#4
Bonoh barely swallowed the sesame leaf pancake he was chewing and made a bewildered face. Then Junghwan also nodded in agreement.
“People should sleep when night comes.”
“No, but isn’t 12 o’clock too early? And turning off the lights without saying anything!”
Bonoh leaned forward in frustration and pressed against the table. But his friends showed no signs of taking Bonoh’s side at all.
“Kim Bonoh, monitor the school community well. Your complaints are going to get posted there.”
“Hey, what are you going to do about Kim Bonoh’s roommate? You’re going to suffer because you got stuck with the wrong roommate.”
They seemed determined to tease Bonoh.
“Ah, I’m the one who got stuck with the wrong roommate!”
Bonoh raised his voice in frustration and retorted, but Hyungwoo and Junghwan didn’t even listen and just laughed among themselves while moving their chopsticks.
“Wow, the pancakes here are delicious.”
Bonoh was boiling with anger inside, but his friends were peacefully focused on eating. Then a thought suddenly crossed Bonoh’s mind.
“Gasp, what time is it now?”
Talking about Taeseong naturally reminded him that the dormitory had a curfew. When he was living alone, no one said anything whether he came home at 4 AM or didn’t come home at all. If he had lived in the dormitory from the beginning it would be one thing, but having tasted the freedom of living alone, Bonoh felt bitter.
“It’s only 12 o’clock now, dude.”
Hyungwoo checked the time on his phone. The dormitory main gate locked at 2 AM, which was the curfew. He could drink until 6 AM when it opened again, but unfortunately, staying out without permission meant penalty points.
No matter how much getting kicked out of the dormitory was Bonoh’s wish, he couldn’t leave less than a month after moving in. He had to live in the dormitory for at least a few months while watching his mother’s mood. Then when he casually brought up living alone and the reaction wasn’t bad, that’s when he planned to steadily accumulate penalty points.
Bonoh calculated the remaining time. He had 2 hours left now, but the bar and school were close anyway, and even though it was uphill from the main gate to the dormitory, if he ran it would be quick… Having finished his calculation, Bonoh set an alarm for 1:45 and raised his drink again.
The bar was a place that sold pancakes and makgeolli, so it had a traditional interior. The wallpaper pattern was reminiscent of Korean paper, and the yellowish lighting and hanok-style entrance harmonized well. The problem was whether it was necessary to insist on traditional interior design even for the bathroom.
The bathroom, which looked old at first glance, was narrow and dirty. There was grime on the broken tiles, and the door looked so weak in durability that it was questionable whether it would lock properly.
“Ah… I’m dying.”
Bonoh stood leaning against the bathroom wall and let out a “phuuu” sigh. With his remaining hand, he wiped his face.
The bathroom door rattled. It seemed like it would burst open with just a little more force. Bonoh urgently shouted, “Someone’s inside!”
Having drunk excitedly, it felt like alcohol was circulating through his entire body. Before his leave of absence, he used to drink until 5 AM, but he didn’t know if it was because he drank too hastily or because he was just a few years older. His head felt foggy and his senses dulled. While worrying about how to get to the dormitory, he simultaneously wanted to be stubborn and not go.
Bonoh turned on the faucet to clear his head. He tried hard to rub the cracked piece of soap, but no foam came out.
Then the alarm on his mobile phone in his pocket rang. It was the alarm he had set to ring at 1:45. Bonoh opened the bathroom door and came out. The person who had been waiting right in front of the door looked at Bonoh resentfully for coming out late.
Leaving behind Hyungwoo and Junghwan’s jeers, Bonoh left the bar. The bars around the university were still in full swing. He didn’t know when it would be, but when he got to live alone again, he should clean a bit more, Bonoh resolved.
Before he knew it, Bonoh had arrived at school and stopped in front of the uphill path. The thought that he had to run up this hill, not just walk up it, made his vision go dark. However, with little time left, he had no choice but to start running frantically. It felt like the makgeolli was sloshing around inside him. Dry heaving came up, but he swallowed his saliva and headed to the dormitory.
A security guard was standing in front of the entrance. It was just before the door would lock.
“Mister! Wait, huff, huff. Just a moment!”
He could hear the security guard clicking his tongue, but fortunately he was able to make it just barely safe. He was trying to stand still and catch his breath when “urgh” nausea came up. It was from running. Feeling like he might make bindaetteok right in the dormitory lobby, he frantically pressed the elevator button.
The room he rushed into was dark. He fumbled along the wall to barely turn on the bathroom light and poured it all into the toilet. He almost would have made a disgraceful scene in the dormitory hallway.
