5
The ajumma stopped her wooden ladle for a moment and stared intently at Gu Wanjae. Then she made a “tsk” sound and put the tteokbokki on a plate.
“Ajumma, cool your temper a bit. At this rate, you’ll lose all your customers.”
“What’s this green kid saying?”
“I’m worried about you, ajumma.”
“Hah.”
The ajumma just laughed once hollowly and went inside the snack shop. Gu Wanjae also quickly picked at his tteokbokki. When he pointed forward saying “Over there, we need to change the tables inside,” a sound of “Ah, won’t you be quiet?” flowed out from inside. Were they already acquainted? Given the ajumma’s personality, it seemed like she wouldn’t even speak to a guy like Gu Wanjae. Surprisingly, she didn’t show signs of being particularly angry.
“So. Is shibal the end?”
For something said to an ajumma, it sounded strangely familiar. Taein looked to the side.
“What?”
“You said shibal. Is that the end?”
He said this while picking up another piece of tteokbokki in the middle. Taein was holding fish cake in his hand like a helium balloon and looking at Gu Wanjae. Gu Wanjae’s expression didn’t change. From when he appeared until now, he had only maintained a strange expressionlessness. He did smile lightly from time to time, but that was all. The expression quickly disappeared from his face.
Was it April? When he first came to school, he was laughing like a crazy person.
Today, contrary to his confrontational words, he didn’t have much expression.
He was looking at him continuously with that face.
Taein had experienced this a lot. In middle school, the bully guys who casually spoke to him would interpret whatever he answered in a sarcastic way. If he ignored them, they’d raise hell saying he was ignoring them, and if he responded, they’d yell at him for responding. Later, he’d get dragged behind the gymnasium in a half-giving-up state, and there they’d hit or get hit. Of course, if he fought back, they’d gang up on him and he’d mostly just get beaten.
When he was attending school, it was routine so he didn’t think much of it, but it still wasn’t a pleasant memory.
Who would like getting beaten up? In high school, he had decided to just fight less. Being alone was actually good, but he didn’t want to get on Gu Wanjae’s bad side and get entangled with him and other bad guys. Although Gu Wanjae had given the bullies a hard time on that closing ceremony day, Gu Wanjae was still a thug and similar to a bully. Not because of the rumors that automatically entered his ears, but just from looking at him…
Taein made eye contact with Gu Wanjae while holding his fish cake.
“I didn’t curse.”
“No, you did. I heard you say shibal.”
“It wasn’t shibal, I said ‘shi.'”
“You only said ‘shi’? Not shibal?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, well.”
Gu Wanjae nodded his head. It was a reaction like ‘So it wasn’t shibal, I see.’ He didn’t add words, but his expression was like that. He nodded several times with his eyebrows twitching as if convinced.
“Anyway, it was fucking sharp. I thought you had feelings against me.”
“……”
“I was a bit rough with you before, wasn’t I?”
Gu Wanjae’s mouth corners could be seen rising nicely on both sides.
“You’re definitely someone I know, I saw you somewhere, but you didn’t acknowledge me.”
“……”
“This stands out a bit.”
At ‘this,’ he runs three fingers over his own face. Then he started eating tteokbokki, so Taein also turned his gaze away. It didn’t seem like he was seriously picking a fight. There was a brief argument, but even that had passed over blandly.
“But it was fucking funny.”
He said this while picking up a piece of tteokbokki. Taein stopped eating his fish cake and turned his head toward Gu Wanjae. They made brief eye contact once in a while. Next to him, Gu Wanjae only said what he wanted to say and ate tteokbokki or looked inside the snack shop. Whenever he occasionally turned his head this way, they would inevitably make eye contact.
After a few minutes passed like this, and when Taein had also finished one more fish cake, Gu Wanjae lightly nudged Taein with his arm.
“Are you done eating?”
“Yeah.”
“Then wait. Ajumma.”
Gu Wanjae took out a 10,000 won bill from his uniform pocket and held it out. Taein had never experienced someone else paying for him at a snack shop. He had bought and eaten alone or eaten together what the teacher brought from the facility, but. Taein was frozen with his hand in his pocket when Gu Wanjae said “Hey, let’s go” and properly turned around, and only then did he open his mouth.
“Wait. What I ate.”
