“What? You’re leaving already?”
Despite the disappointed voice, Seo Juhan silently slung his heavy backpack over his shoulder. He hooked several shopping bags onto his arm in succession and picked up the tray. Even while radiating anger, his cleanup was swift and orderly.
That’s when a large hand reached over and took the receipt that had been on the tray.
“Here. Take this with you.”
Go Un stuffed the scrap of paper into the front pocket of Seo Juhan’s pants.
Seo Juhan looked down at him with a disgusted expression. He couldn’t even resist, worried he might accidentally knock over the tray.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about these days. You can like male idols.”
Go Un patted his shoulder while giggling. His black eyes curved mischievously, sparkling annoyingly. He looked so full of playfulness that if his hands were free, Juhan would’ve wanted to punch him.
Seo Juhan glared at Go Un with an expression of utter exasperation. Even his pretense of trying to pull at the tray to help seemed ridiculous.
Just then, that detestable face suddenly descended toward Seo Juhan’s ear. His lean shoulders flinched reflexively.
“But when you do it, you have to think of me.”
The breath-heavy whisper was so low it seemed like it would burrow all the way to the ground.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
“Fuck off.”
Seo Juhan snatched back the tray that had almost been taken and whirled around abruptly. The nape of his neck, not quite covered by his cap, was flushed red.
Seo Juhan strode toward the cleanup area and set down one more tray on top of the stacked pile.
As if venting his frustration, he crumpled the brown wrapping paper tightly and stuffed it into the paper bin. His dampened mask also went into the black trash bag.
“You could just leave it, you know.”
He heard a voice from behind his shoulder, but Seo Juhan ignored it and did what he had to do. He finished sorting the plastic and regular trash and threw each away separately. His arms were quite heavy, but he stubbornly handled it all himself.
As soon as he’d fulfilled his duty as a customer, he moved quickly toward the exit.
“I’ll carry them for you.”
Go Un walked beside him, matching his pace, and reached out his hand. He’d already taken off his red apron at some point.
Seo Juhan walked stubbornly and resolutely. Like someone avoiding solicitors, he didn’t even give him a glance.
Just as he was about to reach for the automatic door button, a large hand shot out first and stole his turn.
The automatic doors opened to both sides. Through the gap, the muggy outside air rushed in.
Seo Juhan flinched but immediately stepped outside the store.
“What are you taking home?”
Go Un followed after him with a swaggering gait.
“Should I call you a taxi?”
Acting all high and mighty. He heard the voice from above his head, but Seo Juhan trudged on without looking back.
Go Un also followed silently with his hands in his pockets.
Behind them, the music playing in the store continued to be audible, and that soft singing voice was irritating. The long shadows stretching forward, swaying as if dancing, were bothersome. The savory, greasy smell that made passersby salivate and stopped them in their tracks now gave him a headache.
Only after walking for quite a while did Seo Juhan disconnect from that bright world.
The bus stop was between the lanes in the opposite direction, so they had to cross at the crosswalk to get there.
For a bus stop, it was fairly spacious, but perhaps because it was late, it was dim and secluded. The roof blocked out the night sky where not a single star could be found.
The electronic display that was supposed to show bus arrival times was either broken or showed a black window screen.
Seo Juhan set down his shopping bags on the long bench and scanned the route map. After confirming that the interval between buses was 20 minutes, he sat down next to the shopping bags. He shifted the weight of his backpack onto the bench as well and breathed a sigh of relief.
The lights in the surrounding office buildings were almost all turned off. Only the streetlight glow poured down dimly from above.
The concrete buildings looked particularly desolate and bleak today. Like a theater stage without actors.
Aside from the occasional sound of cars driving by with their headlights on, it was relatively quiet.
At his feet, a dark blue light close to fluorescent wavered. It was light from the sign attached to the bus stop wall.
The brilliant color that suited the night like a neon sign also had purple mixed in. The artificial color that couldn’t be found in nature evoked a strange feeling.
That radiance somehow looked both sorrowful and pitiful.
Was that why? For a moment, the grief that had welled up after receiving that phone call earlier spread bitterly. His chest felt tight.
Step, step. His nerves stood on edge at the approaching footsteps, but Seo Juhan remained consistently indifferent.
He fixed his gaze only on the sidewalk blocks that took on the color of the sea in fairy tales. He barely managed to swallow down his burning throat.
A pair of sneakers intruded on that mystical scenery. What must have originally been white was also stained bright blue.
