HYUNG 28

Ham Dowon gave a vigorous nod of satisfaction. I wondered what the big deal was about coming to my house. It made me think he was truly starved for friends.

“Dowon. Here.”

“Auntie, thanks.”

“…Is it okay for it to be this much?”

The two paper bags Ham Dowon’s Auntie handed over were both massive. They looked heavy even at a glance.

“I asked her to buy things from other shops too. It’s hard to get all the bread you want unless you’re there at opening.”

“No, there was no need to go that far… Aren’t you causing too much trouble for your Auntie?”

If I couldn’t buy it, I just wouldn’t have it; I had no intention of ordering others around. However, Ham Dowon had a look on his face as if asking what the problem was.

“It’s fine. This much is nothing. You have no idea how much my Auntie usually teases me.”

“Since when did I tease you that much! But really, it’s okay. There’s no need to feel burdened. I’m close with all the owners here anyway, and I just bought them while I was out getting bread for ourselves.”

Thwack! The Auntie slapped Ham Dowon’s forearm once and laughed heartily. Even though she told me not to feel burdened, I couldn’t help but feel sorry. I should have bought something more expensive and nicer than just gelato.

“Then, how should I settle the payment?”

“Oh, please. What’s a little something like this. It’s a bribe to ask you to take good care of our Dowon, and how could I take money for a bribe? Dowon here is the youngest in the family and was raised with so much pampering since he was little that he’s quite ill-mannered; please teach him well by your side. I’m asking you as a favor. If you’re really uncomfortable, pay Dowon back.”

It had reached a point where I couldn’t even calculate how many meals I would have to buy Ham Dowon in the future.

“Auntie, am I a kid? And ill-mannered? There’s no one as polite as me.”

Ham Dowon pouted and grumbled. Despite his attire, he really did seem like a child.

“Dowon, you… never mind. Are you leaving now?”

“Yeah. We’re going.”

“Come over this weekend. It’s Nicola’s second birthday.”

“Celebrating the first birthday was enough; why bother with the second?”

“Won’t you even come to see your cousin’s face?”

“Alright. I’ll bring some snacks and come this weekend.”

Ham Dowon suddenly grabbed my wrist and led me out of the shop. He had a sullen look on his face.

“My Auntie doesn’t have children, so she always treats me like a kid. I’m really not that kind of person. I’m very mature.”

Ah, so he’s actually embarrassed. The tips of his ears were bright red.

“She doesn’t have children? Then what about the cousin’s second birthday?”

“Nicola? He’s a cat. He’s cute, but our Saja is much more lovely.”

“Who is Saja?”

“My cat at home.”

“Ah. You have a cat…”

Before I knew it, Ham Dowon had pulled out his phone and was showing me a picture of the cat.

“Cute, right? Our Saja.”

“Yeah. He is cute. Is his name Saja because of this white fur?”

It was a green-eyed cat with yellow fur. There was fluffy white fur around its neck.

“There’s that too… but he’s named Saja because even though he’s tiny, he thinks he’s a lion. His head is small and his body is really tiny, but his temper is no joke. Still, because a small guy is like that, it just comes off as cute.”

“Right. He’s cute. My younger sister says she wants to have a cat too, but she’s still in high school and might go to a university in a different region, so we’re opposing it. She’d love it if she saw him.”

Since we opposed her keeping a cat, Ye Hwanyoung took care of the street cats near the shop and our house. My parents didn’t object to that because they caught the mice that sneaked into the shop. Since they were street cats, they shouldn’t get used to human hands, so she would just give them food and quickly hide to watch from afar; seeing her keep her distance while intensely thinking about how much she wanted to hug and touch them was quite pitiful. So I had thought that I should help her keep a cat someday.

“Do you like cats, hyung?”

“I don’t dislike them.”

“Then come over to see our Saja. But cats are territorial animals, so you shouldn’t even take them for walks. That’s why if you want to see our Saja, you have to come to our house yourself, hyung… Come see Saja.”

“Well… if it’s not an imposition, I’ll go sometime.”

“Yes. Make sure to come!”

