PSY CH 2

Jooyoung blinked slowly, his face blank with confusion. He didn’t understand what the man had just said. His lips parted to reply, but no words came out.

“Are you a twiggi or not?” 

Jooyoung hesitated, then asked back.

“…What’s a twiggi?”

The man frowned, as if the question had caught him off guard. After a brief pause, he rephrased. 

“I mean, are you mixed?”

At the mention of “mixed,” Jooyoung suddenly remembered how the neighborhood elders back in Maeyang used to marvel at him, saying he looked just like a twiggi.

“I’m not mixed.” 

Jooyoung replied, shaking his head. Then he paused, staring quietly at the man. The face was unfamiliar, and yet, there was something vaguely familiar about it.

The other person stared right back at Jooyoung. A strange silence settled between them, as if the pouring rain had locked them inside their own world.

“You…”

Just as the man was about to open his mouth, someone appeared at the entrance of the building.

“Hwangdo!”

The man turned his head in that direction.

“Let’s go. The others are here.”

The curly-haired man who appeared out of nowhere said only that and immediately disappeared. Amid the sound of rain, a loud electronic noise burst out and then quickly faded. He seemed to have entered the adult arcade right next door.

The man turned his head back to Jooyoung. Jooyoung had stopped, halfway through eating his ice cream.

At that moment, the man suddenly approached and bent down.

“Uh…”

Startled, Jooyoung took a step back, and at the same time, the man picked up the umbrella. He fiddled with the bent spokes for a moment, then folded the umbrella with such ease that Jooyoung’s earlier struggle seemed laughable. Jooyoung’s surprised gaze landed on the perfectly folded umbrella.

Without saying anything, the man leaned the umbrella against the wall and walked outside. Just like before, the noisy arcade sounds burst out and then vanished cleanly.

Jooyoung blinked and stared at the umbrella dripping water onto the floor. That guy didn’t look like it, but he had some interesting skills, the thought flashed through Jooyoung’s mind.

***

The pawnshop was located at the heart of Hapo-dong, a main street of Maeyang City. With a traditional market on one side and the intercity bus terminal on the other, banks and various franchise chains naturally gathered there, leading to the development of a commercial district. Regardless of age, almost everyone living in Maeyang hung out in Hapo-dong. Especially on Friday evenings, the streets were so crowded that the noise reached up to the fourth floor where the pawnshop was.

But during the day, the city wore a different color.

Faced with a two-lane road, low buildings no taller than five stories, and empty streets exposed under the sun, you could feel this was a small city. It was a stark contrast to Seoul, which was always overflowing with people day and night.

Jooyoung looked out at the misty scene and thought absentmindedly, What a boring neighborhood. 

Considering his childhood memories, it might have seemed a bit of a harsh judgment, but no other sentiment came to him.

“…”

He leaned on the window frame, idly passing the time.

Jooyoung’s daily routine was monotonous. He went back and forth between home and the pawnshop, and that was it. He wasn’t very outgoing to begin with, but strangely, ever since coming here, everything felt even more bothersome. The only time he went out was when he couldn’t stand the heat and bought ice cream—says it all.

“Uh…”

Just as he was aimlessly absorbing the dull scenery, Jooyoung let out a short exclamation. He spotted someone under a colorful umbrella rolling like a piece of candy.

“Are you a twigi?”

That guy’s rudeness in bluntly asking if he was mixed-race, and his unexpected kindness in fixing the umbrella—such stark extremes from the same person.

“Back, back. Yeah, you can come in more.”

The man opened the back door of a delivery truck parked near the sidewalk. Someone who had gotten out of the driver’s seat moved to the truck bed.

“Please unload it in order. If it gets mixed up, we’re screwed.” 

“Yes, yes.”

As the person in the truck bed handed over items, the man received them and carried them into the building, busily moving cargo through the light drizzle.

He transported the cargo.

A little while later, the man, having taken off his work gloves, shook his head, which was wet from the rain. It seemed that he had finished moving everything, as the person who had gotten out of the truck bed was heading back to the driver’s seat. The engine started, and not long after, the delivery truck drove away.

Jooyoung absentmindedly watched the truck drive off into the distance. Then he reached his hand out the window. Soon, rainwater gathered in the palm of his hand. Because he had left the screen open wide, the rain splattered onto his face as well.

Suddenly, he felt a gaze.

The man, who had taken off only one of his work gloves, was looking in his direction with a face that showed no sign of what he was thinking. His long hair, reaching to the nape of his neck, had all been swept back, and his clothes, soaked by the rain, appeared darker in color. 

