Sharing Ice Cream in the Rain
“You want me to take both and scarf them down by myself?”
“…….”
I found myself staring at the ground. A few round wet spots had already darkened the toes of my sneakers.
When I turned, raindrops were pattering onto Kwon Hyun-jin’s shoulders as well. Autumn rain. Without either of us noticing, a fine drizzle had begun to fall.
The dense fool didn’t even realize he was getting wet. He simply watched me with those clear brown eyes, transparent as water droplets.
No matter how awkward things were between us, leaving the kid alone in the rain didn’t sit right with me.
It wasn’t the kind of day when the rain lashed cruelly at your body—just a weak drizzle—yet for some strange reason I couldn’t bring myself to walk away.
He looked cold. Even with that sturdy frame of his.
“……Then share them with me.”
In the end I went back down the steps.
“Give me one.”
His gaze followed me the whole time I stood beside him. He’d said he didn’t want to eat alone, yet the moment I offered to share he seemed startled.
“I said give me one, Kwon Hyun-jin. I’ll eat with you.”
“…….”
A beat late, he held out one side of the ice cream. The bigger one. He could have given me the small one, but…….
So a faint conscience was still alive somewhere inside him after all.
“You’re not a complete bastard, then…….”
“What are you on about.”
Hyun-jin jerked his chin toward the eaves of the main gate, telling me to get under them. I shook my head firmly.
“It’s raining. Don’t you get that?”
“I know. But this is the only spot the CCTV can’t see.”
“What?”
His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed down and then slowly rose again.
“Lee Na-hee.”
“…….”
“In a place no one can see…… what are you going to do with me……?”
A fierce expectation surged and flickered in his unsteady pupils.
Is the kid going through puberty? Spinning all kinds of weird fantasies by himself…….
Sometimes a look speaks louder than words. I simply stared straight at Kwon Hyun-jin while I ate my Twin Bar.
Caught red-handed in his pathetic imagination and clearly embarrassed, he said nothing more and simply shoved me farther under the eaves.
“Nice job. Just stand there and get soaked.”
“You’re getting wet too.”
“I’m a guy…… idiot.”
The Twin Bar was too sweet for me to get properly annoyed by every little dig. It had melted just enough to be perfect for sucking down in long, cold swallows.
Hyun-jin only pecked at his ice cream for a while, then seemed to decide it wasn’t to his taste and simply let it melt. Sticky chocolate liquid dripped steadily onto the ground. I had already finished mine…….
“If you’re not going to eat it, throw it away.”
“Who said I’m not eating it? I’m eating it.”
Just shove the whole thing in your mouth. It isn’t even that big—why are you nursing it like that?
If he’d seen the dissatisfaction in my eyes he would have finished it off in a hurry, but unfortunately Hyun-jin kept his face turned the other way the entire time.
I thought maybe there was a cute stray cat over there, but all I saw was a high gray wall and a thick cascade of ivy.
Perhaps it was the soft patter of the rain. The road that always felt so cold somehow held a touch of romance today.
Even if, this late in autumn, it was a little too chilly to be eating ice cream outside.
“If you’re cold, let’s go in now.”
“Fuck, who’s cold.”
I only said it because the tips of his exposed ears had turned red. Taking someone’s concern with that kind of attitude and still calling it ability—if that was an ability, then sure.
Oblivious that his own shoulders were steadily soaking through, Hyun-jin just stared at the wall and slowly, slowly ate his ice cream.
Acting like the only smart one around. When in reality he didn’t even notice he was taking the rain for both of us…… who exactly was the idiot here.
Because of those foolishly soaked shoulders, even after I finished my ice cream long ago I still couldn’t leave his side.
Wednesdays were early-release days. Students who had already gotten into university through early admissions were barred from self-study periods for “disrupting the academic atmosphere.”
“Defenders 2 is coming out. Wanna go rewatch the first one?”
While I was packing my bag, Kim Chang-jin dropped into the seat next to mine and asked.
“I never even saw the first one. Wolfman.”
