Chapter 32
I should have said it after we got to Jinhong-ri. Since we happened to talk about it in town, enduring the silence on the way back together was torture.
“The construction is almost done.”
Yohan said as he dropped Heena off in front of the greenhouse first.
“Nothing will be uncomfortable anymore.”
“……”
Yohan’s sedan left the greenhouse in no time. I was the one who drew the line first, so why did I feel a sense of disappointment towards Seo Yohan for speaking so decisively?
It meant that once the construction was finished and I went back home, there would be no reason to eat together or run into each other anymore.
Seo Yohan was the type to think a lot and be highly sensitive, but he was also just as stubborn and proud. That’s why he never contacted me first once during the two years we were broken up.
Will it be like that this time too? Is this really the end? An ominous premonition that I wouldn’t even be able to see him as Jeong Heetae’s older sister anymore washed over me.
Only after confirming that Yohan’s sedan had disappeared around the corner did Heena head toward the greenhouse. As soon as she entered, Son Dongha smiled brightly and took the coffee shopping bag from her hands.
“Noona, did you have a good trip?”
She wasn’t in the mood to smile, but the atmosphere didn’t allow for a gloomy expression, so she put on a faint smile.
“By the way, where did that hyung go?”
“To park his car at his house.”
“He’s the one who lives next door to you, noona.”
His perceptiveness was astonishingly quick.
“Was it obvious?”
“I think all the kids here know. That you two are… in a subtle relationship.”
“Hmm? What does that mean?”
“If you’re curious, give me some of your time later.”
He asked with his eyes crinkling into a smile, and she couldn’t refuse. In a daze, Heena grabbed her share of the coffee and sipped it, sucking on the straw.
✦⋆🍒.₊ ⊹
She was invited to the university students’ pork belly party, funded by their pocket money. She had eaten so much pork belly since coming down to Jinhong-ri that she wasn’t particularly keen on it, but Heena was excited to hang out with new people and liked the boisterous atmosphere.
She followed the students to Jinhong Elementary School. However, there was an unexpected obstacle.
“Why are you following us here?”
“I’m going because they told me to come too.”
Seo Yohan, who would avoid gatherings with strangers at all costs, was deigning to make an appearance of his own accord.
“You hate these kinds of events.”
“I’m going to see for myself just how fun it is that you can’t get enough of it.”
“Saying I ‘can’t get enough of it’ seems like a gross exaggeration, don’t you think? Stop adding MSG and just state the facts.”
“I’m just saying that’s how the Jeong Heena I saw was.”
The period she dated Seo Yohan was about seven years. As is often the case with long-term couples, they would naturally return to normal even after a big fight. It was the same for him and her. It was flowing that way now, too… but why? We’re not even dating now? Are we just going to move on this casually?
While Heena was pondering this question, Yohan leaned in and whispered softly in her ear.
“What if you get drunk and do something foolish to someone else again? I came to keep an eye on you.”
“I won’t do anything foolish. I only did that kind of thing to you because I’m comfortable with you.”
Yohan smirked, raising one corner of his mouth as he retorted.
“What kind of thing?”
“……”
“The part where you jumped me?”
“……”
“So you remember everything but have been pretending you didn’t all this time?”
“……”
“I’m going to remember what you said earlier until the day I die. From now on, even if you try to pounce on me, I’m not going to accept it.”
He whispered ticklishly, his fingertips lightly intertwining with Heena’s fingers.
Cold sweat soaked her palms, and she rubbed them dry on her pants.
All the students who had been scattered across the various villages were gathered at Jinhong Elementary School. With a dozen or so in each village, there seemed to be at least 50 people. The scale was larger than expected.
Son Dongha stood in the very center of the gathered students, holding a megaphone.
We’ll be handing out two gas burners to each group, so please set up the tables and chairs on the playground. The staff will distribute the pork belly to each table, and the alcohol is placed here in front, so please help yourselves. We have activities tomorrow as well, so please exercise restraint so as not to disrupt the schedule.
He looked accustomed to leading people. It was an attitude that suggested he had likely been a leader in clubs or other gatherings, not just this once.
“Have you ever done something like that?”
Heena asked, nudging Yohan’s side.
“Of course not.”
“Me neither. I want to try. Ah, why didn’t I ever do something like that when I was a university student?”
“Because you were busy dating me.”
It seemed like Yohan was constantly trying to remind her of their memories from back then. They were memories she didn’t particularly want to recall, but it seemed they had been romanticized in Seo Yohan’s memory.
