Runway Chapter 14

He coughed and pulled over any chair. He gestured at me with his chin. When I sat down, he also dragged a chair next to me and sat.

“Stop your bullshit. This kid hasn’t eaten dinner, so give him something.”

Then he suddenly drew attention to me.

Noona cursed, calling him a dog-like bastard, a whatever-like bastard. But unlike her rough mouth, she poured water into a large pot and put in noodles.

Lee Wookchan personally scooped up pickled radish and kimchi and set them down in front of me.

When passing by the mister-aged men, he spat out curses for no reason. I had seen them a few times.

Lee Wookchan periodically came here and caused a scene.

Noona sometimes got angry, sometimes cried, sometimes threw a knife telling him to go out and die. She didn’t care even if I was there.

Today’s Lee Wookchan did nothing but glare and curse. Even that alone was a relief.

I placed chopsticks and a spoon in front of Lee Wookchan and myself. The mister-aged men exchanged cups and then took out bills.

“You’re leaving already?”

Noona asked in a softer voice than the one she had used with us. It was natural. They were her livelihood.

“I should go early. My younger brother came too.”

One of the mister-aged men put on quite the dignified air.

“Come early and leave early. Don’t chase after a girl young enough to be your daughter for no reason.”

Lee Wookchan shot back. He didn’t lose even by a single word.

Would he not lose only in words? It would be the same with strength too.

The mister-aged men, knowing that, didn’t even think of starting a fight and left their seats.

Noona glared at Lee Wookchan and boiled the noodles.

“Seonho, you keep your head straight too. If you don’t want to ruin your life like this fucked-up bastard.”

Noona said as she placed a bowl of well-boiled janchi-guksu in front of me and Lee Wookchan, one each. I replied obediently, Yes.

I was the typical type who was weak to the strong and strong to the weak. So I usually acted meekly toward people older than me.

And toward Lee Wookchan’s hyung and noona, I was endlessly meeker. The two people’s personalities were not much different from Lee Wookchan’s.

“You take care of yourself, you bitch.”

Lee Wookchan spat out a word, and noona smacked Lee Wookchan’s head. Smack! The sound was so loud that even I flinched.

When I’m alone with Lee Wookchan, I tend to say at least a word or two, but when noona and Lee Wookchan were together, I couldn’t get a word in.

If I carelessly added the wrong thing, I’d be the shrimp whose back bursts in a whale fight.

Noona brought the remaining noodles in a small bowl. She took out soju and placed two glasses in front of Lee Wookchan and herself. Noona filled the glasses.

“Drink in moderation. If you don’t want to end up like Dad.”

She also filled the glass in front of Lee Wookchan with soju. Then she should just not give it to him. Still, it seemed she needed a drinking buddy.

The two drank only soju without much conversation. I ate the noodles and, at noona’s request, went and fried eggs. I wanted to go home but couldn’t.

Ah. Only then did I remember my phone. I took out the phone I had taken from Lee Wookchan when I left the house. The contacts Jeong Hyeonwoo had sent poured in one after another, buzzing, buzzing.

「When are you coming in the evening? My tutoring ends soon, want to meet briefly if you have time? There’s something I’m confused about because of English」

In between, one missed call.

「Are you busy? You’re not answering the phone」

「I’ll go home for now, let’s meet if we can」

I had nothing to say about the piled-up text messages. I pushed my lips out and tapped the keypad.

I went to a friend’s house and fell asleep and just woke up. I’m eating dinner right now. I don’t think I’ll be able to meet. It’s too late…. Let’s meet on Monday.

After leaving a short message, I moistened my mouth with water. Lee Wookchan stared at me, then turned his gaze away. Noona opened her mouth.

“Seonho, why do you hang out with this bastard?”

“Why are you suddenly picking a fight, you crazy bitch, don’t pick fights and just drink.”

“No, it’s called friends for convenience. Honestly, if Seonho cuts him off cleanly, Lee Wookchan is just done.”

Noona prodded Lee Wookchan. Lee Wookchan downed his glass in one go and spooned up noodles. He cursed this and that, but I couldn’t hear it well.

“Bae Seonho likes me.”

