HPK 74

“What about this guy?”

Yejin, who had been staring at her phone for a while, suddenly extended her hand. On the phone screen, someone’s profile picture was displayed; it was a group photo of boys who looked like they had just graduated from high school.

However, Wooseung was lost in thought until the phone screen went black.

“I asked you what you think of this guy!”

He only came to his senses after Yejin sharply raised her voice.

“Huh? What about it?”

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been like this since earlier.”

Wooseung smiled with an apologetic face. He had gone to meet Yejin right after parting with Hyojun. As a result, he kept getting lost in other thoughts and had already missed what Yejin was saying who knows how many times.

Now that it was summer break, she had changed her part-time work days to weekdays and significantly increased her working hours, making her even harder to meet than during the semester, so it was understandable that Yejin would be annoyed that he kept spacing out.

“Sorry, I didn’t see it. Show me again.”

“Ah, seriously!”

Yejin, while grumbling, turned on her phone and showed him the picture again. After looking at it for a long time, he asked with an awkward smile.

“…Which one are you talking about here?”

“Can’t you tell just by looking? It’s this one.”

The person Yejin pointed to with her finger was the boy among them who had shed the most of his boyish look.

“I don’t really know.”

“Look closely.”

Since it was a group photo to begin with, no matter how much he zoomed in, the image quality just got pixelated, and he couldn’t see their facial features clearly. Perhaps dissatisfied with his lukewarm reaction, Yejin got annoyed and told him to look at the overall vibe.

“Are you, like, in a ‘some’ relationship with him or something?”

After pretending to look at it intently, he asked cautiously, and she opened her mouth as if she had been waiting for it.

“Yeah, I feel like he’s going to confess to me on our trip this time.”

“The boys are going on that trip too?”

“Ah, I told you it’s a department MT! Of course we’re going together.”

“Still…”

He knew she had already booked a pension, but he didn’t know that male classmates were going along too. Despite Wooseung’s concerns, Yejin chided him for being old-fashioned.

“What about the rash guard? You brought it, right? The black one, not the white one.”

“…Yeah.”

He finally understood why Yejin had so persistently pestered him about when he was going to Daejeon. According to what he heard from their grandmother, she had even had a big fight with their dad after asking him to send her summer clothes by mail. Since she wouldn’t come down to the house but asked for her clothes to be sent, it was unlikely that their dad would have sent them obediently.

“Dad badmouthed me again, didn’t he?”

“He didn’t.”

“Hmph, what do you mean he didn’t. He and grandma probably had a grand time doing it together.”

Yejin grumbled with a pout, saying as if he really hadn’t. Wooseung didn’t say anything more. Talking about their dad or grandmother would only make Yejin feel worse anyway. So, he appropriately brought up another topic to lighten the mood. Fortunately, their house was just around the corner.

Turning down a street barely wide enough for two cars to pass, multi-family houses packed tightly on both sides came into view. Wooseung’s house was the one at the very end of the alley, the innermost one.

“They parked like a real piece of shit.”

Yejin complained and pulled on Wooseung’s arm. A large sedan was parked right in front of the villa entrance, blocking it. It was rare for cars to come this far into the alley, so he wondered if a visitor had come.

However, as the car got closer, a chilling premonition brushed the back of his neck. His steps stopped instinctively. At the same time, the driver’s side door opened, and a man got out of the car. He was dressed comfortably in jogger pants, long socks, and a loose short-sleeved t-shirt, as if he had just come from a workout.

“Wow…”

Just a moment ago she was swearing, but now Yejin let out a low exclamation of admiration.

The man casually rested his arm on the wide-open door and stared in their direction. It was Taejung.

“Is this Daejeon?”

An abrupt question, and his unexpected appearance. Wooseung froze with a face that was clearly flustered for anyone to see. Taejung sneered at such a Wooseung.

“You’re a really fucking good liar.”

Seeing that they seemed to know each other, Yejin cautiously asked, “Who is he?”

In that moment, he snapped to his senses as if waking from a dream. Putting aside for now how Taejung knew and came all the way to his house, he absolutely could not let Yejin and him meet. Seeing Yejin’s naive curiosity, he felt this even more strongly.

“Ah, a friend, he’s oppa’s friend.”

