#20
“Uh…”
At that moment, the fact that Taeseong’s birthday this year was on a Thursday flashed through Bonoh’s mind. While Bonoh had always spent birthdays with his family and received the proper birthday feast, Taeseong probably wouldn’t be able to spend his birthday that way this year.
“Hey. I’ve decided.”
“Congratulations.”
“Aren’t you going to ask what it is?”
A look that said “Do I have to ask about that too?” shot toward Bonoh. Really, he couldn’t be more cold. Though no one showed interest, Bonoh stubbornly revealed his plan.
“I’m going to prepare a birthday feast for you. Look, you’re in the dorm, so how could you eat properly? You couldn’t, right? How are you supposed to eat seaweed soup?”
“You’re really playing the perfect wife. Crazy bastard.”
“Do you want to die, seriously?”
However, he belatedly realized there was one problem with that wonderful and brilliant plan.
“No, but that’s not what’s important. There’s a problem I just thought of. Which is…”
“……”
“My rice cooker and pot… they were in the dorm but they all got confiscated. Even the burner.”
It wasn’t even just taken away for nothing. It was stolen by Joo Taeseong’s scheme, the very person he had decided to prepare a birthday feast for. The buried resentment came flooding back. Bonoh’s jaw hardened like a walnut. That bastard… he did that too. If it were now, he’d kick his ass and chase him out of the room, but he wouldn’t do the nasty thing of immediately running to report and demand confiscation.
“Hey, why did you even bring that stuff to the dorm in the first place?”
“Do you know the sorrow of not even being able to cook ramen?!”
“Should I order some ramen as a side dish?”
“Forget it, you bastard.”
Bonoh was the type who, once fixated on something, would charge in without any answer, and the idea he’d just come up with was the most attractive among those he’d heard and considered. If only he had those things that Taeseong had mercilessly taken away, he could have made beef seaweed soup with garlic added to perilla oil for flavor and hot steamed rice… It was regrettable, but he’d have to give up on that.
“Eating retort food is all karma from the past, karma.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
Still, after deciding on a birthday gift, his mind felt at ease. If he was going to feed him anyway, he should give him something delicious. Bonoh decided to look into which instant foods were at least edible.
Finally, the morning of Taeseong’s birthday dawned. It was a lucky day without a speck of fine dust that naturally comes with spring, so the mountains in the distance could be seen clearly through the dorm window. Unfortunately, Taeseong wasn’t the type to get excited and elated about birthdays—he had left the dorm to attend classes with the same face and outfit as usual. Bonoh, who had also left the dorm for his 9 o’clock class, belatedly realized he hadn’t asked something important.
[When are you coming back to the dorm?]
Well, he could ask since he thought of it.
[Why all of a sudden?]
Taeseong was a difficult guy who wouldn’t even answer this simple question. Bonoh was about to blurt out in anger that he was going to prepare a birthday feast for him, but he caught himself.
[You’re not asking because you want to watch gay porn again, are you?]
However, before he could make up an excuse, Taeseong’s message completely shut Bonoh up. What kind of pervert does he think I am!
[ã…¡ã…¡]
[Are you crazy]
[If you don’t want to say, then don’t]
Even after reading it, Taeseong didn’t respond for a long time. He was completely ignored.
[No, tell me]
[Please tell me]
[Please tell me]
[Taeseong-nim]
[Stop sending messages]
[You have a class schedule, so why are you asking?]
[I’m going straight in after class ends.]
Okay. Bonoh nodded. It couldn’t be more fortunate that Taeseong’s class ended later than Bonoh’s. Somehow he felt like things would go well.
First, Bonoh stopped by the neighborhood mart that was a 15-minute walk from the dorm. It would have been better to go to a large supermarket, but the distance was far and time was tight to go and come back. Still, it was the largest mart in the area with the most variety of products. Perhaps because it was near a university with many people living alone, it carried all kinds of instant foods.
Starting with the standard beef seaweed soup retort, there were abalone seaweed soup, pollack seaweed soup, mussel seaweed soup, bone broth seaweed soup, seaweed soup-flavored rice noodles, seaweed soup cup noodles—all kinds of seaweed soup. Not only that, but even for the same seaweed soup retort, there were more than five different brands, and there were differences in preparation methods too. Instant seaweed soup that just needed to be microwaved, seaweed soup made by pouring hot water over frozen cubes, seaweed soup that just needed to be boiled, and even simple seaweed soup meal kits. It was truly a mecca of seaweed soup.
