<11>
“But why does everyone look like that? Like they’ve seen someone they shouldn’t have.”
Moon Yeonu, who had given Han Jaekyung a mischievous smile, stretched his neck out long again and looked around with a sweeping gaze as he spoke. His displeasure seemed to show clearly in his eyebrow that was raised crookedly on one side. Though he was smiling for now, he was really ‘only’ smiling, so no one dared to smile back at him.
“Anyway, look at these bookworms being all uptight, tsk.”
Even if it weren’t for his completely out-of-place outfit – a loose trench coat and baggy tracksuit, bare feet shoved into flip-flops – among the crowd dressed in formal suits, Moon Yeonu would have stood out more than anyone else at this gathering with just his crude way of speaking and attitude alone. Like rough oil paint discordantly smeared into a hazy watercolor scene.
“……Wow. First Jaekyung and now you, Yeonu – today people are really surprising me in various ways. Did you two plan this together? This is the first time either of you has come to a class reunion since graduation, right?”
It was the class president again who tried to brighten the mood and change the atmosphere by speaking up cheerfully. Even he, who had been chatting easily enough with Han Jaekyung, seemed outmatched when dealing with this man who seemed no different from a wild horse. The class president subtly stepped aside, seating Moon Yeonu right next to Han Jaekyung while continuously sending S.O.S. signals with his eyes.
If that rescue signal had been pointing to someone other than Moon Yeonu, Han Jaekyung might have at least tried to pretend to lighten the mood somehow. But…
“……”
“……”
The person right in front of him now was definitely Moon Yeonu. The very same Moon Yeonu who had dated him for a whole year and then suddenly disappeared one day without a single word.
It wasn’t a matter of awkwardness or not. For Han Jaekyung, it was completely unclear what category he should classify Moon Yeonu as a person and how to respond to him. It might have been easier if they had been lovers who truly loved each other to death. Or if they had been distant acquaintances like the others, whose faces and names he could barely remember.
“Han Jaekyung. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Was Han Jaekyung the only one finding this difficult? Moon Yeonu, who had completely ignored the class president who had spoken to him and turned his body away, leaned his upper body toward Han Jaekyung as he spoke. The way he put a green olive in his mouth and chewed on it looked exactly the same as when he used to chew wake-up gum in the study hall during high school.
Right, it was just the same. His free-spirited behavior that made fun of others who followed rules, and his licentiousness of shaking people around however he pleased – everything.
Even if everyone at this gathering had been perpetrators against Moon Yeonu, Han Jaekyung alone could be called a victim, if anything. Even though he hadn’t loved him, they had still been lovers in name for a whole year. Since he had only dated Jang Yeonhu for barely a hundred days, Moon Yeonu still held the title of being the lover Han Jaekyung had dated for the longest time in his life.
After he disappeared without a word, Han Jaekyung had spent almost an entire season unable to come to his senses, frantically searching for Moon Yeonu like a madman. Since the guy had no family except for a grandmother who was starting to show signs of dementia, he worried that Moon Yeonu might have suffered some injustice somewhere, or that he might have been in an accident.
Moon Yeonu’s whereabouts were revealed the following semester. If the teaching assistant from Moon Yeonu’s department hadn’t come and told him the situation – saying that although he didn’t want to interfere in others’ affairs, he should let go of someone who had already left – Han Jaekyung might have continued searching for Moon Yeonu for at least another year or two.
According to what the teaching assistant said at the time, Moon Yeonu had been lucky enough to be selected as a scholarship recipient from some company’s scholarship foundation and had long since left to study abroad. Jang Yeonhu said he hadn’t known it was for that reason either, and stayed by Jaekyung’s side, comforting him in his disappointment that he should have looked into it more thoroughly from the beginning. And that was the last between Moon Yeonu and Han Jaekyung. Of course, it should have been the last.
“Class president, I’m going to go get some fresh air.”
“Huh? Oh, okay. Come back soon.”
Was the alcohol he had been sipping finally hitting him now? For a different reason than before, it felt like a fire was suddenly blazing up inside him, so Han Jaekyung abruptly stood up from his seat. Without even glancing at Moon Yeonu who was sitting right next to him.
“Han Jaekyung!”
As he quickly walked out of the banquet hall, Moon Yeonu shamelessly called his name and followed closely behind him.
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, and you won’t even show me your face?”
They had started dating during the summer vacation of their senior year in high school, and Moon Yeonu had vanished without a trace during the summer when they were twenty, so counting by years, it had been exactly eleven years.
News of Moon Yeonu’s successful progress had flown in through rumors from somewhere without Han Jaekyung having time to be curious about it. After receiving his PhD from Caltech, he was immediately scouted as a technical advisor for a global company, and there he showed brilliant results in a short time, earning tens of billions of won in patents alone. Because of this, classmates who used to be busy gossiping about how he pretended to have things when he had nothing during school days were now sending all kinds of love calls to catch the now-famous Dr. Moon.
“Wait, hey, Han Jaekyung!”
When Jaekyung showed no signs of stopping, Moon Yeonu, unable to overcome that temperament of his, quickly moved his legs to completely block his path. He was gripping Han Jaekyung’s shoulders tightly with both hands. Han Jaekyung felt his jaw naturally tense up. The two words “let go” were particularly menacing.
