CRANK 28

I naturally opened a food delivery app on my phone. As soon as I opened it, a pop-up window appeared. ‘Surprise coupon just for our VIP member!’ While I was busy downloading the coupon, Woo Dobin made a strange face.

“You said the housekeeper comes and leaves side dishes for you.”

“Uh? Yeah, so?”

“Then why on earth are you ordering delivery…”

Woo Dobin pointed at my screen, where my achievement was proudly displayed: ‘17 deliveries in the month of December!’

“It’s annoying.”

To have a single meal, I had to defrost frozen rice, defrost frozen soup, take out the side dishes, and above all, do the dishes. It was too much labor for just one meal.

“I asked what you want to eat.”

With a serious expression and his brows deeply furrowed, Woo Dobin pulled the ‘Anything’ card—the most difficult menu in the world. After looking around here and there, the chicken I eventually chose was a safe bet.

After roughly filling our stomachs with chicken and sharing some trivial chatter, it was already time for the awards ceremony. It was the year-end awards ceremony that always happens on December 31st.

Woo Dobin couldn’t drink because he had to take his medicine, and I had personally resolved to abstain from alcohol, so we ended up watching the TV while sipping on our delivered coffee.

“They deliver everything these days. The world has truly gotten better.”

When I said this while looking at the black sesame latte in my hand, Woo Dobin chuckled, saying I sounded like an old man who had lived his whole life.

We chatted about this and that while watching the Entertainment Awards. If I said, “I filmed a variety show with that person last time, and they were so kind,” Woo Dobin would reply, “Later, let’s go on a variety show together to promote our movie.”

When we saw an idol group come on to perform a celebratory stage in the middle, and Woo Dobin said, “Hyung, they say these people also came from the digital world,” I would snap, “Shut up, f*ck.”

And finally, time flowed on, and only the achievement award and the grand prize were left in the awards ceremony. Woo Dobin jumped up from his seat and brought out the cake he had been obsessing over since earlier from the fridge.

“Let’s blow out the candles in time for the countdown.”

I’m not the type to fuss over such trivial things, but I’m not the type to ruin someone else’s desire to do so, either, so I just nodded.

“Just one candle, to commemorate our beginning.”

“What? What beginning are we having?”

When I glared at him with distaste, Woo Dobin smiled brightly.

“Why, it’s Day 1 of us living together. To think it’s ‘Day 1’ starting exactly from January 1st. It’s incredibly symbolic, right?”

“It’s December 31st, not January 1st. And in the first place, this isn’t ‘living together’.”

“Ayy. Just let the small details slide.”

I wondered what would even be left if I let those things slide, but seeing Woo Dobin’s spotlessly clear and happy face, I swallowed my complaints. Yeah, he’s the sick one, I should just bear with it…

How he knew—though he must have learned it from some interview somewhere—the cake Woo Dobin bought was the carrot cake I like. It was a cute shape with a round base, sprinkled with white powder, and it even had a little carrot-shaped chocolate on top. Woo Dobin kneeled down, carefully estimated the center, and inserted the blunt, short candle.

Before I knew it, the television was showing the Bosingak bell-ringing ceremony on a split screen. It’s really almost time now, the New Year. The host said with a bright smile,

“Now, we will begin the countdown. Viewers, please join us! 10!”

“Sunbae.”

“Yeah.”

“9!”

Woo Dobin, who had jumped up and turned off the living room lights, took out a match and lit the candle. He really was a patient, as every movement he made was without a single wasted motion.

“8! 7!”

The short candle burned brightly in the very center of the cake.

“6!”

“Thank you.”

“Uh? For what?”

“5!”

It was an out-of-the-blue greeting. Woo Dobin grinned.

“4!”

“Just for everything. And I look forward to your kindness in the New Year.”

“3! 2!”

The candlelight flickered, illuminating Woo Dobin’s face in red.

“1!”

With the host’s resounding shout, the bell-ringing began. It was when I subconsciously turned my gaze to the television screen.

Peck.

…Huh? Something moist touched my cheek.

“Happy New Year. That’s the first kiss of the New Year.”