Were there this many types of instant seaweed soup? Bonoh, who had come to the mart thinking he’d choose from at most five or six options, was slightly flustered by the unexpectedly large variety. Not knowing Taeseong’s seaweed soup preferences, Bonoh safely chose beef seaweed soup retort.
After adding instant rice, the empty space in the shopping cart bothered him. A birthday feast with just instant rice and seaweed soup would surely be as pathetic as the spacious shopping cart. Since he was going to prepare it anyway, he wanted to set a table so full the legs would break. Regardless of his affection for the birthday feast’s recipient, the poor environment stimulated Bonoh’s stubbornness.
Right, I may not have cooking utensils, but do I lack pride?
Bonoh, who had been glaring at the shopping cart, was fired up with fighting spirit. Since childhood, once he fixated on something, he would rush in regardless of fire or water. If that had been academics, Bonoh’s life might have been easier, but unfortunately, it was always trivial things.
Things like untangling disposable cable ties, earning 100,000 won by getting 100 won for each gray hair plucked from dad’s head, counting holes in mosquito nets, and such. He got bored easily too, and Bonoh’s concentration would cool down as quickly as it had burned hot, so there weren’t many things he’d seen through to the end.
What Bonoh was fixated on this time was “preparing a birthday feast for a roommate he wasn’t on great terms with in poor conditions without any cooking utensils.” Fire is the beginning of humanity. Even if you’re stranded on a deserted island, you must make fire by any means first. But preparing a birthday feast without that essential tool? To Bonoh, this was a reckless challenge and an Olympics.
Bonoh’s shopping, which began with fire in his eyes, ended only after going around the two-story mart thirteen times per floor, a total of twenty-six rounds. Since it was shopping that required considerable stamina, Bonoh ate a piece of Vienna sausage, a cup of yogurt, half a steamed dumpling, and a piece of tteokgalbi every time he passed the tasting corner. At the eighth round, the sharp-eyed yogurt tasting corner employee gave him a look, and after that he just passed by.
He headed to the dorm with a full 20L volume-based garbage bag in his left hand and a cake in his right. Since shopping took more time than expected, he had no choice but to buy a fresh cream cake from the bakery inside the mart.
Absorbed in preparing the birthday feast, it was already time for Taeseong to come in. Bonoh hurriedly finished up. As soon as he set down the last bowl, he heard the sound of the door opening.
Taeseong, who was about to enter the room, stopped when he saw the meal spread out in the center of the room. On a folding table that appeared from who knows where, food was piled up. Bonoh, sitting in the direction facing the entrance, looked over the meal with proud eyes.
The first things that caught the eye were rice and seaweed soup in disposable containers. Behind them, spring rolls, Peking duck, tteokgalbi, cabbage kimchi, seasoned dried squid, and salted squid were neatly arranged on disposable plates. The spring rolls and Peking duck were even individually rolled for easy eating. As if to show it was for two people, there were rice and seaweed soup in front of Bonoh too. The yogurt placed to one side seemed out of place, but overall it was an excellent table setting.
“No, what is this…”
“I didn’t use any cooking utensils for this! I cut the spring roll ingredients with a fruit knife and rolled them in rice paper, and the Peking duck had a kit so I just heated the duck meat in the microwave and wrapped it in wheat crepes. The side dishes I bought…”
As soon as Taeseong started to speak, Bonoh waved his hands and rattled off words. Worried that Taeseong might report him again, he tried hard to explain the process of making each dish while pointing to them.
“That’s not it—why did you suddenly set up a table?”
Taeseong’s eyes narrowed. Every time Taeseong showed such an attitude of being wary of a shameless pervert, Bonoh felt wronged to the point of going crazy.
That damn gay thing! It was definitely because of the gay thing. Bonoh felt the urge to protest, but he kept his mouth shut. After being told he was acting guilty when he brought it up first before, he hadn’t even mentioned it until Taeseong brought it up.
“No, it’s your birthday so I prepared a birthday feast… I didn’t know what you liked.”
“Ah, has it already become that day? Wait, but how did you know my birthday? You must be very interested in me?”
Taeseong’s eyes glinted sharply. It was the same look he had when Bonoh wore short sleeves and flapped his clothes because he was hot, or when he watched movies on his laptop in bed. Bonoh didn’t know exactly what that look meant. However, Bonoh’s intuition told him that Taeseong was demanding something. It was closer to demanding it be brought out as if it were perfectly natural. Bonoh couldn’t even guess what that something was. Is there something I borrowed and didn’t return? Even when he thought about it, nothing came to mind. Standing before that gaze felt like being plagued by debt.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
