YHP 46
by Cherry“Okay, so that’s the classical definition of trauma.”
It was at the same time that the professor turned over a PPT slide. Suddenly, a bright yellow sticky note was attached next to Jeong-in’s notebook. He turned to the side and saw Ho-jin’s smiling face. He turned his gaze back to the unnecessarily neat handwriting.
Hyung, hehe, do you want to go to Queen’s Island today?
Even if he was an athlete, a student shouldn’t be playing around like this instead of listening to the class. Jeong-in clicked his tongue, but wrote down an answer.
Why there of all places? There are so many other places.
Queen’s Island was a theme park owned by his youngest uncle. He had been there so often since he was a child, without any particular reason, that he didn’t feel anything special about it. Of course, he hadn’t been there in recent years, so something might have changed in the meantime, but unless they had completely overhauled the entire site, the overall structure would probably be similar. Moreover, unlike other theme parks that catered to families, this one tended to market to young couples.
I’ve been to Everland and Lotte World when I was little, but I’ve never been there T_T…Well, if Yoo Ho-jin wants to go, what can he do?
O K A Y T H E N
He wrote the letters so that they filled the blank space so that he couldn’t reply any further. Then Ho-jin started scribbling something in the tiny space that was left.
On one side of the returned sticky note, there was a small rabbit drawn along with a speech bubble that said ‘Yep’. Jeong-in was dumbfounded and laughed when he saw it, and Ho-jin just reached out and drew another picture next to it. This time it was a flower with several petals. He was staring at it as he drew a straight stem and attached a few leaves…
“…Ah, right.”
Come to think of it, he hadn’t watered Gae-ttong.
Jeong-in hurriedly flipped to the back page and quickly wrote on it.
I didn’t water the plant, what should I do?
Ho-jin chuckled.
It’s okay hehe. You don’t have to water it for another three or four days.
That long?
Yep. Even if the surface soil looks dry, you should dig a little inside the soil and if there’s still moisture left, you should let it dry out more hehe.
It was a strange thing to say. Wasn’t water like food for plants? Even Gae-ttong’s relatives in the counseling room were living submerged in water every day.
Won’t it starve to death? It’s okay to drink water every day if it’s in the water.
Hydroponics is…
Then Ho-jin tore off a new sticky note. Jeong-in shook his head as he looked at the first sentence, which started with ‘It’s a method established in 1929’.
“Characteristic symptoms can be broadly divided into re-experiencing, avoidance, negative changes in cognition and mood, and hyperarousal. This will be on next week’s quiz.”
The professor said. Everyone started moving their pens in unison. Jeong-in quickly came to his senses and put a lot of bright red stars on the part the professor had just mentioned. He roughly skimmed through a couple of lecture materials that he had missed while exchanging notes with Ho-jin and moved on to the next page.
As expected, it was all familiar content. In the first place, he was so familiar with the trauma part that he didn’t even need to study it separately. Even if he were asked to explain the concepts and principles of EMDR and cognitive behavioral therapy right now, he could rattle them off at a semi-professional level.
“Next week, we will talk about the post-traumatic growth model presented by Tedeschi and Calhoun. The materials will be uploaded to Cupid as well.”
Thank you, greetings erupted from here and there. Jeong-in packed his books and stood up. But Ho-jin was still holding on to the sticky note.
“Huh…”
He didn’t even seem to know that class was over. Jeong-in quietly watched him, completely focused on the sticky note, his eyes shining, regardless of whether everyone around him was getting up or not, and then nudged his shoulder.
“Yoo Ho-jin.”
Only then did he look up.
“Oh… Is class over?”
“Yeah.”
Jeong-in picked up the sticky note that was in front of Ho-jin.
Starting with the origin of hydroponics, the letters, which had been quickly written down to the basic principles and applications, were now about to move on to the international use of hydroponics.
“Why don’t you just write a thesis.”
He chuckled and inserted it between the notes. Ho-jin scratched his neck awkwardly and followed Jeong-in as he got up.
“Shall we go right away then?”
His voice and face as he asked that seemed a little more excited than usual. He seemed to be very excited.
“Let’s stop by Jongno for a bit. I have something to do.”
“Okay.”
He left the lecture room with Ho-jin. Even as they passed through the lobby and came out to the entrance, people were constantly looking at Ho-jin. Jeong-in, who was walking side by side with him, couldn’t avoid the gaze either.
“…Walk a little further away from me.”
“Why?”
“People are looking at me too.”
Then Ho-jin drooped his eyebrows sadly and stepped back three or four steps from Jeong-in.
“Is this enough?”
