By Zephyria 
Inside the shop, where people sat in groups of three or four here and there, one person stood out exceptionally. While everyone else wore thin long-sleeved clothes, this person alone wore a short-sleeved shirt; while everyone else sat holding chopsticks or glasses, this person would sit for only a moment before busily moving back and forth through the shop.
However, even if everyone had been wearing the exact same clothes and sitting perfectly still in a row, Jang Ui-geon would likely have been able to distinguish Seo Chi-young just by looking at the back of his head.
It was similar to how Seo Chi-young would turn his head the moment Jang Ui-geon lifted the plastic curtain to enter the shop, his face showing he knew exactly who had arrived just by the sound of the footsteps. Whether he realized it or not, every time Jang Ui-geon saw the welcoming smile that naturally spread across his eyes and lips the moment he saw him, Jang Ui-geon felt that he had successfully completed his day’s routine.
But today was a little different.
Seo Chi-young was already smiling. Wearing the casual smile he only showed to those close to him, he was sharing a conversation with the person sitting across from him—who had their back turned to Jang Ui-geon. Jang Ui-geon’s gaze immediately shifted to the person in front of him, but that back of the head was one Jang Ui-geon had no way of identifying.
However, since there were very few people Seo Chi-young treated with such comfort, it wasn’t hard to guess the owner of that unremarkable back of the head. Jang Ui-geon let his smile fade for a moment and stared expressionlessly at the back of the head, but the moment his eyes met Seo Chi-young’s as the latter noticed him approaching, he naturally smiled again.
“I’m here. You have a lot of customers today.”
“Ui-geon, you’re here. Here, sit over there on the side.”
The seat in front of the cooking counter, where Jang Ui-geon usually sat, was already occupied by that back of the head. Following Seo Chi-young’s gesture toward the empty seat right next to it, the back of the head turned to look at Jang Ui-geon.
As expected, it was Kim Kyung-chul. Seo Chi-young’s high school classmate. In other words, he was also Jang Ui-geon’s high school classmate, but since he didn’t remember him, he was simply a stranger.
“Uh… hey… long time no…”
Seeing Jang Ui-geon, Kim Kyung-chul offered a greeting with a somewhat awkward look. The fact that very faint honorifics like ‘see you’ or ‘it has been’ were attached to the end of his words was because Kim Kyung-chul also knew that while they were classmates, their relationship was essentially that of strangers. Jang Ui-geon responded with a polite, non-committal smile.
“Yes, it’s been a long time. Have you been doing well?” he replied, friendly yet drawing a polite line.
In truth, though he didn’t show it, Jang Ui-geon didn’t particularly like Kim Kyung-chul. He was unnecessarily close to Seo Chi-young.
“Aren’t you cold? I know summer is almost here, but it’s still chilly at night.”
“Ah… I’m okay. I’ve been by the fire the whole time.”
When Jang Ui-geon asked, gesturing with his chin toward his exposed arms, Seo Chi-young gave a sheepish smile and shook his head. It was the kind of weather where short sleeves were fine during the day, but one had to layer up at night. Jang Ui-geon knew that Seo Chi-young would occasionally rub his forearms as if feeling a chill while sitting idle, but he didn’t say anything. He knew that even if he offered his jacket, Seo Chi-young would never wear it.
“By the way, were you in the middle of an interesting story? You looked like you were in a good mood as I walked in.”
When Jang Ui-geon asked, casting his gaze over both Seo Chi-young and Kim Kyung-chul, Seo Chi-young gave a faint smile and mumbled, “No, it’s just…” trailing off.
“There’s no way he looked good… Ah, well, I guess it was just funny because it was so absurd.”
Kim Kyung-chul suddenly spoke up, wrinkling the bridge of his nose as if displeased. Jang Ui-geon didn’t like this man, but he was curious about what they had been discussing, so he asked, “Why?” as if encouraging him to continue.
