“Oh, right. Hyun-wook-ah, let’s do the team project together.”
Ah… there was a team project. This class had a lot of presentations. If I’d known in advance, I wouldn’t have registered. In the second week of class, there was already a 5-minute speech on the topic of ‘The Language of Law.’ Of course, I sent the professor an email with a lengthy explanation for my absence that day. With a speech manuscript I spent a full three hours writing attached.
Of course, I knew it would be useless. But it was better than turning pale and vomiting in front of everyone just two weeks after admission.
Anyway, how would Jung Hyun-wook work with that arm? Can’t he even take off a few days? While having such thoughts, I suddenly remembered the week we ran night shifts to make up for one day’s wages we missed because of the entrance ceremony. My mood inexplicably soured.
***
After Jung Hyun-wook started coming to the convenience store, when dawn deepened, I found myself glancing at the clock multiple times for no reason.
“Hey part-timer. Try sticking a card in the ATM. It keeps spitting out the card.”
A customer who walked in swaying threw a card on top of the counter. The smell of alcohol vibrated.
“Isn’t the machine broken? If it’s broken, you should fix it on time! Fuck!”
There’s no way the machine was broken. He definitely stuck the card in backwards after drinking. But without any response, I picked up the card that fell on the floor. That’s when Jung Hyun-wook came in.
As if he’d just finished work, a faint smell of bleach came from him. I deliberately didn’t give him a glance and walked straight to the ATM machine and inserted the card. When the card was inserted normally, the machine operated. I sent a gesture to use it and was about to leave when he cursed again, dissatisfied about something. I inexplicably became conscious of Jung Hyun-wook.
“Rude bastard! Why aren’t you talking? Don’t you have a mouth?”
This male customer was a peculiar customer who came drunk during dawn hours and always withdrew cash. He didn’t even buy anything, only withdrew cash.
When I told Jun-il about this, he suddenly went quiet and then told me to just not engage with him even if he picked a fight.
“Hey, part-timer. Next time, please fix the machine! If this happens again next time, I’ll bash your head in.”
If you withdrew all your cash, just leave. He picked a fight while tapping my forehead with the wad of cash. I instinctively felt I needed to send this man away quickly. I quickly raised my hands in front of my chest and moved busily. If I didn’t respond in this situation, he’d obviously make a scene saying I was ignoring him. I’m sorry. I’ll definitely fix it next time. The suddenly excited man stopped short.
“What, what. You really are a mute bastard. Fuck, so unlucky.”
Just then, a cup of ramen was placed on the counter with a thud. Jung Hyun-wook pushed the man’s shoulder quite roughly and entered in front of the counter. The pushed man raised his head as if he’d curse up a storm any moment. But he quickly shrank at Jung Hyun-wook’s large build and threatening atmosphere. The man cleared his throat and quickly disappeared.
As soon as I scanned the cup ramen’s barcode, Jung Hyun-wook, as always, placed bills and coins on the counter and turned around. Isn’t he buying cigarettes today? Should I say thank you? No, maybe he didn’t do it to help me. More than anything, I didn’t want to use sign language in front of him.
My mood sank a bit. I felt like I’d shown Jung Hyun-wook an embarrassing side. But what did it matter? He didn’t know of my existence anyway, and as always, he left without giving me a chance to say anything.
Just then, I saw Jung Hyun-wook’s bag and cup ramen on the table near the entrance. Why is that there? After stupidly staring at Jung Hyun-wook’s stuff, I sprang up from my seat as if bouncing and threw open the convenience store door. The cold energy of dawn scratched my face. With my cold hands clenched tight, I looked around in all directions. Jung Hyun-wook wasn’t visible.
Where the hell did he go? I was stamping my feet for a while when Jung Hyun-wook came out from the building next door. He walked over with a calm face. However, rough breaths poured out riding his gasping breath. Jung Hyun-wook’s eyes shone clearly in the darkness. Jung Hyun-wook passed by me, captivated by those eyes, and entered the convenience store.
I thought he’d come out with his bag. But he was sitting at the table tearing open the cup ramen packaging. Slowly tearing the plastic with one hand and tearing the soup packet with his teeth. I debated about a hundred times whether to help.
When Jung Hyun-wook finally stood in front of the hot water with the cup ramen tucked under his arm, I urgently walked over and snatched his cup ramen away. I felt his gaze slowly looking up at me. My hand pouring hot water trembled. After placing wooden chopsticks split in two on top of the lid, I returned to the counter.
I deliberately didn’t put my gaze that way and fixed my eyes on the open textbook. His phone vibrated.
“Yes, Chief. I put the key in Chief’s desk drawer. Yes. My hand is fine. Going to the hospital for something like this… I’ll see you tomorrow. Get home safely.”
Suddenly, I remembered the security guard ahjussi who used to buy canned coffee as a snack at dawn continued working with a swollen wrist and eventually had surgery. Jong-hwa too—why do people not go to the hospital when they’re in pain? Of course, the reason was obvious. They couldn’t take time off work anyway, and they didn’t like hospital bills going out either.
