Chapter 22: Bridging the Distance

“…N-no, it’s not that!”

Forgetting that I had just been wary of Ban-ye a moment ago, I said loudly.

“It’s okay, I’m telling you. You can take your time finding a job.”

“….”

Ban-ye, perhaps thinking I was just being polite, didn’t answer and just stared silently at his empty plate.

His expression looked so pitiful that I grabbed his wrist.

Ban-ye rolled his eyes to look at me.

His pretty eyes, mixed with distrust and caution, scanned me.

I looked at that expression and spoke earnestly.

“The economy is bad these days, so it’s hard to find a part-time job. And, you can’t just go anywhere that says they’ll hire you like last time…. It could be a s-strange job, you know.”

Of course, I had never looked for a part-time job myself, but I had lived two more years than Ban-ye, so I felt I could give him this much of a lecture (?).

Ban-ye also listened to my words silently.

As I spoke, I told him everything I knew.

When I rattled on about stories I’d seen on the news about people being used as cash mules for voice phishing scams, Ban-ye fiddled with his ear, looking slightly like he didn’t want to hear it.

Still, he didn’t get annoyed and tell me to stop talking.

I watched Ban-ye touching his earlobe, and thinking he probably understood by now, I asked him again.

“Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Right…. So, don’t get anxious and just take any job. You can stay here as long as you need.”

“….”

Ban-ye paused at my words and then looked at me.

For the first time, a genuinely puzzled expression appeared on his face.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Huh?”

“I haven’t really done anything for you, hyung, so it’s strange that you’re being so nice.”

It was a very Ban-ye-like thing to say, yet for some reason, I also found it wasn’t so easy to find an answer.

Sweat started to form in the palm of my hand that was boldly gripping Ban-ye’s wrist.

Also, my face strangely felt flushed.

Unlike when I was talking about part-time jobs and looking him straight in the eye, now it felt embarrassing to even look at Ban-ye’s face.

In the end, I stealthily let go of his wrist and mumbled, averting my gaze.

“That’s because… you and I have a s-special connection….”

“Special?”

“Yeah…. You’re the first person I’ve met like this, I….”

Just as I said that, Ban-ye once again asked a question that shattered my mood.

“Did you not meet up with Sisi separately either?”

“Why are you bringing up Sisi!”

I yelled.

Without a hint of apology, Ban-ye asked again, “You didn’t meet?”

“I told you we didn’t!” I snapped back.

Only then did Ban-ye apologize to me.

Of course, his face didn’t look sorry at all.

After that day, Ban-ye’s attitude changed subtly.

First, his living space within the house expanded.

When he first came, he was always at the dining table, or at my desk in my room only when I was there, and mostly cooped up in his own room.

But these days, he would sit on the living room sofa, and sometimes he would go into my room and use the laptop even when I wasn’t there, and if I wasn’t sleeping, he would take naps on my bed.

It seemed Ban-ye was used to sleeping on a bed, as sleeping on the floor seemed to tire him out.

Thinking he liked the bed, I asked, ‘Should we sleep together?’, but he didn’t answer, probably because he was still too shy.

And secondly, he offered to cook.

I usually ate instant rice with 3-minute curry or ramen, but after about a week of that, Ban-ye said it was too greasy and offered to buy groceries.

So we went grocery shopping together, and surprisingly, Ban-ye knew how to cook.

Was it incredibly delicious? Not really, but it was definitely lighter and less salty than instant food.

I found it amazing that he could make simple soups and side dishes and told him it was cool, and after that, Ban-ye started looking up recipes for side dishes or one-pan pasta online and making them for me.

In return, I did the dishes, cleaned the rooms, and organized things as Ban-ye instructed.

Actually, there was a storage room in the house where I had just piled up things I didn’t know how to organize, and when Ban-ye saw it, he made me organize a few things a day….

I had noticed it when he organized my inventory back then, but Ban-ye had a knack for dividing things into sections and organizing them.

