ANTITOXIN Chapter 34

“Yeah. But I’m hungry.”

“…”

He was a human who thought truly and terribly only of himself. It was obvious that even if Seolwon said he didn’t want to eat, it would be of no use. Seolwon put a more plausible excuse to his lips.

“The truth is, I’m busy with work. I have to go right away…”

“It’s not to the extent that you have to go even at the risk of your life, is it?”

“…!”

Seolwon flinched. No matter how he heard it, it was a threat. If someone else had said it, he might have taken it as a dry joke. But this was Cha Jaeyi. It did not sound like a joke at all.

“Hmm?”

He tilted his head to the side, pressing for an answer. Seolwon reluctantly backed down.

“…No. It’s not.”

“Right?”

Cha Jaeyi smirked and pressed the bridge of his sunglasses with his fingertip. Naturally, the sunglasses slid down, revealing his elongated eyes. Inside them were pupils bearing a peculiar gleam, making it impossible to tell whether it was madness or playfulness.

Winking one eye, he asked,

“What do you want to eat?”

“Interesting.”

Cha Jaeyi, resting his chin on his hand, muttered. His gaze remained fixed on the menu hanging on the wall.

Seolwon followed his gaze and looked at the menu. Since it was a restaurant he frequented, he didn’t really need to look at it, but it was because he became curious about what part of the menu had aroused that man’s interest. However, no matter how he looked at it this way and that, it was merely an utterly ordinary menu. He couldn’t see any unique point that would draw interest at all.

He turned his head back to Cha Jaeyi. When he did, their gazes met. As if he had been watching Seolwon from who knows when, Cha Jaeyi parted his lips as though he had been waiting.

“The choice of restaurant.”

The restaurant?

…Ah.

Only now did Seolwon realize what he was finding interesting. It was this restaurant itself. Bearing a signboard that read ‘The Standard of Gukbap,’ this restaurant was extremely provincial, from its menu to its interior.

Even up until he came in and sat down, he hadn’t thought anything of it, but looking at it now, it really didn’t suit that wealthy-looking man at all. Becoming belatedly self-conscious, Seolwon scratched his head. Though he had come to the restaurant that popped into his head first when given the right to choose, it seemed to have been a decision that lacked too much consideration for his companion.

“If it’s not to your liking, we can go somewhere else.”

Since it was before they had placed their order, they could leave if they wanted to leave. Although they would receive a sharp glare from the owner who had welcomed them warmly, but…

“I didn’t say it wasn’t to my liking?”

However, saying it was interesting didn’t seem to have a positive meaning either.

“Because it seems like you don’t like it.”

“That’s true.”

As expected.

He didn’t want to forcefully impose his choice on someone who disliked it. Nor was he in a state of craving gukbap. Seolwon picked up his phone with the intention of moving.

“Just a moment. Let me look up if there’s a place worth going to nearby…”

Just as he was about to search for another restaurant, Cha Jaeyi waved his hand to stop him.

“Forget it. You came because you wanted to eat it. I, being the magnanimous one, will accommodate you, I guess. Even though I was raised delicately, I’m not a person with such a picky palate.”

“…”

By this point, Seolwon found it mysterious. He wondered how someone could appeal himself like that as easily as breathing. Because he did it so naturally, it reached a point where it didn’t even give off a obnoxious impression. On the contrary, it simply brought acceptance.

“Look at your face. Why are you getting all moved over something like this.”

Cha Jaeyi, interpreting Seolwon’s expression at his own whim again, spouted nonsense.

“…I’ll order.”

Choosing to ignore him instead of responding, Seolwon scanned the surroundings. Just then, an employee clearing a nearby table caught his eye. “Over here.” Seolwon called out, raising his hand. The employee, recognizing him immediately, quickly approached.

“Are you ready to order?”

“Yes, I’ll have a regular internal organs gukbap.”

Seolwon, having ordered first, looked at Cha Jaeyi. However.

“Internal organs?”

Cha Jaeyi knit his brow and asked back.

“If it’s internal organs, here? The things inside here? You eat that? When there’s meat, why deliberately?”

He pointed at his own torso with his finger as if he couldn’t believe it. Seolwon, who merely regarded it as one of the food ingredients and had never once recognized the internal organs inside gukbap as the organs inside a body, momentarily lost his appetite. The employee taking the order also clearly looked taken aback.

“Your taste is a bit… more than it looks.”

