RSL Ch 20

Then he sent me a bear character doing a colossus salute.It wasn’t a bear, was it a lion? No, a dog perhaps. As I pondered, the front door opened. Han Jae-yi entered the house.

“Where have you been? What about dinner?”

“I haven’t.”

At his cold response, I glanced at him. Han Jae-yi was dressed in a suit. Even his hair was done up, as if he had an important appointment. He shuffled across the living room to the couch and slumped down, still pulling his tie down. He didn’t look very happy.

“Did something happen?”

“Yeah. I met a rude person.”

Judging by his short answer, it seemed like he wanted to skip the details.

“I’m thinking of having a housewarming tomorrow. I’ve invited some new colleagues I’ve made. Is that okay?”

“Why are you asking me? It’s your house, do whatever you want.”

His annoyed response made me feel irritated as well. I had my meal in silence. He sat alone on the sofa for a while before heading to the bathroom. I heard the sound of the shower. With no appetite left, I threw away the remaining half of the lunchbox in the trash. After rinsing my mouth with water, I went into the room.

Han Jae-yi and I don’t fight often. We had some minor disagreements during our school days, but hardly any since we turned twenty. I was basically indifferent to all emotionally draining behaviors, and he usually didn’t offend anyone. In that sense, today’s Han Jae-yi is unfamiliar.

When the other person is not in a good mood, it’s best to leave them alone. I decided to let him be until he calmed down on his own. I gave up asking what was wrong or offering half-hearted comfort.

I leaned back in bed and read. It was the autobiography of a fighter pilot named James Bell, who served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. It was recommended on my training motivation social media feed, so I looked it up, but there was no German translation. I found it difficult to speed read the original English version and have been holding onto it for a month.

James was a pilot flying the British fighter Spitfire. Created to counter the German Bf109, it was nicknamed “the world’s most beautiful prop plane” (short for propeller airplane). Anyone who loves airplanes would know about the famous aerial battles between the Spitfire and the Bf109. One of them, the “Dunkirk evacuation operation,” was recently made into a movie.

After watching that movie, I felt genuinely excited for the first time in a while. I must have watched it over ten times. That’s how perfect the historical accuracy was. I couldn’t sleep for days, feeling the urge to fly a propeller plane. In fact, I’ve heard stories that the Bf109, to bear the shame of defeat and the burden of history, is still preserved like a relic at Bayern airfield.

I was still thinking about the flight when Han Jae-yi knocked on the door. The fact that he knocked first made it obvious. He wanted to apologize.

“Can I come in?”

“Since when do you need permission to come in?”

After removing his suit and changing into comfortable clothes, Han Jae-yi pushed my legs out of the way and sat down on one side of the bed.

“I’m sorry for being cranky, I was just feeling a little upset.”

“If it’s enough to make you feel upset, it must have been something serious.”

“Yeah. I went to my grandfather’s house.”

He lay down on the bed with his arms as pillows. I was still leaning on the upper part of the bed. We faced each other like a cross. There was no point in indulging in unnecessary confrontations about why he took it out on me. It wasn’t even enough to upset me.

“Want to talk about it?”

Han Jae-yi nodded, looking at me as if he had just read my mind. I turned off the tablet I was reading on and signaled that I was ready to listen.

He turned his body toward me and spoke in a raspy voice. I responded with the occasional ‘yeah’ or ‘that’s bad’. When the conversation turned to his grandfather, Han Jae-yi tapped his palm on the bedspread with a bit of emotion, I joined in condemning the man known as grandfather, fully supportive of his words. When the conversation finally ended after over an hour, the clock already showed 11 o’clock.

“Anyway, I’m not in it for the money, and it’s annoying to see him disparage people like that. I have money too.”

“Did you say that to him?”

“Yeah. Then he asks how much I earn if I earn anything at all. Rude and disrespectful. Oh, here we go again, back to square one. Let’s stop. You must be tired.”

At this point, Han Jae-yi doesn’t bother to get up. He kept looking up and asked the obvious question.

“Can I sleep here?”

Even though I was silently looking at him, I came up with a pointless excuse.

“You’re going to make a call at dawn. I keep waking up.”

I blurted it out and regretted it within a second. I felt like I was going to lose it if he went back to his room without a second thought. Han Jae-yi thought for a moment, then turned off the phone in his hand and showed me the blacked-out screen.

I left him alone and went out into the living room.  I moved under the pretext of turning off the lights, but I ended up grabbing water from the fridge, forgetting my original purpose. I stood there for a while, feeling like I needed to cool down the heat rising on my face.

* * *

Han Jae-yi had been absent since morning.  Leaving behind only a brief message that he would be back soon, I hid myself inside the house, ready to start when the guests arrived. Frankly, I didn’t know what to prepare for housewarming. Besides the need for food and drinks.

I dragged my foolish self, who blindly trusted Han Jae-yi, to the big grocery store in my neighborhood. Since I couldn’t cook on my own, I swept up the ready-to-eat foods they sold there. I bought beer, wine, and even a bottle of soju just in case, although it seemed like no one would drink it.

As I pushed my cart through the checkout, I realized something. I don’t have a car. There’s no way I could walk home with all this stuff on my back. Just then, an employee in a grocery store vest approached me and asked, 

“Would you like to have it delivered?”

For a moment, he seemed like a savior. Overwhelmed with gratitude, I couldn’t even bring myself to answer and just nodded my head. I wrote down the address for him, and I left the mart empty-handed.

I could feel that it was getting hotter. The humidity was higher than in Germany, so the perceived discomfort index was high. I went home and turned on the air conditioner. I cleaned up and got ready for guests.

The delivery driver arrived, and the fridge was filled with food. I had lunch alone and passed the time. I watched stand-up comedy clips on the internet. Once I got into a good mood, even dull jokes made me burst into laughter. I indulged in the vibrant political satire comedy of Americans.

After spending a couple of hours, my video recommendations were filled with political satire comedy clips.

[We’re on our way now]

A message from Co-pilot Jeon Seong-wook popped up at the top of my phone. I pushed myself up from the couch. My head was full of laughter and comedy, so I was ready to greet the guests.

Not long after, I welcomed them into our home even more warmly than in reality. They had tissues and detergent in their hands.

“You need to bring these when visiting homes in Korea.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I took the plastic bags from their hands and led them to the living room.

“Do you have housewarming parties in Germany too?”

“Well, yes. Although we don’t have separate parties, when visiting a newly moved-in house, we bring hard bread and olive oil as gifts.”

“It’s more like a gift of necessities here. It’s a big house, really big for someone who lives alone.”

Co-pilot Cho Min-woo looked around. I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t living alone, but then I realized that I actually was. Han Jae-yi will be leaving soon.

“Please, have a seat. If you’re hungry, feel free to eat right away.”

“Shall we start with a beer each?”

At his words, I opened the refrigerator and asked him what kind of beer he wanted. From Korean to foreign, dark beer to fruit beer. Co-pilot Jeon Seong-wook smiled and picked up a German beer.

“As expected of someone from the land of beer, your fridge is fully stocked. Haha.”

We sat down at an Irish dining room table and made a toast. It was a private meeting out of uniform, but the topic of conversation was, as usual, airplanes. They say talking a lot makes you hungry, and so, before we knew it, we were unpacking the packaged ready-to-eat foods we bought at the mart. I felt guilty that I hadn’t put much thought into the food.