I pedaled hard and left the forest path, heading in the opposite direction from where my house lined with homes was. It was a neighborhood I’d never seen before. The houses were overall old, trash was rolling around, and a strange fishy smell wafted. Rusty iron bars were erected in place of walls.
Is this a slum? Isn’t someone with a gun going to appear? Like a teenager from a middle-class family who’d been raised well until now, I was tense but didn’t stop my bicycle. I wanted to check on Joel. And the System’s directions stopped at a wide vacant lot without walls or iron bars.
HERE!!!
“……”
The house Joel had barely arrived at was, strictly speaking, not a ‘house.’ It was an old camper. Or was it called a trailer? Identical-looking white mobile homes were strewn throughout the vacant lot in a row.
Something like electrical wires connected from the trailer roof to a pole stuck in the ground, with laundry hanging on them, and under a sunshade were folding chairs and a table. On that table were a water jug and cups without dust on them. It meant people were definitely living there now.
I’d heard that poor Americans lived in places that weren’t proper houses…… But it was the first time I’d seen something like this directly. Still unable to believe it, I asked once more.
“Is this right?”
ㅇㅇ!
“……Right. It’s right.”
Having belatedly discovered Joel’s car, I eventually nodded slowly. This kind of place…… is home. He’s only eighteen years old, but he lives alone in a place like this…….
I felt strange. Should I say I newly realized that Joel Gomez was also a person, and still a young teenager…… As expected, I must really be too naive, a bourgeois young master who knows nothing. Getting surprised by seeing where others live.
Of course there wouldn’t be a doorbell…… Should I knock? What should I do…….
Holding only the bicycle handlebars, I hesitated in front of the door before barely gathering courage and clenching my hand. And just as I was about to knock on the door—
“Aah!”
WHAM! The door that opened without hesitation hit my head hard. Ow! It hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes, so I rubbed the bumped forehead vigorously, and from above me an incongruously soft and gentle voice fell onto the top of my head.
“What the! ……Seventh?”
“I came because I had business…… Ah, but it really hurts! Give some warning before opening it!”
“Who gives warning before opening a door? It’s the fault of the idiot standing there. Don’t block the front and move aside.”
That familiar grumbling was annoying yet somehow reassuring. Even after getting suspended, his spirit hasn’t died. Well, where would that temper go?
“Uugh……”
I staggered backward according to Joel’s hand pushing my head. Thud, thud, thud. Joel, who came down from the trailer, poured water from the jug placed on the table under the sunshade—gluglug.
“But what brings you all the way here…… No, how did you even know where my house is? Are you a stalker? Huh?”
Joel, who had been taking a sip of water with his hand on his waist, suddenly turned around and glared at me. His gaze scanning me up and down was quite insolent. Though I didn’t find out about this place through legal means, it’s not exactly illegal either? But since I couldn’t explain the System, I rubbed my forehead and played dumb.
“Give me some too, water. I’m thirsty from biking all the way here.”
“I don’t want to.”
“……Childish.”
You won’t give a guest who came all the way here a cup of water? As a Korean person, it was unacceptable etiquette. I snatched the cup from Joel’s hand as he raised one eyebrow and gulped down all the water. Even though Joel let it be snatched obediently, he burst out with “Ha!” as if dumbfounded.
“How did you come?”
“There are ways.”
He’s asking persistently again. I placed the empty cup down on the table with a thud.
“What, stalking?”
“Do you think I have that much time to spare? I asked around and came, okay.”
“Why did you come?”
“To check if you’re dead or alive.”
“What, worried I might have committed suicide just because I got suspended?”
Joel crossed his arms and chuckled. What violent words he uses, really.
“I just came because I had some things I wanted to ask.”
“What.”
“Why did you hit him?”
“Hit what.”
Joel furrowed his eyebrows as if annoyed and roughly messed up the back of his hair. I took one step toward him.
“Dave, no, why did you hit David?”
“Why are you curious about that?”
Joel’s gaze looking down at me from close range was crooked. It could be because he tilted his head slightly to the side.
“Why, are you still worried about that bastard? Getting all fucking pissed at me for hitting that bastard?”
Joel leaned toward me. His face got much closer, so I could see him growling right in front of my nose. In the midst of it all, his voice was incongruously smooth and soft.
“……No, he did something deserving of getting hit. But why did you hit him?”
“Did you come to argue because you were going to hit him but I stole the opportunity and you’re pissed?”