“I mean, we were talking about how there are seriously so many nuisances in this world. Soooo many. My deputy manager is exactly like that. Right when we’re so busy we’re about to die, he starts screaming and jumping around for half a day because there was an ordering mistake, completely draining my soul. Then later, it turns out he was the one who messed up, so he actually says, ‘I made the mistake, but you tried to step in and fix it, so isn’t that why there was a misunderstanding? Why do you keep interfering in other people’s business?’ Ugh, so frustrating!”
Perhaps getting angry again while telling the story, Kim Kyung-chul thumped his chest and downed his beer glass in one shot. He had said he quit drinking because of the baby, but it seemed that was a false rumor. Or perhaps he had given up on holding the baby today.
“Ah, I see, that’s too much,” Jang Ui-geon nodded, offering appropriate reactions. They had been talking about nuisances—a topic that never wears out no matter how much you chew on it.
While no one goes through life without encountering a nuisance, those in business inevitably meet one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of them. Jang Ui-geon had plenty to say on the subject, but since business and nuisances were inseparable, he was no longer bothered by most of them.
Regardless of whether the man had suffered at the hands of a nuisance, Jang Ui-geon responded half-heartedly, “That must have been hard,” while thinking to himself that nuisances were just a common part of daily life and it was a waste of energy to dwell on them.
“That’s why I’m telling you, Chi-young, don’t be too nice to those kinds of nuisances! That’s why they keep coming to you!!”
…However, if the one experiencing the nuisance was Seo Chi-young, it was a different story. The moment Kim Kyung-chul shouted at Seo Chi-young, who had been silently stir-frying the tripe while listening, Jang Ui-geon’s eyes sharpened.
“Chi-young, did a nuisance come to the shop?”
Seeing Jang Ui-geon’s expression turn serious with a furrowed brow, Seo Chi-young looked flustered and trailed off, “Uh, well…”
“I wouldn’t go as far as calling them a nuisance, they’re just a bit unique…”
“From what I saw, they were exactly a nuisance!”
“No, but they seem to be of a certain age…”
“Does being old make a nuisance not a nuisance? Haven’t you heard that once a nuisance, always a nuisance? You just have to cut a nuisance off decisively, that’s the only way!”
“Still, they’re someone who comes by often lately…”
“What’s the point of keeping a nuisance as a regular!”
Jang Ui-geon, unable to watch any longer, joined in with the last remark.
Jang Ui-geon spoke with complete seriousness, arguing that there are other customers to keep as regulars and that he shouldn’t try to accept a nuisance as one. Facing this, Seo Chi-young blinked awkwardly. Seeing Kim Kyung-chul and Jang Ui-geon in perfect agreement, nodding vigorously beside him, Seo Chi-young muttered, “Still, they’re a customer, so I shouldn’t treat them poorly,” and the two men looked at him with eyes full of frustration.
Knowing that while Seo Chi-young was generally gentle, there were times when he stubbornly refused to listen to anyone, Jang Ui-geon glanced at Kim Kyung-chul, thinking that this man must have suffered quite a bit of stress while knowing him for a long time. Kim Kyung-chul, glancing back at Jang Ui-geon, was undoubtedly thinking the same thing.
When you run a business dealing with people, you encounter many demanding customers.
Especially in the food business. When you sell food that is often accompanied by alcohol, there are quite a few people who go beyond being demanding and are truly nuisances. In fact, there are times when it feels like you’re not earning money for selling tripe, but rather earning money as a fee for being cursed at by nuisances.
‘If it’s my father, who has spent his whole life in business, a piece of a sarira would probably pop out of his throat just from sneezing.’
Recalling something Jang Ui-geon had said with a laugh once, Seo Chi-young thought that he had it quite easy by comparison. There were many people who got angry and picked fights, quite a few who flipped tables, and a considerable number who made absurd complaints just to get free drinks, but he had rarely met a nuisance so severe that sarira would accumulate in his body. (When he said this, Jang Ui-geon had advised him with a serious face, ‘That’s exactly what we call a nuisance, Chi-young.’)
