Runway Chapter 15

Fortunately, there was a taxi passing by. Lee Wookchan opened the door of the taxi that had stopped. He got into the back seat. I also carefully got in.

Lee Wookchan familiarly called out our home address. I sat still and looked at Lee Wookchan.

“Why are you following me?”

“I’m going to your place to sleep.”

“Are you crazy?”

“My house is fucking cold, you bastard. Didn’t you see? If I sleep there, my mouth will twist.”

You lunatic bastard. I glared at Lee Wookchan with all my might.

Lee Wookchan rolled down the window. Wind leaked in through the gap in the door.

Because of the dry autumn wind, my eyes stung. In the end, I withdrew my gaze that had been glaring at Lee Wookchan.

Streetlights shone beyond the moving taxi. Lee Wookchan received the orange light as it was.

His hair fluttered in the wind. Lee Wookchan leaned his body against the car door.

“I’m sleepy.”

He muttered as if talking to himself and coughed. Listening to the cough that sounded like he was about to die, I leaned my body against the window on the opposite side. I was tired too.

∞ ∞ ∞

But when we actually stopped in front of the apartment complex, we ended up facing an unexpected person.

“Seonho!”

At the familiar voice that came flying, Lee Wookchan reacted before I did. I turned my head a beat later than Lee Wookchan. Jeong Hyeonwoo was standing there.

Why was Jeong Hyeonwoo here? I had clearly said let’s meet on Monday.

I hurriedly took my phone out of my pocket.

「No, it’s because it’s a really difficult problem, if I can’t solve it today it’ll be hard, I’ll wait, contact me」

I checked the messages far too late. The last message had come at 8, and now it was 10 minutes before 10.

That meant Jeong Hyeonwoo had been wandering around near my house for two hours.

“Who is he?”

Lee Wookchan asked me.

“I just saw your message now. What do I do?”

But I was flustered and couldn’t answer Lee Wookchan’s question. Instead, I took a step toward Jeong Hyeonwoo, who was approaching me.

Lee Wookchan grabbed my forearm and stopped me. I withdrew my gaze from Jeong Hyeonwoo and looked up at him. His wary attitude was obvious.

“Hey, I’m sick. I want to go home and rest.”

Lee Wookchan put on an exaggerated act of illness, uncharacteristically. It wasn’t like earlier when he was coughing as if he would die either.

Jeong Hyeonwoo came closer to us. Even though I had done nothing wrong, I felt a guilt I couldn’t explain.

I looked at Jeong Hyeonwoo once, Lee Wookchan once, alternating between the two.

“I’m sick, you bastard.”

Lee Wookchan’s voice had an edge.

“Friend?”

In contrast, Jeong Hyeonwoo asked in a soft, sweet voice.

Lee Wookchan didn’t answer. Instead, he tightened his grip on my forearm.

“Hello. I’m Seonho’s friend.”

Jeong Hyeonwoo greeted him. His manner of speaking was refined. Lee Wookchan still didn’t answer.

Anxiety pooled under my tongue. Lee Wookchan’s voice, smeared with irritation, turned direction.

“Do you know me?”

“Huh?”

At the sudden words, Jeong Hyeonwoo’s voice also jumped. So did mine.

This crazy bastard. Just as I was about to say something, Lee Wookchan was first.

“You don’t even know who I am, and you’re acting like you do.”

“Hey, stop it.”

In the end, I freed my arm from Lee Wookchan’s grip and tried to stop him. The only one who could mediate this situation was me.

Lee Wookchan glared at me. He reached out to grab my forearm again.

I slightly twisted my body away from Lee Wookchan. It became a posture as if Jeong Hyeonwoo and I, and Lee Wookchan alone, were in confrontation.

A guilt I couldn’t explain tormented me. Jeong Hyeonwoo had been vaguely waiting for me, who hadn’t even contacted him.

In this neighborhood where he didn’t know a single person. I had clearly said let’s meet next time, but still.

During that time, I had only been joking around with Lee Wookchan. Actually, since the weight of my emotions was much heavier toward Lee Wookchan, it couldn’t be helped, but still.

A trace of guilt remained, and Lee Wookchan poured oil on it. The fire blazed up.

Today at least, yeah, today at least.

I said to Lee Wookchan.

“I’m going to see my friend for a bit before going in. Go in first. You know the password.”

