By the time Lim Hyomoon and Jaegyeom left the movie theater, it was already past noon. They still had plenty of time before work, so they decided to grab lunch before heading in. Lim Hyomoon mentioned a restaurant nearby that he knew well and suggested they go there. Jaegyeom followed along, trailing behind him.
The place Lim Hyomoon took him to was a restaurant located across from the Naryecheong office building.
"This is it?"
Jaegyeom looked up at the sign with a disinterested expression.
"jeong Deokcheol's King Tonkatsu"
The sign featured a large photo of a person presumed to be Jeong Deokcheol. From the fact that he had his name boldly displayed, it seemed he was quite confident in the food he made. The restaurant was already more than half full of customers.
"Is that guy the owner?"
Lim Homoon nodded in confirmation. Jaegyeom then scrutinized the face on the sign more closely. Jeong Deokcheol, wearing a white chef's hat, was standing with his arms crossed, smiling brightly. He was very burly and had a rather fierce-looking face.
"He looks like he could take down a wild boar. He seems like the leader of a bandit group."
In response to Jaegyeom's comment, Lim Hyomoon replied calmly.
"That's my dad."
Jaegyeom visibly flinched in surprise and looked back and forth between Lim Hyomoon and Jeong Deokcheol. He hadn't even considered the possibility since they looked nothing alike. Besides...
"But your surname is Lim."
"I took my mom's surname. She's an Lim."
"Oh... I- I see..."
The world really has changed a lot... Jaegyeom felt a twinge of guilt for speaking so carelessly about someone else's parents. Feeling awkward, he clasped his hands together and spoke up.
"He's really sturdy and has a great presence. Any thief would probably just run away at the sight of him. They say the best way to win is without fighting, so he probably wouldn't even need to fight."
"Huh? Why are you suddenly talking about thieves..?"
Lim Hyomoon shook his head in disbelief and entered the restaurant first. The place was bustling with customers having their meals. A staff member at the counter recognized Lim Hyomoon and greeted him. Lim Hyomoon introduced them to each other, "This is my friend from work. Seven-seven, this noona is one of our restaurant staff members." Jaegyeom shyly bowed his head.
"I'm here as a paying customer today, so don't put me to work."
"Ok, got it."
Lim Hyomoon led Jaegyeom to a window seat, told him to wait for a moment, and then headed straight to the kitchen. Before long, his father, Jeong Deokcheol, emerged from the kitchen.
In Jeong Deokcheol's hand was a square tool with sharp, serrated edges. Not knowing that it was a meat tenderizer used for pork, Jaegyeom flinched for a moment. He thought Lim Hyomoon had already told his father about the "bandit leader" comment.
"Oh my, Hyomoon's friend. Welcome, welcome."
However, contrary to Jaegyeom's concerns, fortunately, Lim Hyomoon's father did not swing the mallet. He looked exactly like the person in the sign's photo, like he had just stepped out of it.
Despite his fierce appearance, he was surprisingly gentle.
You really can't judge a person by their appearance....
Jaegyeom awkwardly exchanged greetings with Lim Hyomoon's father as well.
"Seven-seven, our tonkatsu set is the best here. Try it."
"Huh? Oh..."
Lim Hyomoon personally brought over the side dishes, such as pickles and kimchi, along with the utensils. Even though he had just said not to put him to work, his hands moved skillfully. Sitting idly, Jaegyeom looked around the restaurant. There were a lot of
customers...
He had never known that Lim Hyomoon's family ran a restaurant near the main office. From the ceiling speakers, loud music was playing. Lim Hyomoon hummed along to the song while munching on some cucumber pickles.
"Seven-seven, try these. We make them ourselves."
The pickles were crunchy, tangy, and sweet. Lim Hyomoon asked how they tasted. Jaegyeom answered with a serious expression,
"They're good." Lim Hyomoon nodded in satisfaction.
"I'll pack some for you to take home. They'll taste great as a side dish with rice."
"Okay."
Jaegyeom nodded without hesitation. Most people would politely decline in this situation, but he was straightforward. Lim Hyomoon liked this about him—he was a person whose inside matched his outside, even if he was a bit clumsy.
"Come by whenever you feel like eating tonkatsu. You can bring your parents too."
Jaegyeom replied casually.
"Okay. But I don't have parents."
"Uh..?"
Lim Hyomoon flinched, his eyes wide like a rabbit's, as he stared at Jaegyeom. The pickle that had been precariously perched on his fork dropped to the table.
