#063
‘That’s mine, isn’t it?’
The eyes of the young child saying this were uncharacteristically sharp. Kang Dojun. That was the name of the desk partner assigned by the homeroom teacher after entering elementary school.
He still had baby fat, but his upturned eyes were slightly fierce, and he had a gorgeous face with distinct features.
For being desk partners, they hadn’t exchanged a single word until then. Perhaps that’s why he was surprised that Kang Dojun had spoken to him, blinking and staring blankly.
‘It is mine.’
Kang Dojun looked at his own name written on the eraser and snatched the eraser from young Park Daeho’s hand.
Of course, it was Park Daeho’s fault for using someone else’s thing without permission, but he had just used it without thinking when he found it while looking for an eraser.
‘He didn’t have to glare at me like that…’
Kang Dojun vigorously rubbed away the graphite marks on the white eraser. Still unsatisfied, he frowned. Park Daeho felt unpleasantly as if his act was treating the area he had used as contaminated and being fastidious about it.
‘I could have used it.’
Though he grumbled quietly, it was clearly audible to Kang Dojun sitting next to him. Kang Dojun retorted to Park Daeho, who was looking at him sullenly without apologizing whether it was a mistake or wrongdoing.
‘Why did you use someone else’s thing carelessly?’
‘I used it without knowing.’
‘That’s exactly it. Why use it without knowing? You should know before using it.’
Park Daeho moved his lips then shut them tight. He couldn’t think of anything to say. Everything was correct. But his childish pride swelled up.
‘It was a mistake. Do you have some obsessive cleanliness disease?’
‘You mean mysophobia?’
Park Daeho’s face turned red and blue. Kang Dojun casually spat out a difficult word that he didn’t know, as if it were trivial.
He felt some inferiority complex toward his handsome desk partner. He was extremely irritated.
‘Yeah! Myo-whatever! It’s not even an expensive eraser, so what if I use it!’
‘There! You need to be quiet during class!’
‘Hey! Say something!’
At the teacher’s words, Kang Dojun consistently ignored Park Daeho and focused on reading his textbook. Then he quietly carved pencil marks on his desk.
[It’s not 결별증 but 결벽증.]
Ugh! Unable to stand it, Park Daeho snatched Kang Dojun’s textbook and threw it. However, that was the wrong choice.
‘I told you not to touch my things.’
A fist came close to his face.
‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. The medical bills…’
‘No, no! Our Daeho started the fight first! And at this age, they all fight and play like this. He wasn’t seriously hurt either.’
‘Still…’
Called by the homeroom teacher, the parents rushed over. Kang Dojun’s mother was at a loss and couldn’t straighten her back from bowing.
Kang Dojun was displeased with this. He had done nothing wrong.
‘Dojun, you should apologize to your friend too. Mom told you violence is bad!’
‘He touched my things first. He even took them. And threw them too. It was the eraser Mom bought me.’
‘Friends can do that! I’ll buy you another eraser. Was it Daeho? Auntie is sorry. Should I buy you something delicious?’
We’re not friends. Kang Dojun muttered bluntly.
Hearing this, Park Daeho ran out and pushed Kang Dojun hard.
‘I’m not your friend either!’
Kang Dojun couldn’t respond to the sudden attack and fell backward helplessly, hitting the ground. He felt rough sand on his palms. Fire blazed in his eyes. He jumped up and rushed at Park Daeho who had pushed him.
That was their first meeting.
***
‘Aren’t you sick of it?’
‘I’m just eating it.’
Park Daeho looked with tired eyes at Kang Dojun, who had been eating the same snack every day for nearly a month.
Before they knew it, they had become middle schoolers. Unlike their first meeting where they thought ‘I can’t communicate with this guy,’ they were maintaining a fairly good relationship. Somehow their parents had become close, so they met frequently coming and going, became acquainted, and gradually continued conversations.
