PSY CH 12

[Hope Lodging House]

6 p.m. He was now standing in front of the lodging house on the third floor.

It was a place he’d passed by many times without ever giving it a second thought. Goes to show—you really never know where life will take you.

Jooyoung glared at the sign with a scowl. The bulky yellow sign had long since faded and peeled from age. Judging by what little he could see through the opaque glass door, the inside didn’t look to be in much better shape.

“Sigh.”

He let out a heavy sigh before opening the door. He’d been worried it might be locked with a door lock installed, but luckily, it wasn’t.

Inside, a long corridor greeted him. It split off in two directions, with rooms lining both sides. It was larger than he expected. At a glance, there had to be at least 40 rooms, probably more.

Looking around, Jooyoung made his way toward the manager’s office on the right. Knock knock. He tapped on the door, but there was no response.

“Can I help you with something?”

Just as he was wondering what to do, he felt a presence from behind. Jooyoung turned to see a man approaching, hair tied back with a headband. Looked like the building manager.

“I just wanted to check if you had any vacant rooms.”

“Ah, yes, yes, we do.”

The man opened the office door and gestured for Jooyoung to come in. The room was about 10 m² in size, containing a desk with a computer, CCTV monitor, and a small printer-copier, along with a tiny bookshelf stuffed with files. The manager, now seated in his office chair, pulled out a backless chair from under the desk and slid it over to Jooyoung.

“A room just opened up the day before yesterday. If I clean it up, you could move in within this week… Are you in a hurry?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay, not in a hurry…”

The man nodded exaggeratedly while scratching his thigh. His legs, exposed beneath short shorts, were tanned like he’d been out in the sun for a long time. Since he didn’t have a regional accent, he was probably from out of town, like Jooyoung.

“It’s one of the rooms with a window and a private bathroom, so it’s a bit more expensive. 300,000 won^[1].”

“That’s fine.”

The man pulled out a written agreement from the drawer, filled with rules and precautions. He held it out as if telling Jooyoung to read it, then suddenly turned to look at him.

“Oh right, you should see the room first. Want to take a quick look now?”

He was already half-rising from his chair, but Jooyoung shook his head.

“No, that’s okay.”

“Huh… You’re not going to look at it?”

The interior was cleaner than expected—probably due to some remodeling—but it was still a lodging house. The rooms would all be more or less the same so he didn’t feel the need to check. What he needed right now wasn’t a clean home, but a place where he could be alone.

“Yeah. No need.”

Jooyoung’s firm refusal made the man pull a strange face. It was unusual for someone looking for a place to show so little interest in the room’s condition. But then he let out a hearty laugh. Honestly, people who didn’t nitpick every little thing were easier to deal with. And this guy didn’t look like he’d be staying long anyway.

“Wow, you’re pretty chill.”

The man pushed the document fully toward Jooyoung and picked up his phone.

“Read this over. I’m going to go find the boss real quick.”

“Okay.”

Once the man left, silence filled the office. Jooyoung leaned forward slightly, resting his hands on the chair between his knees as he looked over the agreement. It wasn’t long before the door opened again. The person who stepped inside was Dohyun.

The unexpected encounter startled Jooyoung. It felt like someone was deliberately arranging the pieces of his life—no matter where he went, he ended up running into Dohyun. Dohyun seemed just as surprised, standing frozen halfway into the room with an awkward posture.

“The final contract needs to be done with the boss, alright? Ah, if any issues come up after you move in, just come to me! Then… welcome to this place!”

The cheerful voice came from the man peeking out from behind Dohyun before he disappeared down the hallway.

“…”

A brief silence followed. Then Dohyun, with a hardened expression, closed the door and sat down in the chair the other man had been using earlier. He pulled the rent room contract out of the drawer and placed it and a pen down in front of Jooyoung with a rough, indifferent motion. 

“You’re the boss?”

Dohyun replied with a curt, “Yeah.”

“I see…”

Jooyoung nodded and picked up the pen. The room was filled with the faint scratch of pen on paper. Once he’d filled out his personal information, Dohyun took the form back.

“Did he tell you the price?”

“Yeah. 300,000 won.”

Jooyoung filled in the room number and room fee before handing the form back. The only parts left were the expected move-in and move-out dates. He hesitated, pen in hand. What was he going to tell his uncle? How long did he plan on staying here? The worries he’d been trying to ignore suddenly came rushing in.

