“I can’t eat food you make. Stay seated.”
It wasn’t just because the guy was a hopeless case who couldn’t even measure water properly. There was no way food made by the guy who had become stick-thin in just a few days would go down his throat.
Above all, he was grateful that the guy was saying he would try to eat, in other words, try to live, and felt like he should do something for him.
After pressing down the guy who was trying to get up, Jiho quickly turned around and headed to the kitchen. He didn’t know what expression he was making, but somehow he felt embarrassed to look directly at that guy with his current face.
There was still rice from yesterday evening in the rice cooker. Normally, he would have just eaten rice even if it had turned yellow after three days, but he didn’t want to do that now. He didn’t want to feed day-old rice to the guy who was saying he would eat after a long time. He wanted to feed him freshly cooked warm rice. So he stopped in the middle of washing the rice. He held the rice cooker handles with both hands and thought.
Damn. I feel like a mother.
Though it was embarrassing to feel like a mother, something that wouldn’t be in his fate since he was born with a penis, he couldn’t help it. He was about to pour out the cloudy water from the pot and turn on the tap when, “Um…”
“Huik, shit!”
“I’m sorry!”
Startled by the sudden voice right behind him, Jiho jumped in shock. Geun-yeong, who was even more surprised than Jiho who had hunched his shoulders and gripped the rice cooker tightly, stood at attention and apologized right away.
Severely embarrassed, Jiho composed his face as if nothing had happened before turning around. Looking down at the guy who had approached silently, perhaps because he had become so thin that his footsteps made no sound, and had startled him, he asked.
“What.”
“Um… shall I make fried eggs?”
“No thanks. I don’t like tough edges.”
“…I’ll try to make them without tough edges.”
“How would you do that.”
There was nothing to say if asked how he would manage that. Neither measuring the right amount of water for rice nor making fried eggs without burning the edges was possible with memory alone. Geun-yeong’s mood dropped dramatically. He wanted to be helpful, but he didn’t know how to do anything.
“Then I… could give you a massage…”
A massage, shit. I’m not an old man.
“It’s fine, man. Go sit down. And next time, make some noise when you come. You startled me.”
Embarrassed that he had been startled like a deer—not Ji Geun-yeong who lives in the back mountain—Jiho unnecessarily scolded him for making no sound. He immediately regretted it, but it was too late. Tsk, he clicked his tongue at himself and turned back to turn on the water.
The silence while he was filling the pot with water and turning it off seemed strange, so he glanced back to find the guy still standing in the same place, though he’d told him to go sit down. He wasn’t just standing there. His face was quite serious. Concerned about the scolding he had just given, he asked.
“What’s wrong? What’s the problem now?”
“I’m not sure what kind of noise I should make when I come…”
He couldn’t come whistling. For one thing, he didn’t know how to whistle. That’s something only perpetually happy children do, and Geun-yeong had never done it.
Jiho said while stirring the rice soaking in water:
“Haa… shit. Really. You take everything so seriously. Just say ‘I’m coming’ as you approach.”
“Ah, yes. I understand.”
He wasn’t going to ask for fried eggs, and the sudden offer of a massage was rejected. Though he had said he understood, he still stood behind him, and Jiho wished he would just go back to his seat and watch TV. Since he could feel the weight behind him the entire time he was washing the rice, he had to stop again. He wiped his hands on his thighs, turned around, and crossed his arms. The man leaning against the sink asked.
“What. What now?”
Why are you still standing there? It’s distracting.
The guy, whose hands were thinner than before but who was fidgeting with his hands clasped in a similar way to before, making Kyung Jiho feel ticklish inside, said:
“Um… is it possible… for me to go back to Boramchan Clinic starting tomorrow? I guess… not?”
“Why not? You can.”
Jiho emphasized that there was no reason why not, of course he could. It was getting annoying with Bong Tae-gu constantly texting to ask when Geun-yeong would be coming back. Above all, if the guy said he would be at Boramchan Clinic during the day, he might feel less anxious.
“I’ll call Tae-gu.”
“Thank you.”
After expressing his gratitude, Geun-yeong smiled brightly for the first time in a very long while. At the same time, woof woof, a dog barked. And Jiho’s mind became tangled.
The puppy…
Woof woof, it barked again.
Is smiling…
Woof woof woof, it barked again.
So prettily…
Woof woof woof woof, startled by the fourth bark, Jiho realized that for the long time it took the dog to bark through three cycles, he had been staring blankly at the puppy-like smiling face without hearing the sound, and at that moment he hurriedly turned away.
Unless the old man next door had suddenly brought a lover, the thumping sound was probably his own heartbeat.
He turned on the water. He made a strong water sound. The rice was spinning around, but somehow his mind was in confusion.
Track 14. No More Sorrow
Geun-yeong, who was washing his hair, drying it, and preparing to go out, heard movement outside the front door and ran out. Detective Kyung, who seemed to have briefly dozed off the night before, was gone when he woke up at dawn. Now, in the morning, he seemed to be returning.
Geun-yeong raised his head, estimating where the eye level would be, considerably higher than his own. The front door opened. Geun-yeong had to lower his head, which he had raised, and also had to freeze the smiling face he had prepared.
It was Detective Lee Dongjae.
Seeing the man who followed him in, he raised his head again. After composing his face that had momentarily frozen in surprise, he greeted him respectfully. He even said a small “welcome back” just loud enough for the one who wanted to hear it.
Lee Dongjae looked at the guy who was bowing and greeting him, looking neater after just having washed, and said:
“Oh. Yeah. Ji Geun-yeong. Your face looks much better. Now you look more like a puppy.”
A puppy?
Geun-yeong, wondering what that meant, looked at the person who might know the answer. Jiho, unable to give an answer, turned his gaze away.
Geun-yeong, unable to make eye contact with the man who had already crossed the entrance to the kitchen in one step and was now bent over with the refrigerator door open taking out water, asked Dongjae:
“Are you resting now?”
“No. I’ll have to take a short nap and go out again in the afternoon.”
Dongjae answered the guy whose face clearly showed he was thinking, what kind of work schedule is that…
“For us, when a case is thrown at us, we keep working in shifts until it’s solved. Three shifts is a luxury, two shifts is definitely not happening, this is just random shifts, random shifts.”
In the middle of drinking water, Jiho glanced at the guy who looked upset, lowered the water bottle, and wiped his lips with the back of his hand as he said:
“Put on your coat. I’ll take you to Boramchan.”
“No. I’ll try taking the bus-“
“To take the bus, you need to walk to the market entrance.”
“Yes.”
I understand. I’ll go that way. The guy was even nodding his head in response when Kyung Jiho spoke again.
“That’s why I’m giving you a ride.”
“It’s okay-“
“Hey, puppy, when someone offers politely, just take the ride. Keep talking back like that and I think you’ll get hit by hyungnim.”
Both the guy who absolutely wasn’t talking back and the man who had no intention whatsoever of hitting him looked at Dongjae simultaneously. Receiving both a reproachful look and a fierce glare at the same time, the man scratched the back of his head and pretended not to notice.
“Ah. It’s quite dry in here. I should hang up a towel before sleeping.”
Since the person who had stayed up all night needed to maximize his sleeping time, Geun-yeong moved as quickly and busily as possible. While he ran into the room, opened the closet, and put on his outer clothes, Dongjae, who had already washed his face and cleaned his hands and feet, was laying out bedding in the middle of the main bedroom.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