Now Park Daeho was Kang Dojun’s one and only friend. Literally. Park Daeho was his only friend. He showed some generosity to the one who was staring at the snack he was eating.
‘Want one?’
‘You eat them all.’
When he got fixated on something, he would do only that day and night. Dig a well, but dig only one well. Don’t dig several wells shallowly, but dig one well deeply – he was a human who perfectly fit this proverb.
However, Kang Dojun was a hybrid human who dug several wells deeply. He was also very greedy. Whatever he did, he was the type who had to see it through to the end.
If you asked him to recite the ingredients of the snack he was eating now, he was a disgusting guy who would recite them without a moment’s hesitation and even tell you the percentage numbers of how much of each ingredient was included.
‘What’s the point of having a decent build when his personality is weird…’
He couldn’t understand why such a guy was so popular.
Kang Dojun’s strange habits became worse after entering puberty.
One day, saying he was fixated on onion dishes, he looked up and learned all cookbooks related to onions. During that time, his fingers were never unscathed due to knife work. After cutting his hands several times, anyone would fear knives, but that was common sense that didn’t apply to Kang Dojun.
Another day, he would knock on Park Daeho’s house from early morning, saying let’s go skateboarding.
Park Daeho said in a sleepy voice.
‘Go alone.’
‘It’s boring alone. Mom bought one for you too. Let’s ride together.’
When he got fixated on something, it used to last a month, but now it barely lasted a week.
What was annoying was that Kang Dojun did everything well, and because he learned faster than others, he quickly looked like a professional.
Park Daeho looked at Kang Dojun flying around while hugging his skateboard that wouldn’t obey his will.
‘Damn bastard.’
Thinking about it, in elementary school he seemed to have been fixated on school supplies. Well, the school supply set he received for the first time after just entering school was enough to make his eyes spin.
‘I shouldn’t have touched that eraser back then.’
Park Daeho let out a deep sigh that didn’t suit a middle schooler, lamenting his pitiful situation.
In high school, their paths diverged. He heard from his parents that Kang Dojun had become first in the entire school.
‘First place?’
‘Didn’t you hear it from Dojun?’
They still met occasionally on weekends, but he had never heard such talk.
‘He doesn’t really tell me stuff like that.’
‘My goodness, how modest! Tell Dojun to come play this week. Auntie will make something delicious.’
Kang Dojun used to refrain from talking about things he didn’t think were particularly special.
‘Did he get fixated on studying this time?’
Since Park Daeho found the symptom of being obsessively fixated on something when it caught his interest strange, it was understandable that he would hide it.
‘Still, being first in the entire school is a bit enviable.’
That was the end of his commentary.
***
When they became second-year high school students, Park Daeho asked.
‘This one’s lasting a while?’
‘What is?’
Kang Dojun, who was visiting Park Daeho’s house and eating well-sliced fruit, asked back.
‘Studying. You’re still in the top ranks, right?’
‘Ah… Just, because my parents like it.’
‘Then what are you doing these days?’
‘Drawing pictures.’
Park Daeho’s curiosity was piqued by Kang Dojun’s words. He raised his body that had been lying on the bed.
‘What kind of pictures? Show me.’
Kang Dojun rummaged through the bag he had brought for studying and pulled out a notebook and opened it.
It was full of impressive drawings. Park Daeho was looking at them one by one when he stopped turning the pages.
‘What’s this?’
It was a portrait of a woman with long black straight hair. It was even colored in various colors. Innocent eyes without double eyelids and a rosy blush blooming on a snow-white face.
Whether to call it pretty, it was a drawing of a pure woman with a puppy-like cute and somehow continuously eye-catching appearance.
‘There are people like this at art school?’
‘No, I just drew it.’
‘Why?’
‘My ideal type?’
Kang Dojun thought after rejecting a recent confession. Who would be his ideal type? Moving his hand here and there, it was a drawing that was completed before he knew it.
‘I might accept it if someone like that confessed.’