“Do I… really have to write a move-out date?” 

Dohyun looked at the line Jooyoung’s finger was pointing to. His reply came a beat late.

“Just write the end of the year or something.”

After a moment’s thought, Jooyoung wrote down the last day of the year—December 31st—as his planned move-out date. With his signature, the paperwork was finally complete. 

Dohyun slipped the contract into a folder and wrote down a bank account number on a sticky note. The handwriting was the same uneven scrawl Jooyoung had seen in the memo earlier. Looking closely, he realized Dohyun’s grip on the pen was a little awkward. He also seemed to press down too hard when writing.

“Why’d you come down here?”

Dohyun asked out of the blue, while jotting down the numbers. It was the first time he’d asked Jooyoung anything since he arrived in Maeyang. Jooyoung pressed his thumb into the center of his palm. His mind kept drifting to thoughts he didn’t want.

“Just because…”

“…”

“I came to get some rest.”

Dohyun gave a dry chuckle.

“Sounds like something went wrong.”

For a moment, Jooyoung thought he’d misheard.

“Huh?”

Dohyun tore the sticky note off and slapped it down in front of Jooyoung.

“Otherwise, why else would you come all the way down here?”

“…”

“You came because you couldn’t handle it.”

“It’s not like that.”

The way he spoke as if he knew everything rubbed Jooyoung the wrong way. Upon seeing Jooyoung’s sharpened gaze, Dohyun gave him a smug, unpleasant grin.

“Not like that.”

Jooyoung didn’t raise his voice, but the flat tone was unlike his usual way of speaking.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t assume things.”

“Sure, I’ll assume whatever I want.” 

Jooyoung’s insides boiled at Dohyun’s openly sarcastic attitude.

Dohyun’s blatant sarcasm made Jooyoung’s insides boil. He was already stressed to death, and now Dohyun was fanning the flames like it was nothing. The way the man calmly went about organizing the papers, minding his own business, only made it worse. But Jooyoung held back. If he snapped now, he’d be playing right into Dohyun’s hands.

“Have you been living here this whole time?”

After a moment of hesitation, Jooyoung asked. Surprisingly, Dohyun answered right away—different from how he used to be. 

“Yeah.”

“What about school?”

Dohyun, who had been slipping the duplicate of the contract into an envelope, looked back at Jooyoung.

“I mean, there’s no university around here.”

“I didn’t go to college.”

The answer came fast and dry, making Jooyoung blink. A beat late, he offered an awkward apology. 

“Ah… sorry.”

Dohyun didn’t seem to think there was anything to apologize for. Still, depending on the person, it was the kind of question that could come off as rude. The silence that followed felt uncomfortable, so Jooyoung tried to change the subject.

“Are you the boss of the other places too?”

Dohyun gave him a look like he didn’t get what he meant.

“The PC room… and the karaoke bar, too—” 

“That’s your copy of the contract. Don’t forget it.” 

Thud. The sound of the envelope hitting the desk cut Jooyoung off. Dohyun had tossed it down like he was done talking.

Jooyoung was starting to get irritated by Dohyun’s constant sarcasm and bluntness. 

“…Alright.”

He swallowed a sigh and picked up the envelope. It was thin—barely anything inside. With nothing left to say, he stood up. But then, out of nowhere, Dohyun spoke again.

“Just because your Grandpa’s not there, don’t start running the business half-assed.”

Jooyoung, standing by the door, turned to look at Dohyun.

“…Where is that coming from all of a sudden?” 

“I’m saying, don’t go giving people extra money just based on how they look.”

At first, Jooyoung didn’t understand. But it didn’t take long for him to realize what Dohyun was talking about.

“I can give you up to 500,000 won, with a 1.66% monthly interest rate. If you’re two payments late, it’ll be forfeited.”

The day Arin came by, there had been a clean, empty lunch container sitting neatly outside the metal door. Dohyun must’ve overheard their conversation when he came to return it.

Jooyoung was about to explain that it wasn’t like that, but Dohyun spoke again before he could. 

“Well, you couldn’t sleep with her for 500,000 won anyway. She’s got a temper—doesn’t do second rounds.”

“…What?”

Jooyoung froze, stunned by the barrage of crude, unfiltered words.