By Zephyria 
A warm spring scent blew in. Even though it was early morning, a cozy feeling languidly wrapped around my whole body.
The lush green leaves swayed in the gentle breeze. Winter, which had seemed like it would never end, had completely hidden itself, and the attire of passersby had become much lighter.
“Hi.”
“Yeah, hi.”
I greeted Yi-tae first. He wore a white T-shirt under a blue sweatshirt, making it obvious he had put some effort into his appearance. He usually only wore black hoodies, so why was he dressing up so nicely today? The reason was clear, but I pretended not to know.
Looking at him felt like a visual feast, and I was satisfied.
Yi-tae familiarly handed me an iced Americano. He knew very well that I drank coffee in the morning.
“Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
I habitually expressed my gratitude. When I thought about it, he was helping me out without pay, so it seemed like it shouldn’t be taken for granted. I had finished my work late last night to clear my entire schedule for today. This much was nothing compared to what I had invested.
I had already checked several houses on the app. I didn’t ask how much he could afford, but I chose them based on my rough estimate of what would be possible.
“…You can just take a quick look and go.”
“That’s for me to decide. Do you have any houses you’ve looked up in advance?”
“I do, but…”
Yi-tae’s expression looked quite troubled. He awkwardly took out his phone and rubbed the screen. Judging by his demeanor, it seemed like today would be a difficult journey.
I held out my hand to him. There was no time to waste like this. This was a holiday I had barely managed to arrange, and if it wasn’t today, he would be offering his whole body to the Bedbugs for several more weeks.
“Give it to me.”
He seemed unsure and hesitant. But in the end, he placed his phone in my hand. My head throbbed from the first screen. It seemed like his budget was far short of what I had thought.
It was true that it was a waste to invest too much for just a few months, but if they were all in this condition, he would definitely continue living with the Bedbugs.
I swallowed a sigh. I had a feeling that even if we looked around today, there wouldn’t be a good solution. Well, even the rent in New York would be tight. With him working overtime every day on the project team, there was no way they would properly take care of him.
Even if he received a generous bonus later, it was clear that the company’s support was not great, as Tony had said.
“The place I’m staying now is pretty good if you just avoid the area around the bed.”
Was that even something to say?
When I stared at Yi-tae silently, he seemed embarrassed and rubbed his reddened neck. On his exposed wrist, rashes and hives were clearly visible. It wouldn’t be strange if he scratched himself until he bled.
“Okay… well. Let’s just go to a few places that look decent.”
I looked at the photos as carefully as possible. At best, about two places seemed livable, but that was something I would only know after seeing them. I briefly considered lending him money, but I came to the conclusion that Yi-tae would never accept it. Other methods would probably be the same.
We headed to an apartment building 30 minutes away from the company on foot.
The thought of having to walk every morning because there was no convenient public transportation was just as terrible, but it seemed to be in the best condition among the options. If it was good enough to make up for the distance, we could sign a contract right away.
I slowly walked and felt the sunlight. The slightly bitter coffee scent in my mouth naturally brought a smile to my face. It was on a different level from the caffeine I used to inject to relieve fatigue.
The elated mood made it easy to start a conversation.
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“They gave me a madeleine as a service when I bought coffee, so, yeah.”
It wasn’t enough to say he had a hearty meal, but it was good for Yi-tae. Usually, he just had a cup of coffee.
“They usually don’t give you a service with just two cups of coffee. You must be getting special treatment because you’re handsome.”
I said it with a teasing tone. Yi-tae blushed but didn’t deny it. It seemed like the owner of the store really had said he was giving it to him because he was handsome.
‘Wow, I’m jealous. I’ve never had that happen to me.’
I smiled and put the straw back in my mouth. Imagining Yi-tae being embarrassed and flustered made me wish I could have seen it. He was weaker to compliments than anyone else.
“Stop… teasing me. Did you eat breakfast?”
“Of course, I did.”
As we chatted, we arrived quickly. We arrived about 15 minutes earlier than the agreed time, but fortunately, someone was there. She told us to look around comfortably and went outside.