He said he has a younger sibling... A younger sibling!
"So, you live with just your sibling?"
"No. There are three of us."
When Jaegyeom mentioned he lived with his uncle, Lim Hyomoon blinked rapidly, unsure of how to react. He hesitated, fiddling with his piercing, and after a long pause, he cautiously asked,
"What does your uncle do?"
"He's been out of work lately, so he's always at home."
"..."
Lim Homoon was silent for a while, stirring his pickles. When he finally looked up, his face had turned bright red, and he let out a strange noise, rubbing his forehead.
"What? What's wrong with you?"
Sniffling, Lim Hyomoon pointed at a black speck on his pickle.
"No, ugh, it's just... I bit into a whole peppercorn..."
What could it be like? Curiosity piqued, Jaegyeom bit into a peppercorn himself. Hmm... I see... It made sense. He winced, spitting out the peppercorn and quickly gulping down some water.
"Hey, drink some water."
Lim Hyomoon continued sniffling for a while after that.
***
In the somewhat somber atmosphere, Lim Hyomoon pulled out his phone.
"Let's play a round until the food comes."
Still sniffling, Lim Hyomoon opened Friends Pang. It was his way of lightening the mood. Jaegyeom, who had been sitting idly, suddenly snapped to attention and quickly pulled out his own phone.
Yesterday, Lim Hyomoon had taught Jaegyeom all about Friends
Pang.
The first step was installing the messaging app on his phone. With the other's help, Jae-gyeom managed to get it installed. He also learned the rules of the game, such as how to use bombs, the function of combos, how to use items, and so on, including how to obtain hearts.
Friends Pang was a game that couldn't be played without hearts.
Hearts would refill automatically after a certain amount of time. Lim Hyomoon had explained that you could either wait for the hearts to refill or get them from friends through the messaging app.
"See this button? You can get hearts by pressing it."
After learning how to get hearts, jaegyeom had gone straight back to the office and saved all his team members' numbers from the emergency contact list on the partition. He got some help from Go Junhyung in the process. He said, once you saved the number, it would make that person your friend on the messaging app, and by pressing the button next to their name, you could get hearts, so he pressed them all.
But at some point, his teammates started laughing and saying, "Hey, youngest! You're playing Friends Pang?" Jaegyeom, surprised, asked how they knew.
Go junhyung showed him the heart request message he had received.
"..."
It was only then that jaegyeom realized he had misunderstood the instructions. He thought that by pressing the button, the hearts would automatically come to him, but that wasn't the case. Sending a heart also sent a request message, and the recipient had to respond and send the heart manually. Embarrassed, Jaegyeom asked,
'Then let's pretend this never... no how do I cancel this...?"
But Go Junhyung bluntly replied, "You can't."
Jaegyeom was momentarily shaken when he realized he had sent a message to Yoon Taehee without even knowing, but he quickly regained his composure.
The milk had already been spilled... So what could he do...
That was yesterday.
Jae-gyeom opened Friends Pang and checked his heart storage.
[Hyomoonss sent you a heart.] Just now
Junhyung a a sent you a heart.] 1 day ago
[Kkangyibin sent you a heart.] 1 day ago
Yoon Taehee's name was not on the list of people who had sent hearts.
"..."
Jaegyeom was inexplicably annoyed. Of course, the day before, he and Yoon Taehee had had an argument, during which Yoon Taehee had assaulted him with a kiss under the guise of violence, and in retaliation, Jaegyeom had slapped him...
But still, even though that had happened, how hard could it be to send a heart?
Besides, Yoon Taehee was off work yesterday. He must have had plenty of time on his hands since he was at home, probably with nothing better to do. The fact that he refused to send a heart for such a trivial reason confirmed that he was indeed a petty and narrow-minded person.
So dirty and stingy. Even if you did send me one, I wouldn't use it out of spite...
Jaegyeom squinted and looked coldly at Yoon Taehee's profile.
"Hey, how do you make someone's name not show up here?"
"Oh, if you block the friend on KakaoTalk, it won't show up."
"How do you block?"
Lim Hymoon paused his game and demonstrated on his phone.
"Here, look. You go in here, then go to friend management..."
Jaegyeom listened to the explanation while glancing out the window.
He froze, his eyes widening as a familiar figure passed by outside.
He unconsciously let out a sound, making Lim Hyomoon look up.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Jaegyeom hastily pointed to the sky.
"A... A pigeon..."
The small man in the gray suit passed by outside, just like that.