After the commotion had passed, peace returned. It was an afternoon of softly pattering showers and cicadas crying for mates.
“You really are busy.”
Yoonwon sat wedged into a corner of the kitchen, sprawled there languidly as his eyes slowly followed that pale body around.
If he had to name the busiest person in all of Seoul, it might well be Hayeop.
Today, as always, Hayeop scurried endlessly about. He had risen at the crack of dawn, cooled his rice in barley tea, topped it with dried yellow croaker, and crunched away at pickled chilies.
It was impossible to grow bored while watching that milky-white face happily devour something so salty and spicy. Now Hayeop squatted on the floor, snapping the ends off bean sprouts one by one.
“Young Master, sit there and have this.”
Hayeop was already up to his neck in work, yet Yoonwon kept teasing him. So he took a frozen yogurt drink from the freezer and handed it over. Yoonwon sucked on it and promptly found something else to pick at.
“Hey, you missed the end on that one.”
“...You noticed that too.”
Hayeop narrowed his round eyes into triangles and glared at Yoonwon. Watching him sit there and needle him so slyly made Hayeop want to pinch him in the side. He took back every word about Yoonwon being a good person.
“Why are your eyes so sharp?”
“So annoying,” Hayeop muttered, rubbing his round forehead with one fist. Yoonwon watched him. Pearls of sweat had gathered at the nape of his neck.
Yoonwon bit lightly at his thumb.
“Stop working. No one’s here, so you can rest.”
He coaxed Hayeop gently, telling him that taking a short break would not kill him and that he could finish everything slowly.
“Aren’t you hot?”
“At this rate, you’ll make yourself sick from the heat,” Yoonwon added carelessly.
“Let’s go out. We could drive to the sea at Gyeongpo and get some fresh air.”
Then he smiled as smoothly as an idle playboy and sweetly tried to tempt Hayeop. He promised to take him for a drive and bring him to a rock club, acting as enticing as strawberry ice cream.
“You like cold raw fish soup. I’ll buy you some of that too.”
Now he had even begun luring gluttonous Hayeop with food.
“Have you ever tried an orange parfait? It’s incredibly sweet and cold and delicious.”
Hayeop blinked as though wondering what on earth had brought that on. Beads of sweat clung to his long eyelashes.
“I still have a mountain of work left. I have to finish it before Madam comes home.”
Hayeop gathered the clothes into a laundry basket off to one side and rose from his crouch. Yoonwon frowned deeply and seized him by the arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To wash the clothes.”
“Are you insane?”
Yoonwon let out an incredulous laugh.
“Are you planning to go beat them against a rock by the stream?”
This was not the sixties or seventies. Why would Hayeop do something so pitiful when there was a perfectly good, top-of-the-line washing machine in the house? Yoonwon laughed in disbelief, saying Hayeop was the first person he had ever met in 1990s Gangnam who lived without using machines. Even if this Western-style house was more than twenty years old, was that not taking things too far?
“What?”
Hayeop stared at Yoonwon as though he were spouting utter nonsense.
“I’m taking them to the dry cleaner.”
“Oh.”
Yoonwon retreated with an expression of complete understanding. Hayeop tightened his slender arms around the basket. When he opened the door and stepped outside, the chirring of cicadas greeted them.
“Give it to me.”
With a blank expression, Yoonwon reached to take the basket.
“Why?”
Hayeop blinked his round eyes.
“Why would you carry this, Young Master?”
His pale face was perfectly pure and innocent, as though he truly had no idea. Yoonwon could find no answer. True enough. Lee Hayeop was not some girl. He was a parasite secretly living off his family while working around the house like a secret housekeeper.
“Fine. It’s your job.”
Yoonwon watched him with a crooked gaze. Then he blew his bangs from his forehead, snatched the basket away, and strode off with long, swinging steps.
“I’m only doing it because watching you is driving me crazy.”
Suddenly empty-handed, Hayeop trotted after him until they were walking side by side. He wiped his damp hands on his gym shorts. His slippers scraped along the ground as he glanced sideways at Yoonwon.
“Young Master, by any chance....”
He knew it was ridiculous, but Hayeop wanted to tease Young Master for once, so he ventured a joke.
“Do you want to spend time with me?”
“Me?”
Yoonwon scoffed as though the very notion were absurd.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
Hayeop plucked a loose thread from the basket.
“I have plenty of people asking me to go out. I don’t need you.”
