The Person on My Mind - 2
Aki and Taek were in the break room, nibbling on sandwiches. The coffee maker filled the air with the rich scent of fresh brew, and the soft murmur of a Saturday morning news broadcast drifted through the room.
The ruling party spokesperson claimed that the allegations of a rushed bill raised by several legal experts were "groundless." He added that the bill had been carefully coordinated after extensive deliberation...
In the midst of that calm, Aki stole a glance at Taek's face.
The most striking thing was his cowlick. And from his bloodshot eyes and vacant expression, it was easy to tell the previous night's drinking had been rough.
Or maybe not? Was his expression always this blank?
With that thought, she quietly crunched into her sandwich.
Like a rabbit.
Crunch.
Crunch.
“…”
“…”
Aki and Taek were not the sort of people who talked much. That was why they often ended up like this, quietly keeping each other company. It was the most comfortable temperature between them.
“…”
“…”
But...
Aki felt as if she were running in place. She wanted to throw out some topic, seize the lead, and pull Taek along with her, but the words just would not come.
“…”
Maybe it’s because I only ever talk when I really want to. When the moment comes, it’s hard to get started.
After the realization she’d had at dawn, she had started wanting to know more about Taek.
She wanted to like the same things,
experience the same things,
look at the same things together.
In short, she wanted to do something together. That was the only way their relationship would slowly take shape, and that was how something like a crush was supposed to happen, right?
At this rate,
at this rate...
I might end up living my whole life as nothing more than a quiet part-timer and manager.
She pictured it all too clearly: herself and Taek, both with heads gone white, silently chewing sandwiches side by side. Too late to catch any of the opportunities that had passed them by, they would just end up laughing together like old friends.
“Cold again today...”
“Taek, it’s summer.”
“Seoul summers are cold...”
Shiver, shiver.
And then straight into the grave.
Here lies Seonwoo Taek.
Here lies Lee A-yeong.
Single forever until death, sob sob.
“…”
It was an absurd image, and yet the resolution of the fantasy was weirdly high. That only made it feel more plausible. At least, that was how Aki saw it.
She shuddered.
Ugh, no. That’s awful.
Don’t people usually imagine marriage when they fall in love for the first time? Why am I only imagining us growing old and dying together?
Anyway.
This was definitely wrong.
So Aki opened her mouth.
“Taek.”
“Yes.”
“Did you see that movie that just came out? The one with the giant shark in shoes fighting a monkey in the forest. The trailer made it look so epic.”
“I saw it.”
“…”
Ah.
Her plan to go, Want to watch the new movie together? Maybe we could even hold hands... heh☆ had failed before it had even begun. Her head filled with gloomy thoughts.
Does he just not want to go see a movie with me...?
With that disappointment tucked into her words, Aki puckered her lips and blurted, “It only came out yesterday.”
“…”
“It was a movie I really wanted to see.”
“…”
Seonwoo Taek raised his head with a blank look.
“If you’re curious, I can tell you the plot.”
“?!”
No, seriously? A spoiler, right here?
Aki hurriedly shook her head.
“Huh? N-no. The plot is fine. Anyway, was it fun?”
“If you were expecting the level of action shown in the trailer, it would be disappointing. I’d recommend lowering your expectations by a few notches before you go.”
“…”
Taek’s own brand of long-winded, brutally honest explanation.
No matter how she looked at it, he really did seem like someone who had actually gone to see it.
So he really did go. Good. He wasn’t indirectly turning me down because he didn’t want to go with me...
Consoled by that, Aki finished the rest of her sandwich.
Chew-chew.
“…”
“…”
Hmm.
This...
hadn’t solved the problem at all.
Aki opened her mouth again, feeling a mounting urgency to keep the conversation alive.
“Taek.”
“Yes.”
“Did you drink a lot?”
“…”
“?”
“I don’t remember it very well.”
Taek looked out the break room window. It was as if he were replaying the previous night inside those dazed eyes of his.
“I remember starting with a drink or two out at the patio table over there with Dr. Jang and his group. After that, it gets fuzzy.”
“Dr. Jang...?”
“I met him not too long ago. He’s a musician by profession, and we met again and ended up as drinking buddies.”
“Ohh...”
Aki’s memory stirred.
Among the texts they’d exchanged at dawn, there had been one selfie Taek sent. In the middle of a crowd of drunk old men dancing, there had definitely been an elderly musician. She had secretly saved the photo, and it was still vivid in her mind.
So the old man playing violin behind him in the picture was Dr. Jang? The drinking buddy he mentioned in the texts was him.
Case solved.
Aki filed the man’s details away in her memory.
“You must have had a lot to drink. You still reek of alcohol.”
“Probably. I think I overdid it quite a bit. It wasn’t forced, though...”
“Is your stomach okay?”
“Yes. I vaguely remember drinking one of those hangover recovery drinks at the store in the middle of it all. Thanks to that, I think I’m fine. I’m still a little tired, though.”
“Hee.”
Taek mumbling through the haze of alcohol was kind of adorable. The man who always spoke in neat, clipped sentences like a proper adult now looked like a middle schooler who had stayed up all night gaming.
Taek, acting like a younger brother.
What a rare sight.
How unexpected. So he really does get drunk sometimes. He looks like the type who’d never even touch alcohol in his life.
She had never seen him drink in front of her, so she had no idea. Maybe she should ask him to have a beer with her someday. He might turn out to be weaker than she was.
I can hold my liquor pretty well, too... But how much would we drink? Would it be weird if it was just the two of us?
