Yeon Haejeong’s eyes creased at the corners as he ground his back teeth. From their school days all the way to now, Munyeong had always been carrying some wound or another on his body somewhere. As though it were simply a given.
“……Sorry.”
Munyeong apologized out of habit. He said it quietly, in a barely audible voice, and Yeon Haejeong dragged a hand over his face, irritation written across it.
“Go wash up.”
He gave the short command again and headed toward the hallway where the front door was. And shortly after, from somewhere in the distance came the sound of a door clicking shut. Left alone in the vast house, Munyeong finally breathed freely and sank onto the edge of the sofa.
‘……Why are you always getting beaten up.’
Through those furrowed eyes, his distorted gaze flickered in Munyeong’s mind. Munyeong exhaled a shaky breath and stared at the spot where he had disappeared.
“…….”
Those were eyes that genuinely worried about him. It felt like something even deeper than worry — some dense, nameless emotion — and Munyeong pressed the heel of his palm against his sternum.
His chest was churning like mad.
He barely managed to wash up in the bathroom, which was grand and lavish as a palace. It took him ages because he had absolutely no idea what was what. He couldn’t figure out which was the lever, which was the showerhead, which one was the shampoo, which was for washing his body — his head was spinning just trying to figure it all out. Even as he washed, the sheer opulence made him shrink inward, to the point where he wondered if he was even allowed to be here.
After washing for quite a while in a daze, Munyeong shuffled out, having changed into a spare set of clothes and shaking the water from his damp hair — and Yeon Haejeong, who had stepped out earlier, was back. It would have been awkward to be alone in someone else’s house, so he was relieved. Even if it was Yeon Haejeong, having the owner of the house there with him put him more at ease.
“W-where did you go?”
He asked carefully, directing the question at Yeon Haejeong, who was moving busily around the kitchen island. Yeon Haejeong shot him a displeased look again.
“Cut it out.”
“Pardon?”
“The way you’re talking. Just speak comfortably.”
Yeon Haejeong snapped back irritably. Dropping formalities all of a sudden felt uncomfortable, but Yeon Haejeong seemed even more uncomfortable with the formal speech, so Munyeong gave a slow nod.
“……Okay.”
When he relented as if he had no choice, Yeon Haejeong let out a small laugh and kicked the bar stool lightly with his foot.
“Sit.”
With the short instruction, he took a seat on the opposite stool. Only then did Munyeong’s eyes go wide at the spread of food laid out on the kitchen island counter. Everything from sandwiches made with premium ingredients to expensive tuna sushi, to pasta still steaming with warmth. The menu was a mix of all sorts of things, but every item looked mouthwatering enough to make him salivate. Munyeong felt hunger rise in him involuntarily and found himself rubbing his stomach without realizing it.
“Eat.”
He said it confidently, arms crossed.
“All of this…?”
“You don’t want it?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t want it….”
The surprises just kept coming. Realizing that the reason Yeon Haejeong had stepped out earlier was to go pick up food, Munyeong looked at him with trembling eyes.
Not only was he lending him a place to stay — he had even made sure he was fed. It was all so unfamiliar.
“I don’t think I can finish all of it alone….”
“What kind of man can’t finish even this much?”
Munyeong muttered in a flustered voice and Yeon Haejeong grumbled back.
“…Did you get all this for me?”
It was hard to picture Yeon Haejeong personally picking up food and carrying it back, so Munyeong asked without thinking.
“……Why, you have a complaint?”
At that, Yeon Haejeong — who had been hesitating to answer — looked away and responded with a pretense of indifference.
“No, it’s not like that…….”
“Then stop nagging and eat quickly. It’s all getting cold.”
He cut off what Munyeong was saying and tossed him a pair of neatly split wooden chopsticks. Why is Yeon Haejeong doing all this? Was it that losing his home so suddenly made Munyeong look especially pitiful to him? He knew Yeon Haejeong wasn’t someone prone to sympathy. But maybe there was still a quiet tenderness in him that couldn’t just walk past someone in a difficult spot?
