Kwon Sungha
“Are you done with your call? Hurry up and come. The homeowner disappeared somewhere.”
A lie. He wouldn’t have even looked for me whether I was there or not.
Perhaps because I was in the cold and suddenly met warm air, my stiffened muscles relaxed and my body flinched.
Even though I smoked more slowly than usual, Kihyun hyung, who hadn’t turned his head toward the balcony even once during that time, was putting the fried king prawn I brought into his mouth. In the meantime, there were already five empty beer bottles on the table showing their bottoms, as if they’d each emptied one glass already.
“Whew. Just opening the door for a moment and the cold wind is no joke.”
“Are you cold? Should I turn the heater up more?”
“No, no. It’s fine now. Is it really cold outside? They said dawn today will be the coldest.”
“Yes. The air is really cold.”
“At least here the wind doesn’t blow much so it’s better. When I’m at the dorm, I’m scared to go out to smoke. From now on we’ll be breaking the lowest temperature record every day, what do we do.”
I was fairly confident about cold weather, so I managed well enough when I was in New York, but the Chicago winter I faced for the first time was beyond imagination. It wasn’t just the feeling of skin being cold, but the feeling of coldness pressing down on my heart.
“Isn’t it snowing?”
“Not right now.”
“It would be less cold if it actually snowed.”
“Fuck, it’s cold when it snows and cold when it doesn’t. Everything’s just cold.”
“At least it’s fortunate that I don’t need to wake up early in the morning anymore.”
Mornings had definitely gotten lazier lately. As the weather got colder, it became harder to leave the warm bed, and because I lingered for several minutes, my departure time was often delayed by 5 or 10 minutes. Moreover, on days when it even snowed, the dreadfulness multiplied several times, and even though I knew I had to hurry more, I didn’t want to leave the house.
So the short one-month winter break was more precious than the long three-month summer break, and the winter break that had finally arrived couldn’t help but be more joyful than ever. It wasn’t just me but everyone. Even Jungwoo hyung, who had been managing his body more rigorously recently, drank alcohol for the first time in weeks, saying we should celebrate the break at least for today.
“Nice house. It’s really quiet even though it’s the weekend.”
“Right? Is it okay for us to be noisy when it’s this quiet?”
“It’s okay, I told them in advance.”
“Oh. Good neighbors.”
A couple lived next door. Matthew and Elena, who were attending a community college nearby and had been living together for two years now. And fortunately, we were on quite good terms, enough to sometimes meet in the laundry room and chat.
This was my first time inviting friends over, but Matthew and Elena often invited friends on weekends. Parties that started on Friday or Saturday nights would continue until three or four in the morning.
They always asked my understanding in advance before inviting friends, and I readily said it was fine each time. So when I told them for the first time this week that I was having friends over, they said they were happy they could repay the debt instead.
“But there’s no washing machine here, so what do you do about laundry and stuff?”
“There’s a separate laundry room in the middle of the hallway. You can use the washer and dryer by putting in coins. Most apartments are set up like this.”
“Ah- no need to buy one separately. That part is similar to our dorm. While they’re at it, they should have put in a sofa too.”
“He’s here alone, so. He has a bed in his room, so why would he use a sofa.”
“True.”
It is a bit bare, I guess.
Even though I’d moved in over four months ago, there was still nothing in the living room. I tried to at least get a beanbag, but I kept putting it off using fatigue as an excuse, so the space was still empty.
I should buy something before Mom comes.
“Sungha, what are you doing during break? Are you going back to Korea?”
“Yes.”
“When are you going?”
“Next Wednesday.”
I was planning not to go this time using school as an excuse, but a month ago, I received a ticket from my stepfather.
‘Your mother says she misses you, so of course you have to come. Secretary Han will send the plane ticket soon.’
It was a unilateral notice without my consent.
“Come to think of it, isn’t Sehyun also going back this time?”
“Yeah. He usually doesn’t go during winter break because it’s short, but he said he has to go because he went really briefly this summer.”
“When is he going?”
“Mm…… He said he’d go right after exams end, but I don’t know exactly when. I should ask him now.”
Kihyun hyung wiped his oil-stained hands and tapped his phone screen.
“When are you coming back? Mid-January?”
“No. Early January. I’m coming back in three weeks.”
“Why? Stay the full time. The break is short anyway.”