“No. Just…… It’s my business, but you bothered to dirty your hands and even got suspended, so it’s…… kind of on my mind.”
Joel turned around and poured water into the cup again. I looked at the scapula and back muscles exposed under the black short-sleeved t-shirt and muttered. Flinch—Joel paused his actions for a moment.
“What did you say?”
“……I said it was on my mind.”
When Joel only turned his head back to look down at me, I quickly averted my gaze. Joel, who had been keeping his mouth shut, scratched the back of his head and swept his bangs upward before asking in a small voice.
“Do you…… like me?”
“No!”
What crazy talk! I jerked my head up and shouted, and Joel raised one eyebrow.
“Why! What do I lack compared to that bastard David!”
“Your personality is filthy.”
Dave had a bad personality, and Joel had a filthy personality. They sounded like similar expressions, but they were strictly different. Splash! Half of the water in the cup Joel was holding spilled outside.
“Fuck, after getting treated like that by that bastard, you say my personality is way filthier? Huh?”
“Still, David doesn’t curse in front of me.”
“Don’t you know the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover? Huh?”
“That only applies to appearance!”
“You’re judging me by the surface right now!”
“Curses come from inside, not outside!”
That’s sophistry! My Korean grade is 100 points, you bastard! I can smoothly solve even those difficult non-fiction passages and I even took essay classes! Do you think I’ll fall for your illogical words?
As expected, it seems hard to refute. Joel huffed—hiss, hiss!—greatly inflating his thick ribcage before roughly slamming down the cup on the table—thud! The wobbling cup soon fell over and spilled all the water inside.
“Did you come to provoke me? Huh?”
“……No.”
I suddenly came to his house and only picked fights. Thinking that way, I felt a bit sorry. I turned my backpack to the front, rummaged for something inside, and held it out.
“Here.”
“……Good grief.”
It was about 1kg of Twizzlers strawberry flavor I bought at the convenience store. It was quite heavy.
“Eat one a day, sparingly. You rotten thing. No matter how young you are, you need to watch your sugar intake too.”
“The nagging.”
Though Joel grumbled, with a much more relaxed expression, he ripped open the Twizzlers bag by pulling both sides—pop! Then he immediately put one in his mouth and chewed, and pushed one into my mouth too. Ugh, I don’t like this! But since he’d already given it to me, I couldn’t spit it out, so I forced myself to chew. Artificial strawberry flavor spread through my mouth.
“Did you eat?”
I followed Joel as he went back into the trailer. Joel stopped climbing the stairs and turned back to look down at me.
“Why? Are you going to cook for me?”
“……No, I can’t cook.”
I don’t know what ingredients there are, but whatever there is…… I’ll ruin it. I’m hopeless at cooking. Joel let out a sneer—pfft.
“As expected, a bourgeois young master.”
“……”
It was an undeniable fact. Objectively speaking, I’d always grown up and lived in an affluent household.
“Do you…… live here alone?”
“Think a hundred people live in such a cramped place?”
Even as I climbed the stairs heading to the trailer, Joel didn’t stop me. That meant it was okay to enter, right? Joel exaggerated that it was cramped, but the trailer interior wasn’t that cramped. There was a bathroom, a kitchen, a bed, and a table too. It seemed much more spacious and better than Korean exam prep rooms or small studio apartments.
“What, does it look too beggar-like to a bourgeois young master’s eyes?”
I said to eat only one. Joel, who started chewing a second Twizzler, sneered. I hesitated before carefully sitting on a stool placed near the table and hugged my backpack.
“Yeah, I am bourgeois. My parents earn well, and my hyung earns well too. But I’ve never looked down on you for that. The reason you were bad was just because your personality is incredibly filthy.”
“……Should I thank you or get angry?”
Joel, who sat on the edge of the bed, burst out with a sigh—ha. I said his personality was filthy again. I didn’t come to pick a fight, right. Actually, I didn’t even have a proper purpose. Just…….
“……It was, kind of on my mind. That you got suspended.”
I was probably embarrassed, so I muttered in a small voice again this time too. But the other party seemed to have heard well.
“What did that bastard David say?”
“What?”
“When seducing stupid you. Did he bring up his parents’ divorce story, or his dad’s affair story?”
“……How do you know that?”
How did he know both Dave’s family circumstances and that he brought up that story? Don’t tell me…….
“David seduced you too……”
“Fuck, are you crazy!”