He stopped mid-sentence and stretched his lips horizontally. It looked like a smile at a glance, but it was an expression of extreme discomfort.

“Radical, isn’t it?”

The words he added were also just as ambiguous as his expression. In the sense that it felt like a sarcasm, and it also felt like an admiration. At any rate, his appetite had already been spoiled as much as it could be. Seolwon ultimately changed his order.

“…Just give me the bean sprout gukbap instead.”

Only then did Cha Jaeyi finish the ordering, saying, “The same for me.”

The employee who took the order left a conventional comment asking them to wait for a moment and then withdrew her steps. And just before turning her back, she stole a glance at Cha Jaeyi. In truth, it wasn’t just the employee. The customers sitting around were also secretly stealing glances at Cha Jaeyi without him knowing. His handsome appearance was one thing, but his excessively flashy shirt played a part in drawing attention.

The problem was Seolwon. Because they were sharing the same table, he felt like he had become an object of observation along with him, which was uncomfortable. The person in question didn’t care a single bit whether anyone looked at him or not, though… which also meant he was that accustomed to other people’s eyes.

“But you know.”

Suddenly, Cha Jaeyi struck up a conversation. Resting one arm on the adjacent chair, he pointed his finger at Seolwon’s face.

“Why is your face like that today?”

At the out-of-the-blue remark, Seolwon massaged his own cheek, wearing a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong with my face?”

“It looks troubled. Did you perhaps suffer terribly from an illness for a few days?”

He had suffered, in a way. He had been bedridden for a few days due to the aftereffects of the traffic accident. Even now, there was a slight stiffness at the back of his neck. His calves, which had been whipped by his grandmother in his dream for presumptuously acting like a shaman, were still tingling as well.

However, the face in the mirror he had checked while washing this morning was similar to usual. To his eyes, that was.

“I’m always in this state, though.”

“No. Last time, you looked like you made me want to strip you bare and eat you up. But right now, I want to put some clothes on you.”

In short, it meant he looked vintage. Seolwon subtly clenched his fist resting on his knee. Somehow, he felt as if he had been cursed out.

“Don’t get pouted. It meant I’m worried.”

It didn’t sound like that at all.

“So let’s gain some weight from now on, baby. You have to look appetizing for the taste of cock to come around.”

…On the contrary, it was a remark that made him want to lose even more weight.

It was difficult to be horrified by his nonsensical speech every single time. Deciding that showing no reaction at all was the best policy, Seolwon sighed inwardly, poured water into a cup, and drank.

In the pupils of Cha Jaeyi, who stared intently at Seolwon for a moment, a suggestive look mingled.

“By the way, you’re from Yeosu?”

At the suddenly changed topic, Seolwon momentarily flinched. At Seolwon’s reaction signifying agitation, Cha Jaeyi’s eyes narrowed.

“…Yes.”

“But for someone from that region, your way of speaking is terribly gentle?”

It was a sharp observation. In reality, for someone from Yeosu, Seolwon’s intonation was ordinary. Not a single bit of regional dialect was imbued in it.

“Ah, that, because it’s been quite a while since I came up to live in Seoul…”

“Ah-ah.” Cha Jaeyi nodded his head. Regrettably, it did not carry the meaning that he was convinced.

“You graduated from high school there. Even if you came to Seoul right after graduating, now… 6 years? Isn’t it around that much?”

Six years was not a short period of time. However, it was also difficult to view it as a period long enough for the color of one’s hometown to be completely washed away. Separately, Seolwon, who was actually not from Yeosu and had never even attended high school, could not hide his embarrassment.

“That… I corrected it on purpose. Because I received a lot of criticism.”

This much was the truth. Since his original hometown was also a place that used a fair amount of dialect no less than Yeosu, he naturally used that way of speaking when he had not been in Seoul for long. When he did, he received criticism frequently, with people saying they couldn’t understand, or that it was funny. It was especially severe when he went for part-time job interviews, and because of that, he corrected it tenaciously.

Cha Jaeyi responded in a nonchalant tone.

“Is that so? It’s not easy to correct a way of speaking, so that’s amazing.”

Fortunately, he appeared convinced, yet Seolwon’s mood was thoroughly uncomfortable. A chill ran down his spine, making him feel somehow as if he was being interrogated…

It was then.

“Here is the gukbap you ordered.”

Just in time, the employee brought out the food. Seolwon felt relieved. It was an exquisite timing, to the point where he wondered if there had ever been a time when food was this welcome.