#015
“Why are you being like this all of a sudden?”
“I just feel weird when I curse at hyung.”
“What feels weird?”
“I don’t know. Anyway, should we not curse?”
“Yechan. Are you going to keep bothering me? Aren’t you going to study?”
“Hyung said you weren’t going to. I won’t either.”
“You’re stubborn. Did you memorize all the English vocabulary?”
“I memorized it on the bus earlier. Oh, want to see the school trip photos?”
Yechan opened his phone’s photo album and showed it to Jiwoon. The two leaned against the sofa and looked at photos for a while.
Send me this one. Isn’t this one not that great? That’s why I’m asking for it. Yechan, who had been laughing along with the chuckling Jiwoon, sent the photo. Photos lined up in the messenger.
Jiwoon pressed the save button to store the photos. After fooling around like that for a while, the two opened their books at Jiwoon’s threat and quietly finished studying before parting ways.
* * *
Entering May, the weather suddenly became much hotter. Naturally, the number of students wearing summer uniforms increased dramatically.
Yechan wore a white t-shirt underneath and put on his summer uniform shirt. With only the top two buttons undone and the shirt hem tucked into his pants, his look was neat.
During morning assembly, the midterm exam rankings came out. 1st place in school rank. Yechan neatly folded the ranking slip and put it in his pants pocket.
“Hey! Do you know who got 2nd place in the whole school?”
Taehyun, who had come back from the bathroom after 1st period, asked with a fuss.
“No idea.”
“It’s Choi Yeon. So creepy. That bastard had good reason to hate you. If you weren’t there, he would’ve been 1st place.”
“Don’t talk about him. I don’t even want to think about it.”
Yechan made a serious face, recalling Choi Yeon who had screamed at him and cried.
Even so, Yechan recalled what Jiwoon had said. So that’s why hyung said that back then. That the 2nd place student in our grade was the younger brother of someone he knew. That realization was a bonus.
“Anyway, with the current grades and the Choi Yeon incident, the school is buzzing.”
It really was. The rumor that started during breakfast time on the day they returned from the school trip and spread on the bus had been circulated several times in messengers over the weekend.
So from Monday, no one except Han Seungwoo looked after Choi Yeon. After a few days passed, there were even kids saying Han Seungwoo might be gay too.
“Victim Seo Yechan-ssi, how do you feel?”
Minho asked. In the rumors, Yechan and Jiwoon were summarized as a model student and a delinquent senior who was good at fighting, both victims of Choi Yeon’s sinister mental illness.
However, unlike with Choi Yeon, everyone hushed up and avoided imagination and mention about the two. Of course, Jiwoon’s influence was significant in this. No one wanted to be marked by that ‘Lee Jiwoon.’
“Refreshing.”
Yechan smiled brightly. His cool lips curved smoothly. Seeing such Yechan, Taehyun and Minho shook their heads as if disgusted.
Yechan picked up his phone and sent a message.
Me: Hyung, did your rankings come out?
Lee Jiwoon: 12
Me: ? Isn’t that wrong? I think there should be a smaller number
Lee Jiwoon: I’m going all-in on the regular admission exam
Me: Still though
“Tomorrow is Children’s Day, what should we do?”
Minho asked Taehyun next to Yechan, who was looking at his phone.
“PC room?”
“Why do you always want to go to PC rooms? How about Everland?”
“Wow, Everland on Children’s Day, you want to get crushed by people?”
Yechan chuckled at their somewhat silly conversation. A reply also came from Jiwoon.
Lee Jiwoon: So you got
Lee Jiwoon: 1st?
Me: ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ Yes
Lee Jiwoon: Wow
Lee Jiwoon: What are you doing on Children’s Day? Since you did well on the exam, should I buy you a meal?
Me: Lee Jiwoon child
Me: I’ll buy the meal
Lee Jiwoon: ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹
Me: Lee Jiwoon child
Me: Want to go to an aquarium?
Lee Jiwoon: ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹
Lee Jiwoon: 99 Building?
Me: Yes
Lee Jiwoon: The Chinese restaurant there has delicious sweet and sour pork
Me: Then let’s eat that for our meal
Meanwhile, Jiwoon, who was reading the messages, bit his lips and covered his eyes with his hand. He couldn’t control the corners of his mouth that kept curving up on their own.
* * *
On May 5th, Children’s Day, the two who met in front of Yechan’s house took a taxi and moved to the Han River area. Inside the golden glittering building was an aquarium run by a famous company.
“There are really a lot of kids.”
As befitting the day, there were indeed many children. Yechan, watching kids running around here and there, put his arm around Jiwoon’s shoulder.
Yechan’s bare skin under his white lettered short-sleeved t-shirt touched the back of Jiwoon’s neck. Jiwoon crunched his candy.
The two, who entered the aquarium after waiting in line, frantically explored the blue world. In large tanks under dim lighting lived various marine creatures.
“They look strange but aren’t they really cute? They’re my type.”
“Yeah, they’re cute.”
You are. Jiwoon waited for a long time behind Yechan, who was seriously watching the seahorses.
