“You two arrived at similar times. Standing there like that, you look like you’ve met several times already.”
The person who greeted us at the dorm entrance wasn’t Kihyun hyung but Jungwoo hyung.
“Hyung, isn’t today a day when you finish late?”
“I skipped the last lecture.”
“Is that okay?”
“There’s no attendance check, and nothing important was happening today.”
Jungwoo hyung said this while opening the door with the card key in his hand.
“Hyung, didn’t you sleep?”
“Yeah. I had a presentation this morning, so I pulled all-nighters for several days and I’m exhausted to death. I’m going upstairs to sleep right away, so you guys hang out on your own.”
Jungwoo hyung, who had always shown only a neat appearance until now, was truly shockingly haggard today. The person who always dressed well enough to stand out on campus every time was wearing a shabby hoodie, and above all, he hadn’t shaved the beard that had grown considerably in the past few days, so I almost didn’t recognize him.
What kind of presentation could it have been? I’ll have to take the same class next year too. I was already worried.
“Was it a group presentation?”
“No. Just me. Why, are you worried?”
“Yes. I have to take that class next year too.”
“You don’t have to worry. It would have been fine if I’d prepared a bit in advance, but I prepared too suddenly. I procrastinated because it was annoying and completely forgot about it.”
After Kang Sehyun, Jungwoo hyung was probably the most unexpected person. It was surprising when I heard about the card game results, but it was even more shocking that he forgot about an important presentation. Until now, I thought he was a perfect person who balanced work and studies well.
“The guys are here.”
As usual, the front door was open today too. And just like that time, Junsung hyung was sitting on the sofa waving his hand.
“Then I’m going to sleep.”
“Hyung, what about the hot dog?”
“Leave it for me. I’ll eat it when I wake up.”
Jungwoo hyung went into his room, and as if on cue, at that timing Kihyun hyung walked out of his room. He was in the middle of a phone call with someone.
“…No, hyung. Then I’ll come a bit later. …Yes, yes. No, that’s not what I meant….”
Kihyun hyung, who had been raising his hand when he saw us, turned around with a slightly furrowed brow. He silently mouthed ‘Eat first,’ then went into his room and didn’t come out for a long while. It seemed the phone call was getting lengthy.
Kang Sehyun, who had set down the hot dogs on the dining table, went and sat on the sofa. The cheap sofa with scratches and one side deeply sunken looked incredibly comfortable. Indeed, even objects differ depending on who uses them. Just because Kang Sehyun was sitting on it, the tacky sofa looked different. Even a 7-dollar T-shirt sold at the mart would probably look like a luxury brand if Kang Sehyun wore it.
I put down the backpack I was wearing on the floor and sat on a dining chair. Then Kang Sehyun, who had been leaning crookedly with his arms stretched long on the sofa, wiggled his hand.
Wiggle wiggle. Exactly twice. As if bewitched by just a small hand gesture, I went to the sofa and sat next to him. Belatedly, an embarrassment that only I knew about washed over me.
“Why are you sitting there?”
“I was going to eat the hot dog first. I’m hungry.”
Lunch was a bit early today. Usually I eat around when the third class ends, but today I ate after the second class to go to the library, so the time I could endure with just one sandwich had long passed. Normally I’m not particularly obsessed with eating, but unusually, I felt hungry.
“Then say so.”
Kang Sehyun raised his long body. He picked up one of the three paper bags on the dining table, placed it on the living room table, and brought a carbonated drink from the refrigerator. The owner was someone else, yet he acted as if he were the owner here too.
Kang Sehyun and a 3-person dorm room. It was a strange combination that really didn’t suit him yet also seemed to suit him perfectly.
“He really does like you.”
While Kang Sehyun, who was imitating the owner, went to get cups and napkins, Junsung hyung burst out laughing with a “pfft.”
“What do you mean?”
“We thought maybe, but we didn’t know he’d like you this much.”
“So what do you mean?”
“Kang Sehyun doesn’t normally treat people he’s only met a few times this well. Honestly, we were all surprised on Saturday too. That bastard never acts like that with people he’s meeting for the first time.”
“Ah…. How does he normally act?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Just say it now. You can hear everything anyway, so just say it outright.”
Kang Sehyun, who had returned in the meantime, was standing still with his tall height, staring down at us blankly.
Right, hyung’s voice was a bit loud. I shrugged my shoulders toward Junsung hyung.
“No way. I’ll do it when you’re not here. That’s more fun.”
“Ha.”
“How many incidents have there been because of you? Sungha, just wait a bit. I’ll tell you when he’s not here. How bad Kang Sehyun’s personality is.”
