#077
Today the crew members were unusually excited. And busy. They had to organize the cargo delivery that came once every quarter.
They carefully organized the supplies and food they would use for three months. However, Lee Yeonwoo just stood still and stared blankly at them.
On days like this, the crew members always overlapped with excited children on school trips.
Going to amusement parks, chatting all night, having pillow fights.
Lee Yeonwoo just bit his innocent fingernails. They could eat at the cafeteria, so were snacks really necessary?
Kim Haseon put his arm on his shoulder. He took out beer from the cargo that arrived today and shook it in front of Lee Yeonwoo as if showing off.
“I’m supposed to drink with Minjae hyung tonight. Want to drink together?”
“I’m a fast birthday so I can’t drink yet.”
“What does the law matter on a ship? But how old are you?”
“I’m the same age as you.”
“I’m twenty-two.”
Silence flowed between the two. Lee Yeonwoo’s gentle eye corners went up slightly. He moved his lips but no words came out.
The crew members had definitely tipped him off before Kim Haseon came, saying he was a second mate and how old he was, but he hadn’t listened carefully.
‘Minjae hyung also said he was around my age… Ah.’
He should have realized earlier that “around the same age” meant something more comprehensive than exactly the same age.
Lee Yeonwoo chewed his lips and muttered “sorry” before getting up. But Kim Haseon grabbed the back of his neck, so it ended as just an attempt.
“Aren’t you going to call me hyung?”
Lee Yeonwoo glared at Kim Haseon, who was grinning.
Just like himself, Kim Haseon must have heard his age from other crew members, but he had been pretending not to know all this time, which made him feel betrayed.
Kim Haseon seemed to know this too, as he let go of Lee Yeonwoo’s neck and shrugged his shoulders.
“It was fun. Well, it didn’t really matter anyway.”
“I don’t find it fun.”
“Oh, sorry. Tonight the deck boss and the helmsmen are supposed to come too.”
Lee Yeonwoo pursed his lips out of habit.
The people he talked to were those who shared the same cabin, and among them, only Kim Haseon really. All the people he just mentioned were people he wasn’t close with. Especially the deck boss…
‘Nothing will change even if you get off mid-voyage.’
He was the guy who urged him to disembark.
“I’m not close with the deck boss.”
“Why? A power struggle? He’s not that kind of person.”
Although the rank of third mate that Lee Yeonwoo held was higher than deck boss, usually the deck boss position was taken by someone who had spent a long time on fishing vessels.
Kim Haseon’s meaning was that he wasn’t the type of guy to treat someone badly just because they were younger despite having a higher rank than him.
Lee Yeonwoo somewhat agreed but didn’t say anything and shook off his hand before going outside. Nausea came up.
He dry heaved a little, but it wasn’t to the point where what he had eaten came up like before. But his head still felt heavy and dizzy whenever this happened.
“Ugh.”
Lee Yeonwoo felt rough hands patting his back and turned around. It was the deck boss.
‘Didn’t he dislike me?’
His strength was so good that his back bent with each pat. Lee Yeonwoo requested that if he was going to take care of him, he should do it more properly.
“Don’t pat, rub it.”
“Kid, that’s not seasickness.”
Although his way of speaking was rough, there was sincerity in the hands rubbing his back. He missed his grandmother.
“Did seeing them receive cargo make you upset?”
“Not at all? The cook makes three meals a day for us, so why would I?”
The guy grabbed the back collar of Lee Yeonwoo’s clothes and pulled him. Today his neck was grabbed a lot.
“Let’s go eat cup noodles. I’ll share mine.”
“…Don’t you dislike me, ajeossi?”
“Me? Why?”
Lee Yeonwoo rolled his black pupils and stayed silent. Because he was a third mate? But as he had just talked with Kim Haseon, he got along well with other third mates. Only to him did he persecute him, telling him to disembark.
Well. In a limited space where they had to face each other almost every day, there was no benefit in showing that they disliked each other. Because there was nowhere to avoid even if you wanted to avoid someone here.
