Chapter 6: We’re Not Friends

It wasn’t that I was drinking this to get closer to you.

I’m just humoring you because your dog is cute.

And also because I’m grateful for your help.

Radiating that kind of vibe, Mu-yun accepted the milk.

Whether he had bought them on a bundle sale at the nearby convenience store, one of the three milks became Mu-yun’s share.

He stuck the thin straw in and sucked.

The characteristic sweet taste spread across his tongue.

Sitting on a bench with a decent stretch of tree shade, drinking banana milk, his brow furrowed on its own.

“Don’t you like it?”

Mu-yun looked at his neighbor, who was holding a tiny milk carton in his large hands, and shook his head.

“It’s not that.

I just can’t handle sweet things well.

But milk—well, it’s banana milk, so of course it tastes good.”

The dark eyebrows, drawn as if someone had deliberately sketched them beautifully, twitched.

Warmth spread across the simply handsome face—different from ‘handsome in his own way’—as if spring had momentarily arrived.

“Next time, I’ll give you coffee.”

‘Do I have to?’

Mu-yun wondered if there should even be a next time, but he just nodded.

Rather than creating a tiresome situation with someone, it was easier on his mind to brush it off like an empty pleasantry.

It was no different from a ‘let’s eat sometime’ promise.

“By the way.

So it seems giving is fine for you, even though receiving isn’t?”

Unless he had a condition that made him feel fear or aversion to rice cakes and chocolate cookies, that is.

At his words, a pleasant, low laugh rang out.

“Because giving doesn’t get complaints filed?

And because of this guy, I never accept chocolate in the first place.”

Mu-yun unintentionally let out a low grunt of understanding.

“Seeing that you understood right away, I guess you heard about it somewhere?”

The firefighter from next door smiled, lifting only the corners of his mouth.

Feeling as if he had been caught gossiping, Mu-yun awkwardly averted his eyes and shrugged.

“Similar things happen on our side too.

I heard to be careful not to get hurt for no reason.”

Helping others was good, and taking on the role of keeping society running reasonably well was rewarding, but cases that made you feel disgusted with humanity itself could always happen, whether you were a cop or a firefighter.

He had helped someone, and when they thanked him, he simply accepted it.

But to an outsider, it might not look that way—that was a somewhat insulting thing to say.

Especially since he wasn’t doing it expecting anything in return.

Sergeant Park had said that the secret to a long career in the police force was to keep kindness as a work attitude and not waste your emotions on it.

Mu-yun didn’t say everything he was thinking, but the firefighter from next door seemed to understand what he was getting at.

“Come to think of it, it’s true.

After working night shifts and dealing with drunks, your love for humanity does disappear by the time you get off work.”

“That’s exactly it.”

Mu-yun shrugged.

Then he took another sip of the banana milk, which was sweet enough to make his tongue tingle.

Despite his desire not to have any friction with his neighbor, the milk lingered on his tongue.

Social life was this hard, huh?

He barely managed to swallow the sweetness down his throat.

“If you hate it that much, you don’t have to finish it.”

“But I already put my mouth on it.

If I don’t drink it, I’d have to throw it away.”

“Why throw it away for no reason?”

Mu-yun narrowed his eyes and looked to the side.

The face with the dark features grinned as if it wasn’t a joke.

“You drank it with a straw, so you can just take the lid off and drink it.

I originally bought them all for myself.

I just shared one.”

The words burrowed into his ears, and Mu-yun’s face contorted.

“You drink all three of these?”

Something this sweet?

Regardless of his puzzlement, the young man from next door swallowed his banana milk in an instant as if it were plain water, put the empty carton in the bag, took out a new one, and stuck in another straw.

“…Should I buy you another one if that’s not enough?”

Mu-yun opened his mouth, not exactly eager but as if to say he would.

“It’s a limited edition with a new character design.

I bought up the whole stock, so you probably won’t see it around here anymore.”

