In his imagination, Euishin hugged the waist of Yunsu wearing an apron and whispered. Your cooking tastes bad. Just quietly eat what I make you and stay home, okay?
“…As if I would.”
Putting aside the meaningless fantasy, Euishin prepared to go out. The sensation of Yunsu watching his every move like a timid rabbit wasn’t bad. But right now, he wanted more to see that face scratched and distorted by something wicked.
After finishing his preparations, he picked up his wristwatch and phone and left the room. Yunsu, who had been standing at the doorway openly watching, naturally asked,
“What about food?”
And Euishin coldly replied.
“Eat alone.”
“Why?”
His face looked exactly like he’d been told they were breaking up. Hmph. Euishin lightly pushed Yunsu’s shoulder aside and closed the door. And looking down at him arrogantly, he said.
“I’m going on a blind date today.”
“Whaaaat?!”
…Can’t you express shock in a different way?
Like your eyes or lips trembling, or your earlobes heating up, or dropping the spatula in your hand. Do you have to make that stupidly shocked face like you’re watching international news? After politely closing Yunsu’s gaping mouth, Euishin headed to the entrance.
“I’ll be back before dinner, so you come back before then too.”
“Huh?”
“Before dinner.”
“Uh… have a good time.”
When he turned around, Kwon Yunsu was still shaking the spatula with a dazed face. You think you’re being abandoned? I felt that way for two whole months, you bastard. Lee Euishin gritted his teeth and left the house.
***
“Ah, I can’t see well from this seat. Aren’t the player benches and cameras over there? And the field is completely…”
“I like it here though. Originally, you have to watch these things from the supporters’ section to get excited and have fun. Shin Jaewoo’s friend is a supporter.”
“From here, you can’t confirm with the naked eye whether the ball went in or not.”
“You came to eat and drink anyway, so don’t act like an expert. But wait, were you a member of Yongjjaenghotoo?”
“What’s that?”
“What do you mean what? It’s our club name. Right, Yunsu-ya?”
“Uh-huh.”
Kwon Yunsu, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation of the guys sitting next to him, looked up at Shin Jaewoo who plopped down between them. Right, that was our club name. …But why Yongjjaenghotoo?
“Because the faculty advisor is a Bruce Lee fan.”
The answer came from behind. When he turned around, Manager Kim was eating bagged snacks with a dignified posture. He answered quickly while his gaze remained fixed on the distant stadium—truly impressive.
“Shin Jaewoo, are all the kids gathered here part of your network?”
“Why would it be me? It’s Song Taesu. This is our club president hyung, that one over there is the next president candidate (Why me?! Ahn Shinwook shouted from a distance.), and this is Kwon Yunsu, the prettiest and most handsome in our club. These guys are from New Materials. You don’t need to know their names.”
When Shin Jaewoo’s introduction ended, the two guys whose names weren’t worth knowing looked at Kwon Yunsu with suspicious eyes. Kwon Yunsu, reading the ‘Could it be you…?’ look in their eyes, shook his head in a practiced manner.
“No, that rumored campus god isn’t me. He didn’t come.”
“Ah… I wanted to see him once.”
“Is he really that good-looking?”
Super good-looking. Really. But right now he went on a blind date with a girl.
Kwon Yunsu’s eyes became vacant again. He was staring forward, but the game that had entered the main match didn’t quite register in his vision. Lee Euishin and a woman. It was very familiar. Things like Lee Euishin’s cold face or blunt responses when rejecting girls who approached him.
‘We’ll see.’
That’s what he said, right? He has no thoughts about it yet, but who knows about someday—wasn’t that the meaning? …Why so fast.
Embarrassingly, Kwon Yunsu felt empty inside. Because he wasn’t mentally prepared yet. And he was confused. By the fact that Lee Euishin getting a girlfriend was something that required mental preparation. Is the landlord such a huge presence to a twenty-year-old boarder?
“……”
He had kept me too close. That bastard.
Parents, siblings, relatives, friends. Those familiar shadows that people commonly keep around them didn’t exist around Lee Euishin. The guy lived alone in a spacious and comfortable apartment and at the age of twenty could handle everything by himself. He was always relaxed in everything, and disturbingly avoided others. And he had accepted him into that lofty ice kingdom. Me. Only me? …Did I misunderstand something?
