DHG Ch 26

The Sunsoo’s, starting to wake up from their sleep, began to wander around. Heewoo shouted,

“Just take them. They’re free.”

In less than ten minutes, the small stall was crowded with Sunsoo’s from the same floor who had heard the news and rushed over.

“Really free?”

“Seriously, just take them?”

Heewoo answered yes to the Sunsoo’s who kept asking. He didn’t want to take money for things that weren’t his anyway.

“What a windfall. Hey everyone, pick quietly. You’ll wake up the competition.”

Hong Sunsoo, who had received the most nominations recently, chuckled, scratching the beauty mark on the tip of his nose. He was also the Sunsoo who had unintentionally relayed Daol’s lie to Won Madam.

Meanwhile, Daol stood behind the people happily saying “the early bird gets the worm,” looking bewildered.

Heewoo didn’t notice him as he was busy cleaning up discarded packaging. He only occasionally glanced at the clothes, which he’d been hesitant even to take out, now quickly finding new owners after just briefly touching their soft textures.

“Oh, hyung?”

Heewoo finally noticed Daol. He offered him a pair of soft wool gloves he had set aside, but Daol shook his head as if startled and quickly left.

Heewoo put the gloves in a small shopping bag and hung it on Daol’s doorknob.

That was Saturday morning. Daol didn’t step outside the Benny all day. Nor did he on Sunday, when he was supposed to meet his boyfriend again.

Daol, who had spent the weekend working and secluded, finally appeared on Monday afternoon.

“Heewoo, thanks for the gloves.”

Daol spoke to him as warmly as usual, as if nothing had happened. Handing him a vitamin juice, Heewoo simply thought it was fortunate. It seemed like Daol was finally starting to get over his boyfriend.

Then on Wednesday of the same week, unexpected hardship befell Heewoo, not Daol. As if aware of the space Heewoo had painstakingly cleared by discarding clothes, Jang Seungyung casually filled it with something new.

The incident started with shrimp.

Heewoo, who had gone up to the CEO’s office after being called as usual, was faced with an enormous amount of packaged food on the marble table.

A mountain of grilled shrimp with salt, raw spot prawns, raw squid, cockles, sea cucumbers, and turban shells. The other side dishes were equally appetizing. A fresh ocean scent wafted through the air, even more so than in the kitchen which used only high-quality ingredients.

“Do you know how to peel shrimp?”

When Jang Seungyung sat him down next to him and began like that, Heewoo thought he would now have to peel shrimp for the CEO.

However, the man skillfully peeled the shrimp for Heewoo himself. The large, plump shrimp meat quickly piled up in front of Heewoo.

“Eat.”

“…It’s so delicious. Thank you, sir. But how do you do that?”

Deeply impressed by the rich taste of the grilled prawns, Heewoo asked. Jang Seungyung grinned and demonstrated the technique with the fork in his large hand. Heewoo had wondered why there was a bundle of forks that looked like they should be used for pasta, and now he knew.

Heewoo diligently peeled shrimp and offered them to the CEO in return. By the time he finished the immensely satisfying meal, his hands reeked of seafood, but he didn’t care. Jang Seungyung chuckled and rubbed Heewoo’s fingers with a halved lemon to clean them.

That wasn’t the only thing the man casually offered.

“Don’t I get dessert?”

Jang Seungyung, who had followed him down to the kitchen, now smelling incongruously of lemons, handed Heewoo a small white shopping bag.

It was a new cell phone.

“For the juice.”

Jang Seungyung said, accepting a glass of his usual energy juice. Heewoo’s face became troubled.

He had thought that out of sight, out of mind, but the man who constantly barged into the kitchen for juice, offering delicious treats at every opportunity, was now presenting him with another expensive gift.

The shiny, unopened box already had a printed image of the device. It was clearly a new model, easily worth a hundred times the cost of the juice.

“I’m okay.”

He hurriedly returned the pristine box, but as always, his refusal was futile.

“There’s a SIM card in the shopping bag. The plan is included in the juice price. Sell it if you really don’t need it. I’m curious to see whose phone bill I end up paying.”

Jang Seungyung said in a tone that didn’t sound curious at all. Then, with a slow movement of his long limbs, he left with only the energy juice.

Heewoo stared blankly at the phone left behind. Less than a week after getting rid of the clothes, he had received another expensive item. And this was something he would look at more often than clothes.

