Chapter 55
“When I was young… I spent a summer vacation in this area.”
“Really? With your family?”
He also slowly nodded while reaching for his wine glass.
Could he have stayed at ‘Mio Palazzo’ back then? So yesterday, had he returned to a place of memories with his family? Such thoughts occurred to me, but there wasn’t really a need to confirm it.
“If you came back alone, the memories from that time must have been really good.”
To put down his glass, Jiin briefly looked down at the table. He could feel his gaze, which had been subtly avoiding his face and looking somewhere behind the back seats, finally reaching his face.
When he leaned closer, he would pull back. When being looked at, he couldn’t make eye contact, but when looking elsewhere, he would finally look this way. Jiin didn’t move while keeping his head down, feeling like laughter might spill out.
He could feel the gaze looking down at Jiin’s face from an angle. He spoke in a voice so small it was barely audible.
“Yes. It was very… impressive and really good.”
Jiin, who had been resting his arm on the table, lifted his head to hear better, and he, pretending not to have been looking, hurriedly averted his eyes as always. Now it was becoming a bit disappointing beyond just being cute.
“You should have come during peak season instead. Then the beach clubs would be open too, and there would have been many women around your age.”
“No, I… that kind of thing… not really…”
He trailed off while biting his lower lip, then reached for wine again as if his throat was parched. As if the pale green alcohol was some kind of refuge.
Was that too mischievous a question?
Jiin found this playful or lightly spiteful side of himself somewhat unexpected. It was something he’d said on purpose, guessing that his interest wasn’t in the opposite sex.
His feelings, which had been unclear at the hotel the previous day, were becoming more than 90% certain at this table for two.
“Still, it’s more fun to make friends your age and create new memories. I’m twenty-four in Korean age, how old are you? Oh? Come to think of it, we haven’t even told each other our names.”
To realize they hadn’t exchanged names only after talking this much. Jiin burst into audible laughter, but he just smiled slightly while looking across at Jiin laughing.
“I’m twenty now and…”
Just as he was about to introduce himself, someone outside the fence separating the outdoor seating from the street suddenly grabbed Jiin’s shoulders from behind.
“Oppa!”
The girl with chocolate brown eyes and lush brown curly hair that Jiin called chocolate pudding was Yui, Jiin’s younger sister. Without showing much surprise, Jiin gave a light greeting kiss on the cheek of her who was almost hanging on his neck.
“What brings our oppa out for once?”
“I go out sometimes.”
“My friends say oppa is like ‘Mio Palazzo’s Rapunzel.’ They ask if you’re locked up and can’t come out.”
Her friends were waving from about five or six steps away. They were faces Jiin had known since childhood and knew well. Jiin briefly raised his hand to return the greeting.
Meanwhile, Yui’s curious eyes turned toward the stranger across from them. She whispered in Jiin’s ear.
“Who is he?”
“Uh… let me introduce you. He’s someone traveling. This is my younger sister. Yui, this is… well…”
“Hello. I’m Lee Han.”
He stretched out his arm from his seat to offer a handshake to Yui.
“Wow, you’re Korean. Hello. I’m Jung Yui. Your name is similar to my twin’s.”
Now that Yui mentioned it, it was true. Lee Han, Lee Ian. The sounds were certainly similar.
“Though you’re much more handsome than Jung Ian, of course.”
Adding that, Yui looked around as if worried about where Ian might be listening, enjoying herself.
“But why haven’t you eaten anything? Can I have a slice? Is that okay?”
Looking back and forth between Jiin and him for permission, Yui tore off a slice of pizza and took a big bite. Jiin tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Isn’t it too late to be outside?”
“I’ll be home before 11… the kids will walk me to the front door later. Don’t worry.”
Answering half-heartedly while chewing food, Yui kissed Jiin’s cheek and returned to her friends.
Jiin watched her retreating figure and waved to her group heading down toward the beach.
“Sorry. Was that noisy?”
“Not at all. Don’t worry about it.”
The person introduced as his sister had distinctly mixed-race features unlike Jiin, but he didn’t seem to have crude curiosity about it. Though probably intuiting it would be an uncomfortable topic, he didn’t bring up the sister’s appearance as a subject.
Jiin knew from experience that there were plenty of people who would bluntly throw out sensitive questions without thinking. He was at least not that type of person.
“Your name must be a single character. I’m Jung Jiin. It’s really awkward to be talking about names only now.”
Jiin continued with a smile.
“The siblings are fraternal twins. Like Yui just now, and Ian who’s her twin… around the start of summer they get excited and wander around like that. Well, they’re all grown up now and as long as they follow curfew, there’s nothing I can say.”
“You seem to get along well with your siblings.”
“Since there’s quite an age gap… I guess they still seem cute to me.”
There was a seven-year age difference between Jiin and the twins. He had watched the entire process of the two growing in their mother’s womb.
