He absolutely couldn’t spend the weekend in the dangerous studio.
On Friday, Seo Juhan headed to the express bus terminal as soon as he got off work. He boarded a bus going down to his hometown, a provincial metropolitan city, and dozed off.
It was the first time going back to his family home since he’d gone down to bring the teaching certification exam workbooks he’d solved last year.
[Beep beep beep beep.]
Click.
Seo Juhan opened the heavy front door. He passed through the long corridor with subtle accent lighting and entered the living room.
The high-rise apartment with no one there sparkled. The city’s night view could be seen at a glance through the wide picture window.
The silk wallpaper was smooth as if freshly applied. The newly acquired furniture had not a single flaw. A large TV filled one wall like a movie theater screen. There was a sofa big enough for several people to roll around on, but space remained.
The house with no human smell was like a model home. It looked plausible on the outside, but upon close inspection, it was empty and bleak.
Only inanimate objects silently greeted Seo Juhan.
In a word, the inside of the house was desolate. However, Seo Juhan didn’t care. He was someone who was originally accustomed to being alone.
After confirming no one was there, he went straight to his room near the entrance.
Seo Juhan put down his backpack by the bedside and leaned against it. New age music was flowing from the earphones in his ears. He took out his phone from his pants pocket and adjusted the volume.
He looked around the room he’d visited after a long time.
He had hazy memories of even turning on the highest-spec computer. The bookshelf with college textbooks and teaching certification exam study books stuck in it was antique in a way that didn’t match the subject matter. The huge oil painting frame hanging on the wall was something you’d see at an exhibition. Inside the dressing room opposite, there were countless clothes that had never been worn.
In the incongruous room that seemed to exclude taste, it was difficult to find traces of life. It was truly an unfamiliar space.
The house moved here when Seo Juhan went to college in Seoul. Therefore, Juhan had spent almost no nights in this room. If you added up all the days he’d briefly stayed around military enlistment and before and after vacations, it was only about two months.
There were no particular memories either.
The mental image of a place is finally completed by memories with someone shared there. There was no way to develop affection for a place where he’d spent more time alone.
That’s why Seo Juhan had never once felt at home here.
It was awkward enough to even attach the name “home.”
Anyway, perfect separation from Jeonghan City, which had felt like a remote island, was achieved. He felt relieved in that regard.
Seo Juhan, who had been briefly buried in the calm music, came out with only his wallet and phone.
It was to meet high school friends who had coincidentally gathered at the same place on the same day.
The shopping district on Friday night formed a city that never sleeps. The lights pouring from the thriving entertainment establishments illuminated the streets more splendidly than during the day.
The bustling beer hall had alcohol particles floating in the air.
Office workers who came out to unwind clinked glasses and shouted toasts. There were also men and women having quiet conversations in secluded seats, testing the waters.
The three including Seo Juhan also occupied a table and sat down.
The first-year workers whose pockets had become thicker laid out snacks and comfortably ate, drank, and chatted according to their individual tastes and drinking capacity.
Lee Donghyuk and Kim Taeyoon, who had shared joys and sorrows in the science class, giggled making Seo Juhan’s workplace the butt of jokes.
“This bastard, when I searched the school, tons of stories came up.”
Lee Donghyuk giggled to Kim Taeyoon sitting next to him.
“That much?”
“Yeah. Want me to show you?”
Lee Donghyuk took out his phone, tapped for a while, then shoved it at Kim Taeyoon.
“Look. It’s in the top ten delinquent schools, you know?”
“For real.”
Kim Taeyoon answered while swiping down the screen with his finger. Whatever was so funny, his snickering was very annoying.
“Ya, is it true there was even a murder because of a love affair? Well, I heard it used to be co-ed.”
Kim Taeyoon asked while looking down at the phone screen.
“The Student Affairs Director did say something like that. I don’t know if it’s just a story or fact.”
To the question asked out of curiosity, Seo Juhan blurted out. Then he just consumed beer he didn’t enjoy with a stuffy heart.
“It’s fucking funny every time I see it. How do you end up at a place like that from the start?”
Lee Donghyuk giggled while putting the phone Kim Taeyoon returned into his pants pocket.
“Every time I go to work, I feel like dying, seriously.”
Seo Juhan answered while grabbing a handful of macaroni puffed snacks.
“Isn’t it rather convenient in some ways? Well, you don’t even have to prepare for classes.”
Kim Taeyoon talked nonsense while poking boneless cheese chicken feet with a fork.