“You don’t need Wolfman. But you gotta see the first Defenders. Saturday, you in?”
Saturdays were the days Mrs. Jang sent me on errands. I shook my head.
“Saturday’s no good.”
“Then when are you free?”
“Aren’t the others coming too?”
There were a few of us who hung out together—Chang-jin, Ji-yul, and some others. All friends who had come up from the same middle school.
“We’re watching at my place. Once you rent it you’ve got a whole week.”
Meaning we could keep watching the movie for another week. I hesitated. A pair of black-bean-sauce eyes floated into my mind. Chang-jin’s family had a black poodle.
“I do kinda want to see Jjajang…….”
“Jjajang Grandma will be happy to see you too.”
While I was still weighing it, Ji-yul—who had been getting ready for self-study—turned a murderous glare on Chang-jin.
“Hey, Kim Chang-jin. Are you only inviting Na-hee to your place separately?”
“I gotta suck up now. That way when Lee Na-hee gets into B Women’s University she’ll set me up on blind dates.”
“Ah, early admissions! I should’ve applied early too! Aaaagh!”
Ji-yul, who had completely bombed her school grades, clutched her forehead. Chang-jin and I, both trying not to draw attention, sat down the second the homeroom teacher walked in.
“Anyway, if you’re coming for the first one, just say so.”
“Got it.”
I answered that way, but free time never appeared.
Mrs. Jang called me again.
On top of Saturdays she now wanted Wednesdays as well—twice a week. Even Mrs. Jang herself didn’t visit Kwon Hyun-jin’s house that often, yet suddenly the frequency had jumped.
Sundays were for guests, and Mom had to cook three full meals, so I was busy helping her then too. Saturday had been almost my only free day, and now it had been stolen by Kwon Hyun-jin.
Slightly drained, I arrived in front of the infamous unit 3501.
I pressed the still-unfamiliar apartment buzzer a few times and stepped inside—only to see a bright orange rose sitting dead center on the dining table.
I thought I must have misseen it, but it really was a rose.
A real one, even.
It looked completely out of place. Far too extravagant for this barren house and its vicious owner.
There was no way he had bought it himself.
Don’t tell me…… he received it? Whatever his insides were like, the outside was definitely the type that drew plenty of attention from the opposite sex.
So guys get roses as gifts too. It was both novel and left me feeling strangely unsettled.
……He was probably dating someone and all that.
The orange rose still looked fresh, as if it hadn’t been long since he received it. Given his personality I would have expected him to chuck a gift like that straight into the trash, so it was a little surprising that he’d at least stuck a live flower in water.
This was no time to idle around fretting over someone else’s love life. I had my own work to do. I packed the side-dish bundles into the refrigerator and wiped the thoughts away.
“He ate a little of the ketchup, at least.”
I had stocked Kwon Hyun-jin’s house with the essential seasonings. Things like ketchup I’d left in the fridge, and there were faint traces that he’d used some. Thinking he might want ramen, I’d even put several different kinds in the fridge on purpose, but days had passed without him touching a single one.
“Why won’t he eat these…….”
It wasn’t like I was feeding a stray cat—what on earth was I doing? I found myself ridiculous too, yet the sight of a refrigerator holding nothing but a lonely box of cereal and a carton of milk still made a person worry.
Even so, he seemed to do laundry every day; that same unidentifiable floral scent filled the whole apartment again today.
I set the braised short ribs in the most visible spot right in the center of the fridge and left Kwon Hyun-jin’s house in a hurry.
“Whether a man lives his whole life in a hell of darkness or in paradise—all of it hangs on the mind he carries.”
On the way to school I ran into someone difficult.
Chairman Kwon Hyung-do. He sometimes walked the garden as a form of exercise, and today just happened to be one of those days. Behind him trailed his executive secretary, the madam, and Mrs. Jang as well.
“A fellow who makes tears fall from another’s eyes will one day shed tears of blood from his own.”
Hands clasped behind his back, the chairman looked up at the juniper tree.
“Seung-pil. You write that down?”
“Yes, Chairman.”