Place to Be Chapter 55

As Seo Chiyoung made a bewildered face, Jang Wigeon, who had been staring near his mouth as if lost in thought—or perhaps as if he couldn’t think of anything at all—suddenly seemed to snap out of it and lifted his head slightly. Meeting Seo Chiyoung’s eyes, he appeared somewhat sheepish for a moment and then gave an ambiguous smile.

“No… I guess I really am tired. Some silly thoughts crossed my mind. —How have you been lately? Has Junyoung stopped by at all?”

Jang Wigeon changed the subject with a “Speaking of which.” Seo Chiyoung gave an answer first, saying “Oh, yes,” and then made a subtly uncomfortable face.

“He came yesterday too… together with Mr. Kwon Kanghee.”

He agonized for a moment over whether to add more, but seeing his awkward expression, Jang Wigeon must have known the answer even before he spoke.

Jang Wigeon muttered, “I see,” and quietly shook his cup as if lost in thought. The clattering sound of ice bumping together echoed. A faint, blurred smile appeared at the corners of Jang Wigeon’s mouth.

“It seems they’re getting along quite well…. I didn’t think about it that deeply before, but for some reason lately, the thought occurs to me. That it feels lonely. Don’t you feel that way too, Mr. Chiyoung?”

Jang Wigeon brought it up like a joke. Seo Chiyoung, who showed a moment of flustered panic with wide eyes at the sudden question, soon slowly lowered his head.

“Uh… I, just… only occasionally.”

He had felt that way. Ever since he encountered Jang Wigeon again.

It wasn’t necessarily just because of Jang Wigeon. He hadn’t expected anything from him to begin with, and he had never once substituted him into those kinds of fantasies.

It was just that his heart felt cold, and he simply thought it would be nice to somehow cover that coldness, even for a moment. And the place those thoughts headed toward was always human warmth. It was a bit funny. Even though he had never actually faced human warmth enough to know it so well and miss it.

However, in Seo Chiyoung’s head, it was always something warm and cozy. Something that, even if he forgot about it while it lay submerged in his heart, made him want to be in contact with it, if only for a very brief moment, when the thought suddenly surfaced.

But after that day, the day he had run into Jang Wigeon while sitting in the park, he consciously tried not to think about it. The faint sense of self-loathing that had rushed in along with the futility when he had been sitting there alone, and the disastrous gloom he felt when he ran into Jang Wigeon, remained as bitter memories even looking back now.

However, feeling that it would be a lie to say he ‘didn’t feel lonely,’ Seo Chiyoung hesitated for a long time before ending up answering ‘just occasionally.’

It was then, just as Jang Wigeon, who was watching Seo Chiyoung, opened his mouth to say something.

Pausing for a moment, he pulled a phone from his pocket. Perhaps a message had come through on the phone he had set to vibrate, as Jang Wigeon pressed a button a couple of times and stared at the screen for a moment before laughing to himself.

“This person’s timing is truly ghostly. A greeting at this timing…”

Muttering as if to himself, he fiddled with the phone for a while as if writing a reply. Only after pressing the send button did he notice the gaze Seo Chiyoung was watching him with and gave a light explanation.

“A shop I used to go to occasionally sent a greeting. I was actually just thinking about going there once.”

He didn’t know what kind of shop it was, but for them to send a greeting, it seemed to be a place he visited quite often. Seo Chiyoung nodded, saying, “Yes…”

Jang Wigeon, who was setting the phone down on the table and picking up his chopsticks, suddenly looked at Seo Chiyoung as if he just remembered, saying, “Oh, right.”

“Mr. Chiyoung, do you want to go together?”

“Uh, yes?”

At the unexpected words, Seo Chiyoung blinked and looked at Jang Wigeon. Go together? While looking at him in bewilderment, Seo Chiyoung vaguely guessed where it was the next moment. It was a place Jang Wigeon had mentioned once before.

“I mentioned it once before. Let’s go together. It’s a bar where people from this side mainly go, and it’s quiet and nice. I haven’t gone for a while, so it’s a bit awkward now, but the people are nice, too.”

