“Call Bang Minwook then.”
“……Try calling him.”
Only then did Woojae remember Minwook, who he was originally supposed to eat with. It was questionable whether his amnesia had been cured, but he called anyway.
“He’s not answering……”
Seeing that he wasn’t answering, he thought he might be busy, but soon a text arrived.
[Traitor! ㅗㅗㅗ]
At the three incomprehensible characters, Woojae blinked several times. Why am I a traitor? Ah, could it be because of the yagop we were supposed to eat together? While Woojae held his phone and pondered, Sajun, thinking something, asked in a somewhat low voice.
“Do you want to watch separately? I can take you back.”
He momentarily looked like a dejected puppy.
“Let’s watch together. Why waste electricity?”
Woojae accepted Sajun’s proposal in a pouty voice. Somehow the inside of the car felt stuffy, so he had to roll down the window.
***
Because it was night and there was no traffic, they could arrive before the dorm doors closed.
‘We’re near my house, want to just go to my place?’
The words lingered in his mouth, but he kept it shut and just stared blankly at Sajun driving. After barely swiping his card key to get in, Woojae felt a bit regretful. He’d been comfortable near his house, but coming here made his chest feel stuffy and blocked again.
When he actually entered Sajun’s room like that, even greater regret washed over him. Ah, I should have just said I’d take it and watch it. The clean interior, even seeing it again, looked different somehow, perhaps because it was a place he’d stayed overnight.
As soon as Sajun entered the room, he opened the window. He probably meant to ventilate. Dark-colored blackout curtains hung on the window, and the desk was as clean as if it had just been organized. Woojae, wearing Sajun’s large slippers, pulled out a chair from the ownerless desk.
“Let’s sit and watch.”
“Okay.”
It was a reasonable proposal since he recalled the great disaster of lying on the bed with Sajun to watch a movie before getting up. The difference was that his eyes had been rolling back then and they weren’t now, but he still had to be on guard. Sitting side by side with the desk in front of them, Sajun turned on his laptop and started looking for the movie file.
Woojae glanced sideways at Sajun’s profile. And he raised his wrist for no reason to smell it. A faint fragrance left by an unknown soap was gently wafting. The cucumber soap he’d given Sajun would be sitting quietly in his bag. After a few clicks of the mouse, the production company’s logo filled the wide screen for a laptop.
“Should I turn off the lights?”
At the low question, Woojae unconsciously nodded. Because it was better to be dark when watching a movie. But as soon as the lights in the room went off and Sajun sat in the chair, Woojae regretted it again. The desk was at most for one person, so it wasn’t very wide, and when two men sat with chairs side by side, their shoulders naturally touched. The sensation of firm shoulders was even stranger because they were misaligned due to the height difference.
“Don’t you have popcorn or cola? Should have bought some.”
To hide his awkwardness, Woojae pretended to be calm and looked for two essential elements of movie watching. It had been quite a while since he’d been to a movie theater, but he remembered eating popcorn and cola the last time he went.
“I have sparkling water.”
Sajun took out a water bottle from the small refrigerator and shook it. He knew that carbonated water was trendy these days, but Woojae didn’t know its taste. It felt like being deceived. He didn’t like that feeling of pretending to be cider but tasting like water.
“What’s the point of drinking that?”
“It’s fun.”
“It’s not even sweet, it just hurts your tongue.”
When he answered shaking his head, Sajun opened the cap and drank straight from the bottle. His gaze was stolen by the sight of the transparent liquid with bubbles fizzing up flowing past the red lips that still had faint swelling. Woojae forced his fixed eyes away and concentrated on the screen.
Unlike his worries, once the movie started, he could immerse himself without difficulty. As he’d seen before, the movie began with two people holding hands.
<I Thought It Was Love>
He could see the movie’s title inscribed in elegant lettering. It was the moment he realized that the incomprehensible sentence that had come out of Sajun’s mouth was actually the movie’s title.
In contrast to the monotonous-looking street, there were smiles full of excitement and sweet intertwining gazes. The actors were so immersed in their roles that it was ambiguous whether they were acting well or were actually lovers.
The words “2 years ago” passed by and a snowy winter night street appeared. The screen that started with holding hands seemed to have been the epilogue. The two people had no acquaintance, and it began with the woman mistaking the man for someone she knew.
[Who are you?]
The man, hit on the back of the head while passing by, was displeased and asked the woman’s identity.
[Ah, I thought you were a friend. What should I do? Does it hurt a lot?]
