Today was sweltering again, the fan was turning lazily in the corner, and their secret residence had yet to be discovered.
"All clear!"
Hayeop planted his bottom on the floor and sat before the little low table. He pressed each character carefully onto a sheet of pink letter paper.
He had already written and erased it several times.
Once he finished, he sealed the envelope with a dab of sticky rice. He waited for Madam to go out, then secretly slipped it into the red mailbox in front of the house. He peered inside again and again, checking whether he had made any mistakes.
"Good grief."
This was already his fifth submission, but he had never won. Surely no one was stealing his letters along the way to eliminate the competition. Hayeop narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
Then he shook his head, telling himself not to entertain such absurd ideas.
"What are you doing there?"
The sudden voice behind him nearly made Hayeop’s heart fall out of his chest.
"Ah! You startled me!"
Clutching his chest, he sagged against the wall and slid down it. Why did the Young Master always have to scare the life out of people whenever he appeared? Yoonwon’s gaze shifted toward the red mailbox.
"Hmm?"
Then he slipped his long arm inside and pulled out the letter. The instant the pink envelope emerged, Hayeop lunged at him with a shriek.
"Nooo!"
Hayeop almost never raised his voice. His snow-white cheeks had turned strawberry red, the color spreading all the way to the crown of his head. Faced with such an unmistakably suspicious expression, Yoonwon stretched his arm high above him.
"What the hell is this?"
Yoonwon’s arms were long enough to dunk a basketball, so no matter how Hayeop hopped and bounced, he could not snatch the letter away.
"Do you really think you can reach it?"
After taunting him wickedly, Yoonwon read the words written on the envelope.
"What’s this? ‘To the One I Admire’?"
Then he burst out laughing. What was this, some confession letter from 1988? What was the point of owning a pager?
"Give it back."
Hayeop pleaded with him, his face blazing red, and Yoonwon’s mischievous streak flared again. Even as a child, Yoonwon had sneered at boys his age for acting immature and snapping girls’ elastic bands. So why was teasing Hayeop this much fun?
"You were going to give it to me anyway, weren’t you?"
"No!"
"...You weren’t?"
Yoonwon opened the envelope, removed the letter, and began to read. He covered his open mouth with one hand as he laughed.
“‘When I hear your gentle voice, it feels as though all the weariness of my day disappears’...?”
The contents were so sweet and embarrassing that anyone would have mistaken it for a letter to someone Hayeop secretly loved. It went on at length about how deeply he admired the recipient.
"Don’t read it...! You playboy."
Hayeop looked as though his innocent heart had been trampled, but Yoonwon paid no attention. He continued to toy with him, teasing him as infuriatingly as ever.
"Then tell me the truth without making a fuss. You were going to give it to me."
Hayeop’s eyebrows drooped. If he could only prove it, he felt ready to cut open his stomach and show Yoonwon the truth inside.
"I already told you the truth. It isn’t for you."
"...It really isn’t mine?"
Yoonwon’s voice dropped slightly as he asked again. A delicate furrow appeared between his brows. Hayeop explained in an aggrieved voice.
"I was going to send it to Lee Moon Sae’s radio show."
"……."
"They said that if they chose your story, they’d send you a cassette with every song from the album."
Hayeop told him to give it back now and leaped with all his strength, catching the very edge. But Yoonwon missed the moment when he should have released his grip.
The love letter tore pathetically in two.
Riiip.
"Damn."
The atmosphere turned sharp in an instant. Hayeop said nothing, merely staring down at the torn letter. Too mild-mannered even to get properly angry, he could only push his lips into a pout.
"Do you think it’s funny that I care about something?"
Hayeop looked up at Yoonwon reproachfully, his eyes clear and moist.
"I really hate people these days. Why does everyone hate things that are sincere and slow and thoughtful?"
It was the same at the nightclub. Everyone fell in love so quickly. When Hayeop said how strange he found it, Taehee told him the truth: by the next day, they all became strangers again. They fell in love for one night, lightly and irresponsibly. In Hayeop’s eyes, the Young Master was no different.