‘You’re not going to do the confessing?’
At Park Daeho’s playful question, an innocent smile spread.
‘I might.’
***
When they became third-year high school students, the time to worry about their future paths approached.
Kang Dojun said he had developed a taste for acting since last year and planned to try acting formally.
Although he attended art school to set his career path toward broadcasting, it felt strange that he really aimed to become an actor. Imagining Kang Dojun becoming famous, he would jokingly bring up titles like ‘Childhood friend turns out to be a ten-million viewer actor!?’
He thought that for Kang Dojun, who did only one thing when fixated on it, being an actor might be the best profession since actors could experience various occupations through acting.
‘Then make me your manager. Let me pick up crumbs next to you.’
‘That’s only possible if I become famous.’
‘Yeah, keep a manager position open soon.’
He had a kind of conviction that Kang Dojun would definitely become famous. Since he did everything well, he would probably act well too. His personality was gentle as long as you didn’t carelessly touch his things.
Most of all…, as he grew up, his baby fat disappeared and a gorgeous handsome man with a sculptural face caught his eye. It would be hard not to become famous with a face like that.
***
Park Daeho’s conviction was right. He quickly gained popularity, and Park Daeho was able to enter the manager position.
Park Daeho’s parents were happy, saying their son got a job successfully by having one good friend.
Becoming a manager as if to show off, Kang Dojun, whom he watched from the side, was brilliant.
‘Acting is his calling…’
All the experiences of digging various wells deeply until now were melted into his acting, and Kang Dojun seemed to quite like this profession called ‘actor’ because he could experience and try various things through acting.
Simply put, he was fixated on being an actor. Now he began organizing his surrounding environment to maintain it. He absolutely didn’t do anything that might harm his acting career and narrowed his sphere of activity himself.
It would be fortunate if he was satisfied, but in Park Daeho’s eyes, that appearance looked precariously like walking a tightrope.
After becoming an adult, Kang Dojun seemed to have settled into the charm of the acting profession, but the strange symptom of obsessing over only one thing could explode again at any time.
He felt a refresh was needed.
Now as a manager, he gave advice to the celebrity he managed.
In the car returning home after finishing filming, Park Daeho gauged Kang Dojun’s mood and said.
‘After finishing this project, would you like to try appearing on a variety show instead of acting? It’s a rural living variety show, and this PD has quite a reputation…’
‘What about the next script? I prefer movies over dramas. Isn’t there a movie that came in? Ah, taekwondo would be fun. An action movie would be good next.’
As expected, he didn’t come over easily.
‘Try appearing on variety shows too. Your mother asked me if our Dojun doesn’t get variety show casting offers.’
‘…Mom did?’
‘Yeah.’
His only weakness was his parents. Kang Dojun seemed slightly interested as he looked at the variety show scenario Park Daeho handed him.
He didn’t feel guilty. He hadn’t made up anything that didn’t exist. Actually, his parents liked his acting, but they wanted to see various aspects of their son on broadcasts.
Park Daeho swallowed his saliva and stealthily waited for his answer.
‘How is it? Looks good, right?’
‘……’
‘Want to try it? You’ll do it?’
‘Do whatever you want.’
It was an answer close to acceptance.
***
And currently, Park Daeho was regretting the suggestion he had made. What refresh – that was the worst mistake.
Starting from that incident, Kang Dojun changed. He began to gradually open his eyes to new interests.
It was okay until the convenience store incident. You could see at a glance that he was worried about his future acting career. But now?
“Are you going to quit acting?”
Even though his acting career that he had been so interested in was damaged, he still seemed to have no interest whatsoever in the current incident, just holding onto his phone.
“I can take care of other celebrities, but what about you? If you quit, what will you do?”
What else has he become fixated on?
Suddenly, he remembered a figure drawn in a drawing notebook from high school days. A person who greatly resembled that figure was drawn in his mind.
“Is it Yeonwoo-ssi?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
