#19
Thanks to his excellent appearance, Taeseong’s prickly personality was often packaged as chic, and he had frequently received confessions. His reaction was always the same each time. He would reject them in one clean cut, leaving no lingering regrets. After all, they were people he wouldn’t see again anyway.
However, if the other party was Bonoh, the story would be different. He was a roommate who had to live together in the same room every day. Right now Bonoh was showing a cooperative attitude, but it was uncertain whether he would still be like that after having his confession rejected. Hadn’t he experienced firsthand how destructive Bonoh could be when they first met? Since it was impossible to change roommates during the semester, if Bonoh were to collapse the order of Room 309, Taeseong would be helplessly defeated.
Then there was only one thing Taeseong had to do. Namely, to prepare a solution in advance. Based on his past experiences, Taeseong judged that it would be best to avoid rejecting him coldly as much as possible.
He knew better than anyone how tiresome it became when someone who had shyly confessed their feelings held a grudge. There were people who felt awkward and avoided him first, but there were also those who were hurt by his cold attitude and glared at him every time they met. Perhaps because they were even more infuriated by Taeseong’s unfazed behavior, there were times when he had been subjected to various forms of retaliation.
Taeseong turned on his laptop and opened a word processing program. Then he wrote down several lines that Bonoh might say when confessing.
[Joo Taeseong, I like you so much. Even though I’m a pathetic person who watches gay porn and drinks every night, will you date me?]
[Taeseong! If you’re okay with me singing loudly in the shower, let’s date.]
[If you date me, you’ll never have to spend your own money buying tangerines again, Joo Taeseong.]
[Taeseong, please stop abandoning me in this dormitory room every weekend. I’m begging you, I can’t live without you….]
Taeseong looked over what he had written fluently and showed a very satisfied expression. It couldn’t be more like Kim Bonoh than this, he thought. Running simulations for each line, Taeseong thought about how to reject him. He would have to gently persuade him. And he would have to make the rejection convincing. Lost in thought without noticing the passing time, Taeseong still couldn’t come up with what words to use for the rejection until the end.
***
Kim Bonoh once again showed behavior that deviated from Taeseong’s expected trajectory. He should have been about to confess by now, but he didn’t. Well, since Taeseong had shown such disgusted reactions, Bonoh might think that the time they had known each other was insufficient to properly open his heart.
And since the outline of how to reject him wasn’t clear yet, it might actually be better for Taeseong. For this reason, Taeseong could leisurely wait for Bonoh’s confession. Of course, unfortunately, he was planning to kick him away.
“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”
Bonoh had put his laptop on the bed, plugged wireless earphones into his ears, and was watching a movie while hugging a pillow. It seemed like he was just playing around, but it was actually a kind of assignment where he had to watch a movie and write an analysis. Anyway, that posture itself was unseemly. That’s why he kept entering Taeseong’s field of vision. It was just bothersome, but Bonoh eventually couldn’t withstand Taeseong’s gaze.
“You.”
“What about me.”
“…Never mind.”
The days gradually grew hotter. Since last week, Bonoh had started walking around in short sleeves and shorts, complaining that the inside of the dormitory was too hot. As his clothing became lighter, Taeseong’s patience also grew thin. Every time his clothes fluttered occasionally, Taeseong’s mind was stirred up. He wanted to tell him not to subtly show off his waistline while pretending to roll around on the bed, but Taeseong just narrowed his brow.
“Why are you so bored, kid? Oh, is it because of the sound leaking out?”
“No.”
“If you keep staring at me like that, I’m going out? If you have complaints, say it with words. Don’t glare at me like that.”
There were many things that didn’t sit well with him. First, that promiscuous outfit. This couldn’t be called a complaint. Why? Because even if Taeseong pointed it out, Bonoh would obviously jump up and down saying it was unfair. Then next was the matter of when he would confess. This also couldn’t be called a complaint. It would be strange to suddenly urge him to confess quickly. Running simulations until Bonoh spoke was Taeseong’s best effort for a courteous rejection.
Fortunately, Taeseong’s character wasn’t so terrible as to blurt out such words. Taeseong just clicked his tongue while harboring a sullen heart.
“Old-fashioned…”
Last time it was “teacher,” this time it was “old-fashioned.” Bonoh cursed at Taeseong with his skill of speaking openly while pretending to mutter. However, such factual statements didn’t really affect Taeseong. Perhaps because the attack had no impact, Bonoh also seemed to lose interest and turned his attention to the movie.
