PEN Vol 2 Ch. 10

Sejin’s original home was a semi-basement apartment located at the entrance of a residential neighborhood. Since there was a clothing factory right next door and the sound of the engines constantly filled the air throughout the day, the windows of the small, damp, and old apartment were always shut.

Most of Sejin’s short life had been spent in that suffocating space. On the other hand, the man’s house was unnecessarily large and spacious, so quiet that not a single noise from the outside could be heard at all. When Sejin lay down and closed his eyes to sleep, it was a peaceful space where only his own breathing echoed softly.

Sejin liked this silence.

He liked how, in this quiet house, there was no chance of missing parts of a conversation with his mother because of the sound of horns blaring outside. Once all the debt was paid off, Sejin dreamed of buying a home like this, where he and his mother could live together.

A warm, clean, quiet house free of mold and drafts.

To make that happen, he knew he needed to start saving money in advance, and his current circumstances didn’t allow him to take on part-time work, thanks to a certain nagging man who constantly interfered with his life plans.

Just thinking of him made Sejin’s blank face scrunch up in frustration. If it hadn’t been for that man, he would have already saved up at least 500,000 won by now… At this rate, when he finally left this house as an adult, he would be walking out with nothing.

He was tired of the man’s irresponsible nagging, telling him not to work part-time even though he wasn’t going to help with rent or savings. Studying wasn’t going to put food on the table, and it wasn’t as if one year of studying would miraculously get him into a university on a full scholarship.

That man, as expected, thought short-sightedly like someone uneducated.

Or, at least, Sejin thought so. Though recently, he was beginning to question whether he really was that uneducated—he seemed almost too smart.

Either way, thinking about the man made Sejin sigh deeply.

He consoled himself with the thought that once school break arrived, he’d finally be able to work a part-time job, and with that, he got out of bed.

When the blanket slipped off, the cold air touched against his warm body, making him shiver. He had been dealing with a mild fever for days, but since it wasn’t interfering much with his daily life, he hadn’t bothered taking any fever medicine for it.

Sejin went to the bathroom, washed his face lightly, and stepped out. It was almost 9 AM, and the house was still silent, suggesting Cheon Sejoo was still asleep.

He went straight to the kitchen and began organizing the refrigerator. He took out the eggs and ingredients he had bought the previous weekend and placed them on the counter. He also gathered the remaining side dishes into one bowl, planning to finish them off for breakfast.

He soaked the eggs in cold water to make jangjorim ^[1]and set them on the induction stove. Then, he scooped out the remaining rice to make his breakfast.

After finishing his meal in ten minutes, Sejin cracked and peeled the hot, boiled eggs in cold water peeled off the remaining skin from the pork tenderloin, and set it to boil. Meanwhile, he trimmed some slightly wilted green onions, setting half aside to make green onion kimchi for a couple of meals, and chopping the other half into finger-length pieces to use for making green onion pancakes later.

While Sejin was busily tending to the household chores, Cheon Sejoo finally woke up. It was almost noon when he got up, wearing a loose pair of sweatpants that barely clung to his waist and a thin white t-shirt that revealed the tattoo on his back. Yawning, he walked into the living room.

His hair was a mess, and his face still carried traces of sleep.

Still drowsy and with his hair disheveled, he shuffled over to the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, and downed a 500mL bottle in one go as if he was drinking water. After that, he reached for a bottle of water, took it with him and headed for the sofa.

The sound of the man flopping down on the sofa and searching for the remote reached Sejin’s ears, and he glanced over the living room, unable to hide his disdain.

The TV, which had been off, flickered to life, playing some random cartoon. The grown man sat there, engrossed as if he were a child watching a silly cartoon show.

That was the entirety of Cheon Sejoo’s weekend routine. Lying around, getting up only to go to the bathroom, smoke a cigarette, or take a nap. The man who lectured Sejin about preparing for the future spent his days acting like someone with no future at all.

The discrepancy between his words and actions was so extreme that Sejin couldn’t help but feel rebellious toward him.

