Place to Be Chapter 47

Checking the time on his mobile phone, Seo Chiyoung swallowed a short breath. While he had been dazed for a moment after running into Jang Wigeon, the time had already slipped away like this. Even before that, he had come at a brisk pace, thinking he needed to get back quickly.

“Oh, I should be going now. Well then… have a good day at work.”

As Seo Chiyoung bowed his head in greeting, Jang Wigeon replied with a bright smile, “You too, Mr. Chiyoung.”

“I’ll come by this evening if I can.”

Seo Chiyoung looked back at Jang Wigeon, who spoke with a slightly raised voice behind him as he turned away with hurried steps; Seo Chiyoung bowed his head once more and moved his feet so quickly he was almost running.

This evening. Come to think of it, he smiled weakly, realizing this was the first time the man had given him advance notice before coming. Then, looking at his watch again, he began to run anxiously.

It was nearly seven days later when Yoon Junyoung showed his face at the shop.

When he first saw him walk into the shop without a word and take a seat in front of the cooking counter, the smile Seo Chiyoung had been wearing as he prepared to say “Welcome” vanished from his face unconsciously. It wasn’t just because the night seven days ago came to mind. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but seeing Yoon Junyoung after those few days—which weren’t even that long—he looked somewhat pale. No, it wasn’t his imagination; it really looked as if he had lost a good few kilograms.

Because of that, it wasn’t particularly strange that Seo Chiyoung, upon seeing him, instinctively asked “Are you okay?” as his first words instead of a greeting.

Yoon Junyoung had grown thin enough that his clothes looked loose, but other than that, he said “Give me one plate” with the same indifferent and blunt face as before, and only after that did he reply casually, “I’m fine.”

“I was quite severely ill after that day. My fever wouldn’t go down, so I couldn’t leave the house all week. My fever only finally broke yesterday, so I came out today.”

“I see. I’m glad the fever broke. …”

That night, Yoon Junyoung’s fever had risen to a terrifying degree. Even if a wet towel was placed on his face for just a moment, it would turn hot. After getting so drenched in the rain on a day like that, it would have been more strange if his body had been fine. So, he had already been worried about whether he was okay.

Seo Chiyoung nodded, showing a look of relief. However, after a brief pause, he cautiously asked Yoon Junyoung.

“…Since… since then, have things been alright?”

He wondered whether he should ask or not. He didn’t like prying into other people’s business and thought it might be better to just look the other way, but it wasn’t only his health that he was concerned about.

Yoon Junyoung, who had been clutching his chopsticks while staring fixedly at the gopchang Seo Chiyoung had started frying, raised his gaze and said, “Pardon?” But soon, as if understanding what he meant, he went “Ah,” nodded his head, and replied casually.

“It’s been more or less fine. Surprisingly, the professor didn’t say much. Rather, he said my face looked quite haggard and asked if I shouldn’t rest more… but it’s more annoying because of the missed lectures. Thinking about writing the supplementary lesson plan, it’s just…”

Yoon Junyoung frowned and waved his hand. “Ah… I see…” Seo Chiyoung muttered ambiguously and fell silent. That wasn’t the part he was curious about, but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to ask a third time.

For a moment, silence flowed between them. Only the sound and smell of the gopchang cooking lingered.

Seo Chiyoung sat down after grilling the gopchang until crisp to suit Yoon Junyoung’s taste. Yoon Junyoung, seemingly happy to see the gopchang again after seven days, didn’t even cast a glance elsewhere and moved his chopsticks incessantly. Seo Chiyoung gazed at Yoon Junyoung silently.

Though he was thin, his expression wasn’t bad. Yes, at least he didn’t have a face that looked like it was about to crumble as he did that night. Recalling the Yoon Junyoung he had seen then, Seo Chiyoung thought that this face now was enough and nodded to himself.

Just then, while he was looking at Yoon Junyoung with a somewhat relieved heart, someone entered the shop with brisk steps.

“Oh. Junyoung, you were here.”

Jang Wigeon, who had already met Seo Chiyoung’s eyes and greeted him with a smile and a look before even entering the shop, saw Yoon Junyoung sitting in his usual spot in front of the counter and spoke to him warmly, raising his eyebrows slightly. At that, Yoon Junyoung, who had been diligently picking out and eating gopchang without a word, turned his gaze toward him.