“Is that so?”
Hayeop’s lips pushed into a sulky pout and twitched.
“Actually, I have plans today too.”
“What plans?”
Hayeop’s round eyes darted back and forth.
“It’s a secret.”
Yoonwon teased him again, asking what sort of secret a tiny thing like him could possibly have.
The dry cleaner smelled faintly of oil. After leaving Madam’s delicate silk dress there, Hayeop hurried away on quick little feet.
Before long, Yoonwon discovered the truth behind his secret plans.
A long line of people had been waiting outside the supermarket since nine o’clock beneath the blazing sun. The doors would not open until ten, but the competition was fierce. One after another, people fanned themselves with supermarket flyers.
“Yawn.”
Yoonwon kept yawning as he took hold of a shopping cart and swept his hair back like an idle husband dragged along on an errand. The women nearby stole glances at him.
“Oh my, he’s incredibly handsome. I wonder whose son he is.”
“...Could he be a newlywed?”
Yoonwon gave them a leisurely smile with his eyes.
At last, the hour struck. The supermarket opened its doors, and everyone prepared for battle.
Hayeop darted inside like a flying squirrel and swiftly loaded the items he had already picked out into the cart.
“Mom told me Madam likes peaches.”
Hayeop surveyed the towering boxes of peaches with a keen eye and selected the finest one among them. Yoonwon quickly picked up the box and placed it in the cart.
“Choose ones that are slightly soft instead of hard.”
They moved efficiently through the aisles until something caught Hayeop’s eye. He quickly scanned a rack of loose summer dresses.
“For your mother?”
“Yees.”
“This one is pretty. It’s nice and bright.”
When Yoonwon selected a dress, Hayeop felt the soft fabric. Tiny purple flowers were embroidered across it, and it seemed as though it would truly suit his mother. Hayeop had intended to pay with the money she had given him, but Young Master bought it instead.
Their hands were full on the way home. Hayeop carried one bag, while Yoonwon carried three. They walked side by side, sucking on ice cream bars.
“That looks cool.”
As they continued walking, they came upon a small stream. The heat was unbearable, and Hayeop felt he would want for nothing if he could only dip his feet into the water.
He carefully slipped off his slippers and set them aside. When he rolled up his shorts, his pale thighs were revealed. He slowly extended an ankle as slender as a swan’s neck into the water.
“Ah, cold!”
His entire body shuddered when the icy water touched him. Yoonwon laughed softly. Hayeop glared at him and splashed water his way.
“Ugh, cold!”
When Yoonwon recoiled in disgust, Hayeop burst out laughing again.
The two sat beside each other on the bank. They washed a peach in the gently flowing stream, split it open, and ate it. Sticky juice trickled between their fingers. Yoonwon found the whole thing absurd.
“We’re not little kids.”
They had done nothing more than browse a supermarket and dip their feet in a stream they saw every day. How could something so simple be this much fun?
“Oh.”
Hayeop made a soft sound like air escaping, then pressed his index finger to his lips, signaling Yoonwon to be quiet.
“There’s a fish here.”
He cupped both hands together and carefully scooped it from the water. A little fish with a long tail lay in the hollow of his palms.
“It tickles.”
A breeze swept past with a rush. Hayeop’s straw hat fluttered, and he lifted the brim as a soft smile melted across his face like ice cream.
A peach with a single bite taken from it lay beside him, while Hayeop’s legs rested in the cold, clear stream.
The vivid blue sky, the white clouds, the worn straw hat, the snowy face like a steamed bun, the plump cherry-red lips, the slippers he had thrown on without a thought.
Something about Hayeop’s bright, innocent smile did not seem real.
“You’ve got something there.”
Yoonwon chided him for being so foolish, claiming there was peach juice on his mouth as he caressed Hayeop’s lips. The moist, tender flesh gave beneath his thumb like the pulp of a peach.
“Let’s go.”
Then, for reasons even he could not explain, Yoonwon coldly dusted himself off and rose.
“Wait for me!”
He heard Hayeop scrambling after him. Water splashed behind his back. Hayeop was probably fooling around again as he crossed the stepping-stones one by one.
“Unbelievable.”
He was not a child, for God’s sake. Yoonwon let out a disbelieving laugh.
Even the dragonflies passing by seemed to be mocking him.
You liar. Where was there any peach juice on that pale face?
Yoonwon snorted. Yet laughter still lingered at the corners of his smoothly curved lips.