“Did you hear that? Huh? Hey, did you hear that? In this day and age, a six-year age difference doesn’t mean much, you know?”
“Wouldn’t eight years not matter much either?”
I murmured quietly when Kwon Joong-hyuk slapped Park Kang-woo on the shoulder, and Park Kang-woo widened his eyes and sighed. ‘What, eight years older?’ I pretended not to notice, and when I averted my gaze, he grunted distressedly.
“Park Kang-woo, do you know why you don’t have a girlfriend? It’s because you’re full of insults and unnecessary worries.”
Kwon Joong-hyuk clung to me like he’d won a game and threw a snack at Park Gangwoo’s forehead with just a little praise.
“Lately, worrying about age differences is such an outdated idea, isn’t it? It’s not cute at all, right?”
“Look at this bastard talking shit, so you got a girlfriend because you’re cute?”
“Yeah. My Noona said I’m the cutest in the world. Everything I do is cute. She even said my somersaults were cute. She said she’s never had someone making her laugh so hard like I did.”
“You’re making me laugh. She’s probably just laughing at you. Who would like someone who does somersaults as a romantic gesture?”
“My Jinnie, my Soojini noona like it. My Noona is dying from my cuteness.”
“She’s going to die of exhaustion.”
Park Kang-woo pretended to vomit and tapped my forearm.
AD
“Hey, Woni Woni, Seung-woni. Do you do that with your girlfriend too? Do you put on a somersault show for her?”
“Uh, don’t call me that.”
“So do you?”
“Am I crazy? Why would I do something like that?”
What makes you think that?
“You’re hopeless too, with no cuteness at all.”
And what’s this nonsense now? Kwon Joong-hyuk started to insult me without acknowledging the favor I did for him.
“Seo Seung-won. Smile and live your life. It’s not good to look at you like that. If you think about it, Lee Hyun-wook isn’t fun either. Don’t be so blunt as to say you two aren’t friends.”
“Hey. Are you not my friend? And among us, you’re the least fun.”
“Look at this, this. Even this is not funny either.”
What’s with this guy? He was being so unreasonable, so I immediately refuted it, but Kwon Joong-hyuk clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Do you act like this with your girlfriend too? You get dumped.”
Wow, this punk is really something. My fist clenched involuntarily, and as my eyes blurred, Park Kang-woo, who had been quietly listening, snorted and muttered.
“Well… it seems like he’s going to get along just fine, despite his faults.”
“No.”
Kwon Joong-hyuk, who had taken advantage of my favor, immediately denied Park Kang-woo’s claim.
AD
“Nah, it’s not about that. Even if that hurts someone’s feelings, he stays quiet, right? He’s someone who just stays still even when he’s upset. So frustrating! You can tell just by looking. He probably won’t even last a year, right?”
“Well, I don’t know about the latter, but I admit the former.”
Now these two… suddenly they were in sync, pushing me aside. Feeling both amazed and unjustly treated, I spoke confidently.
“Hey. No, I’m good.”
“Well, what are you good at?”
This time, Park Kang-woo raised a spoon menacingly and knocked on the table. He suddenly starts to get angry with his flushed face.
“You disappear on your friends without a word, huh? You don’t even mention that you got a girlfriend, and you’re supposed to be great at it? Obvious, so obvious. How well do you think you’ve done? How well did you do for your girlfriend to come looking for you like she’s catching a rat in the middle of the night? Am I wrong? Or is this just how you are, huh? Tell me!”
“Excuse me. I’m sorry, but…”
A woman with impressive long hair and eyebrows suddenly appeared behind the angry Park Kang-woo.
“You seem to have been here for a long time, would you like to go out with us?”
She said in a confident and dignified tone. At this moment, I saw Park Kang-woo’s cheekbones twitch and the two women at a nearby table giggled while looking at us.
“Oh, we were just about to leave.”
“I’m sorry, but we haven’t finished eating yet. so you can go ahead and have fun.”
Kwon Junghyuk cut in with a straight face before Park Kangwoo could finish his sentence while trying to conceal his excitement.
The woman’s smile faded as the corner of her mouth twitched downward.
AD
“You too?”
“Yes?”
“Do you also want me to leave first?”
I had no idea why she was talking to me when I was quietly sitting here, but I couldn’t ignore her.
“…because I haven’t finished my bibim guksu… I’m sorry.”
I tried to refuse so as not to offend, but it was a futile attempt. She gave me a cold glance and left. Not long after she left, Park Gangwoo’s trembling hand grabbed Kwon Junghyeok’s collar.
“What.”
“What is it? Seriously! Oh man, she was the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen!”
“The prettiest woman is my Soojini noona.”
“Oh, come on! You bastard!”
