Every time the car stopped, murmuring street noise flowed inside. Seungun kept rubbing the center of his chest with his palm. The nausea rising from his solar plexus gradually subsided. A familiar landscape caught his eye outside.
“If you turn the corner here, you’ll see the villa where I live.”
“Here?”
“Yes.”
Seungun pointed at the street. Gi Siyoung slowly drove the car in that direction. It was a villa located quite far from subway stations or bus stops. It was a place where the roads would definitely be completely jammed when it snowed or rained, so the monthly rent or deposit was probably exceptionally cheap.
The villa made of red bricks was quite old. There weren’t many cars in the cramped above-ground parking lot, and the sections drawn on the ground were faint and hard to see.
“Thank you for the ride.”
Seungun got out with a greeting. Thinking he would back out and leave as is, he ran to the villa entrance and stood to see him off. But the luxury foreign car that didn’t suit this villa parking lot began parking, looking for an empty spot.
Suddenly the car’s engine turned off. Gi Siyoung popped out from inside. Seungun froze for a moment. He had never even thought that Gi Siyoung would stand in front of the shabby villa where he lived. It was a completely mismatched combination.
“Why are you getting out?”
“I’m thirsty, so I’m going to drink some water.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung said while flapping his collar. It was after that running around at the hospital. It was natural to get thirsty. Seungun silently entered the villa entrance. Gi Siyoung followed behind him.
The five-story villa with dark brick color didn’t guarantee privacy to the point where you could see all the household goods from outside. He naturally thought there would be an elevator, but there was nothing inside the building.
“What floor do you live on?”
“5th floor.”
“The very top.”
In a villa without an elevator, Seungun’s home happened to be on the 5th floor. Seungun climbed while running his palm along the cold stair railing with all the paint peeled off. The two doors side by side were shabby as if they’d made a promise with each other, and flyers were stuck all over them. Soon Seungun, who had climbed to the 5th floor, unlocked it with his key. And before opening the door, he added a word.
“It’s a bit shabby.”
“I have eyes too. As if I’d have expectations coming to Im Seungun-ssi’s house.”
“Would it kill you to speak nicely?”
Gi Siyoung wedged through the doorway.
“No, if you came in, close the door or something.”
“Doesn’t it close automatically?”
Gi Siyoung muttered as if seeing something strange. Seungun closed the door instead of Siyoung, who had entered last. Gi Siyoung stood blankly at the entrance and slowly scanned the interior of the house. Inside, there really was only the bare minimum of furniture. Even with two people having entered, it was a place where an eerie silence hung. The attitude of not giving even a bit of himself to his own home oozed from everywhere.
“Come in and sit down.”
“……”
Im Seungun said in a lifeless voice. Only then did Siyoung take off his shoes and go inside. The cold floor should have been welcome since it was summer, but strangely he felt bad. There was nothing more to see in the house that smelled damp. After grasping the entire interior in just a few seconds, he went to the living room bed instead of the dining table chair Seungun pointed to and plopped down.
“Why are you leaving the chair…”
“The bed looks cleaner.”
“……”
Seungun poured water into a cup and brought it. Even though the sun hadn’t completely set yet, ashen shadows were cast over the living room. As if erasing that shadow, Gi Siyoung rubbed the floor vinyl under the bed with the sole of his foot. Seungun sat on a dining table chair, keeping his distance from him.
Tap, tap. The sound of tapping the dining table glass with fingernails and tap, tap, the sound of hitting the vinyl floor with the sole of his foot crisscrossed each other. Gi Siyoung drank the water from the cup for quite a while as if savoring it. And after looking for a place to put down the empty cup and soon judging there was no place to put it down, he unavoidably placed it on the floor vinyl.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“What will you do after sending me away?”
Seungun glanced to check the time.
“I’m going to eat dinner.”
“What are you going to eat alone that you’re sending me away?”
