By Zephyria 
The Seoyeon High Four Heavenly Kings, Meeting Them Again
“So… you’re high school students?”
I stared at Lee Beom, sitting opposite me, his eyes wide.
Min Si-hu, sitting next to Lee Beom, looked at us triumphantly, as if to say, “See? I told you so.” Lee Beom, looking bewildered as to why we were surprised, nodded reluctantly.
“Yes.”
“19 years old?”
“Yes.”
“Really? I mean, of course it’s real, but…”
“Do I really not look my age? People often mistake me for being older…”
“No, that’s not what I mean…”
I waved my hand, dismissing Lee Beom’s explanation, which was tinged with annoyance.
Lee Beom being a high school student was unbelievable, even seeing it with my own eyes. I quickly exchanged glances with Seong Hae-min. Seong Hae-min’s face also showed a look of perplexity. Only Min Si-hu sat there, looking proud and imposing at this table.
To explain the circumstances of this awkward reunion, we have to go back a few days.
❖ ❖ ❖
It was an ordinary summer afternoon.
I was spending time at a cafe with Min Si-hu and Seong Hae-min. Sitting across from each other at the long table, we were each looking through our own tasks. It was so hot outside that our usual meeting place was indoors with strong air conditioning.
Although we were attending the same university, our departments were different, so we didn’t see each other much even during the semester. Now that it was vacation, we seemed to be seeing each other more often. This summer break, Do Yun-hyeok was away on an extended family trip, leaving him with plenty of free time, so I could go out whenever Min Si-hu or Seong Hae-min called.
As we saw each other often and grew closer, we had become a tighter-knit group in reality than we were in the novel.
“What if…”
While we had drinks placed before us and were looking down at our respective tasks, Min Si-hu suddenly spoke up. He hesitated, tapping his finger on the table.
“What if you met Lee Beom, and he couldn’t speak Korean? What would you do?”
“…”
“…”
There he went again.
Seong Hae-min and I, accustomed to his nonsensical questions, indifferently continued with our own tasks. Seong Hae-min was writing an email to his professor, and I was browsing through a thesis on my tablet.
“What would you do-!”
When there was no answer for a long time, Min Si-hu, refusing to give up, whined. Seong Hae-min, stopping his hand from writing the email, let out a sigh and smiled faintly, as if pacifying a baby, to calm Min Si-hu.
“Si-hu, please say something that makes sense.”
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
“Because it’s impossible, it doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s a hypothetical, like a game, right? What if it could happen?”
The ‘what if’ game was Min Si-hu’s favorite. Although called a game, it was closer to a thought experiment. The method was simple: pose a question starting with ‘what if’ and let the imagination run wild.
The problem was that neither I nor Seong Hae-min, the subjects of Min Si-hu’s games, were interested in such hypothetical play.
“What would you do? You run into Lee Beom somewhere on a trip. You greet him, and Lee Beom doesn’t know Korean.”
“You’d talk in English.”
Finally, Seong Hae-min shook his head and provided an answer.
“Oh, are you confident in your English?”
“It’s not about confidence. It’s necessary, so I’d use it.”
Seeing things like this, Seong Hae-min was more accommodating to Min Si-hu than I was. The years they had spent together since middle school were not insignificant.
“But. What if Lee Beom doesn’t know English?”
“Do you have to think that far?”
Min Si-hu tilted his chin, as if asking if this was his first time playing a ‘what if’ game. Seong Hae-min clicked his tongue.
“What would I do? I’d find out what language it is and use a translator.”
“But what if there’s no time to use a translator?”
“…Why on earth?”
“You’re traveling with a guide. What if the guide walks away while you’re using the translator? They leave without you.”
“Is this a game or an argument…?”
Seong Hae-min sighed deeply at Min Si-hu’s extreme example. Seeing Seong Hae-min shake his head, Min Si-hu turned to me.
“Hae-jun, what about you? What would you do?”
“I wouldn’t go on a package tour.”
“Huh?”
Min Si-hu, hearing my answer, wore a momentarily stunned expression. Seong Hae-min’s cheeks twitched.
“Why a package tour all of a sudden?”
“I’d want to travel independently.”
“What are you talking about?”
Min Si-hu, looking bewildered, turned to Seong Hae-min as if seeking help. Seong Hae-min, trying to suppress his laughter, just shrugged. Unable to get help, Min Si-hu asked me again.
“Why did a package tour come up?”
