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Perhaps noticing my gaze, Cha Geonhyeok tore open the jelly wrapper. Like luring a puppy with food, he pulled out a gummy bear and waved it around. I stared at him with a blank expression. He chuckled and popped the gummy bear into his mouth, then held out the jelly wrapper to me. I put my hand into the opened wrapper.
“The snacks are settled with that… Are you guys even listening to me?”
“We’re listening, we’re listening. Which singer is coming?”
I asked my classmate while picking out a green gummy bear. I ate the jelly while hearing a familiar celebrity’s name coming from her mouth. It was the perfect taste to have as dessert.
* * *
I borrowed books from the library. I only borrowed three books, but they were all hardcovers and thick, so they were heavy.
I received my student ID and books from the librarian and paused briefly at the bar-style counter table. Praising myself that bringing my backpack today was a stroke of genius, I organized and put away two of the books.
The reason I set foot in a library I hadn’t even visited during high school was because of an assignment for a liberal arts course. The young professor who liked wearing stylish suits preferred analog methods, and unlike the previous assignment, this time he personally selected a reading list for solving the assignment. He strongly recommended it, saying it would be more fun this way even though it could be done on the internet, so I gave borrowing the books a try. But I seemed to have picked the wrong day. I didn’t know it, but it was raining outside.
Worried the bag straps might tear, I hugged the one book I couldn’t fit in my backpack and looked out the wide, tall glass window. Perhaps because it was a building newly constructed last year, the soundproofing was near perfect. Only after the glass elevator full of noisy students left the first floor did I start to hear the faint sound of rain. Should I call a taxi? I sighed and took out my phone.
Because I live alone, I check the weather forecast every morning when I leave the house. I didn’t skip it today either, but contrary to the forecast, it was raining. Maybe it was a shower. But for that, the rainfall wasn’t heavy. It was a cool spring rain that seemed like it would fall steadily for a long time, thoroughly soaking the ground.
According to the weather forecast, it should have started raining from this Saturday. Having confirmed that fact the day before yesterday, I postponed my grand “make an excuse to go on a café date with Woogyun” plan to next weekend. I thought it would be better to meet on a sunny day if possible. …No, actually, I might have been using the weather as an excuse because I couldn’t find a suitable pretext. Excuses, excuses…
How could I naturally meet with Woogyun on the weekend? I wanted to call him out without seeming strange, plausibly. But there was nothing suitable. The easiest thing would be asking for advice, but I had no worries aside from matters concerning Woogyun. If I forced myself to make up a problem, I felt like I’d be caught during the conversation, and I didn’t want to deceive him. Thinking about it, asking Woogyun, with whom I had few points of contact, for advice would also be random.
Then what would be good? Should I think simple and suggest coffee like how my classmates ask me to drink together? Come to think of it, it doesn’t have to be coffee. I didn’t necessarily need to get something from Woogyun either. What’s important was meeting him and spending time together. Then perhaps I should just ask if he’s bored on the weekend and wants to grab a coffee…
“Ah.”
I saw Cha Geonhyeok through the window. Cha Geonhyeok walking leisurely with an umbrella. I immediately ran out and burst through the glass doors of the library.
I ran toward Cha Geonhyeok, breaking through the steadily falling rain. I stepped in puddles here and there. Ignoring the splashing water droplets, I grabbed his arm. The sound of rain grew louder. It was the sound of spring rain meeting the umbrella.
“What is it?”
Not seeming surprised, Cha Geonhyeok asked in his usual voice. I looked up at him and smiled.
“Going home?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you bring your car?”
“Want a ride?”
Cha Geonhyeok, wearing a somewhat annoying expression, continued the steps he’d stopped because of me and asked. I answered “Yeah” while uncomfortably wiping my wet forehead with the hand holding the book.
“Why are you asking so confidently?”
Whether my bold request bothered him that much, Cha Geonhyeok shoved me with his shoulder as I was choosing my words. Pushed by his strength, I suddenly got hit by the pitter-pattering rain and jumped in surprise before going back under the umbrella. Honestly, I was a bit irritated, but since I was in a position where I needed to catch a ride, I couldn’t get angry.
“Just… let’s help each other out.”
Forcing a nice voice, I put on a smile on my wet face. I also gripped his arm more firmly so I wouldn’t get kicked out again. And then pitter-patter, I got rained on again. I looked up. Cha Geonhyeok was tilting the umbrella toward himself and giggling.
“Ah, come on! The book’s getting all wet!”
“Okay, okay.”
