Place to Be Chapter 15

“Even if hyung-nim hadn’t told me, it would have reached my ears anyway. I heard you’ve been looking around this neighborhood too.”

“What, do words get to you just because I take a look around this neighborhood?”

“If there’s a person walking around with over a billion won, word gets out. But what kind of shop are you planning to open?”

“A duck restaurant.”

“Duck?”

Kwon Kanghee made a face of surprise at Jang Wigeon, who answered briefly with a smile. Yoon Junyoung, who had been tilting his glass in silence, also looked at Jang Wigeon with a similar expression.

“Is it imported this time too?”

“No, I’m going for my own brand this time. My father suddenly dumped it on me, so I’m looking into things here and there, but well, I’ll have to see how it goes. The preparations are going reasonably well. There are no problems elsewhere, but there’s one farm I picked out because I thought it was good, but they rejected me saying they don’t have enough supply to open a new trade, so I’m debating about that.”

“If it’s a farm, you mean a duck farm? There must be plenty of other places.”

“The ducks at that farm are pretty.”

“A rice cake that looks good is good to eat too,” Jang Wigeon laughed.

Seo Chiyoung blinked while listening to the stories that reached his ears even though he wasn’t trying to listen.

I see. He had heard words in the context of him quitting the company in passing. Since he was often seen during the day on weekdays, Seo Chiyoung had vaguely thought he was resting leisurely.

Jang Wigeon was living his life doing what he had to do. Moreover, although it was just a simple feeling without evidence, if it was a task Jang Wigeon took on, even if he spoke loosely like that, it would surely be flawless. Seo Chiyoung had also heard of the farm he mentioned. Back when he used to go to the slaughter market himself, there was a person among the dealers he encountered several times who mainly handled poultry, and he had heard it from that person. That farm is the most reliable and has the best quality, though the supply is small.

He had told Seo Chiyoung to contact him if he ever wanted to change his line of business, but Seo Chiyoung had forgotten about it because he was too busy just digging into the work he was already doing.

Seeing him recite the name of a place that only those in the know aware of because they do business little by little through word of mouth without expanding the scale, Seo Chiyoung thought that Jang Wigeon must be preparing flawlessly in other aspects as well.

“Right, if there’s anything I can help with, let me know.”

“Haha, sure, I’ll count on you. Then first, I need to go to my hyung’s shop and act like a nuisance once, so send me about three or four people.”

“With just three or four people, it’ll be tough to handle even just Uimin hyung-nim alone.”

Seo Chiyoung watched them laughing and sharing trivial jokes with a somewhat strange feeling. It felt amazing that they were sharing everyday stories in front of him. Back in high school, they seemed like people from a different world somehow, so they had never sat side by side in such a close spot.

Seo Chiyoung ends up staring at them blankly before he knows it.

At that moment, his eyes met Yoon Junyoung’s, who was just picking up his glass. Without knowing how long he had been watching, their eyes met at some point. Seo Chiyoung felt needlessly embarrassed and ended up standing up in spite of himself.

“Uh… would you like anything else?”

However, the food, as well as the liquor bottles placed before them, were still reasonably full. Yoon Junyoung stared at Seo Chiyoung while fiddling with his glass for a moment, then shook his head silently. In front of him as he dropped his gaze back to his glass, Seo Chiyoung also sits back down slowly.

Yoon Junyoung was particularly quiet today. As if he were drinking instead of speaking, the amount he drank was more than usual. There were times like this in the past too.

Right, it’s like that when Kwon Kanghee is together with him. Whenever he was in the same spot as Kwon Kanghee, Yoon Junyoung’s words decreased noticeably. Kwon Kanghee also didn’t particularly strike up a conversation with Yoon Junyoung. The way they shared a few words here and there while mixed in the flow of the story didn’t seem much different, but it was mostly Jang Wigeon who led the conversation between them.

An air that seemed perfectly fine yet creaked subtly.

“…”

Seo Chiyoung suddenly recalled the time when Kwon Kanghee came recently. It was around the end of last month.

