“Why are you so disappointed you didn’t get to see me naked?”
“What are you talking about? Is this the first or second time I’ve seen your body? A body like a bundle of firewood, what’s there to see? Who would want to see that? I just wanted to see you stark naked and flustered so I could make fun of you.”
While Noona and Hyung bickered almost habitually, I avoided their eyes and exchanged a brief greeting with his.
Dressed comfortably in a refreshing, light-blue striped linen suit paired with a simple t-shirt, he was holding a paper bag from the hamburger franchise I had chosen for dinner.
“Hmph, I wonder if you could still say that if you’d actually seen me naked? I might be skinny everywhere else, but let me tell you, that one thing isn’t lacking anywh—.”
“Seo Yeehyeon, I missed you. Still a little honeybee, I see?”
My sister, who had been listening to my brother’s boasting with a displeased pout, spun around to face me before he could finish his sentence and broke into a wide smile. It was the first time I’d seen her since the barbecue party.
“What’s this about a honeybee? Ah… the stripes!”
Forgetting to question her for ignoring him just a moment ago, Juhan showed interest in the nickname Yuni had given me. The two, who had been squabbling until just now, were suddenly in sync, high-fiving and delighting in the new nickname. Compared to when I worked at Phantom, even this kind of boisterousness felt like it had been a while.
“CEO, isn’t it a great nickname? It suits Yeehyeon, right? Seo-honeybee. Honeybee.”
Placing the paper bag on the table, he glanced at my sister, whose arm was slung over my shoulder. His gaze immediately shifted to me, sweeping over the striped t-shirt covering my chest and stomach.
“You’re right. Imagining him diligently flying around collecting honey… it suits him quite well.”
Having gotten his and my brother’s approval for my new nickname, my sister, looking quite pleased, grinned at me before walking over to the icebox, pulling out some beers, and offering one to him and me.
The word honeybee first brought to mind a cute, cartoonish image with a plump bottom, which didn’t seem to suit my stiff self, but since all three of them seemed to be enjoying it, I quietly accepted the beer Noona offered. As I wiped the condensation from the bottle’s surface, the paper label, which had gotten soggy while submerged in the ice water inside the cooler, wrinkled and peeled away. I stared down at the bottle in my hand for a moment, a sense of déjà vu making me feel like this exact moment had happened before in this very place.
“How’s the work going? Smoothly? The model isn’t too hard to work with, being an amateur and all?”
I lifted my head at the sound of his joking voice as he tilted the translucent green beer bottle.
“It’s still in the conceptual sketch phase, but… thanks to the model doing such a great job, the image I want to draw has become very clear, so it seems to be going… smoothly.”
When I smiled at my Hyung across from me, he stuck his hands in the front pockets of his robe and shrugged, wearing the expression of a child who had just been praised.
Hmph….
He let out a short, inscrutable hum before taking a few sips of his beer.
“And I think today will be the last day I need to work with you, Hyung. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule for me.”
This week, he had arranged for my brother’s workday to end at five for my project. I knew how busy Phantom was these days, so at first, I’d said I would work on the weekends, but he had been very proactive, saying that no task was more important than meeting the artist’s needs.
“Don’t mention it. If you need him, Artist Seo, I’d even lend you Kwon Juhan as a personal secretary.”
His expression, which had seemed a bit stiff a moment ago, softened as he joked.
“So you’ll be starting the real work now? I’m looking forward to it, Seo Yeehyeon’s piece.”
“I’m getting hungry. Let’s talk while we eat. The sun’s starting to set, so shall we eat on the rooftop today?”
Sensing the conversation was about to get longer, he reached his arm out in front of Noona and snapped his fingers a couple of times to get her attention.
At his suggestion, everyone moved in perfect sync, as if on cue. Juhan went inside first to change his clothes, and I began to put away my art supplies. He and Yuni Noona disappeared through the front door, saying they would grab more beer and other snacks. The bustle after such a long time put me in a good mood for some reason, and I smiled the entire time I went down to the studio to put my tools back in their place.
Bounding back up the stairs two or three at a time and re-emerging into the garden, I saw him also coming out of the front door, carrying a shopping basket filled with several bottles of beer.
“I’ll help you carry that.”
As I quickly approached, intending to take out a few bottles to share the load, he wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me into a sort of headlock, and pushed my back forward.
“I can carry this much by myself, so let’s just hurry up and go.”
We had hugged face-to-face, and he had hugged me from behind while I stood at the induction cooktop making ramen… that had happened many times, but this kind of skinship was probably a first. It felt like the casual skinship he and Juhan-Hyung shared, and in a way different from when he expressed deep affection, the warmth of his body against my back felt good.
