Place to Be Chapter 28

For a split second, a chill brushed through his heart. It was that feeling he had been sensing sporadically of late. A sensation akin to loneliness or a sense of desolation—as if he were cold somewhere deep inside. However, Seo Chiyoung quickly brushed the feeling away and sincerely congratulated his precious friend on his good news.

May you be happy forever. You, your wife, and your child.

It was just as Seo Chiyoung, holding that thought, lightly clinked glasses with his friend.

Jang Wigeon emerged from inside the shop. Jang Wigeon, who was picking up the key hung next to the door as if intending to go to the restroom, came to a halt when his eyes met Seo Chiyoung’s, who was turning his head with a broad smile still directed at his friend.

Whether it was because the sight of Seo Chiyoung drinking side-by-side with someone was rare, or because the expression of smiling with every emotion displayed on his face was amusing, he stared intently at Seo Chiyoung for a moment before eventually shifting his gaze to the friend. After looking blankly at the friend, who had stopped bringing the glass to his mouth to follow Seo Chiyoung’s gaze and look back at Jang Wigeon, a smile suddenly appeared in Jang Wigeon’s eyes.

“Is he a friend of yours, Boss?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes, from high school…”

Seo Chiyoung had expected him to just pass by with a nod, but finding it unexpected that Jang Wigeon actually stopped and struck up a conversation, he answered reflexively, only to let his words trail off. A feeling of “Oh no” instantly set in. Come to think of it, these people were also alumni of the same high school. The friend, like Seo Chiyoung, had been the type to hardly stand out, so it wasn’t likely that Jang Wigeon would specifically remember him, but…

“Wait… Jang…?!”

However, it was only Jang Wigeon who didn’t remember.

The friend, who had been blinking and staring intently at Jang Wigeon from the moment he stepped out of the shop, blurted out a single syllable, as if he couldn’t recall the full name. Jang Wigeon didn’t seem to know the friend at all, but as if noticing that the friend knew him, he looked down at him with a bewildered face.

“…Have we met somewhere before?”

In front of Jang Wigeon, who wore a troubled smile containing the embarrassment of being known by someone he couldn’t recall, the friend turned back to Seo Chiyoung, whose expression was subtly stiffening.

“Hey, I think it’s him… Chiyoung, don’t you remember? That guy who was in the same class as us in high school. Jang, Jang… what was it…”

Looking down at the friend who was frowning deeply and tapping his temple, Jang Wigeon wore a strange expression. Then, casting his gaze toward Seo Chiyoung, he asked suspiciously.

“Did you graduate from Kyeonghwa High School?”

“…Uh… yes…”

Seo Chiyoung dropped his gaze, his lips merely trembling. He felt the gaze looking steadily down at him stinging against his cheeks.

He could tell himself that his expression was stiffening. However, having no way to hide the emotions so plainly revealed on his face, he ended up bowing his head in a state of dismay.

He felt he was in a difficult position. It would have been better if he had just glossed over it vaguely; as it stood, it was only natural for Jang Wigeon to find Seo Chiyoung’s attitude strange.

“…Were you in the same class as me?”

To Jang Wigeon’s repeated question, Seo Chiyoung answered only with his lips. Since his head was bowed, the other wouldn’t have seen his moving lips, but Seo Chiyoung’s attitude was serving as the answer.

Seo Chiyoung knew Jang Wigeon, but he had been intentionally pretending not to.

The friend, with a puzzled face, glanced back and forth between Jang Wigeon and Seo Chiyoung and spoke to Seo Chiyoung, saying, “What’s this, how did you meet again? Did you two not know?”, but Seo Chiyoung remained silent. And Jang Wigeon looked down at Seo Chiyoung wordlessly.

“…But since we hardly ever spoke back then and weren’t close, I thought there was no need to act like I knew you…”

It was only much later that Seo Chiyoung muttered as if making an excuse, and Jang Wigeon listened silently. “I see,” the voice replied, seemingly accepting Seo Chiyoung’s words. However, because that voice also seemed somewhat perplexed, Seo Chiyoung slowly raised his head.