He straightened the umbrella while speaking in an annoyingly soothing tone. I grumbled while wiping the moisture off the hardcover with my sleeve. Cha Geonhyeok tapped my temple with the umbrella handle. When I looked up at him with force in my eyes, he smirked. One day I’m going to totally screw this bastard over. Making that promise to myself, I entered the small outdoor parking lot behind the building.
Cha Geonhyeok naturally headed toward the driver’s side. Thinking it would be better to go around the hood rather than the trunk, I was looking down at the door opening when Cha Geonhyeok pressed the umbrella into my hand. Instinctively, I held the umbrella over his head as he got in the car. Click. The door closed.
Ah, doesn’t this kind of hurt my pride? With only my mouth smiling, I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them, then walked around the trunk and climbed into the passenger seat. I folded and put away the wet umbrella and closed the door of the started car. My wet body bothered me belatedly.
“Is it okay if this seat gets wet?”
“It’ll dry if you leave it.”
Cha Geonhyeok answered half-heartedly, put down the phone he’d been looking at, and gripped the steering wheel. He told me to buckle up like an order and started the car. I took off my bag, put it in the back seat with the book, and fastened my seatbelt. Cha Geonhyeok, holding the steering wheel with one hand, pressed several buttons on the dashboard. Warm air came out of the vents. My butt got warm too.
“Using tissues?”
I shook the portable tissues sitting in the car door compartment. Cha Geonhyeok, who briefly gave me a glance, nodded. I pulled out a few tissues and roughly wiped my face and hands. Just that made the cold I didn’t know had arrived disappear. Blood started flowing to my fingertips. For some reason, I laughed.
“Hey, but that was kind of like a movie.”
I tapped Cha Geonhyeok’s arm resting on the console box and spoke to him. Cha Geonhyeok’s car left the sloped school grounds.
“What was?”
“On a rainy day, romantically, meeting under an umbrella.”
I deliberately added sophisticated hand gestures to my sugary voice as I spoke. The car, caught at a traffic light, stopped smoothly.
“Right. It was like a movie. The problem is that you and I are the cast.”
Cha Geonhyeok, not betraying expectations, killed the mood. I scrunched up my face and sank deeply into the seat. Click, click, click. Between the sounds of rain, the left turn signal announced it was working hard.
“It’s raining a lot.”
Cha Geonhyeok muttered and leaned his upper body against the steering wheel. The car’s front windshield, receiving raindrops without rest, was busy. It diligently wiped away the moisture on its body, spreading a red glow colored by the traffic light. It matched well with the green leaves of the thoroughly soaked street trees.
“Yeah.”
“I want to eat sujebi.”
“Should I make it?”
Cha Geonhyeok turned his head to look at me. I didn’t respond to his gaze and folded my fingers one by one, thinking of sujebi ingredients.
“I have all the ingredients at home. Should I make it?”
“Are you good at it?”
“Of course I’m good at it.”
“I need to be able to believe you.”
Cha Geonhyeok straightened his upper body while expressing disbelief. I frowned, not understanding why he was like this. The light changed. Cha Geonhyeok pressed the accelerator and turned the wheel as he opened his mouth.
“You also bullshitted saying you were good at it the first time you slept with me. You were good at it for it being your first time. The sujebi too, is it your first time making…”
“No it’s not! No! It’s not!”
I interrupted his words while smacking his forearm. Cha Geonhyeok wrinkled his nose bridge and laughed.
“Hey, we’ll get in an accident.”
He pushed my face away. I grabbed his hand painfully and flung it away.
“What’s so pretty about this bastard that I would make sujebi for him… I shouldn’t have asked for a ride, I shouldn’t have. I should’ve just caught a taxi.”
“I’ll look forward to the sujebi.”
“Look forward to it or don’t.”
I grumbled with a face full of dissatisfaction. Unlike me, Cha Geonhyeok still had a laughing face, finding something so amusing. Hating the sight, I hit his forearm one more time. This time with my fist. Whether it was effective, Cha Geonhyeok stopped laughing.
“That hurts.”
“I hit you so it would hurt. Got a problem?”
“Crazy. Why are you throwing a tantrum after hitting me?”
“A tantrum? When did I throw a tantrum?”
“You’re fucking throwing one right now?”
“No I’m not!”
Until the car engine completely turned off, he and I bickered endlessly.
After arriving home, the atmosphere wasn’t fierce. It was because a hungry Cha Geonhyeok was sitting obediently at the dining table. I wrapped the sujebi dough I’d kneaded hard with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. I cleared the flour scattered on the two-person dining table and placed a cutting board on the counter next to the sink. I also took out the vegetables that go in sujebi.
“Come here.”
And I called Cha Geonhyeok.
“Why?”
“Come and chop these.”
Sujebi (수제비) – Korean hand-torn noodle soup
