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“Are you really leaving? You could sleep over and leave tomorrow…”
Having made his precious nephew work so much during a weekend that brought customers even without trying, his uncle’s face was plastered with regret as he saw Jaekyung off. Even though they had closed earlier than usual, it was already 1 AM. It seemed too late to send him off like this.
“No, Uncle, you have to work tomorrow too. And I have company today. I’ll just head back.”
“Your friend could stay over too. I really don’t mind.”
Jaekyung mischievously smiled and nodded toward Moon Yeonu standing beside him, saying, “He’d be uncomfortable.” His uncle couldn’t insist anymore and fidgeted anxiously.
“That’s true…”
“Right? I’m really going now. See you next time. I’ll come again when I have time on a weekday.”
“Make sure to buy some cereal for home, okay? Don’t skip breakfast, and take at least a pack of soy milk with you when you leave for work.”
“Yes, yes, Boss Song, I understand!”
Such fussing… Though he pretended to be brusque because he was conscious of Moon Yeonu, Jaekyung felt a tingling in a corner of his chest at the voice that followed him all the way to the passenger seat, listing various concerns. Whenever he got scratched and broken here and there, knowingly or unknowingly, his uncle had embraced him gently, just like today. Those rough hands and manner that soothed even the places Yeonhu hadn’t seen, or rather, the places he had intentionally not wiped clean, were Jaekyung’s greatest treasure.
Because he couldn’t buy him luxury clothes every season like Young Master Yeonhu, because he couldn’t afford all the expensive trendy toys, because he couldn’t pay for expensive private tutoring with his own money and had to be mindful of his employer’s mood… His uncle always acted like a criminal toward Jaekyung, even though he had never been asked to. But none of that really mattered to Jaekyung.
Jaekyung’s only Superman had already given him everything just by existing, just by loving Jaekyung.
So it would be okay. Even if he gave up on Jang Yeonhu… There wouldn’t be any storms in Jaekyung’s life. The situation was quite different from a decade ago when he would have been at a loss about how to get through the next day if the support from the Jang family was cut off.
Without Yeonhu’s kindness. Without Chairman Jang’s support. Uncle and Jaekyung could be ordinarily and boringly happy.
Jaekyung compulsively repeated such thoughts to soothe his heart, which had started stirring again after the earlier phone call. If he didn’t, it felt like futile lingering attachments would surge up at any moment.
The truth was that a few months was woefully insufficient to completely let go of someone he had considered his own for over twenty years. If there was even a small gap, Jaekyung would try to greedily claim him again. Jaekyung was sick of that aspect of himself. Of course, Yeonhu, who had subtly pushed Jaekyung into being that way, would be immensely pleased.
“Call me when you arrive! Got it?”
His uncle’s voice was so loud that even from inside the car, Jaekyung could hear his final instruction. Jaekyung secretly waved his fingers at the side mirror. His uncle probably couldn’t see it anyway.
“What’s that, Han Jaekyung? That cute gesture?”
“Mind your own business.”
“How many times is that today, telling me to mind my own business?”
If he didn’t like hearing it, he shouldn’t have come in the first place. Knowing full well that Han Jaekyung wasn’t the type to maintain appearances and be kind to others. Moon Yeonu always had to make a comment like this. Jaekyung just closed his eyes without responding.
The late-night roads were smooth with no traffic jams. The gentle rocking of the car mercilessly brought on drowsiness. Well, it made sense to be tired after arriving at the shop, having a late lunch, and then working nonstop from the start of the dinner service. From the driver’s seat came a faint laugh.
“Despite how you look, you really can sleep anywhere.”
He wasn’t deeply asleep, so he could hear everything Moon Yeonu was saying, but his eyelids were too heavy to respond.
“…Your sleeping face looks exactly the same as when you were a student.”
“…”
“Fine. Sleep, sleep.”
Moon Yeonu hummed a tune throughout the drive, seemingly quite pleased with himself. Judging by the unfamiliar melody, he was clearly just humming whatever he felt like.
How much time had passed like that? The car stopped smoothly without a sound.
“Han Jaekyung. Wake up.”
“Mmm… Are we here already?”
“Yeah, I’ll hold the elevator, so hurry up and wake up.”
What’s with this confidence? Is he planning to stay overnight? Jaekyung just blinked his eyes, thinking. It was certainly late, but he felt an inevitable aversion since he had never let anyone other than Jang Yeonhu stay at his place.
He yawned widely and stretched to chase away the remaining drowsiness before following Moon Yeonu out of the car. With the complacent thought that if it really didn’t work out, he could at least let him in for a cup of coffee before sending him off. However.
