CH 15

“What…”

Feeling the warmth clinging to his back, Ha-hyun turned around with swollen eyes.

Rubbing his eyelids that didn’t open properly, perhaps because he slept too long, he checked the familiar face of another person as if he was unfamiliar and lowered his head at the weight he felt on his waist.

“Sleep more…”

Cho-seung, who opened one eye at the sign of movement in his arms, said in a tired voice, closed his eyes again, and slowly moved his arm around his waist.

Ha-hyun, who had regained consciousness just as his tired body was about to fall back to sleep at the gentle movements of his hand, shook his head.

“Why…”

At Cho-seung’s raspy voice, Ha-hyun straightened up first.

Cho-seung, who was hit on his chin by an arm that stretched above him, let out a pained sound and slightly pulled back his spread body.

“Hungry.”

“…what time is it?”

Cho-seung, who heard he was hungry in a confused state, stood up steadily and picked up his cell phone, which he had roughly thrown in the corner.

“Six o’clock in the morning?”

“Is that all you want?”

Cho-seung, who suddenly started his day at dawn, realized that today was a precious weekend and was a little desperate, but he was still getting out of bed.

“Where?”

“You said you were hungry. Is there anything you want to eat?”

Ha-hyun, who yawned and stared at Cho-seung with blank eyes, muttered that there was none.

“I’ll buy it outside.”

“Even so, I’ll buy it for you, so sleep more.”

Ha-hyun, who turned his head to follow Cho-seung as he left the bedroom, roughly tidying up his dishevelled hair with his hands, immediately lay down on his back. He wanted to go with him, but it was clear that he would be rejected again.

Ha-hyun, who was enjoying the relaxation while rubbing his cheeks on the soft bedding while accepting reality, quickly got up at the thought that occupied his head.

“Are you leaving?”

It was an urgent voice, unlike usual Ha-hyun.

Cho-seung, who was changing clothes in the dressing room, heard Ha-hyun calling and quickly headed to the living room, wondering if something had happened.

Ha-hyun flinched at the sight of Cho-seung, who couldn’t even button his shirt properly. Of course, he returned to his usual self after a moment and made a poor expression.

“I want to eat kongguksu.” (콩국수, meant noodles in cold soybean soup, here)

“Ah… okay. I’ll just buy the ingredients and do it for you.”

“Strawberries, too.”

“Do I just need to buy one pack?”

Ha-hyun nodded his head and thought about going back to bed before deciding on the sofa as his destination. Spreading out a finely folded blanket in one corner, he lay down without hesitation and closed his eyes.

“It will be cold.”

“It’s not cold.”

Cho-seung, who had finished buttoning up, sighed and took a blanket from the bedroom and carefully covered it to Ha-hyun. And kissed him on the forehead.

Ha-hyun, who had a tingling sensation on his forehead, turned his attention to the sound of what Cho-seung said that followed.

“I’ll be back.”

“Ung.”

Cho-seung laughed softly as he saw the man waving his hand while buried under the blanket and went out with his car key. He didn’t know if there was a store open at six o’clock in the morning, but if he looked for them, it would come out.

Rattle.

Ha-hyun blinked his eyes as he lay on the sofa listening to the sound of the door closing. Until the day before yesterday, he had never heard the sound of the front door closing in the living room. Maybe that’s why the sound of the door closing was somehow awkward.

Ha-hyun, lying on his side looking at the back, turned his body around and looked at the wall this time.

As time passed, the living room, where the chilly air of dawn lingered, became colder, so he was idle, wrapped in the blanket that Cho-seung had covered him.

Tick, tick.

Hearing the sharp sound of the clock ticking, he closed his blurred eyes again and dozed off.

Ha-hyun, who opened his eyes in surprise at the sensation of his legs falling to the ground, which he had been quietly resting on the sofa, touched his back in embarrassment.

Taking a deep breath to calm his beating heart, he looked at his watch.

“Seven o’clock?”

He thought he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them, but it had already been close to an hour.

No, even if that much time had passed, why had Cho-seung still not returned? As far as he knew, there was a 24-hour supermarket near his house. That meant there was no reason to wait an hour.

“Umm…”

I don’t remember ever worrying about something like this.

He thought that living with someone unexpectedly had a lot of things to pay attention to. He wondered if he shouldn’t just say he wanted to eat kongguksu.

Ha-hyun, who had been covering his head with a blanket while staring at the innocent clock, turned his head around at the sound of the electronic keypad being pressed.

As he was staring at the hallway while hearing the sound of plastic bags clashing, Cho-seung, who was coming in, flinched after seeing Ha-hyun.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

“I just woke up.”

“Really?”

Ha-hyun, who was watching him taking out some from the bags one by one after putting what he was holding on the table, put the blanket on the sofa and walked away.

“What did you buy?”

“Ung? Seasoning and everything. By the way, I bought mangoes, do you want to eat some?”

Mango? Come to think of it, he hadn’t thought of eating fruit like mango, but when Cho-seung said it, his mouth suddenly watered.

“The mangoes have already come. Moderately ripened ones looked delicious. Peel it?”

“Ung. Just one.”

Watching Cho-seung move around busily and organize the things he bought, Ha-hyun tried to help him, but he firmly stopped him.

“I know where I need to organize it. It’s okay.”

Ha-hyun calmly sat down on the chair as he had no reason to insist.

Then he took a closer look at the items in the bag and there was seasoning with signs of being ripped off. He seemed to have brought something from home. Come to think of it, he said he would bring something from home. Now it seemed that he knew why Cho-seung was late.

