HYUNG 71

Ham Dowon, who had been tapping the four-time exam taker on the shoulder, turned around and walked ahead. I glanced at the exam taker once and followed Ham Dowon.

“Hyung, are you close with him?”

“No.”

Ham Dowon’s expression was blank. That face, from which all sympathy had completely vanished, looked almost unpleasant at a glance.

“That piece of shit is still acting up. It makes me feel like fucking hell…”

Rough words burst through Ham Dowon’s twisted lips. That low voice was so unfamiliar that for a moment, I thought I hadn’t heard an insult. Ham Dowon seemed surprised himself and stopped in his tracks.

“…Hyung, I can’t swear. Really. This is the first time I’ve ever let a curse word cross my lips!”

“You seemed quite used to it.”

That sharp pronunciation had flowed out very smoothly. Ham Dowon grabbed both of my shoulders with a face that looked like he was about to cry, then looked at me desperately.

“I’m really not like that… I truly don’t say a single swear word normally! It makes me feel like my soul is becoming dirty!”

“Then I guess your soul is dirty right now.”

“…Hyung.”

“What.”

Ham Dowon suddenly pulled me into a hug and leaned his cheek against my shoulder.

“Go Gihoon, that son of a… No, don’t be close with him.”

“We aren’t close.”

He was saying things just like a child jealous of a friend. Cute. I stroked his hair. Ham Dowon let out a “hee-hee” laugh.

“If I had known he was attending the academy where you work, I would have dealt with him sooner.”

“Dealt with him how? What are you, a mobster? You’re someone who trips even while running.”

It wasn’t even funny. To hear him talk, one would think he was some big shot with power in the back alleys. This was a guy who stumbles after stepping on a pebble wrong. Ham Dowon, lifting his head, grumbled poutily.

“I didn’t fall! I just slipped for a second.”

“That’s what I’m saying, since you’re someone who slips even on the street. Is your ankle okay?”

“I’m sturdy. I don’t get hurt by something like that.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Whether it was the truth and not just empty bluster, Ham Dowon’s stride as we walked side by side was straight and steady. I walked along with Ham Dowon as he led me somewhere. Since it was a bustling area with many people even late at night, the street was bright with the lights of shops and signs.

“Hyuuung, I hate him, so don’t show him your face. It’s a waste to show it to a guy like that. Because you’re too handsome.”

Ham Dowon crumpled his face significantly and covered my face with both palms. This was despite the fact that no one was watching. I gently pushed away those hands that were blocking my vision.

“I’m an academy instructor, though.”

“Can’t you go around wearing a mask? And a hat and sunglasses too.”

“Would you want to learn under an instructor like that?”

“If it’s you, anything is fine.”

Ham Dowon chuckled. He really knows how to act charming. He’s cute. When I lightly tapped his cheek, Ham Dowon’s eyes curved into a smile.

“Hyung, I really hate him, so avoid eye contact if you run into him from now on.”

“There aren’t many chances to lock eyes anyway.”

“I suppose so. Since you’re tall and he’s the size of mouse droppings.”

“You said he talked behind your back. I don’t like people like that either.”

I had never liked that four-time exam taker much to begin with, but now I disliked him even more. Where on Ham Dowon was there anything to badmouth? He was tall, handsome, cute, and acted charming… Except for the part where he ran away while kissing, everything was perfectly fine.

“It doesn’t matter that he talked behind my back. I don’t care whether someone talks about me or not.”

“Did something else happen besides that?”

“He got kicked out of the academy because he got caught badmouthing my mom, dad, noona, and even my cat. He said all sorts of insults saying he wanted to harm the stray cats my mom looked after, and—where was it? He apparently posted all of it on some weird place on the internet. One of the students saw the photos in the post and told my mom, so we found out, but he’d been doing that for years since high school. There were even posts asking where to buy rat poison because he wanted to put it in the cats’ food. I don’t know if he actually intended to do it or if he was just bluffing, but isn’t the fact that he even had those thoughts disgusting? If he had spent the time he used thinking about that on drawing and studying, he would have gotten into university a long time ago.”