Every time his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, the milk slurp-slurp disappeared.

Watching him, Mu-yun put the straw back in his mouth.

No matter how much someone liked sweets, drinking that much sugar would make their blood vessels scream for help.

Deciding that he, being physically healthy, should make a small sacrifice, Mu-yun steeled himself and downed the banana milk as if it were a bitter herbal medicine.

“By the way, Officer, what’s your name?”

Mu-yun, who had been furrowing his brow deeply, spat out the straw.

It was a bit funny to be exchanging names only after meeting several times.

“So Mu-yun.

Rookie officer.

And you?”

“Won Tae-i.

Firefighter.

I’ve been here for six months?

Around that.”

One important piece of information for a Korean person was missing.

“How old are you?”

Mu-yun asked casually, harboring a hopeful wish that if the other was younger, he wouldn’t let it slide.

“Twenty-seven.

And you, Officer So Mu-yun?”

“…Twenty-seven.”

Red lips curved into a graceful arc.

“Then we’re friends.”

‘I’ve never had a friend like you!’

Mu-yun suppressed the urge to shout and let out a snort.

“I’m quite shy.

I don’t get close to people easily on first meeting.”

“I think we’ve seen each other about five times now.

Or not?”

“Two of those times, you—I mean, Captain Won—made me feel shy, though.”

“That’s why I gave you the new limited edition banana milk.”

From the end of the straw scraping the bottom, a loud slurrrp sound echoed.

Beeeeep—!

Mu-yun winced at the long tinnitus ringing in his ear.

“You really hate that, huh.”

It was true that he disliked sweet things, but the tinnitus he had just heard in his head was a completely unrelated issue.

“…It’s because I have a headache.”

Whenever he heard Won Tae-i’s voice, it felt like a strange mechanical sound rang in his ears.

It had been gradually increasing in volume, and this time it was loud enough to make him flinch.

“Maybe it’s because you suddenly ate something sweet?”

Tae-i snatched the milk from Mu-yun’s hand.

It was a bit cheap to give something and then take it back, but Mu-yun was grateful for that cheapness right now, so he handed it over without complaint.

As he rubbed his still-throbbing forehead, a large hand—large enough to cover it—lightly approached as if checking his temperature.

“I have headache medicine.

Want some?”

Mu-yun, who had gently closed his eyes as if his eyelashes were stroking his palm, shook his head, then paused.

A low laugh came from above his head.

“Then I’ll just touch it for a moment.”

Unlike his cold-looking face, his hands were still warm, just like the hands that had supported him at dawn.

Still, they weren’t friends after all.

***

March 11th

The wind was especially chilly today.

The spring that was supposed to have come had fled, and winter winds were blowing again.

Mu-yun, who had come out wearing a hoodie and a cardigan, hunched his shoulders deeply.

It was less than a three-minute walk from home to the police box, so coming out with his hair still slightly damp had been a mistake.

Sniffling, he wished the traffic light at the intersection would change quickly.

With his hands in his pants pockets, he was hopping in place when he felt a tapping from behind.

Startled, he pulled out his earbuds and turned around.

Tae-i smiled brightly.

“You’re out early?”

Mu-yun, flabbergasted, soon frowned.

“You’re quite short with words, Captain Won.”

“Officer So, you drop your endings too.”

Shrugging, Tae-i offered a very simple solution.

Then, glancing toward the fire station where he needed to go for work, he rummaged in his pocket.

“Here.”

His hand came out of his pocket and placed a small, colorful coated plastic bag onto Mu-yun’s palm.

“Do good work.”

Saying that, Tae-i strode off to the safety center without waiting for an answer.

Mu-yun closed his open mouth and then let out a hollow laugh.

He clenched the bear-shaped jelly—waving a hand toward him—tightly in his palm.

“I said I don’t eat sweets, you crazy bastard.”