“Not enjoying it?”
When he turned around, Shin Jaewoo was holding out a cola.
“Thanks. No, it’s fun. It’s been a while since I came to see a pro league game.”
“You don’t look like it though?”
“I do though?”
He retorted as if insisting, but even to his own ears his voice lacked strength. Come to think of it, it was Shin Jaewoo who had asked what he would do if Lee Euishin got a girlfriend. Kwon Yunsu opened his mouth, trying his best to feign a light tone.
“Euishin went on a blind date.”
“…What?”
Shin Jaewoo’s face was strange. It seemed like he was smiling, surprised, and flustered all at once. Well, it is surprising. That cold Lee Euishin.
“Today?”
“Yeah. Right now.”
“Ha… That guy really…”
Shin Jaewoo’s muttering was drowned out by sudden cheers. The ball must have narrowly missed the goal.
Shin Jaewoo asked carefully.
“So, do you want to do it too?”
“Me? …It’d be nice if someone set me up.”
But if you bought him a soccer ball he’d be twice as happy, and if you gave him food he’d shout “I love you” to just anyone. Kwon Yunsu had a simple taste like a boy still in high school. Easy to approach but hard to penetrate. If his hunch was right, that guy was probably having quite a hard time too. It would be even harder because they’re so familiar.
“What should I do now? Like, should I occasionally empty the house and stuff? Should I buy groceries for three servings?”
As the cheers subsided, Kwon Yunsu asked with a confused face. Did I poke an unnecessary hornet’s nest? Shin Jaewoo hid his lukewarm feelings as he answered.
“That’s not it, shouldn’t you reduce the grocery shopping?”
When Kwon Yunsu was about to ask why,
“Ah…… dates.”
He nodded to himself. And became dazed again. …These guys are more serious than I thought. Is that such a shock? Shin Jaewoo chuckled and gently stroked the back of Kwon Yunsu’s head.
“Isn’t that what happens at this age? In our department there are quite a few girls, so every time I go to the department lounge there’s a new couple.”
And he added meaningfully.
“This is just the beginning. He’ll live up to his face value. Originally kids like that date continuously without rest until graduation.”
Stay away, stay away. Kwon Yunsu, a guy like me suits you.
“…Is that so. Then from now on I shouldn’t buy a lot of groceries… and shouldn’t call thoughtlessly even if it’s late, and also……”
His side profile muttering seriously was so cute it made him want to just lay him down. The hand that had been stroking the back of his head slipped past his nape and earlobe. Shin Jaewoo knew how to seduce this type. A type who wouldn’t catch on even if you kept dropping hints and seducing them, so you just suddenly lay them down, make out with them, then whine that you like them and they’ll accept you somehow. If only that guy wasn’t next to him, he would have taken him home long ago.
“What are you doing? Why is he so out of it and why are you fondling around like that?”
When he turned around, Ahn Shinwook, who had squeezed his way down, was looking this way with suspicious eyes. First, let’s spread rumors. Rumors possess power beyond physical force, making all sorts of things opaque and confusing. Whatever it was, disrupting this dynamic was advantageous to him.
“Lee Euishin went on a blind date.”
“What? Lee Euishin?!”
Why does he look happy?
Shin Jaewoo nodded with an incredulous laugh.
That day, Kwon Yunsu didn’t join the after-party and went straight home. Although he got lost on the unfamiliar subway route, it was before sunset, and when he got off the elevator after hesitating a bit at the mart in front of the apartment, he was empty-handed.
‘I’ll be back before dinner, so you come back before then too.’
He had said that, and just potato stir-fry for Saturday dinner seemed a bit disappointing, and he wanted to eat meat too— but he wasn’t certain whether Lee Euishin would be home.
‘Why go early, usually if you hit it off you go to a second round and third round from the first day.’
Even though he heard such dissuasion, obediently going home seemed a bit pathetic, but Lee Euishin was the type to hold grudges. Even if there was a one in ten thousand chance that guy was sitting inside, this was the right choice.
