However, after spitting out the words, Eunchan immediately trembled with regret. Wasn’t that too much like a confession? Didn’t he look like a materialistic person who wanted to keep living in a nice house without giving anything in return? He was too scared to check Miro’s face.
A rather long silence came. Eunchan waited for Miro’s answer while completely tense.
“Will you really stay by my side? Until when? Forever? Even if you die? Even after you die?”
“……What?”
“Can you die by my side? Absolutely, absolutely can’t go far away.”
The grip strength squeezing his wrist was intense. Miro showed a face filled with ecstasy with glistening eyes. It was creepy yet beautiful enough to make his heart race, so Eunchan unknowingly ended up nodding his head.
“Yes.”
“I’m so happy…….”
Miro trembled with joy. He caressed Eunchan’s nape and even kissed his cheek with a smack. This is okay, right? Eunchan gauged the situation and hugged Miro first.
“Let’s be together, us.”
He didn’t want to go back to an empty house. Miro had nested deeply in Eunchan’s heart and settled in. He could no longer drive him out or send him outside the line. This is the first time in my life I’ve given my heart to someone like this. If Miro left him, he might hurt as much as when his grandmother passed away.
However, that pain was definitely worth enduring. Eunchan felt the warmth of Miro hugging him back and hoped there wouldn’t be an early parting.
After resolving the matter that had been weighing on his mind, he felt extremely relieved. Eunchan rolled up his sleeves, saying he’d make Miro a delicious lunch. He planned to make sujebi that his late grandmother used to make often. In addition, there was good beef in the refrigerator, so he thought he’d fry some yukjeon too.
Miro helped Eunchan put on an apron. It was identical to the one Miro was wearing, wherever he’d gotten it from. The rabbit doll also wore a small apron and sat on the dining table watching them both.
First, he made broth by putting anchovies, radish, and green onions in. After that, he took out vegetables from the refrigerator and selected only carrots, onions, and zucchini to julienne, then looked for flour to make the dough.
After finely sifting all-purpose flour through a sieve, he started kneading by mixing water little by little. Since Miro kept hovering by his side, Eunchan yielded his spot, telling him to touch the dough. And he salted the beef and prepared to fry the jeon.
This kind of thing tastes good when you sit and fry it on a burner. Eunchan felt regretful as he heated the frying pan. He coated the beef with pancake mix and egg wash and placed it on the oil-filled frying pan. A delicious smell came along with the sound of oil splattering. Since it cooked quickly, Eunchan lightly grilled it on both sides, then cut the jeon appropriately with scissors and placed it on a plate.
“Try it, it’s delicious.”
It was food eaten every holiday where Eunchan used to live. Beef was expensive, so even that was rarely eaten. Still, to feed her grandson, his grandmother would prepare yukjeon along with seaweed soup on Eunchan’s birthday.
When he picked up a piece with wooden chopsticks and held it to Miro’s mouth, he received it well like a baby bird.
“It’s good, right?”
“Yees, Eunchan eat too.”
Miro regretted that he couldn’t feed him directly because dough was stuck to his hands. Since it was food prepared to feed Miro anyway, Eunchan was okay with eating just a little.
“When I was young, I grew up in the complete countryside, so it was hard to eat things like chicken or pizza. So my grandmother made yukjeon as a gift every birthday.”
“I-I’ll make it for you on Eunchan’s birthday.”
“Buy me chicken. Since we can eat it here.”
At Miro’s words, Eunchan smiled and continued frying the jeon. The smell of oil and meat gave a feeling of the holidays. After coming up to Seoul, he didn’t separately celebrate holidays and birthdays. When the pastor was around, he got tteokguk at church, but since he left for missionary work, he didn’t go to church.
At least Hyungsik was the type to celebrate Eunchan’s birthday. Thanks to his younger brother who bought him food every birthday, Eunchan could remember his birthday without forgetting it.
“When is your birthday, Miro-ssi?”
“December 26th.”
“The day after Christmas? You were born in the middle of winter.”
People born in winter are often rich, so that was true. Eunchan nodded his head while recalling the groundless things the village ladies used to say.
“I was born in spring.”
He was born in February, but since they counted by the lunar calendar, he always celebrated his birthday in March. After Eunchan finished arranging all the remaining jeon, he checked the boiling broth.
“Yeah, I’ll celebrate it next year.”
Just sharing one birthday made it feel like they’d become closer. Eunchan made plans for Christmas and created a list of gifts to give Miro in his head. He was already worried about what to give.
“Should we put it in now if the dough is ready?”
While wiping off the flour on Miro’s face, Eunchan prepared the final stage of cooking.
