19
Before they knew it, Gu Wanjae was also lying on the bed with both hands behind his head. Somehow they were both in a position looking at the ceiling. The room was bright even without turning on the lights since it was midday, and the temperature was just right and pleasant. The two talked about various topics and went out to the living room together when they heard the bell ring. Jjolladak chicken had been delivered.
Gu Wanjae quickly rushed out to receive the chicken and pay. After loud sounds of “Yes, go ahead, yes,” Gu Wanjae returned to the living room. He was carrying chicken boxes that filled the plastic bag.
“This is why I thought it was just one chicken.”
“But there are two boxes?”
“No, somehow it comes like it’s one chicken.”
“Not at all?”
Gu Wanjae tilted his head as he unwrapped the plastic packaging. Taein also took out sauce, radish, etc. from the plastic and set them up. Since they often ordered food, the division of labor was well established. When they opened the box, golden well-fried chicken was visible. In the box right next to it, seasoned chicken coated with red and sweet sauce was beautifully contained. Jjolladak was a place that also provided plastic gloves. The two people who shared the plastic gloves each picked up fried chicken legs and seasoned chicken legs.
“Hey, this was just fried.”
“Oh.”
Following Gu Wanjae, who took a bite and quickly conveyed his impression, Taein also made an “Oh” sound. Because it really seemed like that.
Even though it was a regular place they ate at often, it tasted good every time they ate. No, it seemed to get more delicious each time.
Taein nodded continuously as he ate the chicken. Gu Wanjae also quickly picked the meat off the leg and ate it.
Could there be happiness like this? His one and only friend, freshly fried chicken, a spacious house.
If happiness had an expiration date, he hoped it would be as long as possible. Not spoiling right away like raw meat, but lasting for years like canned food. Taein, who had such random thoughts while eating chicken, looked at Gu Wanjae who reached out saying “Hey, you got oil on you.” Gu Wanjae wiped Taein’s cheek with his thumb and casually wiped his hand on the tissue that came with the order.
It was brief and momentary, but a natural movement.
Everything has momentum. Something that starts once can go all the way to the end, or it can lose strength midway like air being let out. It’s not about which is good or bad. Some things proceeded to the end without knowing when to stop even though they should have stopped, and some things should have gone to the end but ended up being given up midway.
For Taein, the sudden Omega diagnosis was something that shouldn’t happen. It wasn’t that he disliked those people, but realistically it was a condition too overwhelming for Taein to carry. What he occasionally learned while going to the hospital was that some Omegas consistently got injections. What attracted Taein to that was because they were people similar to him. Even though they were Omegas, people who had no interest in dating or marriage and didn’t want to do anything sexual got those injections even as adults. The same was true for Alphas.
But the injection price was beyond imagination. It was close to a million won and had to be taken once a month to be effective. Crazy. No matter how much it was a drug not covered by insurance, medicines and injections, everything was applied disadvantageously to special genders. Nothing was cheap. That injection was the peak of it all.
Since purchasing Gu Wanjae’s birthday gift, he hadn’t worked part-time again, but it seemed like he’d need to start looking around soon.
Just like 2 years had passed like a flash, his third-year life seemed like it would pass quickly too. Then he would be an adult. A real adult. An adult.
Sitting in the classroom thinking about adult Kang Taein, Taein felt lost even though it was only a few months away. Even twenty years old was still an overwhelming age for him. Could a one-year difference feel this distant?
Having such thoughts, he smacked his lips. No matter how much he racked his brain, there was no answer for the future.
Right now he was living off Gu Wanjae at his house, but he couldn’t keep living like this.
Thinking that he definitely needed to work, Taein rummaged through his phone.
He had just sent messages about some jobs he saw in an information magazine recently. He had sent messages to bosses who asked to be contacted by text first. Taein put aside the messages with no replies and read the message that came up at the top.
It was a text from Gu Wanjae.
[Coming today?] [Gu Wanjae]
Taein read it and quickly wrote back and sent a reply.
[No]
It was asking if they should take the bus home together from school. The reason Taein immediately sent “No” was because of Gu Wanjae’s movements.
Gu Wanjae, who seemed like he would quit school but didn’t, submitted a withdrawal form when he became a third-year. The teachers just had comfortable conversations with Gu Wanjae saying “Oh, you’re submitting it now?” At the laughing words “You weren’t going to graduate anyway,” Gu Wanjae just replied “Ah, I know” with his hands in his pants pockets. From Taein’s perspective, who was there with him, Gu Wanjae seemed like he was the same age as the teachers. Not that his face looked old, but his words and actions.