Jang Wigeon was stroking his chin and looking down fixedly at Seo Chiyoung. As if trying to recall a memory sleeping deep within his mind.

Their gazes met, a hint of apology appearing in the other’s eyes. Those eyes looked Seo Chiyoung over everywhere, as if trying to catch even the most trivial thread of a memory. Seo Chiyoung hunched his shoulders at that gaze which seemed to pierce through his very mind, but he couldn’t look away.

Eventually.

Jang Wigeon’s eyebrows twitched faintly. Looking at Seo Chiyoung with a furrow between his brows in a somewhat ambiguous manner, he slowly tilted his head.

“By any chance, haven’t I talked to you before? That was, I mean… was it in the classroom…”

The moment he heard the question thrown out in a slightly uncertain tone, Seo Chiyoung felt as if his heart were aching. And at that same moment, Jang Wigeon, who had been lost in thought, muttering, “I thought no one was there, back then…”, relying on a tiny thread caught in his dim and uncertain memory, suddenly shut his mouth.

Seo Chiyoung could tell that a short and clear realization had flashed across his face.

∞ ∞ ∞

Beep-beep, a short mechanical sound was heard. Seo Chiyoung opened his eyes with a start. For a second, he couldn’t tell if he had heard that sound in a dream or in reality, so after blinking his heavy eyelids a couple of times, he fumbled at his bedside and picked up his cell phone. A new message had arrived.

‘Young-ah, happy birthday. Even if you’re busy, make sure to eat well and take care of your health. I miss.’

He could tell who had sent the message with the cut-off final character even before checking the sender. His mother used to call Seo Chiyoung only by the last character of his name; he had disliked it when he was young, saying it sounded like a girl’s name, but as he grew up, he came to like the soft resonance of her calling him that. However, he no longer had the chance to hear that name now. Except for the rare times he saw her once every year or two.

Ah, birthday, come to think of it, my birthday was around now—thinking that vaguely, he looked blankly at the calendar on the phone screen and realized it. His birthday was yesterday.

He had no complaints about his mother congratulating him a day late. Seo Chiyoung himself had completely forgotten. If it hadn’t been for this text, he might have only remembered it months later for a brief moment.

Yesterday, Saturday, there was no room to think of anything else. Usually, various thoughts come to mind when he returns home at night after finishing the day’s routine, but yesterday was an exception.

After closing the shop close to two in the morning, he went straight to a rice cake factory and helped with the unloading of food ingredients. After frantically carrying boxes that must have weighed dozens of kilograms in the factory that ran all night, by the time the work finally hit bottom and he snapped back to his senses, the sun was already rising.

This morning, dragging his legs that were so tired he felt like he would collapse on the street, he had returned home and fallen asleep as if he had passed out; that was Seo Chiyoung’s last memory.

It seemed he would be going out every weekend for a while. To prepare for having to move the shop in a few months, he had racked his brain to try and save even a little bit of money, but for now, he was stretched thin just managing his current life.

Since he had to run the shop on weekdays, he had no choice but to increase his work on the weekends, including the Sundays when the shop was closed. That was how, by asking around, he found the job of loading and unloading materials at the factory he went to for the first time yesterday, which fit his schedule and offered a relatively decent hourly wage.

And today—though this was just a temporary job for today—he had decided to go help a senior he knew who was opening a tavern with the preparations.

Let me see, since I decided to be there by five in the evening…

Seo Chiyoung, slowly shaking his still-heavy head, said, “Oh,” and looked back at the time reflected on the cell phone screen. It was past four in the afternoon. Suddenly, he was wide awake.

Hurriedly getting up, he rushed to the bathroom, just roughly washed his face, and came out to change his clothes, clicking his tongue. With every step he took, he kept casting his gaze toward the desk clock.

He had returned and fallen asleep at a little past nine in the morning. No matter how exhausted he had been, he hadn’t known he would sleep this much. He had intended to wake up fairly early in the afternoon, tidy up the house a bit, and then head out.