“Huh? A friend? Which friend?”

Yejin, who knew he didn’t have any long-term friends besides Jaemin, asked again what kind of friend he was. Before she could think it was strange, Wooseung decided to deal with Taejung first.

“Taejung-ah, sorry. I didn’t know you were coming today.”

“Taejung-ah?”

Taejung let out a scoff, ha, as if he found it absurd. He was scared, but he desperately endured it and went closer to him. He gently grabbed the firm forearm under the short-sleeved t-shirt and spoke in a whisper.

“President… If it’s not an urgent matter today, could you please go back first?”

Taejung tilted his head and looked at Yejin, who was standing at a distance and peeking in their direction.

“She’s my younger sister.”

“Ah, your sister.”

He nodded his head slowly and answered as if he understood, so Wooseung believed that he would listen to him and leave as he was. However, the words that followed soon after brutally betrayed his expectations.

“No.”

“…I’ll go right away, right away. I just came for a moment to get something, so if I just do that…”

“I said no.”

“…”

“Why should I go? Tell her to go.”

He never imagined he would have to deal with Taejung’s stubbornness, which he faced every time he asked for something, even here. Wooseung couldn’t hide his troubled expression and pleaded again.

“It’s really just for a moment.”

“So what.”

However, when it came to being stubborn, Taejung had the upper hand. While he was stomping his feet, not knowing what to do, he heard a voice calling him from behind.

“Oppa?”

Yejin was peeking in their direction with a look of ‘what’s going on?’. The whispered voice wouldn’t have reached her, but since there were only three of them in the alley, he couldn’t be completely at ease.

“It’s really just for a moment…”

After looking up at Taejung with a pathetic look like a puppy with drooping ears, he eventually went back to Yejin.

“Yejin-ah. I have to grab the clothes and go right away. I agreed to cover a shift, but I got the time wrong.”

“Ah, really? Okay.”

Even as she followed Wooseung into the villa, Yejin kept glancing at Taejung.

“Oppa had a friend like that? I thought he was a celebrity.”

“…I got to know him while working part-time.”

The clothes Yejin had asked for were a t-shirt from a famous street brand that Wooseung had once received as a gift from Jaemin. Fortunately, it was in a place where he could see it as soon as he opened the drawer, so it didn’t take long to find it. Normally, he would have walked with her to the bus stop with her suitcase and luggage, just like when she came home, but it seemed that would be difficult. This was because Taejung was still waiting for him in the same spot.

“I’ll get you a taxi. Just a moment.”

“What taxi. It’s fine.”

“No.”

Wooseung urgently grabbed Yejin, who was about to leave, and called a taxi.

“Your younger sister?”

It was then. Taejung suddenly spoke to Yejin. Wooseung’s hand, which had been tapping on his phone, stopped dead.

“Yes…! I’m his younger sister.”

As for Yejin, she seemed happy that Taejung had spoken to her and nodded her head so vigorously her neck could have snapped.

“You don’t look alike.”

“Really? I hear that we look alike a lot!”

“Is that so?”

Taejung smirked and then suddenly took out his wallet from the car. Then he took out some bills at random and held them out to Yejin.

“Here, allowance.”

Even at a glance, it looked like more than 10 bills. And all of them were 50,000 won bills. When Yejin’s jaw dropped and she couldn’t easily accept it, he lightly shook the bills, telling her to take it.

“What… What are you do, Taejung-ah.”

The surprised Wooseung grabbed his hand and pulled it down. Taejung, who was happily watching his flustered face, continued to speak nonchalantly.

“For your sister’s allowance.”

“What do you mean, give her an allowance. And this is too much…”

At that, Taejung tilted his head with a puzzled look.

“Don’t all college students spend about this much?”

“…”

“Why. Is it too much?”

Taejung asked, looking towards Yejin who was visible over Wooseung’s shoulder. At that, Yejin looked back and forth between the money, Taejung, and Wooseung, contemplating.

“If it’s not enough, I’ll give you more.”

“No, it’s not that.”

Worried that Yejin might actually take it, Wooseung stepped in. He grabbed Taejung’s wrist and shook his head. Just like trying to stop a relative from thoughtlessly handing over a large sum of money to a young nephew.