Shortly after, Cho-seung brought a plate of strawberries and mangoes to Ha-hyun, who waited with his chin resting on his backhand, put a fork in his hand, and then head to the kitchen.

Just like that, when Cho-seung was about to turn back his steps, Ha-hyun suddenly grabbed his wrist. Looking back with a puzzled face, Ha-hyun tapped the table across from him.

“Eat it, too.”

“I’m fine.”

“Really?”

Ha-hyun tilted his head slightly, pricked a strawberry with a fork, and brought it to Cho-seung’s mouth.

Ha-hyun pressed down his lips with a strawberry as he was looking at Cho-seung. Only then did Cho-seung open his mouth and eat it, chewing the strawberry he didn’t like very much.

“Not good?”

“No. It’s goo—”

Before he could even finish talking, the mango came into his mouth this time.

As a person who lived alone, Cho-seung, who had never eaten much fruit, chewed mango after a long time. It was probably not an illusion that it felt sweeter for some reason.

* * *

Cho-seung was free only after eating the fruit until his stomach was full.

After that, Cho-seung boiled the noodles first. Then, taking out a chopping board, he glanced at Ha-hyun, who was sitting on the chair.

“I’ll call my mother around lunchtime today. You?”

“Umm…”

That’s right. Normally, they would inform them, right? (보통이라면 알렸겠지?)

Ha-hyun took the remaining mango and put it in his mouth. Mumbling, chewing and swallowing slowly, then shaking his head.

“I don’t have them.”

“Really?”

“Ung.”

He rinsed his mouth with water and this time dipped in strawberries while looking at Cho-seung, but there was no reaction. Well, at this age, such cases happened one by one.

“Then, shall I go to their graves?”

“Graves… yeah, you will have to go see them.”

“Ung. Let’s do that.”

Cho-seung, who was surprised to hear that his parents weren’t there anymore, decided not to make a fuss about Ha-hyun’s calm appearance and finished the remaining work.

After placing cucumbers on a cutting board and slicing them neatly with a knife, he took out a pretty bowl and put the noodles in a thick bowl.

“It’s done. Do you want some ice?”

“I hate it because my teeth hurt.”

For what a lot of ice in the freezer? He had a small question but didn’t bother mentioning it.

As soon as he put chopsticks and kimchi in front of him, Ha-hyun, who had put the fruit bowl away, brightened his eyes.

“You?”

Cho-seung was happy to see Ha-hyun taking care of him whenever he ate something, but he shook his head. It was too much to push something into his stomach from this early morning. Instead, he decided to eat the remaining fruit. He took a bite of the fruit and only then did Ha-hyun drink kongguksu.

“Um.”

Delicious.

The taste was exactly the same as he thought.

As if surprised by the exclamation he heard for the first time, Cho-seung widened his eyes and soon smiled proudly. Ha-hyun, who had been eating with his mouth full, quickly saw an empty bowl and tapped the bottom (of the bowl) with his chopsticks as if regretting it.

Cho-seung, who was watching Ha-hyun at the gesture full of regret, asked him while his chin was on his backhand.

“Should I boil more?”

“Uung… no. I’m just going to sleep. No, should we watch a movie?”

Hearing that he wouldn’t eat more, he took out a tissue from a corner of the table and handed it to Ha-hyun, who immediately wiped his mouth.

“Some of the displayed ones look interesting. Shall we watch it?”

“Ung.”

After roughly tidying up, the two bickered for a while.

Therefore, in a very trivial matter that wasn’t so important.

“Why do we have to lie down together?”

“It’s nice to watch it while lying down on the couch.”

That’s true.

A blanket was also there, and so was the icing on the cake. Ha-hyun, who was lost for words, sat on the sofa for a while, sighed, and nodded. It was like an attitude of resignation. (이불도 나와 있으니 금상첨화였다)

“I was just sitting on the couch and—”

“Yeah. You want to lie down and watch it together?”

Ha-hyun, who was hugged by Cho-seung before he could finish his words, gasped in surprise.

Ha-hyun quickly pushed Cho-seung away and hit him on the shoulder like a punch.

“You surprised me.”

“You didn’t fall, did you?”

Cho-seung, who spoke playfully, touched Ha-hyun’s belly with a gentle touch.

When Ha-hyun, who glanced at him for a moment, nodded his head, he smiled and glanced his eyes then moved at a moderate pace.

In the end, Ha-hyun, lying on the couch with Cho-seung, tossed and turned in the cramped space. Then Cho-seung, who seemed to be worried for a moment, grabbed Ha-hyun by the waist and lifted him up.

“What?”

“If we overlap, there will be space left, right?” (겹치면 공간이 남잖아?)

Ha-hyun, who hated being narrow, soon moved slowly and settled in Cho-seung’s arms.

Leaning back on his firm chest, he was surprised by the unexpectedly comfortable embrace. When he stopped moving as if he had settled down, Cho-seung wrapped his left arm around Ha-hyun’s waist and held the remote control.

“Action?”

“Ung. If you don’t like it, romance?”

“No. I want to see a horror movie.”

Surprised by the horror word, Cho-seung put the remote control down for a moment.

Ha-hyun raised his head at Cho-seung’s sudden reaction and their gazes naturally met.

“Why?”

“That, I…”

“Can’t watch it?”

“Uh.”

Cho-seung nodded his head with a firm expression and Ha-hyun said he understood without hesitation. He could watch it alone when he went to work. In the end, they decided to watch the movie that Cho-seung first thought of.

As the screen turned black, the two stopped talking.

Cho-seung, who quickly fell into the movie, focused on the screen.

The living room was filled with only the sound coming from the speakers.