HYUNG 16

I started laughing to myself in pure admiration, and Ham Dowon cautiously spoke up. It seemed he had grown tired of sucking on his spoon without actually eating the ice cream.

“Ah, youngest. Are you going to eat more ice cream?”

“Yes. I want to finish it before I go.”

“Then eat more.”

“You seem to be very close with your younger sibling, hyung.”

“Is that so? I think it is pretty ordinary. Are you an only child?”

“No. I have an older sister who is much older than me. She is 11 years older than me.”

“You are the late-born child then.”

That must be why he has such a childlike side. Youngest children, especially late-born ones, tend to be like that. I used to wish I had an older brother or sister when I was young, too. It was like that when I was an only child, and it was the same after my sibling was born. That is why whenever I happened to meet an older cousin, I would pester them for attention.

“How are things with you and your sister?”

“Since our age gap is so large, my noona basically raised me… but she went abroad seven years ago, when I was in middle school, so it has been a long time since I saw her in person. We still contact each other often, though.”

“Ah, abroad… Where is she?”

“Germany. She went there for study abroad after graduating from university, and she has been living and working there even after finishing her studies. She said she will likely get her permanent residency soon.”

“Germany… I wanted to go to Germany for study abroad too. Lots of kids go there. To Europe. The tuition and living expenses are much cheaper compared to English-speaking countries. One of my friends is going to France this time.”

Yoo Hwajung, who is the same age as me but one academic year above, threw such a grand farewell party because she said she was leaving for France soon and needed to play hard for the last time in Korea… even though it was only a few days ago, the memory makes me feel exhausted.

“Besides Hwajung noona, who else is going to France?”

“…Uh.”

How do you know Hwajung? I was about to ask when I was cut off by the vibration of my phone. It was a message from Ye Hwanyoung.

Ye Hwanyoung: [Ah, so are you going to buy it for me or not!!!!!!!!!! If you are not going to buy it, do not come home!!!! I am going to change the door lock code!!!! I will absolutely not open it for you!!!!!!!!!]

“…She is a rude brat, anyway.”

I thought I could soothe her somehow even if I could not buy it, but it seems I miscalculated. She is the type to actually do what she says, so she would definitely change the house code and pester our parents not to open the door. I felt grateful to Ham Dowon once again.

[I’ll buy it, so lay out the red carpet.]

“Let’s do some work now. We’ve played too much.”

I sent the reply, switched my phone to silent, and tossed it onto the bed. I spent too much time on useless things today. I had to focus on the assignment for next week’s presentation.

“I think I have narrowed down the photos for the presentation, what do you think?”

“Yes. I think this is enough.”

“The presentation time is not very long, but I think we should include work descriptions… Let’s each write the description at the bottom of the presentation slides containing our work. That way we can tell which explanation belongs where. It is not reflected in the grade anyway, so I think we will be done in another hour or two. We can practice the presentation individually.”

“Yesss…”

Though I said the assignment was ending, that response sounded as if he were disappointed. Is there something else he wants to explain?

“Is there another photo of your work you want to include?”

“No. It is fine. The presentation time is not that long anyway.”

“Well, alright then.”

If it is not that, then I do not know why he is acting like that. I do not want to understand his mental world, but since I started thinking of him as a child with a mental age like Soyoon’s, I felt strangely concerned. Ah, I wonder if our Soyoon is doing well… I hope she hasn’t forgotten her uncle…

“I miss her…”

Our Soyoon…

“Who? I am right here in front of you, hyung!”

Ham Dowon reacted sharply. Because he kept overlapping with Soyoon, my thoughts kept straying elsewhere. It was troublesome.

“Our Soyoon. My second cousin once removed. Do you not have any nieces or nephews? You said you have a large age gap with your sister.”

“I do not. My noona is not getting married.”

“Why?”

“She just isn’t.”

“Well, that can happen. I guess she is a non-marrying type.”

There are many people who choose not to marry these days, so it was not a flaw.