At the thunderbolt-like words, I gripped the chopsticks I was holding tightly. I couldn’t manage my expression, so I opened my eyes wide as if I had seen a ghost.

Noona examined my face.

“He likes me, so he fucking hangs around with me. Can’t you tell just by looking? You make friends too, if you’re jealous.”

At Lee Wookchan’s words, noona turned serious. So it was a joke. Along with relief, I pretended not to notice the chilled atmosphere.

I put my chopsticks into the bowl that had only a few short strands of noodles and moved them. The broth rippled.

I pretended not to have heard and turned my gaze away. I looked as if I were about to bury my face in the bowl.

This shop was a place noona had obtained with settlement money. When noona had just turned 20, she was severely beaten by friends with whom she had spent her entire teens.

Noona was the victim. But could noona be called simply pitiful? There was a time when she had been the perpetrator too. There were times when she stood by and watched. Human relationships, as always, were truly complicated.

“Stop eating and go. I’m going to close the shop early today too.”

Noona seemed to have decided to pretend not to have heard Lee Wookchan’s words as well.

At noona’s words, I pulled my chair and stood up. As if he had been waiting, I moved the dishes to the sink.

Lee Wookchan giggled, and noona looked at me with a blank face, then let out a hollow, dumbfounded laugh.

“Seonho, if you wanted to go home, you should have said so.”

Then she spoke in a voice a tone softer than before.

“It’s not like that….”

I replied cautiously, but my actions were already revealing my inner thoughts.

While I was moving the dishes, Lee Wookchan grabbed five empty soju bottles, one in each hand at once, and moved them to a box.

And he came to my side as I was about to start washing the dishes and nudged me away.

Before I could even say I would do it, he turned on the water and started washing the dishes without even putting on rubber gloves.

Noona watched me and Lee Wookchan, then went outside the shop. She seemed to be thinking of smoking a cigarette.

I had nothing to do, so I stood still and then followed noona out. Noona was sitting on a brick that fixed the shop’s tarp, smoking a cigarette. It was a thin cigarette.

When I approached her side, noona glanced at me and then closed her mouth.

“Seonho.”

“…Yes.”

“I’m telling you not to hang out with Chan.”

Unlike how she had been tough on Lee Wookchan, she was calm and gentle. The damp air of the neighborhood, with darkness spread everywhere, moistened noona’s voice.

I stood by noona’s side and faced the acrid cigarette smoke. It went well with the heavy air that had settled late at night.

“I mean it.”

“…”

“You study well, and you haven’t gone astray, so why do you hang out with Wookchan. He’s going to ruin your life. You should live well too since you can take care of yourself.”

Why was noona saying that to me?

Perhaps she was putting a burden on me.

Was it her intention to make me care about Lee Wookchan while telling me not to hang out with him? If so, she succeeded.

I was walking toward the endpoint, stepping on emotions that had been awakened since puberty began.

I didn’t know exactly whether that endpoint was sympathy or affection. Perhaps it was both.

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

I smiled brightly, absurdly so. Noona glanced at me and smiled along with me.

“You pointless bastard.”

After saying that, she threw the cigarette she had finished smoking onto the ground, stomped it out, and went inside.

I didn’t follow noona inside. I stopped in place and turned my head.

I looked at the alleys winding out in every direction, where Lee Wookchan’s house would be.

The light of the dusty streetlamp could hardly be called bright.

∞ ∞ ∞

What did it mean that Lee Wookchan would ruin my life?

Lee Wookchan and I walked side by side. After walking noona home, even though I had said he didn’t have to walk me home, he came down the alley with me.

On the way, we stopped at a pharmacy that was open even though it was late evening on a weekend. While Lee Wookchan smoked in front, I bought cold medicine. I handed him the plastic bag containing the pills I had bought in a hurry.

“Take them.”

“Why don’t you set up a memorial table too.”

Right. He drank alcohol.

“Take them tomorrow when you sober up.”

Lee Wookchan didn’t say thank you. I pressed the cold medicine into his hand.

Lee Wookchan came out to the main road and hailed a taxi. It was a distance where he could take the bus or walk, but if it was bothersome, he took a taxi.