Maybe Park Kang-woo got irritated with Kwon Joong-hyuk, who pretended not to understand and joked about it. Kwon Joong-hyuk, who had been ignoring him with his ears closed, corrected his posture and refuted item by item.
“Hey. My girlfriend trusted me and allowed me to hang out with my friends, right? Is there a bigger betrayal than going out for drinks with a woman you don’t know?”
“Well, then, you could have just gone back! Right? Then we, just the two of us…”
My eyes locked with Park Kang-woo’s as he slurred his words. I shook my head to indicate that there was no woman, but there was a man, and he squeezed his eyes shut like a man in tears.
“What the fuck… You guys should prepare to suffer after eating today. Follow me. We’re going for a second round to a makchang(entrails) restaurant.”
AD
He gritted his teeth and left in a huff. I could feel his disappointment even from his back. He wanted to hang out with those ladies so badly. However, even if such an opportunity presented itself, I didn’t want to participate. Even if the human CCTV was not around, I didn’t want to create a situation that would make me feel uncomfortable in the first place. Kwon Joong-hyuk must have had the same idea because he stood up and puffed out his chest with a very dignified expression.
We were about to leave after paying and picking up our bags when Kwon Joong-hyuk wrapped his arm around my shoulder as if it were an armrest.
“What’s that? Are you carrying something bigger than before? Isn’t this just a carry-on bag? Wow, isn’t it heavy? Are you still carrying stuff like sleeping bags around? You will survive even if you go to a truly uninhabited island.”
“A mountain?”
“Mountain? Well, you’d survive there too, right?”
I burst into laughter at his remark. Not knowing anything about my future, Kwon Joong-hyuk was just rambling on without any substance, rolling his eyes and grumbling. He was so carefree and oblivious that I couldn’t help but find it amusing. We hadn’t been this close just last year, but his presence felt surprisingly comfortable.
What was it like back then? I had been hospitalized to the point where everyday life was impossible. I only found out later that they had come to visit me, but since they weren’t allowed to visit me at the time, I couldn’t see them until I went to school.
I didn’t know any of my classmates apart from Park Kang-woo and Kwon Joong-hyuk, so when these unfamiliar faces hurriedly approached me, I simply walked past them without recognizing them. It wasn’t that I was ignoring them; it was just that I had no strength to deal with teenagers at that time.
Those who had only heard that their friend had roughly lost his memory seemed shocked to see their friend sitting idly all day or holding his mouth tight like a spider’s web. So they didn’t approach me very actively. Except for Park Kang-woo.
But at that time, I was extremely sensitive and full of animosity. I was tired of being a character in a book and living under someone else’s shadow, and his friends trying to push Seo Seung-won’s life onto me was driving me crazy.
In the end, overwhelmed by the stress accumulated in just one day, I ended up with a nosebleed and even fainted. How funny it was to see them shivering because they were more panicky than me. That was a memorable moment if you can call it that.
“Oh, it’s an arcade.”
“Wow, what a nostalgic memory. Hey, want to play a shooting game just once and leave?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Hey, Park Kang-woo! Come over here! Let’s play just one round of this and leave!”
One round? We played for a whole hour. We poured in ten thousand won for claw machine games, only to lose the dolls we won in just 30 minutes. When I expressed my regret, Park Kang-woo, being his simple self, confidently claimed he would try to win the same doll again, but in the end, he wasted another twenty thousand won and gave up.
With three heavily intoxicated guys, leaving the second-round makchang restaurant, honestly, none of us were in our right minds. The situation escalated when I called Lee Hyun-wook, who was studying abroad. I thought I should be prepared for a hangover, but it was something I didn’t need to worry about right now.
I crawled out of the shop like a wounded animal and collapsed under the building where the lights were off. It was an incredibly comfortable spot. Hugging my backpack close, I lay there, dozing off. But then, Kwon Joong-hyuk, true to his nature as a son of a restaurant owner, insisted it wasn’t right to just lie in front of someone else’s building, even if the lights were off. He poked me, insisting I shouldn’t do that.
Then, as Park Kang-woo attempted to lie down on the sidewalk with a carefree expression, Kwon Joong-hyuk quickly chased after him and started hitting him. In rhythm with the lively smacking sounds, I turned my head to the side, but then my phone, which I had left in my pocket, started buzzing.
It was the default ringtone, not the ringtone exclusively made for Woo Ji-min, so I answered the phone with a relaxed attitude without even checking the other person’s name.
AD
“Hello.”
[Hey. Finally picking up now.]
“Seong-je hyung? No, hyung… I can’t believe you’re calling me…”
[What?]
Suddenly, the world seemed beautiful. The sky, wider and bluer than the ocean, looked so deep and cozy. The tiny stars embedded in it weren’t clearly visible, but they looked so adorable.
