PSY CH 26

Chirrr, chirrr—

The cicadas chirred loudly overhead. Sunlight poured through the street trees, intense and blinding, and the heated air was scorching.

Seoul, the city Jooyoung hadn’t seen in a while, looked no different from the day he’d left. His childhood room at his parents’ house didn’t feel abandoned at all; it felt like someone had just stepped out of it yesterday. Even the family dinner hadn’t felt awkward. Not even with his eldest brother, Joosung—whom he barely saw these days because of wedding prep.

Of course, it hadn’t all been smooth. They still clashed over the same old issues, and some arguments remained unresolved. It was only this morning, as Jooyoung packed to leave, that they managed a clumsy, half-hearted reconciliation.

Before heading to the terminal, Jooyoung planned to meet Seoah.

Despite it being a weekday afternoon, the streets were bustling. People strode past with purpose, traffic crawled along the roads, and towering buildings filled every direction his eyes turned. It was a far cry from quiet Maeyang.

Jooyoung turned into the alley and headed to the café where they were supposed to meet. The rich scent of roasted coffee beans lingered in the air, probably from the in-house roasting machine.

“Manager-nim! Over here!”

Seoah was already there, waving him over.

“What do you want to drink?” 

“Hmm… A-A^[1]?”

“I’ll go order. You want any cake?”

“I’m on a diet.”

Seoah had always talked about dieting, 365 days a year. But she never actually followed any meal plans or exercised, and in truth, she was already very slim. Since it was more of a habitual phrase than anything serious, Jooyoung took the hint and ordered a slice of cake for them to share.

“Ah, I really shouldn’t eat this…”

Even as she said that, Seoah picked up her fork before Jooyoung did. Her beaming smile was as bright as ever. After catching up and making it halfway through the cake, Seoah brought up that day.

“When I told him you’d quit, he looked so shocked.” 

“Ah…”

“Then he asked if he could get your contact info, but I told him that’d be difficult. I did good, right?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Jooyoung had changed his number before moving to Maeyang, so anyone calling the number on his old business card wouldn’t be able to reach him.

“But… wasn’t he someone you already knew? How come he didn’t know you changed you number?”

“Only a few people know my new number.”

Seoah suddenly put her fork down and clamped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes sparkled with emotion. 

“I’m honored.”

Jooyoung let out a soft laugh and took a sip of his coffee. 

“If anything like that happens again, let me know.” 

“Of course!”

Seoah playfully tapped her chest and told him to just trust her.

“Don’t worry too much. He hasn’t come back since then.”

“…Yeah.”

Jooyoung stirred his drink slowly, lost in thought. The ice clinked softly as the cubes bumped and shifted against each other.

After that incident, he and that person naturally parted ways. Honestly, they had already grown so distant before then that the breakup didn’t feel sudden. That was why it was all the more surprising that that person had shown up at the store. Jooyoung hoped it was nothing serious, but…

When he remembered those pitying eyes, that face twisted in shock, he couldn’t quite put his mind at ease. 

“Oh right, where did you say you were again? Ah! Maeyang? It was Maeyang, right?”

Seoah searched for Maeyang on her phone and mumbled, “Ooh, the sea.”

“I’ll come visit on my day off.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“What do you mean ‘necessary’? If I say I’m visiting, you should be happy about it!”

“You can just see me when I come up to Seoul.”

Seoah grumbled that he had no sense of romance. She didn’t seem to have considered how far Maeyang was from Seoul. Still, Jooyoung didn’t dislike the idea of her visiting, so he didn’t stop her from looking up more about the place.

***

The first thing to greet him when he stepped off the bus was the faint scent of naphthalene. That smell, which used to linger around his Grandpa when he was young, now gently filled the entire intercity bus terminal.

The waiting room was crowded with elderly people waiting for their buses. They sat hunched over on chairs with peeling paint, constantly wiping their necks with handkerchiefs. A giant fan was spinning, but it was no match for the sweltering heat.

Amid the bustle, Jooyoung spotted a familiar face. Had he noticed Jooyoung too? His eyes widened in surprise.

“Jooyoung-i hyung?”

Hangyeol quickly stood up and came over. Wearing a loose basketball sleeveless shirt and Bermuda shorts, he stood out starkly among the elderly. His curly hair, slightly tousled, framed his face, and the piercing ball on his face shimmered.

“Where’ve you been?”

“Hmm, Seoul.”

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and took the bag from Jooyoung’s hand.

“Let me carry it for you.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be going somewhere?”

“I was going to, but I don’t feel like it now.”

Wasn’t he at the terminal to catch an intercity bus? Hangyeol grinned, casually slinging Jooyoung’s bag over his shoulder. Since he himself said that he wasn’t going anywhere anyway, Jooyoung didn’t ask further.