Junsung hyung openly scoffed, but even with the other’s provocation, Kang Sehyun just smiled. And with that handsome face, he held out a hot dog to me.
“Here.”
Honestly, I don’t really understand. Exactly what about Kang Sehyun is prickly and how is his personality bad?
If what the hyungs said was true, then my third guess seemed to be correct. Kang Sehyun appeared to be giving me special treatment. The Kang Sehyun who isn’t normally like this treats me well, so if that’s the case, what about me does he like? What about me, whom he met for the first time, and how?
The hot dog I bit into was truly delicious. You’d think anything would taste good when you’re hungry, but with a cereal bar for breakfast and a chicken breast sandwich for lunch—only excessively bland things going into my stomach—the greasy food coming in made the enormous calories more than forgivable.
I ate faster than usual, but I was still the very last one. Kang Sehyun finished his hot dog in just four bites. And while the two who had finished eating were having a conversation, Gijae hyung and Jason hyung joined us belatedly.
“Why are only you guys here?”
“Jungwoo’s sleeping and Kihyun’s on a call. He went in earlier and hasn’t come out.”
“Who’s he on the phone with that he went into his room to take the call?”
“I don’t know. He looked serious though.”
“Whoa—does that guy even have serious phone calls?”
“He seemed to be calling someone ‘hyung,’ but I don’t know exactly who. There are so many hyungs he knows. Must be someone he knew before.”
The hyungs said that Kihyun hyung originally made a fuss everywhere saying he was going to rap, but around the middle of 12th grade, he suddenly started studying saying he’d go to college and cut off all useless connections. They said he achieved the SAT score that normally takes over a year of attending academies in less than 3 months, so what Kang Sehyun said about Kihyun hyung being smart must have been true.
Still, I couldn’t believe the story that Kihyun hyung had become much quieter since coming to college. Even now, I felt Kihyun hyung’s presence was too big wherever he went.
“Everyone here?”
As if he couldn’t become a gentleman, Kihyun hyung came out of his room in the middle of the conversation. At Junsung hyung’s nagging about what kind of phone call takes so long, he scratched the back of his head roughly and got annoyed.
“Ah, he kept asking me to come drink.”
“Was it the 3rd floor?”
“Yeah.”
Not knowing what it was about, hyung said it was resolved well and picked up the remaining hot dog. But he got into a heated discussion about the super hit new game pack that just came out, so he was barely eating the hot dog in his hand, then eventually put it down and picked up a game console instead.
“Look at this. Isn’t it awesome?”
“It’s better than I thought. Everything this company made was mediocre.”
Kang Sehyun, who didn’t seem like he’d be interested at all, contrary to expectations, chimed in with a few words as if he knew very well.
“What.”
Did I stare too intently? He quickly caught me looking at him curiously.
“Just. I was wondering if you also like games.”
“Yeah. I like anything I can do alone.”
It was a very Kang Sehyun-like answer.
Anything you can do alone… does he like things you can do alone, or does he like things you can only do alone? For Kang Sehyun, it probably means he likes doing things alone quietly, but does that refer to freedom in space? Or does it mean being completely cut off from other people? If that’s the case, then he’d also dislike online games with other people.
While thinking about various things, I thought that maybe I was also treating Kang Sehyun specially. It’s strange. Even when I normally got to know someone, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about what they liked.
Even Sora, who I’m close enough with to know better than family, I met in a state of knowing nothing at all when we first met. And even though we stuck together like that for over 6 years, I never wondered first what they liked. Unless I naturally found out while being together.
But this new person called Kang Sehyun kept touching my hidden curiosity. I’m curious about what he’s thinking in his head, and I’m curious about what other unexpected parts are hidden.
Even if not exactly that, he made me care about even trivial things. For instance, if he was going to feel so sorry, why did he make such a late reservation the day he came to the store, why does he use strange emoticons that don’t suit him, and for what reason exactly does he treat only me specially—things like that.
At first I suspected it was because he was a character I’d never seen before, but when I thought about Kihyun hyung whom I recently got to know or Yoon Sora who’s closest to me, I thought there couldn’t be more unique characters than those people.
So the next reason I came up with was ‘because he’s unexpected.’ Because what I thought and what I saw, what I heard were all so different from each other. If not that, it could be because the first meeting was left too strongly. I could only think that way.
“Are you done drinking?”
Not knowing my complicated insides, Kang Sehyun went around collecting the empty cola cans. I’m also quite neat, but not as much as you. I laughed inwardly.
