“Haaam, it’s hot……”
He woke up hot for some reason. He’d slept well without even dreaming for the first time in a while. Woojae, who was about to stretch wide without even properly opening his eyes, was startled awake when his extended fist bumped into something with a thud.
“That’s an intense morning greeting.”
Gye Sajun, who had taken Woojae’s fist to the cheek, spoke in a hoarse voice. Along with the crappy view outside the window brightening as the sun began to rise, he could see Gye Sajun lying on his bed at home. The way he’d loosened and disheveled his front buttons, as if they’d been stuffy, was obscene. Woojae blinked his still stiff eyes repeatedly with his hair sticking up like a magpie’s nest.
“Wh-what. Why are you…… Ah, shit.”
“Did you drink yesterday or something? You’re acting like you don’t remember.”
He had nothing to say. It was because his mind was foggy in the morning and it took a long time to recognize reality.
“……Sleep more.”
“What?”
While he was dazed, a word that made him doubt his ears was heard. What, am I erect or something?
“Hey, this is a physiological phenomenon.”
Wasn’t morning wood a physiological phenomenon all men experienced? Woojae hurriedly tried to pull the blanket to cover his lower body. And at the same time he realized the blanket was already mostly on him, he witnessed Gye Sajun’s fully exposed lower half.
“You crazy bastard!”
A curse like a scream burst out at the sight of someone else’s lower body phenomenon that was too huge to dismiss as just waking up to greet the morning. It was an intimidating sight enough to make his own penis shrivel up in an instant.
“What’s wrong?”
“You, you crazy! Who’s pointing out who?”
“What did I point out?”
The expression of not knowing what was going on was so shameless it was exasperating.
“Your dick! You crazy bastard!”
“Ah.”
Was “jaji” (sleep more) referring to his own thing? Why would he say that? As he got up from the bed throwing a gaze full of misunderstanding, Gye Sajun said calmly.
“Sleep more (jaji). Why are you getting up?”
Only then did he realize that was what Gye Sajun had said. Who knew a situation to make him blush would arise from the morning?
“I’m going to the bathroom!”
“Your pants fell down.”
“Ah shit, damn it.”
The old refrigerator pants that would slide down even if he just put his phone in the pocket were barely hanging on his butt. Woojae hurriedly pulled up his pants and fled to the bathroom. He felt like he’d never forget that afterimage.
***
“How did you wash yesterday?”
Woojae, who had finished showering and come out, asked Gye Sajun who was now sitting on the edge of the bed. Because he belatedly became suspicious of how he’d showered when he hadn’t taught him how to turn on the shower.
“Squatting down.”
“Ah, you idiot. Follow me and watch carefully.”
Of course. There’s no way he did it properly. Woojae dragged the handsome fool with only size to the bathroom. When he personally taught him how to turn on the shower, Gye Sajun nodded.
“Wash up and come out. I’ll make you food.”
“Okay.”
He answers well. Leaving the guy who was acting obediently, he came out to the kitchen and took out the ingredients he’d organized yesterday. He didn’t know his preferences, but he seemed unable to eat spicy food, so he decided to exclude that. Either way, it wasn’t like there were no parts to be grateful for.
First, he set the rice to cook. After that, he took out dried seaweed, soaked it in water, and tore baby cabbage to lightly salt it. He put a pot full of water on the gas range and blanched the washed spinach and gosari in order. He took out perilla oil from the cupboard and mixed the spinach with minced garlic, and stir-fried the gosari separately once more in a pan. In the meantime, the cabbage salted in salt had wilted just right. When he mixed the geotjeori with red pepper powder, anchovy fish sauce, minced garlic, and a little sugar, a delicious smell wafted.
He thought about making japchae, but if he froze it, it would be bad to eat later, so he left the glass noodles as they were. Instead, he decided to stir-fry the pork for japchae and vegetables together in soy sauce seasoning. The smell of meat and vegetables cooking spread in the heated pan.
He drained the seaweed in a strainer, added soup soy sauce, minced garlic, anchovy fish sauce, and perilla oil, and left it for a while. He stir-fried the Korean beef he’d bought with great resolve in a pan and added the seasoned seaweed to stir-fry it once more. When the savory smell filled the kitchen, he heard the sound of Gye Sajun opening the bathroom door and coming out.
“Done washing?”
“It smells good.”
“Sit quietly and wait.”
Somehow he was like an immature younger brother. Woojae poured water over the well-stir-fried seaweed and meat. The sizzling pot quieted for a moment. As he was seasoning with salt, Gye Sajun stood next to him.
“Want to taste it?”
When he scooped a little broth with a spoon and held it out, Gye Sajun didn’t refuse and immediately tried to bring his mouth to it.
“Hey, wait. You’ll burn your tongue.”
He raised his arm to push his chest lightly and blew on what was in the spoon to cool it, and it felt strange. Gye Sajun was looking at him with a smiling face.
“Wh-what are you looking at?”
“Because Go Woojae is being really sweet.”
“If you burn the roof of your mouth, food loses all its taste.”