If they got angry and picked a fight, he could just humble himself; if they flipped a table, he could just clean it up; if they made complaints, he could just sigh once and forget about it. So, for most people, there was nothing to be deterred or uncomfortable about, but…
“The perilla seed powder tastes a bit different today. Did you change the supplier for the perilla seed powder? Where did you change it to?”
Occasionally, there were people who walked the thin line of being a nuisance. It was awkward to know how to deal with such people, and a man who had been visiting often lately was just like that.
“Where do you get your ingredients? Do you prep them yourself? To what extent are they prepped when they arrive? The perilla leaves are so fresh, it’s as if you grew them yourself. Do you make the seasoning, CEO? Does your wife do it? What, you’re not married yet? Well, you’re still young, right? It’s admirable for someone so young. How old are you? What, already?! You use XXX for the alcohol. That company’s CEO is a mess; you absolutely shouldn’t sell their stuff. Let’s see, for a place this size, how much is the monthly rent?”
The man talked a lot. And every single thing he asked was subtly difficult to answer readily. Whenever Seo Chi-young gave a hesitant answer with an ambiguous smile, the man would always find a way to nitpick. He’d say things like, ‘Then the cost of the medicinal broth will be higher,’ ‘You should think about the cost-to-price ratio,’ ‘If you get any later, it’ll be hard to get married,’ ‘The company should at least maintain some ethics,’ ‘With that rent for this location, the landlord is a thief’…
Perhaps Seo Chi-young had been blinking and staring at him with wide eyes, because after a barrage of words, the man waved his hand as if to say not to find him suspicious, saying, “Ah, I used to be in the food business too.” It was actually more suspicious that someone who had been in the food business would ask such things, but Seo Chi-young just smiled.
“I have a hubae I know well who has a very discerning palate. He told me this place was delicious, so I stopped by on my way. Hmm, it’s decent, decent. From my taste, the gamey flavor has been removed a bit too much, but still, it’s quite decent. Hmm, hmm.”
The man hummed to himself, sipping soju, in a tone that was unclear whether he was talking to himself or not. Seeing as he kept his mouth shut whenever a customer called from across the room and Seo Chi-young left his side, it didn’t seem like he was talking to himself.
“Isn’t that friend of mine coming today?”
“You know, the friend who sat here and glared at me like this,” the man said, gesturing. Hearing this, Seo Chi-young immediately realized, ‘Ah, it’s Kyung-chul.’ It seemed the man had noticed Kim Kyung-chul, who happened to be in that seat when the man visited previously, staring at him in disbelief while listening to his endless stream of talk.
“That friend, he’s a friend of yours, right, CEO? A very close friend, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?”
When Seo Chi-young asked with a smile, the man suddenly pulled back his chin and bragged, “I’m quite good at reading people.”
Claiming that you can tell by looking at someone if you open your heart to them, and that age isn’t earned for nothing, the man was already starting to show a few white hairs, just as he said. He looked to be about ten to fifteen years older than Seo Chi-young.
“Want me to tell you something good? Shin Kang-ho and Ra Jin are dating. They pretend not to, but it’s obvious if you just look. The way they look at each other and their attitude.”
Seo Chi-young knew the two names the man whispered. They were celebrities who appeared on television often. However, he had never heard that the two were dating. To Seo Chi-young, who nodded seriously, asking, “Is that so?” without realizing it, the man continued his rambling.
“But they’ll break up in less than three months. They don’t seem like a good match. I think Shin Kang-ho would live better with someone easygoing like Kim Yu-mi.”
Seo Chi-young, nodding absentmindedly, cautiously asked the man.
“Do you do something like reading faces for a living?”
“No, I told you I was in the food business—I’ve quit now—but because I’ve dealt with so many people, I can tell things like personality just by looking. I’ve rarely been wrong.”
“I see. It must be nice since you can get along well with people.”
