WYK 37

Sunday. Jeong-yoon slept in until the sun was high in the sky. It was because he had stayed up late thinking about Chae-heon until the early hours of the morning.

Even after waking up in bed, it felt like he was still walking through a dream. He stared at the ceiling with a dazed expression and murmured to himself.

“Kang Chae-heon.”

Yes. He kissed Chae-heon the day before yesterday and had dinner with him yesterday. Unbelievable. It was so astonishing. He had thought he would be embarrassed and would want to distance himself from him, but as they say, people’s feelings are unpredictable. It felt like winning the lottery without even buying a ticket.

Thinking about Chae-heon reminded him of the tingling of his lips. His mind was so vulgar. With a flushed face, he threw down the blanket, then got up and ran to the bathroom. He had to quickly go into the cold water and cool down his feverish body.

He took a cold shower like he was wiping away his embarrassment, got dressed, and stepped out. He had to wrap a towel around his neck because the marks hadn’t faded yet.

‘I guess I’ll have to put on a new band-aid.’

Jeong-yoon wondered how hard Chae-heon bit him that day that the marks still remained. Was biting and sucking on people a habit of his in bed?

Anyway, he needed to get rid of this kiss mark so he could go back to wearing just pajama pants. Muttering to himself, he stepped out of the bathroom into the chilly living room. He spotted someone sitting on the sofa and stood up straight.

“Huh? Jeong-yoon? Hi.”

“…”

He tightly gripped the wet towel around his neck. He was so taken aback that he couldn’t even respond to the simple greeting. The person he met while wearing a loose white shirt with wet hair dripping water, was Yoo Da-jung. She was Chae-heon’s ex-girlfriend.

“You out? Say hi to Da-jung.”

What kind of situation was this? Why was ‘that’ Yoo Da-jung sitting in front of the sofa table in their house eating snacks? Why was his older sister next to her introducing her to him? It was perplexing.

Suddenly, memories of the past came flooding back.

High school senior year. The day he found Chae-heon and Da-jung in the club room. It was the day his heart crumbled upon learning they were dating. He didn’t know what he was thinking, but when he came to his senses, he found himself lying in bed at home.

He still remembered it vividly. The scent of his mother’s cooking seeping in through the brightly opened door.

As he lay alone on the bed, his mother entered the room, wiping her hands on her apron.

‘Son. What about the academy?’

‘…’

Jeong-yoon couldn’t answer anything. His mother’s question seemed to echo meaninglessly before fading away. Sitting on his bed, his mother poked his back and asked again.

‘Why are you back so early? Did you skip academy?’

‘…’

‘Seo Jeong-yoon. How much do you think you can get away with skipping in a day? Huh?”

‘…’

Despite the pressing tone from behind, Jeong-yoon buried his face deep into the blanket.

‘Don’t you know how hard your father works to earn money? You’re living the good life, aren’t you?’

But Jeong-yoon couldn’t answer anything. He tried his best to answer, but he couldn’t because his trembling voice would give him away. He just buried his face in the blanket, breathing heavily.

Only then did his mother softly call his name.

‘Jeong-yoon-ah?’

It seemed like she felt that Jeong-yoon’s attitude was unusual.

Jeong-yoon buried his face in the pillow without answering. He tried to hold back. Since he was in front of his mother, he didn’t want to worry her, so he tried to hold it back, but the tears he had been suppressing kept leaking out. Eventually, he couldn’t suppress the sobbing anymore. The choked-up crying seeped out from under the blanket, unable to be contained.

‘Jeong-yoon-ah. What’s the matter. Did you fight with someone? Did someone hit you? Look at Mom.’

His startled mother shook Jeongyun’s body. Jeong-yoon swallowed the sob rising up from his throat with difficulty.

‘Mom, it’s nothing. I’ll just be alone…’

He tried to sound okay, but his voice kept trembling. Well, pretending to be okay while already crying uncontrollably was quite comical.

His mother looked at him silently for a moment before saying,

‘Are you hurt anywhere? I’ll be waiting for you in the living room… Come out when you feel better. Okay? Hmm?’

She said and gently rubbed Jeong-yoon’s back. She disappeared behind the door and.

Taking that as a signal, Jeong-yoon burst into tears. As he walked home from school, tears that he had been holding back kept streaming down his face.

