How to Avoid the Monday Blues Chapter 12

The zipline Sewon had reserved was, unlike the photos, on a gentle slope. On top of that, thanks to the safety devices being fastened in multiple layers, there was no worry at all about falling.

“Are you ready?”

At the staff member’s question, Sewon nodded vigorously.

“Then here we go—!”

At the staff member’s signal, Sewon set off cutting through the wind. The area around his shoulders, where the wire was connected, was pulled taut and ached. Soon after, a refreshing breeze tickled Sewon’s head.

When he dangled his legs lightly, it felt like flying through the sky. He had never flown before, but it was probably similar. The zipline moved at a rather slow speed, so he even had the leisure to worry about useless things like, What if my leg gets caught on a tree?

At the end of the short descent, Sewon reached the arrival point on the opposite side. As he took off the heavy suit and came down, he saw the man leaning at an angle against the stairs.

“It wasn’t scary at all.”

Sewon said while tidying his messy hair. The man was smiling as he looked at Sewon. Perhaps because it was a day with especially good sunlight, the man’s smile seemed to sparkle.

“Impressive. Good job.”

“The internet said it was an extreme sport.”

“That seems like false advertising, honestly.”

The man said, looking at the little kids returning after just finishing the zipline experience.

“Still, it’s fine. Anyway, it’s the first time I’ve done something I’d never done before.”

Sewon answered with a refreshed smile. There were two things he had resolved when leaving on the trip. One was to do things he had never done in Korea, and the other was to sort out his unrequited love for Han Jaehee.

Making “first” experiences was going reasonably well. No, it was beyond plan.

But forgetting Han Jaehee was….

Sewon’s gaze turned toward the man beside him. Today, while with the man, Sewon had not thought of Han Jaehee even once.

“Left.”

“Ah…, it’s not here?”

Just as Sewon was about to boldly turn into the right alley, the man grabbed Sewon’s arm and pulled him back.

“If I’d left you alone, it would’ve been a real disaster.”

The man said with a laugh, pointing to the restaurant on the left. It was the İskender kebab specialty restaurant Sewon and the man had been looking for. The map had clearly said right, though…. The arrow on the phone he looked down at again was annoyingly pointing left.

Sewon could not agree with the man calling him “baby,” but he admitted inwardly that if the man hadn’t been there, he would have gotten lost.

“You’re really good at finding your way….”

Sewon praised in an awkward voice. At the compliment he was hearing for the first time, the man shrugged his shoulders.

“Is that so.”

The restaurant the two had found after seeing it online and thinking, This is the one!, was crowded with a mix of locals and tourists, just like other famous restaurants in Istanbul. As soon as they sat down and ordered, the food was ready right away.

Melted butter was generously poured over the thinly sliced meat. Perhaps because of the fresh salad that came with it, only the rich flavor of the meat came through, and it was not greasy like he had worried.

“…So you’re saying you watched Bourne 4 in elementary school?”

The two’s conversation had somehow reached movies, through which they could gauge each other’s tastes.

Sewon nodded at the man’s question. In the Bourne series, the ones set in Istanbul were the first and fourth films, and both were hazy in Sewon’s memory.

“Yes. That one was rated 19, right? A sexy scene suddenly came on, so my mom pressed my face down with an apple peel.”

“When did that even come out, for you to have watched it in elementary school….”

The man, listening to Sewon, cupped one cheek with his hand and made a serious face. In the man’s memory, Bourne 4 was not that old a movie.

“It’s already… been over 10 years?”

“If you watched that in elementary school, then it makes sense you don’t remember any of it….”

“No. I watched it enjoyably, so I remember bits and pieces. I’m going to watch it again when I go back to Korea.”

The man explained in more detail about the Istanbul that appeared in the film. The Istanbul in the movie from Sewon’s memory and the background the man described were intersecting in reality.

The man was quite a passionate fan of the Bourne series. He said the reason he chose the boutique hotel he was staying at now was purely because of the movie. He even confessed that at the time, he had been so into the movie that he had directly ordered the leather jacket the protagonist wore from overseas. It was hard to imagine the man wearing a leather jacket covered in patches.

Sewon, who had been bursting into laughter while talking with the man, suddenly felt a sense of incongruity in this situation.

Sightseeing in the city’s landmarks, sharing food, exchanging trivial and personal stories, and laughing….

He did not know exactly, but he felt it was just like a date that lovers would go on. Once again, he felt his throat go dry.

“By the way.”

“…?”

“…Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

Hyung, hyung-nim, teacher, excuse me. Unable to find a suitable way to address the man, he threw out the question abruptly. Rationalizing that since the man had asked him the same question, returning it in the same way would not be so rude.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“You’re curious about that?”

“…Yes.”

“…What do you think?”

The man asked, resting his chin on his hand and looking at Sewon. Sewon answered in a serious tone, listing plausible reasons.

“If you came traveling alone, I’d think you probably don’t have one. But adult relationships can be different, so you might.”

“I don’t.”

The man gave an easy, light answer, making Sewon’s painstaking response seem pointless.

“You said you don’t have a lover, right?”

“Yes….”

Sewon answered while staring intently at the man’s face. He took in the man’s face, which turned reality into unreality. Looking at the neat features and shining eyes visible under the bright lighting, Sewon added a sentence as if bewitched.

“But I…, I do have someone I like. My first love.”

At Sewon’s words, the man’s brow narrowed faintly for a moment.

“Who?”

“My closest friend….”

While with the man, he had been proud that he did not think of Han Jaehee, but somehow now he had ended up bringing Han Jaehee up at the table at all. Keeping the second resolution was not as easy as he had thought.

“Why, is it not going well?”

“…I never even planned to try in the first place.”

Sewon’s cynical answer was unexpected, so the man, who had been drinking water, set down his cup. And with an expression tinged with interest, he looked at Sewon.

“Why?”

“It’s a bit…, complicated. I like him, but….”

“Do you not feel like you want to have sex with him?”

Cutting off Sewon’s trailing words, the man threw out a question. Unlike his indifferent tone, the explicit choice of words made Sewon’s eyes go wide.

“What?”

“Why?”

“He’s more special to me than that. He stayed with me when things were hard, I want to rely on him when things are difficult, and I want to be helpful to him too. It sounds strange, but he’s the kind of person I want to stay with for life even without… that kind of thing.”

Sewon rambled on about his feelings for Han Jaehee, which were hard to define clearly. The man, who had been listening seriously, looked at Sewon and snorted.

“To me, that’s not romance, that’s more like… brotherly love.”

“…Do we really have to…, do S-E-X? Is that so important?”

Lacking the courage to say it as bluntly as the man, Sewon lowered his voice and spelled out the word in question.

Only after finishing did he regret thinking he should have used a word like intercourse or copulation. He wondered if he would be teased again for being like a baby, but the man still had a serious expression.

“Then, you won’t do it?”

“Actually, I’ve imagined up to kissing. Beyond that is a bit….”

“Why?”

“It’s just, a bit….”

Sewon said with a slight frown. Whether because his imagination was lacking or because of guilt, Sewon had never thought about sexual acts with Han Jaehee, even in dreams.

He had arrived at the clumsy conclusion that his unrequited love was probably something nobler and more transcendent than ordinary romance like that.

“It’s important.”

“…”

The man, lowering his gaze, brought his fork and knife over a piece of red tomato on the plate.

“…Adult romance is.”

“…”