“Urghhhh…”
Bonoh made sounds that might be heard in a B-grade zombie apocalypse movie and flushed. He barely washed his hands and feet and started brushing his teeth. When he bent down to wash his feet once, and when he cleaned his tongue once more, crises of wanting to vomit again came but he barely got through them.
Feeling dizzy, he lowered the toilet seat cover and sat on it. Ah, will this be okay tomorrow? Bonoh clapped his hands to see how drunk he was. If it hurt, he could still drink more, and if it didn’t hurt, he was drunk?
Clap!
Because he clapped with wet hands, the sound was loud, but he felt nothing in his hands. Was it too weak? Bonoh repeated the action consecutively as if he had become a clapping machine. Even though the sound of flesh hitting flesh was heard continuously, there was no feeling of pain.
He quietly came out of the bathroom. He picked up his pajamas that were left like shed skin exactly as he had taken them off in the morning and was about to go back into the bathroom to change, but just changed right there. The lights were off anyway and Taeseong would be sleeping. After quickly changing, Bonoh fumbled around the head of his bed looking for his phone charger.
He put his hand under the pillow and lifted the blanket, but couldn’t find it. To go to morning class again tomorrow, his phone alarm had to ring, and for the alarm to ring, he had to charge his phone. Courtesy to his roommate, or class? After hesitating for 5 seconds in the darkness, Bonoh eventually turned on the light.
As soon as he turned on the light, what he saw was Taeseong covered with the blanket pulled up to the top of his head. Seeing him grab the blanket and turn around abruptly, he was definitely quite angry.
He was thinking of just finding the charger and turning off the light quickly, but Bonoh’s gaze was stolen by Taeseong’s feet. Because of his tall height, his white feet were sticking out from under the blanket. Taeseong had a face that was a face, but his feet were also feet. Meaning his feet were as pretty as his face was handsome. The foot size looked quite large, but because his toes were long and neat, there was no rough feeling at all. The feet of the guys he met in the military were all rough and smelly without exception.
Whether it was because of the alcohol, Bonoh stood there staring at the feet in a daze, completely forgetting to turn off the light, let alone look for the charger.
“Aren’t you turning off the light?!”
Finally, Taeseong pulled down the blanket he was covered with and shouted angrily. Having been yelled at by Taeseong, Bonoh went “uh, uh” and barely found the charger and turned off the light.
Was I too noisy when I came in earlier?
Only after lying down did Bonoh realize that he had come in making a world of noise. When he left the bar, he had thought he should sneak in quietly, but with the rising nausea, he wasn’t in the right mind for that. On top of that, he had even been clapping, so it was understandable that Taeseong would be angry. He tried to apologize, but it was obvious that talking to him now would only fuel Taeseong’s anger. He closed his eyes thinking he would apologize tomorrow.
…He thought he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but strangely, Bonoh couldn’t fall asleep. Bonoh blinked in the darkness and stared at the ceiling. Looking at the dark ceiling, white feet naturally came to mind. Did he stare too long earlier? He must have been staring at the feet that felt bright enough to be dazzling, then suddenly being placed in darkness left an afterimage. Bonoh turned toward the wall.
***
Fortunately, the 9 AM class wasn’t the only thing on Bonoh’s schedule. On the only morning without a 9 o’clock class, Bonoh woke up leisurely and downed the hangover remedy he had bought yesterday while completely drunk.
“Ramen…”
Ramen was a bit problematic. When he bought it, he really wanted to eat it and still wanted to eat it now, but basically eating was prohibited in the dormitory. If only his roommate was someone who would turn a blind eye or could enjoy it with him, but with a person like Taeseong, he couldn’t expect to be able to eat.
But wouldn’t it be okay to eat now while Taeseong was away? He just had to eat it and clean up perfectly afterward. He didn’t know when Taeseong would come back, but he was confident in eating quickly. Bonoh rummaged through one of his suitcases and took out a gas burner, pot, and tumbler. With the sole intention of not getting caught on the dormitory hallway CCTV, he even repeatedly went back and forth filling the tumbler with water and started cooking ramen.
Put in the ramen soup packet, add the noodles after it boiled, and unfortunately there was no egg or anything, but this was a luxurious meal in the dormitory. When the noodles were fully cooked, Bonoh stirred it with chopsticks and finally cheered at the completed ramen and began to quickly slurp it up. It had been a long time since he had cooked and eaten ramen himself.
“Ah, I’m full.”
Maybe because it was morning, his stomach was completely full. Since he had drunk all the broth, it was natural that he was this full. Still, he remembered that he should ventilate. Bonoh barely got up and threw the window wide open.
Then, he heard the sound of the door opening.
“…Are you crazy?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
