RSL Ch 63

The A350, less than a year old, landed smoothly at Schiphol Airport under a sky filled with dark clouds. I would be staying here for two days, but the plane was scheduled to depart back to Korea after maintenance this evening. After finishing our flight duties, we cleaned up the cockpit for the next crew and exited through the gate.

Leaving the crew behind, I entered the arrivals hall first. Someone casually mentioned meeting at the hotel, but I didn’t tell them I wouldn’t be staying there. After confirming Han Jae-yi’s location with a phone call, I quickly took a taxi with him.

“Where did you book a room?”

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

Contrary to my expectation that we would head towards the old city, imagining the boutique hotels along the Amsterdam canal belt, the taxi was driving further south.

We passed a canal filled with old, abandoned boats and entered a quiet, peaceful residential area. As if to address my curiosity later, Han Jae-yi focused solely on finding our destination with the taxi driver. They exchanged a nod of agreement while pointing at a gray building, and the taxi finally stopped right in front of it.

Opening the old door, we entered a garden that seemed to be shared by the residents. We crossed it and opened the door to a relatively small building. Instead of an entrance hall, we walked into a kitchen that led to a living room and then to a bedroom.

Typically, buildings with this layout in Europe were once homes where city bourgeoisie lived with their lodgers after modernization. The place we entered seemed like a small, single-story building where maids or butlers might have stayed. A small wooden bed, creaky floorboards, freshly laundered sheets, and a basket of bread—it was decorated like a place where someone used to live, but no one actually did.

“Is this some kind of 18th-century cultural experience?”

Han Jae-yi laughed loudly at my question. He pushed our luggage beside a lacquered wardrobe and took out a cigarette, placing it in his mouth. Then he reached into the kitchen cabinet, which was close enough to touch, and placed an old plate on the table.

He sat down on the hard wooden dining chair. The long ash from his cigarette held its shape as it fell onto the plate. The landlord would be upset if the room filled with smoke. With a complaint disguised as concern, he offered me a cigarette as well.

“I’m the landlord. No one’s going to say anything, so don’t worry.”

As I lit the cigarette he handed me, I asked for a more detailed explanation. It seemed Han Jae-yi had quite a few secrets.

“I invested. Lately, even Berlin’s housing prices have gone up, so many people are moving to Amsterdam. There are many community offices in the northern area that can be reached by ferry from here. They were originally going to build a large apartment complex, but the project went bankrupt, leaving the purpose of the space ambiguous. Now, many one-person businesses have moved in there. Thanks to that, even old houses like this one are getting harder to find. There’s someone who manages the place for me, but this is actually my first time here. Not bad, right?”

“Yeah. It’s similar to the place I first lived when I moved out on my own. But you bought a house without even seeing it?”

“It costs about as much as a small studio in Berlin. Actually, I bought a few other places too. Half of it is bank debt. I’ll have to work hard to pay it off.”

“You’ll become a real estate tycoon.”

“Why, are you thinking of marrying me?”

“I’ll pay off your debt if you come to me.”

“That works too.”

He pulled me onto his lap, and as he naturally tilted his head for a kiss, I opened my lips and mingled my tongue with his. It was a light kiss, much like the silly joke we’d just exchanged. His hands, holding my waist, were subtly tickling me, and I couldn’t help but let out a giggle through the lips he was playfully biting.

Just then, we heard someone outside the door, and the doorknob turned. I was startled and tried to get up, but Han Jae-yi didn’t release his hold on my waist.

The person who opened the door was a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties. Despite seeing us suspiciously sitting together on the dining chair, he greeted us smoothly. Han Jae-yi put the cigarette he had set down back in his mouth and returned the greeting. The man introduced himself as the caretaker.

“You’ve arrived early. I brought more towels and some essentials.”

He placed a thick metal-framed basket and a plastic bag on the dining table. Inside were clean, white towels along with groceries like butter, milk, ham, and eggs. He turned towards me and extended his hand.

“Hello, I’m Marcus.”

“Oh, hello. I’m Maximilian.”

I quickly put down the cigarette in my right hand and shook his hand. I tried to free myself from Han Jae-yi’s embrace, but his arm around my waist held on tighter than I expected. Marcus, however, turned his attention back to Han Jae-yi.

“I filled the bicycle tires with air as you asked, but with the weather like this, it’s better not to go far. It looks fine now, but it’s likely to rain heavily in the afternoon.”

“Yes, we were planning to just rest today anyway. Thanks for this. We were actually getting hungry.”

Han Jae-yi looked into the basket with satisfaction. Marcus asked if we needed anything else, and as he was about to leave, he turned back towards us.

“If you like movies, you should come by this evening. I have an American friend who makes documentaries, and we’re having a small screening. It’s at a place called ‘Eslang,’ next to Soho House. If you search for it on the map, you’ll find it. The meeting is before the screening, so arriving around 9 should be just right.”

He spoke casually, rubbing his chin, but considering how much information he was providing, it seemed he wasn’t so nonchalant. Maybe he was desperate to gather an audience for his friend’s screening, as he eagerly waited for our answer.