The ajeossi hit Lee Yeonwoo who had his lips sealed.
“Not answering again.”
“What did I do?”
At Lee Yeonwoo quietly frowning and touching his aching back of the head, the ajeossi clicked his tongue and scolded him.
“That’s why you’re a guy with no social skills.”
“I have a lot of friends. On land.”
“Show off. You brat.”
Lee Yeonwoo glared at the ajeossi who wasn’t listening to him and retorted.
“The people here are weirder. Why are your mouths so foul?”
“Shut up!”
In the end, he got hit one more time.
After the awaited three minutes passed, Lee Yeonwoo slurped up the noodles without even cooling them. Hot breath came out.
“Whew.”
“Cool it down before eating, kid.”
At the swear words that came at the end of every sentence, Lee Yeonwoo deliberately grumbled loudly for him to hear.
“Kid, kid at the end of every sentence.”
“What, kid?”
Even in high school, Lee Yeonwoo didn’t swear. Just in case it became a habit and he might unconsciously swear in front of his grandmother, he was careful and careful again.
Because his grandmother, who had become like a child, could imitate others’ speech patterns and behaviors.
That was the same today. Lee Yeonwoo had never put swear words in his mouth until now.
But the crew members had fouler mouths than his high school friends. Was it because they did hard work?
“Answer, answer, you brat.”
“No…, what do you mean?”
The ajeossi poked Lee Yeonwoo’s forearm with the back of his chopsticks and got angry.
“When I say ‘what, kid?’ there should be a response!”
“Why do you keep calling me kid?”
“Then what, should I call you baby?”
“…That’s better than kid.”
Lee Yeonwoo drank the steaming hot ramen broth down to the last drop as if it wasn’t even hot.
“Cool it down before eating, kid!”
“……”
Wow, his mouth is really foul. Our grandma would be surprised if she saw. I should never be like that.
Lee Yeonwoo, who made a firm resolution, roughly washed the cup noodle container with water, leaving not a single ingredient.
He usually didn’t do things like being a picky eater, and above all, if ingredients were left, it would be bothersome to clean up, so he dumped them into his stomach.
“Clean mine up too, kiddo.”
Lee Yeonwoo looked at the ajeossi’s cup noodles full of ingredients and broth. He looked at the food he had left behind and soon moved without saying anything.
Still, the ajeossi was the one who prepared it…
“But what’s kiddo?”
“Baby doesn’t suit you even in your own opinion, right?”
Anything was fine. He just didn’t like hearing swear words nearby.
Come to think of it, lately his seasickness had decreased and he got along with the crew members. It was mostly Kim Haseon dragging him out, though.
Maybe that’s why the ajeossi who used to tell him to disembark whenever he saw him had been quiet lately. Even today they ate ramen together, but he didn’t bring up disembarking.
Had he adapted a little?
The corners of Lee Yeonwoo’s mouth turned up slightly.
***
“Shit, what are you doing?”
Kim Haseon slathered sunscreen all over Lee Yeonwoo’s back as he was changing into work clothes.
“Shit? Shiit? How dare you say shit to someone who’s worried about you getting tanned?”
“…Who asked you to put it on?”
The thing he was worried about happened. After hearing swear words until his ears were worn out for several months, they naturally popped out of his mouth too. Annoyed, Lee Yeonwoo shook off his hand and put on his safety helmet.
Kim Haseon muttered “face is important, face” and squeezed a palmful of sunscreen to smear all over Lee Yeonwoo’s face.
“Ah, what are you… mmph, doing?”
Lee Yeonwoo stepped back and roughly rubbed and wiped his face.
“Yeah, rub it in like that. You’re going to be filmed for YouTube too, so you need to manage your looks.”
“I’m not going to be in it.”
“What? You said sometimes it’s okay!”
Kim Haseon shouted in indignation.
“I changed my mind. Because of what you just did.”