It was a polite remark said out of courtesy, like the common greeting of “let’s have a meal sometime,” but Ham Dowon smiled as if he were so happy that I felt a strange sense of debt. The kind of pressure that made me feel like I absolutely had to go. If he lived alone, it would be different, but I had no intention of dropping by a house where he lived with his family.

“Hyung, let’s go.”

“No. I can just take the subway. Tell your Auntie I said thank you. I’m really grateful. I’ll buy you dinner. Several times, including the price of the bread.”

We reached the parking lot, but instead of getting in the car, I shook my head. The station was right nearby, and I wasn’t so shameless as to ask a guy who had already come to pick me up once to drive me again. However, Ham Dowon opened the passenger door with a determined face and gestured toward the inside.

“I have somewhere to go with you, hyung. I told you I had something to say.”

“Ah, that… Can’t you say it here?”

“No. I can’t. It’s something really important.”

What kind of thing did he have to say that required a specific location… I thought for a moment about what to do and then just got in. I had already gone way over my limit in being indebted to Ham Dowon today, and since he said it was something “really important,” I had no choice but to follow. After driving for a long while, the place Ham Dowon’s car arrived at was,

“This is my first time coming here.”

A drive-in theater.

“Really? I’m glad.”

“But what kind of thing do you have to say at a drive-in theater?”

“I need some time… Hyung, what movie do you want to watch?”

Since we had come all this way and couldn’t go back, I approached the ticket booth with Ham Dowon. There were only two films playing: an American romantic comedy and a Korean action movie.

“This one for me.”

I pointed to the poster of the American romantic comedy. Because I recognized the face of an actor I knew.

“So you want to watch a romance movie with me, hyung. Me too…”

While Ham Dowon was muttering something again, I stared intently at the poster of the American movie. The director’s name and the lead actor’s name were familiar. Where had I seen them… I remembered seeing them somewhere…

“Ah, I remember now.”

It was the director and actor from a horror movie I had seen on an OTT service. From horror to romantic comedy. I wonder how it will be.

After booking the movie, we bought two bottles of water and parked the car in a suitable spot.

I had been to various movie theaters, including special theaters, but this was my first drive-in. They probably wouldn’t do masking (covering the gray spaces that appear on the top, bottom, left, or right of the screen because the aspect ratio is different for each movie). It couldn’t be helped. People who expect a high-quality screening environment wouldn’t come to a place like this in the first place.

“Do you watch movies often, hyung?”

“I think I watch them more than the people around me. In the countryside, the only thing you could really do for cultural life was watch movies.”

Perhaps because I had been exposed to them often since I was young, I naturally became interested in and fond of movies. Maybe it was because of his face as he listened intently to my words, but I found myself pouring out stories without realizing it.

“My mom loves movies so much that when she has time, she keeps rewatching videos she rented from the rental shop; because of that, I naturally ended up watching them too. I watched a ton when I went to the US for language training. A girlfriend I met then and a friend of mine also loved movies. We went to American independent theaters together and watched all sorts of bizarre works. The works imported to Korea are really chosen very carefully to bring in the ones that are at least decent, you know?”

It was fun back then. As the thoughts came to mind, a smile formed naturally.

“After watching a movie that is so terribly made that it’s awful, you get thoughts like this. Ah, I feel sorry for the Earth. Creating things like this is what destroys the environment; with the money spent on this, you could help several struggling people. I keep having those kinds of thoughts. In the end, it feels like all those playing around with art are ruining the environment. Don’t you think so?”

As a student majoring in art, I threw out a self-deprecating joke. Since Ham Dowon had also done art for a long time, wouldn’t he empathize a bit? The feeling of being sorry to the Earth as if literally creating ‘trash’ when painting a piece of garbage. The thought that the wood and fabric making up this canvas weren’t cut down from nature for this purpose.

But the guy was just gripping his water bottle tight, and his expression was not good. Ah, did I cross the line? Does he not like this kind of joking?

“Hyung, you… you… Never mind. Having a past is unavoidable. I’m not the kind of man who dwells on the past.”