HYUNG 11

He had long, large eyes stretching horizontally with thin double eyelids, and the way the outer corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward gave him a prickly, standoffish look. The area under his eyes was slightly reddish. Ah, is that what they call it? That thing that jerk Ye Hwanyoung tried to follow from a video back when she was just an elementary schooler… Ah, “do hwa sal” makeup? His eyes were so bloodshot back then that she looked like she had pink eye; was that the look he was trying to achieve? If I only looked at the eyes, I would have thought he was a girl.

I want to try drawing him. I don’t necessarily prefer aestheticism in my work, but a face like that would definitely be fun to paint. If I drew the eyelashes with the thinnest fine-detail brush and then layered the paint thinly and carefully under the eyes with a round brush, maybe a size 3, I think it would turn out exactly like that. Without even needing to mix more paint, if I just applied a vivid red mixed with plenty of oil very thinly…

“I really like this kind of painting. Hyung, you prefer figurative art over abstract, right?”

“…Ah, yeah.”

I snapped out of it late, having been busy painting Ham Dowon’s face on a virtual canvas in my head. Abstract art does not “represent.” Figurative art “represents.” While abstraction can express human emotions freely without limits, I preferred something more intuitive and clear than an unclear concept. I enjoyed depicting things enough to think I wanted to draw someone the moment I saw a face like Ham Dowon’s.

“I like figurative art too. Describing and representing something is fun, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Looking at your work, it seems that way.”

As if he had read my mind, Ham Dowon said almost exactly what I was thinking. I already knew even without hearing it. The pieces of his work I had looked through while he was sleeping were mostly portraits painted with outstanding skill.

“Hyung and I are on the same wavelength.”

“Sure, well, we’re on the same wavelength.”

Ham Dowon smiled brightly as if he were happy. It’s a good thing to have similar tendencies as a team member for a group project, but seeing that overly shy face made me feel inexplicably embarrassed. Is it because he looks like that that everything he does seems extraordinary? The way the flesh under his eyes creased slightly was quite pretty. Ah, I think I could paint the shadow of that under-eye flesh by mixing in a bit of olive green…

I really love depicting scars, moles, or wounds on human skin, but Ham Dowon is so flawless that if I were to draw him, it would likely be different from my previous works. But when someone is that pretty, you just want to draw them, right? Since the piece will look beautiful no matter how I draw it. Even without asking him to be a model, I’ll have to draw him for the assignment anyway, so I decided to endure the itch in my hands for a bit.

“Are you done looking?”

“No.”

“Ah, that’s… Wait a second.”

Noticing that I had put an unedited photo into the folder where I kept the edited ones, I reached toward the laptop Ham Dowon was looking at.

“Ah, sorry.”

Then, our hands accidentally touched. I had placed my palm on the back of Ham Dowon’s hand. Doesn’t this guy dislike skinship? No, did he say it was fine once we got close? …No. Apparently, it is an issue. Right now, his expression was very bad.

“Is it very uncomfort…”

“…Hyung! You’re too fast! I, I haven’t decided anything yet…! Please send the work via email. I’ll send you an email too!”

Ham Dowon jumped up from his seat, swept his things on the table into his bag, and walked toward the door with a flushed red face and hurried steps. Then, after roughly shoving his feet into his shoes, he opened the door and rushed out before I could even stop him.

“…I don’t know your email address.”

I don’t even know his number. What’s the big deal about our hands touching for him to act like that? Does he have a germ phobia? If he had a germ phobia, there’s no way he would have come to my house and lied down on my bed. What’s wrong with him? Is he crazy? It was absurd. I was staring blankly at the door in a daze when I was suddenly snapped out of it by the sound of the doorbell ringing: Ding-dong! I realized then. I had ordered a ton of food to eat with that jerk Ham Dowon.

I let out a deep sigh at the heavy bags of food I received from the delivery person, but after eating diligently, I managed to clear about half of it. I put the remaining sides in the fridge and froze the pizza. Because that jerk Ham Dowon had filled the freezer with ice cream, there was no room, and I had a hard time squeezing it into every available gap.