Even though it was my house, Ban-ye helped me organize things I didn’t even know I had.

The messy room I used for storage also looked much better.

However, the problem was that while cleaning out the storage, a dark part of my past was unearthed along with it.

“To Da-jung?”

“Huh? …Ah, w-wait! Don’t look at that! Don’t open it!”

Ban-ye had found a letter I wrote to give to Kwon Da-jung when I was crazy about him, and the moment it fell into Ban-ye’s hands, I jumped up and tried to snatch it away, but I couldn’t reach him.

Ban-ye held it up high, removed the envelope, and started reading it while standing there nonchalantly.

I was so mortified that I yelled at Ban-ye.

“Why are you looking at it! I told you not to read it!”

“….”

But, Ban-ye silently read the entire letter.

It was only a few lines, but I had written a lot of cringey things like how much I liked him and that I would give him this letter when we met, so I was incredibly upset and annoyed.

I considered hitting Ban-ye, but the memory of his savage kick to the trash can came to mind, and I couldn’t do anything, so I ended up going into my room and slamming the door shut.

But soon the door opened, and Ban-ye followed me in, fluttering the letter in his hand.

“You wrote this to give to Sisi?”

“….”

Instead of answering, I hugged a pillow and glared at the j*rk.

Right now, I hated Ban-ye more than Kwon Da-jung.

However, Ban-ye didn’t care whether I glared at him or not and plopped down on the corner of the bed where I was sitting.

Then he stretched his hand out to me.

The letter dangled from his fingertips.

“Aren’t you being too much…?”

I looked at Ban-ye like that and spoke, clenching my jaw.

There are things you can joke about and things you can’t….

However, Ban-ye was unfazed by my attitude.

“You look at all my stuff these days, hyung.”

“…What?”

“The laptop is yours too, so if you really wanted to, you could look at all my messages and stuff.”

At Ban-ye’s sophistry, I threw the pillow I was holding to the side and yelled.

“Hey! Are you kidding me! When have I ever read a love letter you wrote?!”

“I don’t write things like that, so you can’t see them. Besides, who told you to treasure it so dearly….”

“…W-what did you say?”

I couldn’t believe Ban-ye’s sarcastic words and my eyes flew open, but Ban-ye just chuckled and took back my letter that I hadn’t taken, tucking it away.

It seemed like he was going to take it and not give it back, so I reached out my hand again.

“What the! Give it back!”

“You didn’t take it when I offered.”

“It’s mine!”

And ridiculously, Ban-ye really didn’t give the letter back to me.

I had a cold war with Ban-ye for three days over that incident, but Ban-ye treated me the same as always, even though I was pouting and being cold to him.

He talked to me as usual, slept in my bed during the day, and called me to eat at mealtimes.

In the end, without finding the whereabouts of the letter, my anger fizzled out anticlimactically.

Today again, I poked Ban-ye in the back as he was nonchalantly napping on my bed and said.

“…If you do that again, I’ll never forgive you.”

Ban-ye opened his eyes narrowly, sat up, and asked.

“You have another letter like this?”

“What? No! You really…!”

I still had my pride, so I tried to give him a stern warning, but Ban-ye barely listened to me and offered no apology.

I was about to get offended, but Ban-ye blinked slowly and said to me.

“I put it in your drawer, hyung.”

“Put what?”

“The letter.”

He then pointed to my desk drawer with his chin.

I immediately opened the desk drawer and found my neatly folded letter there.

A strange feeling washed over me.

I was upset, thinking he was disgusted that a guy wrote a letter to another guy….

I asked bluntly.

“…Why did you tease me if you were going to give it back?”

Ban-ye was silent for a long time, then looked at the wall and replied.

“I felt like teasing you.”

“…You’re so mean.”

Still, I felt much better after getting the letter back, so I played with Ban-ye like usual.

However….

Of all days, that was the day I happened to see the edited video of Sisi’s last livestream on YouTube.

And in that edited version, I saw him say something that seemed to be aimed at me, which completely ruined my mood.