He felt belatedly embarrassed about showing affection for his nearly adult siblings. This time Jiin glanced away and reached for his wine glass.
“You resemble your sister.”
Jiin put down the glass he was about to bring to his lips and looked at him.
“……We do?”
He who hadn’t been able to make eye contact for more than 3 seconds since sitting here was this time looking this way with a calm gaze.
Though he’d heard countless times that the siblings got along really well, this was the first time someone said he resembled his sister.
A mixed-race child and a non-mixed-race child.
To say they resembled each other despite that obvious difference would rather be deception. People probably thought that way. Jiin had accepted it as their way of being considerate not to touch his wounds.
But it was also something he’d wanted to hear at least once.
“I can’t explain it well, but the atmosphere or image? Something like that is similar. I can tell you’re siblings… I also have an older sister and brother but we’re all completely different, so I’m a bit… envious of that.”
He was carefully choosing his expressions. It didn’t seem like he was teasing. He was just honestly saying what he felt.
Jiin leaned his arm on the table and covered his lower face with one hand while resting his chin. Ah… what’s with this guy.
He’d been carelessly exposing himself thinking he was dealing with a naive younger guy who couldn’t lay a hand on him even if he walked around naked, but that very naive younger guy had quietly approached and wrapped him in a warm blanket.
“Can I call you hyung?”
At the careful voice, Jiin nodded while releasing the arm that had been supporting his chin. He felt like his emotional agitation would be discovered if he made eye contact. He cleared his throat that wasn’t even hoarse while pouring new wine into a glass that still had a third left.
“Sure. I am actually a hyung.”
“Tomorrow’s Friday… hyung, what do you do after work?”
He picked up the Paeli guidebook that had been placed at the edge of the table. Then he pushed a page with a folded corner toward this side.
“The night view from this bar is supposed to be pretty… if hyung is okay with it… I really want to treat you tomorrow.”
The page he looked down at introduced a bar located on a hilltop about 15 minutes by car from the center of town. It was a place converted from a villa that had once been some nobleman’s vacation home, and while not sophisticated, it boasted a romantic and classic atmosphere. As such bars typically were, it was mainly a place couples visited for dates.
Jiin put down the wine bottle on the table and rubbed the back of his neck while still gripping the bottle’s neck.
“Ah… what should I do? I’d like to do that too… but tomorrow doesn’t seem possible. Every Friday I have business in Naples.”
As much as he had openly shown his shyness with his reddening face, he couldn’t hide his disappointed expression either. It was the kind of disappointed look like someone who’d been rejected after proposing with months of preparation to a long-term partner.
“It’s unfortunate… but if you have plans, it can’t be helped.”
Trying somehow to hide his disappointed expression by rubbing his eyebrows with his hand, he asked for understanding saying he’d go to the bathroom and briefly left his seat.
Jiin didn’t feel good. He hung his head and massaged the back of his neck more, then casually looked down at the booklet on the table. Several pages were folded, and there were sparse underlines on the open page.
Had he been scouting places to take me…
Jiin had realized his sexual identity around fourteen or fifteen. But he had no experience with real romance. Though he’d awakened to the instinct of seeking men as objects of love and sexuality, specific targets he wanted to realize that with rarely appeared.
But he knew his general preferences. All the people who caught his eye until then had similar age, height, and build to himself. Even personality.
He preferred comfort over excitement. Since he didn’t have confidence to endure intense emotional consumption, he preferred older or same-age partners over younger ones, especially favoring same-age most.
He was certainly a handsome man, and had a physique good enough not to be intimidated even among young Italian men who worked hard on their bodies. But he was clearly far from his own preferences.
Yet he felt uncomfortable disappointing someone who wanted to spend time with him. Someone who couldn’t be a boyfriend or even a boyfriend candidate, someone who would leave soon.
“……”
Jiin looked down at the booklet once more while resting his chin. One sentence among several underlines particularly caught his eye.
【We especially recommend the corner seat at the end of the terrace!】
Jiin continued reading the following sentence that wasn’t underlined.
【Do you have someone cold who’s making you anxious? Confess while looking down at Paeli’s night view like a fairy tale town. We guarantee 100% success rate.】
It was the kind of phrase that romantic Italian teenagers who were active in love and had romantic fantasies might write. 100% success rate. While chuckling at that phrase that was irresponsible yet pure, he returned.
As soon as he sat down, he picked up the wine bottle and poured all the remaining wine, about one glass worth, into Jiin’s glass.
While watching the long, solid arm pouring wine and lost in thought, Jiin only lifted his eyes to look at him while maintaining his chin-resting posture.
“By any chance, are you good at things like sawing, cutting with scissors, or painting?”
“……What?”
“If you’re okay with not just sightseeing, would you like to come to Naples with me tomorrow?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