If the signal hadn’t changed just then, he might have run straight to the fire station and thrown the jelly at him.

Mu-yun shook his head and crossed the road.

He went straight up to the locker room on the second floor of the police box and took out his duty uniform.

He buttoned the shirt, put on his pants, fastened the belt buckle, straightened his posture, and checked for any uncomfortable pinching.

It was comfortable as far as required attire went, but it was still a uniform that restricted movement.

He hung his civilian clothes on a hanger and put them away, then heard a crinkling sound.

He took the jelly from his pocket and moved it to his vest pocket.

“Hey!”

As he went downstairs, Go Taek, who had also received his appointment and was assigned to Team 3, stuck his head out from the pantry.

“Hey.”

Mu-yun greeted him with his eyes and bowed his head toward the Team 3 seniors who were preparing for the meeting.

“Hello.”

“You’re early?”

“I woke up early.”

Answering that, he entered the pantry where his colleague was.

“Need any help?”

Go Taek turned his head and smiled.

“No.

I just came in to make coffee too.

If I don’t at least drink this, I feel like I’ll start drooling as soon as I sit down.”

Seeing his colleague’s haggard eyes from the tough night shift, Mu-yun laughed.

He watched Go Taek pour water into a cup with coffee and stir it, then tore open a coffee stick.

“If you slam down six cups of coffee a day, shouldn’t you at least not feel sleepy, humanely speaking?”

Mu-yun shrugged.

“According to Senior Officer Kim on our team, it’ll keep being like that until you get used to it.”

“I’m screwed.”

Go Taek bumped his head against the wall and then wobbled his way out.

Mu-yun also filled his cup with coffee and went out.

The seniors giggled at Go Taek, who was the youngest but also the most feeble.

“Probationary Officer Lee Eun-shin from Team 2 adapted too well, that’s a problem, but our Go Taek here is like ‘oh, I’m dying.’”
“It’s not that my stamina is bad, though.”

“That’s right.

That’s right.

Go Taek was the best, wasn’t he?”

The seniors’ state of humoring the youngest’s complaints felt, compared to the team’s actual youngest, almost too vivid.

“What are you talking about?

When it comes to stamina, our Officer So is the best.”

Mu-yun, who had been quietly drinking his coffee, swallowed a hollow laugh at Sergeant Park’s words, which had cut into Team 3’s conversation.

Go Taek looked at him with loose eyes, as if asking ‘what are you talking about?’

“Our Officer So—when a drunk tried to escape, no, as soon as he ran out, he shouted ‘Sir, you can’t run!’ and chased him down.”

“He even coaxed him very slowly all the way to Geumjincheon Intersection, worried he might fall.”

Sergeant Lee added in his gentle voice.

“Officer So is quick.”

Even Senior Patrol Officer Kim chimed in, and Mu-yun just smiled.

“It’s scary when a drunk person runs, though.”

As Go Taek giggled and looked at him as if to say ‘you worked hard,’ Mu-yun just nodded in agreement.

Soon the meeting began, the light chatter disappeared, and everyone started focusing.

Mu-yun looked over Team 3’s patrol log and slowly read the case records about searching for missing cats and dogs.

Along with the shelter in Seoheung 3-dong, there were many animals that had recently been ‘chosen’ and adopted off the streets into homes.

The log contained the results of checking feed sales routes at nearby animal hospitals and pet shops over the past month.

Mu-yun poked his colleague’s side and showed him what he had just read.

Go Taek, with his haggard face, shook his head.

‘None.’

He only mouthed the word silently, but it was enough to understand.

Where the over thirty cats and dogs had disappeared to seemed destined to remain an unsolved mystery.

Since they had to head out on patrol right after the shift change, Mu-yun quickly familiarized himself with the tasks to be handled today.

Even so, worried that he might run into Won Tae-i when dispatched, he checked the crinkling jelly in his vest pocket several times, but he didn’t run into him until the end of his shift.

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