TWELVE 70

It was close. Right after I finished writing the letter and hid Gi Seoin’s birthday present, he returned.

“Our puppy, you’re back?”

I greeted Gi Seoin as usual, but I broke into a cold sweat fearing he might discover the gift. I wasn’t confident I had hidden it properly.

Since I placed it in a spot that his eyes and hands wouldn’t likely reach, it should be fine.

I tried to calm my heart before raising suspicion from the quick-witted fellow.

“Where did you go?”

Gi Seoin asked while loosening his tie.

How did he know I went out?

Flustered, I let my eyes wander, only then realizing that in my haste to hide the gift, I hadn’t even changed my clothes.

“Oh, yeah. I just wanted to get some fresh air.”

“Is it stifling?”

“Um, a little?”

While Gi Seoin was resting, I didn’t feel stifled even staying home all day. On the contrary, I had hoped to stay cooped up at home with him every day.

However, as the time I had to spend alone increased since he started going to work, this place—which I believed had become as comfortable as my own home—felt unfamiliar and oppressive again.

There was a limit to soothing the boredom by watching movies or dramas. My body, which had been ingrained with the habit of labor since before I matured, staged a protest, saying it was restless to be idling about when it hadn’t even healed yet.

“So, about that.”

I intended to talk about the plan I had thought of this morning.

“They say there’s training you can receive through government support. I’m thinking of looking into that.”

“…”

Gi Seoin stared at me for a moment before opening his mouth.

“How about taking the high school equivalency exam?”

It was a completely unexpected suggestion.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about the equivalency exam before. However, since I had dropped out of high school to earn money for my grandmother’s hospital bills and my debts kept piling up, I couldn’t afford to even think about studying.

“Equivalency exam…?”

“That will be more helpful for getting a job. You can learn other things later.”

It made sense. Until now, there were many cases where I couldn’t even submit a resume because I hadn’t graduated from high school like everyone else. Usually, if a position seemed to have decent conditions, it required a high school diploma or higher.

But… while I was confident I could work hard to learn a skill, somehow I didn’t feel confident about the high school equivalency exam.

“Do you think I can do it…?”

“You were good at studying.”

“E이, I wasn’t.”

If Gi Seoin was at the top of the nation, I was at a level where I sat exactly in the middle of the class.

“I was barely 5th out of ten.”

“That’s considered good.”

He was excessively generous toward me.

“People don’t usually call that being good. Anyway, it was so long ago…”

“I’ll teach you.”

“You?”

Gi Seoin had an expression that seemed to ask, ‘I can’t?’

Of course, there was absolutely no reason he couldn’t. Rather, it was a grateful opportunity to have a current lawyer who graduated from a university where only the top students in Korea gather offer to teach me.

“That sounds good, but…”

The problem was me.

Could I really sit side-by-side at a desk with Gi Seoin and focus only on studying?

Moreover, I was worried that he might think I was stupid.

“I’ll try it on my own first. You’re busy working. I don’t want to make you tired.”

“Teaching you won’t make me tired.”

“You might get angry while teaching me.”

“I won’t get angry.”

“Anyway, I’ll try it alone first, and if there’s anything I don’t know while doing it, I’ll ask.”

Gi Seoin seemed genuinely dissatisfied, as if he meant it. Still, he didn’t insist any further.

He probably thought about it realistically. Ever since he started working again, he brought home a mountain of papers every day and looked through them until dawn. It was definitely impossible for him to take on tutoring me when he lacked even enough time to sleep.

The equivalency exam… Suddenly, I felt like I had taken on a grave mission. I was worried whether I could study alone now when I couldn’t even properly digest what the teachers taught me back in school.

Either way, since I made up my mind to take the test, I should go buy the workbooks tomorrow…

“I’ll buy the workbooks for you tomorrow.”

Then Gi Seoin spoke as if he had looked into my mind.

“Huh? No.”

I waved my hand.

“I’ll buy them. I have plenty of time, and I want to look around a bookstore for the first time in a while.”

“I can’t let you because the books are heavy.”

How does Gi Seoin point out the things I overlooked so perfectly? It’s quite amazing, cool, and even admirable.

“I can just take a taxi…”

“You’ll stubbornly carry them because you’ll think the taxi fare is a waste.”

He caught me.

“Stay home. Tell me if there’s anything else you need.”

“I’ve never properly studied, so I don’t know what I need.”

“Then I’ll take care of it and buy them.”

“Okay, Mister Lawyer, please take care of it and buy them for me.”

I put my palms together and made a request. The fellow, who gave a smirk, stroked toward me and came right up to my face.

“Give me a kiss.”

“Suddenly?”

“The book price.”

“I was going to give you money for the books.”

