Runway Chapter 7

[Because I’m the one who asked to meet.]

“Still.”

[I said let’s be friends, Seonho.]

The class president probably grew up under good parents without any economic hardship. I could feel it from his way of speaking and his actions.

If seeing that makes me think, ‘He must have been raised well,’ then it means I’m naturally a person standing on the opposite side. The class president and I were at antipodes. That made me even more miserable.

I constantly doubted and analyzed people. Gloomy, too. But I couldn’t help it. I knew that favors and goodwill were also, in the end, given because there’s benefit to oneself.

The reason Lee Wookchan nicely bought me things or bestowed things was also because he needed me.

Lee Wookchan needed me. Because I was his friend, and I became his trash can.

How many people know Lee Wookchan’s family history. I was fully qualified for that.

[Seonho.]

The class president calls me again.

[You live in Jungseon-dong, right?]

“…Yeah.”

[I’ll come. Will you wait?]

“Okay.”

I decided to meet the class president. And as always, I decided to constantly doubt him, read his emotions, and drown in skepticism. That’s right.

“I’ll be at home so call me when you arrive. If you take bus 716, it’ll drop you off at the convenience store across from the church. Call me when you get to the nearby stop. I’ll come out.”

∞ ∞ ∞

While waiting for the class president, I stopped by home. I crumpled a ten-thousand won bill into my pocket. I packed my bag to eat and go straight to the library.

Ding-dong, the doorbell rang with precise pronunciation. I tilted my head.

It couldn’t be the class president. Since it’s a late morning on the weekend, were they the people who often visit.

You know, the ones who ask if you go to church, or if they could have a glass of water. Actually, saying often—they came quite frequently.

Because it’s an apartment anyone can enter, without even a password on the building entrance.

I pressed close to the door and checked through the peephole. Having identified who rang the bell, I grabbed the door handle and pushed.

Why ring the doorbell. Just enter the password and come in.

“Why did you come?”

“It’s my house, why wouldn’t I come.”

“Don’t bullshit, really.”

It was Lee Wookchan. Just as I’d spent my weekend morning leisurely, he must have been the same. In the end he probably came to where I was because he had nowhere to go.

Lee Wookchan grabbed the door and opened it. Anyway, he does whatever he wants.

“Where’s your mom?”

“Went to the shop.”

“Where did you go?”

“I was at home.”

“Don’t bullshit, you fucking bastard.”

He threw a curse right away. I took the phone out of my pocket.

There was still no contact from the class president. He must be on his way.

“I came and you weren’t there so I went to the rooftop. You weren’t there either so I came back here.”

Lee Wookchan muttered while grinding his molars. Actually, I was a little scared. Because he’s a guy who hits when things don’t go his way.

I wasn’t the only one who got hit. Lee Wookchan’s friends got hit too. I don’t know about Mina noona. He probably didn’t hit her. He wasn’t that lacking in gangster ethics. If he got hit by his own noona, that’s one thing, but he’d never once laid a hand on her.

But unfortunately he fought with his hyung often. Though after Lee Wookchan got big, they probably didn’t fight.

When I gave no answer, Lee Wookchan’s face scrunched up desperately.

“Are you playing with me?”

He got irritated the moment he arrived, so I couldn’t react nicely either.

“Why are you angry? You followed me here without even contacting me.”

“Stop lying, I said.”

A bastard who only tells petty lies when he’s losing.

Still, I answered roughly. I didn’t want to bicker anymore.

“Ah— fine.”

Lee Wookchan took out water and drank. Even though I told him not to drink with his mouth on it, he deliberately puts his mouth on the plastic bottle.

In summer, when it’s hot, I’d understand, but now it was fully autumn. Going outside there was the smell of autumn.

The smell of dry fallen leaves, the smell of insect corpses rotting, the smell of ginkgo, the smell of the cooled wind were mixed in too.

I asked in a lukewarm voice.

