Romantic Gangster

#29

“What are you going to do for me?”

“Well. Whatever you ask me to do?”

“Whatever I ask? Anything at all?”

“Hmm, if it’s something I can do. I could buy you an expensive meal, but I can’t do things like becoming a gangster with you… stuff like that.”

“Are you crazy? Why suddenly mention gangsters? That’s ridiculous. Do you think I’d fucking ask you to live a gangster life with me? With those wrists, you’d make a fine gangster.”

Hyun-joon grabbed Ji-woo’s thin wrist and shook it a few times, letting out a laugh mixed with a sigh. Following his laugh, a soft emotion spread across Ji-woo’s lips as well.

“I’ll ask for something you can do, so make sure you do it.”

“Okay, got it.”

Ji-woo nodded and took another bite of his bread. While Hyun-joon had already devoured two pieces of bread, Ji-woo was still slowly nibbling on half a piece, which Hyun-joon found cute again. Someone once said that once you find something cute, it’s all over, and he felt that was really true. After finding Ji-woo cute once, everything he did seemed cute, which was troublesome.

Even things that others wouldn’t find cute at all kept appearing cute to him. Just sleeping peacefully seemed cute, and even putting the straw in his mouth to drink banana milk seemed cute. He really felt like he had a severe case of… something.

“So, do you think you can work today?”

“I was thinking I probably couldn’t, so I already told the manager. I’m taking the day off.”

“Good. Go home and rest. You need to eat well and sleep well. Oh, do you have something to eat for dinner at home?”

“I can manage something.”

“Hey, didn’t you hear me say you need to eat well? If you don’t have anything specific to eat… you could eat with me before going home.”

“Oh, school dinner?”

“No, outside.”

Although he was just suggesting eating dinner together, it was essentially no different from asking for a date. If it were someone else, they would never reject his proposal, but honestly, Ji-woo was more than capable of doing so, which made him anxious. It was even worse because Ji-woo didn’t answer right away, always thinking carefully before responding.

“…If you think it’s better to go straight home because you’re tired, that’s fine too.”

“No, let’s eat together.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ll pay for dinner. You’ve been through a lot because of me. You couldn’t eat lunch because of me, and you bought all this…”

“This is nothing. What does it matter who pays? It’s not like I don’t have money. What do you want to eat for dinner?”

Ji-woo took another small bite of bread and fell into thought again. Hyun-joon quietly took in his side profile. With all the other students in class, there was no noise, and being here alone with Ji-woo in the quiet back of the school felt like… they were the only two left in the world.

The cool breeze was pleasant, and even Ji-woo’s hair swaying in the wind looked pretty, which was troubling, but he still liked it. Enough to want to cherish this scene in a corner of his heart forever.

“Ah, do you know that made-to-order tteokbokki place near the station?”

Hyun-joon could easily recall the tteokbokki place Ji-woo was talking about. He had been there often because the guys he hung out with liked it, so he could even clearly picture the layout of the shop in his mind.

“Yeah, I know it.”

“I’ve wanted to go there. Shall we go there together? I heard everything there is delicious. The fried food is good, the tteokbokki is good, and that… honey butter sauce they put on the french fries? I heard that’s really delicious too, so I wanted to try it.”

Hyun-joon knew that all those things Ji-woo mentioned were indeed delicious. But he was a little hesitant. It was because guys he knew frequented that place too often. Of course, even if they ran into them, it wouldn’t be a problem, but it was true that he didn’t want to go somewhere where there was a possibility of being interrupted by someone on their first dinner together.

“Do you not like it?”

“Huh? No, I like it. Let’s go.”

But those thoughts completely vanished when he saw Ji-woo looking at him with eyes that clearly wanted to go. He just wanted to go wherever Ji-woo wanted. He wanted to show him that it was as delicious as he expected, and he also wanted to be the person who went with Ji-woo to a place he wanted to go, to remain in Ji-woo’s mind for a long time.

“Let’s go right after school ends. If we go a bit late, there won’t be any seats.”

“Have you been there before?”

“Yeah, before.”

“Is it really delicious?”

“Yeah. I think you’ll really like those french fries.”

“Sounds delicious. I like honey butter… though I’ve only had it in snacks.”

Looking at Ji-woo’s smiling face, Hyun-joon thought he hoped the day would come soon when his name would replace ‘honey butter’ in that sentence. He could hardly imagine how thrilling and wonderful that would feel. If Ji-woo liked him, and told him he liked him… what would that feel like? If he came looking for him without Hyun-joon having to hang around, if he acted like he didn’t know what to do because he liked him so much…

Just imagining it a little made his heart feel like it would burst. Feeling his nape getting hot again, Hyun-joon opened a can of isotonic drink from the bag and gulped it down.

