Facing Each Other (6)
The favor Seoa had been about to ask of me was this:
Mom wants us to have a meal together and told me to bring you… Could you come with me?
It was a truly awkward request. Barely two months ago I would have answered an invitation like that with a shout of pure joy. Now the only thing that rose in me was the thought of how difficult it would be.
That was how much we had already changed.
I let out a long, heavy sigh.
Seeing it, Seoa immediately slid another note across to me.
Sorry… I still haven’t told Mom about our situation… So could you help me out just this once?
I could more or less guess what that “situation” was.
Honestly, now that things between Seoa and me had gone so thoroughly wrong, even if her mother made the suggestion I could simply refuse and that would be the end of it. I had no obligation to grant the request. I could have told myself it no longer had anything to do with me.
But I couldn’t turn my back that coldly. However badly things had soured with Seoa, I couldn’t treat her mother the same way.
Because when I thought back over our past, Seoa’s mother had always treated me like family. And I had met that warmth in kind.
I was that kind of presence—someone who had settled deep into Seoa’s household.
That was why I couldn’t bring myself to show her mother the ugly way we had ended. Of course the truth would have to come out someday… but not right now.
I left Seoa a reply saying I would think about it, then spent the rest of the class turning it over in my mind.
“So… will you come with me? She wants to eat this Saturday…”
“Let me ask one thing first. Is this the last time?”
“Huh? What do you mean…?”
“You can’t keep lying to your mother forever. That alone makes me feel guilty toward her. Eventually you’ll have to tell her. I understand it’s hard right now, but…”
“……After we eat this time, I’ll tell her. Mom…”
Seoa said it with her head bowed low. The sight was a little pitiful, but she had brought this on herself. And it was something that had to be done someday. She couldn’t keep deceiving her mother forever.
“All right. I’ll go. This Saturday, right?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
Seoa smiled as she thanked me, yet the smile felt thick with bitterness.
After class I headed to the club room with Nari.
By now it had become almost routine. Finishing class, meeting Nari, walking to the club room—this had settled into a new everyday for me.
And when we arrived, I was relieved to find Sebin noona already there.
I was glad. She had only missed one day, yet seeing her still made me happy. That was how large her presence had become.
“Noona! Why didn’t you come yesterday?”
“……Ah, I had a prior engagement. Sorry I didn’t tell you ahead of time.”
“Oh, that happens. I wasn’t trying to scold you or anything. It’s fine.”
I spoke cheerfully, but Sebin noona answered with a faintly uncomfortable air.
It left a bad taste. That uneasy feeling I had been picking up from her lately was still there—if anything, a little stronger. I had no idea what was causing it.
And that cool distance wasn’t aimed only at me; it fell equally on Nari.
“Unnie! Why didn’t you answer my messages yesterday—!!”
“Ah… sorry. I didn’t notice.”
Nari approached with her voice full of playful affection, yet noona’s response stayed cold.
Why? Had something really bad happened… was she just in a foul mood? I couldn’t tell.
Nari seemed to sense the change in Sebin noona as well; she looked a little flustered.
So the club room felt strangely off, nothing like its usual atmosphere.
“How did the work go yesterday? Must’ve been rough without me…”
Only then did noona seem to notice the awkward air; she tried to clear it with that question.
“Ah! Yesterday we went to Minjae’s place and—”
“Aaaagh!!!!!”
I let out a sudden, bizarre yell and desperately cut Nari off. My body had moved before my head.
Nari was about to casually mention what had happened yesterday—that the two of us had worked alone at my place.
For some reason I felt she absolutely must not say that. At least not to noona right now.
She would definitely feel left out. Noona was already acting strange; if we made her feel excluded on top of that, things would only head somewhere worse.
“Huh? What about yesterday?”
“What was that… yelling all of a sudden. So yesterday—”
“Aaaagh!! Hold on!”
Even after my earlier outburst my intention hadn’t gotten through; Nari was about to continue.
Fine—if I couldn’t stop her, better to say it myself. That felt safer. If the words came from someone else’s mouth first, it would look like I had been hiding it from noona.
Better that I tell the story.
“Yesterday… we worked at my place. It would’ve been nice if noona could’ve come too… I was a little disappointed. Next time let’s all come over to my place and work together!”
