I thought maybe he was trying to be funny, but it wasn’t funny at all. Of course it wasn’t. Watching a grown adult man act cutesy without any age-appropriate dignity was not an easy thing to witness.
“You’re twenty-two years old and you’re scared of hospitals?”
I asked as if I were someone who hadn’t witnessed that terrible cuteness act at all. Then Lee Jiwoo finally lowered his hands and hugged the blanket again.
“It can happen. Twenty-two-year-olds can be scared of things too. Aren’t you scared of anything?”
“Stop going off topic. Anyway, so why are you here… No, forget it. Just forget it.”
I suddenly realized that no matter how much I asked, Lee Jiwoo wouldn’t give me a proper answer. If he were a normal human being, he wouldn’t have just shown up out of the blue like this spouting nonsense.
“So what are you going to do? Are you going to sleep here? And eat too?”
When I asked with a sigh, Lee Jiwoo’s lips suddenly drooped.
“Seoun, I’m hurt. Why do you seem so cold today in particular?”
“……”
I really have nothing to say. Trying to explain something so obvious was giving me a headache, so I just changed the subject.
“It’s not that I’m being cold, I’m just surprised. Since you suddenly showed up at dawn…”
I was annoyed, but I had to develop a good relationship, so I calmed myself down.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you’d dislike it this much…”
Lee Jiwoo muttered quietly, becoming dejected as well.
“No, it’s not that I dislike it. Like I said, I’m just surprised…”
“Then I can suddenly come visit again next time too, right?”
“…What?”
“Thanks. But where’s the bathroom? I want to wash up a bit before sleeping.”
We’d only met three times now, but Lee Jiwoo had no reservations at all.
In a dazed state, I handed Lee Jiwoo a new toothbrush, and he really went into the bathroom to wash up. Soon I heard the sound of water, and I stood there like a pole for a moment, completely wide awake.
Is he really planning to sleep here? Seeing that he was even washing up, it seemed like he was serious. I couldn’t kick him out, and letting him sleep for one night wasn’t difficult, so I just let it go.
Then I remembered he’d said he was hungry, so I rummaged through the refrigerator. I hadn’t been cooking at home lately, so there wasn’t much to eat. After pondering, I made a simple kimchi fried rice with the kimchi the landlady had given me. There was also a can of tuna in the gift set I’d received from the boss at New Year’s, so I added that too.
Even after I finished making it, Lee Jiwoo was still washing up. For another 10 minutes after that, the sound of water continued noisily before stopping. When the bathroom door opened a crack, white steam poured out through the gap.
“Towel…”
I was about to tell him I’d give him a towel so wait a moment when I froze. Before I could finish speaking, the door swung wide open and Lee Jiwoo walked out naked, dripping with water.
“Ugh…”
Against my will, having seen something I shouldn’t have, I let out a pained groan and squeezed my eyes shut.
“I’m cold.”
Perhaps because the temperature had suddenly dropped, Lee Jiwoo was shivering like a puppy in the rain. I quickly brought a towel and threw it at his face.
“You’re dripping water, so dry off before coming out.”
“I’m, I’m too cold.”
He was shivering so much he couldn’t even catch the towel properly. Regardless, I clicked my tongue inwardly and rummaged through the closet. He was taller than me, but not by that much, so it seemed like I could just give him anything. Even if the size didn’t fit, well, there was nothing I could do about it.
I came out to the living room with sweatpants that were slightly big on me and a T-shirt with a stretched-out neck. Lee Jiwoo was still shivering while clumsily wiping off the water.
“Put these on.”
“Don’t you have underwear?”
“Of course not.”
It was really such an obvious statement.
“Then what do I do?”
“Just go commando. You can wear those pants home, wash them, and return them.”
“I don’t want to. Just give me yours.”
As if he didn’t want to go around without underwear, Lee Jiwoo threw a childish tantrum. I would have liked to accommodate him if I could, but this wasn’t something I could accommodate.
“That’s a bit much.”
“Why?”
“Just hurry up and put them on. I made kimchi fried rice.”
His expression was still blank, but he must have been hungry because Lee Jiwoo didn’t argue with me anymore.
“Seoun, don’t you have living room slippers?”
“No. Wear these.”