It was suspicious that the price was cheap compared to the condition of the room. It was very shabby and old, but as far as I knew, it should have cost at least $1,800. No matter how much they only did short-term rentals and the condition wasn’t very good, $900 was an absurd price.
I opened the site and checked the conditions again. In small, light-colored letters, it said, “When sharing a room with two people,” which was ridiculous. In other words, they had arbitrarily divided the price in half.
“…These bastards are scammers.”
Looking at it again, even the current price felt expensive. Honestly, if I added just $100 more, there were many rooms that were much better than this. Looking for an apartment at this price was the biggest mistake.
There was no need to look around any further. I dragged Yi-tae, who still hadn’t come to his senses, outside. The manager, who had seemed so nice, now looked like a toad with greed filling his cheek pouches. Trying to take advantage of a naive guy. Ugh.
“I will report you to the site for false advertising.”
“What is this dried-up monkey saying!”
“I will start recording a video. If you continue to make insulting remarks or use violence, I will submit it to the embassy as is.”
Of course, the embassy wouldn’t be on my side, but they didn’t know the facts.
Actually, I didn’t intend to provoke them like this from the beginning. Even though it was infuriating, I didn’t have the energy to waste on such petty squabbles. But the thought of this clueless idiot getting scammed wherever he went made me feel like my insides were burning.
When I held up the phone camera, the toad clamped his mouth shut as if he had glued his lips together. He wouldn’t let go.
I finally got an apology in a voice as small as a mosquito. The next house we tried to go to was using a similar method. That was common in places where naive foreigners who hadn’t properly adapted yet lived.
It was absurd from the start to think we could find an apartment at this price. It would be more reasonable to look for a room share.
“I’m sorry. I should have looked into it more carefully…”
Yi-tae, completely deflated, lowered his tail as much as possible like a retriever who could only apologize and kept looking at me. I could almost hear his big eyes rolling around.
Honestly, it was Yi-tae’s fault. He knew there was no way it could be this price, but he came with the hope that it might be, and it was a complete waste of time.
“How are you going to survive in this harsh world like this?”
“You’re… I’ll try harder.”
It wasn’t a sin to be naive. I sighed deeply and checked my phone. Room shares were available for around $1,000. Unfortunately, there weren’t many students renting out rooms because the university vacation season was over.
My worries grew. Come to think of it, didn’t I not exchange the money I gave back? Just spend it coolly. There was no reason to hold onto it while sacrificing his body.
“How much money do you have?”
“Should I give it to you? Do you need it?”
He raised his head as if he had caught a break. I could faintly hear the sound of a non-existent tail wagging. His black eyes sparkled with life.
“Yeah, I need it. A lot. In units of hundreds of millions.”
I said, scrolling down the app screen. It was really not easy to schedule something on the same day. Especially with people in Seattle, who were on the relaxed side.
Ah, Michael might have a spare room in his house. Ian was there too, he said… And me too. The rent was expensive for one person to handle. But I felt like he would give me 70 percent of it.
My humming grew longer.
Then, Yi-tae answered without a moment’s hesitation. He acted like he had been waiting for this moment.
“It’s in my Korean account. I can’t send it right away because it’s a lot of money, so please wait a little.”
“Ugh, you’re so frustrating.”
He should use that money. I wanted to punch that handsome but headache-inducing guy.
Anyway, it wouldn’t be easy to find a good room even if we went around more today. Shouldn’t we just find a temporary place to stay for a few days? Like my house.
“…Sorry.”
Apologizing was a habit. If I told him to kneel, he would kneel right away. It wasn’t that his apologies were light. Rather, Yi-tae’s heart must have been immeasurably heavy. But to me, everything was light. Knees, love, and heart.
I gave it away too easily.
Impulses followed one after another. Since it had come to this, we should just go see the cherry blossoms. There were two people with free schedules, so it wouldn’t be lonely.
“Should we just go see the cherry blossoms?”
Yeah. Your worries weren’t long. Even if I changed the schedule without explanation, you always readily accepted. Even if I harmed you.