“Cool it down and give it to me. I’ll wait.”
What’s with him. Shit. The tip of his nose tickled. When he brought the perfectly cooled broth to his lips, Gye Sajun ate it. It was like he’d mistakenly picked up a huge baby bird, no, a dinosaur.
“Is it salty?”
“No. It’s delicious.”
“Then go sit over there.”
“Should I help?”
“Help with what? What do you know about kitchen work?”
He said that, but the back view of him readily admitting it and heading to the sofa was somehow irritating.
“You’ll get divorced later when you get married.”
“I can learn.”
“Do you have the will to learn?”
“If the other person wants it.”
Married Gye Sajun. It was strange to imagine. Although it was still a distant story, if he tried to do it even now, he could. Anyway, Woojae scooped the well-cooked rice into rice bowls and put the side dishes he’d made on the table. When he served the vigorously boiling seaweed soup, a proper breakfast table was prepared.
“Eat.”
“Your younger sibling must be disappointed.”
“That’s why I’m going to freeze the leftovers. To come eat it next week.”
“Did you set a table like this for your sibling’s birthday every year?”
While eating, Gye Sajun continued to attempt conversation. Since he’d filled the empty seat at a birthday table he’d almost eaten alone, he could accommodate that much.
“I definitely made seaweed soup. Originally I wasn’t good at cooking. The first one I made must have been complete trash. Still, they ate it all without a single complaint.”
“The siblings are close.”
“You seem to get along well with your hyung too. Not so much with your noona?”
He’d never heard about his noona, so even after asking, he was a bit cautious. But Gye Sajun answered nonchalantly, wrinkling his nose.
“No, there’s a big age gap. When I was born, noona was busy, and by the time I grew up, she got married and wasn’t home.”
“Your noona is married?”
“Yeah. I have nephews and nieces too.”
Very blessed. Yet Gye Sajun didn’t do things like show photos of his nephews and nieces. He just focused on eating.
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Yeah. When did you start cooking?”
Woojae pressed his lips tightly together. He only started cooking after his parents passed away. Before that, going to school, studying, and running around playing was all of his daily routine, but he could no longer do that.
His memory of the accident wasn’t intact. When he came to his senses, everything was already over. The enormous settlement the perpetrator supposedly gave was taken and run off with by his uncle, and Woojae had to empty out his parents’ death insurance to inherit this villa that was left all alone. It was when he first learned about inheritance tax. He’d thought only rich people paid such things.
He couldn’t understand how things were working. He just felt physically sick and his stomach hurt. Only then did he remember it had been a long time since he’d had a proper meal. Nari probably was the same as him. So he stood in the kitchen.
The first meal he made in his life became porridge, and the soup was salty and bitter, but Nari cried and emptied it all. It seemed like Nari was crying as much as he couldn’t cry. Because recalling that incident would soon cause Woojae to complain of a headache, everything about the accident at that time became an implicit taboo for the two of them.
“Go Woojae?”
“……I don’t remember.”
After that, it was a meal in silence. The sound of dishes clinking filled the quiet table. While Woojae washed dishes after the meal, Gye Sajun sat on the sofa. It seems like I should send him off soon, but why isn’t he saying he’s leaving?
“Go Woojae.”
“Yeah.”
Feeling awkward for answering urgently for some reason, but only briefly,
“Should we go shopping?”
“Are you leaving now?”
The sentences that came out of their mouths simultaneously collided.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“What shopping all of a sudden? No, ignore what I just said and answer my question now. It keeps getting tangled.”
“……I think I tore your pajamas, so I’m going to compensate you as a birthday present.”
“You ended up tearing them? You can just sew that roughly. Money doesn’t grow on trees, no. Wait. What did you say?”
Throwing money around again, you did end up tearing them, he was giving a hollow laugh when he thought something was strange. Gye Sajun answered.
“It’s your birthday. Today.”
It was the usual tone spoken with a calm face, no different from usual.
“I should give you a present. I’m your friend, after all.”
At that moment, the word friend somehow felt prickly like a thorn.
***
“Sajun stayed out overnight?”
A man who’d come out to the garden early in the morning to pluck petals hit by drizzle asked irritably. At that sharp question, a tall man standing beside him carefully grabbed the man’s wrist.
“The youngest young master is an adult now, so don’t worry about it. More than that, I’m worried you’ll get stung by a bee.”
The white wrist caught in his hand was slender. The man frowned as if displeased that his wrist was caught and roughly shook off the other person.
“Then spray the insecticide properly.”
“Flowers also need pollination to bear fruit.”
Because those words were quite duplicitous, the man’s expression became even more fierce.
“Can’t they bear fruit without bees? There are also birds, and I have hands.”
I have hands. Even at that dangerous statement, the man didn’t bat an eye. He just stood still like a wooden statue. That made the man anxious.
“Find Sajun and bring him home. If he says he won’t come, tell him I’m sick.”
Questions like why are you so obsessed with your younger sibling didn’t come. The man just silently followed the man’s orders.
