* * *
Along with entering official summer, Eunha became even more lethargic. Some days he was gloomy enough that he didn’t want to leave the house at all, but he didn’t abandon his daily routine. He stubbornly got up in the morning, went to work, watered the plants.
However, if there was one peculiarity…
“……”
A morning when customers were filling up quite a bit due to exam period. Eunha, leaning against the counter stool, looked at the cluster of seats on the other side with somewhat incredulous eyes. At the end of his gaze was Gu Haebin. Sitting occupying a table in a lazy posture, not hiding his characteristic rough attitude.
Even so, there might not have been any particular problem. If only the back view visible across from him wasn’t Yeonjun. Eunha’s eyes watching the bizarre combination gradually became colored with bewilderment.
Why those two were like that goes back three days. The very next day after being suddenly interrogated by Gu Haebin. He came to the cafe again. At the time when he would usually be idling on the terrace with Yeonjun.
To Eunha, who made a troubled expression upon discovering him, Haebin made a meaningful “Hmm” sound with his throat, and next smiled amiably at Yeonjun and greeted him. Hello? Yeonjun looked up at him with his characteristic indifferent expression, then greeted him saying “Hello” just like the day before. It was at that moment.
Jeongho appeared saying he needed to watch the counter for a bit. It was a recent time when there was considerably more work to do in the mornings as exam period began. In the three-way confrontation situation, Eunha, who had been hesitating unable to do anything, shot a glare at Haebin’s nagging about what he was doing not leaving quickly, and left his seat. Should I really leave these two like this—he worried, then moved his steps thinking there wouldn’t be any problem. Since they don’t know each other well. Thinking they’d each be killing time separately.
After about 20 minutes had passed, when he roughly finished the work that had piled up busily and came back up to the second floor, what he saw were those who were still remaining on the terrace. His old friend, and the college student who said he liked him and was following him around doggedly. The two of them being in one space brought a somewhat heterogeneous impression.
What made Eunha puzzled was the fact that they were mixing words. At first he thought some conflict had occurred. Those who were exchanging some conversation were expressionless, and so a quite ominous aura emanated. The two had equally bad impressions. If one side felt sharp and pointed, the other side felt snake-like.
Did something happen? It was the moment he approached.
‘You, if you want to win Lee Eunha’s favor, you should be good to me, right? Instead of glaring so scarily.’
‘I’ve never looked at you scarily.’
‘Look at you now. Your eyes are so scary.’
‘It’s because of how I look, hyung.’
Hyung? As he said that, Haebin revealed an interested smile. Yeonjun had an interested expression toward him. A face focused only on his own purpose.
‘Tell me about winning favor.’
What words were exchanged while he briefly left his seat? While Eunha, who had stopped short, watched the front half bewildered and half puzzled, more conversation that couldn’t be heard well went on. What are they saying so much about? When he was about to approach, Jeongho with an urgent face came again, and Eunha, whose ankle was caught, had no choice but to turn around. While watching the counter like that, Yeonjun left the cafe with school as his reason.
‘What did you talk about so much with Yeonjun?’
After finishing work, he asked Haebin who had remained until then, but the guy didn’t give a clear answer. With a face immersed in thoughts, he only hummed a melody he seemed to have heard somewhere.
So there was the day before yesterday that passed unknowably, and likewise there was yesterday when Haebin, who stepped into the cafe, mingled with Yeonjun while Eunha was watching the counter.
And it was something he learned for certain only yesterday. That he himself was at the center of the two suddenly mingling so much and doing something resembling solidarity.
It was an utterly absurd situation. Especially since he could roughly guess the intentions of Haebin, who seemed to have taken the lead in the relationship, making it more absurd. However, he couldn’t take any other measures either. Reproaching why he suddenly came to the cafe every day didn’t work. If you looked at it, Haebin used to show his face more often every summer. Because he knew that time was a difficult period for Eunha.
And so it was now. One person who had started settling into the cafe and one person who had just escaped from being a high schooler, who didn’t know what blueprint he was drawing up next to him.
Looking again, it was a bizarre combination. Eunha, who had been watching them with displeasure, discovered a customer who had been lingering nearby leaving their seat, and roughly grabbed a dishcloth and stepped forward. When he approached to some degree, he could faintly hear their voices. So at that time Lee Eunha… Unable to hold back, he asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“The story about when you were in high school and were courted by twins at the same time.”
“…Are you insane?”
Eunha let out a hollow laugh. Why are you sitting there telling him that?
“…Did that really happen, hyung?”
Yeonjun asked, looking up at him. With eyes that had become opaque somewhere.
Such a thing had happened. In the beginning of second year of high school, he became friends with twins he met in the same class. Park Hyeonji and Kim Sunwoo were assigned to the same class, and only he ended up separated, but because that class was split to opposite ends, he ended up spending increasingly longer time hanging out with the twins at school. Eating lunch together, being together every break time, going to the snack bar, even opening a separate group chat to contact each other.
And true to being twins with perfectly matching tastes, before long they both came to like Eunha at the same time.
That turned into a very big ordeal for Eunha.
Receiving feelings from multiple people at the same time itself might not be a problem. They’re usually independent individuals. Even if they were acquaintances, it would normally stop at light power struggles or jealousy, and situations of truly clashing head-on rarely occurred. Fighting like dogs over one person with a rival… such dramatic love triangle melodrama was material that only appeared in dramas or something.
However, the problem was that they were twin siblings. Busy fighting and bickering with each other at every opportunity even without Eunha.
Eunha, who unintentionally became sandwiched between them as a target, had to spend a very weary year. Being caught up countless times in blatant and spectacular fights to the extent of having each arm gripped by them and pulled with full force. It was such a past that just recalling it brought a wave of fatigue.
Gu Haebin, who learned of the situation from about midway, giggled and laughed every time Eunha was troubled by that matter. Carefree as if watching a fire across the river while someone else was dying of distress.