“……”
But as soon as I had that thought, he, still holding my neck from behind, lowered his head and pressed his lips firmly against my cheek.
Even though I knew he wouldn’t make a mistake, I instinctively glanced around, and at my reaction, he chuckled softly by my ear.
“They’re both already up there.”
“Still…”
“Hm. You really don’t want to get caught being like this with me.”
As we rounded the corner of the building and moved away from the garden, the surrounding shadows grew deeper. Ahead, I could see the entrance to the concrete stairs leading to the rooftop. The rooftop was still an unknown territory I had yet to visit.
“That’s not it…”
If we were caught now, I had no precise words to explain. We were progressing our relationship at our own pace and in our own direction, but how others would perceive it was another matter entirely. I was confident I wouldn’t be swayed by their opinions, but it wouldn’t be pleasant not to be understood by those close to us.
And… if our relationship became known, he would probably receive more criticism than I would.
“I was just being difficult, so don’t make that face.”
At the foot of the stairs, he kissed my cheek once more. I nodded and smiled at his gentle voice.
“But…”
I looked back at him as he followed a couple of steps behind, leading into a new topic with a suggestive tone. He was looking up at me with narrowed eyes and an expression that seemed, for some reason, a little coy.
“Giving you a piggyback ride and giving you the nickname honeybee. Which one is more jealousy-inducing? What do you think?”
“……”
His serious expression actually made me laugh. I quickly ran up the stairs to escape him as he lunged for my waist, asking if I was trying to brush it off with a laugh.
Panting from the sudden burst of energy, I stepped onto the rooftop, where a much cooler breeze than in the garden ruffled my hair. And I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks at the new sight that unfolded before me.
It was only the rooftop of a two-story house, but thanks to its location on high ground, it overlooked Seoul with nothing to obstruct the view. Morae and Hyung’s rooftop apartment also had a great view, but it wasn’t a view that felt like you were looking down on the entirety of Seoul, including the Han River and the scenery beyond it.
To the west, where the Han River flowed toward the sea, the sky where today’s sunset was just beginning to form was particularly impressive. In my grandfather’s village, adjacent to the East Sea, I could see the complete sunrise to my heart’s content, but the brilliant intensity of the sunset was always hidden by the mountain range, allowing me to only taste its afterglow.
“Nice up here, right? The view is better than most rooftop bars, I tell you. CEO, you bring guys you’re trying to seduce up here, don’t you? Right?”
The rooftop was furnished with a bungalow-like structure with a canopy for a ceiling, a spacious table and chairs underneath, and stand-alone lights placed here and there, making it look just like a fancy rooftop bar, as Yuni had said.
“Do I look like I need to put in the effort of bringing someone to a place like this to win them over?”
“Ugh… so annoying, but I can’t argue with that. Alphas, omegas, betas, men and women of all ages throw themselves at you even when you do nothing, so of course you’d be lacking in manners.”
Yuni clicked her tongue, straightening up from where she had been leaning loosely against the back of a rattan chair reminiscent of a resort.
And after everyone was seated, she took a large bite of her hamburger and continued.
“Speaking of manners, please be a little nicer to the new hires. Did you know Choi Jiwon cried today?”
He had me choose which of the various hamburgers I wanted and answered her with a hint of indifference.
“I don’t recall being particularly mean. Why would a grown adult cry?”
“You criticized the way she organized the research materials. I saw her coming back from the restroom afterward, and her eyes were red. I didn’t ask if she cried because I didn’t want to embarrass her, but it’s obvious. I know you weren’t happy with her work… but she was a student until just recently. Can’t you cut her some slack?”
“Even if she’s a graduating senior, she’s about the same age as you.”
“……”
At his remark, it was my sister’s turn to be at a loss for words, and she just chewed her hamburger for a moment. But after swallowing the food in her mouth with a gulp of beer, she immediately continued.
“I started working in the real world before her. You can’t just think about age. And if a new hire we went to the trouble of picking quits during a busy time like this, we’re the only ones who lose out. If you don’t feel up to it, you can just keep coming to work at the villa until you go to Chicago.”
“The villa…?”
I had no intention of interrupting their conversation, but at the mention of something I knew nothing about, a question slipped out before I could stop it.
All three of them turned their gazes to me, and Juhan-Hyung, in particular, widened his eyes to an exaggerated degree. As if the fact that I didn’t know was more surprising.
“You’re his live-in roommate, for crying out loud, and you haven’t even heard about that?”
“Let’s not overdo it, Kwon Juhan.”
The strictness in his voice was greater than usual, likely because my brother’s tone and expression were laced with a nuance of criticism toward him.
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