“Ah, back then you guys were drinking together. I went home a bit later.”
“Do you remember that really pretty girl who came by? Her name was Jinsu, right? I saw you two talking.”
“I don’t know. Did she ask for my ID or something? That’s all I remember.”
“Hey, check your Instagram.”
“I deleted the app.”
“Oh, just reinstall it. I’m dying to know what she messaged you.”
Glancing around at the gathering crowd, Hyun Gyujin reluctantly downloaded Instagram. He didn’t bother much with social media, and had no intention to, but after Yuwon insisted earlier this year, he downloaded it, created an account together, uploaded one photo, and immediately logged out. He hadn’t logged in for over six months since then.
“What was the ID again?”
“Wait a sec, I followed you so it’s here.”
Kim Junjae quickly accessed his account and showed Hyun Gyujin his Instagram ID. Hyun Gyujin entered the ID, revealing his reluctance to create it properly.
“Okay, done.”
After six months, Hyun Gyujin logged into his account and checked the single photo he had uploaded. It was a four-cut photo taken with Yuwon at the beginning of the semester, and there were quite a lot of comments.
“Wow, two thousand comments, damn. Are you guys idols or something?”
“Thirty thousand followers for one photo. Looks like the algorithm is working well. Hey, crazy. What are these 248 DMs?”
Hyun Gyujin scrolled through the comments under the photo with a blank expression. Most were compliments on his looks or asking if they were dating, while the rest tagged their friends or left their friend’s IDs, presumably to share the photo with them.
“Hey, quickly tap on that thing at the top.”
As Kim Junjae instructed, Hyun Gyujin tapped on something at the top, revealing unseen messages. Despite Kim Junjae’s insistence to keep looking, Hyun Gyujin handed the phone over to Kim Junjae and Choi Haeyoung, who started making a fuss checking Hyun Gyujin’s DMs.
“Is this Jinsu’s ID?”
“Yeah, it is. Hurry. Oh, damn.”
“Hey, Jinsu says she wants to see you two? That’s crazy.”
“This is Shin Taeri’s. She said she was glad to see you last time, right? Hey, when did you see Shin Taeri?”
“When did I send it… 17 weeks ago?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
With no interest in the conversation between the two, Hyun Gyujin, who had been idly tapping the ground with his foot, snatched the phone and pressed on the following list where there was only one person. Then, he clicked on Yuwon’s profile, which had a photo of him drawing a ‘V’ sign. Yuwon had also only uploaded one of the four-cut photos they took together.
“Cgf sbe lc ibnf?”
“Vegfis, tf wera tjnf gfmflnfv GZr ogbw batfgr abb.”
“Yo mbegrf tf vlv. Lfs, yea sbe tjnfc’a gfqilfv ab Alcre sfa?”
“Qts rtbeiv P? Ct, alwf’r eq. P’w ifjnlcu.”
“Jgjhs, lo sbe’gf ublcu ab vb atja, ja ifjra rfii sbeg jmmbeca ab wf. Yg ja ifjra rfii rbwf ugjlc fchswf qjmxfar. Tbe’ii wjxf j abc bo wbcfs. Ktfs rjs la wjxfr sbe ajiifg lo sbe fja atfw.”
Hyun Gyujin casually raised his middle finger and then, without looking back, walked out of the alley. Kim Junjae and Choi Haeyoung shook their heads as they watched him go. As friends, they truly couldn’t understand him.
***
Not even five minutes had passed since he arrived at the academy when Yuwon came out. Hyun Gyujin waved to him, and as he went inside, he naturally took his bag and slung it over one shoulder. He was about to ask if he wanted to grab something warm on the way home, but he saw a stranger grabbing Yuwon’s arm as he came out. Hyun Gyujin’s gaze fell on that hand.
“Jung Yuwon, I’ll take pictures of the wrong answers and send them to you later.”
“Yeah, thanks. See you next week. Bye.”
Seeing someone I’ve never seen before waving and saying bye while shaking hands, it seemed that they had become friendly at the academy without me knowing. Hyun Gyujin watched from behind as they exchanged greetings with their heads tilted and legs intertwined.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, Yoon Sung.”
“Who’s Yoon Sung?”
“He’s the new guy today. In class 1. He transferred here last week.”
“They look really close already.”
“Just during break time today, we sat together and chatted, and we became friends. Yoon Sung said he’s seen me at school a few times.”
Hyun Gyujin felt annoyed for the first time in a long while at the majority of the words forming the sentences ‘just’, ‘we became friends’, ‘Yoon Sung said’, ‘he’s seen me.’ He stared intently at Yuwon, who was speaking so casually.