Every time he nagged at him, Sejin was reminded of the 47-year-old son of the elderly woman who was his former neighbor. Of course, Cheon Sejoo who exuded the atmosphere of a scene straight out of a movie, even while lying down with an exhausted face, was beyond comparison….

In any case, that 47-year-old man had been preparing to become a civil servant for 20 years, and with the shallow knowledge he’d picked up somewhere, he would nag at Sejin and his mother whenever he saw them.

It was just nonsense disguised as advice.

Sejin stared intently at the man, who lay there with his shirt riding up, exposing his scarred lower abdomen as he smoked his cigarette.

He should take care of himself first….

Sejin shook his head as he looked at him, the laziest person in the house, who had the nerve to nag him all the time and then headed toward the living room.

With a bang, Sejin opened all the windows to let in the fresh air and get rid of the cigarette smell. Only then did Cheon Sejoo finally acknowledge him.

“Hey…”

He trailed off, as he stubbed out his cigarette and looked up at Sejin.

“I’m cold.”

“It’s time to air the place out.”

Sejin replied coldly and headed back to the kitchen.

It was already lunchtime.

Although he had eaten breakfast just two hours earlier, Sejin, whose stomach emptied quickly, decided to have lunch with Cheon Sejoo, so he prepared a new bowl of rice and began frying some green onion pancakes. He placed about eight perfectly simmered soy-braised eggs into a bowl, and also transferred the radish salad and green onion kimchi to separate dishes.

In the meantime, Cheon Sejoo, without Sejin noticing, secretly closed the windows and curled up on the sofa like a cocoon, waiting for the cold air in the living room to dissipate.

Once Sejin finished setting the table, he called out to him before serving the rice.

“Lunch is ready.”

As he watched Cheon Sejoo practically roll off from the sofa and drag himself toward the table weakly, Sejin turned away. He scooped rice into the bowls—half a bowl for Sejoo, a full one for himself. He didn’t do it on purpose, Cheon Sejoo simply wasn’t someone who had much enthusiasm for meals.

While Sejin was preparing the rice, Cheon Sejoo grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and placed it on the table. As they sat across from each other, eating in silence, Sejin kept his eyes down. He didn’t want to meet Cheon Sejoo’s gaze, who knew what kind of nagging might follow if he did. So, instead, he kept his eyes on his rice bowl while rattling off what needed to be said.

“We need to go grocery shopping today. We’re out of rice. The vacuum cleaner is broken. It won’t charge. We also need to buy disposable mop cloths and bleach, and I want to get a new cleaning brush.”

“What are you even talking about… Are you rapping?”

Sejin had gone to the trouble of listing all they needed, but it seemed like Cheon Sejoo hadn’t really been paying attention. At his question, Sejin raised his eyes and shot him a sharp look in frustration.

However, as soon as their eyes met, Cheon Sejoo let out a small laugh, picked up his chopsticks, and casually placed an egg on top of Sejin’s rice.

“Nice rhyme.”

“…”

He had heard everything after all.

But instead of responding seriously, Cheon Sejoo found it amusing and even joked around. Sejin’s brow furrowed even more at that.

Cheon Sejoo, clearly pleased with his reaction, rested his chin in his hand that was on the table and laughed softly before speaking again.

“I’ve got plans today. I’ll be back late tonight. We’re not completely out of rice, right?”

Sejin thought for a moment, recalling the amount left in the rice container, and nodded. There was just enough for a day or two.

“Then we’ll go tomorrow.”

The large grocery store was close enough, and they even offered delivery these days, so it wouldn’t have been a problem for Sejin to go alone, but he didn’t want to.

Sejin also needed to buy larger home appliances like a vacuum cleaner, but he had no idea how much to spend on one. The thought of accidentally buying something too cheap or low quality and being scolded by Cheon Sejoo for it seemed annoying and unbearable. And so, he decided it would be better to just go together and have the man pick it out himself.

When Sejin nodded in response, Cheon Sejoo lowered his head to continue eating. But suddenly, he put down his chopsticks and reached out his hand hastily. His cold fingers touched Sejin’s warm forehead.