He decided to dispose of it immediately. Whether the CEO paid someone else’s phone bill or not, he had to remove it from his life, just like the clothes. He was definitely going to do that, but….

As dawn broke and Heewoo returned to his room after work, the phone was still in his hand.

“…….”

He looked at the small electronic device with troubled eyes.

It was the first electronic device he could freely use since Kim Jinhwan had taken his away four years ago.

After his creditor had changed, he had asked Won Madam about the whereabouts of his old phone, just in case, but she had only replied that she didn’t know. Since he had bought the cheapest model available at the time, it was now quite outdated, so it was probably best to consider it lost.

He tried hard to recall the harmful effects of smartphones he had learned about in extracurricular classes at school, but the device he held in his hand after so long was far too convenient. As soon as he inserted the SIM card, he became accustomed to it as if he had been using a phone until yesterday.

It’s so much faster. The default apps are great, too.

And how can the sound quality be this good?

And the moment he discovered the separately packaged wireless earphones under the phone box, Heewoo collapsed on his bed like a defeated Sunsoo in the ring.

From now on, he could search for and listen to any music he wanted on video platforms. He could take lectures, and if he got stuck on a problem, he could ask questions in study forums. He wouldn’t have to feel awkward borrowing someone else’s phone to check GED test dates or university application deadlines.

I lived without these things.

I could live without them….

But it felt like a breath of fresh air. A breath of fresh air he hadn’t even realized he was missing.

He played some recent music he had wanted to listen to again after hearing it once and let out a small sigh. Since Jang Seungyung had appeared, his life had only become easier. The man kept giving him good things, making his life comfortable. This wasn’t good. This…

What if, because of this man, he started to accept the feelings stirring within him?

Just then, a light appeared on the screen, which had turned dark, reflecting his gloomy face. It was Mingeon, with whom he’d been keeping a distance but had talked to today using the SIM card installation as an excuse.

[Pyo Mingeon: Heewooㅇㅅㅇ]

[Pyo Mingeon: You installed the messenger app ㅇㅅㅇ?]

Heewoo’s eyes widened as he read the sudden messages. Some friends were different online than offline, but he hadn’t expected Mingeon to be one of them. The gap between this and his usual calm demeanor was extreme.

[Me: Yeah, but I’m not going to use it because of studying]

[Me: I’ll contact you by text]

He immediately deleted the app. He had already decided to delete it until he passed the GED, especially since he had been dwelling on the harmful effects of smartphones.

Still, thanks to Mingeon, his heavy mind felt refreshed. Suppressing a bewildered laugh, Heewoo suddenly got up. He then sat down at his desk and opened his workbook.

His face, now studying even after working non-stop until an hour ago, returning to his room to wash up, clean, lie down briefly, and now sacrificing sleep, was incomparably brighter than it had been six months ago.

Like the 198 million won debt he now believed he could repay, the future he could reach through studying seemed to stretch out before him like the horizon on a clear day.

A little distant, but still clearly visible.

His hand moved smoothly as he solved problems. Checking only the problems he could solve right now, Heewoo thought that the phone and the clothes were different issues.

As for his feelings… time would naturally resolve them. They would fade like pencil marks erased with a rubber.

Heewoo quietly but stubbornly focused on his studies. Only the half-white, half-yellow fluorescent light quietly illuminated the top of his head.

✮⋆˙

There were many things he wanted to look up on his new phone, like what his old friends were up to, the World Cup qualifying match schedule, and the latest music, but Heewoo resolutely held back. He used the phone only to look up information necessary for his studies or when the noise from the next room bothered him.

He communicated with Mingeon only through text messages, not the app. Mingeon didn’t seem to like texting much, so their contact became infrequent.

He still didn’t have Jang Seungyung’s number, the person who had given him the phone. He didn’t even know if Jang Seungyung had his number.

It was one evening in late November, when the first snow fell. Perhaps due to the weather, there were fewer customers than usual. During business hours, the CEO, who hadn’t mentioned the phone even once while coming and going from the kitchen, suddenly asked,

“Is the phone working alright?”

“Yes, I’m using it well. Thank you.”

“Good.”

The man ordered a juice. Originally, they didn’t take orders during business hours, but the man had been an exception for a long time. Heewoo always told himself it was because he was the CEO.