* * *
“Should I put it in a bag for you?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Thank you, have a good day.”
The man glanced at Wooyeon and took his items. Wooyeon, who had bent down to bow, directed his gaze toward the man leaving the convenience store. He was a customer who frequently came to the convenience store, and he was a troublesome person who hit on Wooyeon every time he came. Wooyeon let out a sigh of relief at the sight of his back leaving the convenience store without incident today.
Ah, I need to mark the expired items. Wooyeon remembered that the POS system had sent an expiration notification about 30 minutes ago. Worried he might forget, Wooyeon headed toward the refrigerated display.
Today there were more expired items than usual. Perhaps the afternoon part-timer had missed some expired items, as there were types different from what usually came in. There was nothing unusual at school, no troublesome customers during his part-time work, and lots of expired items… Wooyeon became happy thinking how he wished every day could be like today. He wouldn’t have to worry about food for a while. His hand scanning barcodes was cheerful as he brought an armful of expired items.
“Ah, hello, welco…”
Wooyeon’s words trailed off as he reflexively greeted at the sound of the bell. The person who entered the convenience store was none other than Kwon Jeonghan. Wooyeon, who had processed the last expired item, pushed the expired foods to one side of the counter. Jeonghan’s gaze, his head tilted, turned toward Wooyeon, then he smiled with the corners of his mouth raised.
“Why are you here?”
For Wooyeon, this was a face he didn’t particularly want to see right now. He didn’t know. To me, Jeonghan is a lifelong benefactor who saved my mother, so why am I starting to resent him like this? He knew well that he couldn’t resent Jeonghan no matter how he treated him, and even thought it wasn’t something to resent, but his heart couldn’t follow his head. It was still difficult to endure seeing Jeonghan’s face.
“Because I wanted to see sunbae.”
“…”
“Sunbae, you always work at this time, I see.”
At Jeonghan’s words, Wooyeon bit the inside of his lips slightly. Jeonghan with such affectionate eyes and affectionate words was a dangerous existence to Wooyeon. But at the same time, Wooyeon was weak to Jeonghan when he was like that. Wooyeon turned his gaze away, preferring not to look at him.
“Do you have a moment?”
Jeonghan asked with a smile again. Wooyeon pretended to organize the cigarettes in the back for no reason.
“Are you busy?”
“Sorry, I can’t slack off during my part-time job.”
“Ah.”
Jeonghan nodded as if he understood. Then he went to the display shelf without a word. When Jeonghan said nothing more, Wooyeon quietly turned around and followed him with his eyes.
Jeonghan went to the refrigerated display and picked up food items at random, placing them on the counter. After scanning a few barcodes of what Jeonghan had put down, Wooyeon soon stopped. Looking at the counter piled up like a mountain, Wooyeon was shocked.
“What are you doing?”
Instant foods, alcohol, snacks… There was no consistency in the types. It was an absurd amount to carry.
“Kwon Jeonghan!”
Wooyeon urgently called out to stop Jeonghan, who was dumping items on the counter and heading back to the display shelf. Jeonghan had a face as if he didn’t know why Wooyeon was calling him. Wooyeon couldn’t tell whether he really didn’t know or was pretending not to know.
“What are you doing?”
“As you can see, I’m buying things.”
“Are you even going to eat this?”
It was a stupid question, but Jeonghan didn’t seem like he would eat it at all. At Wooyeon’s expression full of doubt, Jeonghan smiled smoothly again.
“No, I don’t really eat things like this.”
Come to think of it, even that day, it seemed like his chopsticks hadn’t touched the convenience store lunch box Wooyeon had opened for him to eat. At those words, Wooyeon felt somehow both embarrassed and angry.
“Then why are you buying it?”
“Just because.”
It was quite a concise answer. At the answer that made it impossible to say anything more, Wooyeon had nothing to say back. When Wooyeon continued to stare at Jeonghan silently, Jeonghan stopped sweeping items into his arms and walked back to Wooyeon.
“While I’m paying for this, you won’t say anything to me for being here, right?”
It felt breathtaking at such an absurd reason. Wooyeon looked at the items piled on the counter, then raised his eyes again to look at Jeonghan. Jeonghan had a face that didn’t even know what was wrong.
“You don’t need to do this, from now on.”
“What do you mean?”
Wooyeon let out a deep sigh and processed returns on the items he had been scanning barcodes for. Buying food he wouldn’t even eat was, in Wooyeon’s opinion, an absurd thing to do.
“Even if you don’t waste money like this, I won’t avoid you.”
Perhaps realizing that he was continuing to process returns, Jeonghan looked at the monitor once and then grabbed Wooyeon’s hand to stop him from processing returns. Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan with sharp eyes again.