After cleaning up everything I ate, showering, and even drying my hair, I flopped down onto the bed. I noticed a stray scent from the blankets. It seemed Ham Dowon had left it behind. What is this smell? It was a faint scent. Is it perfume? I wasn’t that interested in him, so I didn’t even know he wore perfume. I stopped after sniffing with my nose buried in it because it felt too much like a pervert.

I should search for the locations that jerk Ye Hwanyoung sent on a map. No matter how little I knew about the geography of Seoul, I expected she would have sent a collection of places nearby, but looking them up one by one, they were all over the place. One in Songpa, one in Gangnam, one in Hongdae, one in Eunpyeong, even Nowon… Wow, there’s even Goyang and Guri.

“This guy has no conscience.”

Should I call and give her a piece of my mind? It seems impossible to buy all this in one day. When am I supposed to buy…

“Dowon-ie?”

While I was thinking about something else, a notification popped up saying a text message had arrived. The saved name was [♡♡Dowon-ie♡♡]. I had no memory of saving such a name. Wondering if spam could come this way, I searched for it in the search bar. Whether a spam sender could appear with a changed name saved on the phone. But there was no such mention. Then is it hacking? Hacking in this way…

“Ah, …Ham Dowon?”

[Hyung, sorry for leaving so suddenly. This is my email address. hdw0113@mail.com You can send it here.]

Based on the content, it was definitely Ham Dowon. Even just looking at the email ID, it was clear. hdw. Those are Ham Dowon’s initials. But why… Why is his number in my phone? And saved with such a strange name… He’s been acting like he knows me since the first time I saw him at the studio; are we actually acquaintances? Since when have we known each other? I only attended until my freshman year before taking a leave of absence, and that was when he wouldn’t have been at school… Just when…

Faced with this sudden mystery, I held my head and thought hard, but no answer came. Eventually, I gave up thinking because it was a hassle and sent a reply much later.

[Are you Ham Dowon?]

[Yes. I’m Dowon! :D]

He must have been looking at his phone. A text came back immediately. I considered scolding him, saying I ended up with leftover pizza because of him or that the things he said he’d eat and use are filling up my small studio apartment, but I just gave up. It’s too childish. Instead, I only said what needed to be said.

[My email address is yeah0502@mail.com, so send it here.]

I’ll send the email tomorrow morning. I was getting up to turn off the light with the intention of sleeping early when another text arrived.

[Hyung, is your birthday May 2nd???]

“Why is he curious about this?”

I had no choice but to send a reply.

[Yeah. May 2nd.]

[I’ll definitely remember May 2nd, Hyung. Then have a good evening. I’m sorry I left without being able to eat the pizza I wanted to eat. Let’s definitely eat together next time!! I’ll say hello in advance so you have a good morning tomorrow.]

Ham Dowon’s text was cluttered with all sorts of greetings. I changed the saved name from ‘♡♡Dowon-ie♡♡’ to ‘Ham Dowon.’ I thought about ending it here because I was afraid he’d reply again if I sent another one, but I thought that would be rude, so I gave a short answer.

[Okay. You have a good evening too.]

Fortunately, another text did not come.

“…Ah, damn it.”

As soon as I opened my eyes, I checked the time and swallowed a curse. I only had a morning class starting at 9:00, but right now it was 9:02 AM. I slept too long. Although I don’t have to worry about attendance during the orientation period, I still should listen… Ah, maybe I can just check the syllabus… It’s an elective, not a major…

My body felt heavy and sluggish because it was a hassle. After waking myself up by washing my face, I heated up the food left over from yesterday in the microwave. Then, as I was about to open my laptop, something felt strange.

“Why is it like this?”

It was definitely my laptop, but it felt unfamiliar for some reason. Even the scratch that jerk Ye Hwanyoung made while fussing about using it had disappeared…

“Ah.”