Pr: K
The next day at lunch, Jaegyeom put on a suit and headed out the front door.
As he left at the appointed time, the black sedan he had driven yesterday caught his eye. Seeing that the engine was off, it seemed like he had come early and was waiting. As Jaegyeom descended the gate steps, he spotted Yoon Taehee and stopped. Yoon Taehee was not in the driver’s seat, but standing some distance away from the car. Dressed in his black suit, he was leaning his back slightly against the wall, and upon closer inspection, he was smoking a cigarette.
Sensing Jaegyeom’s gaze, he turned his head.
“Uh… hi.”
Yoon Taehee smiled and greeted him. At the same time, he flicked away the cigarette he was holding. Jaegyeom nodded wordlessly. Yoon Taehee took a close look at him in his suit. Jaegyeom was wearing the navy blue suit he tried on yesterday.
Yoon Taehee nudged him with a question.
“Did you put on the tie?”
Jaegyeom descended the stairs completely.
“No, Jeongju did.”
Yoon Taehee gestured.
“The car door is open. Get on first.”
“What about you? You’re not getting in? Why?”
Jaegyeom asked with a puzzled look.
“If I get in right away, it will smell like cigarette smoke.”
Yoon Taehee raised his hand near his face and gestured lightly with his hand. Jaegyeom walked to the car without saying anything. It wasn’t until a few minutes after Jaegyeom got into the passenger seat that the driver’s door opened. When Yoon Taehee got into the driver’s seat, he felt the car body tilt. Instead of the smell of cigarettes, there was only the smell of perfume from before.
Yoon Taehee immediately started the engine. The car moved smoothly out of the alley while the inside was very quiet, an awkward yet tense atmosphere filling it. Yoon Taehee seemed calm today. Jaegyeom, who was wiggling his fingers with his head down, glanced to see the side profile of Yoon Taehee who was driving.
He put his hair up again today…
“What?”
Perhaps sensing his gaze, Yoon Taehee opened his mouth while keeping his eyes on the front. Jaegyeom turned his gaze to the passenger window as if nothing had happened, pretending to look outside for no reason. Jaegyeom felt like he’d been caught peeping, so he changed the subject.
“Where are we going now?”
“Let’s go to ‘orentation’.”
“So where do you go to do that?”, Jaegyeom asked, pressing his forehead against the passenger window.
“Anywhere we can be alone?”
Yoon Taehee responded with a smirk and lowered the passenger seat window halfway. As the window rolled down, Jaegyeom, who was resting his forehead against it, was so startled that he hit his head. Yoon Taehee, who was holding the steering wheel, covered his mouth with the other hand and smiled faintly.
“Hey. That startled me.”
Jaegyeom huffed, turned his head and glared at Yoon Taehee.
“Why are you opening the window?”
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.
“Dfmjerf atf kfjatfg lr clmf.”
Tbbc Kjftff jcrkfgfv jr j wjaafg bo ojma. Ajfusfbw aegcfv tlr ujhf yjmx ab atf klcvbk klat j qbeas ojmf. Pa kjr lcvffv j yfjealoei vjs. Ktf rxs kjr mifjg jcv atf rec kjr kjgw. Ajfusfbw’r yjcur oieaafgfv ilutais lc atf ygffhf atja yifk lc atgbeut atf bqfc klcvbk. Ktf rmfcfgs qjrrfv delmxis.
At that time, the window went up again.
“…”
Jaegyeom raised his eyes. Only this time, he realised that Yoon Taehee was teasing him. Jaegyeom turned his head again and glared at him.
“Stop playing around.”
At that moment, the car stopped at a signal. This time, the driver’s and passenger’s windows went all the way down at the same time. Yoon Taehee, who had been looking ahead the whole time, put one arm on the driver’s side window sill and turned his head to look at Jaegyeom. Their eyes met.
“Then don’t just look outside, look at me too.”
Jaegyeom slowly opened his eyes at the shameless answer.
“Why should I be looking at you?”
Yoon Taehee tapped the steering wheel with his fingertips.
“Take a look at the Chief to see if he is good at driving, watch him to see if he obeys signals well, and admire his face to see how handsome he is… Then why were you looking at me earlier?”
“…”
Jaegyeom turned his head stiffly toward the window and muttered.
“That… I was just looking once.”
Yoon Taehee smiled silently and changed the gear.
He got the car moving smoothly again.
***
“What about orentation? This is a restaurant.”
The place where Yoon Taehee’s car stopped was the parking lot of a fairly large Korean restaurant. The exterior of the building was a hanok (traditional Korean house), and the sign of the building, which consisted of a large independent building, had ‘Eunwoldang’ written in Chinese characters.
Yoon Taehee said lightly as he applied the parking brake.
“Do you know the saying, “orentation comes after a meal?”
He felt like he was somehow deceived. He thought there was something strange about why they asked to meet for lunch because of how long it takes to do an orentation…
Yoon Taehee got out of his car and shamelessly beat him to it.
“I would like to take this opportunity to secretly feel humbled.”
‘I was weak,’ Jaegyeom muttered softly.
As they entered the restaurant, an employee came up to them and asked if they had a reservation. Then, the two were guided to the second floor. When they went up to the second floor, the spaces were individually divided. When the staff member opened the sliding door, a spacious two-person floor room appeared.
Yoon Taehee took off his shoes first and stepped inside. Jaegyeom grumbled and took off his shoes as well. They sat across from each other at a large dining table. Sunlight poured in from the window while Yoon Taehee ordered the food arbitrarily.
