“I need to do laundry too……”
As soon as he entered the room, the laundry basket under the desk caught his eye, but today at least, he wanted to rest. With aches starting here and there, he felt like he was getting sick. Woojae took off his clothes that smelled of wind and headed to the bathroom. The dormitory with hot water gushing out was nothing short of heaven. When a cold was coming on, he had to drive it away with hot water.
When he came out after finishing all procedures from washing his face to showering with just one bar of soap, his phone was ringing on the desk.
“……Who is it?”
It was an unknown number, but since there was no reason not to answer, he pressed the accept button. Since he wasn’t the type to meticulously save numbers, the caller was most likely someone he knew. Or else it was spam. Then he could just hang up, so without hesitation, he brought the phone to his ear. If he’d known the caller at that moment, he wouldn’t have answered.
[You answer faster than I thought.]
“Who is this?”
He heard a voice that somehow felt familiar.
[Who do you think?]
The man suddenly posed a quiz. But Woojae wasn’t flustered. He’d had this experience several times before. The hyungs he met while working part-time were full of mischief. Woojae naturally began reasoning. Seeing as he started with casual speech right off the bat, he was either older or the same age. Woojae recalled men with low voices in his memory one by one.
“Yunseong hyung? Jaejun? Teacher Kwon? Or…… Uncle Eunho?”
[……You know a lot of men.]
“What, stop joking around and tell me who you a— are.”
Woojae trailed off into formal speech at the end, thinking it might be someone older than him. No matter how much he thought about it, he didn’t know. As he shook his wet hair with one hand and fell silent, a voice mixed with laughter came through the receiver.
[The person you threw up on.]
Fucking hell. Goosebumps rose all along his spine.
“Y-you have the wrong number.”
He belatedly improvised by modulating his voice, but he heard a snorting sound.
[Go Woojae.]
“I don’t know anyone like that.”
[I saw you going into the dorm earlier.]
The corners of Woojae’s mouth trembled uncomfortably. Why did he call? To demand compensation? Or to sue? Blackmail? Hearing the victim’s voice made the wrong he’d committed feel more vivid. He definitely did wrong, but why did it have to be to the bastard he least wanted to be indebted to?
“……Why are you calling and shit?”
Even prostrating flat wouldn’t be enough, but he couldn’t do that.
[Don’t you remember anything?]
“Wh-what! No!”
Woojae ended up playing dumb because he was too embarrassed. Since the opponent was who he was, he hated admitting it more than death. It would have been much better if he’d thrown up on Bang Minwook’s face instead.
[I remember a lot though.]
At the leisurely voice, Woojae bit his lips. He felt like a suspect being interrogated by a detective.
“Fu…… ck. What do you want?”
[First, try not cursing.]
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? Crazy bastard!”
Gye Sajun, who immediately pointed out his verbal habit, was irritating.
[Have dinner with me.]
The proposal that came back was even more irritating.
The face reflected in the dark window glass was ashen. Woojae covered the window with his palm and cleared his voice.
“What?”
[Dinner. I’m bored eating alone.]
What kind of bullshit is this?
“Hey, am I your friend?”
[Even though I’m buying, you won’t?]
“Yeah, I won’t.”
[Then what about throwing up on me? You’re not sorry at all?]
He was sorry. Honestly, he was sorry. But he hated saying sorry to Gye Sajun more than death. Woojae chewed his lips. Still, he should apologize. Because it’s something to apologize for. Steeling his resolve to be mature, he composed his mind. His face, contorted with wounded pride, was reflected in the window.
“……Sor-.”
[Sor?]
Having gained the upper hand, Gye Sajun was setting up as if to make him do a three-line poem.
“Sor……”
He knew it was wise to just say it and be done,
[Sor, what comes next?]
But with him acting like that, he felt even less like apologizing. After stupidly repeating “sor, sor,” Woojae gritted his teeth and shouted:
“So…… Sorry bastard, don’t call me!”
Click, Woojae hurriedly hung up. Today’s realization: facing one’s wrongdoings head-on was a very difficult thing.
As soon as Woojae hung up with a curse, rough knocking sounds were heard. Bang bang bang!! At the ridiculously strong force, Woojae’s face hardened. Because he knocked on the door as if waiting for the call to end, he worried about soundproofing. Can they hear everything from outside?
“What?”
[Open the door. I know you’re in there.]