Still, the imagination filling his head and his swelling feelings didn’t subside at all. Hyun-joon barely suppressed his pounding heart and glanced at Ji-woo.

“…Let’s eat dinner just the two of us.”

“…”

“I want that.”

“…Okay.”

Without much thought, Ji-woo’s head moved in a nod of agreement. As their eyes met, Hyun-joon found it hard to breathe and turned his head away first, looking into the distance and taking a deep breath.

It seemed the moment to acknowledge his feelings wasn’t far off.

* * *

Even though it was a bit early for dinner, the tteokbokki place was very crowded. Luckily, there were two empty seats left, so they could enter without waiting. Moreover, they were guided to a slightly larger table than the others, allowing them to sit comfortably.

Hyun-joon turned the menu towards Ji-woo and quickly scanned the inside of the store with his eyes. Fortunately, there were no familiar faces. Well, those guys wouldn’t come at this early hour even if they came here, so he probably didn’t need to worry about running into them. Relieved, Hyun-joon shifted his gaze to Ji-woo, who was carefully looking at the menu.

“Have you decided?”

“How about this B set? It seems good. It has tteokbokki for two, eight pieces of fried food, honey butter french fries, and even includes two drinks.”

“Yeah, that’s what people usually get. Let’s have that.”

Hyun-joon pressed the bell to call a staff member, finished ordering, and opened a wet wipe to clean his hands. Although they weren’t awkward with each other, somehow sitting face to face outside of school to have dinner made him feel a bit awkward. It felt like he should say something, but he couldn’t think of what to say, and there weren’t really any shared memories or old stories to talk about, which made it worse.

“…Ah, the pool hall owner misses you sometimes. He says you’re the first kid who worked so well. He might contact you again. I think he said something about making magnets this time.”

“I could do it on weekends.”

“Don’t you work at the convenience store on weekends?”

“No. I used to work from morning to night on weekends, but it was too tough on Mondays. So after a few months, I decided it wasn’t working and switched to weekdays only.”

“…Then what do you do on weekends?”

“Sometimes I rest at home, sometimes I study with Young-jae, and occasionally we hang out.”

Maybe because he had only seen Ji-woo working or doing something all the time, the mention of hanging out made him very curious about what exactly he did. Hyun-joon rested his chin on his hand and stared at Ji-woo.

“What do you do when you hang out?”

“Just talk, go to the park, oh, and sometimes we go to the game zone at the station. Young-jae likes games.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah. What do you do when you hang out?”

“Me? I play pool, go bowling, and you know that baseball batting place? I go there too.”

As he said it, he realized that he and Ji-woo had very different ‘ways of hanging out’. Talking and going to the park as a way of hanging out… If someone else had said it, he might not have understood, but because it was Ji-woo, even that seemed cute. When asked what he did for fun, he said he went to the park. How could that not be cute?

“Here are your honey butter french fries and drinks first.”

Just as he was trying to hide his thoughts about how cute Ji-woo was, the side dishes were conveniently placed on the table. Hyun-joon took the fork Ji-woo handed him and moved the french fries closer to Ji-woo’s side. Ji-woo’s hand with the fork approached. Hyun-joon quietly observed Ji-woo.

“Looks delicious.”

Ji-woo stabbed a long fry covered in sauce with his fork, blew on it with a “hoo,” and put the end in his mouth. The sauce smeared on his pursed lips as the end of the fry disappeared into his mouth. Soon, the tip of his tongue came out to lick the sauce on his lips. Hyun-joon’s gaze absently fixed on the sauce on the tip of the tongue, no… on the tongue tip that had just licked the sauce.

“…”

It was the first time in his life that he had been so conscious of someone’s tongue. No, it wasn’t just being conscious of it, but he had the perverted thought of wanting to see more of it, yet he didn’t feel much guilt. His perverted thoughts had overcome his conscience.

“This is really delicious.”

“Is it good?”

“Yeah. It’s a flavor I like.”

“I thought you would. Eat a lot.”

“You should eat quickly too.”

As he watched Ji-woo stab another fry and eat it, Hyun-joon moved his fork too, but honestly, he couldn’t taste or feel anything he was eating. It was because all his attention was captured by the tip of Ji-woo’s tongue, which licked his lips and the corners of his mouth every time sauce got on them as he ate.