He thought that if one had an eye for people, they could blend in well with them while clashing and breaking less. However, the moment Seo Chi-young spoke with a smile, the expression suddenly vanished from the man’s face. With a face that instantly turned gloomy, the man muttered, “Well, there’s a reason they say a monk cannot shave his own head…” and then fell into a depressed silence, pouring soju heavily into his water glass.
“Uh… um… are you okay?”
Seo Chi-young was flustered seeing the man suddenly pouring alcohol in silence. He searched his mind to see if he had made a slip of the tongue.
“CEO, you’re still young, so you don’t know. People are a disaster.”
The man took a long swig of alcohol and let out a sigh that seemed to shake the earth. Before he knew it, the man had completely dropped the honorifics.
“Do you have siblings, CEO?”
“Pardon? No, I’m an only child.”
“I’m one of four. I’m the second of three sons and one daughter.”
“That must be nice. I grew up alone, so I’ve always been envious of friends who have siblings.”
However, Seo Chi-young, who had been speaking with a smile, had to stop mid-sentence, wondering if he had made another mistake. This was because the man’s expression became even more distorted.
“Family is only something to be envious of if you have a good one; if you have the wrong family, there’s nothing more miserable. If they’re strangers, you can just cut them off, but you can’t even do that with family. I’m exactly like that. The people who are my siblings are all just desperate to stir up trouble for me. It might be inevitable since everyone’s life is hard, but still, wrong is wrong.”
The man poured out his words, drinking alcohol like water.
In the meantime, customers left one by one and the shop became quiet, so Seo Chi-young had no choice but to sit in front of him and act as a conversation partner. Even as a conversation partner, it was mostly the man talking and Seo Chi-young listening, but fortunately, that was Seo Chi-young’s specialty. The man was now detailing the hardships of his life.
“I used to be in the food business, but I closed down a while ago. The economy is really bad these days. I barely paid off my debts and lived just to keep my head above water, then I thought I couldn’t do it anymore and that I should do something else, so I closed it. So now I’m worrying about what I should do for a living…”
So that’s why he asked so many things. Seo Chi-young finally understood why the man had asked such peculiar things in detail, to the point of being called a nuisance. If Kim Kyung-chul or Jang Ui-geon heard this, they would say, ‘Doesn’t that just mean he was digging for business secrets to see if he could use them somehow?’ but still, Seo Chi-young felt sorry for the man. He looked quite decent, with neat clothes, a clean appearance, and table manners that seemed naturally ingrained, but as expected, one cannot know a person by their appearance alone.
Seo Chi-young also had days that were that difficult. Days in the not-so-distant past where he wondered what to do, how to make a living, and barely survived while struggling to pay off debts.
Seo Chi-young knew the hopelessness of those days, where no matter how sincerely one worked, the results didn’t always follow. He knew the exhausted body and the weary heart.
Seo Chi-young listened quietly to the man’s words.
“And my older brother constantly pestered me for money, saying he wanted to start a business, and my younger brother ran away from home because he hated it and hasn’t been heard from since, and my younger sister brought home some lowlife she liked and got married, and since they’re struggling to make a living, she dumps her child at my house every single day and goes out to earn money.”
Finally, the soju bottle was empty. The man tilted the bottle with a look of regret, wetting his lips with the last few drops of alcohol. Moreover, as he continued his grievances, mentioning his father, his voice was beginning to be affected by the alcohol.
“He’s already seventy, and at that age, he’s frail with minor illnesses, yet he still goes out to work because he has to make a living, and my mother, while helping my father, realized that wasn’t enough and started going around as a loan shark with the small amount of money she’d saved. Because of all this, I haven’t been able to save any money or get married at my age…”
Looking at the man who sighed as if the earth were collapsing, Seo Chi-young didn’t know what to say. He just sat silently in front of the man, watching him, before hesitantly speaking.
“Things will get better little by little. If you just spend each day doing what you have to do, things tend to improve without you noticing. You’ll get better too. Really. You’ll meet good people…”
The man tilted his head and looked at Seo Chi-young.
“Did you meet someone like that, CEO?”