At the voice that was shamelessly confident, Woojae felt like his soul would leave him. The owner of the voice was undoubtedly Gye Sajun, no need to question it. What’s with that bastard? Isn’t he crazy? He was suddenly scared that other students remaining in the dormitory might hear. Woojae flung the door wide open with quick steps that made his damp hair fly.
“What are you, you bastard!”
“I said let’s have dinner. Why do you make me say the same thing over and over?”
The face that supposedly received the vomit directly that night was still glowing. Woojae’s gaze lingered on the straight nose. Next was the mole embedded in his cheek, and last were the brightly shining black eyes. So I threw up there. It was absurd that this bastard, who must have severe obsessive tendencies, came barging in asking to eat together even after being cursed out like that. And as the scene of throwing up came to mind, guilt arose and it was difficult to lift his face.
“……Eat by yourself, you crazy bastard!”
“I said I’m buying.”
Is he a parrot or what? Or does he have a hobby of going around buying people meals? Woojae displayed these absurd and confused emotions on his face as they were. However, the problem was that Gye Sajun didn’t seem to have any intention of backing down even seeing that.
“Who says they’ll eat food you buy?”
“You’re sorry to me.”
He wanted to snap back saying he wasn’t sorry, but honestly, being sorry was the truth. If someone had vomited on his face—especially if it was Gye Sajun—he wouldn’t have let him live.
“If you don’t want to say you’re sorry, let’s eat together.”
“……Then fuck, wait a bit, why are you trying to break down the door and making a fuss?”
“I didn’t knock that hard.”
“Stop your bullshit. I thought the door was going to break.”
“Was it that loud? I can’t control my strength.”
Woojae’s gaze landed on the threateningly veined, excessively thick forearm. The hands with protruding knuckles looked more like a gangster’s hands than a young master’s.
Woojae frowned at his own relatively ordinary-looking physique. Let’s address this briefly here: Woojae’s height is over 180cm. Of course, it’s a measurement that only comes out on good condition days after finishing stretching, but Woojae thought of himself as a winner who exceeded 180cm.
Moreover, even without doing that, he was tall, exceeding average height anyway. But Gye Sajun seemed to be over 190cm without any of that. So unlucky, fuck……
“Did you come to hit me by any chance? Ah, just hit me once. Please. Just hit me.”
“That’s not really my thing. I don’t have a hobby of hitting people.”
Gye Sajun saying that was like a fighting dog appealing its harmlessness. With fists clearly trained through fighting, why is he playing coy? There were many suspicious aspects.
“I’ll buy you food. Let’s go eat. I’m hungry.”
He’s not even a child, yet he keeps whining.
“Too bad, but I already have food to eat. Get lost.”
“What food?”
“Expired convenience store lunch box. It’s all mine to eat, so stop caring and fuck off.”
“Expired? Why would you eat that kind of thing?”
At the openly crumpling expression, a strange exhilaration arose. Apparently, the worse that bastard’s mood got, the better his mood became. Woojae felt the inversely proportional emotional fluctuation between Gye Sajun and himself. Seeing the meal treated as “that kind of thing” just because the word “expired” was attached to it quickly made him bitter though.
“It won’t kill me if I eat it.”
He responded in a voice dripping with annoyance. Expired food is just called expired food, it’s not trash that kills you if you eat it. The expiration date also means the period during which it can be distributed, not the period until the food rots.
However, he had no will to explain all that in detail to Gye Sajun. Rather than doing such an annoying thing, he’d bite his tongue and die. Woojae grinned at Gye Sajun, who was glaring at him as if frustrated.
“So stop caring.”
“If eating it kills you, is that food? It’s poison.”
Gye Sajun stiffened briefly looking at Woojae who was grinning out of nowhere, then continued. But it wasn’t words that resonated with Woojae. Just two days ago, he’d poured alcohol that was no different from poison and vomited on that face. Compared to that, expired food was like medicine.
“So what about it? Get out.”
“Let’s eat together. I said I’m buying. How many times do I have to say it?”
“I said I won’t eat what you buy!”
“Why?”
A refrain again. Just how much longer do I have to have this stupid conversation? Woojae wanted to end this conversation that continued like endless reincarnation.
“Hey, thinking logically, even if someone buys a meal, shouldn’t I be the one buying? I threw up on your face.”
Having decided to admit his wrongdoing, Woojae conveyed his intention in a plain tone. With this much, he should have appealed that he didn’t want to eat together, right? he thought. But Gye Sajun closed his mouth for a moment and seemed to ponder something deeply, then nodded with a deliberately generous attitude.
“Fine. Then buy it.”