I might have been trembling as I said it. When you deliver something like that, the speaker is supposed to sound completely casual so the listener gets swept along and doesn’t think much of it.
Yet here I was, acting like someone who had committed some huge crime, watching her every reaction…
What kind of response would noona give? I swallowed dryly and tried to calm the tension.
“I see… Next time I hope I can join you.”
“Unnie! You have to come next time. Yesterday Minjae did something creepy and it was scary.”
“When did I ever…?! That was an accident!!”
Fortunately noona didn’t react strongly. She seemed ready to let it pass… yet the last thing she said left me unsure what she meant.
“Minjae really has changed a lot…”
That I had changed. I still didn’t know what those words were supposed to mean.
Saturday.
Today was the day I would eat with Seoa’s mother, just as she had asked.
The broken state of things between Seoa and me made it a little uncomfortable, but there was no helping it.
And for today at least I intended to give it my best. Once I had agreed to the favor, I couldn’t just ruin it. If you say you’ll do something, you take responsibility for the words.
Besides, this would be the last time I sat across from Seoa’s mother and ate as if nothing were wrong. I could yield a little for the sake of a proper ending.
We arranged to meet in front of Seoa’s place first before heading to her family home. I wasn’t sure it was necessary, but she had asked, so I gave her that much.
“Hi… You’re early.”
“Yeah. I’m always early. You’re the one who’s late every time.”
“I’ve never been late every time…”
“…Fine. If you say so.”
Looking back over our past, Seoa had always come out a little after the agreed time, and I had always waited. I remembered that clearly. We had known each other for years; of course I remembered something that basic.
Still… I didn’t bother arguing with her timid denial. Normally I would have kept pushing back, kept the conversation going, but I no longer felt like it.
“It’s been a while… walking side by side like this. Right?”
“Yeah.”
I walked the familiar road with Seoa.
She was right—it really had been a long time. The two of us walking this path together. A long-forgotten familiarity settled over me.
Whether it came from the scenery itself or from walking beside Seoa, I couldn’t say… but something about it felt known.
Before I realized it we had reached her family home. We must have talked about something on the way, but none of it had been important enough to stick in my memory.
“Hey… do you remember what we talked about here last time?”
“What?”
“When you said you couldn’t really picture yourself dating another girl…”
Ah… the moment she said it, a fragment of the memory surfaced.
It had been the day we ate together last time. After the meal with her mother, on the way home.
We had stood right here and she had said that. Back then I was still deep in my one-sided love for her, so the question had hurt quite a bit.
Looking back now, it wasn’t a particularly good memory.
Why was she bringing it up all of a sudden? I didn’t know. It only left me faintly irritated.
“Actually… there was a hidden meaning behind those words.”
“Huh? Hidden meaning?”
“What I really wanted to say was that I didn’t want to see you dating anyone but me.”
“……”
What?
What had Seoa just said to me?
That she didn’t want to see me with another girl? What did that even…
“S-so…”
“Stop! Don’t say another word. If you’re going to keep talking like this, I’m turning around and going home right now.”
“……Okay. I get it. I won’t say anything. But that’s mean. You won’t even take a joke anymore?”
Seoa tried belatedly to pass it off as a joke… but I knew better. It had never been a joke.
Her trembling eyes, the lips that parted and closed again and again, the deep breath she drew as if steeling herself for some great decision—
All of it proved that what she had just said was anything but a joke.
So… whatever she had been about to say next, I had to stop her from saying it.
We still had to meet her mother and sit down to a meal. In front of her mother we had to slip back into the easy closeness of the past and eat as if nothing had changed.
How was I supposed to listen to something that loaded at a moment like this?
I had no idea what other words she might use to throw me into confusion. I had to cut off that possibility in advance.
There had been that small, awkward incident right in front of the house, but after a few twists and turns we finally opened the front door and stepped inside.
“Oh my! It’s been so long, Minjae.”
Seoa’s mother still greeted me with a broad, beaming smile. Honestly, I was glad to see her too.
So I let that feeling show completely. It wasn’t acting, wasn’t something I put on. It was simply how I felt.
“Ah, hello. Have you been well? Seeing you after so long makes me even happier.”
I smiled brightly and greeted Seoa’s mother.