As he stayed at Miro’s house for a long time, Eunchan decided to stop by his officetel to pack his things. Originally, even without any luggage, there were many things Miro provided, so it wasn’t particularly inconvenient, but there were valuables inside the house that couldn’t be stolen.
Miro actively insisted that Eunchan bring his valuables over here. Precious family photos and mementos of his grandmother and mother were also things that would be terrible if stolen, so Eunchan also agreed to bring them.
Because there was a risk of being attacked again, Eunchan restrained Miro from following him. However, since there were few times Miro obediently listened to Eunchan’s words, this time too Eunchan had to ride in Miro’s car and head to his original house.
Miro, who parked the car in the ground parking lot, turned off the engine. Despite it being a narrow and cramped space, he parked well without going outside the lines anywhere.
“You drive well too.”
At Eunchan’s praise, Miro smiled shyly. While entering the officetel, Eunchan thought about the state of the house for a moment. Since he hadn’t gone in during that time, it was probably full of dust. He didn’t have the habit of organizing his blankets either, so the bed was obviously dirty.
“Miro-ssi, wait just a bit.”
Leaving Miro standing in front of the entrance, Eunchan quickly pressed the password and entered the house. As expected, the house was messy with clothes and laundry he’d taken off and thrown around. After Eunchan roughly cleaned by stuffing household items under the closet and blankets, he took out the vacuum cleaner. He planned to at least quickly sweep the floor.
However, before even plugging in the vacuum cleaner cord, Miro pressed the doorbell and urged him to open the door. Eunchan, who hesitated for a moment while holding the vacuum cleaner, soon gave up and opened the door.
“Is there s-someone inside?”
“What? It’s just that the house is dirty, so I was cleaning in a hurry…….”
“Ah, I see. It’s o-okay.”
Miro, who had thought Eunchan was hiding someone inside the house, withdrew his suspicion and let out a sigh of relief. He really has a lot of strange imaginings. Eunchan held Miro’s hand and introduced his shabby house.
“It’s small, right? Because I live alone.”
“Yees.”
Miro looked around Eunchan’s house with interested eyes. Eunchan’s traces were everywhere in the house.
“Look around, I’ll pack my things.”
He just needed to pack comfortable clothes to wear, underwear, and the box where important items were stored.
“I want to take pictures.”
“What? Of my house?”
“Yeah. And I, I want that…….”
Miro coveted the middle school graduation album stuck between the bookshelf.
“No.”
Eunchan, who didn’t want to show the graduation album where everyone comes out ugly, quickly put away the graduation album.
“Then that.”
When did he even see that—Miro pointed at a photo of Eunchan wearing a taekwondo uniform and doing a kick.
“……I’ll just give you the middle school album.”
It was taken at the taekwondo academy he attended when living with his mom. He thought he’d cleaned it up, but he forgot to organize the bookshelf. Eunchan eventually handed the graduation album to Miro and started packing.
Miro sat obediently on the bed and opened the album. Even without asking separately, he already knew Eunchan’s class. At the sound of pages turning, Eunchan spoke without looking back.
“It’s Class 5.”
“Yees.”
3rd Year Class 5 Number 11 Kim Eunchan. Actually, Miro also already had Eunchan’s graduation album, so he coveted that taekwondo photo more. Still, Eunchan’s graduation certificate with his name in the album had enough collection value. Miro stowed away the graduation certificate in the bag he brought without Eunchan noticing.
Among numerous students, only Eunchan particularly shone. It was so regrettable that he couldn’t see Eunchan’s student days by his side. Miro traced Eunchan’s photo with his fingertips and checked faces again to see if there were any friends still in contact with Eunchan. Fortunately, there were no faces discovered around Eunchan in recent years.
“Eunchan was p-popular, right?”
“Me? No? Miro-ssi was probably popular.”
Eunchan, who had packed all his luggage in a large shopping bag, stretched and asked.
“D-definitely there was someone Eunchan l-liked.”
At the sight of Miro examining class friends so thoroughly the album might get holes in it, Eunchan eventually snatched the album away.
“There was nothing like that. I packed everything, should we go?”
At the words to leave already, Miro shook his head vigorously. He wanted to take more of Eunchan’s things and wanted to stay at his house a bit longer.
However, Eunchan, who couldn’t yield this time, grabbed Miro’s arm and forcibly lifted him up. There was too much dust to stay long.
“Let’s go quickly. But why did you bring a bag? We could just use shopping bags.”
“Just…….”
While Eunchan packed his luggage, Miro also busily gathered items. He didn’t forget the pajamas and sportswear hidden in the blankets, and pens and notebooks that looked like Eunchan had used. Even with the thief who stole his things right in front of him, Eunchan didn’t recognize him and just smiled because it was cute and lightly patted Miro’s shoulder.