I turned back to Woo Dobin, dazed. Woo Dobin’s nose crinkled up, his eyes folded halfway, and the corners of his mouth drew a beautiful arc. The flickering candlelight colored Woo Dobin’s face as if he were a work of art.

Ah, Woo Dobin has a very small dimple on his right cheek. At that same moment, I realized it. The reason I keep getting dragged in by Woo Dobin.

Woo Dobin is just too handsome. At twenty-nine, more so than anyone I’ve seen in my entire life.

It was funny. He said he was staying at my house because his shoulder was uncomfortable, but the one doing the serving wasn’t me, but Woo Dobin.

On January 1st, when I woke up, Woo Dobin was already out in the kitchen, working busily.

“What are you doing?”

Forgetting entirely that Woo Dobin was in the house, I scratched my bird’s-nest hair as I came out, then jumped in surprise and shouted.

“Oh, you’re awake? You’ve come out just at the right time. Please, eat.”

“What?”

On the kitchen island, a full table of food was already set, with white steam rising from it. The living room table, which I had left in a mess before falling asleep last night, had also been neatly cleaned up.

“The housekeeper really did leave everything done. Rice, soup, side dishes. I just had to reheat them all.”

“What about your shoulder! Did you forget you were told not to use it?”

“Pressing the microwave button and moving the plates is enough with just my left hand.”

Woo Dobin gestured toward his right shoulder, which was strapped into the brace.

“Even if you only use your left hand, it puts strain on your whole body to do that…”

“Since I’m wearing the brace you bought me, it’s fixed so firmly it doesn’t budge. Sit down. I’ll get you some water.”

Woo Dobin pulled out a chair and handed me water. I drank it down in gulps unconsciously. Now that I’d had some cool water and the delicious smells were rising up, I felt hungry instantly. I grabbed a spoon and took a sip of soup, and only then asked, bewildered,

“Hey, but if, as you said, your left hand is enough, then what do I need you for?”

Even Woo Dobin’s face looked clean, as if he’d finished showering while I was asleep.

“You cook better than me, you can shower with one hand. Why are you even in my house?”

I stared at him triumphantly, thinking I’d hit the nail on the head, but Woo Dobin held his spoon out to me. As if he’d been waiting for me to say exactly that.

“…What is it?”

“I can wash up and I can set the table, but there’s something I can’t do.”

I alternated looking at the spoon in my hand and Woo Dobin’s smooth, shiny face.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yes.”

“…You want me to feed you?”

“Yes.”

Woo Dobin rubbed the brace slightly.

“It’s not that my arm is broken, so I can do basic things, but I found it hard to eat or write.”

I was the one who let him into my house, and I was the one who asked why I needed him. Woo Dobin was the patient, and it was my fault he was hurt. Even so, Woo Dobin had cleaned the house and even cooked.

…Thinking it over, it wasn’t something I could be resentful about. I sighed softly, brought Woo Dobin’s rice bowl closer, and scooped up some rice.

“The rolled omelet, please.”

Woo Dobin stopped my chopsticks as they were heading toward the cucumber kimchi. He split the rolled omelet in half and placed it on top of my spoon.

“…Here.”

“Ahhh.”

As if he were acting cute, Woo Dobin half-closed his eyes and opened his mouth. I thought about shoving it right into his uvula, but since it would be my loss if Woo Dobin spat it out, I fed him quietly.

“Wow, the side dishes are really delicious. Who is the housekeeper?”

“Who…? Well, I haven’t seen them much. But they do seem to be good at cooking.”

“Leaving food like this and ordering delivery instead is a sin against the planet.”

“…Even the planet?”

“Of course. The side dishes get thrown out, and plastic trash is produced. The planet hurts. This time, I’ll have the meatballs. Please put a piece of squid salted fish on top, too. Ah, not that one, a small piece.”

What a picky jerk…

Woo Dobin truly ate the entire bowl. Fortunately, his eating speed was slow, so I could have a bite while Woo Dobin was chewing what was in his mouth. Only after thirty minutes of alternating use of the spoon did we finally finish our meal.