The questions were endless, but Munyeong followed his words and put food in his mouth first. It had been two days since he’d had a proper meal. The last time had been a cup of instant noodles at a jjimjilbang the evening two days ago. He wasn’t much of an eater and wasn’t particularly food-driven, but today of all days he was genuinely starving.
Munyeong shoved food into his mouth ravenously. Just this very morning, he had felt like he might die — and yet here he was, snapping back to his senses to find himself eating lavish food, which struck him as both bewildering and oddly surreal.
“Th-thank you.”
He said it to Yeon Haejeong with his mouth still full of food, and Yeon Haejeong — who had been sitting still without eating, just watching him — broke into a baffled smile.
“Swallow what’s in your mouth before you talk.”
“…Yeah.”
Munyeong nodded and turned his focus back to eating. How grateful a thing it was to eat and feel full — Munyeong was reminded of that again after a long while. They say hunger is the best sauce, and that was exactly it. Dignity, self-consciousness — none of it mattered. Munyeong just mindlessly kept putting food in his mouth.
After finishing the meal, clearing the table, drinking a cup of tea, going into his room and putting away his things — by the time all of that was done, the sky had already darkened. The shift was visible at a single glance from inside this apartment. With the entire wall made of floor-to-ceiling glass, there was no way to miss it. Being at eye level with the sky made the transition between day and night unmistakably clear.
The feeling of being on the same plane as the sky drew Munyeong toward the living room window as if in a trance. He had never seen a view like this before. It was more sweeping and spectacular than the view looking down from the office. It was partly the sheer size, but mostly possible because of the extraordinary height. Every building looked like a toy, and the rows of cars on the road looked like streams of ants. Experiencing firsthand what it felt like to look down on everything from above, Munyeong pressed himself against the window like a child and couldn’t pull himself away.
“What are you doing?”
Yeon Haejeong, who had been watching him with an incredulous look, tossed out a blunt remark.
“Ah…. It’s just so amazing.”
Munyeong caught himself getting too carried away and quickly stepped back from the window.
“What’s so amazing.”
“Just — everything being so small. It’s amazing.”
In reality, all of it was enormous to him. The towering high-rises, the expensive cars — they were all things completely beyond his reach in real life, yet seeing them look so infinitely small was what struck him as amazing.
“You find the strangest things amazing.”
Finding Munyeong’s musings rather amusing, Yeon Haejeong let out a quiet laugh and set the bottle of whisky he’d brought on the living room table. At the reappearance of an alcohol bottle, Munyeong flinched and looked at him.
“…Drinking again……?”
At Yeon Haejeong bringing out alcohol so naturally, Munyeong found himself asking without thinking.
“Why, so what.”
“…….”
“How many times do I have to say it. I need to drink to sleep.”
At Munyeong flinching every time alcohol came out, Yeon Haejeong replied in an irritated tone. Munyeong hesitated for a moment, then quietly moved closer and settled in beside him. At the suddenly closed distance, Yeon Haejeong looked at him with slightly surprised eyes, and Munyeong gently opened his mouth.
“Then, um…….”
“…….”
“…Can I drink with you tonight……?”
Two would be better than one, he thought. Better than drinking all that whisky alone. It had stuck with him more than once — seeing Yeon Haejeong drink alone every day. He’d wondered more than a few times what on earth had given him that habit, and it had worried him. But it wasn’t only that. Something in him had lit up without warning, and the words slipped out before he knew it. Munyeong wanted — just for tonight, just this once — to quietly feel what it was like to be in a world so entirely different from his own.
Munyeong looked up at him from beneath his lashes as he asked, and Yeon Haejeong blinked in momentary surprise — but quickly composed himself and answered as though it were nothing.
“…Do whatever you want.”
