By Zephyria 
To arrive at the office smoothly, it’s best to be in the car by 8:30. A few days ago, driven by some unknown impulse, I left without the car, but taking public transportation in the weather that had started to get hot was something I couldn’t do twice. I was lucky I could get a ride in Yi-ho’s car on the way back.
Min-gyu finished getting ready to leave before 8:00 today as well. Dressed in attire that would be perfectly acceptable for heading straight to the office, he stepped out carrying a recycling bag. Then, he looked at the firmly closed door of the house next door.
He seems really busy lately.
While waiting for the elevator, Min-gyu kept his gaze fixed on Unit 1802, and then, as he had done on some previous days, he rustled the recycling plastic in front of the door of Unit 1802. Rustle, rustle…
Suddenly, a loud clatter erupted from the silent Unit 1802, and the door swung open. Song Yi-ho, with bedhead and a toothbrush in his mouth, looked at the recycling bag and drooped his eyebrows, pretending to be pitiful.
“Cha Min-gyu…”
He’s not usually like this; he really must be exhausted lately.
Then again, he had hardly seen a day recently where Yi-ho didn’t work overtime.
“I’ll give you three minutes. Hurry.”
“Yep!”
Yi-ho quickly ducked back inside. A moment later, he politely held out a full trash bag with both hands.
If he’d been on an overtime rush, this wouldn’t be all there was to throw away. Above all, there would be far more recyclables from delivery food than general waste.
Since I’m offering to throw it out, bring more, you punk. As Min-gyu stared at him with that intent, Song Yi-ho—who couldn’t spit out the toothbrush and thus kept his mouth tightly shut—simply blinked. Those dead-fish eyes, which usually only reflected the light of a monitor, looked better now that they had regained some vitality from being at home.
“…”
Then, his gaze slowly drifted away.
Hmm?
Come to think of it, why does he seem to avoid eye contact lately whenever our eyes meet?
Since when did he start doing this?
Before Min-gyu could find an answer, Yi-ho rubbed his hands together in front of Min-gyu and gave a big thumbs-up. It seemed to mean “I’m counting on you.” Then, he slipped back inside the house.
Min-gyu boarded the elevator that had returned to the 18th floor. His own reflection in the mirror looked quite cold.
Yi-ho isn’t someone born with social skills. Even at his age, he was very shy and not particularly eloquent. That’s why he spent more energy than others when dealing with people, and Min-gyu knew that when all that energy was drained by work, he became noticeably quieter than usual.
It seems this time he’s struggling so much that even a friend is no exception. Min-gyu shook off a small prickle of disappointment with a laugh.
After throwing away the trash from Yi-ho’s house and finishing the recycling, he opened a grocery delivery app, thinking about what to cook for dinner after a long time to give some vitality to the withered “Song-i mushroom.”
∗ ∗ ∗
“Team Leader Song, aren’t you leaving for the day?”
Since he wasn’t checking KakaoTalk or the company messenger, I had no choice but to come and ask in person. Yi-ho kept his head fixed toward the monitor and only looked up with his eyes. Because he happened to have a bright blue screen up, it created a rather eerie look even on Song Yi-ho’s gentle face.
“Yes.”
In KakaoTalk terms, this would be a simple ‘k’.
“You’re busy. Take it easy.”
“I would if I could.”
The two of them had originally intended to just pretend they didn’t know each other at the office. The reason that morphed into a rumor that they were arch-enemies was half Min-gyu’s fault for teasing him for no reason, and half Yi-ho’s fault for treating Min-gyu with a casual, blunt indifference.
Since their intimacy, which others didn’t know about, was expressed in this way, there were certainly parts that people would naturally misunderstand. Even now, several wide-eyed gazes were directed their way. The word would spread once more that Team Leader Song and Team Leader Cha were fighting tediously again today.
“If you’ve left work, please just go.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll stop bothering you. Hang in there.”
Seeing that most of the development team members were still seated today, it seemed there was work that had to be finished before the weekend.
