Chapter 12
Yohan returned home and swept and wiped his already clean house, even cleaning the bathroom and tidying the kitchen.
…And he still had time to spare.
It’s boring without Jeong Heena.
Jeong Heena’s expressionless face after seeing the half-dead bees flashed through his mind.
Cold-blooded. Psychopath.
Yohan muttered to himself, thinking of Jeong Heena.
It wasn’t just the bee incident.
When they watched sad melodramatic movies, he was always the only one who shed tears pathetically.
“Why are you crying so much? It’s not even your story.”
Jeong Heena had said, wiping his eyes with the scarf around her neck, not a handkerchief or tissue.
“I’m not crying, my eyes just welled up a bit.”
He tried to argue, but it only made him seem more pathetic.
It was the scene where the female lead, diagnosed with a terminal illness, hid the truth from her boyfriend, the male lead, and broke up with him. Many people in the theater sniffled and shed tears, but Heena was staring at the crying Yohan as if he were a spectacle.
Even after the movie ended and they were sitting across from each other at a cafe, drinking coffee, Yohan was still immersed in the lingering emotions of the film. Yet, Heena was scanning the menu, asking, “Do you want to eat yogurt ice cream too?”
“They ate ice cream in the movie we just saw. Is that why you want to eat it?”
“Yeah, it looked really delicious. But wasn’t the product placement too obvious?”
“Pr, product placement….”
Heena added with a bright smile,
“Still, it’s all good if it’s delicious.”
That was when Yohan realized for the first time that they weren’t on the same wavelength. They say a couple lasts long if they have the same sense of humor and cry at the same things….
The two of them, who had a fairly similar sense of humor but cried at completely different moments, had been dating for a surprisingly long time. From when he was twenty until he was twenty-six. A whopping seven years.
He occasionally saw Heena sobbing, but it was mostly when she was angry, not sad. Especially when her translation work wasn’t going well, when a deadline was approaching and she hadn’t even finished half of it, or when someone looked down on her professionally.
To Heena, he, who cried when moved by something, must have seemed like a “strange and oversensitive kid.”
It was the same today. She probably dismissed him as being oversensitive for feeling sorry for the bees chasing after the queen’s rear end because they had nothing to eat. Jeong Heena would probably only wave her hands and frantically run away when the bees were buzzing around energetically.
He was wiping the beads of sweat on his forehead with his sleeve and putting away the cleaning supplies when the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
The doorbell, which usually remained silent, rang repeatedly today. Checking the intercom, Yohan frowned.
It was Jeong Heena. And she was still wearing the beekeeping hat and gloves.
“What is it?”
Come out. We have somewhere to go.
She sure has a lot of places to go.
Yohan’s daily life had become much busier since Jeong Heena came down to Jinhong-ri. He had to wake up the late-sleeping Jeong Heena, cook for her, take her out for fresh air, and entertain her late into the night. He had no time to breathe.
It was annoying, but what could he do? In Jinhong-ri, there was nowhere else for Jeong Heena to freely come and go except his house.
“What now? Where are we going now?”
He stepped out the door, pouting, and Heena abruptly placed the beekeeping hat and gloves on his head. Dumbfounded, Yohan looked down at the small, white hand gripping his wrist and pulling him along.
Heena took him back to the apiary. But the atmosphere was quite different from when they had come in the morning. The bees were still listless, buzzing around weakly.
He scanned the area around the apiary, trying to figure out what had changed.
“…Saplings?”
“Acacia. I told them I was looking for honey plant saplings in town, and they delivered them all the way here.”
Unopened acacia saplings were lined up on one side of the apiary.
Ha. Yohan let out a hollow laugh. Heena, who had approached him, cleared her throat and shrugged.
“They said the bees were weak because all the honey plants had been cleared out. I haven’t planted them yet. I don’t think I can do it alone.”
So… she went this far?
“Are you mad that I didn’t show much interest in the bees?”
Heena rolled her eyes, as if she didn’t know where to look. She rubbed her gloved hands together and nudged Yohan’s arm with her shoulder. It was what Jeong Heena did when she was embarrassed and had nothing to say.
“We could plant them in this yard, couldn’t we? It’s completely empty.”
“Do you know who owns this yard?”