“Our Jaekyung is as pretty as ever, and his shitty personality is exactly the same too. How is it that you haven’t changed at all?”
Hearing that smooth voice made him newly realize that both he and Yeonu had aged. The Moon Yeonu that Han Jaekyung knew was a human specimen who didn’t match at all with the gentle sound of his round, stone-like name. What he said was usually either curses or shouting – one of the two. His blunt retorts were so affectionate that you had to feel grateful for them.
“Move. I have nothing to say to you.”
The stranger standing in front of him was no longer the Moon Yeonu of that time. The moment he realized this, Han Jaekyung’s voice took on a sharper edge. The expression of Moon Yeonu, who had been smiling playfully, also finally gained weight. When seriousness settled on his face that had been light like a frivolous dandy, surprisingly, the stranger before him instantly transformed into the Moon Yeonu that Han Jaekyung knew – the nineteen, twenty-year-old Moon Yeonu.
Not the young researcher who had achieved brilliant results, nor the famous doctor that everyone was eager to invite. Just the nineteen-year-old Moon Yeonu whose only possessions were empty pockets and venom.
Even though their relationship hadn’t started with love, the reason Han Jaekyung had been able to spend what could be considered a long time with Moon Yeonu was because of that venom of his.
Han Jaekyung and Moon Yeonu were the only two academic scholarship students in the entire school. When they first enrolled, Han Jaekyung was the only academic scholarship student, but after Moon Yeonu’s father, who had been running a fairly substantial IT company, disappeared after a business failure, Moon Yeonu suddenly found himself in the same situation as Han Jaekyung.
No, if you stripped away the facade, saying they were in the same situation was also inaccurate. At the very least, Han Jaekyung had the solid shield that was Jang Yeonhu.
The friends who had been close to him until then turned their backs on Moon Yeonu in an instant. At least thanks to his grades that had been in the top ranks from the beginning, he was able to receive a scholarship, or else normal school life would have been difficult.
Moon Yeonu’s downfall gave Han Jaekyung a chilling sense of vigilance. No matter how pretentious and high-nosed he acted, in the end… without Jang Yeonhu’s goodwill, Han Jaekyung would have belonged to an even lower class than Moon Yeonu.
No matter how smart they were, for teenage boys who hadn’t even left the school fence yet, that was quite a significant thesis.
Even though they had never had long conversations or been in the same class, Han Jaekyung was always aware of Moon Yeonu’s existence. It was some kind of secret sense of kinship that Jang Yeonhu could never understand, no matter what.
The catalyst for these two people to enter into a romantic relationship was more trivial than expected. Summer of their senior year. Chairman Jang began to seriously push forward with Jang Yeonhu’s engagement, and from time to time, as if testing the waters, he would call Han Jaekyung and ask who seemed like the best match for Yeonhu, and whether Jaekyung had a girlfriend, constantly probing. Han Jaekyung’s fragile nerves couldn’t handle it.
After spending almost a month unable to eat or sleep properly and only receiving stress, Han Jaekyung finally came to school even on weekends to avoid Chairman Jang and shut himself in the study hall, eventually fainting, and when he opened his eyes, he was already lying down using Moon Yeonu’s gym clothes as a pillow.
‘Hey. Han Jaekyung.’
That was the very first moment Moon Yeonu and Han Jaekyung exchanged words. They had never even introduced themselves, but seeing that he already knew his name, just as Han Jaekyung had been conscious of Moon Yeonu, Moon Yeonu must have been conscious of Han Jaekyung too.
‘You kept calling “Yeonu-ya, Yeonu-ya” while you were sleeping. Don’t tell me you like me?’
‘Are you fucking crazy… Like that would be your name.’
‘Never mind then.’
‘Yeah.’
‘……’
‘Thanks for the gym clothes. I’ll wash them and bring them back.’
‘Do whatever you want.’
The next day, Han Jaekyung returned the gym clothes to Moon Yeonu, nicely laundered and smelling of fabric softener, and from that very day, the two decided to enter into a romantic relationship for their mutual purposes. It was the day Jang Yeonhu’s first engagement was arranged. Moon Yeonu was the one who first suggested they date.
‘……Can you even see? Your eyes are really swollen.’
‘Don’t mind that and just take this.’
‘You like Jang Yeonhu.’
‘I said don’t mind it.’
‘Han Jaekyung.’
‘What.’
‘……Want to date me?’
‘Are you crazy?’
‘When you’re crying and calling that bastard’s name like yesterday, it wouldn’t be bad to have an excuse to cover it up.’
To Han Jaekyung, who had been biting his blanket and sobbing quietly in case any servants passing through the hallway might hear, Moon Yeonu’s proposal sounded quite sweet.
‘I’ll lend you my name, so in return, buy me dinner. I’ve used up all my welfare card.’
‘……Fine then.’
Though it was a relationship where no romanticism could be found at all, when he was with Moon Yeonu, his heart was somewhat at ease. Han Jaekyung had thought that someday, if he could let go of all his lingering feelings for Jang Yeonhu, or if he could miraculously be incorporated into Jang Yeonhu’s world… then he could really become good friends with Moon Yeonu. At least until Moon Yeonu arbitrarily disappeared.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