“Pardon? Uh… yes.”
Seo Chi-young blinked at the unexpected question, answering in a shrinking voice and lowering his head as it flushed. It wasn’t as if he was giving an unusual answer, but the back of his neck felt hot for no reason.
“What kind of person? How did you meet?”
“That… it’s someone I liked a long time ago, and we met again after several years. It just happened…”
“A reunion with an old flame, huh. Are they pretty? Usually, when people reunite with an old love after getting older, they’re disappointed, but I guess they’re still pretty?”
Seo Chi-young just smiled awkwardly for a while before answering softly.
“Yes, they were exactly the same as before.”
He had recognized them at a glance. Even buried among other people, they were still sparkling, even after ten odd years.
“Are they kind?”
“Yes.”
“Do they treat the CEO well?”
“Yes. They treat me really well.”
“How well?”
The man asked with a grin, finding it amusing that Seo Chi-young answered diligently despite his flushed face.
How well.
Beyond measure.
“…They treat me better than I deserve. I have nothing to give but my heart, but that person gives me everything. That’s why…”
He was grateful, and at times, even felt sorry. At the same time, he became anxious. He worried that because he received so much, the other person might eventually find it burdensome. That mustn’t happen.
“Who asked to date first?”
“Pardon? …I was the one who confessed first…”
Thinking back, they hadn’t followed a textbook sequence like ‘Please date me’ and ‘Yes.’ While there were small incidents in between, they had naturally become lovers at some point.
“Do you like the CEO more?”
“Yes.”
The man clicked his tongue while staring intently at Seo Chi-young, who once again answered readily without a second thought.
“The CEO is too gentle, so you have to be careful…”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, you seem like the type who would give up your liver and gallbladder for someone you love, so you shouldn’t give your heart away so recklessly; you have to be careful.”
“Uh… I’m not like that.”
If anything, he felt sorry because he received far more. As Seo Chi-young scratched the back of his neck and smiled shyly, the man looked as if to say ‘As if you aren’t,’ but simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Bring them along next time. I’ll see what kind of guy they are. I’m incredibly good at reading people.”
The man beat his chest boastfully, and Seo Chi-young nodded moderately with a smile, saying “Yes,” while unconsciously checking the clock. It was ten o’clock. It was about time for Jang Ui-geon to close up his shop. If it were a normal day, he would arrive in about an hour.
Just then, two or three people entered and shouted, “One order of gopchang here, please. And two bottles of soju.” As Seo Chi-young stopped the conversation and stood up, the man also checked his watch and seemed ready to leave.
“CEO, let me pay…”
The man, fumbling in his coat to take out his wallet, stopped mid-sentence. Looking inside the wallet, he blinked, his face appearing somewhat troubled. Watching him glance at Seo Chi-young and fumble through his wallet again in a flustered manner, Seo Chi-young caught on.
Come to think of it, the man had mentioned that his situation was quite difficult. He said life was hard, he had recently lost his job, and his family was also struggling.
“Um, CEO… I just realized that I, uh, don’t have any cash. I… only have checks…”
“Then you can pay me next time.”
“Really? Is that okay?”
The man immediately looked relieved and quickly tucked his wallet back into his coat. Seo Chi-young nodded, thinking it was a relief that Kim Kyung-chul wasn’t here. If he had been, Kim Kyung-chul would have grabbed either the man or Seo Chi-young. He would have told them to pay instead of thinking about credit, or asked what on earth he was trusting to give out credit so easily.
But everyone has hard times. Isn’t it good to have at least one place to breathe? Although Seo Chi-young’s own circumstances weren’t well enough to give credit comfortably, he felt he could manage this much.
He decided he shouldn’t tell Jang Ui-geon about the credit. Seo Chi-young, who always told Jang Ui-geon everything that happened during the day when he visited at night, thought this as he waved goodbye to the man who thanked him for the meal and walked away.
“Did he come again today? Nothing happened?”
