PSY CH 65

When Jooyoung stepped into the lodging house, he saw the back of Sunwoo, who was pinning up a new notice on the bulletin board. Maybe it was because Sunwoo was always bustling about, but Jooyoung ended up running into him more often than seemed coincidental.

“Good afternoon, Jooyoung-ssi!”

Sunwoo greeted him first, spotting him right away. After pressing the push pins down tightly, he stepped back to check if the A4 paper was crooked. Satisfied, he smiled and put his hands on his hips proudly.

“Do you know what happened yesterday?”

Sunwoo suddenly turned around, and Jooyoung instinctively hid the medicine packet behind his back. Fortunately, Sunwoo didn’t seem to notice and didn’t glance that way. Even though no one else was around to hear, he covered his mouth with his palm and whispered like he was sharing a secret.

“This guy comes in drunk, barefoot, and starts making a huge fuss, saying someone stole his shoes.” Sunwoo’s eyes scanned the area quickly as he continued, “He kept saying he’d call the police, falsely accused an innocent person of stealing, and didn’t even feel sorry about it. Tsk…”

Sunwoo pointed to the bulletin board, saying he’d reprinted the notice in bigger letters so it would stand out more.

“Does this kind of thing happen a lot?”

“Not really… but we did get a few new people moving in this August.”

Then Sunwoo suddenly leaned in and whispered in a low voice:

“All the people who’ve been freaking out about missing stuff are the new residents.”

“…”

“I mean, they’re the ones being careless, so why do they automatically assume someone took it? Isn’t that ridiculous?”

Still, Sunwoo reassured him brightly that it wasn’t an actual theft, so Jooyoung didn’t need to worry too much. With all the CCTV cameras around, even if someone did steal something, they’d be caught quickly.

Jooyoung gave a slow nod. Then Sunwoo suddenly exclaimed, “Oh right, the laundry!” like he’d just remembered something and hurriedly checked his smartwatch.

“Alright then, Jooyoung-ssi—see you later!”

“…Yeah.”

Sunwoo quickly headed down the hallway in the opposite direction toward the laundry room. As the man’s busy footsteps faded into the distance, Jooyoung kept his eyes fixed on the bulletin board.

***

It was the tail end of summer, but the night air was still damp. Even the occasional breeze carried a warm, muggy heaviness.

Jooyoung sat under a parasol in front of a convenience store, eating ice cream. The sweet, cold crunch of the ice crystals was a pleasant jolt to his tongue.

“It’s really over now. Finally.”

Her face flushed from two cans of beer, Arin smiled in relief. She kept letting out little bursts of disconnected laughter, like someone nicely buzzed. 

“I even deleted the boss lady’s number.”

Jooyoung had known for a while that she’d quit the job, but it seemed like the other entanglements tied to it were finally resolved, too. 

“So anyway!”

“…”

“I might be able to move out of Maeyang soon.”

Jooyoung looked surprised at the unexpected news, and Arin grinned proudly.

“Where to?”

“Nothing’s set yet, just the planning stage.”

“…”

“I still have to stick around until my youngest sibling graduates, though.”

Arin grumbled about how she was already acting like a parent at her age.

They’d had plenty of random conversations before, but this was the first time Jooyoung had heard her talk about her family. Arin explained she was the eldest of four siblings and was sick of it. Since their parents were too irresponsible, she’d been forced to take on the role herself and resented it deeply.

“You’re the only child, right?”

“…”

“Wait—you have an older sister?”

“All wrong.”

“Huh?”

Arin slammed her beer down on the table in disbelief.

“I’ve got older brothers.”

Jooyoung replied casually while squishing the ice cream in his cup.

“Oh, so you’re the youngest?”

“Yeah.”

“What the heck? Then I was half right.”

Jooyoung looked at her, clearly thinking how that was even remotely correct. Arin caught the expression on his face and waved her index finger.

“You don’t get it. Being the youngest and being an only child—it’s basically the same thing.”

She said it like she was delivering some profound revelation, and Jooyoung let out a quiet chuckle. 

“Come on. Be honest, oppa. Being the youngest is easy, right?” 