“Did you hear that? Huh? Hey, did you hear that? In this day and age, a six-year age difference doesn’t mean much, you know?”
“Wouldn’t eight years not matter much either?”
I murmured quietly when Kwon Joong-hyuk slapped Park Kang-woo on the shoulder, and Park Kang-woo widened his eyes and sighed. ‘What, eight years older?’ I pretended not to notice, and when I averted my gaze, he grunted distressedly.
“Park Kang-woo, do you know why you don’t have a girlfriend? It’s because you’re full of insults and unnecessary worries.”
Kwon Joong-hyuk clung to me like he’d won a game and threw a snack at Park Gangwoo’s forehead with just a little praise.
“Lately, worrying about age differences is such an outdated idea, isn’t it? It’s not cute at all, right?”
“Look at this bastard talking shit, so you got a girlfriend because you’re cute?”
“Yeah. My Noona said I’m the cutest in the world. Everything I do is cute. She even said my somersaults were cute. She said she’s never had someone making her laugh so hard like I did.”
“You’re making me laugh. She’s probably just laughing at you. Who would like someone who does somersaults as a romantic gesture?”
“My Jinnie, my Soojini noona like it. My Noona is dying from my cuteness.”
“She’s going to die of exhaustion.”
Park Kang-woo pretended to vomit and tapped my forearm.
AD
“Hey, Woni Woni, Seung-woni. Do you do that with your girlfriend too? Do you put on a somersault show for her?”
“Uh, don’t call me that.”
“So do you?”
“Am I crazy? Why would I do something like that?”
What makes you think that?
“You’re hopeless too, with no cuteness at all.”
And what’s this nonsense now? Kwon Joong-hyuk started to insult me without acknowledging the favor I did for him.
“Seo Seung-won. Smile and live your life. It’s not good to look at you like that. If you think about it, Lee Hyun-wook isn’t fun either. Don’t be so blunt as to say you two aren’t friends.”
“Hey. Are you not my friend? And among us, you’re the least fun.”
“Look at this, this. Even this is not funny either.”
What’s with this guy? He was being so unreasonable, so I immediately refuted it, but Kwon Joong-hyuk clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Do you act like this with your girlfriend too? You get dumped.”
Wow, this punk is really something. My fist clenched involuntarily, and as my eyes blurred, Park Kang-woo, who had been quietly listening, snorted and muttered.
“Well… it seems like he’s going to get along just fine, despite his faults.”
“No.”
Kwon Joong-hyuk, who had taken advantage of my favor, immediately denied Park Kang-woo’s claim.
AD
“Nah, it’s not about that. Even if that hurts someone’s feelings, he stays quiet, right? He’s someone who just stays still even when he’s upset. So frustrating! You can tell just by looking. He probably won’t even last a year, right?”
“Well, I don’t know about the latter, but I admit the former.”
Now these two… suddenly they were in sync, pushing me aside. Feeling both amazed and unjustly treated, I spoke confidently.
“Hey. No, I’m good.”
“Well, what are you good at?”
This time, Park Kang-woo raised a spoon menacingly and knocked on the table. He suddenly starts to get angry with his flushed face.
“You disappear on your friends without a word, huh? You don’t even mention that you got a girlfriend, and you’re supposed to be great at it? Obvious, so obvious. How well do you think you’ve done? How well did you do for your girlfriend to come looking for you like she’s catching a rat in the middle of the night? Am I wrong? Or is this just how you are, huh? Tell me!”
“Excuse me. I’m sorry, but…”
A woman with impressive long hair and eyebrows suddenly appeared behind the angry Park Kang-woo.
“You seem to have been here for a long time, would you like to go out with us?”
She said in a confident and dignified tone. At this moment, I saw Park Kang-woo’s cheekbones twitch and the two women at a nearby table giggled while looking at us.
“Oh, we were just about to leave.”
“I’m sorry, but we haven’t finished eating yet. so you can go ahead and have fun.”
Kwon Junghyuk cut in with a straight face before Park Kangwoo could finish his sentence while trying to conceal his excitement.
The woman’s smile faded as the corner of her mouth twitched downward.
AD
“You too?”
“Yes?”
“Do you also want me to leave first?”
I had no idea why she was talking to me when I was quietly sitting here, but I couldn’t ignore her.
“…because I haven’t finished my bibim guksu… I’m sorry.”
I tried to refuse so as not to offend, but it was a futile attempt. She gave me a cold glance and left. Not long after she left, Park Gangwoo’s trembling hand grabbed Kwon Junghyeok’s collar.
“What.”
“What is it? Seriously! Oh man, she was the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen!”
“The prettiest woman is my Soojini noona.”
“Oh, come on! You bastard!”