“So why did you come?”

“Feed me.”

“Eat cup rice.”

“You make it for me.”

“Really, stop bullshitting.”

Lee Wookchan is good at being unreasonable. He gets drunk alone, comes to my house, and asks me to let him sleep.

He’d tell me to skip school for no reason, then tell me to study hard—he changed his words often.

Boil ramen, make me a meal, bring out side dishes. These things were countless. They were that common.

“Hey, Lee Wookchan.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to keep staying here?”

“Why.”

“I have plans.”

Twitch, Lee Wookchan’s eyebrow twitched. He slowly contorted his brow.

I just stared quietly at that face.

Lee Wookchan put his hands in his pockets. He had come close to me before I knew it.

We were facing each other. He was big and tall.

His downward-looking gaze was fierce. I couldn’t avoid it either.

Lee Wookchan tilted his head and met my eyes. He definitely came to take his anger out on me.

“Who, Soyoung?”

“What are you talking about.”

“Who is it.”

He licked his lips with his tongue.

“Gideok?”

“No. You don’t know him.”

“Where would your friend I don’t know be.”

A bastard without friends either. The words that followed.

I was certain. He definitely came to take his anger out on me.

“Why don’t I have friends.”

Lee Wookchan now openly made an irritated face. Still, I wasn’t scared.

I checked the time on my phone. A text had come.

It was the moment I moved my fingers to check the message.

Lee Wookchan grabbed the corner of the phone and lifted it. While I was off guard, it was snatched away.

Whoosh, Lee Wookchan raises it to his eye level. Height difference is annoying at times like this.

“Hey, give it back.”

When I got serious, Lee Wookchan read the message.

“Seonho, I’m in front of the convenience store now. Which way should I go?”

“…”

“Seonho, this bullshit.”

I wanted to smack that smug face once today.

“Give it.”

I got serious. Lee Wookchan acted like a full-on delinquent.

“I’ll send the reply for you. What should I send.”

“Give it to me, the phone.”

“Yeah, you nameless bastard. I’ll dress up pretty and go.”

He mocked, mocked, and mocked. Lee Wookchan was probably joking.

His way of speaking was originally this vulgar, and he was a selfish bastard who never thought of others.

I glared at Lee Wookchan. Lee Wookchan, who had been pretending to tap the keypad, hardened his expression.

He opened his eyes narrowly, looked at me, and handed the phone over. The message window was still open.

A white window with nothing written greeted me. My mood felt suffocated.

“Fucking boring.”

“…”

“I’m going to Mina’s. Seems like it’ll be more fun than you.”

Having finished speaking, Lee Wookchan turned his body as it was. Bang—! The sound of the door closing was brutal.

The sound of footsteps trudging down the hallway grew distant. I packed my bag.

Wait a moment in front of the convenience store. I’ll come out. I sent the message to the class president. Yeah, a short reply came back.

∞ ∞ ∞

What is a friend.

Always being together? Exchanging hearts? Not quite reaching romantic feelings?

That much trust and belief would be needed. But is there such a thing between Lee Wookchan and me.

We’ve always lived harboring only distrust. That was all we’d learned.

Trust, belief—to us they were childish words. Distrust was also abstract, but it was closer to our lives than trust or belief.

Why did Lee Wookchan take his anger out the moment he arrived. Why did he get irritated. My head was complicated.

“Food. Not good?”

Sushi and udon were placed before me. Just, a restaurant in a busy district.

There were quite a lot of people. The age range was diverse.

There weren’t really people our age, at most adults over twenty.

People with baby faces who looked like college students, young couples who came to eat with their small children, middle-aged women who came to eat with their friends.

A song played—some Japanese song, I didn’t know the title.

“They say this place is famous.”

The class president pointed at his phone. A famous restaurant in 00-dong.

It’s the downtown area located about two bus stops from our neighborhood. When we came here we took a taxi, and the class president even paid the taxi fare.