#2
On the day he moved in, his parents and older brother came up with him. The room was smaller than he had expected, but even so, it looked cozy. After his family went back down, Bonoh first bought cleaning supplies. He bought a mop and three packs of disposable wet wipes that you pull out like wet tissues. Toilet brushes and all kinds of detergents bought in bulk, even rubber gloves.
For about a week, he swept and wiped every day. However, after the semester started, the frequency of cleaning began to decrease due to continuous drinking sessions and assignments.
Right at the midterm exams of the first semester, Bonoh’s cleaning supplies were shoved into a corner and never saw the light of day again. Of the three packs of cleaning wipes he had originally bought, two were never even opened, and more than half of the detergents remained. Considering that one pack of cleaning wipes contained 30 sheets, it was clear that Bonoh had cleaned very few times.
Since he ate out or ordered delivery anyway, there was hardly anything to wash, and as for the floor, they say people even walk around in shoes in America, so this level of dirtiness was nothing. That’s how Bonoh rationalized it to himself and spent his peaceful daily life.
That was until the day he moved out after the second semester ended, before his hyung came up to help him. Bonoh’s older brother, Suoh, gasped as soon as he entered the room.
“Kim Bonoh… Your room looks like it’s been robbed. Report it quickly.”
“No way? It’s exactly the same as when I left earlier.”
Suoh’s mouth fell open in shock at the state of the room, but he quickly closed it in case dust might get in.
“Mom! Look at how Kim Bonoh has been living. This bastard’s been living in a pigsty!”
Suoh called their mother right there and then hung up to take pictures and send them. He took them meticulously as if recording a crime scene. Even then, Bonoh didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation. He’s not going to live here anymore anyway, so why is he overreacting like that?
He learned about the seriousness when he went down to their family home in Jeju and got beaten on the back by his mother. She scolded him, saying she trusted him and sent him up, but he had been living in a complete trash heap.
Bonoh, who had been glaring at the annoying Kim Suoh, couldn’t get his head straight and cheerfully brought up living alone again as soon as he applied for readmission. Of course, his parents would never allow it, and Bonoh ended up applying for dormitory admission.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Bonoh got into the dormitory. While first priority went to academically excellent students, second priority went to those living outside Seoul, so Bonoh, being from Jeju, was in the safe zone.
Since he didn’t have anyone appropriate to ask to share a room with, Bonoh decided to obediently enter whatever room was assigned to him.
However, the dormitory environment he had only heard about through rumors didn’t even come close to satisfying Bonoh, who had lived the life of a free natural person without any constraints during his year of living alone. So he decided to pack not only the dormitory essential items that would pop up in droves when searching on portal sites, but also gas burners, rice cookers, pots, and other items that were strictly prohibited in the dormitory, and move into the dormitory with all of them.
What if he gets caught and kicked out? That would be even better. He could live alone legally!
As if anticipating such behavior from Bonoh, his mother’s words about cutting off all financial support if he got kicked out of the dormitory had long since disappeared from Bonoh’s memory.
And finally, two days before the semester started, the day of entering the dormitory dawned. As if trying to boast about their outdated system, the room assignment list was posted on the Hope Hall building bulletin board instead of the school portal site. Bonoh slowly scanned the assignment list that was posted as large as a door from top to bottom. Looking for his name, he found he was assigned to room 309.
Bonoh had brought as many as five suitcases. He had also properly put on a backpack, but when he tried to pack everything he needed, one or two suitcases were nowhere near enough.
Even holding two suitcases in each hand, one remained. Bonoh used his experience from working at the tangerine farm to herd the suitcases. It looked like a soccer player playing with a ball using both feet, or like a sheepdog herding sheep.
He could feel the stares from around him, but Bonoh didn’t care. Embarrassment is temporary, but eating utensils would return at every meal.
“Huh?”
Contrary to his expectation that it would be empty, room 309 already had its lights brightly turned on. Come to think of it, he remembered the name that had been positioned below “Kim Bonoh, Japanese Literature Department, Room 309” earlier. Political Science and Diplomacy Department, Joo Taeseong. Bonoh had come quite early in the morning, but he hadn’t expected his roommate to already be there.
“Hello!”
The man standing there looked quite displeased at the sudden loud greeting. Even though the person who had been in the room first was frowning, an exclamation of admiration at how handsome he was naturally popped out. Bonoh, who had dragged his luggage in, looked at his face without even taking off his shoes.