He was only thinking about needing to pay. Fish cake was 600 won each. Three would be 1,800 won. He put his hand deep in his pocket to find coins but couldn’t grab any. If he had eaten five as originally planned, it would have come out to a clean 3,000 won. Gu Wanjae looked Taein up and down as he rummaged through his pockets and responded with a slightly annoyed face.
“What’s with all this fussing? Hey, don’t do that.”
Without giving him a chance to answer, Gu Wanjae lightly patted Taein’s shoulder.
“You can pay for the karaoke then.”
Gu Wanjae, who spoke lightly like spitting out gum, quickly turned his back. Between the school and the snack shop, there was a one-way street. It was a place where not many cars passed originally because the road wasn’t great. There was a downhill road on the side, and if you followed it down, you’d reach the main street. Gu Wanjae could be seen entering the downhill road with light but wide strides.
Pay for what at karaoke?
Taein, who remained alone looking at Gu Wanjae’s back, just stared blankly at him as he got further away.
Gu Wanjae walked for a while, then suddenly turned his head around the middle of the downhill.
“Aren’t you coming? You said you’d pay?”
“Pay for what?”
“Ah, never mind if you’re not coming.”
Gu Wanjae raised his left hand as if annoyed and turned back. If he walked just a little more, he wouldn’t be visible at all. Taein was still touching the bills in his pocket. Three fish cakes. 1,800 won. It was his first time being indebted to someone his age, so he didn’t know how much he should listen to him. Wasn’t he going to get ripped off for over 10,000 won after getting 1,800 won worth of food? Doesn’t karaoke usually cost more than 10,000 won? While he was thinking, Gu Wanjae had finished walking down the hill and was turning. For a moment, he made eye contact with Gu Wanjae who glanced back.
It was just a brief moment of eye contact. Gu Wanjae quickly disappeared.
Damn it, shibal.
Taein, who stepped forward in a truly ‘whatever, I don’t know’ fashion, walked down the hill almost running. He passed by a small convenience store and reached the street where Gu Wanjae had turned in one breath. When he turned his head, he could see one big guy walking leisurely on the sidewalk. His body was unusually large for a high schooler, so his actions of looking to the side or moving his arms looked particularly casual. From then on, Taein slowed his walking speed. He moved his steps at an appropriate pace from behind, as if following Gu Wanjae.
How long had they walked?
Gu Wanjae shrugged his shoulders and glanced back.
“Whoa, shibal. You scared me.”
“……”
Because Gu Wanjae stopped completely, Taein also stopped walking at a certain distance. Honestly, he didn’t know why he had followed either. First, he was flustered because Gu Wanjae had paid, and when that guy was about to disappear before his eyes, he felt inexplicably anxious. The guy only came to school occasionally. At a level where it was embarrassing to even add ‘occasionally.’
Since he was such an unpredictable guy, he might say something different later. It seemed better to finish paying before that.
“When I tell you to come, you don’t come, but when I just leave, you follow.”
Gu Wanjae just lightly said that and continued walking the path he had been walking.
The place where they stopped was in front of a building.
Taein also slowly followed, pretending not to be part of the group, and looked up at the building. It was a building he had seen in passing. Seeing that there was also a parking lot and low buildings in the back, he wondered if guys his age gathered here. It wasn’t a place to come alone. Taein stood blankly in the middle of the street.
“If I tell you to come, won’t you come again?”
Gu Wanjae only said that and started climbing the external stairs. It was a building with an unusual structure. Even looking carefully, the main entrance wasn’t visible. Taein hesitated for a few seconds, then moved toward the external stairs where Gu Wanjae had disappeared. The narrow and precarious stairs connected to a second-floor iron door.
When he climbed the creaking stairs, a dim space was revealed through the half-open iron door.
Taein grabbed the round door handle and pulled it, scanning the inside. There was red carpet on the floor, and each room was numbered.
It really was a karaoke place.
“Gu Wanjae’s friend?”
There was a counter right next to him. The man who spoke from there appeared to be in his mid-twenties. Taein reflexively entered and bowed to him. He thought about whether to say “We’re not friends” or “It’s not like that,” but decided not to.
The part-timer looked Taein over and just briefly said “Room 2.” Taein had no intention of continuing to stand there like this either. He quickly said “Yes” and found Room 2. It was easy to find since it was right in front of the corridor.
“What?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
