“…Kim Kang-woo went to Australia for a language study program.”
Kyung-wook let out a short scoff and muttered the sentence quietly, as if carving it into his mind.
The college entrance exam was only about three weeks away. At such a crucial time, suddenly going abroad for a language program? Unless someone was aiming to enter a foreign university, leaving Korea now—of all times—made absolutely no sense.
To any normal person, it was an extremely bizarre course of action. Not a single person believed the homeroom teacher’s words at face value like an idiot.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, a language study program?”
“Seriously. Of all times, going for language training now? Does that even make sense? The CSAT is right around the corner.”
The classroom gradually grew noisy. Every student was whispering about Kim Kang-woo.
No one had been more obsessed with the CSAT than Kim Kang-woo. Even during mock exams he treated them as seriously as the real thing, studying with relentless intensity. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t question such a sudden change of heart.
At the same time, suspicions poured out. Was it really true that Kim Kang-woo had gone to Australia for language study? Maybe there was some other reason he had stopped coming to school. They busied themselves throwing around speculation among themselves.
Various guesses spilled from multiple mouths, and eventually even the absurd rumor that he might be terminally ill began to circulate.
“But didn’t Baek Kyung-wook know? They were glued together every day.”
And finally, their attention landed on Kyung-wook.
“Hey, what if Kim Kang-woo ran away to avoid Baek Kyung-wook?”
“No way.”
“Even if that were true, if he was going to run, he should’ve done it earlier. Graduation’s just around the corner—after enduring it all this time, it’d be such a waste…”
Their whispering voices tickled his ears.
Glances—sideways, sneaking.
Kyung-wook was well aware of the furtive looks being thrown at him. His insides boiled. Heat rose from the pit of his stomach and surged up to his throat in an instant.
Bang!
Kyung-wook’s hand slammed down harshly on the desk without warning. Startled, wide eyes shot toward him all at once.
He didn’t stop there. Irritably, he shot up from his seat. The desks and chairs scraped loudly as they shifted, and the students flinched their shoulders as if they’d been caught doing something wrong.
Ignoring every gaze fixed on him, he strode across the room with long steps and flung the back door open.
“Hey, Kyung-wook! Where are you going?!”
Someone shouted urgently from behind him, but Kyung-wook didn’t turn around. As the bell rang out, he walked briskly down the chilly hallway.
What the hell did you do this time, Kim Kang-woo?
Crunch.
His jaw tightened, teeth grinding together.
***
He flung the window wide open.
Just a few days ago, the wind had blown so fiercely it felt as though autumn had already given way to winter. But today the weather was pleasant again. The mild temperature, along with a deep blue sky completely free of fine dust, greeted Kang-woo.
With one hand resting on the window frame, he stared up at the sky for quite a while before turning around. The quiet scenery of the living room and the gently drifting breeze made his mind feel even more at ease.
After leisurely enjoying the charming autumn scenery a little longer, he returned to the living room and finished folding the dried laundry. Looking at the fluffy clothes stacked neatly one atop another somehow made his mood feel warm as well.
It had already been about a week since Kang-woo started staying at the man’s house.
At first he hadn’t intended to stay long, but as the days passed aimlessly one after another, this much time had slipped by.
From the perspective of a runaway teenager, Kang-woo didn’t have many options available to him in the first place. Even if he left the house right now, there wasn’t anywhere he could realistically go. Nor was he in a position to find a job somewhere and start working.
Therefore, the best thing Kang-woo could do was help with the housework and behave carefully so as not to irritate the homeowner.
Fortunately, the man had an easygoing personality. He didn’t drop hints about when Kang-woo planned to leave or pressure him about it. In fact, he didn’t seem to care much about the mere presence of a housemate.
Thanks to that, for someone who had run away from home with no plan whatsoever, Kang-woo was living rather comfortably day by day.
During his time here, Kang-woo had learned a few things about the quiet man.
First, the man’s name was Kwon Seok-ho.
Finding out his name hadn’t been difficult. All he had to do was check the recipient name on the delivery boxes. Or look at the addressee on the mail.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t figured out his age. There simply hadn’t been an opportunity to ask directly, and Seok-ho wasn’t easy to guess either. Judging by his appearance, he looked to be in his mid-twenties, but judging by the way he behaved, he sometimes seemed more like someone in his mid-thirties.
However, there was one thing Kang-woo could say with certainty: Seok-ho was older than him.
Second, the man was extremely quiet and spoke very little.
Compared to most people, Kang-woo himself wasn’t particularly sociable and tended to be quiet as well, but even so he was still better than the man. Even though a whole week had already passed, the distance between them hadn’t narrowed at all.
In truth, Kang-woo had tried several times in his own way to become closer with Seok-ho, the homeowner. But every attempt had ended in failure.
The miserable result was proven clearly enough by the simple fact that he could count on one hand the number of times he’d had a personal conversation with Seok-ho.
And lastly, the man’s daily routine was as follows:
He woke up late at around 11 a.m., exercised for about an hour, then had lunch and prepared for work. He opened his shop at 2 p.m. and closed at 11 p.m. After returning home, he ate dinner, worked on commissioned design projects on his tablet, and went to sleep at 3 a.m.
Seok-ho followed this hamster-wheel routine every single day without exception.
Thinking about it now, when Kang-woo had gone to his shop a week ago, the fact that Seok-ho hadn’t finished work yet was incredibly lucky. For someone who kept his schedule with such precision, it was unusual that he had stayed at the shop so late that day.