The man knew Jooyoung had noticed his gaze, but he didn’t turn his head away. 

“…”

“…”

They stared at each other for a while. How long had it been? Just as Jooyoung’s arm, still hanging out the window, became soaked with rainwater, the man turned first. He disappeared into the building and did not come out again.

Jooyoung folded his right arm, which had been extended out the window. The rainwater dripped to the ground. 

For some reason, the man always stared at Jooyoung. Sometimes with a furrowed brow, sometimes with a face that seemed unreadable, like earlier. Whenever Jooyoung felt a gaze from somewhere, it was always that man. Even when talking playfully with others, if his eyes met Jooyoung’s, he would suddenly stiffen and stare at him intently. The man only watched without approaching.

Why did he stare like that?

Was it suspicion or territoriality toward an outsider, or perhaps just simple curiosity?

The only things Jooyoung knew about the man were that he often smoked outside the building and occasionally carried a toolbox up and down the stairs. At those times, he smelled strongly of sweat. That was all. 

“Who is he…?”

Every time Jooyoung felt the man’s gaze, he would think deeply about who he was. Though he didn’t remember, something about him felt strangely familiar.

As he looked down at his wet arm, lost in thought, his phone vibrated.

Buzz— Buzz—

Jooyoung closed the window and turned around without hesitation.

“Oh, Mom.”

It was a call from his mom. The background noise on her end was noisy, suggesting she was outside. When she asked what he was doing, he told her he was just lying down. He didn’t mention the pawnshop.

“How about you, Mom? Are you off work yet?”

― I’m in the middle of it. I think I’ll have dinner and head home. Oh, you all go ahead. I’ll finish this call and be home as well.

Hearing his mom’s voice after a week felt the same as usual. The surrounding noises that he had faintly heard earlier completely faded away. 

― Is everything okay?

“Yeah, nothing’s wrong.”

His mom sighed faintly, as if still worried. 

― If it’s tough, let me know. I’ll have your older brother come down right away.

“Alright.”

― Then let’s talk again soon.

“Uh, Mom…”

Jooyoung tried to keep his mom from ending the call, but he couldn’t find the right words to speak. His mom, unable to wait any longer, asked, “What’s wrong?” and only then did he finally open his mouth.

“How long do I have to stay here?”

― ……

The conversation, which had been flowing naturally, came to an abrupt stop. Jooyoung bit the inside of his cheek out of habit.

― Jooyoung-ah.

Breaking the silence, his mom called his name.

― You know you still need to be careful, right?

He gripped his phone tightly. Jooyoung answered in a hushed voice.

“…Yeah.”

― I’ve been swamped lately since I switched teams. Plus, Joosung’s getting married soon.

“…”

― Oh, did I tell you? Joomin started playing boccia.

As Jooyoung quietly listened, his mom continued in a soothing tone, “Son, why don’t you just think of it as taking a short break?” In the end, she never answered the question about how long he had to stay there.

“I just don’t know anyone here… so I can’t get used to it.” 

― I know, Jooyoung. But still…

His mom seemed to have remembered something and suddenly asked, “Ah, how about Dohyun?” 

“Dohyun?”

― You know, the one who used to follow you around. You went to the bathhouse together. He came over to our house a few times. Didn’t Grandpa tell you?

As soon as his mom mentioned it, a stream of related memories flooded back to him, and she added more details. Among them was the surprising revelation that the building the pawnshop was renting space in belonged to Dohyun.

― Anyway, if you need anything, just buy it with your card. I’ll call you again.

As she hung up, something sparkled in Jooyoung’s mind.

The bathhouse, Grandpa, Movie Day, and…

“Haengnim ah!”^[1]

The voice calling him in a thick accent.

“Ah.”

Jooyoung blinked.

“He’s Hwang Dohyun.”

The name, which he had forgotten until now, rolled off his tongue with such familiarity that it felt odd.

Jooyoung turned back to the window where he had been standing earlier. The rain had intensified, and the window was fogged up. The sound of the rain filling the silence felt unsettling.

“…He’s changed so much.”

Even crouched down, Dohyun’s large frame was impossible to hide. There was nothing left of the boy whose skinny arms and legs once looked like twigs. The back of his head, which he used to keep shaved with clippers, had grown out and now covered the nape of his neck, and the body under his soaked black T-shirt looked solid and powerful.

There was a clear reason Jooyoung didn’t recognize him, despite the many years they had spent together.

The boy who used to follow him around to an annoying degree had changed into a completely different man during their time apart.