* Apologies for the belated chapter—Como literally coughed blood this morning lmaooooo. It sounds super serious when I put it like that but I think it’s probably because I had way too much sugared candy before I slept last night. I was away at a retreat in the middle of nowhere and had no internet. To make it up to you guys, I’ll try to translate extra this week.
I half-heartedly dried the moisture off my hair as I left the bathroom and stepped in front of the living room camera.
"Hello. I feel like my eye bags are a more noticeable today, probably because I'm pretty tired."
The camera that was moving on its own along the fixed rail stopped when I approached it. It focused itself on me and reflected me on its lens.
Oh Rion, who was reading on the couch, seemed to only have noticed that I had come out into the living room when he heard my voice. He offered a short greeting: Good to see you, hyung.
"Yeah."
Also giving a brief response, I walked over to the couch and sat down next to Oh Rion.
"You didn't dry your hair properly again."
He placed the book that had been open in his hands on the table and took the towel that was slung over my head. He ruffled my hair with the towel and said, "Sunho went to school."
"Yeah," I replied as I glanced at the clock that was hanging on the wall. The short hand was pointing at 11.
"Where's Park Jitae?"
"He said that he was going to go exercise and left a while ago."
When I asked about Park Jitae, who was nowhere to be seen around the flat, Oh Rion's gentle ruffling of my hair suddenly seemed to have gained intensity for a split second. I felt his hand pressing onto my head with a little more force.
"I see. How about Seo Yoon-hyung?"
"I'm here, Suan."
The voice was coming from behind the couch. Perhaps he had went out and come back in that short while—he was holding a black plastic bag. He asked teasingly, Were you looking for me because you missed me?
"No. Where did you come back from?" I asked with a slight smile, remembering what had happened in our room moments ago.
"It's time for lunch soon. I went out and bought some eggs from the convenience store in front of the building so that we can cook up something simple."
Ah, don't tell me… you plan to cook?
The smile faded from my mouth upon hearing the shocking news as my body stiffened. Just as the touch against my head started to disappear, Oh Rion's deep voice melted into my ears.
"It's dry now. Yoon-hyung, do you want me to help?"
Please, no. You guys just sit still.
I expressed my negation with my whole body and quickly began searching for an excuse.
Ah!
"Oh Rion, could you throw this towel into the laundry bag?"
I hurriedly tossed him the towel that I was using to dry my hair.
"Could you call Park Jitae, Seo Yoon-hyung? He has to eat, too. I'll cook this time."
I took the black plastic bag from him and ran away to the kitchen. I opened the bag to literally only find a carton of eggs. I rushed over and opened the fridge to see if there were other ingredients that I could use and found some carrots, onions, leeks, and ham.
When I opened the rice cooker, the rice that we had cooked yesterday remained uneaten. I took out a large bowl and filled it with the rice.
I placed the bowl full of rice on the dining table and went over to the sink to wash and peel the carrots and the onions. The leeks were already prepared for cooking, so all I had to do was to wash them. I laid out the ingredients on the cutting board, chopped them one by one, and put them in a separate bowl.
I pulled out a deep wok and placed it on the cooktop. I oiled the wok, poured the chopped leek, and opened the gas valve to turn on the cooktop.
I let the oil seep out from the leek before adding the carrots. I fried them until they were cooked and readied some salt and pepper on the counter. I made sure that the colour of the carrots had changed and added the onions. I seasoned the vegetables with salt and pepper and stirred them together. Finally, I added the chopped ham.
I turned around to fetch the bowl of rice when I noticed Oh Rion and Seo Yoon-hyung sitting around the dining table.
"Yeah, are you almost here?"
Seo Yoon-hyung had his phone up to his ear, talking into it. He still seemed to be in a call. Oh Rion sat still and quietly stared at me.
"Do you need this, hyung?" he asked as he pointed at the bowl of rice.
"Yeah. Do you mind bringing it over?"
I turned around once more and stirred the ingredients, worried that they would stick to the wok. Oh Rion seemed to have picked up the bowl as soon as I had replied; he was holding the bowl close to his body as he patiently stood beside me.
Even after handing over the bowl, he stood still in his spot. He looked like he wanted to eat soon.
I poured the rice into the wok and mixed it well with the ingredients. I turned off the cooktop, found myself a frying pan, and placed it next to the wok. I poured some cooking oil into it and turned on the cooktop.
I turned the cooktop down to low heat when I saw that the pan was heated and cracked some eggs into it. I added a pinch of salt into the egg whites that were sizzling on the pan and portioned the fried rice into bowls.
"Could you set the spoons on the dining table?" I ordered Oh Rion without even having the time to glance over at him. I placed the bowls of fried rice on one side of the counter, flipped over the eggs one by one on the frying pan, turned off the cooktop and closed the gas valve.
I like my eggs over-easy. I won't accept any complaints.
I placed an egg over each bowl of fried rice.
"All done."
I picked up a bowl with each hand and turned towards the dining table. "Take them," I said as I held out the bowls.