The sidewalk in front of the terminal was chaotic with street vendors selling their goods. The market stretched all the way to the traditional market next door, and with people gathered in front to browse, the path was incredibly narrow.

“Hyung, come this way.”

Hangyeol noticed the situation and led Jooyoung down a wider street. They crossed one crosswalk, and the road suddenly opened up. Only then did Jooyoung let out a sigh of relief.

“How’s the work at the pawnshop? Is it a good fit for you?”

As they passed over the plum blossom bridge spanning the river, he asked. Jooyoung replied casually without much thought.

“There’s nothing particularly fit or unfit about it.”

He had to stay here for the time being anyway, so he was just following his Grandpa’s request. He was used to dealing with people in his previous job, after all, so it wasn’t particularly difficult.

“Your Grandpa asked you to do it, so you’re just doing it?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, you’re an adult~”

Hangyeol pondered for a moment, staring ahead, before lowering his head. He kicked a stone that had fallen out of a cracked sidewalk. 

“What do you do on the days you really don’t want to do it? You can’t just close the store whenever you feel like it, right?”

“I just close it.”

“Huh?”

“After all, Grandpa will never find out about it.”

Hangyeol laughed, looking as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Wow, isn’t that a bit rebellious?”

“It’s not like I do it every day.”

Jooyoung tried to open the pawnshop daily, but people’s lives rarely go as planned. On days like that, he simply gave up and chose to take a day off.

“Actually, I was about to run away earlier, that’s why I was there.”

“Run away?”

Jooyoung was a little surprised and instinctively turned to stare at Hangyeol. He thought Hangyeol was too old to be talking about running away, as he wasn’t some teenager going through puberty anymore.

“Oh, well, it’s not exactly running away, more like escaping.”

Hangyeol wrinkled his nose awkwardly, as if embarrassed.

“My family runs a restaurant, so on weekends, I have to help out there.”

“…”

“But honestly, I hate dealing with seafood, and serving just isn’t for me. But my parents expect me to take over the business, so they keep nagging me to learn it all quickly…”

“Do you really have to take over?”

“I’m an only child.”

Hangyeol pouted his lower lip. It made sense—successful restaurants often operate with a family-centered model, where even the children’s spouses work there. It must have been a tough situation for someone like Hangyeol, who wasn’t interested in the restaurant business.

“So, that’s why you ran away?”

“Yeah… they refused when I suggested hiring one more person for the weekend. I got seriously yelled at when I secretly posted an ad for part-time work last time.”

As they continued to talk, they found themselves in front of the building. Hangyeol naturally led the way inside. It seemed like he was planning to carry Jooyoung’s luggage up to the third floor, where his lodging house was located. Jooyoung didn’t refuse.

“Thanks.”

“Alright, here you go. For this, I’ll only charge you 10,000 won, hyung.”

Jooyoung laughed out loud at the light joke. After getting his bag back and just before entering the lodging house, he looked up at him and opened his mouth as he just remembered something.

“It looks good on you.”

Jooyoung pointed to the space between his eyebrows with his index finger.

“This.”

The two piercings glinted side by side between his eyebrows. They hadn’t been there just a little while ago. Although Jooyoung wasn’t particularly interested in tattoos or piercings, he thought they suited Hangyeol’s free-spirited vibe.

“Right?”

Hangyeol grinned brightly, boasting that he got them done in Busan. As if on impulse, he tossed his hair back and showed Jooyoung his ear.

“I pierced this here too.”

There were so many piercings that Jooyoung couldn’t tell which one was the new one, but Hangyeol was too busy bragging to care.

“You’re the first person to say it suits me. Everyone else says it’s disgusting, oh, Hwangdo!”

Just then, the lodging house door, which had been facing away from them, opened. Jooyoung instinctively took a step back as Hangyeol waved in recognition. When he turned around, he immediately locked eyes with Dohyun, who was holding the doorknob and looking down at them.

“I’m just helping carry Jooyoung-i hyung’s luggage.”

Hangyeol straightened his back and said this, hands shoved in his pockets. He nodded toward the stairs and asked if Dohyun wanted to go to the PC room with him.

“…”

Dohyun didn’t respond and kept staring at Jooyoung. 

“Hwangdo?”

Hangyeol, feeling confused, called out to him again, and only then did Dohyun’s gaze finally leave Jooyoung. Without saying a word, he turned and walked down the stairs.

“Ah, what’s going on here? Let’s go together!”

“…”

“Hyung, I’m going now!”

Hangyeol followed after Dohyun with lively steps. Left alone, Jooyoung couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling from the strange look that had been directed at him earlier. Something about it didn’t sit right.