“Did you take down your photos too?”
“No? Why would my photos be there? They were their own photos.”
“Then you lived looking at their photos all the time.”
“That’s right.”
At Sunjeong’s nonchalant voice, Taeon puffed air into his cheeks for no reason.
Soon when Sunjeong came holding two cups of coffee in both hands, his cheeks became hollow again. Sunjeong looked at Taeon with an interested gaze.
“You like things clean, so you like this living room more than back then, right?”
“…Well, yeah.”
The fact that his moving luggage was simple was also a result of Taeon not easily bringing things in and aiming for maximum simplicity. Though his wallet situation wasn’t abundant, he really hated the house being messy because of things.
“Still, things like photos… well, you could stick some up.”
The reason he added this one comment for no reason was probably because he was worried about Sunjeong.
Thinking of Sunjeong’s personality, he might not have cared much, but Taeon could easily imagine Sunjeong being slightly tired while constantly surrounded by the couples’ positive energy.
“That’s true. My room also has some photos stuck up. Ah, back then because of their bomb declaration, you didn’t get to properly tour my room either. Look at it sometime later.”
“Photos?”
“Yeah, I stuck up ones we took together, you and me.”
“…”
For a moment, Taeon flinched.
Of course, photos of Taeon and Sunjeong taken together had been stuck up in the old main house, but he didn’t know they’d still be stuck up now.
“It’s delicious, right? I think Juseong hyung really uses good coffee beans.”
“…What hyung?”
“What?”
“He’s the boss. What do you mean hyung?”
At Taeon’s words that he ended up saying, Sunjeong chuckled.
“When we’re together, I call him boss. Still, we’re close.”
“Call him boss behind his back too.”
What is he thinking? Sunjeong’s laughter grew louder.
“Anyway, that’s your room over there.”
The place Sunjeong pointed to was a door on the left side of the living room. Taeon nodded quietly. He said it was the room Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo originally used.
“There’s only a bed. They and I each used the two remaining rooms as a study and closet. You use it that way too.”
“Two rooms is a bit much…”
Anyway, the monthly rent Taeon was paying was a small amount that wasn’t even 1/5 of Seoul’s average monthly rent price. He couldn’t be this shameless.
“The spare things are rooms. If you don’t use them, they’ll be empty anyway. Oh, we’ll do our tutoring here in the living room.”
Continuing to do things he’d never done in his life wasn’t entirely comfortable.
But having come this far, Taeon knew he had to try to become accustomed to uncomfortable things.
“…Thank you.”
At Taeon’s heavy greeting, Sunjeong laughed lightly.
“Finish your coffee and unpack. I came out without even washing my face today, so I’ll go wash up. Then let’s eat lunch. What should we eat?”
“Whatever you want to eat.”
“Since it’s moving day, let’s order jajangmyeon and tangsuyuk.”
“Okay.”
“You are going to work, right?”
“Yeah, shift change from 3 o’clock.”
“Okay. After I see you off, I need to do assignments and study.”
Sunjeong, who seemed to have finished his coffee, soon got up from his seat and cleaned up the cup he’d drunk from.
If Taeon had been a guest, Sunjeong wouldn’t have acted this way. Now after drinking coffee together, the person who finished their coffee just had to do what they needed to do.
Taeon’s heart, watching Sunjeong lightly doing the dishes, began to pound much more than when he’d decided to move into this house, than when he’d finally entered the house.
He couldn’t believe the fact that now Taeon and Sunjeong would live together in the same house.
Needing to calm his heart that had started beating too much, and also wanting to savor the happiness filling his heart right now, Taeon deliberately drank the completely cooled coffee very slowly.
Even so, he quickly finished the coffee.
From far away, he could hear the faint sound of water from Sunjeong showering.
After Taeon took a deep breath in and out, he approached the sink where Sunjeong had done the dishes earlier.
Inside the sink was full of moisture, but the outside was only shiny, probably because it had been wiped clean with a dishcloth. Even this was just like Sunjeong.
Even the rubber gloves were pink.
He didn’t feel like wearing pink gloves at all, and the size seemed small, so Taeon did the dishes with bare hands. Even so, his gaze kept going to the neatly hung rubber gloves.
Now these kinds of things, truly, they would all share while living together.
It would be a short time until this house’s contract expired, so it seemed good to enjoy it diligently for a while.
Because even his hand movements doing the dishes became very slow, by the time Taeon finished the dishes and meticulously wiped around the sink with a dry dishcloth like Sunjeong, Sunjeong had already finished showering.
“Don’t do the dishes. I do it right after eating because it’s my habit, but it’s fine if you pile them up and do them later. There’s a dishwasher too.”
