I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 92
It had been a year since Jaewoo died. Time had passed and the world had moved on, but Hyunjin had remained the same. Even as he’d struggled to find a reason for him to live, nothing had improved. Still, he’d refused to give up.
Hyunjin didn’t care about himself, but he still had two younger brothers. His only goal now was to let the two of them grow up happily. So he’d started studying for the certification that he’d been partway through, and he’d enrolled in an online university. He’d even started learning how to cook, although no matter how he tried, he couldn’t seem to recreate the taste of Jaewoo’s meals.
Jaewoo had been the one who made all of that possible. Before his death, he’d spoken with a lawyer and written up a will giving everything to Hyunjin. After going through some complicated legal procedures, Hyunjin was left with quite a bit of money, along with Jaewoo’s house. He hadn’t touched the money, but he and the children had continued to live in the house. Just that alone had helped a lot.
‘The truth is, I don’t want to leave there.’
There were still traces of Jaewoo left behind in the home they’d shared. Hyunjin wanted to hold on to them for as long as possible. He let out a small sigh, his breath turning into white smoke in the cold winter air.
He suddenly realized that he didn’t want to cook dinner. Woohee had said that he wanted to eat soup with rice, and coincidentally there was a fairly popular soup restaurant in the marketplace that he was walking through.
Hyunjin had swung open the door to the soup restaurant, already rattling off his order without paying attention. Then he’d glanced up and seen a familiar face – a man with light-brown hair and gentle eyes.
When he’d first seen him, Hyunjin had lost his breath. From the back, he’d thought that he was his Jaewoo. It wasn’t until he’d gotten closer that he’d realized that it was a different person. Seeing a stranger approaching his younger brothers had made Hyunjin anxious, and he’d pulled him away rather violently.
Even though Hyunjin had done his best to break the habits he’d developed during his time as a gangster, they often popped out. He’d been surprised that he hadn’t hit the other man.
Hyunjin accepted the take-out soup and left the market. The man seemed to be continuing his shift at the soup restaurant.
‘Am I just imagining it?’
After all, a year had passed. Yoon Jiheon had disappeared, although Choi Mujin still came to visit occasionally. They’d have a drink together, then he’d leave. At first Hyunjin had found Mujin’s behavior strange, and had hated his visits, but later he’d understood. The only people left that knew Jaewoo well were Hyunjin and Mujin.
It wasn’t that Mujin had nothing better to do than have a drink with Hyunjin – he was chasing after the last remaining traces of Jaewoo. Once Hyunjin understood that, he accepted their strange relationship.
‘Does he feel like he owes me?’
Hyunjin’s debt had long since vanished. Even after Jaewoo died, Mujin had made no attempts to collect on it. Hyunjin was given his freedom without even being able to object.
Suddenly, something hot welled up from deep inside his chest.
‘We were supposed to open a restaurant together…’
That was how they had planned to pay off Hyunjin’s debt. He wished they had been able to. Even though the size of his debt had been soul-crushing, it would have been worth it just to be with Jaewoo.
“Brother!”
When he arrived home, Woohee was waiting to welcome him.
“I picked up some soup and rice.”
At those words, Hyeonu burst into action, taking out a pot and three large bowls. After watching what Hyeonu did, Woohee quickly started helping as well. As soon as the table was set, Hyunjin poured the still-hot soup into the pot.
“Wow! It’s still steaming!”
Woohee shouted excitedly. The children had only started smiling again recently. Hyunjin and Mujin weren’t the only ones who had been affected by Jaewoo’s death.
“Yes, it’s hot. Let’s eat.”
The taste of the soup was oddly familiar. It was rich and flavorful, although Hyunjin hadn’t eaten out enough to be able to compare it to other restaurants. Hyunjin ate a spoonful of soup and paired it with a bite of radish kimchi. Without meaning to, he found himself saying.
“It’s delicious.”
Unlike other food, which sat heavy in his stomach, the taste of the radish kimchi was clean and tangy on his tongue.
“The kimchi is really good, too!”
Hearing that, Hyunjin tore off some kimchi and ate it. Woohee was right, the kimchi was also delicious. Whoever had made it had skillfully balanced the flavors, making it both moderately spicy and savory at the same time.
‘Just like Jaewoo.’
There was still some of Jaewoo’s kimchi left in a corner of the refrigerator. It was close to going bad, but Hyunjin couldn’t bring himself to eat it. He’d wanted to keep that last trace of Jaewoo alive. But now, eating the kimchi from the restaurant, Hyunjin felt as though he was eating Jaewoo’s homemade kimchi once more.
The taste wasn’t exactly the same, but the feelings it engendered were identical. Shaken, Hyunjin got to his feet.
“I’m going out for a little bit!”
“You’re not going to finish eating?”
Hyeonu looked at him with wide eyes.
“It’s just for a moment. You boys eat first.”
Hyunjin sprinted down the slope towards the marketplace. Dinner time had passed, and the market looked almost deserted when he arrived. The majority of the stores were closing, and only a few restaurants were still open.
Fortunately, the soup restaurant was one of them. As he hurried through the door, the old woman and the few remaining customers looked over at Hyunjin.
“Why are you so out of breath? Did you want a bowl of soup?”
