.
To stop my mom from going too far, I had to scream from the top of my lungs. However, as soon as I was at a loss of words, I held my breath. My mom and dad, who were sitting together on the couch, had their eyes on me inwardly expecting something. My mom even had a rose shade blush on her face.
Oh god, my eyes sneaked away from them but met Yoo Chun Young’s gaze instead. As if he was trying to grimace, he looked at me with an unreadable odd face. While I also glanced at him, something reddish came in between us. It was Eun Hyung who came back to his seat at last after finishing his call with the enraged Eun Jiho.
His appearance took the tension out of our system. When he saw us looking at each other speechlessly, he asked with a dithered voice.
“Um… were you guys having a serious talk?”
He might have also felt the strange atmosphere around us. I sat still without any response before slowly shaking my head. Mom and dad looked very disappointed somehow and kept their eyes back to the TV.
In the TV, the two lovers were holding their hands together, sitting on a long bench inside a narrow church where lights were coming through the stained glass.
Their eyes were both sparkling with tears as they started whispering with each other.
“From now on, let’s make our own memories. We will do everything that others would do alone for the rest of their lives. Let’s do everything together, you and I.”
“Yes… You’re right. We could do anything in two months…”
The guy then burst out crying as his head fell on the woman’s shoulder. The girl scowled at the innocent wall paintings within the church while her eyes drowned in tears. Her lips were tightly sealed, preventing herself from crying out of sorrow.
A character with a limited time remaining in this world was a frequently-used trope in TV dramas, so my dad looked less enthusiastic about the story. My mom, however, glared at the scene with reddened eyes as if she did not remember getting heated up on our conversation.
I fell into thought while looking at the screen.
It was because, although this sounded ridiculous, the guy who was shedding tears at the end as he was having a hard time putting his words together seemed to share the same tragic fate with me. Although his pain would not be too comparable with mine.
I gazed at them while sitting on the floor leaning at the couch. The time allowed for him to share with his lover was only two months. The guy and the girl, therefore, promised each other to make good memories as much as they could for the next two months…
In high school, there would be much time to make precious memories. As a matter of fact, so many things had happened for the last 3 years. Would it be the right decision to refuse to build good memories with them in fear of the unpredictably changing situation?
I bit my lips hard and gradually loosened them. Then I shook my head at a slow pace.
No, that guy and I were totally different. The guy, at least, knew how much time was left for him; however, I did not share the same sentiment. With that in mind, we were not the same.
Still, I could not help myself from laying my eyes on the man sobbing dreadfully. It suddenly made me so depressed that I hung my body down slackly and heaved a deep sigh.
Eun Hyung, again, held his phone, focusing on the call with Jooin.
“Oh, I was fussing around with Jiho in the game. Yeah, I’d love to go. Yay!”
“What do you mean you were fussing around with him?”
“He would never know it was me, right?”
“…”
A moment later, Eun Hyung nodded and hung up the phone. He looked back and forth at Chun Young and me while we were both donning a blank expression. He then began to giggle in spite of himself. His laughter resonated all over the surroundings making us both burst into a laugh, shrugging off our shoulders.
Since we were in front of our parents, we could not laugh out loud. Instead, Chun Young and Eun Hyung clenched their fists and held their laughter, whereas, I was tapping the couch while giggling out loud. As my mom and dad directed their crazy-woman-detector glance upon me, only then did I slowly get up from the floor.
Since a while ago, there seemed to be a knocking sound from the door, though the noise coming from the TV drowned it too much, making it almost impossible to hear it from the living room. However, now I was convinced that there truly was someone knocking on the door.
I tottered to the front door and opened it. The person on the other side waiting with an expressionless face was none other than Yeo Dan oppa.
He wore a dark brown duffle coat with a heavy backpack on his back. His hair was still jet-black, which was as dark and deep as a riverbed. He then said to me with a blank stare.
“My parents said to wait here once I returned home. We’re going out for dinner, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Come in, oppa.”
My parents and the two boys in the living room turned their heads to his appearance. They looked quite surprised to see him following behind me. Then the guys soon shared their greetings with a bewildered face.
“Oh, hi.”
“Hi.”
Yeo Dan oppa’s school was not close to our neighborhood, so we did not see each other often. However, until last year, he was going to the same school as us. With that in mind, the boys had the chance to see his face; moreover, Yeo Dan oppa was taking the senior throne since there weren’t any Four Heavenly Kings in our upper grade. He was surely a memorable guy.
Yeo Dan oppa abruptly nodded and glanced over the living room. He then sat down on the floor beside the table.
There, he said to me, “Yeo Ryung went to the bathhouse. She’ll be back soon.”
“Oh, yeah. Oppa, give your bag to me.”
“Sure.”
They looked astonished as he handed his bag to me without remorse. I couldn’t blame them for reacting that was for Yeo Dan oppa and I never talked to each other before at school. The reason was clear.
As they said, different personalities make for better friendships; Yeo Dan oppa’s friends were outgoing and had sharp eyes. It was them who gave him a bit of serious advice saying,
“Dude, except for your sister, do not talk to other girls at school to prevent making any innocent victims.”
Their advice seemed to have confused Yeo Dan oppa, who was completely unaware of his fame at school, but he pretty much followed it anyway. That was why we just passed by, nodding at each other when we saw each other in the corridors.
The way we were acting around each other, however, was quite intimate similar to people who knew for years. Of course, although we have pretended to be nobodies at school, we had been neighbors for 17 years.
I put his bag inside my room, but the two boys’ gaze was still at me. To explain our candid attitude, I should go over Yeo Dan oppa’s friends first, which takes quite some time; besides, it was weird to clarify that in front of the person directly involved.
As I shrugged my shoulders, the doubt in their eyes grew bigger. It made me a little embarrassed while I sat down in the living room. Thankfully, Yeo Dan oppa broke the ice.
“Strange?”
“Excuse me?”
“Anything strange?”
Eun Hyung closed his lips and looked at Yeo Dan oppa and me one after another. Maybe he was concerned about if he had to right to pry.
I was just surprised that Yeo Dan oppa brought up something not related to his sister.
As I stared at Yeo Dan oppa astoundingly, he then had his eyes on me and opened his mouth, which knocked my socks off. He said with a calm voice.
“Oh, I have coffee milk inside my bag. It was given at school, but I don’t like it so I was about to throw it out, but then I remembered how much you liked it.”
“Oh, oppa. Thanks.”
“I have three.”
The last words made me confused for a moment, but soon I nodded to say that I understood what he meant. It indicated that he had the coffee milk for each person, so I could take it out for everyone to enjoy. That was truly something Yeo Dan oppa would do.
When I turned my head back to Eun Hyung and Chun Young, their incredulous faces came into my sight. It also made me wonder why, but I quickly realized what they were thinking. Their quizzical expressions revealed how they’re wondering as to how Yeo Dan oppa knew the things I like.
