Chapter 38: The Following Gaze (14)

“Come in, come in. It’s a bit dusty though.”

Jisung opened the front door and guided them in. The potted plant that had been placed next to the shoe rack had withered and was almost dead from being neglected for a long time.

“Oh dear…”

He hurried to the kitchen, filled a cup with water, and poured it into the pot. He didn’t know if it would be effective, but he thought it would be better than doing nothing. As he opened the balcony door wide, a cool breeze tickled his bangs. The weather was nice today, with the sunlight not being too strong.

“It’s a perfect day for a big clean-up.”

Minseong’s Guide, ‘Junho’, approached the sofa and swiped his index finger across the top. His finger was covered in white dust.

“It seems we need to dust it off before we can sit down.”

“Ah, sorry. Just a moment.”

As Jisung brought a dry cloth, Junho naturally took the cloth from his hand and started cleaning the sofa.

“No, why are you doing that?”

“I have nothing else to do… and since I came along even though I wasn’t wanted, I want to help if there’s anything I can do.”

“You came here for a mission.”

“But you could have refused, but you agreed because Minseong-hyung was being stubborn. …And it’s also partly my fault for being hungry.”

Junho’s cheeks flushed red again. His face was expressionless, but his emotions were rich. Jisung smiled faintly and gently ruffled his hair. Junho’s eyes widened. Jisung said to him, who was blinking blankly.

“Is there anything you want to eat?”

“…Jjajangmyeon.”

“Jjajangmyeon is good. Hyunwoo… hmm?”

Jisung, who had turned back, closed his mouth at Hyunwoo’s sullen expression. His pouting lips and furrowed brow… he was sulking. But why? Jisung tilted his head to the side.

‘Is it because I brought Minseong along? But he didn’t show any particular reaction until we got home.’

Jisung frowned, not knowing the reason. Then Hyunwoo, who had strode up to him, rubbed his forehead against his shoulder and muttered in a blunt voice.

“You’re too soft on your younger brothers, Hyung…”

“Huh? What did you say?”

As Jisung asked again, Hyunwoo hugged his body tightly instead of answering.

“Ack?! It hurts, it hurts! Hey!”

And watching the two of them, Sunwoo muttered to himself.

“I expected Hyunwoo-hyung to be very jealous, but he’s even more so than I thought.”

“Well, that’s true…”

“It’s a relief, if anything, that he’s not jealous of us.”

“Yeah.”

Yuaan nodded in agreement with Sunwoo’s words.

Jisung, who didn’t know why he was upset but was looking at Hyunwoo who was clinging to his body, raised his hand and ruffled his hair. As he looked at his widened eyes, Jisung spun around and cupped his cheeks with both hands and smiled.

“…?!”

“Why the long face~ Are you hungry? I’m going to have jjambbong, what about you?”

“…I’ll have jjambbong too.”

“Okay~”

Jisung smiled and lightly bumped his forehead against Hyunwoo’s, then quickly pulled away. Hyunwoo gently touched his forehead where Jisung had touched him, watching him move away after briefly stroking his head. Sunwoo shook his head at the sight of the shyly smiling Hyunwoo.

He was quick to sulk, but also quick to get over it.

“What are you three going to eat?”

“I’ll have jjajangmyeon.”

“I’ll… jjambbong!”

“Won’t jjambbong be too spicy for you, Hyung?”

“You think so…?”

Yuaan frowned in thought and then changed his order to jjajangmyeon.

“Add fried dumplings!”

“Alright, alright.”

“I wanted to try eating it like they do in Oldboy!”

“…Sure.”

Jisung slowly nodded, looking at Yuaan with sparkling eyes. He had been focusing on movies whenever he was bored lately, and it seemed he had even watched old movies.

“What about you, Minseong?”

“I’ll have cold jjambbong.”

“Then, three jjajangmyeon, two jjambbong, and one cold jjambbong, and fried dumplings… we need sweet and sour pork too, right?”

Yuaan nodded vigorously at Jisung’s question. At that, Jisung ordered from his usual place using a delivery app and then put on a mask to start cleaning.

“I guess I’ll clean while we wait for the jjajangmyeon to arrive.”

As he was about to grab the vacuum cleaner in the corner of the living room, Sunwoo’s hand grabbed it first. As he looked at him with a puzzled expression, Sunwoo turned on the vacuum cleaner and said.

“I’ll vacuum. You can clean somewhere else, Hyung.”

“No, it’s okay, just sit down. Ah, you can’t sit down because of the dust. I’ll vacuum quickly, so just wait a moment… no, don’t you do it!”

“It’s okay. It’s boring to just sit still, and since I’m staying at your house, I should at least vacuum.”

“What do you mean, staying at my house? Since when did you care about such things… no, why are you holding a duster?! Put it down!”