“I was not interested in marriage either, but lately, I want to do it. I am getting interested. My older cousin had an outdoor wedding in May, and it was so beautiful. So I think a May outdoor wedding would be nice for me too, if possible.”

But Ham Dowon, perhaps going against current trends, looked straight at me and spoke shyly. Right. I do not know who the person is, but should I congratulate you first? We are not that close, so I would not go to the wedding, but if you give me an invitation, I will send some congratulatory money. I did not know how to react. I stared blankly at the guy’s face, which was unnecessarily determined and flushed under the eyes as if he enjoyed the mere imagination, and then replied briefly.

“Got it.”

Despite that indifferent remark, Ham Dowon curled the corners of his mouth and smiled prettily. I do not know who he will marry, but that bride… I thought she would have a hard time. Because the husband is strange on the inside, but on the outside, he goes beyond just looking decent to the point of being beautiful. His looks really are quite good. I thought he must have looked truly pretty as a child, like Soyoon.

“Your kid would be really pretty.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Ham Dowon’s face turned even redder with joy.

“Let’s finish the assignment. I want to finish quickly and rest.”

“Yes.”

Ham Dowon and I fell silent and typed away diligently. What work was this? Ah, it was the drawing class assignment. I wrote carefully, thinking deeply about each photo. Thinking this should be enough, I read through from beginning to end and even corrected the typos. Even after that, time remained, so I tapped on the table for no reason.

“Are you not finished?”

“I am done writing. But hyung… it is almost 5:00 now.”

Ham Dowon said after hesitating for a moment. Right, it is 5:00. What about it? I just nodded silently.

“If it is 5:00, it is time for dinner.”

Is he asking to eat together? However, we were not close enough to eat two meals together, and I wanted to be alone now. I declined with a lie.

“That’s true. Come to think of it, I promised to have dinner with a friend.”

“Ah…”

“Send the presentation to my email. And let’s get up. I will see you out.”

I sent the email to the address Ham Dowon had provided earlier. Not many seconds passed before Ham Dowon’s phone rang. It seemed he had synced his email app with his phone. I do not know why, but Ham Dowon tapped the keyboard slowly with a slight frown on his face. No matter how many times I refreshed, the inbox remained quiet, so when I pressured him by asking, “Aren’t you sending it?”, a new email finally arrived.

“Get up. Let’s go out together. I have to go see my friend, too.”

I quickly moved my laptop toward the desk so Ham Dowon would not get them confused again. I even put his laptop into the laptop pouch for him. Only then did Ham Dowon sluggishly throw on his coat and pack his bag.

“Let’s go.”

I was about to send him off in his car when it suddenly occurred to me.

“By the way, you said there was something you needed to find.”

Didn’t he say it was some expensive candy bought abroad and that he absolutely had to find it? But Ham Dowon tilted his head with a look that said, “What is that?”, and then opened his mouth slightly as if he realized it late.

“Ah, it is okay. I will come to find it next time.”

“Well… okay. Do as you wish then.”

I wonder if he plans on coming to my house again. Since he is someone I attend school with and do assignments with, he might come… but seeing his expression of zero regret, it was a bit strange. Especially since he had made such a fuss saying it was important.

After waving goodbye to his departing car, I picked up a roasted chicken salad from a salad shop near my house and returned home. As I munched on the vegetables, I wasn’t particularly interested in the food, so I looked at my phone. I was scrolling through social media for no reason when my finger stopped at a photo. It was a photo from Hwajung, whom I followed. It was just a landscape photo, but it looked quite familiar. This place… isn’t this the Han River? Is she still in Korea? I sent a DM. Come to think of it, I remembered Ham Dowon saying he knew Hwajung. I was curious what the relationship was between that strange guy Ham Dowon and Hwajung.

[You are still in Korea, right? How do you know Ham Dowon?]

I speared some meat, almonds, and vegetables together with my fork and took a large bite, and as I was chewing thoroughly, my phone rang. It was Yoo Hwajung. I quickly swallowed what was in my mouth.