YHP 28

The top floor was in the middle of demolition work. It seemed that what had originally been one space had been divided into several, as what had been separating the rooms was essentially just light plywood. Tearing it down made the three rooms feel open and refreshing.

“Hello.”

Amidst the sounds of banging and demolition, the interior designer approached Jeong-in. He began to explain the general process.

“We’ll be putting up partition walls for the entrance, bedroom, and laundry room, and we’ll be removing all the kitchens except for the one in the end unit. The rest will proceed as discussed with our manager before, right? You can choose the wallpaper after the plastering is done, and the flooring is….”

Flipping through the pre-made file, his eyes showed a hint of doubt.

“Is it correct that you only want marble for the bedroom floor?”

“Yes.”

“It might be a bit cold…. If you’re going to use stone anyway, wouldn’t it be better to match the other spaces and use porcelain tiles for the entire floor, including the bedroom?”

It was the same point that the interior designer of the officetel he had stayed in after returning to Korea had made. But there was no choice. Other than that, the bedroom floor had to be as cold as ice.

“It’s okay. Please take good care of it.”

Passing by him, who still looked doubtful, Jeong-in went back down the stairs. He had only been standing there for a short while, but the noise had already made his head feel numb. Still, it was a relief that only a dull sound remained when he came down to the first floor.

Just as he was about to open the door and enter, Jeong-in took out his phone at the sudden vibration. He wondered if Yoo Ho-jin was playing a prank again, but Cho Hyo-jun’s name was on the screen.

“What.”

-Jeong-in ah….

A dejected voice was heard.

-Wanna drink?

“No.”

He refused outright. Then, Hyo-jun sighed deeply on the other end of the phone. Listening to the sound, Jeong-in sat down on the bed.

-Seriously, can’t you?

“…What’s wrong?”

His voice sounded unusual. At the question, another sigh was heard. It was a sound that seemed to make the ground sink.

-I got dumped.

Jeong-in thought of the person Hyo-jun had been seeing. This time, the other party was a member of a famous girl group. He had introduced her to Jeong-in about a month ago, and of course, she was really beautiful and had a wonderful personality, almost too good for Cho Hyo-jun.

They had been inseparable, but it seemed that this time, it hadn’t lasted even three months. In fact, except for the girl he had dated for about three years in high school, it had all been like that. He would date someone for a couple of months and break up, then quickly meet someone else and break up again.

“Where are you?”

-At the webfoot octopus place in front of the school. I don’t have the energy to go anywhere far….

Hyo-jun explained the location of the restaurant in a listless voice. Jeong-in left the house, feeling that he didn’t know it well, but he would somehow find it if he looked for it.

Leaving the alley, a commercial area appeared immediately.

To cross the wide road, he had to go under the underpass. Everyone seemed to have so much to say and so many places to go, and everyone passing by was full of busy energy.

Passing by a small flower shop, a convenience store, and a lottery shop in turn, Jeong-in crossed the underpass and came back to the ground. In the meantime, the color of the slightly weakened sunlight was red. Recalling the names of the large restaurants he had heard on the phone one by one, he walked a little further and soon the restaurant Hyo-jun had mentioned appeared.

He opened the door and went inside. It was a little early to drink, so the inside was deserted. Jeong-in approached Hyo-jun, who was burying his head on the innermost table.

“Hey.”

“…You came.”

He was slumped on the table like a melted octopus, reaching out only to pick up macaroni snacks one by one.

“…”

Jeong-in looked at the things on the table. Soju, beer, sake, and baekseju, it seemed that he had ordered one bottle of every kind of alcohol in the restaurant. Moreover, all the side dishes were sweet, salty, and spicy. If Hyo-jun’s parents, who had raised him as the precious eldest son of a noble family, knew about this, they would be shocked.

“…Doesn’t your mother say anything? She always emphasizes that you should eat well, no matter what.”

“That’s all in the past. Before Cho Hyo-sun was born, that was the prime of my life.”

He was talking about his younger sister, who was eight years younger than him.

“It was nice when I was the only son and was loved and cherished…. Now she’s the queen.”

“By the way, what’s the little leech doing these days?”

“Of course, school…. No, are you more curious about Cho Hyo-sun’s well-being when I’m like this?”

Hyo-jun flared up. But the truth was that he was much more curious about the recent situation of Hyo-sun, who was the bright future of Seyoung Financial Group itself, than about Hyo-jun’s state, who was always whining about being dumped. Of course, he thought it would be troublesome in many ways if he said this out loud, so he first filled Hyo-jun’s glass.

“So, what was the problem this time?”

“I don’t know. She said it didn’t seem like I loved her very much.”

Hyo-jun, who had downed the full glass, chewed on the webfoot octopus, making a ‘keueu’ sound.