“I refuted your premise. The guide wouldn’t have a reason to rush me.”
“No, that…”
Min Si-hu, who had been using his hands and feet to explain, finally gave up and let his arms drop. Seong Hae-min, unable to hold back his laughter any longer, burst into a loud guffaw. Min Si-hu touched his forehead with a serious expression.
“Is it my fault for trying to have a conversation with people who can’t imagine anything?”
“It’s not that we can’t imagine. It’s that you’re saying such absurd things, so Hae-jun responded that way. Try to make a more realistic assumption.”
“It’s not a realistic game in the first place, Seong Hae-min-“
“Still, it should be something that’s at least somewhat possible.”
“Compared to getting possessed by a novel, this is completely possible, isn’t it?”
Min Si-hu threw a straw wrapper as if complaining. The trash, which seemed to be flying towards Seong Hae-min, lost its momentum midway and fell onto the table with a soft thud, posing no threat.
“Is this a pout?”
“Ah, damn it!”
Leaning back against the chair, I watched the two of them bicker. It was like a sitcom.
I stirred my drink with the straw. The ice clinking against the glass made a playful sound. The smooth brown drink swirled and mixed with the snow-white milk. Watching the two in front of me, I took a sip of my drink.
The cool, sweet, yet slightly bitter and smooth drink filled my mouth. A cold latte was indeed perfect for summer. Although the cold air conditioning kept the heat at bay, the outside, which was scorching in the summer, was being hit by fierce sunlight.
Seong Hae-min and Min Si-hu.
In the novel, the two of them met after joining the Iljinhoe, but in reality, they had been close friends since elementary school.
They graduated from the same middle school, and Min Si-hu went to an arts high school, while Seong Hae-min went to a general humanities high school. However, their friendship continued even while attending different schools. They eventually went to the same university, so their relationship spanned at least six years by count.
They were as comfortable with each other as they were with their own bodies. Perhaps there was a reason why they seemed to get along so well in the novel.
“Si-hu, go get me a napkin.”
“Why are you naturally ordering me around?”
“I’ll buy you cake.”
“Seong Hae-min, do I look like an easy guy who’s swayed by cake?”
“If you don’t want it, then don’t.”
“I’m going right now.”
Min Si-hu hopping up and Seong Hae-min accepting it like a caregiver – it was the usual combination.
If it were as familiar to me as usual, Lee Beom, who would greet me with a gruff, “You’re here,” and Jeon Jae-hyung, who would be fast asleep, should have been added…
The events in the novel sometimes felt like a distant past, but at other times, they felt as vivid as yesterday. Even while hanging out boisterously with Min Si-hu and Seong Hae-min, Lee Beom or Jeon Jae-hyung would suddenly come to mind.
“Hae-jun, do you want anything?”
“I’m good. I’m having dinner later, so…”
“Seong Hae-jun always says that, but he ends up eating the most.”
Seong Hae-min, waving his hand at Min Si-hu, who was giving him a suspicious look, told him to buy whatever he wanted and turned back to his laptop to finish the email he was sending earlier.
But that was short-lived. Unable to resist Min Si-hu’s excited calls from the counter, Seong Hae-min eventually got up from his seat.
Watching the back of the guy who was supposed to run an errand for Min Si-hu but ended up going along, I took a sip of my drink.
“Ugh.”
Then, feeling the bland taste, I checked my glass. I didn’t know when I had drunk so much; the glass was now almost empty. I licked my lips and pushed the glass away.
As two people stood up, the surroundings became quiet. I temporarily put down the tablet I was holding tightly and took a breath, looking out the window.
The sun was long because it was summer. Outside, it was bright and sunny, making it impossible to gauge the time.
I absently watched people passing by, wiping away the water droplets on the glass with my finger.
‘Ah.’
Then, I suddenly realized I was rudely scrutinizing the faces of the passersby and slowly turned my gaze away.
The melted ice, now round, formed a thin layer of water on the latte, which was becoming transparent. I stirred it with my straw, quickly mixing it. The glass containing the latte now looked like murky water.
Staring intently at passing people was a habit I had developed without realizing it.
I hadn’t known I had this obsessive habit until a few days ago when my mother asked why I was looking around so much. I realized I had developed a bad habit of staring intently at every person who passed by.
At the same time, I also figured out the reason for this habit.
I was searching, hoping against hope.
Hoping that I might run into them by chance, just like I had met Seong Hae-min and Min Si-hu…