At the mention that the ‘nuisance’ Kim Kyung-chul had spoken of—though Seo Chi-young described him as a ‘customer’—had returned, Jang Ui-geon raised an eyebrow while taking off his suit jacket.
“Yes, he just ate and left quickly.”
“Is that so? You didn’t hear any harsh words, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Seo Chi-young waved his hand in denial as he handed a cup of barley tea to Jang Ui-geon, who sat in the usual spot in front of the counter. “That’s a relief then,” Jang Ui-geon muttered, sounding reassured, and Seo Chi-young watched him silently as he poured the tea.
He truly is a person who is too good for him. Seo Chi-young thought back to the conversation he had with the man. How well Jang Ui-geon treated him, how much of his heart he gave.
Jang Ui-geon, who had been silently meeting Seo Chi-young’s gaze while drinking the barley tea, quietly set down the cup.
“Did something happen?”
“Pardon?”
“Tell me. Don’t keep it all to yourself.”
Even now, he was quietly observing, sensing that Seo Chi-young’s mood was slightly different from usual. Seo Chi-young quietly shook his head.
“Nothing happened.”
“Chi-young-ssi.”
“Really. I just… I was thinking that Ui-geon-ssi is far too good of a person to me.”
After saying it, he felt shy and felt his earlobes grow hot, but Seo Chi-young steadfastly looked at him. Jang Ui-geon made a somewhat strange face.
“Me? To you? Why did you suddenly think that?”
“Just, while talking with that customer, the topic of good people came up. So…”
Watching Seo Chi-young’s bashful face as he mumbled hesitantly, Jang Ui-geon laughed as if it were absurd. A hint of shyness also lingered on his face.
“It’s not that I’m ‘too much’ for you… but why did that topic come up? Did that customer brag about their lover?”
“Ah. No, it came up while I was telling him that he’d meet someone good soon. He mentioned that he’s still single.”
“Ah. I see. I figured there was no way Chi-young-ssi would have brought up a lover first…”
Jang Ui-geon nodded as if convinced, and for a brief moment, the smile seemed to vanish from his face.
“So that means an unmarried man is clinging to Chi-young-ssi.”
He smiled casually as usual, acting as if it were a joke, but for some reason, his eyes didn’t look very kind. Seo Chi-young blinked at him, then shook his head with a faint smile.
“No. Clinging is a bit much… I think he just comes to have a few drinks because things aren’t going well for him lately.”
“He seems to be struggling a lot,” Seo Chi-young said, and Jang Ui-geon stared at him intently. Looking at Seo Chi-young for a long time with a face that seemed to have something he wanted to say, Jang Ui-geon let out a short, meaningless sigh at the man meeting his gaze with a puzzled look.
“Call me immediately if anything happens. …Don’t worry about my shop’s business hours; any time is fine.”
As he spoke, Jang Ui-geon seemed to recall Seo Chi-young’s personality and added the last part as if nailing it down. Only after drawing a clear “Yes” from the hesitating Seo Chi-young did he nod with satisfaction.
“Were you very busy today too? You look tired.”
When Seo Chi-young changed the subject, Jang Ui-geon, who was rubbing his eyelids as if they were dry, laughed like a sigh and said, “I was busy.” Jang Ui-geon’s shop seemed to be prospering by the day. As word of mouth spread, not only the evening hours, which were always full, but even lunchtimes had reached a point where it was difficult to get a seat on the day of without a reservation.
“I think I might need to expand, but for now, I’ll watch the situation. My money is tied up, so it’s a bit wasteful to pull it out right now…”
Although he tended to be bold, Jang Ui-geon was not one to overextend himself; if he was talking about expansion, the space must be quite lacking. It was good that the business was thriving, but Seo Chi-young felt concerned that he seemed just as tired.
Perhaps because of that thought, Seo Chi-young looked at him, thinking he had lost some weight recently. Then, looking around the quiet shop as it grew late, he hesitantly spoke.
“Um, would it be okay if I touched your hand for a moment?”
