I fastened my seatbelt and rolled my eyes, not understanding what hyung was thinking. The quiet suburban road gradually became busier and more crowded with cars as time passed, and before I knew it, we were entering Seoul.

“You said they come looking for you at the house, right? There’s a good chance they’ll do it today too.”

“…Yes.”

“Anyway, if they spot the car, it’ll be a pain, so I’ll park next to your villa and go in and out quickly by myself. I need to bring important stuff anyway.”

“Um… um, can I really go to hyung’s house?”

When I kept stupidly asking him back while looking at him, he soothed me with that beautiful smile of his, wearing a face so reassuring it could calm the world itself.

“You coming isn’t a nuisance at all. If anything, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you sooner.”

The tip of my nose stung and tears welled up again. Sorry…. For what…. Hyung was a kind and good sunbae who had no obligation or reason to help me…. A relief that I finally had somewhere to breathe rose up my spine, and tears and snot flowed without stopping as my tension loosened.

The escape plan to Sungmin hyung’s place without Hyeon Jinhoo and Park Gyuseok knowing was only a temporary measure. The truly serious problem was the time bomb videos in Park Gyuseok’s hands.

Even though I knew that unless I erased them I would never be free, the short fix given to me today brought to mind the saying, “Even if the sky collapses, there is a hole to escape through.” It’s okay, let’s solve things one by one. It’s not like I’m condemned to die without moving at all….

When Sungmin hyung’s car entered near my studio, it was already past 3 p.m. It really was hot once we got to Seoul. Even so, I kept checking for traces of Hyeon Jinhoo or Park Gyuseok lurking near the villa or inside my studio, and I felt a chill down my spine more than when watching any summer horror special.

* * *

Sungmin hyung was living in a small apartment that he had rented. It was one of his parents’ properties, and until then it had been leased out to a newlywed couple, but once Sungmin hyung’s admission to P University, which was near this house, was decided, he came to live here.

It was in a good neighborhood, modest but decent in size, and the house condition was excellent. I later found out that even though it was a small unit, the asking price far exceeded the average sale price of large Seoul apartments.

“The people who lived here before seemed to live with a pet cat, not children. It’s good that the house stayed as clean as it was right after the first remodeling.”

“It seems like it’s ten times better than my studio.”

What Sungmin hyung said about even the opinions of the newlywed couple, who had been living here when it was remodeled, being reflected, turned out to be true. There were little cat doors here and there on the doors so cats could push them open and pass through. Somehow, that felt warm and cute, and a smile naturally appeared on my lips.

When we moved my things out of my studio earlier, thankfully Park Gyuseok and Hyeon Jinhoo weren’t around. Even though it wasn’t in front of the studio villa, but in the parking lot of the building next door, I had been nearly out of my mind while hiding in Sungmin hyung’s conspicuous car.

When Sungmin hyung appeared through the front windshield after going inside the empty house and leisurely bringing out the necessary everyday items, I truly felt like I’d been born into the world again.

I stroked my pounding chest with relief and went into the smallest of the three rooms to unpack my things one by one. By the way, was it okay to stay in such a nice place for free?

“Hyung…. Let me pay at least rent. I’m planning to start part-time work again….”

“What are you saying? Don’t pay.”

“I should do something at least….”

“Anyway, it was an empty room, and I’d been bored living alone, so I wanted to find a roommate even if I had to pay for one. You don’t need to feel burdened.”

Hyung was stubborn. Even so, I didn’t have the ability to pay a large amount that would burden me, but hyung didn’t even want to take a small sum. He liked people so much that he was beyond just politely refusing, and if I tried to pay anything in return, he looked like he’d get angry instead.

So, in the end, we reached a compromise where I would occasionally cook for him. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to do any other housework besides cooking, and he said the cost of ingredients for cooking wouldn’t come out of my pocket either. He also said a housekeeper came twice a week anyway.

It was true that hyung’s consideration felt burdensome, but since I was getting help in many ways, I was really grateful. Hyung even tried to stop me from working part-time, saying I should quit if I thought about earning money to pay rent, but I still needed to make my own living expenses. It didn’t make sense to depend on him for living costs too when I wasn’t paying rent or maintenance fees.

That day, hyung ordered food from several places, saying we should just have something delivered for convenience. He ordered a lot of different kinds, saying we could taste a little of each, and I quickly regretted staying silent and assuming hyung must have a big appetite. I was definitely not the type to eat a lot, and hyung didn’t seem to be a particularly huge eater either, because almost five servings’ worth of food stretched out on the table and cooled down.