While waiting for the food to come out, he took off his suit jacket and thoroughly wiped his hands with a wet towel. Jaegyeom, who was sitting quietly looking around, followed Yoon Taehee and took off his jacket and fiddled with the wet towel. The scenery seen through the window was serene.
“Is this your first time eating out?”
“Not often, but I do it sometimes.”
Yoon Taehee looked surprised at Jaegyeom’s answer.
“Once or twice a year? Jeongju’s birthday or…”
Jaegyeom usually didn’t like to leave the house. However, on Jeongju’s birthday, Jaegyeom would give in to his wishes as much as Jeongju wanted. From some point on, that day was naturally set as a day for the three of them to go out together. They held each hand of Mesani, who was afraid of strangers, and went to a nice restaurant that Jeongju had made a reservation for, and had a delicious dinner.
Yoon Taehee asked, resting his chin.
“Then what about your birthday?”
“I don’t know my birthday.”
“Why?”
“Because there was no one to tell me.”
Jaegyeom responded while folding a wet towel.
“It’s the same for me.”
Yoon Taehee said as he poured his tea. At that, Jaegyeom’s eyes widened and he glanced up at him. So does this mean that he is also an orphan like me? Didn’t he say he was seeking revenge because of his family? As he gave a puzzled look, Yoon Taehee cleverly read his question and spoke indifferently.
“We don’t have to be blood relatives to be family.”
That was true. Even if you’re related by blood, there are times when you can be worse than others, and the opposite can also be true. In that case, the opposite could also be true. Just as he had Jeongju and Mesani by his side… It seemed that Yoon Taehee once had people he thought of as family. Jaegyeom, who was lost in thought for a moment, suddenly asked.
“Then you don’t have parents?”
Yoon Taehee laughed out loud at the blunt question. “Mm. No,” he obediently nodded and placed the poured tea in front of Jaegyeom. A savoury scent wafted out. It might have been a solemn topic, but the atmosphere between the two was the same as usual.
At that time, Yoon Taehee said, wrapping his fingers around the warm cup.
“Then my birthday should be today.”
“Why?” Jaegyeom asked indifferently while sipping green tea.
“Because you’re taking me out to eat.”
Yoon Taehee smiled and answered. Jaegyeom’s hand holding the teacup shook briefly. Yoon Taehee tilted his head and spoke in a playful voice.
“So this year, let’s do it today.”
“…”
Just like in the car, Jaegyeom’s gaze escaped to the window.
***
The employee knocked on the sliding door.
“Excuse me.”
First, porridge came out as an appetiser. The staff placed a small bowl on a tray in front of each person and explained that this was pine nut porridge while Jaegyeom stared into the porridge bowl. As soon as the employee left, he muttered bitterly.
“Hey, they give me some kind of porridge like chicken feed.”
Yoon Taehee almost dropped his spoon.
“Porridge finishes quickly, so I need to eat a bowl, but how are they sticking this up someone’s nose? Do people these days have no benevolence? How can you eat this and still have energy?”
Jaegyeom suddenly got furious and Yoon Taehee calmly put down his spoon. He pretended to look out the window for a moment, and then propped up his chin and bit his lip.
“After you eat it all, there will be more food that will come again.”
“What? It’s coming again?”
“Mm. “Because I ordered it as a course.”
“What is a course?”
“It means they’ll bring you food one after another.”
“Ahh…”
Jaegyeom lifted his spoon with relief after hearing the detailed explanation at eye level.
Afterwards, just as Yoon Taehee said, various foods were introduced one after another. From salad and muksabal, cold vegetables and assorted pancakes, gujeolpan with vegetables according to one’s taste, fried fish fillet, hot broth sinseonro, to sweet braised ribs with a whole octopus. Jaegyeom ate all the food with great relish and enthusiasm. He ate so well that even the person who was looking at him felt proud.
“Is it good?”
Jaegyeom fiddled with his chopsticks and nodded his head.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
Jaegyeom asked. At some point, Yoon Taehee had put down his spoon. He was watching Jaegyeom eating as if fascinated. Yoon Taehee, who usually enjoyed eating snacks, naturally had a poor palate, and his favourite foods were pizza, pasta, and hamburgers. The reason he chose traditional Korean food was purely because of Jaegyeom.
“I’m done, you eat.”
Yoon Taehee said while taking a sip of tea.
“Hey, if you leave food, you’ll be punished. And how am I supposed to eat all this food by myself? More than that, you may be ignorant, but this is like the king’s dining table. In the past, you couldn’t eat this. Now that the world has become better, people can spend money and eat like this. Okay? You don’t know the old times!”
“…”
Yoon Taehee, who was swallowing his tea, coughed slightly.
He had heard a lot of nagging people talking about the past in his life, but this was the first time that it went all the way back to the king’s dinner table.
The young-faced old man with crooked bangs was already swinging a spoon and lecturing about dining. Jaegyeom pointed to the sinseonro and said, “Do you know that this is what they used to eat in the palace?”
Yoon Taehee suppressed his laughter and put down his cup. On the backrest, he straightened him back and took a listening posture.
“Oh, goodness me. I didn’t know that.”
“There’s so much to eat these days, huh?”
Yoon Taehee quietly shook his head.
“Yes… I’m truly sorry…”
His playful nature rose and he thought for a moment about getting down on his knees, but if he did that, he would definitely realise that he was teasing him and hit him on the head, so he decided to just stay still.
HAHAHAHA THIS IS SO FUNNY FOR SO MANY REASONS I LOVE IT 😭😭😭😭
Jaegyeom is such an old man lmao