#5
Soon even a shocked voice could be heard. His voice was definitely attractive, but it didn’t sound good when filled with such disgust. Bonoh turned his creaking body to face Taeseong. Taeseong was so shocked that he hadn’t even taken off his shoes yet, just staring at the messy room with a pale face.
“Oh, you’re back?”
“…’You’re back’? Is that what you say in this situation?”
Bonoh knew well that it wasn’t good timing to greet him. He even had pointless thoughts like ‘He should have come back just a little later!’
“No, I was planning to clean everything up before you came back. You came early.”
“Ha, how carefree of you.”
“…Should I kneel down then?”
“What use would it be for me to see you kneel?”
That was sharply said. It seemed better to finish cleaning the room rather than exchange more words. Bonoh bent down and placed the cleanly emptied pot on the room floor. He disconnected the gas from the gas burner and put it back in the carrier, then took the pot he’d briefly set down along with the utensils to the bathroom to wash them. In the process, the sink got stained with ramen oil, so it took quite a while to scrub it clean with a sponge.
Making ramen didn’t require elaborate equipment, so just cleaning that much was enough to return the room to its previous state. Bonoh, with wet wipes in hand, scrubbed the area around where he’d been sitting. After throwing the wet wipes in the trash, it seemed fairly clean.
Taeseong was still standing by the door with his arms crossed, watching every move Bonoh made. At least take off your shoes—having him just glare like that was very nerve-wracking.
“I cleaned it all up. Sorry, you can come in now.”
It clearly looked clean to Bonoh’s eyes, but Taeseong seemed displeased about something else and turned around to leave the room. If he was going to do that, why did he keep standing there?
And not long after, when Bonoh found out why Taeseong had left the room, he felt really, truly wronged. When Taeseong returned to the room, he wasn’t alone. Bonoh stuck his head out and looked at the person Taeseong had triumphantly brought along.
“Hello. We received a report. Excuse me, but we need to conduct a dormitory inspection.”
“There are cooking utensils in that carrier.”
This crazy bastard. A bastard without a shred of decency. Bad bastard. Why bring someone when you could just talk about it? The idea that he might be a good guy deep down is canceled. I’ve never seen such a malicious bastard!
Taeseong, who’d brought someone from the dormitory management office, thoroughly searched Bonoh’s carrier. Inside the carrier was the gas burner that had just been used. If it had been just that, maybe, but seeing even the rice cooker made the office person gasp.
“We’ll confiscate this, and you’ll get penalty points. But we’ll return it when you move out later, so you don’t need to look so devastated.”
“Please just let it slide this once…”
“A report was filed, so there’s nothing we can do about it. However, we don’t have any spare rooms, so changing rooms right now would be difficult. You’ll have to either move out completely or continue using this room.”
The woman who’d shown Bonoh a sympathetic expression turned to Taeseong and spoke. Bonoh’s mouth fell open. What, change rooms?
Taeseong’s handsome face crumpled mercilessly.
“When might spare rooms become available?”
“A room would open up if one of the residents moves out, or if someone like Taeseong-ssi requests a room change… It’ll probably take quite a while. Maybe it won’t be possible within this semester.”
The woman glanced at Bonoh as she spoke, but Taeseong didn’t seem to care whether Bonoh was staring at him with his mouth agape or not.
“Then please contact me immediately when a spare room becomes available.”
After the management office person left, Room 309 was briefly shrouded in cold silence. Bonoh looked at his empty carrier with a dejected expression. The household items he’d ambitiously prepared were confiscated without him even getting to use them properly.
“My household goods…”
Taeseong ignored Bonoh and sat down at his desk. Bonoh’s gaze pierced into the back of Taeseong’s head.
Though he hadn’t wanted to live in the dormitory, just as Bonoh had dreams about living alone, he also had dreams about having a roommate. Like skilled spies in espionage films, they’d evade the dormitory staff’s eyes to order late-night snacks and share them, during exam periods they’d sit at their respective desks studying and go to the convenience store together when sleepy, and sometimes they’d secretly pour hidden alcohol into paper cups and chat quietly.
Since Taeseong was his roommate, it was a dream he’d already half-given up on, but now that dream was completely shattered.