Jisung stopped Yuaan, who was holding a duster behind Sunwoo with sparkling eyes. But he was quite stubborn. He had a blurry gaze as he looked at Yuaan, who said he wanted to clean too.

“Hyung, there’s dust on the dishes you left out, wouldn’t it be better to wash them?”

“…Where did you get the rubber gloves?”

“They were in the drawer.”

“So you’re going to wash the dishes?”

“Yeah.”

Jisung’s mouth became a thin line as he looked at the brightly smiling Minseong. ‘Why can’t they just rest when I tell them to?’ As Jisung put his hand on his forehead, he felt a stinging gaze from the side. As he looked up with a puzzled expression, Hyunwoo was staring at him.

“Why…?”

“What should I do?”

“…You’re going to do it too?”

“Yeah.”

It was Jisung who eventually raised the white flag at his serious face as he nodded. At the words to dust the bookshelf, Hyunwoo crinkled his eyes and smiled brightly. Jisung smiled bitterly with a look of resignation at his overjoyed appearance.

The house, which had been empty for a long time, was more dusty than he had thought. The sounds of dusting, vacuuming, and dishes clattering could be heard from all over. Jisung, who had come out after diligently scrubbing the moldy bathroom, tapped his creaking back and headed to the room. Then he saw Hyunwoo carefully but meticulously dusting each book.

‘He doesn’t have to be that meticulous…’

But since he was concentrating and cleaning diligently, he just let him be. As he opened the zipper to wash the pillow and blanket covers,

Thud.

He heard something fall to the floor. As he turned back, he saw Hyunwoo flusteredly picking up a book. As he was carefully checking if there were any scratches, a photo fluttered out from between the pages and fell to the floor.

“Hyung, I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay~”

Jisung, who had smiled at the dejected Hyunwoo, picked up the photo that had fallen to the floor. ‘Why is there a photo here…?’ As he checked the photo with a puzzled expression, his eyes widened. “Ah,” a short sigh escaped his lips.

“Hyung? What’s wrong?”

At Jisung’s reaction, Hyunwoo slyly turned his gaze and checked the photo. There, a much younger-looking Jisung and a boy he had never seen before were pictured, clinging to each other affectionately.

“So this was here…”

A deep sense of longing could be felt in Jisung’s voice. Hyunwoo felt a tightness in his chest at the sight of him looking at the photo with an expression he had never seen before.

“This…”

“Who is this person?”

Jisung, startled by Sunwoo who had suddenly peeked his head in.

“Ah, you scared me! Sunwoo… I told you to make some noise when you move…”

“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s a habit… But, who is this person? A friend of yours, Hyung?”

“Ah, yeah. A close friend I’ve known since middle school.”

“He looks popular.”

Minseong, who had come up to his side at some point, said, looking at the photo. Then Junho, who had followed him, also nodded in agreement.

“And he looks very kind.”

“…He was kind. He was also very popular. To the point that he was famous in other schools too~”

“Are you still in touch with him?”

At Junho’s question, Jisung’s pupils darkened. After staring at the photo for a moment, he smiled and shook his head from side to side.

“No, we lost touch after graduation… I don’t even know what he’s doing now. I heard he went to study abroad…”

“Do you miss him?”

“Huh?”

Jisung looked at Minseong. As he blinked blankly at the sudden question, Minseong smiled gently and said.

“You had a very longing expression on your face.”

“Ah…”

Jisung touched his face. He was curious about what kind of expression he was making, but there was no way to check. ‘It wasn’t a strange expression, was it?’

“It’s just… we parted suddenly. I’m also curious about what he’s doing now… Of course, I’m sure Suhyun would be doing well wherever he is…”

“Suhyun? Is that person’s name Suhyun?”

Jisung nodded slightly at the sudden question. At that, Hyunwoo narrowed his eyes and looked at the photo.

“Should I look for him?”

“Huh?”

Jisung’s eyes widened at Minseong’s words.

“Look for him, Suhyun?”

“Yeah.”

“…Can you find him?”

At his question, Minseong smiled brightly and nodded vigorously.

“I may look like this, but I have a pretty wide network of connections. If you want, I can try to find him.”

“Then…!”

Jisung momentarily stopped his words and then moved his lips. After frowning in thought for a moment, he bit his lip and shook his head.

“No. You must be tired with all the missions, I can’t ask you to do this too.”

“No, I’m fine…”

“No, really, it’s okay.”

“But…”

Ding-dong.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. “Delivery~” At the voice from outside the door, Jisung put the photo he was holding back between the pages of the book. Then he placed it on the desk and tapped Minseong’s back.

“The food is here. Let’s eat first and then clean again.”

Minseong seemed to have more to say, but he nodded and smiled. As everyone was going out to eat, Hyunwoo, who was standing still in his place, stared at the book on the desk.

“Suhyun…”

A somewhat sullen voice muttered the name.