Bonoh, who often helped with his parents’ tangerine farm work and liked to run around and play, had healthy-looking skin. In contrast, the man was pale white as if he had never been exposed to sunlight. His black hair created a strange impression in contrast. His pupils were also jet black, like black holes that would suck everything in, or like an unfathomable abyss. Either way, it seemed like if you fell into those pupils, you wouldn’t even be able to retrieve your bones.
Overall, he looked cool, but his facial features were delicate. If it weren’t for his tall height, broad shoulders, thick chest, and well-balanced muscles, he would have been quite worthy of being called a beauty.
Right now, he was layering irritation on top of his already sensitive-looking face, which was error number one, and the fact that a handsome guy would be of no help to Bonoh anyway was error number two.
“……”
The man turned his head away without any particular response. It was undoubtedly intentional ignoring. He was folding and organizing his clothes that he had taken out on the left bed in the room. Seeing the clothes folded at sharp angles, Bonoh was reminded of his time in the military and felt briefly dizzy.
Bonoh roughly took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the right bed. Although his greeting had been ignored, thinking the other person might not have heard him, he tried to strike up a conversation again. Bonoh wasn’t particularly extroverted either, but if they were dormitory roommates, it seemed like it would be more comfortable to get rid of the awkwardness as quickly as possible.
“How old are you? You’re Joo Taeseong, right? Looking at the assignment list, you seem to be a second-year student. I’m also a second-year, but I went to the military and just returned to school, so I’m 23 years old.”
“……”
“Are you perhaps 21? If you’re younger, you can comfortably call me hyung…”
Bonoh’s words, which were about to say “you can call me that,” went back down his throat at Taeseong’s sigh. Since Taeseong had his back turned while organizing his clothes, Bonoh couldn’t see his expression, but the loud exhale clearly showed his displeasure.
Taeseong was tall enough that you had to look up at him even when he was standing, and his build was substantial enough to be noticeable even when dressed. Every time he moved, it made you imagine the muscles hidden under the soft-looking knit sweater. Even so, he didn’t look dull, and his body was similar to that of the man in the photos that Bonoh’s hyung Suoh had posted in his room, calling him his wannabe.
Still, the reason Bonoh had tried to act like a hyung was due to his habit from when he was a sergeant just before discharge. Although it had been several months since his discharge, being a sergeant had been quite an impressive experience for Bonoh, who had lived his entire life as the youngest.
“Acting informal when we’ve just met… I’m not 21, I’m 23, so if you want to act like a senior, go back to the military.”
“Huh?”
Bonoh’s mouth fell wide open. Since he was too handsome to be called worthless, this must be what they call “face value” that he had only heard about, right? Such an absurd thought naturally occurred to him. To think he had to live with such a guy for at least one semester. Bonoh’s face was colored with shock. Taeseong had long since turned his head away as if he had nothing more to say.
Bonoh’s dormitory fantasy of ordering chicken with his roommate when craving late-night snacks, or sometimes secretly sharing hidden alcohol while building manly friendship, was shattered right then and there. Somehow, Bonoh had a premonition that dormitory life might be much more difficult than he had thought.
And the premonition became reality right before his eyes in just one day. Even though he wasn’t really doing anything, chatting with friends on KakaoTalk easily made it one or two in the morning. Bonoh, an ordinary human who found it wasteful to sleep at night and wasteful to wake up in the morning, planned to spend his first day of residence the same way.
Taeseong suddenly went to shower at 10 PM. After finishing his shower, which took a whopping 50 minutes, he cleaned the room that didn’t seem to need much organizing and even swept and wiped the floor. And around 11:30, without saying a word, he turned off the lights and lay down on his bed.
While showering didn’t need to be discussed, shouldn’t roommates normally say something before turning off the lights? However, Taeseong resolutely turned off the lights without saying anything. In the darkness that instantly filled the room, Bonoh could only blink his eyes.
“Are you sleeping already?”
“Yes. Don’t talk to me.”
Every syllable he uttered was spitting out rudeness. No wonder there’s no rudeness left in his body after spitting it all out like that. Bonoh, who hadn’t even washed yet and had no intention of sleeping, let out a deep sigh and went to wash up himself.
It seemed like it wouldn’t be right to wake up such a roommate with personality flaws, no matter what.
Usually, whenever Bonoh showered, he would place his phone face-down with music blasting loudly. And he would open his own free karaoke session to match it. Since he couldn’t maintain this habit while risking waking up Taeseong, Bonoh’s alternative choice was to just hum quietly with a lowered voice. He usually finished showering quickly within 15 minutes, but he couldn’t bear even that short silence.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