“Oh, you’re here?”

But with only those short words, Yoon Junyoung continued to empty the plate with a nonchalant face, and Jang Wigeon sat in the seat next to him without hesitation, as usual. Only Seo Chiyoung had a troubled face for a moment, while the two of them sat side by side and began to converse casually as if nothing had happened.

“Mr. Chiyoung, give me one more plate, please. And a bottle of beer, too.”

Jang Wigeon, who took off his jacket and placed it on the chair beside him, spoke to Seo Chiyoung with a smile; Seo Chiyoung, who had been looking at him with an ambiguous expression, quickly brought out the beer first and began to fry a fresh batch of gopchang.

“By the way, I heard things were a mess that day. Since the wedding was suddenly called off on the actual day. Hyung-nim Euimin was preparing to go to the wedding in the morning when he got the call, and he said he was incredibly bewildered. Even when they tried to contact him, he wouldn’t pick up the phone, and they said he was out of contact for two days after that, Kwon Kanghee.”

It was said that because the wedding was canceled so absurdly and suddenly, and the man who was supposed to be the groom was out of contact for nearly two days, rumors spread far and wide that some heinous accident had occurred. Since the man’s profession was also on the rougher side, such rumors circulated with even more credibility, but the man who appeared on the third day was perfectly fine, so the theory of a fatal accident lost its place.

Jang Wigeon had mentioned such a story to Seo Chiyoung the day before yesterday. Lately, as if intending to keep the promise he made at the police station, he had been visiting once every two days, or at the latest, once every three days, despite saying he was frantically busy.

Every time he entered the shop, he would look around and ask nonchalantly, “Junyoung hasn’t come today either?” It had been several days since Seo Chiyoung had shaken his head with a pointlessly apologetic face. As far as Seo Chiyoung knew, this was the first time the two of them had faced each other since that day.

Nevertheless, they were talking with composed faces as if absolutely nothing had happened.

“Was it like that? I don’t remember very well. Right after that, my fever rose so much that I was out of it for a few days.”

“Haha, surely that fellow Kanghee didn’t keep doing things that would keep your fever from going down? While you were out of contact.”

“…I wonder.”

Yoon Junyoung replied briefly and fell silent. The short gap before his answer and the silence afterward were subtly unnatural, so Seo Chiyoung stole a glance at Yoon Junyoung. Over Yoon Junyoung’s face, which was faintly grimacing, it seemed as if the fever that had reportedly broken was momentarily rising again.

Jang Wigeon, who was giving a bitter smile in that silence, suddenly met eyes with Seo Chiyoung while drinking his beer. He smiled calmly.

“Why are you staring like that?”

“…I was just wondering if the portion size was insufficient…”

When Seo Chiyoung muttered this, Jang Wigeon wore a look of disbelief. Every time Yoon Junyoung or Jang Wigeon came, Seo Chiyoung brought out a generous amount of ingredients. It would then end up being nearly double the amount put on plates served to other people. There was no way he, who visited every other day, wouldn’t know that fact.

“To say it’s insufficient, the weight I’ve started gaining since I began coming here is terrifying. Did you mix something in here by any chance?”

Beside Jang Wigeon, who spoke with a mix of playfulness, Yoon Junyoung—who usually picked out and ate the gopchang first—was muttering to himself, “I want to gain a bit more weight, so why aren’t I?”, when he suddenly looked at Seo Chiyoung as if it had just occurred to him.

“That’s right… I think it’s going to be hard for me to come as often as I have been. Not immediately, but it looks like I’ll have to move.”

“Pardon?”

As Seo Chiyoung tilted his head, Yoon Junyoung, after a brief pause, spoke in a somewhat blunt tone.

“Kanghee bought a house, and it looks like I’ll be moving in there…. But it’s not very far from here, so I’ll still come by occasionally.”

Having said that, Yoon Junyoung suddenly seemed thirsty and picked up Jang Wigeon’s glass to moisten his throat. Perhaps because of the alcohol, his complexion had become slightly flushed.

“I see,” Seo Chiyoung nodded. For some reason, his gaze kept falling downward, and he couldn’t look at Jang Wigeon.