Ham Dowon was fuming with his face all distorted, but when his eyes met mine, he let out an “Oops!” look and relaxed his expression. Then, with a beaming face, he said something that didn’t match his expression: “He really is trash.” The discrepancy was so funny that a laugh came out naturally. I carefully brushed back Ham Dowon’s stray bangs.

“But you said let’s have a late-night snack.”

“Ah, right, hyung! Let’s eat tteokbokki. I found a place that sells the rice tteokbokki you like!”

“Sure.”

While we ate the tteokbokki made with thick rice cakes together, Ham Dowon pushed all the fried squid to my side and made a fuss, showing off the scratch Saja had made on the back of his hand. He made a sad face, complaining that the wound—which had already scabbed over—hurt, but when I rubbed it a few times with my thumb, he smiled happily. And then, while we were walking along a dark path, just as I was about to gently touch his cheek,

“Hyung! I’ll see you at school tomorrow!”

Ham Dowon dodged his face and suddenly turned around to run away. He waved his hand at me and said, “Hyung, bye! Get home safe!” very brightly. A swear word I don’t usually use almost burst out of my mouth.

‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹

“Hyung, I’m supposed to meet a friend today.”

“That friend from last time?”

“Yes. We were classmates in elementary, middle, and high school.”

I thought of the slight, pretty-looking man I had caught a glimpse of at the bookstore. Since he was friends with Ham Dowon, his personality would likely be quite unique. Besides, they had gone to school together from elementary through high school. He probably wasn’t ordinary.

“When are you meeting?”

“In the evening. After I drop you off at the academy, near there.”

“What do you do for fun when you meet your friend?”

“Me, me? We play or-ordinarily. Ordinarily!”

Ham Dowon, who had been trying to scoop up the shake I bought him with the end of his straw, was suddenly startled. So much so that he dropped some shake “thud” onto his thigh. I covered it with a napkin I had grabbed from the cafe.

“Just what on earth do you do when you play that makes you this surprised?”

“I told you, we just play ordinarily…”

“I’m saying I don’t know your standard for ‘ordinary’.”

“We just talk. Yeah, talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Just… this and that… talking about life…”

When I leaned my arm on my thigh and rested my chin on my hand to stare at him intently, Ham Dowon’s eyes slunk away. I had no idea what kind of things they talked about to make him act like that. My mouth was itching with the topic I had wanted to talk about since yesterday, but since we were on a bench inside the bright campus, I kept my mouth shut.

“Eat without spilling. Don’t spill. You’re not a child.”

For no reason, I just rubbed Ham Dowon’s clean cheek roughly with the napkin to wipe it. Looking at Ham Dowon’s face, which looked like it didn’t know the reason for any of this, made me even more frustrated.

While riding in Ham Dowon’s car to the academy, it was very difficult for me to get a word in. It was because Ham Dowon was talking non-stop about Saja again, leaving no gap for conversation. He even kept repeating the same stories because he didn’t have much else to say. I wondered if this punk knew exactly what I wanted to talk about.

“Hyung, so Saja, you see. Yesterday he almost fell off the cat tower…”

“Ham Dowon.”

“Hyung, listen just a little bit more, okay? So Saja…”

“I want to talk to you.”

Since he kept talking only about Saja until the car arrived and stopped at the destination, I finally had no choice but to stop him.

“Wh-what kind of words?”

“You keep running away. Like when we kissed at my house last time, and yesterday too. We didn’t even do much yesterday, so why did you run away? Am I going to eat you or something? Tell me. Just how far do you want to go? If you say you don’t want to, I won’t do it. But you have to tell me for me to know. I don’t know anything other than what we’ve been doing up until now.”

“…That is, hyung… I mean…!”

I waited for the hesitating Ham Dowon for a long time. Ham Dowon, who was looking down and reading my expression, hovered his lips for a long time, and just as he was finally about to speak—tap tap! Someone knocked on the car window.

“…What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing? You’re the one who asked to meet first. I was over there and saw your car. Why are you here already?”

A startled Ham Dowon closed his mouth that had finally opened and rolled down the driver’s side window. A short man was peeking his head in. I almost didn’t recognize him because his hair color was different, but it was a face I had seen before. Because he was Ham Dowon’s friend. His hair color was quite bright, perhaps because he had bleached it in the meantime.

“You weren’t alone. Hello!”