Taeon, who’d been blankly looking down at the small garden surrounded by the apartment’s four buildings visible through the small window in the kitchen, ended up being startled by Sunjeong’s voice.
When he turned around, he almost dropped the small mug he was holding onto the floor.
Hair dripping with moisture, white skin that seemed even more transparent.
And thin pajamas. Pajamas that were somehow too thin.
His arms were fully exposed, and the pants were also short shorts that jumped up above his knees. It was opposite to Sunjeong’s relatively neat clothing outside.
It wasn’t like he’d only seen Sunjeong like this once or twice, but for no reason, his heart again couldn’t control itself and kept starting to beat as if seeing an unfamiliar person.
“What are you thinking about so much?”
What brought Taeon to his senses was Sunjeong’s voice.
“No, no, I wasn’t thinking anything. I wasn’t.”
Unlike usual when he always spoke leisurely and heavily, at his own words that came out urgently and frivolously, Taeon thought, Oh no.
Living together with Sunjeong…
He’d thought it would just be staying closer together like before, that it would be not having to be anxious even when there was no contact, but perhaps it might be more than that.
The delivered jajangmyeon and tangsuyuk were excessively tasteless.
“Ah, looking at it, the store ranking wasn’t by popularity. It has an ad mark.”
Sunjeong’s brow furrowed as he checked the delivery application again. It tasted much better than the food Yoonwoo had made, but still, it was the first food Taeon ate after moving in, so the fact that it was this tasteless didn’t feel very good.
Contrary to Sunjeong’s thoughts, Taeon was silently eating the food. Seeing him eating jajangmyeon wildly as if he’d starved for several days, he should have ordered a large portion.
“Is it good? I really think this place is bad.”
“It’s not delicious, but it’s just decent enough to eat. Go Sunjeong, you eat some too.”
“Okay.”
Seeing Taeon eating diligently made Sunjeong feel his appetite stimulated too. Sunjeong began to eat bite by bite while watching Taeon, who ate cleanly as usual even while eating quickly.
Taeon, who’d finished the meal, entered the room to prepare for work.
For a moment, Taeon was startled again.
It was because the room was too big.
The studio apartment he’d originally lived in was also old construction and had poor facilities, but it couldn’t be called very cramped—it was a room decent enough for one person to live in. However, this room that Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo had used was incomparably large.
It looked even more spacious because the only furniture attached to such a room was a bed.
Though it didn’t seem like Jinhyeok, who was from a family on a much larger scale than Sunjeong’s, would use a cheap bed, the softness felt when sitting on the bed was just amazing.
Taeon was even slightly afraid. That if he got used to sleeping on such a bed, he might not be able to return to his original hard topper life.
If it was fortunate that it was limited-period living, it was fortunate.
Though Sunjeong had told him to organize his luggage earlier, there wasn’t even luggage to organize. It was finished just by neatly reorganizing the clothes compactly packed in the carrier in the “clothes room” given to Taeon, and even that amount was so small it didn’t occupy even 1/10 of the closet.
The cotton blanket gifted by the facility director that he’d at least brought became no longer Taeon’s.
‘Give me that blanket.’
Because when Sunjeong saw the cotton blanket, his eyes sparkled as he said this.
Sunjeong rarely asked Taeon to gift him something material. But now asking for a cotton blanket whose exterior was already getting a bit worn from being used for several years. For Taeon, he could give it with a willing heart.
‘I do wash it sometimes, but I couldn’t get it cleaned this time and brought it. It’ll smell.’
‘It doesn’t matter. When I cover myself with this blanket, it’s heavy so I sleep well.’
Sunjeong, who received the blanket from Taeon, grinned broadly.
And what he gave in return was his own blanket.
‘There’s the one Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo used, but who knows what they did on their blanket, it’s unsettling.’
He even frowned while saying this. Then what he held out was his own soft blanket in a pink hue that made the white stand out more.
Thinking of his room being decorated in pink was absurd, but well, he needed a blanket to cover himself with.
Thanks to the pinkish blanket, the room’s atmosphere also seemed a bit brighter.
Taeon, who’d been looking around the room with a feeling where the novelty still hadn’t faded, soon changed clothes and left the house.
When leaving, he’d normally say goodbye, right?
When Taeon swallowed his dry saliva and was about to announce his departure for work, Sunjeong came out first.
“Yoon Taeon, have a good day at work.”
“…Yeah, I’ll have a good day.”
Sunjeong telling him to have a good day, and Taeon answering that he would—it was something he’d hardly ever even imagined. Taeon’s heart, having carefully closed the front door, began to pound again.