Taeseong glanced at Bonoh again. His face, which was slightly open-mouthed and concentrated as if he might enter the screen, seemed somewhat cute. He wanted to touch those slightly squinted almond-shaped eyes with his fingertips, whether it was because of poor eyesight or immersion. He rubbed his eyes. However, no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes and looked, that impression didn’t change.
***
“Oh, it’s a birthday.”
It wasn’t Bonoh’s birthday. Bonoh was born at the end of the year, and despite doing nothing but crying loudly once, he aged one year more than those born just one day later. Then whose birthday was it? It was the birthday of Bonoh’s roommate, Taeseong.
To be precise, it wasn’t today, but a messenger birthday notification informed him that there wasn’t much time left. Birthdays were something that wouldn’t come up unless there was nothing special about it, and if Bonoh hadn’t happened to click on this, he would have passed by without knowing. Still, now that he knew, he couldn’t just let it pass. Bonoh began asking everyone he met if there was anything they wanted to receive as a birthday gift.
“Hey, Hyungwoo. If I were to give you a birthday gift, what would you want?”
“Hmm. I’d like… a figure that’s definitely in a price range Bono-kun could never buy me.”
“Ah, your way of speaking. Please.”
“What. But my birthday already passed, so why suddenly?”
“…Why are you telling me that now!”
“Bonoh, you never asked me? Hmm. I thought you finally felt like taking care of me?”
This guy was hopeless. Trying to take care of one guy’s birthday ended up adding another burden. It was a sticky burden that wouldn’t be satisfied with just a figure that could be easily purchased at a Hongdae figure shop. Bonoh shook his head and looked for someone else.
“Noona.”
“Yeah?”
“Noona, if you had to give a friend a birthday gift, what would you give?”
“Me? Um… if it’s something safe, gift cards are good, right?”
“Gift cards are a bit… My roommate’s birthday is coming up. If we’re obviously lying together and I suddenly send a message and gift card through my phone saying ‘use it well,’ wouldn’t that be funny too?”
“Really? That does seem like that too.”
Bonoh asked a noona he knew who he met while wandering around campus during an awkward break between classes. It was a very reasonable answer. Perhaps because he had met the guy who talked about figures earlier, he was much more satisfied. However, according to the simulation he ran in his head, giving a gift card seemed too ridiculous in appearance, so it was rejected.
After asking and asking again, Bonoh, who only heard absurd answers like a fifty-thousand-won Google gift card, guaranteed first-place lottery ticket, or a self-owned apartment in Hannam-dong, seriously reflected on his human relationships. Where on earth had the collective intelligence of humanity gone? With little expectation, Bonoh decided to grab his drinking buddies Hyungwoo and Junghwan and ask one last question.
“Hey. Bonoh. For people, money is the best.”
“That Joo Taeseong guy… he probably has a lot of money.”
“Ah what, was he your wife? Then just behave and support him domestically. They say you need to be good at domestic support these days.”
“Ugh, come on!”
Rather than getting a good answer from Hyungwoo, only terrible words flowed out. There was no telling when he would stop spouting nonsense about “wife.” He was afraid that if Hyungwoo and Taeseong ever met, he might call him “wife” in front of him. Quickly shaking off the horrifying thought, Bonoh looked at Junghwan next to him as if he were a savior.
“Wouldn’t it be fastest and best to just ask your wife?”
“If that were easy, I wouldn’t be talking like this. He’d definitely be like ‘Don’t do useless things and just stay quiet.’ Something like that.”
“…You’d better not do voice impressions. Then well, if he doesn’t particularly want anything, is there really a need to do it?”
“I didn’t know before, but now that I know, how can I just let it pass!”
Bonoh pressed his face against the cold metal table and rubbed it irritably. As expected, there was no answer that made him think ‘This is it!’ Moreover, there wasn’t much time left until the birthday, so he couldn’t prepare anything grand or elaborate. What Taeseong seemed to want most from Bonoh was probably to “stay quiet and calm in the room,” but staying quiet enough to satisfy Taeseong was beyond his capabilities. It pricked his conscience to write empty promises just because it was a birthday.
“Well, then didn’t you have anything you wanted to receive on your birthday?”
“Me? Hmm…”
Until now, Bonoh’s birthdays had been densely filled with abundant and grand dinner tables and congratulations from various friends. Besides the birthday feast and warm congratulations, there wasn’t anything else he particularly needed. He might feel differently if there were deficiencies in daily life, but Bonoh wasn’t particularly materialistic, and he always received enough allowance to immediately buy anything he wanted.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