In any case, Kang-woo naturally adjusted his own schedule to match Seok-ho’s.
He woke up at 9 a.m., ate a simple breakfast of cereal or bread, and then prepared lunch to eat together with him.
After Seok-ho left for work, Kang-woo stayed home alone and did the housework.
Laundry and cleaning took at most two hours, so with the remaining time he watched TV or read books he had brought from home.
Then around 6 p.m. he ate dinner by himself, greeted Seok-ho when he returned home around 11:30, prepared dinner for him, and went to sleep.
In truth, it was a schedule where he spent far more time doing nothing than actually doing something.
In the nineteen years of his life—short in one sense, long in another—Kang-woo had never once allowed himself to be lazy.
He had always done his best at studying, which was the duty of a student. He woke up early in the morning to go to school and study, and late into the night he fought off sleep while watching online lectures.
He even carried problem books with him during breaks, so people around him often cursed him as “a crazy bastard.”
That had been him.
But people say humans are creatures of habit. The fiercely driven days he once lived now felt distant.
These days, Kang-woo hadn’t even opened a textbook once, let alone a problem book. Instead of studying, he spent his days doing housework, spacing out, and generally living a very lazy life.
There are people who say that after living a busy life, doing nothing actually makes them uncomfortable.
Until now, Kang-woo had believed he was that kind of person as well. But it had all been a misunderstanding.
Back then, he had simply needed to focus desperately on something else. To escape the suffocating reality around him, studying had been the only thing someone his age could throw himself into.
But now, there was no need for that. He could spend time completely alone, without any outside stimulation.
Life here was the complete opposite of life at his family home. Aside from having to read the room a little, no one interfered with Kang-woo. In truth, even that was something Kang-woo imposed on himself.
In conclusion, Kang-woo had never lived a life this peaceful before.
Strangely enough, he felt a sense of stability. He liked this current peace—this leisure—so much. As if he had always lived this way, he sank deeply into it. While he was lost in thought, he thought he faintly heard the sound of the front door opening.
Glancing at the electronic clock on the wall, it was already 11:15 p.m.
As the sound of someone entering became clearer, Kang-woo peeked his head out into the hallway.
He saw the homeowner, Seok-ho, opening the inner door and stepping inside.
“You’re back.”
When he greeted him warmly, Seok-ho glanced briefly at Kang-woo.
Whenever their eyes met—those sharp eyes—it gave Kang-woo the eerie feeling of facing a wild beast. Even though it had already been nearly a week since they started living together, he still couldn’t relax around him.
“Yeah.”
Answering curtly, Seok-ho went straight into his room.
In the meantime, Kang-woo naturally took the side dishes he had prepared earlier out of the refrigerator.
Soon, a meal was set on the table for Seok-ho.
After changing his clothes and washing his hands, Seok-ho took a seat at the dining table.
Despite Kang-woo’s gaze fixed on him, the man quietly continued eating. His movements were always silent. Without any unnecessary gestures, he simply did what he needed to do.
“Is the bean sprout salad seasoned okay?”
“It’s fine.”
“I purposely kept the seasoning light so it’d go well with the other dishes.”
Short bits of conversation passed across the dining table. Most of it consisted of Kang-woo asking questions and Seok-ho answering.
“Was work busy today?”
“It was alright.”
But since Seok-ho spoke so little, even that didn’t last long.
Soon the conversation died out, and only the occasional clink of utensils broke the silence. Most of the time, quiet filled the space between them.
“Um…”
Kang-woo hesitated before opening his mouth.
Immediately, Seok-ho’s quiet gaze landed on him.
Those pitch-black eyes had a way of making people tense. The pressure contained within them naturally made Kang-woo shrink back.
When he hesitated without speaking, Seok-ho’s thick eyebrows curved slightly.
“What is it?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Seok-ho prompted him. Only then did Kang-woo quickly state his business.
“I need to cook, but we’ve run out of ingredients in the fridge…”
His voice trailed off.
He had asked Seok-ho for the same favor once before. At the time, he hadn’t realized that groceries ran out this quickly, so he had only asked for the bare necessities.
It had been a misjudgment.
Only a few days later, he was asking Seok-ho to go grocery shopping again.
Of course, someone might ask why Kang-woo—who had plenty of time and nothing to do—didn’t just go out and buy them himself.
But he still didn’t have the courage to leave the house.
To be honest, he was anxious. He feared that if he stepped outside even once, he might never be able to set foot in this house again.
He didn’t know the passcode to Seok-ho’s door lock. And since he was only staying here thanks to Seok-ho’s goodwill, he couldn’t shamelessly ask for the passcode either.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t thought of other options.
He had tried using the most practical solution in the modern age—ordering groceries online. He borrowed Seok-ho’s laptop and attempted to pay using the card that had already been registered under his name.
But the payment failed. Every single card had been blocked. It was probably his father’s way of sending a warning: stop doing pointless things and come back home.
Kang-woo glanced nervously at Seok-ho.
He had hesitated so long just to say that?
In contrast to his own nervousness, Seok-ho’s gaze seemed faintly dumbfounded, as if it clearly revealed what he was thinking.
Just as Kang-woo was beginning to feel awkward, Seok-ho replied in a calm tone.
“Write down what you need on a piece of paper.”
“Yes!”
Kang-woo started to stand up in delight, but then slowly sat back down again.
“Um, hyung…”
What is it this time?
Seok-ho’s gaze carried a hint of annoyance. Kang-woo seized the opportunity and hurriedly continued speaking.