At first glance, it seemed like a mistake, but it was clearly intentional. Kwon Kanghee, who was receiving the cup Yoon Junyoung was handing over, frowned momentarily when Yoon Junyoung’s fingertips touched him and withdrew his hand. Rather than being on purpose, he probably winced instinctively for a second, but at the very least, it wasn’t a simple mistake of his hand slipping. The glass hit the table, rolled, fell to the floor, and shattered into pieces, and the liquor that had filled the glass splashed, soaking Yoon Junyoung’s hand and clothes thoroughly.

Yoon Junyoung’s face stiffened at once. That subtle and short silence was soon smoothed over like a joke by Jang Wigeon saying, “Kanghee, how much have you drunk that you’re already getting hand tremors like an old man?” but Yoon Junyoung, who had been silent for a moment, left the seat with a stiff face, saying he would go wash his hands.

Even though it was glossed over as if it were a mistake, Jang Wigeon knew it wasn’t a mistake—Seo Chiyoung, who was just sitting there keeping the seat in front of them, knew it, so there was no way Jang Wigeon didn’t know. Also the others—, Jang Wigeon muttered lowly as Yoon Junyoung’s figure disappeared from sight.

“Don’t be like that too much. That guy, even if he’s pretending to be fine, his inside is a mess.”

“…I don’t know what’s in that heart, so you who knows can be the one to treat him well.”

Jang Wigeon glanced at Kwon Kanghee, who spoke bluntly as usual. His face, which seemed to distort for a moment, changed into a face smiling bitterly as if saying, “If I could do that, I would have,” and that expression is painfully etched into Seo Chiyoung’s retina.

“I have no intention of forcing anything on a guy who says he hates it, but keep it moderate. Seeing you keep doing that makes even my personality get twisted. I keep thinking, wouldn’t it be easier to get my hands on a person who is struggling? Should I just jump in without caring about the means and methods? Those kinds of thoughts keep coming up and it’s painful for me too, you know.”

At Jang Wigeon’s words muttered slowly like a subtle warning, Kwon Kanghee didn’t even change his expression or give a response. As if he had no intention of mentioning that matter anymore, Jang Wigeon told Seo Chiyoung, who was silently clearing the broken cup, “I’m sorry,” with a smile and stood up from his seat.

“Well, but I’ll take Kanghee’s advice to heart and at least I should treat that guy well, since he must be feeling depressed alone. I’ll go check on him for a moment.”

After Jang Wigeon waved his hand lightly and walked toward the restroom, in the quiet silence, Seo Chiyoung picked up the large pieces of the cup first and then swept the spot with a broom. Kwon Kanghee, lost in thought while fiddling with his soju glass, came into the corner of his vision. At the same time Jang Wigeon disappeared from view, his gaze, which had frozen terrifyingly cold, was sinking darkly. However, soon with a face so calm it was as if it had never happened, Kwon Kanghee emptied his glass, and not long after, a subtle air lingered very briefly between him and the two who returned from the restroom, but soon other topics followed smoothly as if nothing had happened.

“…”

Perhaps it’s similar even now.

Sitting in front of them who seemed no different than usual, Seo Chiyoung stared at them blankly. The subtle air lingering faintly even while they shared stories comfortably with smiles.

How was it during high school?

At that time, he had never seen them from such a close spot. And only Jang Wigeon always entered Seo Chiyoung’s vision. So how they were remains only as a vague memory.

“…”

Then suddenly his eyes meet Jang Wigeon’s, who was emptying his glass. Seo Chiyoung, who had been watching them absentmindedly, only came to his senses and his eyes twitched after seeing Jang Wigeon staring at him. A smile appears in Jang Wigeon’s eyes.

“Why?”

“No… it’s just that the three of you seem close.”

When Seo Chiyoung mumbled and glossed it over, Jang Wigeon said “Ah,” and laughed.

“We’ve been friends since we were young. These two only got to know each other through me after entering middle school. Both of them should say thank you to me. …Well, they were the types of guys who would have gotten to know each other anyway even if I weren’t in the middle.”

When Jang Wigeon chuckled, Kwon Kanghee quirked his eyebrows as if puzzled and turned his gaze to him. Yoon Junyoung also glanced at Jang Wigeon.