Chapter 13

“Hi, hoobae-dul1!”

She was an impressive person with a warm smiling face like Ji Seok. Unlike me, Ji Seok recognized her and his face brightened at once.

“Noona, long time no see!”

“Well, yeah.”

The woman came down from his back, raised her tiptoe, and stroked Jo Seok’s head, looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“I haven’t seen you in years. You’re so grown up now.”

“Noona, the last time I saw you, you were this big, right?”

“Aay2, back then, I’d pat you without standing on tiptoe.”

From that brief exchange, I could tell that the two of them had known each other for quite a long time. I asked Ji Seok who she was with my eyes, and he introduced the woman with a happy face.

“Noona is Ji Geon-hyung’s college classmate. For us, she’s our seonbae-nim3.”

Come to think of it, this university was where Ji Geon-hyung went. We were walking along the same path as he did, even our majors and clubs were following him.

Hearing the word “seonbae”, I bowed my head and greeted her lightly, then at that moment noona looked me up and down.

“I’m Han Minah. Ji Seok’s friend.”

“Yes.”

“Aha…”

For a moment, Minah-noon’s eyes suddenly became sharp. However, it was so fleeting that I wondered if I was mistaken, and I couldn’t be sure as she looked back at Ji Seok with a smile as soon as he called.

“When did you come back? I heard that you went to study abroad as soon as you graduated from college.”

“I came back a few days ago. It’s been six years.”

Although I was hanging out with Kang Ji Seok, it was understandable that I had never seen Minah-noona before. Six years ago I was in my first year of high school, based on Ji Geon-hyung, he went abroad right after graduating college. Like passing the baton, I started getting close with Kang Ji Seok.

I was thinking that must’ve been why I didn’t know, but then Minah-noona’s arm naturally wrapped around Ji Seok’s.

“The more I look at you, the more you look like Ji Geon-ie. No, is our4 Ji Seok-ie better?”

As soon as I heard the word “our”, I felt like a small stone was rolling around down my throat. Ji Seok, for some reason, was smiling like a fool with a face brighter than usual.

“Of course, noona. Honestly, hyung is an old man now. A thriving young man like me is much better.”

“If you call Ji Geon-ie an old man, you should also call me old lady, right?”

“Aay, noona is the exception. How could noona not change even when you ate foreign food? I’d even believe that you’re a freshman.”

“Talk after putting some saliva on your lips.5 But I’m happy to hear your compliments, ya.”

As I listened to the friendly conversation between them, I felt a sense of isolation for some reason. One reason for this alienation was probably because Minah-noona still had her two arms wrapped around Ji Seok’s arm. In addition, Ji Seok’s eyes were looking at her excitedly, which made me somewhat uneasy.

Noona pulled Ji Seok’s arm and walked ahead toward the club room we were headed to.

“The club is still there, right? Ji Geon-ie said that there were a lot of people.”

“Oh? Did you talk to hyung?”

“En, because Ji Geon-ie is the only Korean friend I still keep in touch with.”

Watching Minah-noona drag Ji Seok along in excitement, my heart felt a bit stuffy. I knew Ji Seok for a long time, so I understood him well enough, but it was quite uncomfortable for me to watch him. I was very concerned about this noona who kept hugging Ji Seok’s arm like her whole body was wrapped around it.

The club-room of the club Ji Seok and I were in was in the same building as Minah-noona remembered, but it had already been two years since the club-room was moved to a fairly large room as the number of members had significantly increased compared to six years ago. Excited to see the new structure of the spacious club-room, Minah-noona greeted a few students who were staying there.

In the meantime, I was able to listen to additional explanations about Minah-noona from Ji Seok.

He said that she and Ji Geon-hyung were always fighting over the top position in the department6, but in fact, they were close friends who often quarreled. They’ve been together since they entered university and as they got close to each other, she naturally got to know Ji Yeon-noona and Ji Seok, and in that way, they’ve known each other for nearly ten years. Minah-noona, who has a cheerful personality and can quickly get to know anyone without being shy, has loved and cared for Ji Seok like her own brother since then.

Listening to such stories, I was quietly watching Ji Seok because he seemed to be excited for some reason, and I realized it in hindsight.