He wondered if his behavior had changed like that from hanging around with hyungs outside, but it seemed like he had acted similarly before too.
In terms of momentum, Gu Wanjae had given up on school and put momentum into his own work.
How much more would he come to resemble the hyungs? Taein was seeing the hyungs he had never seen through Gu Wanjae. He just roughly knew what kind of people they were.
Taein, who was texting with Gu Wanjae and thinking about what happened in March and April, suddenly lifted his head at a sound he heard.
Lee Wuyong had come to the front door and was calling him.
“Taein.”
After Gu Wanjae quit school, Lee Wuyong openly sought him out. He didn’t seem to get along well with Choi Chan either, and Taein thought maybe he was doing this because he was comfortable with him. At the same time, he felt that he was subtly conscious of Gu Wanjae.
“Is Wanjae coming today?”
“Huh?”
“Is he coming?”
“Ah, no.”
“Really?”
On days when Gu Wanjae came to school, Lee Wuyong would step forward to book karaoke rooms or buy delicious food. Actually, Taein had packaged Lee Wuyong positively to Gu Wanjae, so Lee Wuyong’s image had improved a lot. From Taein’s position of attending school, if Gu Wanjae continued to think badly of Lee Wuyong, there would be many tiring things at school too. So from the beginning, he spoke well of Lee Wuyong and made it so Gu Wanjae wouldn’t have to worry about it.
‘Lee Wuyong bought me this.’
‘What is it? Did he put poison in it?’
‘Hey, don’t be like that. Lee Wuyong likes you.’
‘Shibal. Disgusting.’
‘That means he thinks about you that much.’
Taein didn’t want Gu Wanjae, who had dropped out, to come to school because of him. If he said that, it was obvious he’d raise his voice alone again about friends and friendship, so he decided to remove the bombs that Gu Wanjae was thinking about one by one. So there would be no need to come. So there would be minimal trouble with Lee Wuyong too. As a result, he became someone who talked with Lee Wuyong quite often, but the guy didn’t know his real intentions and seemed to think they had become close.
“Ah, our Taein gets more handsome as time goes by.”
“…Where’s Choi Chan?”
“You always ask about Choi Chan when you see me?”
“Just haven’t seen him lately.”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s a season where he doesn’t come to school much. Then he’ll come again, right?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Hey, that’s right. Yesterday.”
Lee Wuyong, who had sat in the front seat chair before he knew it, brought up a topic with an interested face.
“Yesterday what.”
“I saw those noonas.”
“Who.”
“You know, after school.”
“…Ah.”
Yesterday while leaving school, he had seen Lee Wuyong surrounded by women. He didn’t know if they were older or younger sisters, but he had seen them anyway, so Taein nodded.
“Among the noonas there, the noona with her hair up.”
“……”
Taein looked at Lee Wuyong expressionlessly.
“That noona said she likes you?”
“…Ah.”
Most conversations with Lee Wuyong were like this. Lee Wuyong knew a strangely large number of women. From juniors to noonas much older. He didn’t have the looks to be liked by women, but maybe because he talked with bravado, there seemed to be women who fell for it. Taein had no interest in the women Lee Wuyong talked about – some noona, who, who. First of all, he didn’t know who was who, and he had never faced them. Always the next day or the day after, Lee Wuyong would come to him and bring up “that girl then, that noona then.”
“Fucking shibal. Kang Taein is amazing. Especially the noonas just can’t get over him.”
“…Ah, really.”
“How about this time? Do you really want to see her once?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Why.”
“Uh, just.”
“Where’s just? That noona is fucking pretty.”
“Yeah, I get it but… I can’t see faces.”
“Oh, you’ll decide after seeing her face?”
“Why does it turn out like that?”
“Your words are like that, so why.”
Still, Lee Wuyong was looking at him with a face asking what was strange about that. Maybe because Gu Wanjae had made such a fuss, but Taein hadn’t done anything that would make him suspicious either. The hospital had told him that his scent or pheromones would barely come out for several years, but he needed to be more careful with delinquents like Lee Wuyong. Maybe he had heard something strange somewhere and was testing him.
Taein, with a just-in-case feeling, gave reluctant responses to Lee Wuyong, who had been talking about women for several consecutive days.
“So what. What am I supposed to do about it.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