Jang Ui-geon paused with the water glass in his hand. He stared at Seo Chi-young, who looked incredibly bashful for some reason, then smiled and held out his hand, saying, “By all means.” Seo Chi-young gently took the hand and began to massage it, pressing firmly.
“I heard that massaging the hands or feet relieves fatigue.”
Watching Seo Chi-young mutter quietly with smiling eyes, Jang Ui-geon spoke as if something had suddenly occurred to him.
“Come to think of it, wasn’t there a saying like that before? Telling a woman you’re interested in that you’ll read her palm just to touch her hand.”
“Oh, was there? Haha, I guess that could be the case. …No, um, I didn’t do this on purpose to touch your hand…”
Responding with a laugh, Seo Chi-young realized a beat late what Jang Ui-geon was implying and immediately flushed, flustered. Yet, his hands did not stop massaging firmly, and Jang Ui-geon laughed.
“Touching the hand is one thing, but what should I do if I want to be touched?”
“Pardon? If you want to be touched… uh…”
“I can just say I’m tired.”
“…You can just tell me…”
Seo Chi-young muttered softly. Even though they could hold hands anytime, and it was far too late to be shy about it now, for some reason, his earlobes felt hot. He felt as if the color would have changed if he looked in a mirror. Then, Jang Ui-geon quietly clenched his fist, and Seo Chi-young ended up being the one whose hand was held.
It couldn’t be helped. Even though it was just this, he felt unnecessarily shy. Seo Chi-young looked down at his held hand and lowered his head.
“Chi-young-ssi. How can you be like this over something like this?”
“Pardon?”
Jang Ui-geon laughed like a sigh and shook his head. “No,” he said, squeezing Seo Chi-young’s hand once in his own, and then spoke.
“You said massaging the hands or feet relieves fatigue, right? Fine, then I’ll massage your feet.”
“Look over here,” Jang Ui-geon said, standing up readily and moving the chair around the counter to Seo Chi-young’s side.
“No, you don’t have to, I’m really okay—”
Without paying any attention to Seo Chi-young’s words as he waved his hands in panic, Jang Ui-geon grabbed Seo Chi-young’s ankle, lifted it, and slipped off his shoe. He pulled off the sock along with it.
“I think you’re more tired than I am,” Seo Chi-young mumbled in a troubled tone, shrinking his foot back, but Jang Ui-geon gave the sole of his foot a light slap. “Stay still.” As he held it firmly, Seo Chi-young finally became obedient.
“You touched my hand so much, so can’t I touch Chi-young-ssi’s foot a bit?”
“No, it’s not that I can’t, but it’s dirty…”
“You mean you hate it being touched by dirty hands?”
“No, that’s not it…”
Seo Chi-young eventually shut his mouth and quietly entrusted his foot. Even though he knew he could never win against this man in words—no, not just words, but in anything—it always ended up like this.
Jang Ui-geon glanced at Seo Chi-young, chuckled, and slowly massaged his foot. The touch, moving steadily from the ankle to the calf, was generous and warm. Resting his ankle on Jang Ui-geon’s thigh and staring at his touch, Seo Chi-young unconsciously murmured.
“When I was young, I used to massage my father’s or mother’s legs sometimes. Especially my mother, whose legs would swell easily, so she’d say her legs hurt every night. Then I would, and sometimes my father would, massage her legs.”
Jang Ui-geon looked up while massaging the calf.
“They must be in more pain now that they’re older, but I can’t do that for them anymore.”
Jang Ui-geon looked at Seo Chi-young. He looked at the shop, where one or two tables were still occupied, then returned his gaze to Seo Chi-young and reached out to gently pat Seo Chi-young’s head.
“Shall we go down this weekend?”
At the suggestion of going to where his parents were, Seo Chi-young blinked at him.
“With you, Ui-geon-ssi?”
“Then who else would I go with?”
“Uh… I’ll just go by myself. You should visit your home after a long time too, Ui-geon-ssi.”
Jang Ui-geon watched Seo Chi-young, who looked flustered and shook his head, for a while before readily nodding and stepping back.