“I was probably busy fighting with you.”
“If you had said you were going to a place like this, we would have fought again.”
“Do you know how much I walked on eggshells around you back then?”
“That was you walking on eggshells? You needed to do it more.”
The back of her neck tensed up. Instead of grabbing him by the collar, she gripped his sleeve tightly. She clenched her molars and spoke through her teeth.
“Stop talking about back then.”
“What can I do if I keep thinking about it?”
“Just think it, just think it. Don’t say it out loud.”
Yohan just scoffed as if he hadn’t heard.
“Noona, hyung. Come this way.”
Son Dongha was the first to lead the two to a spot where a table and chairs had been set up. As soon as she sat down next to Yohan, Dongha took the seat to Heena’s right. It was the exact same positioning as when they were eating snacks earlier. Her head was already starting to throb. It was truly uncomfortable sitting between the two, from whom sparks seemed to be subtly flying.
As alcohol accompanied the pork belly, the atmosphere loosened. Heena, too, was excited as it had been a while since she’d been at a drinking party with university students, and she chatted informally with students whose names she didn’t even know.
“Noona, you’re drunk, aren’t you?”
Just as she was about to down her soju shot, Son Dongha snatched the glass away in one motion. He asked with a gentle smile, and a kind reply couldn’t help but slip out.
“Do I look drunk right now?”
“You don’t look sober. Though that was always the case.”
“……”
From her left, Seo Yohan muttered as if to himself while eating a large wrap. Heena smacked her lips, shot a glare at Yohan, then shifted her gaze back to Son Dongha.
“Want to go get some fresh air for a bit?”
“Huh? Why?”
“You said you’d give me some of your time earlier.”
Whether it was a habit or a quirk, Son Dongha whispered in her ear this time as well.
“Ah, right! I did say that.”
When Heena and Son Dongha stood up together, Yohan suddenly grabbed Heena’s wrist.
“Where are you going without me?”
He spoke dejectedly, like a puppy that had lost its owner. As Heena stood there, stammering, unable to hide her bewilderment, Dongha answered for her.
“We’re going to the restroom together. I’m scared to go alone.”
At that, Yohan sat Heena back down and shot up himself.
“Go with me. I was just about to go to the restroom too.”
✦⋆🍒.₊ ⊹
Dongha, who had been smiling brightly just a moment ago, hardened his expression as if that had never happened. It was because the wrong person was now stuck to his side, following him.
Dongha glanced at Seo Yohan out of the corner of his eye and then let out a heavy sigh, loud enough for him to hear. Seo Yohan pretended not to have heard and whistled.
“Do you have some kind of grudge against me?”
Dongha stopped walking and licked his lips as he asked. Yohan stood askew and tilted his head.
“A grudge? That’s a misunderstanding. Besides you acting like a fox towards Jeong Heena, there’s nothing that bothers me at all.”
Acting like a fox? Ha, it was absurd. Dongha, biting his lower lip hard, muttered a curse under his breath and met his gaze. He hadn’t seen many people taller than him, so he wasn’t used to looking up.
“Acting like a fox? I just want to make a good impression on Heena noona.”
“What are you going to do after making a good impression on her?”
“It’s good to be on friendly terms, isn’t it?”
“What’s the point of being friendly when you’re not people you’ll see for the rest of your lives.”
As he narrowed his eyes and observed him, he began to see things like nervousness and anxiety on his face.
“We might end up seeing each other for the rest of our lives. You never know about human connections.”
“If you want to see her for the rest of your life, you have to see me for the rest of your life too. Can you handle that?”
“I was meaning to ask you about that, anyway.”
Son Dongha took a cigarette out of his pants pocket and put it to his lips. Then he asked if Yohan wanted one too, to which Yohan refused with a serious face.
“What is your relationship with Heena noona?”
His pronunciation was muffled as he asked with the filter between his lips. Nevertheless, Yohan could understand him perfectly. Perhaps it sounded even clearer because it was a question he himself had been harboring.
“What would you like it to be?”
“Don’t beat around the bush, just tell me. What is your relationship? Distant relatives? Neighborhood friends? Surely not something like an ex-boyfriend.”
The sight of a much younger junior with a cigarette in his mouth was displeasing. Yohan took the cigarette from his mouth, threw it on the ground, and crushed the ember with his foot.
“You’re very perceptive. That’s why you’re not the one.”
