“Then keep driving it for like ten years and sell it to me after. You know how cheap foreign used cars get, right? Pass it on to me for next to nothing later.”
Doyun kept pestering Eunho half-jokingly — or really, a quarter-jokingly — about selling it to him at half the price, no, half of half.
Eunho had been smiling at Doyun’s teasing when he tilted his chin toward the steering wheel.
Then he made an unsettling joke.
“Don’t you like this car more than that one? Just take this one instead.”
“Are you kidding? How would I ever afford this car? Even if I won the lottery, I’d never spend money on something like this.”
Doyun shook his head, and this time Eunho took one of Doyun’s hands and placed it directly on top of the steering wheel, covering it with his own.
“Then find someone who drives a car like this.”
“Who else drives something like this besides you?”
Doyun replied, pulling his hand free from Eunho’s grip.
He’d expected Eunho to come back with some smug wordplay, but Eunho went quiet instead.
Silence settled in the car — the radio wasn’t even on.
Eunho’s car, gliding along the road at a steady pace, came to a stop at a red light.
“I guess… it really is just me.”
In the stillness of the car, with even the engine cut, Eunho’s voice came out low and languid.
Without thinking, Doyun swallowed.
There were moments like this when being alone with Eunho put him in an awkward, difficult position. Unlike when he was with Suhyeok or Minjun, this was the kind of serious moment where he couldn’t just throw out a random joke or act up. With Doyun also keeping his mouth shut, the car arrived at the university district.
“Hey, hey — don’t try to squeeze into the alley with this car and scratch it, just drop me off here.”
Doyun stopped Eunho from turning into the narrowing road and unclipped his seatbelt.
“I think I can make it if I’m careful.”
“No, it’d be too much of a shame. Take good care of your Aema.”
Doyun shook his head and gave Eunho a light pat on the shoulder.
Eunho turned the word Aema over in his mind, then realized it was an abbreviation of the car brand’s name and quietly murmured it to himself.
“Aema? Ah… got it, I’ll take good care of it. Rest up a bit before your part-time shift.”
“Oh, your pronunciation is killer. Alright, see you this weekend. Goodbye~”
Doyun scrunched his nose and said his farewell in an exaggerated English accent.
He opened the car door and was about to leave when Eunho reached out and grabbed Doyun’s wrist.
“Make sure you reach out to me first. Okay?”
“Okay. Go on now. Thanks for the ride.”
Doyun waved and disappeared into the alleyways.
Eunho watched him go for a long time, and only after Doyun’s figure had completely vanished did he reluctantly turn the car around.
***
The moment Doyun got home after the blind date, a call came in from Minjun, almost uncannily timed. Did he install a hidden camera somewhere? Doyun cast a suspicious look around his room before answering.
— Come on, how badly did you fumble the conversation for her to ask if you were a Korean-American? She was actually interested in you, and you just completely killed it, apparently. That’s really something. You’re really something else!
He’d been so caught up spending time with Eunho, who’d appeared the moment the blind date ended, that he’d completely forgotten what a disaster it had been.
Doyun nodded along and let Minjun’s “pearls of wisdom” on dating wash right over him.
Once Minjun started nagging, it went on for a considerable while.
Just as Doyun’s eyes were nearly closing, Minjun asked, “Still haven’t made up yet?”
Doyun muttered a half-conscious “Yeah, yeah” in reply, and drifted off to sleep to the sound of Minjun’s deep, drawn-out sigh.
***
Saturday morning.
Doyun ended up working an unplanned shift at the convenience store.
His dad had asked him to cover the store just through the morning, and Doyun had put up the tiniest bit of resistance — to absolutely no effect.
It was bad enough having to wake up early on a weekend morning, but not a single customer came in to make it feel worth it, which somehow made it worse.
With nothing else to do, Doyun reorganized the stock piled up in the back, and redid the shelving display that the night-shift part-timer had left in a complete mess. By the time he’d finished mopping the floor, his stomach was starting to grumble.
The meetup at Suhyeok’s place was set for 3:30 in the afternoon.
Figuring he should eat something before then, Doyun grabbed a triangle kimbap and a cup ramen with a picture of a flaming chicken on it.
Then he stood in front of the hot bar display and thought it over seriously.
He hadn’t eaten anything all day, so the ramen and kimbap alone probably wouldn’t be enough to fill him up — but if he ate the hot bar on top of that, he’d probably have no room left when he got together with his friends. Just one bite would be enough. With that thought, Doyun reluctantly turned his feet toward the register.