“We’ll go. We’ll check it out.”

I reassured him on behalf of Han Jae-yi. Marcus nodded and closed the door behind him as he left. Through the kitchen window, I could faintly see him walking out of the garden. As his figure completely disappeared, Han Jae-yi’s hand on my waist gripped my thigh tightly.

“Why did you say we’d go? Don’t you know how boring Dutch parties are?”

He laughed and lightly scolded me. Well, that’s true, but when I started to respond, I found I didn’t really have anything to say. Dutch humor always seemed a bit off. They often thought Germans were too dull, but from our perspective, if you can’t make others laugh, it’s better to just keep quiet.

Han Jae-yi finally stood up, and I was completely freed from his hold. He took out eggs and white bread from the basket Marcus had left behind. Naturally, he rolled up his sleeves to make breakfast, while I went into the bedroom, pulled out the luggage we had pushed aside, and began organizing our clothes.

The bedroom, lacking sunlight, had grown cooler. I turned up the radiator and took out a blanket that smelled of detergent, spreading it over the bed. A memory suddenly came to mind as I placed my hands on my waist and looked down at the old bed.

Isn’t it similar to that small bed I used to sleep alone in that old apartment after I first moved out? Back then, I’d chase Han Jae-yi onto the sofa every time he visited, and I’d have that tiny bed all to myself. Now, I couldn’t send him to the couch, so we’d have to squeeze together on the bed.

“Seo-jin, come out here for a moment.”

Lost in thought while rubbing my forehead, I headed towards the kitchen where he was calling me.

The bread in the old oven was warming up nicely. In a bubbling pot, two eggs were rolling around, dancing together. Meanwhile, Han Jae-yi had brewed a cup of coffee.

“You won’t be drinking any, right? Should we eat outside? Take this first.”

He handed me the coffee with milk and a plate of thinly sliced ham. I pushed the door open with my back and carefully placed them on the metal terrace table, which had lost its leaves.

I went back inside to grab two cushions that were lying on the sofa. Han Jae-yi followed behind, placing the bread basket and a cup of warm milk with melted honey on the table. We sat down together. While the cushion warmed my seat, the cold autumn air was still present through the metal chair against my back.

“What do you want to do today? It’s your birthday, so think of something fresh and fun. Please, no more boring movie outings.”

He handed me a small spoon. I tapped it lightly on the egg, breaking the shell, and scooped out the soft-boiled yolk. Han Jae-yi shook a small salt shaker and sprinkled some over it.

“Well, you know I’m not very creative about that kind of thing. It’s going to rain, so we might as well just stay home.”

“Are you sleepy? You have been up for almost 24 hours.”

It was true that I was tired and sleepy. Agreeing with him, I took a bite of the white bread topped with ham. Two birds came over, attracted by the fallen bread crumbs, and started their own breakfast under the table.

The garden wasn’t well-maintained, with tall hydrangeas drying up. Across from the flowerbed, with briars poking out wildly, were two blue bicycles, newly painted. They seemed to be the ones Marcus mentioned.

“This place really does remind me of my old apartment. Though, it’s a bit bigger.”

“Your old place was on the second floor. I still remember how you made me help you move and then left because you had plans.”

Here we go again.

“It wasn’t plans, it was training. And when I came back, who was the one cooking and sleeping alone? I had to sleep on the sofa that night because of you.”

“You should’ve just kicked me off.”

He laughed and took a sip of his coffee.

I remembered the day I first moved out after leaving the house in Winnenden. Han Jae-yi was more excited than I was. Together, we cleaned up the old apartment and moved in the furniture. Until the fall semester started, he was still living at his parents’ house but kept coming over to my place, searching for freedom.

We were poor back then. We had to cut back on cigarettes and rely on a bank loan guaranteed by my job just to cover rent and living expenses. There were easier paths, but I wanted to be completely independent from my adoptive parents the moment I earned the title of ‘adult’—both financially and mentally.

Han Jae-yi wasn’t much different. He was a poor law student driving a 20-year-old Volkswagen. Sometimes, he’d waste money on useless entertainment, but he mostly complained about spending the most on parking fees in front of our house while eating cheap kebabs.

Back then, he would boast about becoming a rich lawyer, and I would boast about clocking a thousand hours of flying within a year after getting my wings. The best luxury we could afford was a bottle of champagne worth a mere hundred euros. Everything around us was old and creaky, but we were never shabby.

As I reminisced about those days when we shone brightly together, even without love, I smiled

“What are you thinking about?”

Han Jae-yi, having set his coffee cup down, called out to me. I had been silent for a while, just looking at him. I said it was nothing and picked up the spoon again.

“Just… being here made me think about when we were struggling to make ends meet. You and I were both buried under student loans, always whining about wanting to start making money. That time, until we were in Paris, was the peak. You were the wildest during that period.”

“Haha, yeah, I was a bit crazy back then.”

He nodded, agreeing with me.

“And to think you passed the bar exam on your first try, it’s still amazing. I honestly thought you’d fail.”

“Did you fall for me then?”