“You still have a fever.”

“Get off.”

Sejin tilted his head to the side, brushing his hand away. Despite Sejin’s reaction, as if he were dealing with something dirty, Cheon Sejoo casually withdrew his hand and looked Sejin up and down before asking.

“Are you in pain anywhere?”

“No.”

“How can you still have a mild fever after several days?”

Since Wednesday evening, when they had gone to Ehwagak and been exposed to the cold wind, Sejin’s fever had raised briefly before dropping again. However, he was still suffering from a mild fever hovering just above 37°C.

However, Sejin had grown accustomed to it after a few days, even the aching in his joints had become so familiar that it no longer bothered him. There was no mystery as to why he had still a fever, so he simply shrugged it off and focused on eating.

And so, that’s how the rest of their weekend passed.

After finishing their meal, Cheon Sejoo instructed Sejin to finish 30 pages of a middle school math workbook before he left the house. Sejin procrastinated on studying, only spent his time cleaning the house until the floor practically gleamed, then finally starting on the math problems just around the time Cheon Sejoo was supposed to return for dinner.

However, despite saying he would be back late, midnight came and went, and Cheon Sejoo still hadn’t returned.

Sitting in the dark living room, studying, Sejin glanced at the clock. The long hand had just passed 12:10 AM.

Did “late at night” mean he’d be back by dawn?

 If so, he should’ve just said he’d come back tomorrow…

With a pout, Sejin bit his lip and began tidying up the table. He gathered his notebooks, mechanical pencils, and eraser together, placing the workbook on top, and stacking them neatly on the table. He felt satisfied with how well he had solved the problems, so he was really excited to check the answers. However, the thought of the man being surprised when he graded them made Sejin decide to wait until tomorrow.

Having organized and cleaned up everything, Sejin went straight to bed. His mind was exhausted from all the thinking he had done, so he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next morning, Sejin woke up at his usual time.

Lying there, staring blankly at the ceiling, he suddenly remembered what happened last night. His gaze turned to the workbook on the bedside table, feeling proud of himself.

Getting out of bed, Sejin headed to the bathroom. After he took a shower and changed his clothes, he grabbed his workbook and notebook and then went to the living room.

It was 7 AM, too early for Cheon Sejoo to be awake. Sejin ate breakfast and tidied up the kitchen while waiting for him to come out. Since they planned to go to the grocery store today, he neatly listed out the things they needed to buy on a note.

But even by 9 AM, the man hadn’t woken up.

Sejin, growing impatient, studied English words in the living room alone but eventually found himself staring at Cheon Sejoo’s bedroom door in frustration. He sighed, wondering when exactly the man, who stayed out late and slept in, was going to help him with his studies.

As time passed, and around noon, Sejin couldn’t wait any longer and knocked on the man’s door.

“Are you up?”

He asked softly, but there was no reply. Sejin didn’t want to go into someone else’s room while they were sleeping, but he knocked again before gently pushing the door open.

“You’re still asleep?”

His whisper slipped through the slightly opened door.

Sighing once more, Sejin fully opened the door, intending to wake him up, since they had to go to the grocery store and there were still many things they needed to do.

However, as the inside of the room came into view, Sejin realized there was no one lying in the bed.

At that moment, Sejin felt a cold sensation spread through his chest as he calmly scanned the room. Everything was as he had left it after cleaning the man’s room. The bedding hadn’t been touched, the lights were off, and there was no trace of anyone being there.

Cheon Sejoo hadn’t come home at all.

As soon as Sejin registered that fact, his expression hardened, freezing like frost.

It felt as if the expectations he had been secretly harboring deep from a corner of his heart were crumbling all at once. His hand which gripped the door handle, tightened, and for a brief moment, a look of disappointment flashed across Sejin’s face.

Then, without a word, his face returned to a blank expression as he quietly closed the door and walked away from the man’s room. Returning to the living room, Sejin didn’t bother to contact him. Instead, he went into his own room, grabbed his coat, and put it on.

He left the house and headed to the grocery store alone.

There was no longer any need to wait for the other person.