Arin leaned over the table and asked if he got everything taken care of even when he didn’t do anything, right? The older ones always handle things for him. She said the youngest always had it the easiest in her family and that if she were to be born again, she’d definitely want to be the youngest.

“…Maybe.”

It was true Jooyoung didn’t get as much interference from his parents as his older brothers had. Then again, he’d never really been the center of attention, either. But that wasn’t because he was the youngest.

“Jooyoung, you know your brother’s not well, right? So you have to understand why this is happening. It’s not unfair, okay? You get what I mean?”

He had simply grown up in an environment where attention was hard to come by. With parents busy working and trying to look after his older brother on top of everything else, even if they had ten bodies it wouldn’t have been enough. That’s why, at such a young age, he ended up leaving his family behind and moving down to Maeyang.

As a child, he hated it with every fiber of his being. He didn’t understand why he alone had to bear all the consequences.

“Man, I’m seriously jealous of youngest kids.”

Arin, who had been leaning back and dangling her chair while lamenting her fate, suddenly widened her eyes when she saw someone entering the convenience store. Jooyoung, who had been absentmindedly fiddling with his ice cream wrapper, also turned his gaze in that direction. 

The person stepping under the convenience store canopy was Dohyun.

“…”

He seemed flustered by the sudden attention from both of them and twitched his eyebrows for a brief moment. But that quickly passed, and he walked past them into the store. 

Arin’s head followed in the direction Dohyun walked. Jooyoung thought Arin would probably say something snide again, remembering how she’d once spoken badly about Dohyun and his group.

“He’s totally my type, though…”

“…”

“He’d totally do well in Seoul, don’t you think?”

But instead, Arin said something unexpected. When she looked over for agreement, Jooyoung hesitated before just being honest.

“Yeah.”

“Well, guess we all have the same eye for people.”

Arin crunched her empty beer can and stood up from her chair.

“Oppa, my boyfriend says he’s almost here. Mind if I take off first?”

She brought her right hand playfully to her stomach and gave a dramatic bow. Almost at the same time, a car with bright headlights pulled up close to the curb.

“Oh, that’s his car! Oppa, I’m going!”

“See you.”

Arin ran over to the car with a bright face and climbed in. As the car pulled away, a soft bell rang behind Jooyoung. As the sound of footsteps approached, a familiar scent brushed the tip of his nose.

“Hwang Dohyun.” 

Jooyoung called out to him impulsively. 

“Why haven’t you been calling me lately?”

He asked Dohyun, who stopped awkwardly mid-step.

It had been a week since Dohyun apologized. During that time, he hadn’t contacted Jooyoung once. He used to call him every two or three days, but now there was nothing. This, from the same guy who once said he needed to see Jooyoung a hundred times and spouted nonsense like that.

Crunch. Dohyun’s grip tightened around the cigarette pack in his hand. With a low sigh, he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. His gaze, fixed on the air, looked complicated.

“You’re still not feeling well, aren’t you?”

Jooyoung said casually as he looked at him, “I’m fine now.”

Dohyun kept his eyes on empty space, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. Even though Jooyoung said he was fine, Dohyun still didn’t show much of a reaction.

“Can I come over today?”

But he couldn’t ignore Jooyoung’s next words. He looked at him, eyes wide.

“What?”

“I asked if I could come over.”

Jooyoung pulled out his phone, checked the time, and said nonchalantly, “Mm, now.”

“…Huh.”

A flustered sigh slipped through Dohyun’s slightly parted lips. He rubbed his jaw and chin repeatedly, as if trying to process a truly baffling request.

Jooyoung didn’t understand why he was reacting that way. His body might have felt relaxed during that contactless week, but his mind certainly hadn’t been. Just because Dohyun had apologized didn’t mean Jooyoung believed he would suddenly flip and change after threatening him. If anything, it felt safer to keep him close and see what he was really up to.

“Right now…”

After a long stretch of fumbling for words that never formed a complete sentence, Dohyun finally spoke in a low, cautious voice.

“You’re still… taking medicine, aren’t you?”

In that instant, Jooyoung’s hand lost all strength, and the ice pop fell to the ground with a dull thud. Half-melted ice dripped from the wrapper where it had slipped out.

“Medicine… what medicine?” Jooyoung asked, his face frozen stiff, staring straight at Dohyun.