The old woman started to stand up, but Hyunjin stopped her.
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
Only then did Hyunjin realize how stupid he’d been to run all the way there. Jaewoo was dead, so why had he come looking for him? Just because of a similar-tasting kimchi?
Hyunjin couldn’t say anything.
“If soup isn’t what you’re after, then what is it? Is it Jaewoo?”
The old woman asked.
“Jaewoo?”
At Hyunjin’s astonished tone, an old man drinking over in the corner chuckled and explained.
“The young man that works here is named Jaewoo.”
“He’s got a handsome face and is really good at cooking. The owner is truly blessed, I tell you!”
“Oh you, that’s the alcohol talking. I was a looker too, back in the day, right?”
The old woman shot back a retort, and the group of elderly patrons laughed loudly before returning to their drinks and conversations.
“So his name is Jaewoo?”
“Yes. He just left for a moment to run some errands. Oh, he’s back!”
At those words, Hyunjin spun around and looked towards the door. He saw a young man standing in the entrance, holding a black bag and staring back at him. Hyunjin drank him in from top to bottom. His height was close to Jaewoo’s, and his hair was a similar color, although it wasn’t as curly.
He was pretty handsome. He wasn’t as good looking as Seo Jaewoo, the aspiring idol, but he wasn’t bad at all.
“Did you get everything, Jaewoo?”
“Yes ma’am1.”
Jaewoo handed the old woman the bag. Unlike his Jaewoo’s delicate hands and thin fingers, this Jaewoo’s hands looked a little coarser. When he looked closely, Hyunjin could find more differences between them, but despite that he couldn’t help but be reminded of his Jaewoo when he looked at him.
“By any chance…”
Hyunjin swallowed hard.
“By any chance, did you know Seo Jaewoo?”
At those words, the young man blinked slowly. In small movements like that, his resemblance to Jaewoo became even more apparent. Hyunjin kept his eyes on his mouth, refusing to look away.
“I know him.”
After a long pause, the man finally answered. Instantly, Hyunjin clutched at his arm.
“You know him? You know Sea Jaewoo?”
“He’s in his mid-twenties and wanted to be an idol once, right?”
“…You really do know him…”
Hyunjin’s hand tightened on the man’s arm.
“Augh.”
The man let out a groan of pain, but Hyunjin was too focused to care.
“How did you two know each other?”
“Do you really want to talk about that here?”
Only then did Hyunjin look around and see that all of the customers were blatantly eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Seeing they were caught, the old woman coughed awkwardly.
“Since you two seem to know each other, take a moment to go talk.”
With that, she placed a hand on each of their backs and pushed them out the front door. After stumbling for a moment, the young man caught his balance, then sighed and began walking away from the restaurant.
“Where are you going?!”
Hyunjin was about to beg him to stop, when the man turned around and said.
“Did you want to talk in the middle of the street? There’s probably a cafe or two nearby that’re still open.”
Hyunjin followed behind him blankly.
‘What now?’
Jaewoo fidgeted with his hands in his pockets. He’d never dreamed that Hyunjin would suddenly come to find him.
‘Should I have tried to avoid this?’
Maybe he should have, but when he saw Hyunjin right in front of him again Jaewoo’s good sense had vanished.
‘I need to say something.’
Why had he said that he knew Seo Jaewoo?
After walking for a short time, the two of them found an open cafe and went inside.
“Two iced Americanos, please.”
Jaewoo ordered two cups of coffee and sat down in a corner booth. Hyunjin followed behind, sitting down across from him silently.
‘I should have ordered dessert too.’
Jaewoo already regretted his order. Hyunjin was so skinny, he should have ordered something more than an Americano. It had been a mistake. Jaewoo was wondering if he could ask the barista to change their order, but Hyunjin spoke up before he could.
“How did you know Jaewoo?”
It seemed like Hyunjin hadn’t forgotten Seo Jaewoo yet. Jaewoo wasn’t sure how he felt about that – there was a part of him that was happy, while another part of him was sad for Hyunjin’s sake.
“We just kind of knew each other.”
“Can you tell me more?”
“Why should I?”
Hyunjin’s mouth snapped shut at the firm answer. Jaewoo still wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was. He didn’t know anything about what Hyunjin had been up to since the last time they’d met, so it wasn’t easy for him to decide.
“Please.”
Hyunjin bowed his head.
‘Why are you bowing your head again?’
Jaewoo felt a warmth bubbling up from his heart. Just then, their order was finished. Jaewoo stood up and brought the coffees back to the table, placing Hyunjin’s cup in front of him before starting to drink his own.
The iced coffee seemed to calm him down some.
“W-We were just friends.”
“You were friends? So had you been to his house?”
“Yes.”
Hyunjin swiped his finger through the condensation on the outside of his coffee cup.
“The two of you were really friends?”
“That’s right.”
“Then you must know a lot about Jaewoo.”
There was a touch of longing in Hyunjin’s voice as he asked that. At the sound, Jaewoo’s heart began to pound in his chest. He should feel sad at seeing Hyunjin in pain, so why was he so happy? He was so glad to know that Hyunjin had missed him; that he still tried to remember him, and hadn’t forgotten about him.
Footnotes
할머니 – halmeoni – grandmother. A polite way of addressing an elderly woman.