"You don’t even know what romance is."
"...Hayeop."
Yoonwon looked plainly disconcerted. Hayeop was staring miserably at his torn letter, and Yoonwon was just about to soothe him when—
"Jung Yoonwon!"
A shrill voice rang out from somewhere nearby. They whipped their heads around to see someone stepping out of a white foreign car. She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Removing her black sunglasses and settling them on top of her head, she approached, her long, straight hair streaming all the way down to her waist.
"You haven’t been checking your pager."
As the woman drew closer, Yoonwon unconsciously moved in front of Hayeop, shielding him.
"Do you think love is a game?"
"Love?"
Yoonwon repeated the word slowly.
"What you and I did wasn’t love, was it?"
The woman raised her hand and slapped Yoonwon, who stood a good four inches taller than she did. The crack rang out, snapping his face to the side.
"If you keep trampling on women’s hearts like that, the day will come when yours gets torn apart too."
Hayeop was so shocked that he covered his mouth with both hands and stared. Yoonwon could clearly have avoided the blow, yet he had not.
"My heart? I look forward to that."
"Tell everyone else that I dumped you."
"Of course. Whatever you want."
Hana snorted and answered coldly. She glared at him as though there was nothing left between them worth discussing.
"Hmph. Still pretending to be cool right to the end."
She extended her middle finger and said, "Fuck you," before turning her back on him. It was an ending so cold it went far beyond cool. As though she refused to carry a grudge. As though any lingering attachment could go to the dogs.
Then she climbed into her car and sped away.
"Damn...."
Rubbing his jaw as though his cheek still stung, Yoonwon turned back to Hayeop. A deeply awkward silence settled between them. The timing could hardly have been worse. With one misfortune piled on top of another, neither of them could bring himself to speak.
The Young Master broke the silence first.
"I’m sorry."
A vivid red mark remained on his cheek. The letter had been torn, but all Hayeop could see was the Young Master’s swollen cheek. He had certainly been angry, yet the moment he saw that Yoonwon had been hurt, none of it seemed to matter anymore.
"For tearing your letter."
Hayeop shook his head. If he failed five times, he could simply try a sixth.
"It’s all right.... I mean, um...."
Hayeop stared at his cheek, wanting to say something, but no words came. In the end, he fled like a coward.
The next day, when Hayeop went to open the mailbox and post another letter, he found something waiting inside.
"What is this?"
He carefully took it out. It was a complete collection of Lee Moon Sae’s albums. Hayeop jerked his head from side to side. Who could possibly have left something this precious here? Unable to make sense of it, he turned the collection over. Neat handwriting was inscribed on the back.
“To the one who understands romance.”
A faint smile spread across Hayeop’s lips. He carefully tucked the collection against his chest and embraced it.
Yoonwon’s friends descended upon the house and pestered him to go play basketball. Making no effort to hide his annoyance, Yoonwon followed them outside, then stopped.
"Hey, wait."
His friends turned to look at him. Yoonwon tossed them the car keys and told them to get in first. Then he approached the mailbox. Wondering whether Hayeop had taken what he left there, he opened it and found something inside.
Yoonwon pulled it out.
"Ha. You sly little fox."
It must not have been there long. It was still cold.
When Yoonwon got into the car, his friends asked what he was holding. Sitting behind the wheel, he extended his open palm toward the back seat.
"Here."
Resting gently in his large hand was an egg. An utterly ordinary egg in every conceivable way.
"What the hell is that? Is it Easter?"
"Can’t you tell by looking?"
Yoonwon dismissed the ignorant bastards for knowing nothing of romance. Did they have eyes for decoration? Placing a cigarette between his lips, he turned the wheel and answered,
"It’s a love letter."
A sleek smile curved across his face. Sunlight flowed like chiffon, soft and delicate, wrapping around his features.