Togetherness (5)
As expected, the scariest thing about Suho was the fear of being together with him.
He had ignored my words, and the creature seemed to give up, gently squeezing my body for a moment before falling asleep.
'Wait, did that really happen?'
I wasn't sure.
It felt like I had fallen asleep first.
I opened my eyes just a little, but the sky was pitch dark—nothing like what I had expected.
'Did I wake up too early?'
The sun that had always shattered my eyes in the studio was supposed to come crashing into my bedroom this morning too, but it didn't.
Drip. Drip.
'Rain?'
This wasn't the usual morning when my eyes hurt from the bright light and I had to get up.
The sky looked a little gloomy, and it didn't seem to welcome my first workday in a long time.
The rhythmic patter of rain against the window created a strangely beautiful harmony.
In my childhood, writing while listening to such sounds in the early morning had been so pleasant. Now I was an adult worrying about the commute.
The rain had a kind of meditative power that nature gave to humans.
But that was only while I was listening to it. In my current situation, where I had to brave the rain to get to work, it sounded like the lament of ghosts rising from the underworld.
'Hmm...'
If sunlight had been streaming in, I might have guessed the time, but the outside was still pitch black.
Worrying that I hadn't woken up too early, I turned on my phone. It was 6:13 a.m.
'First I'll shower, then make breakfast. I'll wake Suho up and tell him to shower, then I'll eat breakfast. And while I put on makeup, I'll do the dishes.'
The plan was perfect.
--As long as Suho only does what I tell him.
The thought of going to work made the rain sound I had missed for so long still pleasant.
The only downside was that I couldn't smell the fresh scent of grass wet by the rain because of the high-rise building, but this was Gangnam in the middle of the city.
Wasn't that too much to ask?
I didn't know when the last time I had actually come to the company office was.
Even on the day I had gone to work for the sake of the initial dummy service, it had rained.
The small folding umbrella hadn't protected me at all, and on my first day, a soaked rat had been chattering away, trying desperately to handle the work.
After quitting that place, I had only taken jobs that allowed remote work.
So, going to the office in the morning meant...
It had been more than seven years.
More than the experience of working in a company, what had stuck with me was the experience of having to wake up early in the morning and prepare to go to work.
Sssss.
The moment I turned on the faucet, the rain noise that I had only been able to hear faintly from outside the bathroom door disappeared.
Instead, the warm water that enveloped my body hugged me from head to toe without any gaps through the shower.
'Huu~'
Naturally humming a tune, I let the warm water fill me up.
Since I had realized Suho's strange behavior and confessed to him, I had been trying to cut down on showering as much as possible.
I didn't want to give him any excuse, and I had been a little embarrassed that I was the only one feeling ashamed.
But since he was still fast asleep, I didn't feel like holding back.
I had even been planning to toy with him until it was time to go to work, so I could handle his words.
'What is this?'
After washing for a while, I crouched down to apply body wash, and there was something white on the bathroom tiles right in front of me.
'This can't be...'
'Aigoo. No way.'
Gaon's thoughts had been right.
But she had firmly decided to believe it was just a spot from body wash or shampoo splattering and drying.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have had the courage to face Suho.
Clearly, there hadn't been such a thing on the bathroom tiles in Gaon's memory where she had looked for toothpaste.
'Hmm.'
Gaon quickly dried her hair with a towel after wiping off the water and went straight to the kitchen.
Her hair, long enough to reach almost to her tailbone, couldn't be dried in a few minutes.
There would be time for it to dry naturally anyway, so she decided to make breakfast first.
As soon as she arrived at the kitchen, she started cooking faster than yesterday.
Every time her wrist moved, the ingredients were sliced thinly, showing off their own colors.
In the wok with oil, various vegetables glistened while waiting for the rice and lay down obediently.
'I guess I should wake him up soon.'
Gaon turned off the gas stove and headed to the bedroom.
'Wak!'
'Kyaaah!!'
The moment Gaon stood in front of the bedroom door, Suho, as if he had been waiting, startled her with a loud sound, and Gaon, like a great comedian with great reaction skills, fell backward with a yelp.
'Hey! Damn it! I almost had a heart attack first thing in the morning!!'
'You wouldn't fall for this. Did you do everything this morning?'
'Huu. Yeah, buddy!'
Gaon, still calming her pounding heart, answered with heavy breathing.