Mom. It hurts. My heart hurts so much, and it’s hard to breathe.

He muttered to himself in his mind as he cried alone. Kang Chae-heon and Yoo Da-jung. Their faces kept haunting him painfully.

Idiot. He was caught in a terrible pain. He should have cut it off when he first realized his feelings. If he had done that, he wouldn’t be in so much pain now. Instead, he pretended not to know, denied it, and secretly nurtured it, only to end up like this.

But what was even sadder was that even while crying, he wanted to see Chae-heon. He knew he should forget about him now that he had a girlfriend, but he couldn’t. He was a fool.

He had never thought he could have him. But he had also never thought he would fall apart like this when faced with the truth. Hot tears dripped down his face. It was an extremely painful fever of love.

And that day. That day was the day he completely gave up on Kang Chae-heon.

Since then, he tried to force himself to feel better. He tried to distance himself. But would life go as he wanted it to? He kept circling back to him and kept up his foolish, lingering love by sneaking glances at him.

As Jeong-yoon got lost in memories of the past, he realized he was involuntarily scrunching his face.

“Jeong-yoon-ah. Jeong-yoon-ah.”

A voice calling out to him from beside him.

Jeong-yoon finally snapped out of the past and returned to reality.

Yoo Da-jung was still in front of him. The Yoo Da-jung who had made him cry for a long time and shattered his heart. Of course, it wasn’t her fault, but just facing her still made his heart ache. He even wanted to leave the place.

However, Jeong-yoon made an effort to give Da-jung a normal greeting.

“Hi. It’s been a while.”

“I know. Seo Jeong-yoon, do you remember me?”

“Of course. How could I not?”

He barely managed to smile while saying that. His sister, who was sitting next to Da-jung, nudged her with her elbow.

“Yeah, how could he forget someone like you?”

Jeong-yoon just stared at his older sister making a light joke and Da-jung smiled next to her. He didn’t know what to do now. At least until Da-jung suddenly looked up at him and spoke.

“A call came for you.”

“Huh?”

“Phone call.”

“Phone?”

He stupidly raised the cell phone in his hand. He remembered washing up, but he didn’t remember when he picked it up. He pressed the answer button with blank eyes. There was no chance to check whose name appeared on the screen.

“Hello.”

– It’s me.

“Yeah?”

It was Kang Chae-heon. It made Jeong-yoon feel quite sick to calmly accept his voice right now. ‘I’m with your ex-girlfriend right now. ‘Your ex-girlfriend is eating snacks at my house.’ He couldn’t say that. But before Jeong-yoon could think about what to say, Chae-heon spoke first.

– Kwon Mi-hee.

“Huh?”

– You left the auxiliary battery charger at Kwon Mi-hee’s house.

“Huh?”

– Why was it there?

Unintelligible words came out one after another from the phone. Jeong-yoon took the phone off his ear and checked the name. Kang Chae-heon. He was right. Jeong-yoon put the phone to his ear again.

“I’m having a hard time understanding. Are you asking why I left my spare battery charger at Kwon Mi-hee’s house?”

– That’s right.

“I left it there because I dropped it on the floor. I couldn’t find it.”

– …

There was a moment of silence between them. Jeong-yoon checked if the call had been disconnected. The call was still going on.

He put the phone to his ear. Why was it such a big deal to leave the spare battery charger at Mi-hee’s house? Also, why were you there? And why was it there in the first place? Because I dropped it. But to break this eerie silence, he decided to offer some explaining words.

“I went to Mi-hee’s house with Min-soo, Hyang-gi, and Seok-hoon to eat meat, and we were playing around on the bed with Cheolsu and Deoksu.”

– … Who are Cheolsu and Deoksu?

The voice on the other end sounded somewhat ominous. Jeong-yoon rubbed the back of his phone and chose his words.

“Mi-hee’s puppy.”

– Puppy?

“Yeah. Puppy. It’s a white dog, but Mi-hee says it’s a Maltese… Anyway, I guess the charger dropped while I was rolling around on the dog cushion or playing something with them. But why are you suddenly asking about this?”

It seemed like Chae-heon sighed, but it wasn’t clear.

– I’ll hang up now.

After a slight pause, Chae-heon abruptly hung up the phone.

Jeong-yoon stood there dumbfounded, looking at his disconnected cell phone. A water droplet fell from his hair down his neck.