TGMND 53

“Let’s sit down and talk first. Yeo-woon-ssi, are you busy right now?”

“Ah, busy! Of course, he’s busy? He said he was busy. Why are you keeping a busy person here?”

Yoon Ji-gu answered on his behalf and wedged his large frame between Yeo-woon and Ji-hyuk Yoon. Yeo-woon grabbed his forearm and stuck his head out.

“I’m completely free.”

“…!”

Startled by Yeo-woon grabbing his arm, Yoon Ji-gu briskly brushed off Yeo-woon’s hand.

“Good. Then let’s sit and talk. What would you like to drink? I’ll get you a coffee.”

“Americano, hot please.”

At Yeo-woon’s nonchalant drink order despite just meeting them, Yoon Ji-hyuk chuckled as if to say he’d seen him amusing.

“You want it hot in this weather?”

“It’s humid today.”

“It’s summer, but it’s unusual.”

He gave the quest to make the coffees to Yoon Ji-gu, who was eyeing them both with a serious expression, before leading Yeo-woon to a table in the corner with a clear view of the counter. Yoon Ji-gu was frowning grumpily as he worked diligently. He seemed quite skilled, pulling the shots and heating up the cups with practiced motions.

“May I ask how many swims Ji-gu missed this week?”

Yoon Ji-hyuk asked calmly. Yeo-woon checked what day it was before counting on his fingers.

“Since he didn’t come at all this week, about three days…?”

“Three days…”

He cupped his hands in front of his face menacingly as he muttered under his breath. For some reason, Yeo-woon felt a chill run down his spine at Ji-hyuk’s sinister smile, fidgeting with the strap of his swim bag.

“Mr. Yeo-woon, did you try any other sports before swimming?”

“I only recently started swimming, but I’ve done various workouts here and there. Last year I took up boxing for a bit to follow a friend, and before that I occasionally did PT… Why?”

“Your posture is really good.”

“Mine?”

“Ah, here…”

Yoon Ji-hyuk rummaged through his wallet before taking out a business card and extending it to Yeo-woon. The card read ‘Gym & Fitness’.

“If you get tired of swimming, feel free to come here. We have a fitness room too.”

CEO, Yoon Ji-hyuk…

“…?”

CEO? Yeo-woon raised his head and looked at Yoon Ji-hyuk.

“He said he could take care of it on his own, so I just left him be, but now this kid has been skipping swimming for three whole days?”

He muttered as if to let Yoon Ji-gu hear him as he was approaching with an annoyed face and two cups of coffee.

“… Why are you saying that again?”

Yoon Ji-gu glared as he pulled out the chair beside his brother and sat down.

“Don’t go blabbing about me.”

“No, I was just worried if you were sick or something…”

“Hey. Why are you worrying about me?”

“It’s not ‘hey’, it’s Lee Yeo-woon…”

“Whether it’s Lee Yeo-woon or Kim Yeo-woon, I don’t care. I had some busy work so I couldn’t go swimming for a few days, okay? I’ll go again starting tomorrow.”

“Why are you saying that while looking at him, Ji-gu-ya?”

Ah. It wasn’t something he wanted to say to him, it was just an excuse to his brother. Yeo-woon accidentally let out a laugh before hastily suppressing it when he saw he saw Yoon Ji-gu’s eyes turn towards him and his ears turned bright red.

“And you had to come running to my brother to tattle about me. Unbelievable, seriously.”

“What were you busy with? You’re cramming all your classes into one day this semester, aren’t you?”

“Wow, one day?”

“You don’t need to know that part.”

His registration skills must be incredible to manage that. How is that even possible?

Yeo-woon couldn’t help but envy him, having never had a free period in all eight semesters, even now after graduating from college. Hearing this kind of story made him envy the person so much.

“I was busy studying for the exam.”

“Studying?”

“I pulled an all-nighter.”

“You?”

Yoon Ji-hyuk openly laughed at Yoon Ji-gu. He fired off a few questioning remarks as if to tease Ji-gu’s claim of studying for exams, seeming to enjoy his reactions. Yeo-woon listened quietly to the conversation between the brothers, then asked.

“Ji-gu-ssi…”

“Don’t use my name so casually…!”

“Then you’re not sick or anything, right?”

The gazes of the two people who resembled each other turned to Yeo-woon. Yeo-woon let out a small sigh and muttered.

“I’m relieved… I was worried you had collapsed at home or something.”

“…Worried?”

He slowly blinked his dark eyes. Blink, blink. Blink-blink. The frequency of his blinking increased, and then the man suddenly turned his head.

“…What, what are you saying. Who’s worried about who? You just mind your own business.”

After grumbling in his usual manner, he obediently shut his mouth after receiving a smack on the back of the head from his brother.