“…Why the hell did this guy come here?”
Moon Yeonu was always a weirdo who lightly surpassed Jaekyung’s expectations. People who knew Yeonu were quick to praise such traits, saying geniuses are naturally eccentric, it’s Dr. Moon’s unique personality, and so on, but to Jaekyung, he was nothing more and nothing less than a weirdo.
“Hey, what are you doing standing there? Come in!”
Moon Yeonu, who was holding the elevator in an obviously aged 5-story commercial building, shouted at Jaekyung, who was still standing dazed in the building’s parking lot.
Jaekyung hesitantly moved his feet and pinched his cheek slightly. It stung and hurt. It didn’t seem like a dream… The pub in the university district he occasionally visited when he was twenty. Moon Yeonu holding the elevator and urging him to come quickly. Except for the fact that the clothes he was wearing weren’t the cheap buy-one-get-one-free shirts from a supermarket rack and shabby cotton pants, it was strikingly similar to the past.
“This place has aged a lot too. It was a relatively new building when we used to come here, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. But… Weren’t we going home? Why suddenly this place?”
“Today I did the work of about three part-timers at your uncle’s shop, you know? You’re not even going to treat me and just shut your mouth?”
Moon Yeonu had a point. The skills honed through various part-time jobs since his family went bankrupt and even after going to America hadn’t disappeared, making things much smoother than when Jaekyung and his uncle usually ran the shop. Still, Jaekyung didn’t want to drink. He feared that all the feelings and resolutions he had been suppressing would fly away in a drunken haze.
“I’m tired. I’ll give you money. I’ll pay you much more than minimum wage, so just go.”
“Oh, can you match my pay?”
The playful tone made his irritation surge. Saying he was willing to pay up to 100,000 won per hour, Jaekyung sharply asked, “How much?”
“These days I usually get 700,000 won per hour for special lectures. Let’s see, excluding meal times, from 4 PM to 1 AM is seven hours, so that’s 4.9 million. As a special discount for an acquaintance, I’ll waive the night shift premium.”
“Y-you’re crazy… Didn’t you say you were becoming a professor? There must be an upper limit, isn’t it illegal to charge that much?”
“I haven’t signed the contract yet, so I’m not subject to that. Ah, I’ll be generous. Since it wasn’t lecturing but physical labor, I’ll cut it in half again. 2.45 million won. You can deduct 3.3%, Attorney Han Jaekyung.”
It wasn’t an amount he couldn’t pay if he wanted to, but for just one day, and for someone who had followed him without even being invited, it was excessively expensive.
“What will you do? Will you settle for just 5000cc of beer and one grilled sausage here, or will you pay me?”
“Haaa… Fine, let’s go up, let’s go.”
“Attorney Han, can I order cheese corn too? Should we also get a fish cake soup?”
“You incorrigible bastard. Do whatever you want.”
Even if they ordered every item on the menu, it would be far less than that ridiculous amount. Even if he insisted on paying in cash, Moon Yeonu wouldn’t likely accept all that money, but Jaekyung didn’t want to refuse anymore seeing him so eager to drink. Rather than continuing to argue, it would be less tiring to just drink quickly and go home.
Dim lighting with screens between each table. The loud sounds of drinking games heard as soon as they entered. Being the weekend, it seemed like college students were having mixers, and they were the only awkward pair of two men who had entered.
After finding seats, right behind their table was a group of 4 men and 4 women paired up, chatting enthusiastically. Youthful voices boisterously came through the thin screens.
“Wow, a mixer. Those were the days.”
After placing their order, Moon Yeonu exaggeratedly shuddered and giggled. It was useless to criticize him for sounding like an old man. Instead, Moon Yeonu put his elbows on the table, pushed his upper body forward until he was right in Jaekyung’s face, and mischievously asked, “Have you ever been to a mixer?”
“Just during my freshman year… Forced by my classmates. After that, I rejected them all because I was busy studying.”
“Freshman year? So you went even before we broke up?”
‘Before we broke up’? Saying it like that made it sound as if they had really dated with tender feelings. Jaekyung nodded with a sour expression.
“You bastard, this is complete betrayal? Going secretly to mixers when you had a boyfriend right there. I couldn’t even dream of mixers or anything because I was busy with part-time jobs.”
“Come on. The guy who disappeared without a word has a lot to say.”
“Hey! That’s… Never mind. Let’s just drink.”
Neither the texture of the chewy sausage nor the soggy snacks served as basic appetizers appealed to him. But the beer drunk in a noisy pub, immersed in the atmosphere of old times… wasn’t so bad.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