“That’s why there seem to be teachers who just stay there…… But you try going yourself and doing a one-man show every day in a classroom where no one listens. Is that easy?”
Seo Juhan picked up one of the basic snacks, puffed rice, and chewed it crunching.
“What’s scarier is gradually getting used to that abnormality. Now it’s strange if the school doesn’t smell like cigarettes.”
At Juhan’s bland statement, Kim Taeyoon laughed loudly.
“Ugh.”
Because what was in the guy’s mouth splattered, Seo Juhan pulled back with a sour face. He brushed off his arm as if it was dirty, then continued to complain.
“You know that feeling where if you talk with them, you feel like you’re becoming the same blockhead?”
Seo Juhan shook his head side to side as if there was no answer.
“Ignorance is also a disease. I feel like it’s contagious to me.”
“Can’t you go to another school?”
Kim Taeyoon, who had only been laughing, devised a solution for the first time.
“I want to go too. But I have to complete 4 years before I can leave.”
Seo Juhan answered curtly and put another puffed snack in his mouth. The snack crumbled between his teeth.
Lee Donghyuk, who was smacking his lips eating smoked sausage, casually said to Kim Taeyoon.
“Last time he ordered a hamburger and a student from his class came to deliver it.”
“Wow! Really?”
Kim Taeyoon slapped the table while laughing uproariously.
Seo Juhan’s expression crumpled like paper.
That bastard has good memory too.
He’d come out for drinks because he didn’t want to think about school, but instead he was receiving focused attention. At least it was okay to curse while chewing dried pollack, but the face flashing before his eyes was absolutely unacceptable.
“Don’t even talk about it, fuck. I don’t even want to recall it.”
Seo Juhan threw the corn puff he was holding and hit Lee Donghyuk’s forehead.
“Ow.”
“Don’t pretend it hurts.”
Seo Juhan threw one more.
Lee Donghyuk opened his mouth wide like a hippo. The light green puffed snack that flew was sucked in like a magnet. An easy goal.
“Nice.”
Seo Juhan praised while raising the corners of his mouth.
“Lee Donghyuk’s not dead.”
“Of course, of course.”
Lee Donghyuk waved his index finger left and right as if this was nothing. The sound of the puffed snack crisply crunching could be heard.
“Geez, these idiots. How old are you guys, playing around like this again?”
Kim Taeyoon, who would be upset if he were second place in childishness, only talked like an old man.
“Hey.”
This time Seo Juhan threw at Kim Taeyoon. The snack that hit his head and bounced off disappeared below the table in a curve.
Kim Taeyoon stabbed chicken feet with his fork without moving, as if it wasn’t even ticklish.
Seo Juhan, who quickly lost interest, chewed a corn puff and said.
“You guys talk about yourselves. Is it worth attending? Taeyoon, you’re lucky eating home-cooked meals.”
“Well, rather than home-cooked meals, it’s good because living expenses are saved.”
Kim Taeyoon spoke plainly while eating the spicy chicken feet that Seo Juhan couldn’t even touch.
“But later I might get assigned to a factory. That’s a bit bad.”
“Where’s the factory?”
“Suwon and Ulsan.”
“Both are far.”
“Fucking far.”
Kim Taeyoon said the factory was used as a kind of graveyard for recommended retirees. He shuddered saying all sorts of corruption and illegal practices were rampant.
Lee Donghyuk also continued complaining.
“Fuck, I also want to enjoy some work-life balance. I want to leave work while it’s still light out.”
“Do you work a lot of overtime?”
Seo Juhan asked and then popped the last remaining corn puff into his mouth.
“Yuyoung sings that she’s upset. I barely came out today after begging and begging. Except for sleeping and eating, I feel like I’m only looking at the monitor. My eyes are getting so dim I could die.”
“When did you say coding all night was fun?”
Lee Donghyuk expounded on his reality in detail while spitting.
He exclaimed that he thought programmers only had to deal with computers, but he didn’t know the stress from people would be this great.
Seo Juhan didn’t particularly empathize but gently nodded as if to say “I see.” At the end of his gaze was the edge of a wide bowl containing dry snacks like peanuts, squid, and seaweed.
Although Lee Donghyuk’s range of human relationships wasn’t wide, once he brought someone into his fold, he was the type to care for them deeply.
That was probably why he often called to introduce women.
The complaints and grievances of bright young men who mistook themselves for fully-fledged adults continued.