“Wow, hyung! It’s a whale shark.”
“Yes. It’s a whale shark. Seo Yechan child.”
The main exhibition hall had one entire wall made up of a large tank. It was full of all kinds of fish, from large and small fish to rays and whale sharks.
Yechan said he would take a photo and positioned Jiwoon in front of the tank. Jiwoon, wearing a black t-shirt and beige shorts, put both hands in his pockets and grinned.
“Did I take it well?”
“Yeah.”
It was taken with a whale shark passing behind Jiwoon. Looking at the photo and grinning, Jiwoon also took a photo of Yechan with the whale shark.
The two watched a performance by actors dressed as mermaids. A mermaid actor who was swimming while submerged in the aquarium blew hearts and kisses toward Jiwoon and Yechan.
Seeing this, Jiwoon took one hand out of his pocket and waved it gently, then showed the actor a finger heart. Yechan looked at Jiwoon with interest at his light, fluttering actions.
“You like that person.”
The mermaid blew another heart to Jiwoon. Jiwoon, who had been laughing softly, turned his body toward Yechan and drew a long heart with both fingertips. Yechan chuckled at the action that seemed to imitate the mermaid.
They had fun exploring the aquarium for a while and were about to leave when suddenly college students and children rushed toward the exit. Seeing the group t-shirts with volunteer organization names written on them, Jiwoon asked Yechan.
“Have you done volunteer work?”
“I went often. To mother’s hospital. What about you, hyung?”
“I haven’t tried it. How is volunteering?”
“Honestly, it’s not fulfilling. If I had to say, it feels like being fake and getting praised?”
“Then why do you do such things?”
“Um… first, I go to write one more line in my student record. Plus change of scenery? Sometimes it’s worth going.”
“What about when sponsorship broadcasts come on TV and stuff like that?”
“I should do sponsorship when I start economic activities.”
“That’s it? Nothing like feeling sorry or heartache?”
“I don’t really understand such things.”
“Yechan’s tears have dried up. So dry.”
“Haha, I think I am like that.”
For Yechan, volunteering was just a means to satisfy his need for praise and recognition when necessary. Of course, his feelings about studying and grades, which were also connected to his future life, were similarly the same.
Activities that let me know I’m a person who has utility to someone. From the beginning, Yechan had never felt emotions like compassion and sympathy for others.
And listening to such words from Yechan, Jiwoon once again confirmed Yechan’s boundaries.
That day, Yechan and Jiwoon had a meal at a Chinese restaurant in the same building and parted ways. After Yechan left saying he had an appointment with his mother, Jiwoon went home while looking at his phone’s photo album.
Yechan in the blue background was smiling refreshingly.
* * *
On Saturday, Yechan studied at Jiwoon’s house. The air conditioner in Jiwoon’s room ran for a long time due to the weather that had become hot.
And on Monday when they returned, Taehyun, who spotted Yechan coming to school, kicked his chair. Taehyun with a flushed face rushed over to Yechan.
“Hey, they say Choi Yeon dropped out!”
After morning assembly ended, kids who had been in the same room during the school trip came and threw words of “good for you” at Yechan like congratulations before passing by. Yechan roughly nodded to them.
The news that Choi Yeon had dropped out spread instantly. Although no kids openly talked loudly about it, they would whisper whenever they saw Yechan.
Of course, for Yechan, it was something not worth paying attention to. He was used to it too.
Yechan, who nonchalantly ignored his surroundings, replied “okay” to Jiwoon’s message saying to meet at the school store during lunch time.
“Buy me candy.”
Jiwoon, standing in front of the school store, said. Choi Min was with him.
“Anything else you want to eat?”
“No.”
Yechan pretended not to see Choi Min and familiarly picked up several candies and chocolate milk to pay. When he stuck a straw into the milk carton and held it out, Jiwoon sucked on the straw.
At that moment, Choi Min, who had been standing quietly behind them, stepped forward. Then he suddenly held out a bag to Yechan.
“This is for the clothes. It was expensive, right? I’m sorry. It’s a bit awkward to say it’s on behalf of my younger brother… but he was definitely in the wrong. I hope you’ll let it go.”
Jiwoon gestured with his eyes as if telling him to accept it. Yechan thought for a moment and then took the bag.
The kids’ gazes focused on them, but the three didn’t care.
“Yes. I’ll accept the apology. Sunbae.”
“Alright.”
“What is Choi Yeon doing?”
“He’s busy preparing to study abroad.”
Yechan nodded. On the way back to the classroom, Yechan once again encountered several people whispering about him.
Yechan, who glanced at them, walked with his back straight. Since the person involved had disappeared, the noise would die down in a few days anyway as if nothing had happened.
Things flowed as Yechan expected after that day. The rumors quickly passed, and Yechan’s daily life continued as always.
Yechan always walked home with Jiwoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The walk home sharing one or two days’ worth of daily life was fun and comfortable.
And what he learned from going around like that was that Jiwoon never brought an umbrella. Thanks to this, Yechan always started carrying a folding umbrella.
When they walked home together on rainy days, one of Yechan’s shoulders would always get wet.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