Jung Hyun-wook ate ramen with an unreadable expression. He only reacted to the honking sound tearing through the quiet air of dawn, glancing outside briefly. For the first time, I felt fatigue in his face.
The male customer who just bought warm canned coffee looked back and forth between his phone and the road under the parasol. He was a designated driver.
I felt somehow sad. Did he mop floors and wipe glass with that injured hand? Jung Hyun-wook, who’d finished his ramen before I knew it, opened a book. It seemed like he was waiting for the first train. I thought it would be nice if time went a bit slower. So he could rest in a warm place even a little longer.
When it was time for the first trains to start running, the next shift part-timer came to work. From then, I had to walk diligently. Because time was tight to go home, wash up, and go to school. Today, I’d probably end up grilling pork neck from the morning.
Winter mornings had short days. Even though it was 5 AM, it was pitch black everywhere. I could see the bus stop in the distance. There was no one on the sidewalk. A bus with its lights on alone in the darkness stopped. The bus was full.
People wearing black jumpers and carrying bags got off in droves. Armed with masks and gloves against the winter pre-dawn cold, they entered the buildings in small groups.
This place, lined with major corporation headquarters and investment banks, was the workplace of office workers in white dress shirts and ties. But the dawn before daybreak wasn’t their time. It was the time of countless laborers who cleaned, inspected, and maintained their workplaces. They had to finish their work and disappear like shadows before the world brightened. Jung Hyun-wook was one of them too.
I breathed in deeply. Jung Hyun-wook came to mind—looking into his book with an upright face, then leaving the convenience store when it was time for the first train. I’d been curious about his gaze that was sometimes excessively indifferent even while always surrounded by people. Would those indifferent eyes burn with longing in front of someone? The elegant-type beauty who played violin came to mind. Would Jung Hyun-wook’s gaze looking at her be different?
The quiet of dawn made any sound audible from close by. It was a motorcycle sound. The motorcycle that came running stopped while blocking my path. Jong-hwa took off his helmet in an exaggerated way like a scene from an old TV commercial.
“Hey, handsome student. Got some money?”
Jong-hwa, who got off the motorcycle, asked cockily. I, for whom Ahn Jong-hwa’s absurd situational acting wasn’t once or twice, stared up at him blankly.
“Well well, look at this. Cat got your tongue? Why no answer?”
When I had no reaction, Jong-hwa started overacting. He grabbed my chin and shook it left and right, then firmly grabbed my butt.
“Hey.”
At the suddenly heard unfamiliar voice, Ahn Jong-hwa, who was continuing the situational act, stopped. But I was more surprised. I could tell just from the voice. It was Jung Hyun-wook. A black silhouette appeared through the gaps in the alley. In the pitch-black darkness, only the cigarette in his hand burned red. Jung Hyun-wook, who took a drag of the cigarette, flicked it away with his fingers and charged forward. Approaching like an angry bison, he twisted Jong-hwa’s neck just like that. Jong-hwa’s hand fell away from my butt.
“Gak! Who are you! You crazy bas… tard!”
It was the first time I saw Jong-hwa overpowered in strength. Jung Hyun-wook easily subdued Jong-hwa with one hand. His eyes were vivid with murderous intent.
I’d seen many people outside the fence the world drew while growing and living. Close by, there was the person called my father, and likewise Jong-hwa, who barely graduated high school after causing all sorts of trouble.
And for the first time, I read a similar energy from Jung Hyun-wook. A dragon from the gutter. Jong-hwa’s words that I didn’t agree with came to mind.
“Wouldn’t you be a crazy bastard for molesting a passerby? Since I’m a witness, you’re caught in the act. Let’s talk at the police station.”
Jung Hyun-wook’s voice was coldly sunken, opposite from his excited face. But fortunately, he knew how to think like a law student. But Jong-hwa was different.
“You fucking, shitty bastard.”
Jong-hwa, whose neck was being choked, forcefully twisted Jung Hyun-wook’s wrist wrapped in bandages. When the strength left the hand gripping his neck, he expelled the blocked breath with a reddened face. Jong-hwa, who’d been bent over gasping for breath, suddenly sprang up like a spring. Thwack! With the sound, Jung Hyun-wook’s face turned to the opposite side.
I desperately blocked Jong-hwa. Knowing Ahn Jong-hwa with his eyes turned wouldn’t hesitate to do any cowardly act, I was scared. I grabbed Jong-hwa’s waist as he lunged at Jung Hyun-wook and clung to him.
“Hey Mo Hyo-kyung! Let go of this! Let go!”
I stumbled backward while clinging to Jong-hwa. Before I knew it, I was sandwiched between Jung Hyun-wook and Ahn Jong-hwa like a sandwich. That’s when Jung Hyun-wook, who’d stopped short, wiped his torn lip and said:
“Do you know this person?”
I nodded my head vigorously. I knew Ahn Jong-hwa’s crazy situational acting would cause a disaster like this someday. I took out my phone and quickly wrote a text, then shoved it in front of Jong-hwa’s face.
Memo Complete
He’s a convenience store customer. A student from our school. Please let him go.│
