Midday Guest Chapter 39

The footsteps following behind were strangely buoyant.

That day, the next day, and the day after that, he fell asleep with Cha Seokjoo in the across room.

Cha Seokjoo, who claimed he never wore clothes when sleeping, had at some point forbidden Yiwon from wearing them as well. The training shorts he had politely dressed in on the first day had long since been shoved into a corner of the room.

At night, they slept with their bare skin pressed together, and in the morning, they woke up to work. Then, when midday arrived and the summer heat made work impossible, they invariably intertwined their bodies in the across room.

He didn’t notice the rainy season ending, nor did he realize the tropical nights had arrived. Since he spent his daylight hours diligently using his body both indoors and out, by the time the moon showed its face, he would often find himself nodding off and falling backward into sleep.

Yesterday and today, he fell asleep as if he had fainted.

After drifting through the pitch-black night for a while, Yiwon was drawn awake by a whisper tickling his ear.

—…The male penguins, having gone out to forage, search for their nests. The path back through the fierce winds and blizzards remains treacherous, but…

He lay there with his eyes closed, feeling the texture of the blanket against his bare skin, the quiet whir of the new fan, and the scent of Cha Seokjoo drifting on the breeze. The calm narration and the cries of animals intersected, and the sound that had been humming so softly it was almost inaudible grew gradually clearer.

—…The male penguin finally finds his family. Recognizing the mother and baby penguin, the father penguin calls out to confirm one another…

A documentary was playing on the TV. Animal Kingdom was one of Yiwon’s favorite programs. There were many days when he would lose track of time while blankly watching stories about animals living in the ocean, jungle, or savannah.

“When are you planning to get up?”

“……”

“Are you going to keep staying like that?”

“…How did you know I was awake?”

“Your breathing sounds different when you’re sleeping, when you’re just resting, and when we’re fucking.”

It was only a long moment after hearing those words that he remembered he was completely naked. He merely lifted his head to look down and bit his lower lip hard. His entire body, which had been sucked and licked until it felt chewed and torn, was covered in teeth marks and hickeys.

His face heated up at the vivid traces of their lovemaking. Yiwon slunk onto his stomach and cast his gaze toward Cha Seokjoo. The man was nonchalantly withdrawing the arm he had lent Yiwon as a pillow.

Cha Seokjoo leaned his body far over to roll a distant remote into his grasp.

“This was nothing short of an audiovisual torture chamber, really.”

News, dramas, and variety channels passed by in place of the penguins.

“…Were you watching that because of me?”

“You were sleeping glued to my side, and the remote had rolled way over there.”

“How long did I sleep?”

“About two hours.”

“…Ah, you should have woken me up.”

“It’s fine. The TV was boring, but your face was interesting.”

Cha Seokjoo, answering casually, pressed a button on the remote. The few available channels quickly made a full circle and returned to where they started. There wasn’t much anyway. Setting the remote on the floor, he asked.

“Are you going to sleep more?”

“No, I’m done sleeping. I have things I planned to do.”

Yiwon put on the clothes that had fallen nearby and stood up.

“What are you going to do?”

“Laundry for the blankets.”

“Want me to help?”

“I’d be grateful if you did.”

From the floor mats to the thin summer blankets, he rolled them all into one bundle and cradled them. He also gathered two additional sets of bedding that had been pushed aside and rendered unusable during the night.

He put the thin ones in the washing machine and placed the floor mats into a large rubber basin. While he was turning on the faucet to fill it with water, Cha Seokjoo approached and poured in detergent. It was an amount sufficient for at least five loads of blankets.

“Ah, wait…!”

“What.”

In the blink of an eye, most of the detergent disappeared and bubbles surged up. Cha Seokjoo must have sensed something was off as well, because he laughed while flicking a bubble away with his finger.

“Was that a bit much?”

“A lot.”

Then, he stepped into the rubber basin with Cha Seokjoo and stomped on the blankets. After their soapy, slippery toes brushed against each other several times, they finally faced each other from opposite sides, grabbed the blankets now yielding clear water, and twisted them to wring them out.

He hung the blankets on the clothesline and secured them with pins. Drip, drop. While the water droplets fell, the cozy scent of detergent wafted through the air. Right on time, the washing machine chimed, and he took out all the thin blankets to hang them as well. By then, Cha Seokjoo’s brow was furrowed so severely it couldn’t get any narrower.

Sitting on the wooden veranda, Cha Seokjoo tilted his head all the way back. After catching his breath in that position for a while, he spoke.

“This is labor exploitation.”

“Thank you. I finished quickly thanks to you.”

“And I’m about to pass out.”