“Because of work.”
“Ah, right.”
More than anything else, the biggest problem was that I might have to quit the job I’d finally gotten used to. No matter how briefly I went, I’d have to stay at least two weeks to come back, and no place would give such a long vacation to a mere part-time employee.
However, when I explained the situation to the boss thinking I’d have to quit, surprisingly, permission came through. He said he was planning to hire one more serving staff anyway because it would be busy during winter, and he could operate with that number until I came back, just asking me to tell him exactly when I’d be returning.
“Sungha, do you want to drink too?”
A beer glass full of foam came toward me.
“No.”
“Yeah. I just asked.”
“Why are you just asking that, dude. He’s a minor.”
“Fuck, he’s an adult in Korea. We’re Korean people!”
“But this is America, you know? You drink a lot. Don’t bother the good kid.”
“Wow. This bastard is treating only me like a bad person. I just asked because I felt sorry that it seemed like only we were having fun. I was only going to ask once anyway.”
“Sungha, are you not having fun?”
“No, it’s fun.”
There was no TV or game console, so the only thing to do was card games, but even that was pushed aside by the drinking session that had already started, and instead we sat at the dining table and talked for a while. Because the gathering started late due to me, not much time had passed, but it was already well past 1 AM.
“Did Sehyun reply?”
“No. He hasn’t even read it, that bastard.”
“Isn’t he not looking on purpose? Maybe he blocked it because it’s annoying.”
“No. He must be studying.”
“Sungha, have you heard anything about when Sehyun is going to Korea?”
“Not at all.”
I didn’t even know he was going to Korea. Come to think of it, even though I’d seen him more often than the hyungs recently, I didn’t know that fact at all. Even though we had many trivial conversations every time we met, I never asked the common question of what he’d be doing during break.
Thinking about it, Kang Sehyun is an international student too. Like most international students, I should have naturally expected he’d go to Korea.
“Gijae. What happened to the vodka you brought earlier?”
Jungwoo hyung, who had emptied two bottles of beer, said his stomach was too full and looked for the vodka brought earlier. Hyung, who always managed his body, said he should drink less and get drunk faster, so after drinking one or two glasses of beer, he’d look for strong liquor. From my perspective, drinking in the first place seemed to be the problem.
“I gave that to Sungha as soon as I got here.”
“Ah, I’ll bring it. Just a moment.”
I gave them the vodka that was placed on the kitchen shelf and went back to the kitchen to get juice and ice. I took out cranberry juice from the refrigerator and opened the cupboard to see five glass cups standing in a row that I’d prepared in advance.
I felt bad about inviting the hyungs over and offering them paper cups, so these were cups I bought yesterday after work on my way home from a 24-hour supermarket.
Should I have bought something a bit nicer?
While thinking that and taking out the glass cups one by one, suddenly the noisy sound stopped.
“Huh? Just now……”
“What’s wrong?”
I hurried my steps to the living room.
“Didn’t you hear something?”
“Fuck, what sound. Fuck, why are you being so scary?”
“No. I heard it. Did only I hear it?”
“I heard it too. What is it?”
“Shh. Wait, everyone be quiet.”
Knock knock-.
“Ah.”
When everyone fell silent at the same time, the sound of knocking was heard very clearly in the quietness. The sound was coming from the front door.
“Who is it at this hour?”
“It must be next door.”
“Whoa. I think we were too loud. We tried to keep our voices down as much as possible.”
“This is all because of you, Seo Gihyun.”
“Crazy. Who was making a huge fuss just now?”
I don’t think we were that loud though.
When I told them I was inviting friends, they definitely smiled and gave permission. Moreover, we didn’t play music loudly or speak in loud voices, so it was a bit strange that they’d come to complain now.
I hurried to the entrance.
[Who is it?]
The other person didn’t answer my question at all. When I asked once more, I heard a male voice, but it was too soft to hear the exact words clearly.
Is it Matthew?
Before opening the door, I checked the other person through the door lock lens.
The person was standing wearing a baseball cap, casually wearing a thick padded jacket with round patches. And as if they’d been waiting, they lifted their head toward the lens.
Clear eyes and distinct features. A face I knew too well was making an expressionless face.
It was someone other than who I expected.
Click.
“Why did you take so long to open?”
What was heard instead of fluent English was low Korean.
