Place to Be Chapter 48

With what heart is he listening to those words now? Even though he said he folded his feelings for Yoon Junyoung, those feelings wouldn’t have just vanished.

However, Seo Chiyoung, who had been looking down, suddenly raised his eyes at the sound of someone tapping on the table. Jang Wigeon, with his glass pressed to his lips, was staring fixedly at Seo Chiyoung while tapping the tabletop with his knuckle. A faint, bitter smile was etched around his eyes—as if he knew exactly what Seo Chiyoung was thinking.

Yet, he didn’t say anything to Seo Chiyoung; instead, he set his glass down and spoke to Yoon Junyoung in a slightly lowered voice.

“…Are you happy?”

His voice, tinged with concern, was gentle. Yoon Junyoung’s feelings had also lasted a long time. He was asking if that heart, which had been rotting away in the dark for so long, was okay now. If he was happy now.

“…I don’t know. It doesn’t feel real yet.”

Yoon Junyoung slowed his chopsticks. He slowly poked through the plate where only a mound of vegetables remained and added, as if to himself, “Because the time I spent just looking from afar by myself was too long.”

At that moment, he paused briefly and took a phone out of his pocket. Staring strangely at Yoon Junyoung’s phone—one he had never seen before—Seo Chiyoung realized anew that the events of the day the old phone broke were indeed reality.

After checking the screen to see if a message had arrived, Yoon Junyoung seemed to send a short reply, then tucked the phone away and said nonchalantly.

“Looks like Kanghee is coming over soon. I guess he’s at the house now.”

“The house?”

“Yeah… my place. He comes over every day lately.”

As Yoon Junyoung spoke casually, Jang Wigeon, who had been smiling quietly, replied, “Sounds like you two have gotten close. I’m glad.” Then he raised his head and gave a smile with his eyes to Seo Chiyoung, who had been silently watching them.

“It’s going to be tough when the three of us meet for a while. I’ll feel like the only loner.”

“…Uh…… I suppose so…”

Seo Chiyoung, still unaccustomed to the topic of conversation suddenly flying his way, muttered hesitantly. Seeing Seo Chiyoung drop his head with a shadowed face, Jang Wigeon laughed bitterly.

“I mean, why do you make a face like that, Mr. Chiyoung? I can’t even tell a joke.”

Seo Chiyoung didn’t know what kind of face he was making, so he rubbed his face awkwardly. Soon, he turned his gaze to Jang Wigeon and gave a clumsy smile to the man who was laughing at him with a look of slight embarrassment. Seeing Seo Chiyoung like that, Jang Wigeon let his embarrassed expression fade and chuckled.

May he always be happy. May he soon find the place meant for him. Seo Chiyoung offered a quiet prayer.

“Moving, huh… I think I’ll be moving soon too.”

As Jang Wigeon muttered as if the thought had just occurred to him, Yoon Junyoung glanced at him.

“Why so sudden? Did your aunt finally kick you out?”

“It’s not that—well, I guess it’s something like that. It was my mother who brought it up…. I found a spot for the new shop. I just submitted the permit application today to renovate a hanok on the way past Namtaeryeong and turn it into the shop. That hanok is a traditional style with a detached guest house, a main house, and an annex. It’s quite spacious since even a family shrine remains on the lot. But since there’s so much extra building space, my mother told me I should just move in and live there while I’m at it.”

“It seems my mother really wanted to kick me out,” Jang Wigeon said, shaking his head.

“Would she want to keep a son by her side who rolls around with men and won’t get married? She’s probably given up on her third son and decided only the older two are her sons.”

When Yoon Junyoung spoke, Jang Wigeon laughed out loud. As if they had frequently shared that brand of humor before, he laughed without a hint of offense, saying, “You’re hitting too close to home.”

Seeing Jang Wigeon’s laughing face made Seo Chiyoung’s mood brighten. He watched them with an unconscious smile. However, when his eyes met Jang Wigeon’s, who was looking back at him, he quickly averted his gaze.

“By the way, I heard this area is going into redevelopment too. They say people will start moving out at the end of this year or early next year. Are you okay, Mr. Chiyoung? Is this place not included in the zone?”