Taeseong’s comfortable daily life was equally shattered. Having entered the dormitory for certain reasons, Taeseong had gained an even bigger burden while trying to avoid a smaller one.
The cold silence that had lingered in the room after the management office person left didn’t last long. It was because Kim Bonoh had left the room to attend class. Bonoh, who had been standing stiffly as if ready to confront Taeseong, turned pale as soon as he checked the time. He immediately rushed to wash up and change clothes, moving frantically.
While Bonoh hurriedly left the room, Taeseong’s gaze never once turned toward him. With the sound of the door closing, silence descended on the room again.
Taeseong looked around the now-quiet room and let out a long breath. Various messy items scattered on the desk, clothes carelessly thrown beside the bed—these things caught his eye. Bonoh’s messily sprawled belongings seemed to cover the entire room. It was a lifelong regret that he couldn’t immediately throw all those things out.
To think he’d have to continue sharing a room with Kim Bonoh from now on.
At that thought, Taeseong felt his temples throb sharply. He frowned and pressed his temples with his fingertips.
“Ha…”
Taeseong took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled and closed his eyes briefly. Except for the occasional footsteps heard from the corridor, the room was quiet.
He was alone now. This was one of the rare moments when he was given time completely to himself without Kim Bonoh. Rather than worry about the misfortune to come, Taeseong decided to focus on the peace before his eyes.
To savor this moment, Taeseong took another deep breath. But something was strange.
“What is this smell?”
There was a strangely rancid smell coming from somewhere. Taeseong looked around with a menacing expression. Since Kim Bonoh was also a guy, was it foot odor or sweat smell? Taeseong’s gaze landed on Bonoh’s laundry basket. Taeseong’s face was colored with disgust.
But it didn’t seem like the smell was coming from there. And the smell itself was too subtle to be foot odor. Taeseong followed the smell to find its source.
Where Taeseong stopped was Kim Bonoh’s desk. On the desk was an opened bag of potato chips. Taeseong lifted the potato chip bag with just his fingertips as if touching something very dirty. Then he brought his nose close to it.
“Ugh, fuck…”
A rancid smell was wafting from inside the potato chip bag caked with cheese seasoning. If he’d finished eating it, he should have thrown it away; if he’d left some, he should have sealed it. Anger surged toward Kim Bonoh, who had left the half-eaten bag on the desk.
Even when Kim Bonoh wasn’t in the room, his presence was definite. Fuck, this won’t do. Taeseong grabbed his card key. He didn’t want to stay in this room for even a moment. Then he stopped at the door.
Why should I be the one to leave?
If he changed rooms, he’d have to pack and move his belongings again, and it was obvious that cleaning would be Taeseong’s responsibility. Such troublesome work should be the burden of the one who caused the problem. Not himself.
Taeseong looked down at the card key, then put it back in place. I just need to make Kim Bonoh leave on his own. A faint smile appeared on Taeseong’s lips.
Taeseong had tried to treat him like a civilized person, but he couldn’t just stay still when the other party was being crude. While Bonoh was away from the room, he came up with 38 ways to torment his roommate. This was all he could think of for now, but better ideas might come up gradually. Taeseong decided not to be impatient.
***
After waiting, the door opened. Taeseong quickly turned up the music volume. Taeseong’s first plan was noise. Among his senses, hearing and smell were particularly sensitive. While smell could become numb with adaptation, hearing was different. If Kim Bonoh had to continuously hear noise in a space where he should be able to rest comfortably, he would also suffer. A faint smile appeared on Taeseong’s lips.
So before Bonoh entered, Taeseong had searched for and played heavy metal music. Heavy metal was the complete opposite of his musical taste. Taeseong preferred bossa nova or jazz ballads over band music. He was so old-fashioned that even when listening to classical music, he enjoyed Bach’s music more than Wagner’s. To Taeseong, who didn’t understand the virtues of metal or rock genres, heavy metal sound was just noise, and naturally he believed it would be the same for Bonoh.
Ear-splitting electric guitar and vocals close to screaming filled the room. Taeseong’s expression gradually contorted, but he couldn’t turn off the music. If Kim Bonoh could suffer as much as he did, this level of risk was bearable.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