Only then did Heena’s eyes widen, meeting Yohan’s gaze.
“Do I need permission?”
The owner of this land, including the bee farms, was Yohan’s grandparents. Although Yohan had bought it from them at a low price and it was now his. He didn’t bother adding those pointless details.
“Forget it. Let’s just plant them.”
Come to think of it, he had liked this about Jeong Heena. Her ability to act immediately without much thought. Her drive, much faster than others. It was quite different from him, who would think about plans years into the future and get a headache when trying to put something into action.
Heena pulled her work gloves all the way up and started digging the empty ground with a shovel. The sight of her small frame curled up, digging the earth, was both funny and cute.
…Cute, my foot. It was obvious she bought the saplings not for the bees, but because she was bothered that he was upset.
Wait. Isn’t that even better? That she cares more about me than the bees… No, wait. Why am I happy about that?
Yohan’s earlobes flushed red.
“Hurry up and bring the saplings!”
Her loud shout, loud enough to make his ears ring, quickly dispelled that thought.
Yohan placed the saplings in the holes Heena had dug. He filled the holes with soil and packed it firmly, and Heena dug another hole, repeating the process.
Ten trees in total. He didn’t know how many of them would survive, but he was so moved by the fact that Jeong Heena had even thought of buying honey plant saplings that his eyes welled up.
“You can’t be getting all emotional and teary-eyed again.”
“…….”
His eyes almost welled up, it wasn’t enough to make him cry.
✦⋆🍒.₊ ⊹
What a hassle this is, just to cheer up Seo Yohan.
After a refreshing shower, Heena finally felt her body relax. Had she made a mistake by going to see the bees so early in the morning? Today had definitely gone wrong from that point on.
Seeing Seo Yohan’s sullen face, all she could think about was cheering him up quickly. But if she asked, “Are you sulking?” he’d get even more sulky and insist, “I’m not sulking, I’m angry.”
They weren’t even dating anymore, so she didn’t know why she should care if he was angry, but she couldn’t stand the uneasy feeling. That was why she had gotten on the village bus, still wearing her beekeeping gear, and procured the acacia saplings.
Yohan would sometimes light up with a delighted smile when she bought him a bouquet of flowers. This time, it wasn’t flowers, but trees? Alright, let’s see how far this goes. Later, she might have to buy him a forest to satisfy him.
She was hand-washing her dirt-covered clothes and hanging them on the clothesline in the yard when a pungent and appetizing smell drifted over the wall. Heena sniffed involuntarily.
It was a familiar smell. When Heena bought him flowers, Yohan would often reciprocate by making her favorite Seo Yohan kimchi stew, and it was exactly that smell. Like Pavlov’s dog, her mouth watered. This wasn’t just any kimchi stew smell. This was a smell calling out to her.
Without even drying her hair, Heena ran next door in her pajamas. She frantically rang the doorbell, yearning for the kimchi stew.
“You’re not already eating it alone, are you? You saved some for me, right?”
Click. As if he had been waiting for her, the gate opened quickly. Heena dashed across the yard and, confirming that the front door was open, became certain once more. Seo Yohan was luring her with the smell of kimchi stew.
Cunning bastard… He knows me too well.
She composed herself and walked inside, pretending to be nonchalant. Seo Yohan, wearing an apron, was carrying the pot of kimchi stew to the living room table.
“Bring the spoons. Hurry.”
He nodded towards the kitchen. Even though they had been freely going in and out of each other’s houses for the past few days, she had to maintain a semblance of politeness in front of delicious food.
Heena demurely went into the kitchen, took out the spoons, and headed to the living room. On the table was steaming pork kimchi stew and fluffy white rice, but….
“Something’s missing.”
Indeed. There was no seaweed. She had to dip the rice slightly into the kimchi stew broth and wrap it in seaweed, but there was no seaweed.
Just as she was about to feel disappointed, there was a rustling sound under the table. Yohan pressed his lips together, as if holding back a laugh. What he pulled out from under the table was none other than seaweed!
As expected of Seo Yohan. He never disappointed Heena. Overwhelmed with emotion, Heena buried her face in her hands.
“I’m so happy….”
But perhaps she shouldn’t have said those words. A suffocating silence and awkward atmosphere instantly filled the living room.