“Alright then. I should do some filial duty after a long time too.”
“Serve your parents while they are still alive,” he said, intentionally drawing out the phrase, and Seo Chi-young laughed.
“I think you’re very good to your family, Ui-geon-ssi. Your sibling told me before. That your family all like you very much.”
“Haha, did Ui-yoon say that? It’s not just me; the whole family gets along well. When we were young, we whined to our parents, were stubborn, and fought bloodily with our siblings, but once we grew up, it became like that. We’re all busy these days so it’s a bit infrequent, but we contact each other often.”
Affection for his family was overflowing from his voice. Seo Chi-young unconsciously felt envious. He was even envious of the part about bickering and fighting as children. Having grown up alone, he had never experienced that.
As a child, he had been so envious of friends with siblings, and as he grew and life became busy, he had forgotten that envy for a long time, but occasionally, it would suddenly resurface like this.
However, Seo Chi-young did not dwell on the envy for long. Everyone is given different things. Therefore, this was something to be happy about. There are countless forms of families in the world, and how fortunate and joyful it was that the man who wished for him to be happier than anyone else had grown up exchanging abundant affection.
Yes, even that customer who had just visited seemed to be suffering a lot because of his family. There must be many such people in the world.
Seo Chi-young smiled softly, looking at Jang Ui-geon, who was sincerely massaging his leg. Then, the moment Jang Ui-geon’s hand moved from the calf to the foot, he flinched and shrank his foot back. Meeting the puzzled gaze of Jang Ui-geon, he mumbled hesitantly.
“It… it tickles.”
“This much? Ah, Chi-young-ssi is quite sensitive.”
At the casual remark, which seemed to accept the fact immediately, Seo Chi-young fell silent. He knew perfectly well that it wasn’t meant in that way, but he remembered how Jang Ui-geon had laughed in bed not long ago, asking, ‘Why are you so sensitive?’ As the situation from then also came to mind and his earlobes grew hot again, Jang Ui-geon looked at him curiously, and then seemed to realize belatedly what the problem was. He looked a bit flustered.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that… …Did I just sexually harass you?”
Jang Ui-geon spoke with a hint of playfulness, adding, “Actually, this afternoon, a twenty-year-old female part-timer came dressed so thinly that I said, ‘Isn’t it still cold to walk around with your legs exposed without stockings?’ and she snapped at me, saying an older man shouldn’t say such things recklessly or he’d be suspected of sexual harassment.” He intentionally slumped his shoulders. Watching Jang Ui-geon sigh as if making an excuse, saying, “I was truly just worried about the kid,” Seo Chi-young couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ah… I know what you mean. Not long ago, a woman came wearing a very short skirt, and when she sat in the chair, it looked like too much was exposed. Since there were many male customers nearby, I brought her an apron. I told her to put it on her lap, and so…”
“She looked at me a bit strangely,” Seo Chi-young mumbled awkwardly, and Jang Ui-geon nodded.
As they laughed, the tension eased. Seo Chi-young gazed at Jang Ui-geon, who was massaging his foot, and his eyes landed on the crown of his head, where a whorl was visible. Jang Ui-geon still often pushed his head toward Seo Chi-young, insisting, ‘I must have gotten white hairs from the stress of the shop lately, so hurry up and find them,’ but no white hairs could be found. The whorl drawing a small spiral on his head was somehow cute, so Seo Chi-young unconsciously poked the whorl and drew a circle following the direction of the spiral.
Then, Jang Ui-geon seemed to flinch at the nape of his neck for a moment. The gaze he cast up at Seo Chi-young was somewhat peculiar, so Seo Chi-young blinked back at him. Jang Ui-geon stared at Seo Chi-young and then smiled with a slightly troubled face.
“Chi-young-ssi, I’m also a sensitive person.”
“Pardon?”
“You shouldn’t sexually harass me.”
“Pardon? …Uh, no, I didn’t mean to… I’m sorr—”