Returning to the apartment alone, he found a grocery box sitting solitary in front of his door. Since he had ordered thinking of food for two men, it was quite heavy. The worry about how to process the ingredients, which hadn’t occurred to him when he was blindly adding them to the cart in the morning, hit him late. Wondering if he should feed the guy who would probably come home starving… he looked toward Unit 2, and a sound came from inside.
“…?”
Thinking he had misheard, he stopped, and then there was another sign of presence.
Min-gyu had clearly seen Yi-ho with his soul being sucked out by a monitor at the office before leaving. So why was there a sound coming from Yi-ho’s place?
As if to prove he hadn’t misheard, the sound inside the house grew louder. Thump, thump. It was a very suspicious sound of something being hit.
Song Yi-ho, did he possibly leave the door unlocked this morning? He did look completely out of it from exhaustion…
Setting down the grocery box, Min-gyu cautiously approached the house next door. The suspicious sound continued even until he stood in front of it.
Holding his phone with 112 dialed in one hand, Min-gyu grabbed the door lock. Beep. As the sound echoed, the noise from inside also stopped. As soon as he quickly entered the password, he flung the door open.
“Uh… uh…?”
There, he locked eyes with Yi-ho’s mother, who was shaking out a blanket in the entryway.
“Ah, Mother…”
“Min-gyu…?”
The mother looked extremely surprised that someone other than her son had burst through the door. Min-gyu was equally flustered, but he skillfully put on a smile.
“I’m sorry. Mother, I definitely saw Yi-ho sitting at his desk before I left the office. But I heard a noise inside the house, so I got startled and opened the door. I was stupid not to think of you.”
“I-is that so. I heard Yi-ho has been working a lot of overtime, so I stopped by for a bit because I thought the house would be a mess…”
“He does seem very busy lately.”
“That’s right. Every time I call, he says he’s working overtime every day.”
“It’s all because Yi-ho is so capable. He’s suffering because he can do things that team leaders older than him can’t.”
“…Sigh… that’s not entirely a good thing. He’s been good at everything since he was young, so he’s always being called upon…”
Once the praise for her son came out, the mother’s tension fortunately eased. The frozen atmosphere dissolved softly.
“Min-gyu, come inside for a moment. I actually made some rice cakes for you.”
“Really? What’s the occasion?”
“I get bored just staying at home, so I made some with the ingredients I had. It’s not much.”
Despite that, the amount piled on the dining table was extraordinary. It was enough for Yi-ho’s development team to have a rice cake party. The mother split the amount in half and pointed, saying, “You can take this much.” She seemed determined not to accept any refusal.
“Thank you. Actually, I feel bad for taking them every time, and then Min-jung keeps stealing Yi-ho’s rice cakes when he comes over…”
“He’ll just give them up readily, so why feel bad. Do you think I don’t know that Yi-ho doesn’t eat rice cakes? I just fill the freezer before I leave so that he doesn’t just serve a glass of water when guests come. The boy is smart, but he has no tact.”
He had just heard a scathing critique of his friend, but she was an opponent who was very difficult to take Yi-ho’s side against.
“Mother, can I have one of these now? It looks delicious.”
“You haven’t had dinner? Hurry and eat. Why don’t you boys, who earn such good money, take care of your meals?”
Min-gyu considered tattling on the reality of his friend, who had barely been eating lately, but decided to let it slide this once. He also planned to keep a sharp eye on feeding him starting tomorrow.
“Sit and eat.”
The mother pulled out the chair in front of Min-gyu and sat down first.
“Min-gyu.”
“Yes.”
“By any chance, is there a young lady Yi-ho is interested in at work?”
Min-gyu thought for a moment, chewing the rice cake slowly. Contrary to the mother’s question, he felt he had occasionally witnessed employees who were interested in Yi-ho. But the opposite case… he suspected that the person Song Yi-ho liked most at the office was probably the coffee machine that dispensed infinite coffee and the ice water purifier.
Above all, it was an answer that required caution for the sake of his friend.