“There’s no way it’s not; if they don’t redevelop a crumbling place like this, where on earth would they?” Yoon Junyoung muttered as if to himself, and beside him, Seo Chiyoung smiled quietly.

“No, this place is included too. When that happens, the shop… I’ll have to move it somewhere else.”

“I see. It would be good to take this opportunity to move to a spot with better foot traffic nearby.”

As Jang Wigeon spoke with a smile as if it were a good thing, Seo Chiyoung only smiled silently. However, hearing those words, his heart grew heavy again as he thought of his woefully insufficient bank balance compared to the woefully expensive shop rents nearby.

He wanted to continue business in this neighborhood where he had established himself for several years if possible, so he had been trying to save money here and there lately, but it wasn’t easy. Even today, Saturday, once he closes the shop, he has to catch a wink of sleep at home—or if customers stay late, he’ll head straight from the shop—and go to the factory to help with the dawn shift. It was hard labor loading and unloading, but he could manage a few hours well enough.

But I can only do this because I’m at this age, he thought it would get harder as he got older. Seo Chiyoung thought vaguely that it would be nice if the situation improved before then.

Just then, he saw Kwon Kanghee walking up the path leading to Yoon Junyoung’s house. Following Seo Chiyoung’s gaze as he paused and looked that way, Jang Wigeon turned his head and met eyes with Kwon Kanghee first.

“You’re here,” Jang Wigeon greeted him with a smile, and Kwon Kanghee nodded silently and sat down beside him.

His attitude isn’t much different from before either, Seo Chiyoung thought. Since it was just as he had guessed earlier, he didn’t conspicuously watch their every move this time. He simply handed him an empty glass quietly.

Taking the glass, Kwon Kanghee glanced at Seo Chiyoung absentmindedly. When he saw his face, he seemed to remember something, and said briefly with a blunt expression, “I apologize for the other day.” Since he hadn’t expected such words to fly out so abruptly, Seo Chiyoung, who had been trying to keep a nonchalant face like the others, was instantly flustered and muttered, “Oh, no, it’s fine.”

Jang Wigeon, who had been watching Seo Chiyoung with amused eyes, turned his head slightly and laughed. He spoke casually to Kwon Kanghee, who was taking the beer bottle from in front of him and pouring it into his own glass.

“So you didn’t even give me a single phone call, but you visited Junyoung every day? I’ve been walking around with pain relief patches on my side all week because of you.”

“Is that so?” Kwon Kanghee replied casually.

“I broke a tooth. It was a molar, so the estimate for the repair was quite high.”

“The damage on this side is bigger than a patch on the ribs,” he muttered, making Jang Wigeon chuckle.

“Consider it the price for stealing a friend of thirty years.”

“…You weren’t the only one watching him for a long time.”

At Kwon Kanghee’s blunt remark, Jang Wigeon let out a short laugh. Then, he spoke no more of that matter.

Before long, a calm conversation flowed between the three of them. Things like how, even though it wasn’t the moving season, the house would sell quickly given the location and price, or how the shop site would go straight into renovation once the permit came out so it would be hectic for a while—such stories flowed normally.

Amidst that, stories of how the cleanup of the broken wedding was a hassle, or how they had kept the person watching from the side burning with anxiety for far too long, came out occasionally along with laughter.

That night was certainly a fact that existed between them. It wasn’t something that didn’t happen, nor was it something they were letting slide as if it hadn’t happened. However, while clearly stepping over that fact and moving forward, they were no different than before.

Suddenly, Seo Chiyoung thought of the time that had flowed by with them for so long. That time had flowed with difficulty, while simultaneously building a solid foundation.

“…”

His heart must have eased at some point. Until Jang Wigeon abruptly asked, “Why are you smiling like that?” Seo Chiyoung didn’t even realize he was smiling. “Pardon?” Seo Chiyoung looked at Jang Wigeon and awkwardly wiped the smile away. As Jang Wigeon quickly started to say, “No, it’s not that I’m telling you not to smile…” with a bit of embarrassment, Yoon Junyoung spoke sharply first.