Maybe Park Kang-woo got irritated with Kwon Joong-hyuk, who pretended not to understand and joked about it. Kwon Joong-hyuk, who had been ignoring him with his ears closed, corrected his posture and refuted item by item.
“Hey. My girlfriend trusted me and allowed me to hang out with my friends, right? Is there a bigger betrayal than going out for drinks with a woman you don’t know?”
“Well, then, you could have just gone back! Right? Then we, just the two of us…”
My eyes locked with Park Kang-woo’s as he slurred his words. I shook my head to indicate that there was no woman, but there was a man, and he squeezed his eyes shut like a man in tears.
“What the fuck… You guys should prepare to suffer after eating today. Follow me. We’re going for a second round to a makchang(entrails) restaurant.”
AD
He gritted his teeth and left in a huff. I could feel his disappointment even from his back. He wanted to hang out with those ladies so badly. However, even if such an opportunity presented itself, I didn’t want to participate. Even if the human CCTV was not around, I didn’t want to create a situation that would make me feel uncomfortable in the first place. Kwon Joong-hyuk must have had the same idea because he stood up and puffed out his chest with a very dignified expression.
We were about to leave after paying and picking up our bags when Kwon Joong-hyuk wrapped his arm around my shoulder as if it were an armrest.
“What’s that? Are you carrying something bigger than before? Isn’t this just a carry-on bag? Wow, isn’t it heavy? Are you still carrying stuff like sleeping bags around? You will survive even if you go to a truly uninhabited island.”
“A mountain?”
“Mountain? Well, you’d survive there too, right?”
I burst into laughter at his remark. Not knowing anything about my future, Kwon Joong-hyuk was just rambling on without any substance, rolling his eyes and grumbling. He was so carefree and oblivious that I couldn’t help but find it amusing. We hadn’t been this close just last year, but his presence felt surprisingly comfortable.
What was it like back then? I had been hospitalized to the point where everyday life was impossible. I only found out later that they had come to visit me, but since they weren’t allowed to visit me at the time, I couldn’t see them until I went to school.
I didn’t know any of my classmates apart from Park Kang-woo and Kwon Joong-hyuk, so when these unfamiliar faces hurriedly approached me, I simply walked past them without recognizing them. It wasn’t that I was ignoring them; it was just that I had no strength to deal with teenagers at that time.
Those who had only heard that their friend had roughly lost his memory seemed shocked to see their friend sitting idly all day or holding his mouth tight like a spider’s web. So they didn’t approach me very actively. Except for Park Kang-woo.
But at that time, I was extremely sensitive and full of animosity. I was tired of being a character in a book and living under someone else’s shadow, and his friends trying to push Seo Seung-won’s life onto me was driving me crazy.
In the end, overwhelmed by the stress accumulated in just one day, I ended up with a nosebleed and even fainted. How funny it was to see them shivering because they were more panicky than me. That was a memorable moment if you can call it that.
“Oh, it’s an arcade.”
“Wow, what a nostalgic memory. Hey, want to play a shooting game just once and leave?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Hey, Park Kang-woo! Come over here! Let’s play just one round of this and leave!”
One round? We played for a whole hour. We poured in ten thousand won for claw machine games, only to lose the dolls we won in just 30 minutes. When I expressed my regret, Park Kang-woo, being his simple self, confidently claimed he would try to win the same doll again, but in the end, he wasted another twenty thousand won and gave up.
With three heavily intoxicated guys, leaving the second-round makchang restaurant, honestly, none of us were in our right minds. The situation escalated when I called Lee Hyun-wook, who was studying abroad. I thought I should be prepared for a hangover, but it was something I didn’t need to worry about right now.
I crawled out of the shop like a wounded animal and collapsed under the building where the lights were off. It was an incredibly comfortable spot. Hugging my backpack close, I lay there, dozing off. But then, Kwon Joong-hyuk, true to his nature as a son of a restaurant owner, insisted it wasn’t right to just lie in front of someone else’s building, even if the lights were off. He poked me, insisting I shouldn’t do that.
Then, as Park Kang-woo attempted to lie down on the sidewalk with a carefree expression, Kwon Joong-hyuk quickly chased after him and started hitting him. In rhythm with the lively smacking sounds, I turned my head to the side, but then my phone, which I had left in my pocket, started buzzing.
It was the default ringtone, not the ringtone exclusively made for Woo Ji-min, so I answered the phone with a relaxed attitude without even checking the other person’s name.
AD
“Hello.”
[Hey. Finally picking up now.]
“Seong-je hyung? No, hyung… I can’t believe you’re calling me…”
[What?]
Suddenly, the world seemed beautiful. The sky, wider and bluer than the ocean, looked so deep and cozy. The tiny stars embedded in it weren’t clearly visible, but they looked so adorable.
