29
“Hey! Taein.”
The guy who called him in a friendly tone was Choi Chan. Taein looked at the face of the guy who approached him nonchalantly, then took his meal tray and found a seat. Choi Chan, who had come right up close, seemed to think Taein hadn’t heard him and spoke properly.
“Taein, it’s been a while.”
Choi Chan was smiling. Whenever he occasionally came over to greet him, he always had this expression. Moderately indifferent, moderately natural face. Unlike Lee Wuyong, he didn’t openly act friendly, so he never imagined this guy would spread such rumors…. Taein just slightly shook his head and walked to an empty table. Choi Chan lingered around until Taein sat down.
“Is something wrong?”
“No.”
“Your expression doesn’t look good.”
“Ah.”
He couldn’t give a proper answer and just stared at his meal tray. His emotions still weren’t good, but if he kept acting like this, Choi Chan would probably spread more strange rumors. Rumors were rumors, and the next thing was the next thing.
Taein lifted his eyes that had been on his meal tray. He lied that he had caught a cold and his condition wasn’t great.
“Huh? Summer colds are the worst.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you catch it from someone?”
“Yeah.”
“From who?”
The only name that came to mind for a moment was ‘Gu Wanjae,’ but he pointlessly said a different name.
“Lee Yeongwoo.”
“You saw Lee Yeongwoo recently?”
The questions he asked were strangely irritating. Starting from who he caught the cold from. Even confirming that he had seen Lee Yeongwoo. It seemed like he was waiting for Gu Wanjae’s name to somehow come out of his mouth. The hollow laughter at his petty intentions was brief. Taein spat out the words that had filled up to his throat.
“But could you leave? My throat hurts.”
“Ah.”
“……”
After saying only that, Taein started eating. He could hear “uh, uh” sounds from in front but didn’t pay attention. Choi Chan seemed to want to say more but changed his mind, and got up from his seat a few seconds later. To Choi Chan who tapped the table saying “see you later,” Taein only raised his eyes to show them. What was there to see later? Choi Chan was just saying it. Soon he could see Choi Chan leaving his seat and returning to his own. What kind of words would he spread after going there?
Forget it, fuck.
With a “whatever” mindset, Taein scooped up a spoonful of rice and ate it.
The reason he hadn’t batted an eye at rumors until now was because those rumors weren’t true. Things like “his personality sucks” or “what’s fucking annoying” were rather understandable. They were things he didn’t need to get angry about. But having such rumors spread while being involved with a friend was a bit different. Was this also because of his own inferiority complex? It was a rumor that could come out once in a while, but did he feel more sensitive about it because of his trait? Had Lee Wuyong and Choi Chan ever had such rumors? Chewing only plain rice, Taein fell into thought.
Whether that was possible.
Whether that was feasible.
But no conclusion came at all.
Lee Wuyong and Choi Chan had once stuck together too, but he had never heard such rumors.
* * *
True to being a delinquent school, when lunchtime ended, more than half of the already few remaining students disappeared. Taein stubbornly stayed and participated in afternoon classes. There wasn’t much to participate in. All he did was stare ahead with blank eyes. Still, this was considered decent class attitude. The number of classmates that exceeded twenty was cut in half, and most of the ten or so guys left were sleeping. Students who at least had their heads up totaled three, including Taein.
Not long after, the final bell rang. The guys who had remained until now were those who weren’t interested in leaving quickly. Everyone slowly packed their bags. Taein packed his bag at a moderate pace and left the classroom. While doing so, he checked his phone. He had briefly exchanged messages with Gu Wanjae around lunchtime, but there had been no contact since then.
Should he just go?
Taein, who was rummaging through his message box, checked the front messages.
[im in pocheon now but if i have time ill come] [Gu Wanjae]
[fucking work came up] [Gu Wanjae]
[call me after youre done] [Gu Wanjae]
As Taein was scanning the messages with his eyes, after reading the message telling him to call, he pressed the call button. After the dial tone went “beep, beep” a few times, Gu Wanjae’s voice was heard.
-Yeah.
“I’m done.”
-Hey, did it already turn out like that?
“If you’re far away, don’t come. I only called because you specifically told me to call.”
-Ha shit, this is pretty tough.
“I just left school.”
-Is it the way I did it? The buttons.
“…When did you ever put buttons on for me?”
-That’s what buttons are.
“Don’t talk shit. The bus is coming.”
-Hanging up?
“Yeah.”