Because I’m always with Lee Wookchan, and because we’d be together at home too.

“Hey, Bae….”

Before Lee Wookchan could even finish speaking, I tapped Jeong Hyeonwoo’s arm.

“Let’s go. Hurry up and then you need to go home too. It’s too late.”

∞ ∞ ∞

“He doesn’t seem like a good friend.”

As soon as we ordered drinks at a cafe near my house and sat down, Jeong Hyeonwoo said.

He doesn’t seem like a good friend.

What is a good friend? What’s certain is that Lee Wookchan is not one.

Jeong Hyeonwoo is right. Lee Wookchan probably isn’t a good friend to anyone.

He wasn’t a good person either. Lee Wookchan is just Lee Wookchan.

Jeong Hyeonwoo is probably a kid who grew up well in a decent family, receiving an appropriate amount of parental love.

That’s why he can meddle in other people’s relationships. When you’re struggling to make a living, it’s hard to do that too.

When I’m busy trying to survive, meddling in others’ business? That’s a privileged thing to say.

I said nothing. That didn’t mean I could take Lee Wookchan’s side here either.

Not just me, but from anyone else’s perspective, Lee Wookchan is living a life where he can’t help but hear that kind of thing.

Lee Wookchan is bad. He lives similarly to the kinds of people I dislike.

I hate Lee Wookchan’s friends, the hyungs and noonas around him, and the juniors who look up to Lee Wookchan, but in fact, why would Lee Wookchan be at the center of them?

In the end, it’s because they’re similar humans. Perhaps even more so.

He simply hasn’t been caught by the eyes of adults—police, teachers, and so on. If he had been caught, perhaps, he might not have been by my side.

His poverty, his parents’ neglect—those are actually just hollow excuses.

No matter how poor the home, no matter how much worse the situation than Lee Wookchan’s, how many people live well and try to live differently from their parents?

“…”

But I think those people are amazing.

For a person to become an adult, childhood can only become the roots. When Lee Wookchan was young, there were no proper adults around him. His roots were very thin and shabby.

In the end, am I taking Lee Wookchan’s side?

“Seonho, you study hard, and you do well, and you don’t cause problems in school life either. …Actually, I was a bit surprised.”

How surprised Jeong Hyeonwoo must have been at Lee Wookchan acting like a thug—there’s no need to say it.

Nevertheless, I didn’t answer. Instead, I deflected.

“What did you come here for?”

“…”

“You said it was a difficult problem.”

At my words, Jeong Hyeonwoo gazed at me blankly. I also met his eyes.

Jeong Hyeonwoo was silent for a while, then before I knew it, he hid his worried expression. Like calm mist spreading over a lakeside, he held a soundless smile.

“Just because.”

Come to think of it, there was nothing in Jeong Hyeonwoo’s hands. He wasn’t even wearing a bag. He was sitting across from me holding just a wallet.

“Just because. I came because I wanted to talk.”

I don’t understand Jeong Hyeonwoo.

∞ ∞ ∞

On the way home. Despite my protests that I could go alone, that it was fine, Jeong Hyeonwoo walked me all the way home.

Our shabby house. He walked me to the front of the crumbling apartment complex, which had only a few buildings and didn’t even receive simple maintenance, making me feel a little more shabby, and then Jeong Hyeonwoo waved his hand.

I didn’t respond to his greeting. Instead, I nodded once.

Nevertheless, Jeong Hyeonwoo left. Was his business really that he wanted to talk? I didn’t understand, and I didn’t try to.

Jeong Hyeonwoo is just pretending to be sentimental in that way unique to people his age.

As if he were some kind of savior or messiah. While pretending to take care of me, who is isolated in class and can’t get along with friends, he’s trying to show off his own presence.

How loathsome.

Actually, there was no need for me to curse him like that, but I cursed Jeong Hyeonwoo.

I know that kind of guy’s characteristics well. When someone more pitiful and more concerning than me appears, he’ll shift his gaze.

I’m just a being who exists to prove himself.

So I went to find the being who needs me.

Would he be home? When I opened the door and entered, a faint light was spilling out from the living room, which was also Mom’s room.

I stood at the entrance and thought of Mom beyond the sliding door with the opaque window.

She would be sitting on the futon laid out on the floor with a tired body, watching television with a listless face.