Sweet Sugar Candyman

#20

Contrary to my worries about becoming an outsider due to the small number of majors and skipping all preliminary meetings, my classmates treated me warmly the next day. When I entered the classroom, I was a bit touched to find that Choi Hyun-oh had saved a seat for me.

“Did you get in well yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

Choi Hyun-oh lightly patted the seat next to him, gesturing for me to sit down. I took off my bag and turned it around to sit next to Choi Hyun-oh.

Unlike the classroom I had been in yesterday, the desks were arranged for two people, so Shin Jiyu and Kim Seo-hee were sitting in front of me. As we exchanged casual greetings and hung our bags on the hooks, Min Iseo happened to walk into the classroom.

She greeted the female classmates sitting in front of me cheerfully and stood next to me with a bright smile.

“Hi, Cheongmyeong. Hi, Hyun-oh.”

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

After a brief exchange of greetings, I thought she would just pass by, but she continued to occupy the space.

“Did you get in well yesterday?”

“Yeah. How about you?”

When I responded to her inquiry, a collective “Oh!” of admiration erupted from those around us. I felt my shoulders shrink at the embarrassing reaction. Not knowing what to do, Choi Hyun-oh, who was next to me, playfully draped his arm over my shoulder and replied.

“We went out for a drink after it ended.”

Min Iseo’s eyes widened in surprise. As her large eyes grew even bigger, her rabbit-like impression became more pronounced.

“You went out to drink again? You must drink really well.”

Choi Hyun-oh, who had been leaning almost against me, burst into an inexplicable laugh. I turned to look at him. His face, full of teasing, was almost touching mine.

“Oh, of course. Cheongmyeong was practically the beer fairy yesterday.”

“You must really like beer. Want to go drink together next time?”

“Sure.”

Since my sociable classmates often made various suggestions, I nodded in agreement.

“Sounds good. Hyung knows a great place for drinks. When should we go?”

But before either Min Iseo or I could respond, the professor entered. Min Iseo whispered, “Let’s talk later,” and quickly headed to the seat her friends had saved.

Since it was still orientation week, attendance was not taken. Even though I didn’t understand the assignments and exams any better after hearing about them again, Choi Hyun-oh poked me in the side as I half-listened.

Choi Hyun-oh, who had opened his notebook without any purpose, began to write on the paper in front of me. His long, flowing handwriting suited him well.

“Did you get in well yesterday?”

My pencil case was in my bag, so I carefully leaned forward to unzip it. Choi Hyun-oh handed me his pen as if to say, “Use this.”

“Yeah.”

After giving a short answer, I returned the pen. Choi Hyun-oh continued to scribble.

“I’m glad you got in well. Your hyung is really scary.”

Hyung? I almost opened my mouth to respond but realized it was class time and expressed it in writing.

“Hyung?”

“Yeah, he was really strict.”

Evaluations of Saheon usually fell into positive categories like “kind,” “handsome,” “playful,” “thoughtful,” “gentle,” and “affectionate.”

While he definitely had an intimidating atmosphere when he was expressionless, it was rare for hyung to have that kind of face unless he was genuinely angry. And hyung wasn’t the type to get angry often. I was dumbfounded by this evaluation I had never heard before in my life.

Seeing my bewilderment, Choi Hyun-oh began to write more neatly than before, as if he was delighted to have someone to share his lament with.

“ㅠㅠ It was scary ㅠㅠ”

“When I answered the phone instead of you, he asked, ‘Who is this?’ in such a scary toneㅠㅠ”

“Even when he was looking down at me in his uniform, he had such a presence ㄷㄷㄷㄷ”

“Almost like a company commander.”

Choi Hyun-oh seemed to have quite good drawing skills. Next to his sentence, he had drawn a crying rabbit emoji, which was very cute. The rabbit was depicted with tears streaming down its face, covering its eyes with its fluffy front paws.

As Choi Hyun-oh handed me the pen, I had to write while trying to hide my dazed expression. Compared to Choi Hyun-oh’s long, flowing handwriting, mine looked like a clump of letters.

“Really?”

