It Smells Like You
“It smells like you, Lee Na-hee.”
Like a prospector who’d just struck gold, he couldn’t stop looking around in every direction.
“Well, it is my place… It’s a little small.”
“No. It’s perfect.”
When Ji-yul and I had lived here together, it had felt plenty spacious. The moment Kwon Hyun-jin stepped inside, the space magically shrank. Had the ceiling always been that low? I was half-afraid his head would hit it.
He was openly delighted that the roommate who’d shared my little studio with me had moved out.
“Now I can stay over more often. I’ll come hang out too.”
“Why would you come hang out here? The place is tiny.”
“I love it. It’s so cozy.”
“……”
Why was he touching the wallpaper? He was so busy taking everything in that he looked like an assassin touring a palace. The armless dining chairs Ji-yul and I had used were far too small for him, so I had no choice but to sit him on my bed.
“You’re uncomfortable, so I’ll finish this quickly. Just stay there a minute.”
I still hadn’t finished flipping through the presentation materials. I’d dozed off while working on them at dawn, and Hyun-jin had rushed over so early.
“Is this your desk?”
“Yeah.”
It was an ordinary single desk suited to my cramped room. Major textbooks were stacked on it, and unfinished panels and printouts made it look even messier than usual today. There was nothing particularly impressive about my desk, yet he examined every inch of it like a cultist inspecting the altar of his god.
“Whoa……”
Only after idly touching the cheap student chair I sat in and the drawers did Kwon Hyun-jin return to the bed. Was he that fascinated because he’d never seen how ordinary people lived? His over-the-top reaction left only me feeling awkward.
He rustled around on my bed for a long time without saying a word.
“Lee Na-hee.”
A languid voice drifted from behind me as I moved the mouse.
“Give me your blanket.”
“My… blanket?”
“Yeah. And your pillow. And your mattress.”
What nonsense was this now? When I turned around, Kwon Hyun-jin was lying on my bed. It was only a single size, so his legs stuck out past the end. Even so, he looked perfectly content…
“Give me this house too.”
“……”
“And give me you.”
With his head on my pillow and my blanket clutched in his arms, Kwon Hyun-jin looked as if he were floating in some kind of rapture on a cloud.
“Haa… I want to live here too… Somewhere that smells like you……”
If I’d known he would like it this much, I would have invited him over sooner.
“Just rest for a bit. I’ll be done in an hour.”
I turned back around and began jotting down supplementary notes while comparing the slides to the script. Just as I was concentrating and nearing completion—
“Na-hee.”
“Mm.”
“Let’s get married.”
“What?”
I’d thought he had fallen asleep because it had gone quiet. Instead, Kwon Hyun-jin dropped a bomb behind me.
“I’m only doing undergrad here and then heading straight to the States. Let’s get married and go do our master’s together.”
“……”
“Let’s get married this year. Or next year. The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
I’d thought he was joking, but he sounded serious. Kwon Hyun-jin’s voice was earnest.
“Na-hee.”
“……”
“Lee Na-hee. Answer me, okay?”
He had already sat up and was pressing me for a reply. My head felt as if someone had stirred it with a ladle.
“I said let’s get married.”
“……Marriage isn’t a joke. We haven’t even graduated yet. What marriage?”
I trailed off and looked away. I tried to focus again, but the hand moving the mouse grew endlessly slow.
“Lee Na-hee.”
As if my anxiety had infected him, Kwon Hyun-jin’s voice dropped lower.
“Have you asked your mother?”
My heart plummeted. That again. I pretended not to know even though I did.
“Ask her what……”
“Should I go?”
Looking frustrated, Kwon Hyun-jin raked a hand through his hair.
“Should I go to Hannam-dong and ask her myself? Tell her I’ll set her up with her own business so she can quit right away—should I just say it?”
“……”
“I waited because I was afraid you’d hate it. Every time I ran into your mother I thought how shocked she’d be, so I held back until you told her. But how long am I supposed to wait, huh?”