“I’m not sure. Yi-ho is the type who doesn’t see his surroundings once he’s immersed in work, Mother.”
“Sigh, so he’s still like that there. If he marries late, it’ll be hard to see grandchildren. He should move to a larger house than this and prepare to get married.”
Looking at the mother shaking her head, his lips opened unconsciously.
“…I don’t know. Does he really have to? Yi-ho is an adult, so he’ll handle it on his own; just leave him be.”
“Ah, do you two not talk about these things?”
Min-gyu’s eyes widened as he snapped back to his senses. It was a reaction that came from unconsciously imagining Song Yi-ho moving to a house other than the one next to his.
“Actually, it’s a bit of a waste for Yi-ho to get married right now. Like I said, he’s much better than the other team leaders, so the executive evaluations are really great. It’s a good time for him to look into changing jobs with a significant pay raise…”
It was true that Department Head Gye bullied Yi-ho exceptionally, but in Min-gyu’s eyes, the intention of wanting to bring him into his own line and hovering around him at all times was obvious. Of course, the party concerned had no idea, and likely never would.
Even regardless of the interest in the opposite sex that the mother mentioned, Song Yi-ho had a personality that easily gained the favor of others, and his professional achievements were high. In that regard, there were quite a few men who had a profound interest in him. From Department Head Gye to someone who was the youngest in the development team or something.
“…Anyway, Yi-ho is popular, so don’t worry. He’s not too late.”
He continued to ramble, but he had no idea why on earth he was saying these things. Only the eloquence honed in the marketing team covered his confused interior and flowed out smoothly.
Come to think of it, the last time the mother visited and asked about Min-gyu’s love life, Yi-ho had blocked her like this.
He wondered if Song Yi-ho had felt similarly to how he felt now. Well, if he found a good woman and said he wanted to marry, he would congratulate him… but there was no reason to push him to scramble for a marriage partner just because the timing was right. Because living like this now was quite fun.
After talking for about ten more minutes, the mother, realizing there was no chance Yi-ho would come home, stood up.
“Mother, I’ll take you home.”
“I’d feel bad taking your car when my own son is like this. It’s fine. You should go home and rest.”
Behind the mother waiting for the elevator, Min-gyu was tapping on his phone. Then, he boarded the arriving elevator with her.
“Are you seeing me off?”
“Yes. Ah, Mother. I’ve called a taxi.”
“Huh?”
“I know you’d feel burdened by a ride, so please make sure to take this.”
“Oh my, when did you manage to call one. I feel bad.”
When they reached the apartment entrance, the taxi was already there waiting. Min-gyu went to the taxi first and requested the driver to go inside the complex and stop in front of the entrance of Building 104. Then, he opened the back door for the mother.
“I’ve already paid, so you can just get out at your home. I’ll really enjoy the rice cakes, Mother.”
“Alright, you go in too, Min-gyu. If you have time, take care of Yi-ho. Okay? Ah, make sure to take the rice cakes from Yi-ho’s house.”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
The moment the door closed, the taxi driver’s voice was heard: “You’ve got a great son-in-law. He treats his mother-in-law so well.” Because the door had closed, he couldn’t hear the answer, but he saw the mother waving her hand in denial.
Cha Min-gyu still had no particular thought of marriage. With busy work popping up periodically and the fact that he sometimes had to take care of his younger sister, he didn’t even think about dating. This was because he found the process of fitting life patterns and values together like a puzzle to be tedious.
That’s why the existence of Yi-ho, who knew him inside and out, was even more precious. After being called a son-in-law by the taxi driver, the thought suddenly hit him that if Song Yi-ho had been a woman, he might have wanted to marry him. Since he could never let him go, he might have held onto him quite desperately around the age of twenty-eight or twenty-nine…
“Crazy bastard. What kind of weird thoughts are these about a friend?”
If Yi-ho, who had been acting strangely hesitant in front of him lately, found out about these thoughts, he might run far away. Min-gyu shook the nonsense out of his head.