He rang himself up, poured hot water into the cup ramen, and made his way to the table by the big window.
The short wait for the noodles to cook was the most agonizing part.
Doyun preferred his noodles well-done and soggy, so he split apart his chopsticks, laid them across the lid to weigh it down, and pulled out his phone.
His long-neglected phone was stacked with messages.
The message he’d sent to the blind date girl after it ended had been read, with no reply in return.
As Doyun scrolled through the chat list, his eyes stopped on the conversation with Eunho.
“Ah… right. I said I’d reach out.”
‘Make sure you reach out to me first. Okay?’
Only then did Doyun curse his own absentmindedness and tapped on Eunho’s profile photo.
Eunho’s profile picture — him laughing in front of food — was one Doyun had taken when the four of them had gone out for curry together.
Doyun sent Eunho a message right away.
ㅜㅜ I forgot I said I’d reach out. Sorry 1
He sent it and stared at the screen for a moment.
The unread count next to the message hadn’t disappeared.
Doyun peeled open the ramen lid.
The spicy aroma hit him and his appetite immediately kicked in.
He lifted a big tangle of noodles with his chopsticks and was just about to swallow them when — knock knock — came the sound of someone tapping on the window.
If it were a customer, they’d come through the front door — who’s knocking on the window? This convenience store near the office district was busiest on weekday evenings during company dinners, and occasionally some completely wasted salaryman would stagger in and bang into the glass. Doyun frowned, wondering if a nuisance like that was showing up on a weekend too.
He looked up.
Outside the window stood Eunho.
Eunho had his hoodie pulled up over his head and was leaning at a slight angle with one hand shoved in his pants pocket.
Their eyes met — Doyun’s wide with surprise — and Eunho waved.
With his chopsticks still in his mouth, Doyun broke into a slow, full smile and waved him in.
A moment later, the convenience store door chimed open.
Doyun was just setting down his chopsticks and dabbing at the corner of his mouth with a napkin when a sudden weight landed on his shoulders.
“Why didn’t you reach out.”
“Oh — you scared me.”
Eunho had wrapped his arms around Doyun from behind and whispered into his ear.
Eunho tightened the arms holding Doyun in place.
When Doyun turned his head, Eunho’s face was right there beside him.
Eunho had taken off his hoodie and shaken his hair back into place, and now he buried his face against the back of Doyun’s neck.
“You said you’d reach out.”
His voice came out in a low, pouting murmur, close to Doyun’s ear.
Doyun reached up a hand and ran it through Eunho’s hair.
When the soft strands slipped between Doyun’s fingers, he felt Eunho — head still bowed — give a quiet laugh.
“I literally just sent you a message. You showed up at the perfect time.”
“Should I check?”
Eunho came around and sat down beside Doyun, back to the window.
Doyun picked his chopsticks back up and took a mouthful of ramen.
Eunho’s hand grazed lightly over Doyun’s cheek as he pulled out his phone, checked the message Doyun had sent, and tucked it back into his hoodie pocket.
Watching Doyun attack his ramen with full focus, Eunho unwrapped the triangle kimbap for him.
“Is this your lunch?”
His mouth too full to answer, Doyun just nodded.
“Is this enough to fill you up?”
Eunho asked again, and Doyun shook his head.
They were going to order snacks to go with drinks at Suhyeok’s place anyway, so he didn’t want to eat until he was stuffed. Still, the hot bar he’d gone back and forth on earlier continued to nag at him.
“Is the ramen good?”
“Yeah.”
“It looks spicy, but watching you enjoy it so much is making me want some too.”
“It is a little spicy. Want a bite?”
Doyun swallowed another mouthful of noodles.
Eunho’s hand brought the triangle kimbap up toward Doyun’s mouth.
Doyun opened his mouth and took a small bite of the kimbap Eunho was offering.
Eunho folded the wrapper back up, set the kimbap down on the napkin-lined table, and stood up.
“That’s going to burn. Should I grab you something to drink?”
“…I’ll ring it up later, just go ahead and grab whatever you want.”
“Yeah, okay. Stay there.”
Doyun had started to get up too, but Eunho pressed down lightly on his shoulder and eased him back into his seat.
Eunho got up and headed over to the drinks section, scanning for something that would cool down a spicy tongue.
“I brought this too.”