Suho, who reached out his hand and pulled her up like a general, headed to the living room like a victorious general.
On the dining table, a neat spread of food awaited, as if the wife had prepared it for her commuting husband.
Suho took the breakfast and sat down, nodding his head.
'I thought there wouldn't be anything special after washing, but there are actually a lot of side dishes.'
'Most of them I prepared ahead of time.'
The braised dishes and stir-fried potato chips and tofu pancakes I had made ahead had quite nicely filled the table with color.
Suho felt a sense of fullness just from looking at it and smiled brightly at Gaon.
'Noona, come quickly. We have to eat before the dishes.'
'I had to do a health checkup so I just didn't eat.'
Gaon, who had almost forgotten to fast this time, felt an unbearable disappointment that she couldn't even taste the fragrant food right in front of her, even though she had made it herself.
But since she wanted to know her body's condition as much as possible from this health checkup, she patted herself and decided to endure the morning somehow.
Because the tests were done with Suho's money, she planned to undergo every possible test she could.
'Hey. So when did you wake up?'
'Right when Noona was humming and heading to the bathroom.'
'...'
Gaon was dumbfounded by his claim that they had woken up at almost the same time, but she didn't show it.
She didn't need to scold him.
She herself hadn't woken him up that time.
'Yeah. It's great that you woke up alone.'
'You sound like someone who has to leave the house immediately tomorrow.'
'It might be like that.'
'There's that USB Noona brought from the representative's room last time.'
'Ah.'
Gaon turned her head to the strange sound coming from Suho and, in a flash, expected what was in the USB.
'That's Noona's certificate, right? If Noona doesn't contact me for more than 30 minutes, I'll do the marriage registration right away.'
'...' Did I not think of issuing a new certificate right away?'
'Then shall we do it right now?'
'...A, ah. Ah... no?'
At Suho's firm words, Gaon lowered her tail from its raised position.
Gaon, who couldn't win against him, sighed and went back into the bedroom.
Suho, secretly admiring Gaon's hard work on the full table of food, ate his meal and naturally started washing the dishes even though she hadn't asked.
Gaon heard the splashing water from the sink and smiled faintly. She dried her hair, put on her clothes, and applied makeup.
In that way, their morning passed quite naturally.
'Ah. Driving in Gangnam on a rainy day is really too much.'
I had avoided driving during the usual office rush hours, but I didn't expect it to be this jammed.
Gangnam-daero, which made me think walking might be faster, was like the Chuseok homecoming rush.
I had never actually been on the Chuseok homecoming road, but I didn't think I'd be doing it again.
No matter what, Suho's...
'Are you crazy? Why am I going there?'
'Noona, what are you thinking?'
'Why?'
I closed my mouth tight and stared straight ahead.
If I turned my head even a little toward Suho, today's hellish combat might begin.
'Like she had done something absolutely forbidden, she bit her lip and shook her head back and forth.'
'I thought Noona was imagining where to hold the wedding with me.'
'Huh! Really, sigh...'
Normally, if a person was appropriately angry and a little dumbfounded, they would express their anger, but Suho's words were on a scale beyond my imagination, so I couldn't say anything for a moment.
'Hey. Is the traffic really bad?'
'It's because of the rain. But we left earlier than usual, so it's fine.'
The distance from the company to home was about 20 minutes by car.
When the road wasn't jammed before, it had been that distance, but it had been a good choice that I had come out a little earlier because I wanted to avoid time alone with Suho as much as possible.
'The moment I arrive at the company, I should throw Suho into his representative's room and run to the secretary's room.'
Every moment with Suho felt like my health being steadily drained by the continuous damage of a boss monster.
His crude comments thrown at me like patterns broke my mental armor.
'Hey.'
'Noona. You've been calling me by my name so nicely lately, why are you getting upset again? Cute.'
'Ha...' Sigh. I don't know about that. Do I have to coordinate my afternoon schedule myself?'
'As long as Noona handles the two meetings by contacting them and organizing them, I can take care of the rest.'
'But I'm your personal secretary, so if there are more things, I'll do them.'
'No. Anyway, the rest is father and I splitting the sea bream.'
The sudden intrusion of Suho's father blocked my words.
'Hey. So what does father mean by sea bream? Sea bream.'
'Oh? Today you call him father again.'
'Sigh. I have to stop talking. Until you reach the company, don't say anything, okay?'
'Yes!'
'Is that...' Is he teasing me?