Park Jitae didn't seem to have arrived yet. Only Seo Yoon-hyung and Oh Rion, who had set the spoons down, were sitting around the dining table.
Oh Rion stood up and took the bowls off my hands. I turned around and brought my portion of the fried rice over to the dining table and sat down.
Only one bowl of fried rice—the one prepared for Park Jitae—remained on the counter.
"Whoa, you're very good at cooking, Suan. It's really delicious."
"You're right. It's amazing, hyung."
They took a bite and looked up to compliment me before devouring the rest of the fried rice like they hadn't eaten for days. I stared at them for a while as they ate. I picked up my spoon, popped the uncooked yolk, and mixed it with the fried rice.
Mmh, over-easy eggs is a must for fried rice.
.
.
We ate our food for a long time without even talking. Before we knew it, the bowls that were filled with fried rice were now empty.
"Huh? Are you guys already done eating? What about mine?"
It looked like Park Jitae had come back and went for a shower while I was preparing the meal. As Park Jitae walked over from the bathroom, a familiar sweetness of the coconut shampoo gently surrounded me.
"Thanks for the meal, Suan. Since you worked hard cooking for us, we'll clean up the rest."
"Thanks for the meal. You can go and rest now, hyung. We'll clean it up."
"I didn't even notice you coming in. Your share is over there, on the countertop. Take it and eat it."
Seo Yoon-hyung took the empty bowl that was in front of me and stacked it with the rest. Oh Rion stood up, picked up the bowl and spoon from the countertop, and handed it to Park Jitae.
"Here's your portion, hyung."
"Fried rice, huh? I was super hungry. Thanks, Lee Suan."
"Yeah, sure. Eat lots."
I nodded emptily and stood up.
"Good work out there exercising, Jitae. Eat lots."
"Eat lots."
Seo Yoon-hyung picked up the stack of bowls and walked over to the sink, and Oh Rion sat across Park Jitae. He seemed concerned about Park Jitae having to eat alone.
"I'll go change. Don't eat too quickly, or you'll get a stomachache."
I stared at Park Jitae as he gobbled up the fried rice and added, clean up your own dishes after you're done eating. I walked towards my room to begin getting ready to leave to go to the dance studio.
I opened the door to my shared room with Seo Yoon-hyung and Park Jitae, changed into a black short sleeved t-shirt, and sat down on the edge of my bed. When I picked up my phone that had lost its original purpose and had now been reduced to a clock—
—Will you tell me what your name is? A contract of promise…
Our debut song that we had just recorded suddenly played. When I looked at my phone, I saw that the incoming call was from Ryu Sunho.
I guess he secretly took my phone and changed the ringtone. Moreover, it's the part where he sings.
I reluctantly answered the phone.
"Hello?"
—Hyung! Are you awake? What about lunch? Did you have lunch?
"Yeah, I'm awake and I had lunch. Fried rice. You?"
—I ate, too! We still have about twenty minutes left of lunch, and I called because I wanted to hear your voice!
"Yeah. You didn't have anything you needed to say in particular?"
—Hehe, actually, my classmates were saying something weird today. Someone must have taken photos of us last night when we were going back home and posted them on social media.
Hahh… shit. Are we actually street harassers now?
—Hyunggg?
"Ah, yeah?"
—Hyung, are you listening?
"Yeah, I'm listening. Go on."
—Anyway, my classmates showed me the photos and kept asking me if I were really the person in the photos. I saw them, and they were taken in the stationery shop and in the streets.
"Which social media platform was this?"
We were probably tagged as stationery shop harassers and street harassers… Hahh, to think that I'd be labelled as an harasser because of my stupid nosiness…
—Instarbird! Apparently there are videos, too, but I haven't seen it yet.
"Ah, you can search using hashtags, right?"
—Yep, yep! That's right! Suan-hyung, I think I gotta hang up. I have to get ready for my next class.
—(Hey! Let's go. We need to move to a different classroom for 5th period!)
I could hear the voices of Ryu Sunho's friends over the phone.
"Yeah, alright. Hang in there for your classes and I'll see you later."
I heard the click over the phone as he hung up and lifted the phone off my ear. I pressed the home button and opened the Instarbird app.
I typed in hashtag-streetharasser into the search bar and scrolled down the results, but found no photos of us.
Is it stationery shop harassers?
#stationeryshopharasser
#streetharasser
#stationseryshopharass
#streetharass
#stationeryshopharassers
#streetharassers
.
.
I searched for everything, but couldn't find anything. There were only photos of drunk middle-aged men and drunk drivers.
—knock knock!
The door opened, following the knocks.
"Lee Suan, come out when you're ready to go."
"Let's head over to the dance studio together, hyung."
"Let's go, Suan."
The three of them already had their coats on—where had they put their coats anyway? I stood up from my bed and walked over to them as they waited to go to the dance studio with me.
Ah, could it be that this damn doggy was trying to prank me?