Maybe it was a wasteful habit formed because his finances were comfortable, but hyung didn’t even think about storing the leftovers and was trying to throw it all away. I desperately stopped him and packed the food neatly in the fridge. It was enough to eat for at least five days.

* * *

I found a new part-time job. It was a drawing cafe where you could order coffee and drinks and also draw pictures. Normally visitors could just enjoy drawing on their own and leave, but beginners who weren’t used to drawing sometimes asked the staff for guidance. Maybe because of that, and because they needed an Art College student like me, they hired me right away with pay better than minimum wage.

There were a lot of couples at the cafe. Maybe because it was vacation season, college-aged couples came often regardless of the day of the week, and on weekends there were also office workers and families.

Again, my job involved spending more time handling customers than making and serving drinks. Spending time looking over drawings without pressure and helping out was quite refreshing, and I thought it might be nice to consider an art studio for my next part-time job too.

Maybe because I had also changed my phone number, Park Gyuseok and Hyeon Jinhoo, who had been so persistent, did not come looking for me or contact me for nearly a week. While I felt able to breathe, anxiety also started creeping up.

Was this okay? Was it really fine to ignore the reality I was in by living a brief escape life in someone else’s house, almost completely cutting off contact with acquaintances?

I was also scared that when I someday stepped back into the old reality surrounding me, all those videos I couldn’t erase might already be exposed to the world, and that my personal information and my most private, humiliating weaknesses would all be thrown out under everyone’s naked gaze.

‘I don’t know…. Let’s think about it tomorrow first.’ While putting off the problem day after day, a week passed before I knew it. I still couldn’t bring myself to tell Sungmin hyung about the video situation, and was just living halfheartedly.

With the careless thought that if I disappeared for a few weeks, Park Gyuseok and Hyeon Jinhoo would just give up looking for me, I went on like that.

“Hyung?”

“Are you doing well at work?”

The cafe door opened and Sungmin hyung came in. I had only told him the name of the place in passing, so I hadn’t expected him to really come here. As the handsome man who brightly lit up the cafe stepped in, the female customers holding brushes and colored pencils naturally turned their heads.

“Did you come alone?”

“Yeah, I thought I might learn some drawing from Dooyoon too.”

Hyung and I saw each other’s faces every day and spent a lot of time together in the same house, but even when he went out because he had errands or when I was working part-time, he wanted us to share each other’s situations.

Even when he was out at appointments, he kept checking on me by sending messages or calling whenever he had a spare moment, and today, when he’d been quiet for once, he suddenly came to the cafe and startled me.

Hyung’s hands were large, but they were so elegant that the phrase “beautiful hands” suited them. Just like his face. Looking at his hand holding the pencil for sketch work, I actually wanted to draw using hyung’s hand as the model. His awkward and shabby sketching skills, which didn’t suit those pretty hands at all, made me burst out laughing immediately, though.

“Don’t just laugh, help me out a little. I’ve been terrible at art since I was young.”

“It’s surprising that hyung can be bad at something.”

Sungmin hyung and I sat facing each other and I picked up my pencil too. It was when I was correcting the lines he had clumsily drawn and getting into the process of refining the picture. Hyung stretched his neck out, brought his face closer to mine, and said it was fascinating to see the drawing develop in real time.

A sudden thought came to me that his long eyelashes, lowered as he looked at the picture, were incredibly beautiful. His regular breathing tickled the hand I was holding the pencil with, and somehow my heart felt ticklish too.

It was when I was spending quite a long time in front of him, under the pretext of fixing drawings for customers. No customers had left in the meantime, and a newly arrived couple had taken the last remaining table. I briefly asked hyung for understanding, then went over to them to explain the usage time and take their drink order.

“…!”

“…….”

Hmm…. At this point, I wondered if it was truly a vicious fate. It didn’t seem like he had any intention of following me around or coming here on purpose just to irritate me, because the other party also found me and their eyes widened twice as much.

He seemed to have liked Chorong noona a lot, but now he had apparently given up? I snorted while looking at Lee Taegang, who was on a date with a woman I’d never seen before. A drawing cafe date where you draw each other’s faces, huh. You really are doing all kinds of weird things, and it doesn’t suit you at all.

Lee Taegang’s date partner apparently didn’t notice the brief standoff between him and me, and listened happily to my explanation while looking excited. Chorong noona is a bright and spirited person like that too.

I think I roughly know what kind of style Lee Taegang likes. Anyway, since this is a cafe where the ratio of female visitors is much higher, this time he wouldn’t start a fight saying I had come to seduce another man again.