“Why did he see you?”
“He probably saw me passing by.”
“Hey, it’s not something you say so casually. Maybe that guy, too, was looking for an opportunity and approached you after watching, isn’t it?”
“…That’s going too far.”
“Just be careful, there’s nothing wrong with being cautious.”
“He seemed nice when we talked… ”
Feeling a little irritated as he watched Yuwon speak positively about Yoon Sung or whoever, regardless of what he said, Hyun Gyujin kept his mouth shut. At the same time, an unusual silence followed.
“Why are you acting like that…?”
“Like what?”
“What’s bothering you?”
“Me? Nothing.”
“Geez, how childish. You’re just the same as when you were in kindergarten. You haven’t grown up at all.”
Back then, too, Hyun Gyujin had shown signs of sulking when he made new friends. Of course, he also felt upset when Hyun Gyujin made new friends, feeling like he was losing a friend. But still, he never openly expressed his feelings like this.
“I’ve grown a lot, you know.”
“So what if you’re tall? Your behavior is still the same.”
“If my behavior is the same, it’s because your behavior is the same. If you’re the same, then I’m the same too.”
“The new guy who transferred last week goes to our academy, so we sat together and listened to the class. I missed something while I was organizing, so I decided to take a picture and send it. What’s the big deal here?”
‘Goodbye’ was echoing in his head, but Hyun Gyujin didn’t say a word. Frankly, it wasn’t something to feel bad about just because he said goodbye in a normal way, not even a special farewell. Hyun Gyujin also knew that he was forcing a very childish and artificial sentiment.
“……”
“……”
A silence, neither tense nor comfortable, lingered a little longer between them. Hyun Gyujin, walking slower than usual to match Yuwon’s pace, noticed a bubble tea shop at the end of the academy street and lightly nudged Yuwon’s arm.
Yuwon, who thought he would never give in to bubble tea, kept glancing at him once and then at the shop and finally burst out laughing.
They entered the shop together and headed to the farthest table after ordering taro bubble milk tea and Earl Grey bubble milk tea from the kiosk. It was like their designated spot where they always sat on their way home.
While waiting for the vibration bell, Hyun Gyujin quickly unwrapped the packaging and inserted the thick straw into the drinks. Yuwon quickly took a sip of the light purple taro milk tea. The round and chewy bubbles rising up the straw brought joy to Yuwon.
“It’s so delicious….”
As Hyun Gyujin watched Yuwon, who was enjoying the chewy bubbles, something crossed his mind, and he reached out his hand.
“Give me your phone.”
Without asking why, Yuwon placed his phone on Hyun Gyujin’s hand. Hyun Gyujin unlocked it with his face ID and accessed Yuwon’s Instagram app. Seeing that the login had been unlocked due to not accessing it for a long time, he chuckled.
“Do you remember your Instagram ID?”
“Um… I don’t know? Since we made it together, I haven’t logged in… Why?”
“Someone sent something earlier, so I logged in after a long time, and there was a lot of junk. I thought you might have the same.”
“Junk?”
“Yeah. There were ads, and some people were asking to meet up.”
Hyun Gyujin entered Yuwon’s account on Instagram on my phone, looked at the ID, and then handed the phone back to Yuwon.
“Password.”
He asked out of politeness, but the password was probably dbdnjsl0630. English initials for Yuwon, 0630 for his birthday. As expected, Hyun Gyujin chuckled at Yuwon, who was diligently typing, and took back the phone to confirm the account.
As expected, there were over a hundred DMs for Yuwon too. Most of them were from people recognizing the school from the uniform he was wearing in the photo, followed by mocking DMs. There were also guys asking if he had a boyfriend because he looked cute, and some even left their contacts saying he was their type. Clicking on one photo, Hyun Gyujin unexpectedly came face to face with someone’s genitalia picture, and he involuntarily cursed out loud.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Why?”
“…No, some psycho asshole sent you a disgusting picture. Can I delete it?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t matter anyway…”
He couldn’t even explain to Yuwon what kind of picture had been sent. It was better to spare him from seeing it; there was no need to shake the already fragile mind of the delicate kid. After reporting and blocking the account, Hyun Gyujin deleted the DM. Then, meticulously deleting all the other DMs, Hyun Gyujin logged out again and handed back the phone.
“Since we made it and uploaded the photo together, I haven’t done anything on it. Who sent me something? Was it from a stranger?”
“Yeah. They said they liked your photo.”
“Oh… they sent a message like that. Did you see something like that too?”
“Yeah. Like Jin Juhee? Jang Sumi? Some girl sent me a DM saying I ignored her and started spreading it everywhere.”
“Do you know her?”