“Yeahㅠㅠㅠ After you dropped me off, he told me to drink early and go home -_-^ and I almost bowed my head and apologized.”

It seemed that this incident occurred when I had fallen asleep in Saheon’s car. I wrote to Choi Hyun-oh with half a heart of apology and half a heart wondering why hyung had said that.

“I’m sorry. ㅠ0ㅠ”

Choi Hyun-oh waved his hand as if to say it was okay, but the hand holding the pen kept writing ‘ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ’. I stared blankly at the drawing of a rabbit in a teaching assistant’s hat saluting next to the sentence where Choi Hyun-oh had written ‘company commander.’ It seemed that Choi Hyun-oh really liked rabbits.

***

Since the first week was all orientation, I felt less pressure about classes, and just listening to the course descriptions made me think that college life would be fine, so I gradually felt more at ease.

Moreover, my classmates loved to drink so much that, as hyung said, there were drinking appointments every day. Saheon didn’t interfere with his classmates drinking, but around the time they finished a beer, he would call out of nowhere.

One surprising thing was the accuracy that made me wonder if he was watching from somewhere. If it was a call from home, I could roughly guess, but even during domestic flights—something I didn’t know what it was, but when I asked, they said it was going back and forth between airports in the country—he would time it perfectly, which was quite impressive.

Was it because Saheon had already experienced college life? His skillful knowledge and the way he called made my classmates complain jokingly, but I chose to go home on my own.

Just when I thought my college life would proceed smoothly, it came to a sudden halt. I had brushed off the notoriously difficult French literature major, thinking it would be manageable, but this was not something I could laugh off.

The problematic class was on Friday. After finishing the orientation for the liberal arts class, Choi Hyun-oh’s face was pale. Since there were only the two of us, Choi Hyun-oh and I, taking the class in the first year of the Korean National University of Arts’ French literature department, we had no one else to vent our frustrations to.

As we silently walked down the sloped road, Choi Hyun-oh muttered with a dazed expression.

“…Isn’t it crazy?”

I felt the same way. I tightened my grip on my bag strap and nodded. I could hear Choi Hyun-oh muttering curses next to me.

“It sounds like a dead cat that’s alive… What the hell…”

For someone who had lived their whole life in the humanities, it was too difficult a problem. The trap was in ‘physics,’ and I felt a desperate sense of having been lured in by a cute cat. It seemed that Choi Hyun-oh felt the same way about my sentiments.

“…Cheongmyeong. Are you going to take that class?”

If I continued like this, I would surely get an F, but I couldn’t easily answer. As I remained silent, Choi Hyun-oh scratched his brightly bleached hair and continued.

“If you’re going to take it, I won’t drop it either. Want to change it during the course correction period?”

“Correction period?”

Choi Hyun-oh looked at me with a bewildered expression that matched the one I was making.

“Yeah. Want to change it?”

“Is that even allowed?”

“Did you really not know?”

Choi Hyun-oh made an exaggeratedly surprised expression and playfully tapped my shoulder. I was pushed back weakly. Choi Hyun-oh stepped closer and put his arm around my shoulder.

“Hey, Lee Cheongmyeong. What would you have done without me?”

“Right…”

If Choi Hyun-oh hadn’t been there, I would probably be walking the path of an outsider. Since I agreed with that, I readily gave a positive answer, and Choi Hyun-oh grinned.

“Then should we drop that and look for a new liberal arts class? Ugh, seriously, Yoo Do-jin is such a jerk. I signed up because they said it was a great lecture, but he’s giving us a huge load of crap. Even a friend of ten years is useless.”

Choi Hyun-oh lightly patted my shoulder without hurting me. He naturally released the arm he had around me and kept muttering curses about ‘Yoo Do-jin.’ As I fiddled with my bag strap, I cautiously asked a question.

“But how do you know so well?”

“Me? I’m a fast learner, and I entered at the right age after taking a gap year. If I say it, it’ll sound like a family tree, so I didn’t let it show.”

I let out a sound that was somewhat like a meaningless exclamation. Choi Hyun-oh swung the sports bag he was holding behind him, almost resting it on his back, and continued.