Whispering lowly, Cha Seokjoo pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He looked like he was about to put one in his mouth, but then he put it back and turned his eyes to Yiwon.

“Is there no guest welfare?”

After thinking it over for a moment, Yiwon looked at Cha Seokjoo.

“Would you like some ice cream?”

“Bring it here. Before this old man dies of low blood sugar.”

Yiwon rummaged through the fridge and brought out ice cream. Since there was one Candy Bar and one Nougat Bar left, he held one in each hand.

“Which one would you like?”

“Give me whatever.”

Yiwon handed him the Nougat Bar and sat down beside Cha Seokjoo. A fan was whirring behind them, and a fairly cool breeze circulated under the shade.

“How does it taste?”

“It’s edible. With a touch of nostalgia.”

Having said that, Cha Seokjoo lay down using Yiwon’s thigh as a pillow.

“You stay like this for a while, too.”

After throwing those words out, Cha Seokjoo inhaled the ice cream in a flash and fell right asleep. It was fascinating how he could fall asleep so quickly.

A sudden gust of wind brought a familiar scent. The scent unique to Cha Seokjoo, which could previously only be smelled in the across room, had now permeated every corner of Haeundang.

Yiwon looked down at Cha Seokjoo sleeping on his lap.

Today, finally, he could freely look at the face that he usually couldn’t even properly observe while being swept away by the man.

The long sweep of his eyes beneath thick lashes, the high bridge of his nose, and his handsomely closed lips. And the jawline that tapered smoothly.

In the quiet, stifling summer afternoon, he gazed endlessly at that cool face that looked as if heat could never reach it. The rhythmically rising and falling breath was seeping into his entire body.

Suddenly, he felt his empty heart being filled with something.

At the moment he encountered an unfamiliar emotion that felt as though it could never be refilled if emptied, Yiwon quietly lowered his eyes. It felt as if he were holding all the world’s summer in his chest.

The sunlight poured dazzlingly over the sleeping Cha Seokjoo’s eyes. Yiwon unclenched his tight fist and used his hand to create a shade over Cha Seokjoo’s eyes.

It was the moment he came to consider why Cha Seokjoo had been watching a documentary that wasn’t even his style for two whole hours.

☼

“Uh-uh, that right side is low. Raise it more!”

“Like this?”

“Dammit, it went up too high this time. Pull the left side more!”

“…Th-then about this much?”

“Good lord, I’m dying of frustration. Can’t you see the text is tilted? Are your eyes crooked?!”

Oh Taesik beat his chest while looking at the employee hanging from the utility pole. Ma Haeyoung, who was beside him, tried to soothe him and made the request again in a calm voice, but the result was the same.

“Do it again! We have to send a photo to the Chairman, and if we send it like that, we’ll all end up hitting our heads on the floor.”

“Yes, sir!”

“If you understand, lower the right a tiny bit. No, I said just a tiny bit!”

While Oh Taesik and Ma Haeyoung made various requests, the banner brought from the head office made a flapping sound as it fluttered in the wind.

[Candidate No. 1 | Cheongun Construction] A new future for Yonggung-ri Cheongun Construction will surely create it.

A schedule had been set to select a redevelopment developer for Yonggung-ri. It was for this reason that Cha Seokjoo’s employees had set up an office in an empty building in downtown Yonggung-ri and were holding the office opening ceremony today.

Yiwon, who was invited to the noon opening ceremony, arrived at the office an hour earlier than scheduled. Glittery party garlands starting from the building’s roof stretched to the building across the way, and balloon dolls were dancing on both sides of the entrance leading up to the office.

Standing before them, Yiwon cautiously spoke to Oh Taesik.

“Mister, hello.”

“Oh, Little Boss? Why are you here so early? It’s a long time before the food truck arrives.”

“I came to see if there was anything I could help with.”

“Gosh, the words are appreciated, but how could we put an invited guest to work…”

Stopping there, Oh Taesik snapped his head around to look at Yiwon.

“Hold on. You’ll help?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really intend to help?”

“Of course. Just tell me what to do.”

After thinking for a moment, Oh Taesik said with a serious expression.

“Little Boss, do you know how to climb trees?”

“Trees?”

“Yeah. We have to hang the banner before the opening ceremony, and it’s driving me crazy. We can’t get the balance right, so we’ve been doing this crap since the crack of dawn. Now the sun is rising and I’m dying of heat.”

“…Ah.”

People were hanging from the utility poles located on both sides of the two-lane road. They were trying to balance the banner by raising and lowering the strings attached to its corners, but it didn’t seem easy at all. Shouts broke out, accusing one guy of doing it on purpose.