“Euishin-ah.”
When Kwon Yunsu calls him without the surname, it’s usually when he’s extremely happy, anxious, wants to eat something like crazy, or,
“Eat dinner alone today.”
When he’s about to do something shady.
“……”
Even though he understood that fucking expression perfectly, Lee Euishin stayed still. The country bumpkin is weak-willed and fears silence more than being openly cursed at.
“Today, I promised to eat dinner with the club kids. They’re eating meat.”
“You said you’d make dinner.”
Lee Euishin retorted sulkily. That was all he had to say.
“That’s why I made a lot of dried pollack soup and rice this morning. Fry an egg and eat dinner. I’ll do the dishes.”
Then, as if pricked by his own conscience, he returned to lodger mode and added.
“You know, I did write it in the contract, but honestly, cooking dinner every single day is hard. Of course I’ll do it when I’m here, but there can be days when I’m not, right? Let’s revise the contract so if I skip a day, I’ll make up for it the next day with cleaning or laundry.”
Thinking about it, it’s a natural thing to say. At an age when they should be playing, who would come home to eat dinner every day? Excluding days like freshman welcome parties or general meetings, it was impressive that the promise had been kept for a full three weeks. It’s natural for variables to arise. From now on, there will be MTs and such, and he’ll occasionally stay out overnight. It’s natural that it would turn out that way, but,
“You’re telling me to eat alone?”
…But it’s also natural that I feel fucking terrible. Why the hell do such things? Social activities that won’t help in life at all.
Surprisingly, Kwon Yunsu laughed out loud and brushed Lee Euishin’s cheek.
“Why are you so childish? That’s why you should have some school life too.”
Ill-mannered bastard.
He smacked away Kwon Yunsu’s hand and stood up.
“Let’s take a walk to the school gate!”
Ignoring the excited Kwon Yunsu shouting from behind, just as he was walking languidly to exit through the back gate,
“Ex… excuse me….”
Someone spoke to him. When he glanced over, a girl around his age was blushing bright red and fumbling with her lips.
“Who are you?”
He answered simply and turned his head to look for Kwon Yunsu.
“Hurry up.”
His insides were boiling. What’s so great about that soccer club that the kid can’t get his head straight?
“Grilling meat requires skill too, I guess.”
“Of course, someone who burns it shouldn’t pick up the tongs in the first place. If you’re going to practice, you should go home and do it alone.”
“But does eating it with meat really make that taste good?”
“I didn’t even want to smell it. I almost spewed it right onto the face of the senior who poured me soju for the first time.”
Listening to the greenhorn conversation, Kwon Yunsu diligently ate meat. Ahn Shinwook and Song Taesu, and Eunsub hyung also busily moved their mouths, and the manager hyung who treated greens like nothing busily grilled meat while toughly picking it up with tongs to eat.
“But that so-called advisor professor hasn’t even shown his nose despite having a club inauguration ceremony?”
“He’s on sabbatical this year.”
“…Why do you keep telling me things so late?!”
“It’s not information that affects club activities.”
“Why is it so half-assed? I really didn’t know it was such a worthless place. I’m going to quit within this semester.”
“Then fill someone in before you leave.”
“What… is this a pyramid scheme?!”
“I feel like I’m rotting in real time so just shut up, you bastard.”
Even though he grumbled hard, Kwon Yunsu thought Ahn Shinwook would never quit. He looks really cool, that guy’s kind of fun.
Ahn Shinwook, the typical “engineering student with no hobby but soccer” that Manager hyung mentioned on inauguration day, is tall with thin and sharp features, so he seems likely to be popular with girls. He looks like he’d leisurely enter the center anywhere, but looking at what he does, he has plenty of outsider tendencies. When asked about his major, he rattled off incomprehensible things at a master’s or doctoral level, said this gloomy club is perfect for becoming an outcast collection box so everyone be careful, yet he appears at the club room most often. Every time Kwon Yunsu stopped by, he was sitting alone reading a book.
And Song Taesu. That cheerful and talkative bastard is the busiest. He’s active in department life and joined some central club for fishing or something, but whenever he’s told to come play games, he appears in a flash.
