Chapter 247 (1/2)

“Hong Geunseok.”

Geunseok got off the bus with very slow steps and slowly turned around towards him. At that moment, Jiseok frowned. He felt that something changed about Geunseok. That strange feeling made Jiseok approach Geunseok faster. His head was filled with the thought to check up on him as soon as possible.

“Hey, why are you so stiff?”

Just like what happened the day before, Jiseok was about to tap Geunseok’s shoulders. The normal reaction would be that Geunseok would swear back at him, but the reaction he showed was outside of Jiseok’s imagination. Geunseok raised both of his hands to cover his face. His eyes were filled with fear.

Jiseok’s hand stopped midair. Geunseok looked at the tip of Jiseok’s hand with shaking eyes before putting down his arms. Those stiff actions made Jiseok speechless. He instinctively realized that just asking what was wrong would be too rude of him.

“...It’s hot, but I guess you need something warm. Wait a minute.”

Jiseok returned to the convenience store and bought warm bottle of chocolate coffee. When he carefully handed it over to Geunseok, he grabbed the plastic bottle. Even Jiseok felt stifled by Geunseok’s nervous actions. Just what happened during the past day?

“Let’s walk a little.”

Usually, it was Jiseok that listened to Geunseok whenever they talked. That was their normal conversation. However, Geunseok did not speak a word today. He only followed what Jiseok was doing. His shoulders were drooping towards the ground, his eyes were fixed on the floor, and whenever a car passed by while pressing its horn, he was scared like a guy who just witnessed a thunderbolt striking right in front of him. Due to that, the coffee inside the bottle spilled on his hands, but Geunseok kept staring at the car that passed by.

“Geunseok.”

“Uh, oh. That’s hot.”

His reaction was clearly a bit late. Even though his hand had turned red, Geunseok didn’t seem to mind. It was as though he was caught up with something else and that an injury of this level was nothing compared to it.

They went around the red light district near Suwon station and went to the alleyway where they could see many pojang macha. Jiseok looked for the store that he and Geunseok frequented during middle school, but unfortunately, it was no longer there. Instead, they entered an orange-colored one with the banner that said ‘Udon’ on it. Geunseok had yet to say something proper from the moment they departed Suwon station to the moment they sat down inside the pojang macha and started ordering.

“Ma’am, please give us some good food.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He replied with a smile out of habit, but his smile didn’t last long. Jiseok held out a pair of chopsticks towards Geunseok and asked.

“Did something happen?”

“...No. Nothing happened.”

“You were limping. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“A little.”

“Really now?” Jiseok nodded his head with a bitter smile. This silence, this emptiness that stemmed from Geunseok’s lie. The person that he could talk to without restraint had built a wall of lies around him once again. The fact that he said ‘nothing happened’ implied that he didn’t want anyone to know about it. It would have been better if he clearly told Jiseok that it was none of his business.

“Are you sure nothing happened?”

“I said nothing happened.”

The lady put down two bowls of udon in front of them. Jiseok gave the one with a bigger portion towards Geunseok. Geunseok quietly split the wooden disposable chopsticks and started eating it. Jiseok watched as Geunseok started eating when he discovered a hint of blue on Geunseok’s skin. There were clear bruises on Geunseok’s left shoulder which he could see under Geunseok’s clothes. Seeing the serious wound, Jiseok almost unintentionally tried to touch Geunseok’s shoulder.

At that moment, Geunseok fell backwards with a loud crash. His feet were caught up in the legs of the table, shaking the table in the process which ended up tipping the udon bowl over. The hot soup and noodles hit the ground.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I tripped.”

“Oh, you should’ve been careful. Are you not hurt anywhere?”

“Yes. I’ll clean up here. Please give me a mop.”

“Leave it. I’ll do it later.”

Jiseok apologized to the lady who seemed cool about the incident. In that short moment, Geunseok stood up without a change in his expression and left the pojang macha. Jiseok paid the lady before following Geunseok. Geunseok suddenly swayed around as though he was about to fall over. Jiseok tried to get to him and tried to support him up, but Geunseok rejected him.

“Forget it. I’ll do it. I have to be the one to do it.”

It was as though he was saying that he could not accept help.

Geunseok was not telling Jiseok anything. Despite that though, Jiseok smiled and walked by his side. Although their relationship started off on lies, Geunseok was the only one that stuck with him until the end. He did not know what was going on, but he wanted to console him. It was disappointing to him that Geunseok was using lies to avoid this moment, but Jiseok believed that their relationship would soon recover.

Jiseok thought that he should wait until his friend opened up his heart again. Just as they were walking, his phone started ringing. He took out his phone from his pocket and answered the call.

“Hello? Oh, Maru.”

Maru had called him for the read-through on Saturday. It was the day when all the actors, the director, the author gathered to do a read-through in front of the press. After that event, the shooting would begin the week after. From what he heard, it seemed that they were going to finish the shoot by August and start editing from then.

“Yoojin wanted us three to go there together? I’m good with that. Okay, alright. But Maru, I feel good to have you call me first. You should call me more frequently.”

His new friend was someone with a stiff expression. This guy was an amazing one who’s tone didn’t change even when facing famous superstars. However, from his experience, Jiseok was aware that he wasn’t a cold person on the inside.

He just took another step forward while thinking about this new event that would occur next week. He saw that Geunseok, who was walking by his side, had suddenly stopped. Geunseok’s eyes were still fixated on the floor. Jiseok followed his gaze to see if he had dropped anything on the floor, but nothing entered his eyes.

“What is it?”

“You… you know, Han Maru?”

“Oh! You know Maru as well? Well, I guess that isn’t a surprise. Maru told me he’s in the acting club so you might have met each other in a competition or something. Oh yeah, Maru apparently goes to a high school in Suwon as well. Don’t tell me that you actually go to the same school? No wait, it would be awesome if you actually do.”

Jiseok felt happy now that they got a common topic of conversation. Jiseok approached Geunseok with a smile. He was expecting that they could have a good conversation talking about Maru.

“Son of a bitch.”

He stopped mid-step. Jiseok had no choice but to stop in his steps. Geunseok had raised his head and was glaring at him with very unfamiliar emotions. The gaze made him shiver. The street lamp located above Geunseok’s head suddenly switched on. That streetlight replaced the sunlight of the setting sun and lengthened out Geunseok’s shadow. Geunseok couldn’t feel more uneasy looking at that shadow. It was as though the shadow was about to rise and attack him at any moment. This was the first time Jiseok felt that a person could become so hostile.

“Hong Geunseok.”