Gi Siyoung, who got up with interested eyes, walked freely around the house without hesitation. It was called walking freely, but in fact, after walking two or three steps, he had already infiltrated all the way inside the kitchen.
“I haven’t seen this jade color in a really long time.”
Gi Siyoung admired the kitchen full of jade color. Among them, he chose a cupboard that seemed to have food stored in it and opened it without permission. His gaze scanned the inside of the cupboard for a while. One or two plates, one old frying pan, one pot for ramen was all.
The cupboard was connected in an L-shape, so if you opened just one door, you could check the entire inside, and there were a few ramen packages placed carelessly there.
“Just ramen?”
“……”
“Is this Im Seungun-ssi’s dinner?”
“So what?”
“I see.”
“See what?”
“An adult man fills his meals with this kind of thing, so you’re frail. Collapsing here and there.”
Gi Siyoung leaned against the sink and tapped on his phone. He didn’t look like he would leave this house quickly. Being sick, he didn’t have the energy to wrangle with him either. It felt like his whole body was being crushed by all sorts of things. The attachment that had squeezed his wrist at the hospital still seemed to cling stickily and tighten his muscles.
“I’m going to rest a bit, so whether you leave or not, do as you please.”
Today he didn’t have the energy to deal with Gi Siyoung. He went into the bathroom, washed his face with cold water, and brushed his teeth refreshingly. He also neatly combed his disheveled hair and went out. Gi Siyoung was still sitting calmly at the dining table chair.
With Gi Siyoung sitting out of nowhere in his house, it was like a collage oddly cut out and stuck in a strange place. It was a hot house with no air conditioner. Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed to have Gi Siyoung sitting in such a house, he opened the window.
As soon as he opened it, hot wind from outside came rushing in. It wasn’t a very pleasant wind. But since it was better than keeping it closed, he left it open.
“But what are you doing sitting there?”
Before Seungun’s reluctant question even ended, Gi Siyoung checked his phone and got up from the dining table.
“Even though I was born shameless, I wasn’t raised without compassion. This is really a part that holds me back in life.”
Gi Siyoung opened the front door and began bringing in something.
“What’s all that?”
His two hands were heavy. Inside the bag where you could see through clearly, it was full of food ingredients. He had ordered this many groceries to this house with his phone and received them via lightning delivery. Even if those things piled up in the refrigerator, Seungun didn’t have time to eat at home. Normally he would never have done this, but he ended up showing irritation without realizing it.
“You’re not planning to make dinner here, are you?”
“You’re making all sorts of ungrateful sounds from living too well. Im Seungun-ssi is the first person to make me get my hands wet.”
“What’s so great about your hands?”
“Looks like you’re getting your energy back.”
Gi Siyoung lifted the plastic bag and placed it on the dining table. Seungun sat at the dining table in a state of self-abandonment. Gi Siyoung first took out two instant rice packs. Then, after being somewhat shocked by the fact that there was no microwave in the house, he boiled hot water vigorously.
He soaked the instant rice in one pot, took out one concave frying pan from the cupboard, washed it clean, then put it on the fire and began stir-frying kimchi briskly. There were times when appearing in a cooking movie was helpful.
The kimchi made delicious sizzling sounds as it cooked. After stir-frying the kimchi for a while, he added water and even the kimchi juice left from frying the kimchi. Despite the meager household, there were basic seasonings showing the bottom, so he used them appropriately.
“……”
Seungun slightly raised his head. Even when he tried not to pay attention, he couldn’t help but look because such noisy sounds were being made. It gradually smelled delicious. He finally washed green onions and cheongyang peppers until they squeaked, then cut them finely with scissors and put them in.
He put tofu cut into rectangles and even tuna into the stew and controlled the fire to begin boiling it thickly and bubblingly. He intermittently tasted it with a spoon and added soy sauce or salt to taste.
In the hot summer, his face as he rolled up his sleeves and cooked was quite serious. He, who finally even completed fried eggs, fished out the instant rice from the boiling pot water and set it down in front of himself and Seungun.