I wasn’t ready to tell my mother about us. I still hadn’t steeled myself for it.
A long silence stretched between us.
When I still gave no answer, Kwon Hyun-jin changed tactics.
“Na-hee. We’re graduating around the same time anyway. You’re on a five-year track and I’m on a four-year.”
As if he had never been pressuring me, he began coaxing me gently.
“We’re going to get married eventually, so we might as well hurry. Why drag it out? You barely have time to spare as it is.”
“……”
“I know what you’re worried about. I do. It’s okay. There are people who support us and want us to make it.”
Kwon Hyun-jin listed, one by one, all the reasons we absolutely had to get married.
“Being together until we fall asleep, seeing each other the second we open our eyes. Sleeping in the same bed. How great would that be? I can support you, and… hey.”
His rising voice suddenly turned ice-cold.
“You’ve got a message?”
He was looking down at my phone, which had been rolling around on the bed. Whatever had appeared on the screen made his handsome face crumple. Cold air radiated from him as he immediately narrowed his eyes.
“Why the hell is this bastard so desperate to set you up with guys?”
It was Chang-jin. In exchange for switching a general-education class for him, a classmate had asked Chang-jin to arrange a blind date.
“……Just ignore it.”
“Ignore it?”
The corners of his eyes, which had been fixed on my phone, tightened sharply.
“Don’t tell me you’ve already met him.”
“Meet who? I barely have time to see you.”
“Then how does the guy asking for an introduction even know what you look like?”
“He said he saw me in a group photo with the high school kids.”
Chang-jin was in the sports industry department, so most of his classmates were guys. I had already turned them down, but they kept asking, which left Chang-jin stuck in the middle.
“Lee Na-hee. Why haven’t you told your friends you have a boyfriend?”
“Well… Chang-jin plays the same game as Chan-hee… so the two of them go to PC cafés together.”
“Ha.”
Kwon Hyun-jin looked so flabbergasted he was speechless. He scrubbed a hand down his handsome face as if washing it dry, then flung the blanket aside and sat up.
“Does Lee Chan-hee even study? That bastard says he’s going to S University and then wastes time gaming?”
“He’s applying early decision.”
“Is early decision easy?”
“Not S University—S University of Education……”
“And teachers’ colleges are easy?”
“Chan-hee was class president all through elementary, middle, and high school. His grades are better than mine.”
“Ah, that little shit. Takes after his sister and is fucking smart. Infuriating.”
Elbows propped on his knees, he sat at a slant looking exactly like a thug who’d come to collect a debt.
“……Lee Na-hee.”
His gaze, which had been wandering, suddenly stopped. Under the refrigerator.
“What’s that?”
Something pale was sticking out. Even I hadn’t noticed it, yet he spotted it like a ghost. When I picked it up, it turned out to be a wristband—the kind you wear on your wrist, a Nike one.
What? Why was this here…? Anyone could see it was a guy’s thing, and I had no idea either, so I was left speechless.
“Hey. That isn’t Lee Chan-hee’s.”
A sudden image flashed through my mind: someone wearing a white wristband, happily eating black-bean noodles…
“Whose is it.”
“……I think it’s Chang-jin’s. He came by a few days ago to help Ji-yul move her stuff.”
“That bastard’s tight with Lee Chan-hee too. And he’s been in and out of this place?”
“He didn’t come and go. He came exactly once. He said he could move Ji-yul’s things with his dad’s car.”
Kwon Hyun-jin raked his hair back irritably, then laughed as if the whole thing had become genuinely absurd.
“Hey. Phone’s ringing?”
He held out the phone in his hand so I could see. I craned my neck because I couldn’t make out the name, and he helpfully identified the caller for me.
“Do-yun?”
“Don’t answer it!”
I lunged for the bed. I stretched out my hand to snatch the phone, but Kwon Hyun-jin blocked me with almost no effort and laid me down on the mattress.