How About This Oppa?
I only came to a stop right in front of him before he finally stepped aside and opened the car door for me. He’d been different a moment ago, so I stared at him blankly; he merely shrugged and jerked his chin toward the interior—when a hand suddenly reached out and brushed my hair. It was Do Ha-jin.
“Take the book.”
I accepted the workbook he held out and climbed into the car. The man started to swing the door shut, but Do Ha-jin’s peering face blocked him.
“Get home safely.”
“Yeah. You go up too, Oppa.”
“Next time let’s have dinner with Oppa. I’ll take you home myself.”
“I’ll think about that when the time comes.”
“Hmm. All right.”
The man suddenly snorted a quiet laugh. Hearing it, Do Ha-jin’s brows twitched and he straightened; the man only shrugged again and pointed at the door with his chin.
“Mind if I close it?”
“…Yes. Please.”
Thud. The door shut and the world went quiet. The man gave Do Ha-jin a light nod and walked back to the driver’s side while I looked out the window.
Do Ha-jin was still tracking him with a disapproving glare; the jealousy and raw sense of crisis inside it were easy to read. A young, good-looking stranger sitting next to me clearly did not sit well with him.
“Is that the guy? The car-sex alibi?”
The man asked as he pulled away from the curb.
“The oppa you said you spent the whole day with.”
“How did you know?”
“Because right now it feels like I just got caught fucking you.”
So he’d sensed the hostility too. Do Ha-jin had been that blatant, but maybe a man who had spent his whole life looking like that was simply used to being treated as a rival.
“Boyfriend?”
“Just an oppa I know.”
“Why’s a guy with no claim looking at me like he wants to kill me.”
“Because you’re handsome.”
“What?”
“That oppa likes me. You’re too good-looking, so he probably feels threatened or something.”
The man stopped at a light and turned to stare at me. His face was an odd mixture of absurdity and fluster.
“You give compliments so bluntly.”
“It wasn’t a compliment. I was just stating a fact.”
“Right. So because I’m that handsome you steal looks every day?”
“……”
It wasn’t exactly true, but it wasn’t entirely false either. Every time I saw him I at least thought he was good-looking. With nothing left to say I shut my mouth and only jerked my chin for him to drive on; he chuckled and faced forward again.
“Ah, so now it’s not stealing glances—you’re staring right out in the open.”
“……”
“Still, I’m proud of you. I figured you just got your kicks by peeping at people like a creep, but turns out you know how to stick close to a guy too.”
What was that supposed to mean. I was just as flustered as when he’d suspected something with Driver Kim, when the man turning the wheel made a show of sniffing the air.
“That oppa’s cologne is reeking. Want me to open the windows?”
Before I could answer, all four windows dropped at once. Hot wind flooded the cool cabin and my hair whipped every direction. I frowned and rolled mine up first; he raised the rest. Shooting him a sideways glance as he smirked, I slumped sulkily into the seat.
“Why do you always think like that? Same thing with Driver Kim.”
“He’s a driver. It was easy to misunderstand.”
“It’s not Oppa either.”
“Is that so? Why?”
“What kind of question is that. What am I supposed to do with Ha-jin Oppa?”
“Rather than that….”
He trailed off as he entered the familiar neighborhood. Among the cluster of detached houses, ours sat at the highest point. The man climbed the gentle slope at a leisurely pace and spoke lightly.
“Maybe you peeped at me because you were curious about men.”
“……”
“Seeing how strong that cologne smell is, I figured you were rolling around with that oppa to satisfy your curiosity. Or not.”
Satisfy curiosity. The words lodged firmly in my ear.
I had peeped at him at first simply because an unexpected person being in our house felt strange. It had been so long since a stranger entered my daily life that it was awkward and uncomfortable, and yes, I was curious.
But I wasn’t sure whether that curiosity had been about the opposite sex. If it had been, I could have satisfied it with Do Ha-jin, who already liked me, just as the man said—yet I had never once thought of him that way.
The reason I simply let Do Ha-jin casually press against me was that he was one of the very few people who was familiar and even well-disposed toward me.
It was true that the warmth that passed between us wasn’t unpleasant, but that was the instinctive sense of security that came from another person’s body heat, not sexual stimulation.
I wasn’t an idiot; I could tell the difference between simple security and lust. No—if anything I could distinguish them more clearly than most. The sensation that had set my body on fire only a few days ago was still vivid.
My gaze landed on the man’s forearm stretched straight to the wheel. The thick muscle under the short sleeve flexed every time he turned it.
“……”
I couldn’t pretend not to know what it meant that contact with him felt so strangely charged. Had the video left me primed, so that the touch imprinted itself in an oddly erotic way?
