Nunbi set the warm teacup — which had seemed to cling to his hands — neatly back onto its saucer. The wind from outside drifted in through the rear veranda and wove its way through the gaps in his hair. The tea had settled warm in his empty stomach.
“I’ve got a lot to do up on the mountain. I’m busy.”
He wasn’t actually busy. But he didn’t want to give the impression that he had nowhere to go and nothing to do, so…. Nunbi quietly looked away again, afraid the lie might show on his face.
“Funny, you came running over fast enough.”
Woonjeong said it with a faint smirk, and it landed right where it hurt. That fox-like face curved into a grin.
“…Then just give it to me already. My umbrella.”
“Where are you going?”
“Why?”
“Just curious.”
Without meaning to, Nunbi found himself watching Woonjeong drain his teacup cleanly — and then caught himself doing exactly that and forced his gaze away. The deep, saturated green outside had been swallowed up by rain threaded with the mountain’s breath, and the weather felt strange.
It was raining hard. Not that it particularly mattered — rain or snow, Nunbi usually spent Sundays buried somewhere in the mountains, so it was nothing unusual. If it rained, he’d head to the cave. If snow made things too cold, he’d light a fire. When was Woonjeong going to hand over the umbrella already? Just as the cushion beneath him was beginning to feel like a bed of thorns —
“Want to just stay here and hang out with me?”
Woonjeong asked out of nowhere.
“…Huh?”
Nunbi blinked, a little taken aback. Woonjeong looked perfectly unbothered, but for a fleeting moment the boy was seized by a strange feeling.
“….”
“….”
Was it that face? That languid set of his mouth? Or that odd little smile, the way it curved? It could have been his unhurried tone, or just his whole manner. Nunbi couldn’t begin to sort through the countless possible reasons — he just swallowed dryly. It was a feeling similar to what he’d felt a moment ago, when they’d been close enough for skin to brush skin. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on, a faint unease that built gradually until his face felt hot.
“What… what would we even do?”
Nunbi asked blankly. At the question, Woonjeong tugged up the corner of his mouth.
“Something fun.”
It was the kind of smile that almost made a sound.
In that instant, as the wind shifted direction, Nunbi caught a scent. Something faint and stale — a burnt smell, a little musty. The same smell as when he’d run into Woonjeong while he was smoking. Odd. I didn’t notice it earlier, when he was so close. Had he gotten used to it without realizing? Without quite meaning to, Nunbi found himself thinking that this sourceless scent of his — whatever it was — suited Woonjeong. Both the soap smell and the stale smoke, somehow it all fits. A strange thing to think.
“What kind of fun.”
His voice came out sounding a little strangled. Woonjeong replied, unhurried.
“You’ll find out when we get there.”
Those fair, fine hands set down the teacup. Their eyes met directly, and Nunbi felt something that was almost like trembling. Somehow, despite the breeze, the air felt close and warm. The moments around the low refreshment table where Nunbi and Woonjeong sat facing each other seemed to stretch — as if the seconds between seconds had grown longer than usual.
“….”
The wind shifted and scattered Woonjeong’s hair. In that moment, Nunbi saw it again. That subtle, passing quality of light across that face. The pale luminousness that seemed to ripple when you looked too long. A face made of tangled things like that. What had once been the glimmer on the valley stream and the sound of cicadas had now become the rain-shadowed light and the pale dim of drifting mountain mist. Nunbi felt suddenly, acutely aware that this moment — all of this — was deeply unreal.
“I appreciate it, but….”
The boy rose from his seat, trying not to seem hurried. He felt like he needed to run. Woonjeong laughed easily and got angry easily. His expressions felt performed somehow, impossible to read through — Nunbi could never tell what he was actually thinking. He didn’t like that.
“I think I’ll be alright. I’ll head out now. I’m not supposed to be here in the first place….”
He’d been trying not to stumble, but somewhere in the middle of it he must have put his weight wrong on his knee, because the shin where he’d re-applied the gauze earlier gave a dull throb. There was no time to dwell on it — Nunbi quickly corrected his posture and turned toward the door. Holding his breath, the boy did his best to keep his gait steady, even as it listed unevenly. He took one step forward. He was just about to leave this annex that felt like some entirely different world — and then.