“I take care of all the anniversaries that I didn’t even take care of in middle and high school, I get her everything from Hermes to Chanel to things that are back-ordered for months, I go to see her as soon as my schedule is over, and I wait quietly when she’s busy…. What more do I have to do here?”

“…I don’t know.”

Jeong-in emptied the glass that Hyo-jun had filled. He refused the webfoot octopus that was quickly poked at him with a fork and only picked out the vegetables. Then, he suddenly remembered the old days.

“How were you when you were dating her?”

“Who?”

“You know, the girl you dated for a long time in high school. Was it Darim?”

At those words, Hyo-jun smiled bitterly.

“…I didn’t do any of this when I was dating her.”

It was when Jeong-in was living in Australia. Hyo-jun had called him with an excited voice, saying that he had a girlfriend. He had met people a few times before, regardless of gender, but it was the first time he was being so serious, so Jeong-in still remembered her.

He was the second son of a fairly successful pharmaceutical company executive, but something went wrong around his third year of high school, and the company went bankrupt, so Jeong-in remembered that there was a lot of noise about whether Hyo-jun would pay for her college tuition or not.

“She was just…. An idiot.”

Looking at Hyo-jun’s expression as he said that, he seemed to understand a little. Why the person he had broken up with this time had said that.

“But I still think about that sometimes these days.”

“What do you think about?”

“I think that if I had dated other people a little more seriously before I met her, things wouldn’t have gone so badly.”

It seemed that Hyo-jun still missed her.

“…First loves usually don’t come true. From experience, I think that’s true, Jeong-in ah.”

Jeong-in quietly sipped the cold water and listened to Hyo-jun’s words.

“Now, I know everything right away. I know what the other person wants and what they don’t like just by flirting, but it wasn’t like that back then. I was stupid…. I just thought that a liking heart was all that mattered.”

Hyo-jun then began to give a long speech about the concept of first love. It wasn’t very nutritious.

Listening with one ear and letting it out with the other, Jeong-in picked up the last remaining webfoot octopus and ate it. He was sure that he would never touch something like this in his life, but when he actually took a bite, it seemed pretty good.

“You be careful too. If you ever start dating, never go all-in on your first love.”

Empty bottles piled up one by one. Hyo-jun was slowly losing it.

Even at that moment, Jeong-in’s head was full of worries about where to put this bastard.

If he put him in Hyo-jun’s main house, Jeong-in would be scolded for not stopping him from drinking until he was drunk, and it was impossible to put him in the officetel. He put double and triple passwords on the door every time his lover changed, so if he was this drunk, even Hyo-jun himself wouldn’t be able to break through the security. There was an 80 percent or higher chance that he would just make a wasted trip.

He was thinking that he should just throw him into the empty room in the building when Hyo-jun suddenly spoke.

“Grab anyone who says they like you and try dating them as a test.”

“…”

“If they’re too clingy from the beginning, you might get sick of them, so it’s better to have someone who would pretend to die at your every word.”

“That’s my hyung’s honey tip, a life honey tip.” He said that and started hitting his chest with half-open eyes. It seemed like he would be in trouble if he drank even one more glass here. Jeong-in quickly finished paying and supported Hyo-jun.

“Get up, let’s go home.”

“You have to meet someone…. Got it?”

According to years of experience, when Cho Hyo-jun, who had been drinking, said something, you should never object, no matter how nonsense it was. Jeong-in answered insincerely.

“I know, so get up.”

He barely managed to get out of the restaurant, carrying him as if he were carrying him on his back, as he couldn’t even walk properly. By the time he arrived at the alley in front of his house, barely pushing his way through the people who had just come out to drink, Jeong-in felt like he was going to die too.

“Ah, walk properly.”

“Uh….”

Every step was a crisis. Jeong-in, who was angry at the constantly staggering big body, kicked Hyo-jun’s legs and barely arrived in front of the building, then opened the door of the empty room and threw Hyo-jun in as if he were throwing him away.

“Haa, haa….”

He had no energy left in his body.

“Anyway…. Haa, he’s not even human yet….”

Too exhausted to even speak properly, Jeong-in stared silently at Hyo-jun, who was pathetically thrashing around the room, before slamming the door shut. The peace that finally arrived was so welcome. He reached for his own room’s doorknob, intending to collapse onto his bed immediately.

Rustle. A plastic bag brushed against his toes.

‘I’ll bring it even if you hate it, so throw it away if you won’t eat it.’

Ho-jin’s words echoed in his mind, the promise to bring dinner in exchange for the phone. As always, a sticky note covered with a densely written menu was attached to the outside of the plastic bag.

“…Ha.”

One mountain after another. Jeong-in sighed deeply and picked up the plastic bag. It was quite heavy as he carried it inside.