By Zephyria 
The existence that should have been buried deep in the land of the past was suddenly unearthed, leaving Eun-ha beyond bewildered, utterly dumbfounded. Baek Ju-hee. Even though he had lived forgetting her, rolling the name around still felt familiar. Placing Baek Yeon-jun, who had similarly become familiar before he knew it, right next to her, Eun-ha experienced a strange sensation the moment the two names, placed side by side, appeared to be intertwined as a pair, instantly transforming into something very foreign.
How… how could that be…? He felt his sense of reality disappearing by the second. It was a bewildering coincidence.
“……I didn’t know. That Baek Ju-hee was from your family.”
“Yeah. Turns out. Did I not mention it?”
“You didn’t.”
“Well… I haven’t known for long either. Maybe the year before last. I went to see some performance, and the person playing the piano was her.”
He had been half-sure, but after the performance, he went to give a bouquet to an acquaintance and saw her nearby, confirming it, he explained.
He had occasionally gone to Baek Ju-hee’s house to hang out. So he vaguely knew she was well-off, and there must have been family photos or something in that house, but he had never gathered information about her parents or family. They hadn’t shared such stories. That was the age they were. Even if they had, he would have quickly forgotten.
Still, he should have heard about it at least once in his life, so why hadn’t he known until now? The following explanation made it clear. She seemed to have stayed abroad for a long time, studying abroad in high school and college. She was the kid who played the piano.
“You met her in that academy building, right?”
“……I did.”
“When your Parents were making you run around to every academy they could find.”
That was a time when that was happening a lot. A time when Mom, and Father too, both had desires for Eun-ha.
The piano academy that Baek Ju-hee attended was on the floor right below the English academy he attended. That’s how they first met. Since both he and Baek Ju-hee were in the position of being shuttled around to academies, they didn’t have many days when they met up separately to do something. He only saw her at that academy. Or they would briefly stop by each other’s houses to kill time before going to the academy.
Since their houses were close, they always went to and from the academy together, and a scene from one day when they passed through the park on that road vaguely came to mind.
He also suddenly remembered that once, to skip academy and hang out together, she had asked her Unni to call the academy pretending to be her Mom. So did they hang out then, or what…
Right. He vaguely remembered that Baek Ju-hee had older female siblings.
About her younger sibling…
He didn’t know. His head ached from the sudden realization. She was just a stranger who was no longer relevant, but even though only that one name remained like an old photo in an album, a strange discomfort remained. She was already a difficult person in herself, but the fact that she was connected to his past added an extra twinge of guilt.
The fact that she was someone’s ‘sister’ was like that. He felt like he had become a very shameless person…
“Anyway, you slept with her.”
“…….”
“Your conscience is, fucking……”
“I didn’t answer.”
“I’ve never touched a twenty-year-old either.”
“Did you come here to pick a fight? Seriously.”
“Wow…, then we were twelve when you were twenty. Eight when you and Baek Ju-hee were dating?”
The attacks were endless. His will to torment him was extremely malicious. Of course, this level of criticism was routine, so Eun-ha simply received it indifferently and returned the favor.
“Yeah. You just haven’t done that one thing, right.”
“What do you mean.”
“What… how many were there back then? Four? Five…? Disgusting.”
“So what? I’m confident, though?”
They slowly moved their feet while doing this labor exchange. As soon as Eun-ha arrived home, he collapsed onto the living room sofa. Perhaps it was because too many things had happened in one day. His brain was complaining of fatigue, as if it were overloaded. He slumped down, pressing hard on his throbbing temples.
Meanwhile, Gu Hae-bin drank a glass of water. He put the cup in the sink bowl and opened the refrigerator door as naturally as if it were his own home. Then, as if he expected it, he frowned deeply.
“It’s empty again. What are you even eating to live……”
Is he even eating anything to live… He grumbled as if he wanted him to hear. Then, he found the snack basket, which was full, on the island table and pointed out, ‘How can the refrigerator be full of only a few rotting bananas, but you pile up snacks like this?’
Eun-ha remained silent, pretending not to hear. Whenever he stopped by the house, he would nag like that. Eun-ha listened quietly as Gu Hae-bin didn’t miss any traces of laziness and idleness in every corner of the house, starting with the refrigerator, and when he was about to say something unpleasant about the piles of boxes he had impulsively bought and left in the living room, he couldn’t stand it and said.
“Ah, stop nagging… Are you my Mom?”
“Lately, I’ve been getting orders from your mother at every chance for the past few years, so I feel like I’ve become a similar role.”
“……”
He shut his mouth. When he said that, he had nothing more to say. Since some time ago, Gu Hae-bin had been acting as an informant. It started when Mom, who became anxious when Eun-ha, who had left home, didn’t answer her calls, started contacting Gu Hae-bin instead, once, twice.
At first, Mom only reluctantly made requests when there was an important matter and Eun-ha was unresponsive, but she gradually increased the frequency and eventually regarded communicating through Gu Hae-bin as a routine.
Now, Mom didn’t contact Eun-ha often. There were times when she would call several times a day, but now she barely contacted him once a month. She often skipped the person in question and asked Gu Hae-bin. She would ask how he was doing, ask him to take him out somewhere, and even convey matchmaking proposals through Gu Hae-bin.
When Mom’s burdensome calls stopped, he felt a little relieved on the one hand, but instead, Eun-ha had to bear the discomfort of burdening his friend with unnecessary trouble. That point may have acted advantageously like a weakness to Mom, but even Mom herself wouldn’t have been very comfortable. If he had to pick the person who would be the least comfortable in this uncomfortable relationship, it would naturally be Gu Hae-bin, who was caught between the mother and son.
Ironically, Gu Hae-bin’s own will was a big part of why this troublesome exchange continued without interruption. In fact, if he had shown even a little bit that he didn’t like it, if he had shown any sign of discomfort, this would not have become such a full-fledged routine.
But he didn’t complain. He did even annoying things without complaint, and sometimes he would even contact Mom first and say, ‘He’s living like this these days,’ adding a word or two. As if he was trying to keep the connection with his Parents from being severed.
He had never taken credit for it, but he couldn’t not know his inner thoughts. It was a thoughtful and grateful intention, but it might be a somewhat unusual role to handle as a friend.
But Gu Hae-bin didn’t refuse the trouble. He was originally the type to take good care of the people around him, but he was a busy guy who was called out and running around everywhere, but for Eun-ha, it was especially excessive. Even in the midst of that busyness, he didn’t stop interfering, questioning, and paying attention.
It wasn’t like that from the beginning, and there were a few incidents that acted as catalysts in the middle.
Incidents. Suddenly, some afterimages flashed through his mind. Eun-ha stared blankly at the ceiling. He let Gu Hae-bin’s speech listing the harms of impulsive spending flow through his ears, and suddenly, feeling a wave of fatigue, he opened his mouth.
“Okay, what do you want to say, so……”
Gu Hae-bin didn’t answer the words he had said as if to avoid responsibility. Instead, he felt a glance back. Eun-ha was still dimly looking at the ceiling. Some time passed in that state.