How to Avoid the Monday Blues Chapter 4

“Ah, move quickly, I said! Hurry up, move forward.”

Whenever the line inched forward even a little, the man standing behind him nagged Sewon in a gruff voice. He even went so far as to nudge him over and over. Just as Sewon, feeling a sense of crisis, was about to step forward—

A problem arose.

An extremely, urgently pressing problem.

“I’m going crazy.”

A faint sigh escaped through his tightly grit teeth. An emergency light switched on in his brain.

He had drunk… way too much water.

Let’s stay calm, stay calm. My bladder is also a organ of my body. It can be controlled by free will. Sewon cast a spell on himself, but it wasn’t much help. For some reason, among the foreign words coming from behind, only the “shh-shh” sounds pierced through his ears with greater intensity.

Pondering the driving force behind serving God and the mindset of seeking the Almighty felt like a distant, far-off memory. Sewon squeezed the plastic bottle in his hand until it made a crunching sound. The long-stretching queue to enter had grown much shorter than before. It was the result of a long period of patience.

“Haaa….”

Now Sewon was looking for a savior in a different sense. Knowing it was a useless effort, he still looked around his surroundings. There was nobody here except people eying Sewon’s spot for a chance to take it.

Is there a restroom inside the mosque?

No, first of all, can I hold it until I get there? While coldly assessing the situation, Sewon soon began repenting for his past mistakes.

Why on earth did I gulp down all that water?

In that brief moment when he felt like he might burst at any second, all kinds of philosophical thoughts and worst-case scenarios entered his mind.

“Hey, move fast.”

From behind, the man patted Sewon’s shoulder as he stood with his two legs tightly pressed together. Although he heard the rushing voice, Sewon stood rooted to the spot as if nailed down.

Don’t touch me, I might explode.

Instead of saying that aloud, Sewon protested with wide, round eyes like a Chihuahua holding back its temper.

To be honest… it was such a waste.

He had waited for almost an hour, so giving up like this felt far too frustrating. Normally, he would have politely excused himself and visited the restroom, but Sewon picked up on the room through context clues. Showing even a tiny sliver of an opening would mean this spot would be wiped out.

Right then.

The man he had seen at the hotel today came into Sewon’s view. Although he was a stranger, because Sewon had recalled that face several times in his mind, he felt somehow familiar.

Floating above the face of the man he had merely thought of as handsome, an angel’s halo now seemed to be hovering alongside it.

“Excuse me….”

Sewon called out to the man in a voice like a crawling whisper. But perhaps due to the distance between them, the man didn’t seem to hear Sewon’s words. Squeezing the plastic bottle in his hand as if wringing it, Sewon stared desperately at the man.

Please, please just look this way, he thought.

“….”

“….”

Just then, Sewon and the man’s eyes met in midair.

It was his chance.

As the pulling sensation and pressure in his lower abdomen grew stronger, Sewon’s brain began spinning at full speed.

What on earth should I call this man?

The man looked too young to be called “Mister,” and he was excessively handsome.

On the other hand, Sewon didn’t have a thick enough face to call a man he had only casually exchanged a few words with hyung or hyung-nim. While Sewon hesitated briefly, the man whose eyes had met his began to move.

Thinking he was about to leave, a panicked Sewon blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Excuse me, teacher!”

Out of all the titles one could address a stranger with in Korean society, the absolute most excessively polite one popped right out of Sewon’s mouth.

“…Me?”

As if he couldn’t believe Sewon’s overly polite title, the man looked around his surroundings. But nowhere nearby was there anyone old enough to be called “teacher.”

“Yes. You, teacher.”

When Sewon nodded and answered, the man ran a hand down his cheek and let out a light, quiet chuckle.

“Would you like to stand in line with me?”

“I appreciate it, but I’m fine….”

“There’s an entry limit of 2,000 people at a time, so if you wait from back there, it’ll probably take a really long time.”