“When you come to see me and get on my nerves, that’s one thing, but why are you acting so pitiful now?”
He heard a voice from above his head that seized his attention.
“Did something happen?”
Seo Juhan pressed his lips tightly shut. Thinking it might show, he lowered his head even deeper. He completely hid his eyes, which wouldn’t even be visible because of his cap anyway.
“Stop bothering me and go.”
The indifferent voice he forcibly squeezed out cracked at the end.
“Should I call a taxi for you instead?”
“I said go.”
“Aigoo~. Why on earth are you being like this?”
The crazy bastard suddenly sang a tune. Not that he sounded particularly drunk—his voice was perfectly sober. It also gave the feeling of someone dealing with a very young child or a problem student.
“You’re the one—why the hell did you do that?”
Infuriated by what seemed like a reversed relationship, Seo Juhan confronted him point-blank.
“What did I do?”
Go Un tilted his head.
“You were the one acting innocent, you.”
“Me?”
At his genuinely confused expression, Seo Juhan’s brow furrowed.
“Yeah, you, you bastard. After blatantly deceiving someone.”
“Not me.”
His tone suggested this was absurd.
“What do you mean ‘not me.’ You acted like you were a quiet, well-behaved class representative.”
Seo Juhan shuddered as he pointed it out specifically.
“Ahh.”
Go Un drew out his words as if he’d just understood. Then he looked down at the black cap and blinked his jet-black eyes. Unfortunately, the face hidden by the cap’s brim wasn’t visible.
“I never really acted well-behaved though.”
Below his slender neckline, deep blue had spread across half of his thin t-shirt. That dark blue color looked somehow seductive.
“Being quiet was just because I was…”
He turned his head and stared off into the distance for no reason. He brushed his nose lightly. Then added quietly.
“…nervous?”
Damn it…
Seo Juhan inwardly seethed. Then he reached his hand to the side of his thigh and gripped the bench.
No matter what anyone said, Go Un had been sincere. It had been when he was burning with pure, innocent first love.
Go Un stood with both hands in his pockets, unconsciously shifting his weight from leg to leg, swaying. While doing so, he kept sneaking glances at the culprit who’d kept him up at night since the first day of school.
His t-shirt looked oversized, but the fabric was so light and airy that his slender body line showed through completely. The thin arms extending below the short sleeves looked delicate.
His legs crossed in an X were wrapped in comfortable gray training pants. His thighs looked snug, but there was plenty of room at the calves. Below the pant hems, his ankles with prominent ankle bones were fully exposed, drawing the eye.
“Then what about ssaem?”
Go Un tapped the sidewalk blocks with the toe of his sneaker.
“You only looked after me.”
“That’s because!”
You were the least blockheaded of them all.
“Ah…”
Unable to say that, Seo Juhan clutched his cap in frustration and hunched over.
“See? I told you ssaem seduced me first.”
Go Un looked off into the distance again and sniffled. It wasn’t particularly because he was cold.
“Every class you’d stick close to me asking if I had any difficult problems, being all flirty, and you’d call me over every night with delivery orders as an excuse.”
He swayed slowly in place, gently recalling the memories.
“Oh, and we don’t normally do delivery, but that day orders were backed up so I went. I didn’t expect to run into ssaem right there.”
He left out the fact that he’d been on standby ever since that day.
“And we even went to the nurse’s office alone together. You kept sticking your head in weird places saying you’d treat me. You were straight-up groping me.”
“…”
“Honestly, I know I went a bit far that day too. But I mean, why did you suddenly strip your top off like that? You don’t even know how fucking hard I was holding back.”
“…”
“Ssaem was the one who pounced on me first, basically begging me to eat you up.”
Fuck… Listening quietly, it was somehow persuasive. Hearing it put that way, it really did seem like it was partly his fault, which felt unfair.
“Hey, that was to you…”
Unable to spit it out any further, Juhan trailed off vaguely.
“It wasn’t to fuck you, it was because you’re a student in my class, so I was concerned about you.”
Still, he shot back at the last part as if it was out of the question.
“Eh. Am I the only student in our class? Are there any other kids you paid as much attention to?”
“…There are.”
“Who?”
Seo Juhan muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.
“What are you saying?”
“…”
“See? There aren’t any.”
Go Un shrugged his shoulders triumphantly.
“Even if I’m a blockhead, my instincts about this kind of thing are amazing.”
Then he looked off into the distance and swept his bangs up.