“There’s this guy named Yoo Do-jin. He’s been my friend since elementary school, and he’s also attending here. They said it was a great liberal arts class… Anyway, I’ll find out about other liberal arts classes by shaking this guy down. We can change our courses until next week. Tomorrow is the day after the general meeting, so it might be a bit awkward… Sunday? Want to meet then to change it?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Then you come to my neighborhood. Isn’t there a PC room in Magok?”

“I’m not sure about that… But I’ll keep that in mind. What time should we meet?”

Choi Hyun-oh and I discussed the meeting time as we walked toward the main gate. The essence was clearly about course correction, but as we went on, it turned into what we would do afterward.

The start time for the general meeting was 6 PM, so after our class ended at 11, we found ourselves with an awkward gap of time. Since both Choi Hyun-oh and I lived less than 30 minutes from school, we naturally chose to head home.

As we took the bus back, we engaged in a deep discussion about the dead but alive cat and physics—Choi Hyun-oh’s expression—and before we knew it, we were getting close to our destination.

“See you later. Text me when you’re getting on the bus, and I’ll match it.”

“Okay. Let’s meet at 5.”

“Make sure to save a seat on the bus.”

Choi Hyun-oh got off before me. I had to go one more stop. After getting off at the bus stop I had become familiar with after several trips, I walked up the familiar path and saw the apartment.

Saheon was not home. I thought I heard him rustling around early yesterday morning, so it seemed like he should be back by now, but the house was heavily signaling that no one was home.

After making a quick meal with the available side dishes, I checked the time, but it was still not even 1 PM. With nothing to do, I lounged around watching TV, then went into my room and rolled around on the bed that had been delivered yesterday.

While fiddling with my phone and snacking, I found myself watching TV when I got bored, and before I knew it, time had flown by.

Since it was still before the sun had fully set, it was getting a bit dark outside even though it was only 4 PM. I lay on the bed and looked out the window. The curtains hadn’t been installed yet, so the outside scenery was clearly visible.

Since I had agreed to meet Choi Hyun-oh at 5, I figured I should leave around 4:40 to make it on time. As the time to count down approached, a slight tension made my stomach flutter.

As I absentmindedly rubbed my stomach, I slipped my hand into my hoodie to warm it up and listened to the quiet sounds of the house.

I wondered when hyung would come back. As I recalled how much larger the house felt with one person gone, I suddenly noticed something strange.

Since he had left early yesterday morning, if he returned today after a day’s rest, wouldn’t he usually take a day off? I remembered the conversation I had with hyung when I first came to this house.

On the day of my general meeting, hyung had said he couldn’t come to pick me up because he was flying to Bangkok at night. If he was coming back today, that didn’t make sense. I checked the calendar with a puzzled expression.

“Ah….”

A gloomy sigh escaped me involuntarily. Today was the 8th. It felt like the puzzle pieces that had been slightly misaligned were snapping into place. The problem was that I had told hyung a day later than I had roughly calculated.

I must have misunderstood. As I looked at the calendar on my phone, I slowly lowered my hand. If hyung was coming back today, he would definitely call with worries about drinking late again, so he would probably be home before midnight again today.

As I recalled a not unpleasant sense of restraint, a smile naturally crept onto my lips. Since I was alone in the house, I exaggeratedly let out a sound, “Hehe, ehhe,” and then wondered what I was doing, so I quietly closed my mouth.

Once the embarrassing laughter faded away, silence returned to the house. I lay still on the bed, staring at the newly wallpapered ceiling. It was then that I heard the sound of a password being entered amidst the tranquil silence.

The four-digit password, taken from hyung’s birthday, was pressed in a series of clicks. I shot up from the bed. Just moments ago, I had been thinking about Saheon, and now my heart raced as if I had been caught in the act of stealing.

The door opened silently. Through the half-closed door, I faintly heard the sound of a suitcase rolling in. The sound of high heels clicking against the entrance tiles followed.

I got off the bed to greet hyung. However, the sound of the heels was irregular and overlapping. Just for a moment, I wondered if he had brought a guest, when a strange woman’s voice came from the direction of the entrance.

“Wow, is this the house of the chief secretary?”