“Anyway Yoon Ji-gu. You’re losing muscle, so exercise consistently, watch your diet, and don’t snack.”

“You’re so noisy, gym rat. Did you come here just to nag?”

“No, I need you to watch Yeong-i this weekend.”

“I’m not close to Yoon Yeong.”

“Yeong-i is your nephew.”

Yeo-woon nearly burned his tongue on the coffee at the unexpected comment.

“I’m busy this weekend. I have plans. No time to watch Yeong-i.”

“What are you up to? You still playing those games?”

“…!”

“The ones with those weird characters?”

“…Ah, why would you bring that up…!”

Yoon Ji-gu covered his brother’s mouth with his hand and looked at Yeo-woon. It was a very cautious attitude. Seeing his eyes shaking as if he were anxious, Yeo-woon decided to pretend not to know about his hobby.

So he’s been an avid gamer for a long time, huh…

“And Ji-gu is younger than Yeo-woon-ssi, so you two can chat comfortably.”

“…”

Yeo-woon glanced at Yoon Ji-gu. We can chat…?

“I don’t want to.”

“He says he doesn’t want to…”

There was no helping it. At Yeo-woon’s oddly dejected tone, Yoon Ji-gu openly scoffed.

“Okay then, I’m leaving. I’ll bring Yeong-i this weekend so don’t ignore my calls or you’re dead. …And Yeo-woon-ssi, if Ji-gu acts up, call the number written there.”

“Okay.”

“Number? What number?”

When Yoon Ji-hyuk got up first, Yoon Ji-gu looked at Yeo-woon with confused eyes. The face looks like it needs an explanation of the situation.

“Did you exchange numbers?”

“… Um, yes. I received it.”

Yoon Ji-gu looked at Yeo-woon quietly for a while and sighed softly.

Got it. I understand. …I’ll go swimming from tomorrow, so don’t come to the cafe.”

“Yes? But the coffee… it’s delicious…”

“…Then come only once a week.”

“…”

“Twice. No more.”

“…”

“Oh, then just come three times.”

Yoon Ji-gu got irritated and turned his back on Yeo-woon and walked inside the counter. Before entering the warehouse, he glanced back at Yeo-woon again, then turned around without hesitation and disappeared.

Yeo-woon sipped his lukewarm coffee and looked at his phone. When he accidentally clicked on the app that was left out on the background screen, the HolBlue chat window filled the screen.

「Why did you suddenly leave?」

No messages had arrived below the message sent a few days ago.

Yeo-woon scrolled down his phone and clicked the recommend button on the review of Cafe Earth. This was because there were already twenty hearts in the review Yeo-woon wrote. Around the time he left his mark on about thirty reviews, Yeo-woon noticed something strange.

Review by ‘ehdwn****’ ★☆☆☆☆ (Recommendation 1)

All the part-timers have no manners lol. They absolutely do not smile at customers.^^ I don’t understand why they act so cold to the people spending money here. It’s like they’re arrogant.

Review by ‘qkdlf****’ ★☆☆☆☆ (Recommendation 1)

I came with my girlfriend and the part-timer who took our order kept glaring at me… Manager, you should fire employees like this.^^ And the cake was tasty but the fork provided was wooden which was disappointing.

Review by ‘ghdlt****’ ★☆☆☆☆ (Recommendation 1)

Ah- F-! My friends said the part-timer here was handsome during the day so we rushed over after work but there was just some short bespectacled guy standing there alone?????? All my expectations were shattered lol Do people’s eyes really look like that? Anyone know when the handsome part-timer works? He exists right?? But I have no intention of coming back. Just the thought of possibly running into that guy again makes me cringe. False advertising for sure. He’s the epitome of public nuisance with those crazy eyes staring back at you like “What are you looking at?”. Saw him again and he looked even uglier;;ㅠㅠㅠ

Each one-star review about the staff had a single recommend, and the same one person had recommended all of those reviews. The yellow profile picture stood out, so Yeo-woon clicked ‘View Details’ on the profile.

Kimchi Hangover Soup Daehan University Branch

★★★★★ I stayed up all night and was craving hangover soup haha.

BKC Daehan University Branch

★★★★★ Fried chicken skin art.

Plain Rice Burger Daehan University Branch

★★★★★ A lot of quantity

Over the past year, there have been about ten reviews left by yellow profile users, all of which were for bars and restaurants near Daehan University. It seemed their radius of activity was around there.

“…?”

Since he had attended Daehan University’s festival a couple of times before, Yeo-woon knew the exact location. But it was quite far from here, so why… Yeo-woon blinked in confusion before accidentally letting his finger slip and reporting the profile. This person had left dislikes on all recent reviews from the past month, while diligently recommending any review that called the part-timer rude. It meant they weren’t just momentarily upset. Was there some kind of story behind this?