“I like bright, cheerful women with petite figures that easily fit into my arms. Older is better.”

That was Ji Seok’s answer about his ideal type which I once asked with a bit of anticipation. From the day I heard those words, none of which were true for me, I began to hide my heart bitterly and deeply inside. But now that I saw it, it’s….

‘It’s Minah-noona, isn’t it.”

High school student, Kang Ji Seok, spoke of his ideal type without hesitation with an expression that seemed to be reminiscent of someone, already had Minah-noona in his mind. After realizing it, as if there was a hole somewhere in my chest, I felt empty.

Automatically, the corners of my mouth stiffened and my eyes trembled. I turned my head slightly to prevent Ji Seok from noticing, and wiped my face with one hand. Meanwhile, Minah-noona came closer to our side and stood in front of Ji Seok.

“Ji Seok-ah, I need to go shopping today, can you come with me?”

“Oh, I have another lecture later.”

“I can just wait here, then. Let’s go together after the lecture, hm?”

He was smiling with big twinkling eyes, and I could see Ji Seok’s face slowly softening. Although he was originally cheerful, I didn’t like that expression very much today.

‘Refuse. Say no, Kang Ji Seok.’

In my mind, I urged him with unspoken pressure several times. It was difficult to convey the pressure, nonetheless, because people have eyes that could be watching, but still, I repeated the word “refuse” in my mind.

After the lecture, on the way home, we needed to stop by the supermarket to buy ingredients for the beef radish stew7 that Kang Ji Seok asked for, and we also had to look for light bulbs to change the veranda lamp that was flickering as if they were about to go out. After the meal, we would need to bundle up the recyclable waste and put it outside, then after that, for Kang Ji Seok, who even took charge of the presentation of the group project, I had to be his presentation partner.

Today was busy enough. So, There would be no way Kang Ji Seok would be able to accept Minah-noona’s invitation.

“Yeah, sure.”

What popped out of Ji Seok’s mouth were not the words I wanted, but a very light-hearted acceptance.

Ji Seok turned his head and gave me a glance. At that time, of course, I thought he would say we should go together.

“Woo Seo, you should go back first after today’s lecture. I’ll contact you when I leave.”

I would have opened my mouth to say yes, but [the words] wouldn’t come out from my mouth. It felt like a small invisible stone was rolling around in the back of my throat, increasing into two, three, then several.

Before I could answer, Minah-noona interrupted with her eyes wide open.

“What, you two live together? Dormitory?”

“No. With Ji Geon-ie hyung, the three of us live together.”

“Really? Daebak! Ah, let’s call Ji Geon-ie, too.”

When Minah-noona spoke as if she was jumping around, Ji Seok made a troubled face.

“Hyung won’t be able to go. He works overtime every day.”

Instead of mentioning about the ring, Ji Seok answered that he was working overtime and smiled.

“I’ll take responsibility of noonim’s8 shopping instead.”

“Great, hoobae-nim!9 If there’s anything I can do to help you, just say it.”

“Noona, then could you take a look at our group project? The contents of this assignment is a bit more complicated this time…”

“As soon as I mention I’ll help you, you say it right away. Well, that’s sort of my specialty. Give me all the materials and files. Let’s take a look.”

She pulled out her chair, and Minah-noona patted the desk with her palm and lifted her fingers. Without consulting me, Ji Seok took out his laptop and placed it in front of her, showing her the files from the other members that he was supposed to show me first.

“Wow, you really are doing something very difficult. This research is going to be tough.”

“So they all ran away and went crazy. Help me, noona.”

“It’s organized better than I thought and you found a lot of material. How about putting a coding sample here?”

“Which sample would be good?”

“Since this material needs to appeal, I’ll code this part of the content and around here…”

I watched Minah-noona, who gave advice, and Ji Seok, who listened closely. I acted like I was fine, took out a chair, sat down and pretended to look at it together, however what actually caught my eyes was the distance between the two of them.

The two fists placed on my knees were clenched and [fingers] nailed into the palms of my hand to the point of being painful. I couldn’t concentrate on the task at all, because I was too concerned about the feeling of the small stones rolling down my throat rather than the tingling numbness it caused.