I was still lost in thought when the sedan stopped. Only then did I tear my eyes away and unbuckle. Meanwhile the man had already gotten out and was strolling around to my side with a lazy gait.
I was gathering the workbooks one by one onto my thighs when the door was yanked open; he braced himself on the roof and leaned in, head tilted.
“First time playing chauffeur. Is this how you do it?”
“…You don’t have to.”
“Why. I’m getting paid for it, so I should.”
His upper body suddenly filled the cabin. The space shrank so abruptly that I flinched and pressed back into the seat; he simply scooped up every last workbook.
“I’ll carry them. Let’s go.”
“……”
I looked up at him, a little flustered—not because of the unexpected kindness, but because when he took the books his fingers had brushed the outer side of my thigh.
It hadn’t been deliberate. It was just the natural contact that happened when he grabbed them, nothing more than a light graze over fabric. Even so my thigh nerves seemed to stand on end for no reason, so I rubbed the spot with my palm.
“What are you doing. Get out.”
He himself seemed completely unconcerned, shaking the three thick workbooks held easily in one large hand. I glanced at the heavy books flapping and climbed out; the door shut at once. After a brief hesitation I took them back from him.
“It’s only three. I can carry them myself.”
“Ah, so these kinds of things you insist on doing yourself.”
“……”
“You’re hard to keep tempo with.”
All I had done was wait for him to open the door once, yet anyone watching would think I made him do everything. I shot him a sour look for the sly teasing and hugged the books to my chest.
“Just go. Leave the car in the garage.”
“……”
Instead of answering he leaned his hip against the car, arms crossed, looking down at me as if he had something left to say.
“What?”
“If that oppa doesn’t appeal, how about this oppa?”
The words were tossed out as lightly as if he were commenting on the weather. I almost let them slide past before reacting a beat late. What was that supposed to mean.
“What? How about what?”
“I’ve gotten a little curious myself.”
“What….”
“Whether getting horny from just one video means you’re pure or means you’re already slutty. It’s so ambiguous it keeps coming back to me.”
“……”
“And lucky for me, you said I’m handsome enough to be worth peeping at.”
I had never said those exact words, but the circumstances left me no room to deny it. That aside—what about him?
I was just opening my mouth to ask what he really meant when the front gate opened. Both of us turned at the same time. Heeyeon Unnie stood there in an apron.
“I came out to meet you since it was about time. Why are you just standing there?”
“……”
At Unnie’s appearance the man straightened, uncrossed his arms, and brushed off his shoulders. I was still watching him blankly when Heeyeon Unnie suddenly took the books from my hands.
“Come inside. Dinner’s ready. I’ll take these up.”
“Yes… okay.”
“Seontae-ssi, you worked hard too. You can go now.”
Even as Unnie pulled me along by the hand, my eyes kept straying back to the man. Come to think of it, I had simply let it pass until now, but of course he had a name.
Before I stepped through the gate I looked back. He was just climbing into the car. He paused with the door half-closed, head tilted, and gazed at me. His slightly twisted lips and sharp eyes looked like they might be smiling—or not.
“Young lady, I’ll close the gate.”
Heeyeon Unnie inserted herself between us while we were still trading that quiet look. Even as I stepped aside so the gate could shut, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was the same.
Thud. Only after the gate closed did I hear the car door shut outside.
I sat at the desk and opened a workbook just to kill time because I was bored, but I couldn’t concentrate at all. My head was far more full of questions than the problems in front of me.
Why had he said that?
I couldn’t pretend not to understand what “how about this oppa” meant. Satisfy curiosity. He had offered himself as the object of it—yet no matter how many times I turned it over, it still didn’t make sense.
At least from what I had seen, the man felt no fondness for me. Fondness? On first meeting he had radiated outright hostility.
After a few conversations the sneering had lessened, but even then I never got the sense that he was interested in me the way Do Ha-jin was. It had only been banter. So why suddenly?
Was it just something he said for the hell of it?
The thought crossed my mind that maybe I was overreacting alone to words thrown out as mockery—yet strangely it didn’t feel like mockery. Why?
Somehow every time we met he left me with homework.
While I ignored the actual homework and just scribbled meaningless black lines that filled the margin like an unraveled thread, the phone buzzed.
I confirmed Do Ha-jin’s name on the screen and kept rolling the pen. Staring blankly at the paper that had grown bumpy under the ballpoint tip, I let my gaze drop a little lower. My shorts had ridden up, exposing the outer side of my thigh. It had been nothing more than a brief brush, yet the residual sensation lasted as long as the one left by his forearm.
I tossed the pen down and rubbed the spot with my palm.
Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
While the phone kept vibrating I kept absently stroking my skin.