Chapter 6.19

Sangwoo watched and saved all the short theatrical recordings and promotional videos, skateboard videos, and graffiti videos posted on YouTube. He  googled Jaeyoung’s ID to search for his interests and even found his electronic music playlist on YouTube.

Washiba Gatgatnova it’s like you’re flying this season. Planning on ascending to the heavens soon

Planning on ascending to the heavens

ㄴㄴ You won’t even be able to use a cap with that and you’ll accidentally squash it so it will spray everywhere. Don’t buy it

It’s so fucking pretty, but it seems like it’ll break down right away?

Sangwoo found and read the few comments Jaeyoung had left on forums online and even some reviews of products he had purchased at some online shopping sites. He went to Jaeyoung’s portfolio page and looked at everything: the design he made for graduation, the work he won an award for at a contest, websites he had done freelance work for, indie singer concert posters and banners, magazine illustrations, and the graffiti and illustrations he had done for fun. He even searched through all his previous posts about the theater department on the school’s intranet. He read about their recruitment notices, promotional production posts for various plays and exhibitions.

(5min walk) Looking for a male roommate. Only come to see me in person, please.

In the dark dawn after pulling an all-nighter, Sangwoo eventually came to his senses after reading a post from six years ago.

‘What am I doing right now?’

There were 36 photos and nine videos sorted by date in the ‘Jang Jaeyoung’ folder created on his desktop. Sangwoo found himself opening them one by one to appreciate them more closely again. The only memories he had of Jaeyoung were either when they were arguing. However, since they were in this state, he had mistaken it for having gotten close to Jaeyoung, approaching the point where he wanted to address him in a different way.

‘Hyung. What have you done to me?’

The first time they ran into each other at the PC room, when Jaeyoung had put the spicy ramen in front of him and started cursing and saying that they shouldn’t run into each other again, he had just been a small syntax error. However, even after catching the error, the program wouldn’t run as it had before. Like the seven cans of coffee in his refrigerator, the tiny defect that had wormed its way into Sangwoo’s heart and mind did not disappear.

‘There must have been a deletion somewhere in the source code.’

Twelve days had passed since they had fought. The coffee had lost its flavor, gaming became dull, and he felt depressed. Originally, Sangwoo was far from the type of human being who was swayed by their emotions. However, he asked himself: ‘how many emotions had he exhausted over the past three weeks?’

i) Severe irritation, severe anxiety, feeling wronged and misunderstood – 2 days

ii) Slight irritation, slight anxiety, doubt – 3 days

iii) Confusion, anger, absentmindedness – 6 days

iv) Depression, anger – 12 days

Jang Jaeyoung’s existence was the cause of i), ii), and iii), and would be resolved if he disappeared. However, the cause of iv) was the absence of Jang Jaeyoung. Sangwoo, who had turned a blind eye to that fact for over 10 days of falling apart, concluded that he couldn’t keep going like this. Ignoring the problem wouldn’t make it disappear. Since this was the case, Sangwoo had to act as a problem solver.

He carefully thought about the cause of the problem, the advantages of his connection to Jaeyoung, and the circumstances. Naturally, the more complicated a problem is, the more simple solutions there would be. He didn’t include irrational emotional elements and just analyzed the situation itself. The reason Sangwoo felt dissatisfied was because Jang Jaeyoung had disappeared from his life. Since it was so, he had to drag him back into his life.

He combined several options to produce the most optimal solution. He came to one conclusion, and he saw no other way to handle it. Sangwoo always preferred the shortest path, and he had every intention of taking it.

return 0;

“Hey.”

Sangwoo called for Jihye while eating after their cultural theory class. She looked up as she was drinking her soup.

“You know how I’m supposed to treat you to a meal?”

“Yes, yes.”

“I’d like to treat you today.”

A smile spread over her formerly expressionless face. Sangwoo wondered if she was having a difficult time lately.

“If you agree, then come to Olive Tree by 6pm tonight.”

“Ah! That’s where we had our first meal together, oppa. Do you remember? But it’s really expensive there…”

“I know. Do you agree or not?”

“Good, good.”

Jihye looked thrilled to get an expensive meal for free. Sangwoo asked for her phone number in case they missed each other going to the restaurant. Jihye stuttered while giving him her number.