“…”
Thinking that, she glanced at Taek again.
He had been coughing lightly and gulping water since a little while ago, a tired look never leaving his face. It seemed the alcohol was still hanging on.
“Hmph, huh... mm.”
“…”
Given how often his voice kept slipping into a mumble, was he really that out of it?
Before she even realized what she was saying, Aki blurted out, “Taek.”
“Yes.”
“Should I make you bean sprout soup?”
“…”
Taek froze for a moment. Then he looked around and said, “Here?”
“…”
Aki panicked.
“N-no. I mean... I c-could go to your place and m-make it, then bring it over... you know, for, um, slurping it down? I mean, if you only eat sandwiches, then...”
“…”
She suddenly realized what she had just said.
Unconscious thought had called up more unconscious thought, and it all linked together into a single story. Only after the words were already out did she understand what she’d actually said.
She would make soup for the sake of his poor, aching body.
At his home.
Like a wife.
“…”
“…”
Aki’s face steadily turned red. Her eyes trembled; her hands shook. In her sleep-starved, foggy head, excuses began to run wild.
I must be insane. Going to a man’s house alone... This is basically a proposal...
No.
Time for an emergency escape!
Aki spread both hands wide.
“J-j-jackpot! You, uh, were surprised, right?”
“?”
“I-it was a joke!”
“…”
She hurriedly piled on the explanation.
“Ah, ahaha! I, um... heard it from my mom. Apparently one of the things Korean men like hearing from women is that after a hangover, if you say, ‘Should I make you bean sprout soup?’ then they think, ‘Wow, that feels so wife-like.’ Or so I heard...”
“…”
What kind of nonsense was that?
What should she do?
What should she do...
I’m doomed.
Bankruptcy, confirmed!
Aki’s overheated brain came to a halt.
Click.
Then the leftover spinal cord started doing the work. Gathering up instinct and the scraps of memory, it forged an excuse.
“What I mean is, it’s not that I want to be your wife or anything. It’s just that... if I went to your place and made bean sprout soup, maybe that would be nice. That’s all. I don’t have any bad intentions or anything...”
“…”
But somehow, the more she tried to explain, the more ridiculous it sounded.
Her spinal cord did its best, but it was woefully incompetent.
I’m doomed.
Bankruptcy, confirmed!
Even her spinal cord gave up on making excuses.
Aki was left alone in the ruins. Her face had gone entirely tomato-red, and she dragged a hand through her sticky hair while her eyes darted everywhere at once. Her fingers had gone numb.
Ugh, come to think of it, I didn’t even wash up before coming out.
“Um...”
“…”
She was done for.
Ruined.
My life is over!
Yahoo!
Goodbye,
my first love!
“Um, um, um...”
“…”
In the end, Aki bowed her head.
“I’m sorry. I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore.”
“…”
Taek shook his head and said, “It’s fine. When you’re talking happily, sometimes the conversation veers off in a direction you never expected.”
“…”
“Next time, let’s make it and eat it together.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t need to do all the work, Aki. Since the topic came up, I’ll set it up later.”
Even while clearly tired, Taek was seriously drawing up a plan.
“We can buy the ingredients whenever we have time. I can cook a little myself, so let’s make it together.”
“…”
Aki nodded.
“Okay.”
Their mealtime had been an utter mess, but it eventually resolved itself into an absurd promise to cook together. After a moment of blankly sitting there, they stood up.
In front of the convenience store.
Aki tapped one foot against the ground, mortified, and kept fiddling with her baseball cap with both hands.
“Taek.”
“Yes.”
“See you again later.”
“Yes.”
“…”
She had been the one squirming all this time, and yet Taek still looked calm. For some reason, that made her annoyed.
No,
not really annoyed.
“…”
Just.
Just...
She didn’t know.
He kept getting under her skin.
So she blurted it out, gathering up random words like a prank and hiding her embarrassment behind them.
“See you tomorrow, too.”
“Yes.”
“See you the day after tomorrow, too.”
“Yes.”
“See you every single day.”
“…”
Taek answered that seriously, too.
“...I’ll make sure to keep my promise.”
“!”
Aki understood immediately what he meant.
The promise Taek had once made.
It was the promise that he would stay here.
Until July 31, no matter what...
But there was one part of it that still bothered her.
Why July 31?
Why had he fixed on that day so exactly?
For some reason, the corner of her heart felt cold.
“…”
So she said it playfully.
“Then I’ll keep coming until that day.”
“…”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“…”
Taek hesitated for a moment, then answered. He was very polite, but there was a hint of trouble in his expression.
“Please do so in a way that doesn’t interfere with the broadcast.”
“!”
Aki burst out laughing. Somehow, even that tiny flicker of unease felt like her victory.
“Pfft! Hahaha! Since when do you care about that?”
“…”
After they exchanged goodbyes, Aki turned back with light steps.
“…”
It was the same as always.
And yet her heart was beating faster than usual.
She liked this slow, comfortable pace.
She liked that kind of rhythm.
So she wanted it to keep going a little longer.
What should I talk to him about later?
That still-unfinished weekend in the first week of July drifted on like that.
So much had changed.
But her feelings had not.
The following Monday, Representative Baek Su-cheol broke out in a cold sweat. Dizzy with alarm, he barely managed to cling to the edge of the desk in his office. It was that shocking a piece of news.
“What do you mean, the venue was canceled? What kind of nonsense is that? Because of the bill they’re announcing now?! We need time to prepare on our side, too—!”
Shouts echoed around the office.
But the outcome did not change.