Eunsub hyung… owes Manager hyung a big debt, and likes the library. He has a girlfriend he’s been dating for a long time. That’s all he knows.
Kwon Yunsu’s idol, Manager Kim, was surprisingly hard to see. As a beneficiary of god-given course registration, he only comes to school three days a week. When he’s at the club room, he casually does overdue cleaning, picks up useful things to make the place presentable, or calls the kids to play FIFA. He also takes naps. Whatever he does, he looks relaxed. Kwon Yunsu, who has no older brother, looks up to this type.
“It’s good to have a comfortable place to drop by. We can even study there since the library is packed during exam period.”
“Hyung, you’re going to study there too?”
“Why, Shinwook does even now.”
“I read major textbooks because they’re fun.”
“Crazy talk….”
“When are you going to study when you’re doing a central club, vice department representative, and everything?”
“…I see why you don’t have a girlfriend, Ahn Shinwook…..”
Listening to the flowing conversation, Kwon Yunsu grinned. It’s fun. It is fun, but he can’t quite catch the timing to jump in. It was kind of like that in his department too. When he’s with Euishin, he’s a total chatterbox. Is it because he’s been stuck with him for too long? Sociability that works one-on-one with a close friend seems completely useless in external relations.
Should I drag Euishin here? Are you eating well, homeowner?
Thinking of that cold and handsome face that just shudders at his love of soccer, Kwon Yunsu sipped the soju in front of him.
“Gack!”
Quickly putting a water cup in Kwon Yunsu’s hand, Song Taesu patted his back.
“Don’t make reckless challenges, soccer fanboy. Ah, right.”
“Cough… ah shit… paying money for this…..”
“Kwon Yunsu, someone knows you.”
“Me? Who?”
“Shin Jaewoo from our department. He says you’re a friend of his friend.”
“Who’s his friend?”
“I forgot, uh….”
Then Song Taesu immediately pulled out his phone.
“Oh, Jaewoo? It’s me. The kid you mentioned that time is in front of me right now. Kwon Yunsu. Didn’t you say you rent near the back gate? If you haven’t eaten dinner, want to come here?”
He was dumbfounded by the rapid progression.
“What the….”
“Our soccer fanboy seems to be having too shy a college life, so I’m trying to set him up with a friend. Wait. That guy seemed really sociable.”
“I’m sociable too, you know?”
“Your tone right now is really cute, you know?”
“Now, the n in n-way split increased by one digit, so in good conscience we’ll stop our chopsticks. Let’s eat some steamed egg while waiting for that person.”
At Manager hyung’s words, Kwon Yunsu obediently put down his chopsticks, and Song Taesu quickly picked up two pieces of meat to eat. Ahn Shinwook, who had a small appetite, had long been looking at his phone with his arms crossed, and Eunsub hyung went out to make a call. After killing time like that for 5 minutes, a tall figure approached the table.
A tall man with broad shoulders, a handsome face with distinct features, and a mole under his left eye. It strangely catches the eye. What was his name, Shin Jaewoo?
“I don’t know him though?”
When Kwon Yunsu looked up and retorted with his mouth wide open, Song Taesu lightly smacked Kwon Yunsu’s head.
“You blockhead, I said friend of a friend. By that logic, he doesn’t know you either, you know?”
The handsome mole guy grinned and lightly greeted the guys sitting around. Then he pulled a chair from an empty table and sat facing Kwon Yunsu.
“Kim Wonwoo, middle school classmate, right? I went to the same high school as him. Shinil.”
“Kim Wonwoo? He was the vice class president of our class in 8th grade. Shinil is the school in the neighborhood next to ours. Wow…..”
“We were in the same broadcasting club.”
“Oh, he was in broadcasting club in middle school too. I thought he’d only study when he went to high school, but he continued it…. Where did he go?”
“Except for broadcasting club, he went all-in on studying and went to Seoul National University.”
“Wow, annoying. That’s so Kim Wonwoo. He used to say he’d become a superhero.”
“He’s kind of like that.”
He thought he understood why adults ask about connections when they have nothing to say. Once the most familiar common ground arose, conversation flowed at once. A fellow from the same hometown he’s meeting for the first time since entering university. Kwon Yunsu quickly got him chopsticks to make a good impression.
