NHL 20

Whether he understood the muttered words or not, the volume dropped immediately. The music, which didn’t even have proper lyrics, was composed entirely of electric guitar. To Joeon’s untrained ears, no matter how much he listened, he couldn’t tell which part was the first verse and which was the second. However, Joeon relaxed his body, watching the nervous face of Aaron, who seemed to be waiting for a judge’s evaluation.

“You’ve improved a lot, haven’t you? The sounds have become more diverse. Even though I don’t know much about it, though. As for the melody, this much is….”

Then, he could see Aaron looking satisfied. Joeon, who had been timing it, only then took off the headphones.

“I got inspired and made it while playing a game a while ago. I thought this kind of feeling would be good as BGM. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a game; wouldn’t it be okay for a movie too? I’m very interested in that field.”

“Well….”

Joeon, being a layman, kept his words brief. He couldn’t offer some half-baked advice about a genre he didn’t know anything about.

“I thought you gave up on music because you said you were going to enter college, but I guess that’s not it.”

“Of course not. It’s actually the opposite. I’m going to become independent once I enter college. Then I’ll be able to do music more freely. Mom hopes I’ll perform hymns at the cathedral. Can you believe it?”

Joeon imagined Aaron wearing a priest’s robe, randomly, and thought that, outwardly, it would actually suit him quite well. However, he didn’t let it out of his mouth.

He is such a good guy that it’s ironic he hasn’t gone astray yet, despite being at an age where he would have had more than enough reason to leave home and go astray if he wanted to. Unlike his musical tastes, Aaron has a gentle nature, so he didn’t have the decisiveness to stab Maya and Tony in the heart.

“I couldn’t match schedules with my previous band members, so I found a new band. But they’re all working professionals. They all give me a lot of good advice. So I’m also learning a lot within that group, you know.”

As the subject of the previous band members came up, the corners of Joeon’s mouth, which had been wearing a faint smile, stiffened. Aaron, not noticing Joeon’s change, excitedly continued talking.

“They are all such mature people. I didn’t want to live a life of getting a job and spending every day in the same routine like everyone else, but those people consistently do what they like even within that, and they are also skilled. They even have a channel and do live streams online every time. Oh, right, did I send you the address? I’ll share it with you now. For reference, I don’t upload the live videos. Cool, right?”

Aaron muttered, tapping his phone with one hand. Maya and Tony didn’t look favorably upon the music Aaron was doing, but at least it seemed certain that the new members were having a healthy influence on Aaron.

And this was fortunate for Joeon as well. Because the members Aaron hung out with before had been quite bad in quality.

“Oh, and we also have a Korean girl on our team. She handles everything related to videos.”

“A girl?”

Joeon pricked up his ears. Aaron, who was about to introduce the channel, suddenly looked up and discovered Joeon looking at him and grinning.

“What? We’re not in any relationship!”

“I didn’t even say anything?”

Aaron stammered as if he were lost for words, shook his head with an awkward smile, and wrapped up the conversation.

“Anyway, make sure to come watch next time we perform. Oh, you can use that room over there.”

“Okay.”

The room Aaron pointed to was the smallest in the house, with a small window typical of a semi-basement, so it didn’t get much sunlight. Even so, warmth flowed as soon as he opened the door. It was thanks to Maya and Tony having the heating turned up high.

It seemed Tony had cleaned the room before Joeon arrived, as the king-sized bed and carpet filling the room were neatly organized.

Joeon, who opened the old wardrobe to organize his coat and threw his bag down, climbed onto the bed—which was quite high—as if ascending, and flopped down backward.

The music that had shaken his eardrums disappeared, leaving only a secluded silence. It wasn’t even his favorite genre, yet he felt a sense of emptiness in his ears. Much like the loneliness that suddenly arrives the moment the hospitality of host families, which was as warm as the warmth filling the room, fades, Joeon feared the anxiety that might jump out of the peaceful silence and swallow him at any moment.

The anxiety that had started from the moment he set foot on this land as if being kicked out due to family circumstances often found and tormented young Joeon.

Even though he received more affection than he deserved in someone else’s home, which was as awkward as someone else’s festival, he suffered from insomnia and sometimes woke up from sleep as if having a seizure. There were many times when he suffered from breathing difficulties, with his breath being blocked as if someone were strangling him for no reason at all. Surprisingly, this anxiety gradually disappeared starting from when he entered college.

It was only after he became completely alone that he realized it. Where he was supposed to be.

Perhaps because of that, this house, which he only visited at most once a year, didn’t really feel like his own home. He was merely visiting occasionally for Maya’s family, who were warm-hearted and had a lot of lingering affection, as far as that went.

However, tears of loneliness from getting sentimental won’t happen now. As time passed, his tear ducts had long since dried up. Joeon fiddled with his phone for no reason to get out of his thoughts. Then, he suddenly thought of Dylan.

A person who can call this place home and can call it a hometown. Could the leeway to readily share affection even with a stranger stem from there?

Searching for it, there were no games scheduled for the time being. This is because they take a break during the Christmas holidays. If so, he must be enjoying a party at his family’s house in Midtown.

Knock, knock. Simultaneously with the sound of knocking on the door, Joeon rose.

“John, I’m going to prepare dinner, so would you play with Ben in the meantime?”

“Yes.”

It was his turn to go and fulfill his duties as well.

In the kitchen, he could hear the sound of Maya preparing the starters. After pouring olive oil into a pan, stir-frying garlic, and then throwing in large black tiger shrimp, a fragrant smell spread throughout the house.

Tony returned, holding a cat in his arms, through the back door connected to the kitchen.

“Oh, goodness. Isabella! Look after Niña well so she doesn’t go out of the house!”

“Where did she go out?”

“I caught her slipping out the back door while I went to get some firewood.”

“Anyway, Niña is fat and lazy, so she doesn’t go far.”

Despite Tony’s grumbling, Isabella shrugged her shoulders with a nonchalant attitude and received the chubby cat, Niña.

Niña was originally a stray cat that appeared in the neighborhood from time to time. When Maya fed her a few times, ever since then, she would settle in front of the back door whenever she was hungry and wail until she was fed.

That was how a relationship between two people… no, one person and one cat, started and they became family. Perhaps because it’s a neighborhood where stray cats are not common, although Joeon had watched the whole process, even now it felt mysterious. As he looked back, wondering what on earth a connection was.

“But is there firewood? Why?”

Joeon, who had been sitting on the carpet that was deliberately laid out in colors matching Christmas, playing with toys with Ben, asked. Tony scanned the two of them and pointed with his hand toward the backyard.

“Curious? Want to go see?”

Ben and Joeon turned their heads and made eye contact. Soon, a naive smile spread across Ben’s baby-like face.

“Want to see!”

Joeon picked up Ben and approached the back door. The two put their faces to the small window on the back door and observed the backyard, where pitch-black darkness was cast, intently. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could see properly.

“Do you see that over there? I made it so we can have a campfire by surrounding it with bricks in the middle and collected firewood inside it. Let’s roast marshmallows over a bonfire later.”

“That’s great.”

Though he was worried about the cold…. To the father and son whose eyes were shining, the winter chill didn’t seem to matter at all. Joeon just smiled.

🏒🥅

Morning sunlight broke through the small window, which was as small as a laptop screen. Joeon tossed and turned, pressing his throbbing head with his palm.

Last night, the aftermath of drinking too much after popping open wine together with the boarder he was seeing for the first time at Tony’s suggestion was bothering him until the morning.