“Uh… I, haven’t really been to places like that…”

Seo Chiyoung muttered haltingly and dropped his gaze. Seeing Seo Chiyoung stiffen his face as if nervous, Jang Wigeon laughed lowly.

“There’s no need to think about it so seriously. If you meet someone you think is alright, you’re lucky, and if not, you can just talk with people. Besides, in your case, if you happen to feel that way later, it seems better to stop by there rather than going to a dangerous place, so it would be good to at least know the location.”

“You’re not particularly inclined?” asked Jang Wigeon, who didn’t seem like he would force it, as was his usual manner.

The thought of meeting someone at a shop Jang Wigeon introduced and forming a light or deep relationship—at that thought, Seo Chiyoung’s mouth suddenly turned bitter. He didn’t expect anything from him and he knew it was a proposal made out of pure goodwill, but it felt bitter nonetheless.

Seo Chiyoung agonized for a moment over what to do. Just as his heart was leaning toward refusing, a message must have come again as Jang Wigeon picked up the phone. He checked the screen and smirked.

“Good grief, I said I’d go soon, so they’re asking exactly when I’m coming… Anyway, the way they never let things slide is the same as always. The owner here is a bit like this.”

While muttering to himself about a person Seo Chiyoung didn’t even know, Jang Wigeon fiddled with the phone again. Seo Chiyoung watched Jang Wigeon, on whose face a faint smile had surfaced, with a subtly strange feeling.

“…You must be close.”

“Ah, for a while in the past, I went so often it was like I was punching a time clock. It’s not so much that we’re close as it is that I just visit comfortably.”

A place Jang Wigeon visited often, a place where the version of him that Seo Chiyoung didn’t know existed. What kind of place was it that he visited so comfortably, and what kind of person was the owner he spoke with so easily? Suddenly, he became curious about that place.

He wasn’t curious about a place where people of his kind gathered, but about the shop that Jang Wigeon used to frequent.

“Friday or Saturday… Oh, those times don’t work for you, Mr. Chiyoung. If you’re willing to go, I think it would be good to go together around Sunday evening. What do you think?”

Stopping mid-press of the phone buttons—probably inputting a reply of when he would go—Jang Wigeon looked at Seo Chiyoung. Seo Chiyoung hesitated for a moment, but that hesitation did not last long. Seeing Seo Chiyoung soon nod his head, Jang Wigeon muttered, “Then Sunday evening,” and sent the reply.

“It would be nice if you could luckily meet someone who suits you well there, Mr. Chiyoung. Me too.”

To Jang Wigeon, who spoke affectionately, Seo Chiyoung only gave a faint, clumsy smile instead of an answer.

∞ ∞ ∞

It seemed Jang Wigeon’s words about frequenting the place for a while were not a lie. And the same went for his words about being away for a while.

The basement of a simple and sophisticated building on a quiet street. As soon as they entered the bar, located down the stairs next to a gallery that occupied the entire first floor, Jang Wigeon was caught by a man passing by before he could even walk a step or two.

“Why has it been so long! I thought you had died somewhere.”

“Ahahaha, I almost did. Buried under work.”

To the man who spoke with a feigned pout but greeted him warmly, Jang Wigeon said, “See you in a bit,” and after confirming that Seo Chiyoung, who followed behind, was coming, he moved toward the bar area.

Jang Wigeon, who exchanged brief greetings with two or three more people on the way there, perched on a center seat at the bar; the bartender who was making a cocktail inside—he later heard that he was the owner of this place—seemed to widen his eyes before soon wearing a smile all over his face.

“My, look at this precious face. It’s been quite a long time.”

“Mr. Hansu, it’s been a while. You’re still busy.”

Because of its size, the spacious shop didn’t look that crowded, but in reality, it wasn’t that quiet either. Seeing the line of order slips in front of the bartender, Jang Wigeon laughed. Then, turning his head to Seo Chiyoung, who was standing dazed beside him, he offered him the next seat.

Seeing Seo Chiyoung sit next to Jang Wigeon, the bartender had a slightly surprised face, but he only gave a subtle smile and glanced at Jang Wigeon, not bothering to strike up a conversation.