For a moment, his eyes darkened with an unreadable depth as he stared at the dominoes. Then, he met my gaze and spoke in a suddenly low voice.
“You’re good at dominoes.”
“I played a lot when I was little.”
“With who?”
“……”
Who had I played with? I remembered playing dominoes often as a child, but I couldn’t recall exactly who it was with. I tilted my head, lost in thought.
After a brief hesitation, I nudged the last block with a tap.
It fell with a crisp clatter, forming a perfect star shape.
“I was too young to remember.”
“Is that so?”
Sunbae Hae-joon seemed to study my dominoes before turning back to his laptop.
“Can you make other shapes?”
“A rose, maybe……”
“That must be hard. Try it.”
“Sunbae, do you like this kind of thing?”
“……Yeah.”
There was a short pause, but he ended our conversation and flipped through the design files on his screen. I started arranging the dominoes into a rose shape.
A rose needed red and green blocks. It didn’t require many pieces, and it was simple to make. I used the red blocks for the petals and the green ones for the leaves and stem, then gave it a gentle push.
A small rose bloomed vividly.
Sunbae listened to the sound of the dominoes falling neatly and finally closed his laptop. He stood up and said to me,
“Can you teach me how to make the rose?”
“Of course. Are you done with your assignment?”
“I think today’s enough.”
We pushed our unfinished assignment aside and focused on the dominoes. Sunbae Hae-joon seemed genuinely interested.
I could only make a rose, a star, a heart, and a blue house with a single window, but Sunbae, who loved learning new things, watched me intently and followed along. He especially wanted to perfect the rose and the house.
I helped him. After several attempts, he carefully mimicked my movements and finally succeeded in making a beautiful rose bloom.
He wasn’t naturally dexterous—it took him over an hour to make a single rose, his thumb-sized dominoes toppling again and again.
It was already past 11 PM.
The owner of the study café came in to announce closing time.
Sunbae Hae-joon had been in a good mood ever since he successfully made the rose.
“Next time, I’ll try making the house.”
“Go ahead.”
Since the assignment was his responsibility anyway, there was no reason for me to stop our impromptu domino lesson.
Sunbae packed his laptop, took out his phone, and placed it on top of his bag. After checking the time on his watch, he said to me, slightly excited,
“I’ll just run to the bathroom before we leave.”
“Okay.”
As soon as Sunbae left the room, I picked up his bag. Since the café was closing, I planned to wait for him in the lobby with his things.
I grabbed his phone from the bag and headed to the lobby.
I glanced at the owner, who was settling accounts, and sat down on a chair in the lobby. I lifted the phone in my hand, examining the model. I knew I shouldn’t, but curiosity got the better of me—it was the latest model.
I pressed the center button to turn on the screen and idly browsed the home screen. It wasn’t locked.
Come to think of it, I still didn’t have Sunbae’s number.
I thought about saving my number in his phone while I had the chance.
I lifted the phone and frowned.
On the black screen, my number was displayed, and below it, the name Baek Siwoo was clearly written.
Had I ever exchanged numbers with Sunbae?
I racked my brain.
……No matter how hard I thought, I had never given him my number.
I stared at my number on the screen for a moment. It wasn’t even a premium number, so why did it bother me? It was just a number, after all. But the unease lingered.
I called my phone from his.
I saved his number in my phone.
After finishing, I put his phone down just as Sunbae came out of the bathroom.
He approached me in the lobby, took his bag and phone, and we exchanged brief goodbyes before leaving the café.
Sunbae headed toward the subway station, and I walked toward my place. We parted ways after a while.
As I watched Sunbae’s retreating figure, I turned and walked toward my place, still feeling uneasy. On the way, I played the latest music on my phone’s music player. The unpleasant unease faded as I listened to the trending songs. I even danced a little to the music as I passed through the empty alley.
By the time I reached my place, it was almost midnight. I coiled my earphones and put them in my pocket, then bounded up the stairs of my one-room villa two at a time. That’s when I ran into a man coming down with a box.
The man was carrying a stack of recycling boxes and didn’t see me, and I, busy coiling my earphones and taking the stairs two at a time, didn’t see him either.
My nose collided with the box he was holding.
“Ah!”
The man dropped the box with a thud, and the cardboard boxes tumbled down the stairs.
I stopped and bowed my head deeply in apology.
“I’m sorry.”
I hurried down the stairs and picked up the scattered boxes. When I looked up, I recognized the man.
He looked familiar…… His name was Lee Heon, wasn’t it?
I wondered why he was here.
Recycling boxes, the same villa.
There were only five floors in this building.
The fifth floor had three rooms, one of which was mine.
The door across from mine, which I had never seen open before, was now ajar. Light and the sound of a TV spilled out. I stared blankly at the man again. Only then did I notice his displeased expression.
I hesitated for a moment.
What a coincidence.
I awkwardly greeted him.
“Hello……”
“……”
“We’ve met before. Haha.”
“……Hello.”
“Um, the boxes. Should I, uh, carry them to the recycling area for you?”
“It’s fine.”
“There’s a lot. Oh, I live in 501. Do you live in 503? I’ve lived here for a year and never seen you before. I thought I’d have seen you at least once…… Ha…… Ha……”
His expression turned even colder. I didn’t know what I’d said wrong, but it was clear I’d said something he didn’t like. He was probably a freshman, so around twenty. How was he planning to get through college with such poor social skills? Then again, I wasn’t his direct sunbae, so maybe he didn’t need to be friendly.
I gave an awkward smile and picked up a box, heading down first.
Reluctantly, I heard him follow. Lee Heon was clearly uncomfortable around me. Of course, he wouldn’t want to get close to some unknown underclassman who was his lover’s…… whatever.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
