Just Like Newlyweds
Being a large luxury apartment complex, the in-house supermarket was a premium food market. The selection of fresh produce was impressive, and the place itself was surprisingly spacious—there were even free sample stations set up.
Tall enough to stand out in any crowd and with features that bordered on dazzling, Kwon Hyun-jin drew stares every time he moved past people. He was especially popular with the ajummas, who kept pressing samples on him—try this, taste that.
“Are you a talent by any chance?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Oh, look at me. I thought I’d seen you in a drama yesterday.”
“So tall, and that face is so small! Here, try the tteokgalbi too.”
The woman laughed heartily as she urged more samples on him. It was no wonder they liked him. Hyun-jin’s tasting sessions turned straight into purchases. Buckwheat dumplings, garlic tteokgalbi, and, as if that weren’t enough, even tofu pouches for sushi.
A kid who couldn’t even cook rice, buying sushi tofu? I stared at him in disbelief, and he leaned down toward me to whisper.
“Hey. What’s a talent?”
“……An actor. Or celebrity.”
“Ah.”
“Kwon Hyun-jin. Stop buying things already. Do you even know how to cook any of this?”
“You’ll just teach me.”
“…….”
The sheer shamelessness left me speechless. Watching us bicker, an ajumma beamed with approval.
“The new husband is so handsome. And reliable-looking too.”
We had come out dressed in similar colors, so of course people kept saying things like that.
“Thank you.”
Without a shred of embarrassment, Hyun-jin answered the same way every single time. Pretending we weren’t together, I deliberately walked a few steps behind him.
His shopping was far from over. Before long the basket was piled into a mountain. I was dumbfounded. We hadn’t even reached the rice section yet and there was no more room in the cart.
“What a beautiful young couple. You must have married early.”
When the lady at the seafood counter smiled and struck up conversation, Hyun-jin, who had been strolling past at a leisurely pace, stopped right in front of her.
“Is this good?”
“Of course. You have to eat large prawns in autumn. Shall I give you a pack?”
Hyun-jin examined the seasonal specialty with grave seriousness before adding it to the cart. A kid who couldn’t even boil ramen, buying prawns? What the hell was he going to do with prawns?
Just then the part-timer beside them offered him a beer.
“We’re doing a rosé beer tasting. Please try some.”
“No! He’s a minor!”
I lunged to stop it in a panic, and the part-timer looked at Hyun-jin again in surprise.
“Excuse me?”
In faded jeans and a mustard-colored knit, the boy looked like a college student at the very least—certainly not a high-schooler.
“Acting all innocent, huh.”
Hyun-jin snorted and strolled past the dazed part-timer and me with unhurried ease.
In the end, the rice section was our last stop. I picked up a 300-gram pack of pre-washed rice. Something like that would probably be easier for him. Whether he would actually cook rice at all was another question…
When I turned to put it in the cart, I nearly had a heart attack.
Hyun-jin had a twenty-kilogram sack of rice slung over his shoulder.
“Have you lost your mind?”
I tried everything—telling him that size was for a family of four, begging him to get a smaller one—but he didn’t even pretend to listen. His hands were simply too big. Getting out of the market as fast as possible seemed like the better plan.
“How are we even supposed to carry all this… haah.”
“I’m not asking you to carry it.”
At checkout we learned, thankfully, that they offered delivery. While he bent over to sign and insert his card, I started filling out the address form.
“I’d like this delivered, please.”
“Which building and unit? If you write the address here… Wait, you’re taking everything with you right now?”
It was true. Hyun-jin walked out of the market carrying that entire mountain of bags by himself. Standing in front of the escalator, he urged me on.
“Hurry up. I’m hungry.”
“…….”
He was the one who had insisted on carrying everything, and he didn’t even look like he was straining. Still, walking beside someone loaded down with bags and a sack of rice on his shoulder while I sauntered along empty-handed felt awkward.
“I’ll take just one…”
“Forget it. Move.”
The curt reply actually brought me a secret wave of relief. Most of it was refrigerated or frozen; it was brutally heavy. If he had actually made me carry something, I would have suffered.
Fine. I’ll cook for him. That’ll make us even. Who told him to buy this much? What kind of person hauls an entire sack of rice like that? He brought it on himself.
As we left the wide commercial complex, Hyun-jin, who had been striding ahead, suddenly stopped. His gaze was fixed on the wall.
“What are you staring at?”
“…….”
“Ah, Defenders 2. So it’s already out.”
It was the poster for the Hollywood action movie Kim Chang-jin had mentioned a few days ago. A series about protecting Earth from aliens; public interest was high.
“No, wait. Next week’s release.”
Chang-jin wouldn’t shut up about rewatching the Defenders series every time he opened his mouth, and the ads were everywhere, so I had assumed it was already out. I had missed every previous film in the franchise, so I didn’t particularly care.
“Let’s go.”
“…….”
“Aren’t we going home? You said you were hungry.”
Even with my prodding, Hyun-jin stayed rooted in place as if the poster had sucked him in—still loaded down with all those heavy bags. His eyes were so desperate he looked like the Little Match Girl staring at a feast.
“Do you… want to see Defenders?”
“Who said I wanted to see it?”
He snapped belatedly and spun away.
“I don’t give a fuck. Fucking childish movie.”
That reaction was more terrifying than if he had simply asked me to take him to the theater.
Contrarian Kwon Hyun-jin. Whenever he actually liked something, he made a point of acting like he hated it even more. Things he truly hated, he simply ignored completely.
“What are you, elementary school? Who the hell would want to watch something like that…”
I was going to have to book tickets for him. The kid looked too pitiful otherwise.
I hadn’t even carried the bags, yet the moment we reached the apartment I was completely wiped out.
“Your stamina’s pathetic, Lee Na-hee.”
“…….”
“You should work out too.”
Even though he was sneering, I had no comeback. While I lay face-down on the dining table, Hyun-jin—astonishingly—stacked everything neatly into the fridge. Feeling guilty, I dragged myself upright. That was when I noticed an energy bar and a strawberry milk sitting right beside me.
Had he left the chocolate energy bar there as a kindness… for me?
My eyes flew open on their own. I had been craving something sweet like crazy. My period was only a few days away; of course it was that time. My hand reached for the energy bar as if pulled by a magnet.
“Hyun-jin.”
When I called his name softly, the hand arranging the fridge froze. A beat later he turned to me with a stiff face.
“Did you… just call me?”
“Yeah. Can I eat this?”
“……Eat.”
For some reason Hyun-jin looked completely dazed. Whether he did or not, I was busy tearing open the wrapper. The coated energy bar made me feel a little more alive. It wasn’t perfectly sweet chocolate; it was a bit chalky. Of the English nutrition facts, the only word I recognized was protein.
“Where’d you get this?”
“Vending machine.”
“……You mean the gym vending machine? Thanks.”
The protein bar stuck in my throat. Without thinking I started fidgeting with the strawberry milk.
“Can I drink the strawberry milk too?”
“Drink it.”
I really was going to book tickets for Defenders 2. Maybe because I had never expected to get anything from him, a single protein bar and strawberry milk made me ridiculously grateful.
He always said he was going to the gym, yet he bought things like this from the vending machine too. Suddenly I was curious. At eighteen, it was the age when most people were busy worrying about their future path.
“How tall are you?”
“Six-two.”
“…….”
“I’m taller now, probably. That was last year’s measurement.”