, his body that had pulled straight back was still stuck tightly to the cigarette display. As if that was funny, Tae Shinwoo picked up the card and burst into laughter while straightening his back.
“I can’t figure out your insides. So I’m more interested. What should I do?”
It was a question he really didn’t know how to answer. Does this happen when you become interested in something? Seo Eunho quickly came to an answer. It was because Tae Shinwoo was a crazy bastard.
“Just live not knowing if you don’t know. Why are you trying to know? Are you going to live knowing the insides of everyone in the whole world?”
“Maybe not everyone in the whole world, but I want to know the insides of the people around me.”
Since when had he been promoted to one of Tae Shinwoo’s people around him? Seo Eunho stood with his arms crossed. Tae Shinwoo, who was ready to retort to everything he said, made him utterly tired.
“Get possessed by a spirit or something.”
“……Is that a joke?”
So at the offhand remark, Tae Shinwoo laughed as if absurd. His eyes naturally folding as he lifted the corners of his mouth looked quite splendid. Though it didn’t evoke any feelings in Seo Eunho.
“I don’t care what you think, and it’s annoying, so will you go now?”
“You really weren’t surprised?”
How can I kick this bastard out?
Seo Eunho seriously thought about it. Unfortunately, there was no way. It would be nice if he could leave his post, but there was still a long time left in his part-time job.
“Surprised about what?”
In the end, Seo Eunho changed his approach to answering each of Tae Shinwoo’s words. Since he was spouting about being curious or interested, he thought that if that was resolved, he would naturally leave.
“That day. You weren’t surprised at all seeing me. Right?”
“Why should I be surprised?”
At his question, Tae Shinwoo laughed lowly, saying, “I knew it.”
“People are usually surprised. I’m a kind, diligent, and friendly model student, after all.”
Tae Shinwoo said easily what would be embarrassing to say with one’s own mouth so brazenly.
“When I ran into you, I expected it. Because it seemed like it would be fun if you were flustered or surprised.”
“Ah, fun.”
“You usually have no expression at all. So I had higher expectations but…… You passed by as if you hadn’t seen anything. Without changing your expression at all.”
Was it really an illusion that his voice seemed to contain regret? As if letting out all the sighs of a lifetime today, another long breath burst out.
In the end, was the fundamental reason for deliberately coming and throwing this fit because he hadn’t shown any reaction that day?
“Don’t you hear that? That you’re a psychopath.”
In the end, there was only one conclusion.
“That’s too much.”
He said it like that because he seemed like a psychopath, but Tae Shinwoo spoke quite hurt. However, since he was raising the corners of his mouth, it had no meaning.
Seo Eunho was about to say that what was really too much was you coming out of nowhere and constantly spouting strange things, stealing time.
“Well, that could be.”
But Tae Shinwoo’s frank acknowledgment was a bit faster.
“Is it because there’s nothing fun?”
“You’re not even a kid. You’ve been going on about fun from earlier.”
“I’m not an adult though, am I?”
It was truly a conversation with no substance. Seo Eunho clicked his tongue and retorted.
“Right. Have plenty of fun before you become an adult.”
The words that were about to unconsciously tag along—must be nice being able to go around looking for fun things—he forcibly suppressed. Fun or whatever, he who was busy with only work every day could absolutely never do that.
“I’ve been thinking from before, but you’re really curious.”
Lots of fun things, lots of curious things. Must be so enjoyable to live. Seo Eunho, who had been thinking indifferently, suddenly furrowed his brow. It was because he only then realized that Tae Shinwoo had been speaking as if he had known about him all along from earlier.
“Have you seen me before?”
A question completely unrelated to Tae Shinwoo’s words flowed out. To that, Tae Shinwoo tilted his head as if it was strange.
“Where is there a kid who doesn’t know you?”
Hearing it from a real celebrity felt a bit strange, so Seo Eunho just closed his mouth. In the meantime, Tae Shinwoo calmly continued speaking.
“I knew from long ago. I saw you often. That’s why I was even happier that it was you I ran into that day. Because I especially expected your reaction.”
“……Are you really a psycho bastard?”
Seo Eunho was disgusted. What did it matter whether he knew him or not? He felt like he’d asked a pointless question.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard that.”
In the midst of it all, Tae Shinwoo was laughing at the words ‘psycho bastard.’ He seemed even more like a psycho. How could it be the first time hearing it? That was even more puzzling.
“But you didn’t show any reaction.”
Isn’t just passing by also a kind of reaction? Seo Eunho swallowed the thought that came to him. If Tae Shinwoo wouldn’t shut his mouth, then he should be the one to shut up.
“That’s why I came today.”
Looking at Seo Eunho with his mouth firmly shut, Tae Shinwoo grinned. It seemed he didn’t care at all even though the other person wasn’t reacting.
“If I suddenly visit, what kind of reaction will it be? If I talk to him, how will he react?”
“……”
“I didn’t expect to hear ‘I won’t tell anyone so don’t bother me and leave’ though.”
You’re a psycho yet you lived pretending to be normal so well. As soon as the words ended, Tae Shinwoo, whose eyes sparkled as if waiting for his reaction, truly seemed like a psycho.
“So, you came to do a kind of experiment.”
He didn’t particularly want to answer his words, but at Tae Shinwoo, who seemed like he would keep holding out in front of the counter if he did that, Seo Eunho muttered in a half-enlightened voice.
“Rather than an experiment, I was just curious about you.”
And as if he’d been waiting, Tae Shinwoo’s answer came back. Seo Eunho let out a “Ha” and laughed.
“Yeah, got it. If you’re done with today’s experiment, now really go. Don’t tell me it’s not enough?”
Soon a crooked voice burst out from Seo Eunho. He didn’t even want to count how many times he’d told him to go. He just knew he’d said it quite a lot.
“It’s enough.”
Fortunately, Tae Shinwoo seemed to have no intention of doing anything more. He rummaged inside the plastic bag and lifted his head to face Seo Eunho.
“See you at school. Eat the rest. You eat this well.”
In his hand was one triangle kimbap. It was after he had pushed all the rest to Seo Eunho.
Even when told to go like that, he hadn’t listened, but having fulfilled his purpose, Tae Shinwoo disappeared without looking back like a person with no regrets left.
Seo Eunho stared blankly at Tae Shinwoo’s retreating figure and soon looked down at the triangle kimbap. And only after a while did he mutter.
“Should have paid in cash so I could refund it.”
It was a very dissatisfied tone.
‘You eat this well.’
In the midst of that, the words Tae Shinwoo had casually thrown out began to linger in his ears. Thanks to that, he could clearly know that Tae Shinwoo had been watching him.
Surely it won’t last long.
It’s probably interest that will end today, just for a moment. Seo Eunho imagined Tae Shinwoo visiting again and shook his head in disgust. Such shitty thoughts shouldn’t be kept in his head even for a moment.