At Lee Yeonwoo’s words, asking what was wrong with his behavior, whether he was upset that he only put it on his back and not the front, he pursued Lee Yeonwoo with sunscreen.
“Stop it. Kim Seungseon.”
Lee Yeonwoo pushed him away and took refuge behind Kim Minjae’s back.
“Hey hey, stop it. You’re kicking up dust. We’ll use up all our energy before going to the work site.”
“Who’s Kim Seungseon!”
“You.”
At Lee Yeonwoo speaking firmly without any pause, Kim Haseon said irritably.
“It’s Kim Haseon!”
“Isn’t that your younger brother?”
Now Lee Yeonwoo had become good at joking around too.
And a new year rose.
“Are you finally twenty?”
“Yeah. Legally.”
Kim Haseon and Kim Minjae said with sparkling eyes.
“Then it’s a drinking party!”
Lee Yeonwoo’s eyebrows twitched. It was clearly an expression of dislike. However, covered by his bangs, the two couldn’t tell.
Kim Minjae wrapped his arm around Lee Yeonwoo’s neck almost like a headlock and dragged him to the mini refrigerator. Then he opened the refrigerator and showed him the beers filling the upper compartment.
“What beer do you want to drink? Teâ—‹? Kaâ—‹?”
“Do I have to drink?”
At Lee Yeonwoo’s question, Kim Haseon took out soju from the lower compartment and said.
“No, you don’t have to drink. There’s soju here too. What do you like? â—‹ Dew? Jinâ—‹?”
“……”
Lee Yeonwoo squeezed his eyes shut.
People crazy about alcohol.
“You should try drinking when you become an adult! Don’t pour and drink, just wet your throat.”
At Kim Minjae’s recommendation, Lee Yeonwoo had no choice but to pick any alcohol.
“Oh, Jinâ—‹?”
“I don’t know. I just picked anything.”
Kim Haseon poured the alcohol Lee Yeonwoo chose into his cup. It wasn’t a small shot glass but a water cup, so although he stopped after pouring to some extent, the amount was quite a lot.
“Just taste a little bit.”
Lee Yeonwoo looked at Kim Haseon with suspicious eyes. He stuck his nose in the cup and sniffed. It seemed like a sharp alcohol smell was rising.
Passing crew members stopped in the cafeteria, curious about Lee Yeonwoo’s first alcohol tasting.
Lee Yeonwoo tilted the cup and downed it in one gulp. His Adam’s apple gulped it down, and Kim Minjae looked at him with surprised eyes.
“You drank all of that?”
He told him to just taste it, but he downed more than a shot of soju in one go. And while learning his first drink.
Since it was his first time, he definitely didn’t know how much alcohol was a lot or a little.
“How is it? Want to try other alcohol?”
Lee Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes and stuck out his tongue to make contact with the air. His tongue tip felt numb. It tasted like the alcohol lamp in the science lab.
“Fuck. It’s fucking bitter.”
It was Lee Yeonwoo’s first swear word. Hearing it, the deck boss ajeossi laughed heartily from the side.
“Ahaha! You’ve become a real sailor!”
‘You become a sailor by swearing? You should work well…’
Lee Yeonwoo looked at the ajeossi in shock, calling him a strange person, but he didn’t back down and even patted his back.
Kim Haseon was excited like a fish in water and mixed alcohol.
“This time I’ll make you a beer-soju mix. Want to try that too?”
Eventually, with crew members gathering one by one, a proper drinking party broke out. Some made snacks, some mixed drinks, and Lee Yeonwoo continuously received and drank alcohol in between.
At some point, his vision started shaking and he couldn’t feel the bitter taste of alcohol anymore.
That day he fell into an unusually deep sleep, and when he woke up, he felt his body was light and refreshed.
‘So alcohol… is like this!’
From that day on, Lee Yeonwoo’s seasickness completely stopped.
On days when he got drunk and drank heavily, falling not into waves but into alcohol, he suffered from hangovers rather than seasickness, but it was the day he began to develop some sociability.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