When the man showed signs of declining the offer, Sewon persuaded him with a desperate expression. A jumble of incoherent words poured out.

“I’m fine….”

“It’s just that I’m really, really in a hurry.”

When the man attempted to decline once more, Sewon ultimately couldn’t hold back and candidly confessed the state of his lower body. Noticing his tightly closed lips, his anxious-looking face, and, most decisively, Sewon’s restless, shuffling steps, the man nodded.

“Go ahead and come back.”

“Thank you.”

Sewon politely bowed his head deeply before raising it back up. The man wore a face that looked like he was suppressing a laugh. Sewon felt embarrassed late in the game, but he couldn’t help it. He had a different emergency right now. Leaving behind a request to hold his spot and his faith in the man, Sewon turned around.

Promising himself that from now on, he would drink water in moderation.

Whether there had been a massive wave of admissions while Sewon was in the restroom, the line had grown remarkably shorter. Sewon walked back up to stand next to the man with brisk, light steps. As they stood side by side in line, the awkwardness set in a beat late.

The man merely left Sewon with a brief nod upon his return and asked nothing. Glancing sideways at him, Sewon broke the silence first.

“You’re Korean, right?”

He blurted it out first and regretted it immediately after.

‘Are you Korean?’

He recalled a beat late that this was ranked as one of the worst, most dreaded lines to hear at a travel destination by many people.

“Yes.”

Turning his head, the man looked at Sewon and answered. The low, reverberating voice was a pleasant baritone. It was a voice that matched his face well.

“Did you come traveling alone?”

Keep your mouth shut, Gong Sewon.

Sewon regretted it yet again. He had tossed it out in his own way to break the awkwardness, but it ended up sounding like he was hitting on him. The fortunate thing was that the man didn’t seem to mind much.

“Something like that. I came on a business trip and needed to kill some time….”

The man tucked the book he was holding into his bag. Even though it was a brief moment, the cover was familiar, so Sewon instantly recognized the title. It was Orhan Pamuk’s essay collection, Istanbul.

“I’m not usually… very talkative or outgoing. But while traveling, I wanted to act a bit differently. Try new things, too…. That’s why I asked.”

It’s not like I’m prying into your personal life or anything… Sewon added in a quiet voice. Finishing his excuse-like explanation, Sewon lowered his head and avoided eye contact. Watching that sight, the man spoke.

“That makes two of us.”

“…Being quiet?”

Sewon, whose crestfallen posture was glaringly obvious, raised his face and asked.

“No, the latter.”

“Ah….”

Wanting to act differently while traveling.

He had thought it was just childish bravado, something only someone like him—traveling alone and abroad for the first time—would decide to do. It was fascinating that someone else thought this way, too.

Especially a man who looked as though he had never had to ask for a favor in his entire life.

“Because of my job, I jabber on all day long…, so normally I become quite taciturn. I might not be very entertaining company.”

“Ah….”

The man said as he slightly raised the corners of his mouth. Sewon felt as though he was asking for understanding while simultaneously drawing a firm line.

The queued-up people began moving forward. But this time, nobody nudged Sewon’s back or followed up with dissatisfied noises.

“By any chance, did the people standing behind us say anything to you?”

Sewon asked the man, keeping his voice hushed.

“They were saying something…, but I couldn’t understand it.”

Although it was impossible to know what kind of conversation had passed between the man and the group standing behind Sewon, it was undeniable that the man had won the power struggle. And naturally so, as the man was a tall figure who towered a full head above the people standing behind them.

“Thank you for holding the spot.”

“Did you put out the urgent fire all right?”

“…Yes.”

Thank you once again, Sewon added in a small voice.

“That’s a relief.”

There was a hint of playfulness in the man’s voice. Curiously, even without talking much or giving off an overly comfortable vibe, the man was keeping the conversation going without awkwardness. The only one creaking along was Sewon.

“Um….”

“Yes?”