“I said I don’t eat it, I never said I wouldn’t buy it.”
“Why buy something you won’t eat? Do you have that much money?”
Wooyeon said that and withdrew his gaze from Jeonghan again. Even though Jeonghan having a lot of money wasn’t something for Wooyeon to be angry about, he was annoyed for no reason. And it was inevitable that he looked pathetic for being angry.
“Just, don’t. Don’t do things like this.”
At the tired-sounding voice, Jeonghan released Wooyeon’s hand. Jeonghan’s face, looked at again, seemed a bit troubled.
“Um, then I’ll put it in the club room. For the art students in our club to eat when they’re working late. That’s okay, right?”
“…”
“I’ll only buy up to here. I won’t buy any more.”
It didn’t make sense to tell a customer not to buy when they wanted to. Wooyeon didn’t answer and started scanning barcodes and checking out again. It was an amount that would take up two of the largest bags.
Wooyeon felt strange about the total amount that kept increasing at the bottom of the monitor. The money Jeonghan spent generously and playfully was an enormous amount to Wooyeon.
“You don’t have a points card, right?”
For some reason, formal speech came out as if addressing a customer when checking out. After finishing the payment, when Wooyeon held out the card Jeonghan had given him, Jeonghan caressed Wooyeon’s fingers and took the card back.
Is it a habit? Wooyeon raised his gaze to look at Jeonghan again, and Jeonghan put something else on the counter after removing the large bag that had been placed there. When Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan with a face asking what it was, Jeonghan smiled.
“Eat this when sunbae is hungry.”
Judging by the Japanese writing on the wrapped paper bag, it was probably Japanese lunch box or sushi. Wooyeon somehow became embarrassed by the expired items he had pushed aside next to the POS.
“I’m not hungry. Take it back.”
Wooyeon pushed the paper bag toward Jeonghan and shook his head. Jeonghan, who took a step back, didn’t look like he had any intention of taking it back.
“It’s heavy, so I can’t take that too.”
“…”
“It’s someone’s goodwill, just eat it.”
With both hands full of bags, there was no way to force it into Jeonghan’s hands. At Wooyeon’s flustered face, Jeonghan laughed as if pleased.
“Ah. Sunbae, what time do you finish?”
“…Why?”
“I said I had something to say.”
It seemed that what he’d said in the lecture hall about having something to say wasn’t just something he’d said casually. Wooyeon looked at the electronic clock hanging in the convenience store, then shifted his gaze back to Jeonghan. It was still a long time before his part-time job would end.
“Can’t you just say it now?”
“It’s a bit much to do it here.”
“I don’t finish until dawn.”
“That’s fine. What time?”
“2 o’clock…”
Wooyeon trailed off, feeling somehow sorry to tell him. In contrast, Jeonghan nodded with a face that said it didn’t matter.
“That’s fine. Then I’ll come back.”
After Jeonghan left the convenience store, Wooyeon fiddled with the paper bag he had given him for no reason. Inside the paper bag were sushi, Japanese side dishes, salad, and soup, just as he’d expected.
With a complicated heart, Wooyeon sighed and leaned his back against the cigarette display shelf.
* * *
After taking all the photos of the display shelves and the back room, Wooyeon finished locking up and straightened his back. This convenience store, which operated only certain hours rather than 24 hours, closed at 2 AM. The owner apparently thought that even though this place was close to the university district, operating at dawn didn’t make financial sense.
In one hand was the paper bag Jeonghan had given him, and in the other hand was a plastic bag containing today’s expired food items. He wasn’t particularly hungry, and somehow it didn’t seem like it would go down easily, so the Japanese lunch box Jeonghan had given him remained unopened.
“Sunbae!”
In the dusky street, piercing through the darkness, Jeonghan revealed under the streetlight smiled brightly toward Wooyeon. At the face smiling as if truly happy to see him, Wooyeon’s heart stirred. Jeonghan, who approached with long strides, soon stood in front of Wooyeon. His slowly descending gaze saw what was in Wooyeon’s hands, and his smile gradually stopped.
“You didn’t eat it?”
It was quite a disappointed expression. Though he wasn’t angry or anything, Wooyeon felt like his heart sank at the sad expression.
“Tomorrow… I wanted to eat it tomorrow.”
Wooyeon made an awkward excuse. It seemed he felt a little afraid of seeing his face when it wasn’t affectionate, when he wasn’t smiling. At Wooyeon’s words, Jeonghan’s expression smoothly relaxed again.
“I’ll carry it for you, it’s heavy, right?”
“No. It’s fine, really.”
When Jeonghan reached his hand toward Wooyeon’s, Wooyeon took a step back and shook his head. It was because he was embarrassed to make him carry the luggage too.
“Do you always go at this time? It’s too dark.”