[Even if they’re a friend, do you hit someone’s head like that? How rude.]
[No, I’m sorry. My friend and I are on really casual terms, so that’s why.]
[Then go around with your eyes wide open.]
[Your words, really.]
[That doesn’t seem like an answer someone for whom violence is routine should give.]
At the man’s rebuke, the woman bowed her head roughly with a mix of injustice, slight apology, and awkwardness. And the two meeting again at the company as boss and subordinate was the true beginning of the movie. The novel point was that the woman was the president and the man was the secretary. Woojae became increasingly absorbed in the movie. The way they bickered yet opened their hearts to each other felt cute and made him laugh. Is this how people date and get married? That thought was only momentary.
“Ah, fuck. It’s sadder than I thought.”
He’d thought it was simply a story of a cute couple dating and getting married, but he’d been fooled. The lovers in the movie went through hardships and even broke up. The woman’s father came to find the man and urged them to break up. He’d never dated, but the scene where the two broke up due to a misunderstanding was both sad and incomprehensible, raising sadness and irritation simultaneously.
[I’m sorry. Boss, I don’t think we’re right for each other…….]
[Why are you sorry? I don’t want to break up. Don’t do this.]
The man who rejected the woman clinging to him crying started sobbing as soon as he turned the corner. If you’re the one breaking up, why cry? Moreover, the man still loved the woman. He just couldn’t dare say “I love you” because of the difference in social status.
After the man broke up with the woman, scenes of him not eating well and staying up all night with open eyes even when sleeping were shown on screen. If you’re going to be like that, why break up? When you’re going to meet again anyway. When you both like each other. Eventually, unable to forget each other, the movie ended with the lovers meeting again and pressing their lips together, and the ending credits began to roll.
It was a common story, but that’s why it was more immersive. Woojae looked at Sajun who had been staring at him. He had no idea since when he’d been watching him.
“They’re like idiots.”
“Why?”
“If they like each other, they shouldn’t break up.”
Woojae muttered in a tone full of emotion, unable to shake off the movie’s lingering feeling.
“……Really?”
“Of course.”
“Your view on relationships is admirable.”
Sajun answered quietly while staring at Woojae’s face as if impressed. The two eyes that met were affectionate. He doesn’t seem like a bad guy, more than I thought. Woojae repeated to himself as if telling someone else when no one was listening. It’s just because the first meeting was shitty—when he dropped his prejudice and treated him moderately, there were actually no conflicts. When common sense didn’t work, it felt frustrating like talking to an alien, but when he decided to teach him, the unfamiliar reactions were also interesting. Woojae tapped the desk with his finger and looked at Sajun’s profile lost in thought before raising his voice.
“Hey, we……”
He kept swallowing dry saliva. The wind brushing through the open window gap was cool, and the dark interior had a sense of stability. Shining eyes met Woojae’s eyes.
“Speak.”
Seeing Woojae who couldn’t easily bring up the main point even after starting, Sajun urged him lowly. Woojae, who had been tracing with his gaze the upright eyes, the straight nose without distortion, and the thin lips with reduced swelling, opened his mouth while looking at the mole on Sajun’s cheek.
“Want to be friends?”
It was a conclusion he’d reached on his own after spending time with him today.
“We’re in the same department, in rooms next to each other, and we see each other often here and there.”
“Friends……?”
“Yeah, let’s get along well.”
Woojae extended his hand first like a little gang leader. The rich young master who’d been staring at it nodded with a stiff expression. Now that he’d said it out loud, it was embarrassing, but the reaction wasn’t bad. It was the establishment of a friendship.
***
“Hi, Yamgo.”
As soon as Woojae returned to the room, what he saw was Minwook sitting on his desk with a sullen expression. Eyes full of dissatisfaction moved following Woojae’s movement. Woojae held up his phone screen and asked Minwook.
“Hey, why didn’t you answer the phone? What’s this ‘traitor’ about?”
The message that read ‘Traitor! ㅗㅗㅗ’ occupied the bottom of the screen. Minwook pouted his lips and muttered.
“Forget it, I don’t need anything. Yamgogyeol.”
“Lamb? What are you talking about? Want to eat lamb?”
Woojae roughly took what Minwook said as it sounded. His stomach churned at the sudden lamb talk when he was full to death. The smell from the lamb skewer restaurant he’d gone to with his hyungs last year seemed to linger at his nose.
“It’s short for ‘Quiet Go Woojae climbs on Gye Sajun’s bed first.'”