He was continuing to walk down the downhill path to the bus stop. For a road in front of school, there were too few students. Taein was trudging down the road alone when he turned his head. He felt like someone was watching him. There was a man standing there, but it was a face he didn’t know. The outfit seemed familiar though. Taein quickly turned his head, then thought of something and swallowed. He was still on the phone with Gu Wanjae.
-Did you hear?
“What?”
-Let’s eat sashimi for dinner.
“Ah, okay.”
-What are you doing? The bastard is spacing out outside again.
“What am I spacing out about?”
He said that, but his mind was indeed hazy. The clothes the man wore were a silver suit. Lee Wuyong, who bragged about being a thug whenever he got the chance, had also once said that his organization’s outfit was silver. At first they wear silver suits close to white, but when their rank gets higher, they wear really cool dark silver suits.
He suddenly remembered those words he had listened to indifferently.
Taein arrived at the bus stop and looked around. Could Lee Wuyong be nearby? It wasn’t even inside the school, and facing him one-on-one was worse than death. It wasn’t because Gu Wanjae had beaten up Lee Wuyong badly. All the things that happened to him that day from Lee Wuyong remained as trauma. Not only did he confess to another man, but he had held up his phone saying he needed to take a kiss photo. Taein took a deep breath at his suddenly quickening heartbeat.
Fortunately, the bus he was going to take was staying at the previous stop.
He waited for the bus while pointlessly looking toward the convenience store. Lee Wuyong didn’t appear until the bus came. The man in the silver suit also just kept standing in that spot.
* * *
Even during summer vacation, Gu Wanjae took charge of going to and from school. In the beginning, the bike colors changed like a rainbow, but after about 2 weeks, it was fixed as a red delivery motorcycle. The owners of stylish bikes said they wouldn’t lend their bikes anymore. Gu Wanjae seemed not to try other attempts, saying this was the most manageable and convenient to borrow since it was right nearby. Taein thought so. Since he was riding anyway, it would be nice if the seat was wider and the size was a bit bigger.
No matter how he tried to sit on the red motorcycle, it was structured so that his body had to be in close contact with Gu Wanjae. Since he needed to follow Gu Wanjae’s habit of preferring to carry someone in front rather than behind, only the remaining seat space in front was Taein’s spot. Even when he put strength in his lower body at departure and pulled his body as much as possible to sit, when braking suddenly or on the uphill road in front of school, he would be pressed against Gu Wanjae to an uncomfortable degree. He couldn’t help but think, why doesn’t he borrow something else?
Wondering if he had to ride that motorcycle today too, he came out of his room and saw Gu Wanjae lying face down and sleeping in the middle of the living room.
“Hey.”
When he approached and lightly kicked his thigh with his foot, there was a slight reaction from Gu Wanjae.
“Uh….”
He looked up with half-opened eyes, but his condition didn’t look good.
“Are you sick somewhere?”
“Ah….”
“Huh? Are you sick?”
“No….”
Taein crouched down and carefully examined Gu Wanjae’s complexion. Eyes with dark circles, dry lips, cheeks red as if drunk. Something seemed to have broken out red and blotchy on his neck too.
Thinking this wasn’t right, Taein raised his hand and touched Gu Wanjae’s forehead.
“Hey, it’s fucking hot.”
“Ah….”
“You have a fever too.”
Yesterday, Gu Wanjae had come home with a tired face and fell asleep quickly. He had thought his condition might not be good, but he hadn’t thought he was sick. Because he said he had never caught a cold once. Such a guy wouldn’t be slowly suffering, right? When Gu Wanjae’s condition seemed serious, Taein completely corrected his roughly crouched position. With his butt on the floor, he thoroughly examined Gu Wanjae’s face.
“Hey, your whole face is hot.”
“Uh….”
“Your eyes are really unfocused too. Your neck is also fucking hot.”
“Ugh….”
“Hey, this won’t do. Let’s go to the hospital.”
“…Ah… never mind… taxi, money….”
Since he had asked to be woken up when going out, he had thought he was just very sleepy. It wasn’t simply because of sleep, but because he was unbearably sick and had decided to endure it to the very end. In the end, he couldn’t endure it. Taein stared at Gu Wanjae who was taking money out of his pocket even while sick. Gu Wanjae soon held out a 50,000 won bill to Taein. The hand holding it out was also trembling.
“What money? We can just take the bus. Let’s go to the hospital. After going to the hospital.”
“I said never mind, you fucking bastard.”
A guy whose pronunciation wasn’t even clear because he was sick sure could spit out such words well. Taein only blinked at the emotion-filled “I said never mind, you fucking bastard.” It wasn’t just the words, his expression had also become fierce. For some unknown reason, it seemed his pride was hurt.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
