Normally “how?” would come first, but Shin Jaewoo asked in a slow tone. He seemed a bit drunk. Well, he drank that much, so this is normal.
“Euishin came.”
“…So you’re going?”
Shin Jaewoo took a drag of his cigarette and turned his head to blow out the smoke.
“Why not ask him to hang out together. …He seems like he’d enjoy fishing.”
At that slow way of speaking, Kwon Yunsu felt needlessly anxious. He adjusted his bag and quickly answered.
“He has no social skills, so it won’t work. I’m going. See you at school.”
Tap.
“…Yunsu-ya.”
Shin Jaewoo grabbed his wrist. His movements were slow but the force pulling his body was quite firm. Kwon Yunsu looked up questioningly. Shin Jaewoo’s smiling face was no different from usual. But the atmosphere was different. It was because of the alcohol.
“Just tell him to come in, so we can hang out together. Hm? Let’s hang out together….”
He whines when he drinks too. Geez. As if to shake off the unfamiliar mood, Kwon Yunsu waved his hand.
“I have to go, let go.”
“……”
“Shin Jaewoo?”
The guy’s grip loosened. But even after smoothly shaking it off, a slightly awkward sensation remained.
“I’m going.”
Kwon Yunsu said goodbye again.
“Okay, be careful. See you again.”
And he turned his back.
After leaving the yard, when he turned around, Shin Jaewoo was leaning against a pillar, still looking this way with a smiling face.
The ride home was quieter than expected.
After looking around the car interior with curiosity for a while, Kwon Yunsu seemed to be getting sleepy and was burying his body obediently. Or maybe he suddenly became awkward. There had never been times when their conversation was this choppy lately. Of course, Lee Euishin didn’t dislike such a change.
“You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m hungry now.”
“I bought porridge, so eat it when we get home.”
“Hyung, I really love you….”
You shouldn’t say things like that carelessly.
With that meaning, Lee Euishin didn’t respond at all. When he glanced over, Kwon Yunsu had a blank face, then frowned slightly, and after a moment cautiously tried to gauge his mood. Being timid is definitely charming.
The car that had been driving on the clear highway soon passed Bucheon and entered National Assembly-daero. He was quite tired from walking around in uncomfortable clothes all day and driving a car he wasn’t used to. Of course, the decisive element of tension was Kwon Yunsu. He was driving with Kwon Yunsu in his first car in his life. Pathetic, but it was a moment he’d been waiting for close to half a year.
“Sleepy?”
“…No.”
There had never been a time when being quick-witted was as satisfying as these days. Even with that simple exchange, Lee Euishin knew. It’s different from before. Kwon Yunsu was conscious of him.
Of course it wasn’t anything major. He was just being a bit more cautious than usual, choosing his words, and curious about his intentions. It would take a long time for it to be shaped with the same meaning as this side, and usually it doesn’t even happen. It didn’t matter. Because if I’m going to do it, I’ll do it.
“…Ask me a question.”
Lee Euishin spoke in a cheerful tone. Kwon Yunsu rubbed his eyes as if tired, then responded.
“What?”
“Ask what I did today.”
“……”
This level of trivial consciousness.
“…What did you do today?”
A careful question.
“I went to my family home. I was a prop for the aunties, listened to grandfather’s nagging, showed off my face in front of my ugly cousins. I was tormented until dinner.”
Kwon Yunsu was silent. And at the end of the silence, he asked again.
“…What about the date?”
At that question, the self beyond consciousness was slamming on the brakes, pushing the seat back and covering Kwon Yunsu. And in reality he just silently stared at Kwon Yunsu’s face. The answer was given back only after a long time.
“I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“…Why?”
Why is why.
“We didn’t match, so I said let’s not see each other.”
At 11:30 AM a week ago.
“Didn’t match?”
Kwon Yunsu had a confused face.
At first it was clearly as trivial as a whim. I just threw a small pebble with ambiguous silence, short answers, and avoidance, so how did it come to this? Mysteriously and admirably, Kwon Yunsu’s confusion deepens.
When he looked to the side, their eyes naturally met. Lee Euishin stared directly and added.
“I said I prefer soccer over dance.”
“…Soccer?”
“……”
The confusion deepens.
“…Wow, worthy of a Yongjjaenghotoo member.”
The lame joke Kwon Yunsu muttered awkwardly drifted through the car. Lee Euishin was silent. Quietly, he saved his words. It wasn’t that he wasn’t giving an answer. Now he intended to speak firmly with all his silence, gestures, and gaze.
At the last crosswalk right in front of the apartment, they got caught by the signal. Their eyes met again. Whether you get it or not…,
─I’m interested in you.
“……”
“……”
I will shake you up as much as I can.
**4. Crystal Ball**
[It’s crossed in, toward the head. Heading, heading─! Goal─! It’s a goal, he finally succeeds in scoring!]
[This is precision, yes!]
[It’s his 9th Champions League goal this season!]
“Ahh….”
“Goaaal…!”
“Wow, really.”
“No, hyung-nim, really, wow…..”
They were idiots who were always fresh and consistently the same no matter when you looked at them. How could they open their mouths at exactly the same timing and be so happy they could die?
Lee Euishin, who had no interest in ball games at all, looked pathetically at the five guys staring at the laptop screen with their mouths hanging open. They already watched this at dawn today, right? Just because one ball went in, these grown guys are all red in the face making a fuss. Of course, the biggest idiot among them,
“Hey, it’s so cool, really, ahh!!!”
was the country bumpkin who didn’t know what to do with happiness, even banging on the desk.
“Euishin-ah, did you see? Did you see that hyung hit it with his head and carry the ball? Jackpot, seriously, how can they not go to the finals after that? Isn’t it crazy?! Does that make sense??”
Does it make sense that you’re about to cry over another country’s ball game?
Lee Euishin was dumbfounded and stuffed a snack into Kwon Yunsu’s mouth. Even while obediently opening his mouth to eat it, Kwon Yunsu’s gaze was about to be sucked into the laptop. He doesn’t even look this way at all. He wasn’t even newly annoyed. Kwon Yunsu is watching the Champions League semifinal highlights. What’s so great about it? Why do you have so many things you like?
Even during exam prep, when stress reached its peak, Kwon Yunsu was the guy who would hole up at home for half a day watching soccer broadcasts. Regardless of the subject, when strange foreign words appeared in textbooks, he would memorize them by connecting them with team names or player names, and on days when he couldn’t get his head together lying on his desk, it was because he watched dawn broadcasts. It’s scary to dig into his brain structure. In case it’s all full of that ball. He still hasn’t found a way to separate soccer from Kwon Yunsu’s life. It will remain distant in the future too.
“They won. But why can’t they go to the finals?”
“That’s because they played twice and by away goals… Never mind, you don’t need to know….”
Kwon Yunsu, who had been openly ignoring him, leaned his body back over the sofa. Then he moved sluggishly as if dancing and whined into the air.
“I want to go. I want to go to Allianz Arena too. I have to see the Champions League before I die….”
Lee Euishin looked proudly at Kwon Yunsu’s head and back making squeaking sounds against the leather sofa. Not long ago, Lee Euishin had replaced all the sofas in the club room. When no one was around, he called a company to take away the three-seater fabric sofa—no one knew when it was bought or what color it originally was—and brought in a leather sofa he bought with his own money.