I teased him on purpose. Then Gi Seoin grabbed my waist with both hands and,

“Not money.”

He begged while swaying his shoulders side to side.

“Give it to me with a kiss.”

Crazy, what on earth is he doing?

He’s cute!

Unable to resist, I cupped his cheeks and pressed my lips to his.

He said he wanted it as a kiss.

He tapped my lips with the tip of his tongue. As soon as I opened my mouth just a little, his tongue pushed through the gap. Smiling, I hung my arms around the neck of this fellow who was cute even when acting like a sly snake.

[Seoin: Furniture will arrive at 3 o’clock. You can ask them to put it in the empty room across from the dressing room.]

I wondered what furniture it was all of a sudden.

Ten minutes before 3 o’clock, which Gi Seoin mentioned, the doorbell rang. Eventually, upon discovering the identity of the “furniture,” I wondered if it could be.

[The furniture is here… is it a desk??]

Gi Seoin didn’t reply, perhaps because he was busy.

The phone call came around the time he finished work.

—Seungkyung. I’m off work. I’ll be there by 30 past.

“Yeah. Seoin, but…”

I thought of the desk sitting alone in the empty room.

“The furniture came, and I put it in the room across from the dressing room like you said. But did you buy a desk?”

What I thought was random was that there was already a desk in the study Gi Seoin used for his work at home. Yet, a second desk to be placed in an empty room had appeared out of nowhere.

—That’s right.

There was only one possible purpose I could think of.

—Study there from now on, Seungkyung.

As expected, my intuition was correct.

—The chair and bookshelf will arrive soon too. They said the blinds will be installed tomorrow. The lighting will also be new…

“No, no, wait a minute.”

I touched my forehead.

“Is all of that… because of my studying?”

—Yeah.

Gi Seoin answered immediately.

—The most important things for studying are the environment and physical strength.

“I’m comfortable just studying at the dining table.”

—I just told you the environment is important.

“The dining table is a good enough environment for me.”

I sincerely felt the dining table was enough. I had already been studying there for three days without any problems.

“I’m not a high school student or anything, there’s no need to go that far…”

—There is a need to go that far. You’re practically a senior in high school. You have to pass.

He was firm and enthusiastic. Just like a parent supporting a student preparing for exams.

I told him I understood for now and hung up. Not long after, Gi Seoin returned home with his hands full of packages. When I asked what they all were, he explained by taking things out of the shopping bags one by one.

“A study planner—let’s make a plan after dinner. This is a timer. Use it to solve problems for each subject according to the actual exam time. This cushion is for when the chair arrives…”

A humidifier, a shoulder massager, an eye mask that supposedly relieves fatigue, artificial tears, wrist guards, blue light blocking glasses, various stationery…

“Do I really need all of this to study?”

“I only set up the basic necessities.”

“Really? Did you use stuff like this when you studied?”

“I did.”

“…I guess you didn’t get into a prestigious university for nothing.”

“So Woo Seungkyung must pass on the first try too.”

From what I looked up, the passing rate for the recent high school equivalency exam was over 80%. The passing rate for the second exam last year was a whopping 90%. Even without studying with all this fuss, I didn’t think I would somehow be included in the remaining 10%.

I looked over the items Gi Seoin bought once more. My heart was touched as I imagined how he, given his personality, must have weighed each of those many things for my sake alone.

“Gi Seoin will cry if I fail after you did all this.”

“I’ll try to endure it without crying until the third attempt.”

“With this much sincerity, I have to pass on the first try. Not even most exam candidates would do it like this.”

Honestly, it was a bit burdensome. However, I decided to just use these feelings of burden, apology, and gratitude as my driving force for now. Gi Seoin would want that too.

And regardless, I couldn’t refuse right now. Because I wanted to become a person standing even one step closer to Gi Seoin as soon as possible. I intended to accept everything he gave me.

“Our Seoin, if hyung studies hard and succeeds, I’ll buy you Swiss chocolate.”

As I spoke and rubbed his cheek, he leaned his face against my palm and replied.

“Okay. Make sure to buy it.”

“A man keeps the word he spits out.”

“Buy the chocolate and feed it to me.”

“Okay. I’ll feed you.”

“Mouth to mouth?”

…Seriously.

Gi Seoin’s playfulness had increased as much as his affection.

“Yeah.”

I messed up his hair wildly.

“I’ll do it for you. It’ll be sweet and nice.”

I only played along with the joke, but Gi Seoin laughed like a child who had received a great gift. Every time he shows this face, I want to give him a truly big gift.

Will I be able to? Can I return the many things Gi Seoin gave me to him as well?

The future I couldn’t expect because I was struggling in the present—I was receiving it as a gift from Gi Seoin.