“More.”
Eventually, Ho-jin kept a distance of about 2 meters and stayed far away. Jeong-in moved his feet with a much lighter heart. How long had he been walking like that?
“How about this?”
He turned to look at him at the voice that suddenly came to his ears. He saw a hat pulled down low and a mask that completely covered his face, which he had taken out and put on at some point.
It was somehow funny to see him standing there with his big body, only his face completely covered, as if asking for permission. Jeong-in burst out laughing.
“What is that?”
“Is it okay?”
Ho-jin rolled his eyes and stood next to Jeong-in as if nothing had happened. Jeong-in didn’t answer and just looked ahead and walked. Still, it seemed like the number of gazes he felt had decreased a little since he had covered his face.
Before long, the two arrived at the parking lot. He was about to step into the door that Ho-jin always opened for him, but then he thought that he had been getting a ride in Ho-jin’s car too naturally these days.
“…It feels like you’re the only one who’s been driving all the time.”
“Do you drive too, Hyung?”
Jeong-in nodded, thinking about when he had last driven his car.
“Yeah. It’s been about 5 years.”
In Australia, you can get a Learner Permit from the age of 16. Ho-jin hired a part-timer with a full license to fill the hours, and as soon as he passed the minimum period, he immediately got his Probationary License. He hasn’t carried a full license issued over several years for very long, but in any case, in terms of driving experience, it’s been quite a while.
“…You’ve been driving since you were a minor.”
Ha, ha. Ho-jin laughed awkwardly and walked out of the school.
“Hyung, by any chance… did you drink and smoke when you were a student…?”
“I didn’t smoke.”
Instead, he occasionally got a prescription for medical marijuana from the hospital and smoked it when he was in too much pain.
“That’s a relief, smoking is really harmful.”
“…Yeah.”
In the meantime, the car had somehow entered a street full of bustling, low buildings. Watching the barrier of the public parking lot creak up, Jeong-in checked the watch in his pocket.
“I’ll walk there and back, so wait here for a bit, it’ll take about 20 minutes.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Even if you come with me, you’ll have to wait outside anyway.”
“Still.”
Ho-jin followed Jeong-in out anyway. Seeing him already excited and covering his face with a mask and hat, he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to stay put.
The sun was good and the market was full of life. He glanced at the miscellaneous items mixed together on the stalls without any category separation and entered a dark alley. The further he went inside, the fewer people there were. He turned the corner, listening to Ho-jin’s footsteps following closely behind. Jeong-in, looking at the gaps between the closely packed buildings, stopped somewhere.
“Wait here for a bit.”
“Okay.”
Leaving Ho-jin there, Jeong-in groped between the walls and opened a dusty door. The inside of the antique shop, where not a ray of sunlight entered, smelled musty.
“Hello.”
“Yes, please tell me if you need anything…”
A middle-aged man who seemed to be the CEO was eating jajangmyeon while watching TV without even glancing this way. Jeong-in approached him with the smartwatch he had received from Hyun-wook.
“Could you take a look at this for me?”
At those words, the CEO turned only his eyes to look at Jeong-in.
“…Huh?”
He almost spat out the jajangmyeon he was eating and stood up from his seat. Then he stared intently at Jeong-in’s face.
“Won-kyung… no, that can’t be.”
“……”
“Are you, by any chance, Won-kyung’s son?”
Jeong-in nodded. The person who told him about this store was Won-kyung.
“Yes.”
He had once told him that sometimes in life, things happen that need to be resolved without the protection of the law. But he had warned him not to rely on it and to only go there when absolutely necessary, and had told him about some underground routes. The fake IDs he had collected to use whenever he went to the hospital in Korea were actually obtained through such routes.
“You look eerily like him, is Won-kyung doing well?”
“…He probably is.”
“So, what do you need me to look at?”
Jeong-in placed the watch on the counter.
“I’m wondering if it has a camera module or voice recording function, and if it can be controlled externally.”
He immediately took out a simple tool and began to open the watch. Even while doing so, he constantly exclaimed and glanced at Jeong-in’s face.
“…Won-kyung looked exactly like that when he was around twenty.”
It was the same thing Seong-pil had said once.
“You probably don’t remember, but we’ve met before.”
“…Pardon?”
“Won-kyung came here once when he was pregnant with you. He had something to exchange.”
Finally, the watch was opened. Things like PCB chips that didn’t seem particularly special appeared. The CEO carefully turned over each part with tweezers and continued.
“He had been living like a stone, never laughing or crying, but seeing him so happy that he was having his own child, it broke my heart.”
His voice was full of affection.