Thinking his feet might be cold, I took out sleep socks from the drawer and handed them to him. Not wanting to see him continue shivering, I even put a lightweight padded vest on him before we could finally sit down in front of the meal.
“We’re not eating at the table?”
Lee Jiwoo tilted his head. Even though he’d seen that the table was full of all sorts of odds and ends with no space to even put down a bowl, I couldn’t understand why he’d ask such a question.
“No, please eat quickly. It’s gotten a bit cold though…”
“It’s fine. I can’t eat hot food well. I’ll eat well.”
Watching Lee Jiwoo pick up his spoon, I found myself getting nervous without realizing it. I thought he might complain again about the seasoning being off or something being wrong.
But Lee Jiwoo started eating more deliciously than I expected.
“Aren’t you eating?”
Lee Jiwoo, who had emptied half his bowl without stopping once, finally looked up and asked me.
“I don’t usually eat breakfast.”
Still, I wasn’t in a bad mood since he was eating well, so I answered with a smile.
“Why? Does your stomach feel uncomfortable when you eat breakfast too?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t go down well…”
Too? Who else is he talking about? I was tilting my head when Lee Jiwoo added:
“My cousin hyung also says his stomach feels uncomfortable when he eats something in the morning. So he doesn’t eat rice and just eats bread with butter and jam.”
Lee Jiwoo’s cousin hyung meant hyungnim. It was such an unexpectedly brought-up topic that I couldn’t manage my expression. Lee Jiwoo continued speaking while watching my face stiffen in real-time.
“Actually, he’s just making excuses because he doesn’t want to eat with me.”
“……”
“You’re not making excuses because you don’t want to eat with me, right?”
Cold sweat formed on my back. Did he really bring up hyungnim on purpose knowing something? My instincts were constantly sending danger signals that this was 99% caught.
But since he hadn’t even asked “Are you a spy bastard?”, I couldn’t just confess first out of guilt.
“Come on, if I didn’t want to eat with you, hyung, I wouldn’t have made fried rice for you in the first place.”
Lee Jiwoo laughed at my terrible acting. Perhaps because he looked tired as if he’d stayed up for days, it was a pitiful smile like someone using all their strength to laugh one last time.
“That’s true.”
“Should I give you more?”
“Is there more?”
“Actually no. I just asked out of courtesy.”
My heart had shrunk to the size of a bean and my head wasn’t working properly. When I spouted nonsense, Lee Jiwoo laughed again. I was about to change the subject when, since it had come to this anyway, I asked while pretending to be crazy.
“But do you live with your cousin hyung?”
“No. We just meet occasionally. Hyung hates me.”
“Ah…”
“Sometimes when I see him, it really seems like he wants to kill me. You know, like those things. In dramas or movies where they hire an assassin or something for contract killing. Hahaha.”
Where exactly am I supposed to laugh at that? And did he really find out? Ah, fuck. What the hell is this? I still wasn’t sure either way and couldn’t do anything when Lee Jiwoo, who had eaten all the fried rice without leaving a single grain, put down his spoon.
“But he wouldn’t really kill me. Even if we’re cousins, family is family. Right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Reality isn’t a drama or movie.”
“Yeees…”
When I answered with difficulty with an uncomfortable expression, Lee Jiwoo got up from his seat.
“Ugh.”
No, he tried to get up, but whether he got a cramp in his leg, he collapsed right back down. Then he grabbed one leg and trembled.
The taut tension disappeared in an instant and a sigh flowed from my mouth as well.
“Should I get you something? Water?”
“M-my leg is getting electrocuted…”
“Wait a moment.”
Looking at his skin, he still seemed a bit cold, so I brought lukewarm water. Lee Jiwoo’s face after the storm had passed looked much more tired than before.
He sipped the water and said:
“I’m so grateful, can I hug you?”
I heard clearly from beginning to end, but I couldn’t understand the sentence at all.
“You want to hug me because you’re grateful to me?”
“Yeah.”
What bullshit is this? It was funny how he spoke as if his embrace was some great reward. Does he think he’s some famous celebrity? How absurd.
“I’ll just gratefully accept the thought…”
I was about to politely decline when Lee Jiwoo moved first. He pulled my head into his arms like cradling a precious stone and whispered.
“Thank you.”
“……”
The sweet floral scent of the buy-one-get-one-free shampoo vibrated in the air.