“Nunbi.”
From behind him, Woonjeong reached out and caught the back of his neck without missing a beat. Like an invisible hand.
“Come sit down.”
The voice was level, unhurried, giving nothing away — utterly Woonjeong in the way it left no room for guessing. And yet.
“I said it was fine. What’s not fine about it, when I say it’s fine.”
Had turning away when Woonjeong suggested they hang out bothered him? But Woonjeong wasn’t exactly angry — he was too calm for that — and his tone wasn’t cold either, if anything it was almost gentle, which made it all the more unsettling. Against his own will, Nunbi felt that strange, off-kilter flutter again.
“….”
He’d lived at this temple his whole life, and only today had he learned this room existed. That was because Nunbi was not the kind of person who was supposed to go anywhere near the annex.
“Whatever I do in here, no one can touch me for it. You know that.”
Nunbi kept turning the same thought over and over.
“….”
Better not to get tangled up with Go Woonjeong. The boy turned around slowly. Sitting there like a painting amid the green landscape where mist had begun to gather, Woonjeong was looking straight at him.
“So come on. Let’s hang out.”
That languid mouth curved into a smile like a serpent’s. Nunbi had been tricked. He’d said he’d give him the umbrella. That was how Woonjeong had lured him out here — and now Nunbi was standing squarely in the middle of the annex. It felt like he kept falling for Woonjeong’s tricks, one after another, and yet he still didn’t understand. What on earth was Woonjeong’s reason for doing any of this.
“Do you maybe….”
Nunbi chose his words carefully.
“…want to be friends? With me?”
If we’re friends, maybe he won’t try anything terrible…. That was the thought behind it. Perhaps in that moment the boy was feeling an unease he couldn’t explain. The things Woonjeong said, the things he did — the snake-like smile as he suggested they do something fun — these were all things Nunbi couldn’t immediately make sense of. He couldn’t figure out what Woonjeong intended to do to him, with that pretty face and that sharp grin. And there was no way to escape the feeling that they kept getting more and more entangled….
“Friends?”
Woonjeong looked at Nunbi and smiled. The summer living on that face rippled beautifully. You might get too used to that careless warmth and that careless prettiness. That would be bad. Nunbi thought that. He’s only passing through for a while. Nothing much can happen in that amount of time, he thought too. Being friends couldn’t be dangerous. But still — I really think it’d be better not to get tangled up with Go Woonjeong. Yet at the same time, without quite knowing why, the way Woonjeong kept acting like he wanted to close the distance — Nunbi kept losing track of himself because of it. Maybe it’d be okay. Maybe it’d turn out fine. Yeah. Maybe Woonjeong was just too bright an existence for poor, lacking Nunbi. Maybe it was the kind of flutter he’d never once experienced before, not in all that summer. Maybe that was why he kept looking.
“That’s good. Friends.”
That pretty mouth curved into a grin aimed straight at poor, lacking Nunbi. Perhaps, from that very moment, Nunbi was already coming down with something. That it was the beginning of a fever — that, the boy would not know for some time yet.
✽
“….”
In the end, Nunbi found himself stuck spending half the day glued to Woonjeong’s side. Well — he’d been the one to ask if they could be friends, so it was a bit awkward to just get up and leave after that. And there was also the risk of running into the devotee who’d come up late. So Nunbi talked himself into it with the reasoning that this was unavoidable, and stayed planted in the annex.
For a short while there were those ambiguous looks exchanged between them, that strangely charged air — but after that, nothing particularly eventful happened. The two of them sat together and looked out at the view from the rear veranda, and then Woonjeong, who seemed to have gotten bored, got up first and brought out some thick book to read. Nunbi glanced at it for a moment and casually asked what it was.
It was an enormously thick book with some English title stamped right on the cover, and he wondered with some doubt whether the inside was also all in English — and when he snuck a look over Woonjeong’s shoulder, it really was all English…. On top of that, the text on each page was so dense it would make your head spin just reading one. Woonjeong told him offhandedly that it was required reading for some master’s degree.
