Chapter 55: Chapter 55 – Seo Joong, During a Hot Summer (1)
Translator: – – Editor: – –
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
Juho told him the directions as he pointed toward the water visible from the observatory. The man nodded as if he had understood it better. After thanking Juho, he disappeared into the motionless scenery. Juho prayed that he would reach the duck boats safely. He felt Dong Gil staring daggers at him from the side.
“Your English is good. Your directions were very accurate,” Dong Gil said with a surprised look. He must have understood their conversation.
“Why didn’t you join in?”
“You were doing just fine, so I just watched.”
“I’m really interested in languages.”
“Have you lived in another country?”
“I’ve never been outside Korea.”
“Yet, you’re still fluent enough to speak naturally with a foreigner.”
Dong Gil looked at him intently.
“What?” Juho asked.
He answered with a squint, “I was wondering if our genius author himself was also a talented linguist.” It was apparent that he was joking.
However, that was not the case at all. Juho had gained that strange, yet useful ability after having drowned in the river. ‘The river.’ For some reason, what Dong Gil said earlier lingered in his ears, ‘If I were God, I would pour water onto these people.’ He looked up at the sky. Clouds were floating by.
‘Could it have been a washing fee of sorts?’ he thought and answered Dong Gil with a smile while he looked at him, “Of course. People don’t call me a genius for no reason.”
“Shameless, too.”
As they joked around, Dong Gil remembered some news he had heard, ‘A genius. There was another genius around him.’
“Mr. Ahn’s book is coming out soon, right?”
“Yep.”
“It’s been five years since his last book, I believe.”
Seo Joong Ahn was a bestselling author who had written several major works. He was also a close friend of Dong Gil. He had a very sensuous style. Yet, he hadn’t written anything for the past five years for some reason. Every writer had their own pace, but he usually didn’t leave too much time between books.
“Has he been traveling?”
“Nope. He’s been home.”
“Is that so…” Noticing that the air felt slightly heavier, he changed the subject, “You said he likes to wear things that are comfortable, right?”
“He has a underdeveloped sense of fashion.”
Juho remembered hearing the same description in the past. Unlike Dong Gil who was all about looking presentable, Seo Joong was the complete opposite.
“On the contrary, you’re very strict about what you wear.”
“It’s common sense. You have to be mindful of what you’re wearing when you’re meeting someone.”
At that, he began his lecture on attire. Though Juho did his best to pretend to listen to him, the history of fashion wasn’t all that interesting. His rigid expression and speech made Juho feel like he was in a strict lecture environment. It almost felt like he’d gotten to experience Sung Pil’s description of his lecture firsthand. His style was definitely clean cut and not overbearing, but Juho wondered how his sense of fashion translated to his style as a lecturer.
‘Buzz.’
Thankfully, somebody’s phone rang. Juho brought his hand to his pocket, but he didn’t feel it vibrate. It was Dong Gil’s. As if unhappy about the conversation being interrupted, he picked up the phone with annoyance. When he saw the name on the screen, his expression grew even darker, and he answered it.
“What?”
At that word alone, Juho immediately guessed who was on the line. ‘Speak of the devil.’
“Yes, I’m busy. I’m in the middle of…”
As he was about to end the call in a rush, he suddenly turned to Juho. While he looked back at Dong Gil, he pulled the phone away from his ear and asked, “Would you like to talk to Seo Joong?”
His suggestion was sudden, so Juho thought about it for a brief moment. Seo Joong Ahn. First book in five years. He was known as a genius among those of his generations. Juho was curious about him, so he nodded willingly. At his response, Dong Gil immediately brought up Juho’s name.
“I’m with Yun Woo right now.”
There was commotion on the other line, and it was hard to make out what was being said.
“Yeah, alright,” Dong Gil answered half-heartedly. “Yeah, to your place?”
He pulled away from the phone with a displeased look.
“He wants to know if you can head over. If that’s too much for you, we can just keep it as a phone call.”
It would’ve been natural to feel uncomfortable about being invited to someone’s house without having met the person first. However, Juho himself was not a timid character. If anything, he looked forward to it, Seo Joong Ahn’s house. As Seo Kwang had said previously, ‘A person always leaves behind a trace.’
“I’m up for that.”
“All right, we’re on our way.”
With those words, he hung up the phone. Juho had been running into more and more people he had never met in the past. He walked down the observatory with Dong Gil toward the motionless people. When he approached them, he heard them talking to one another, and it felt slightly different from what he had seen from the observatory.
“What’s his place like?” he asked.
Dong Gil answered without hesitation, “I suffocate the minute I step my foot across his door.”
“My expectations are through the roof.”
“Trust me, it’ll be beyond what you can expect.”
‘I wonder what’s making him say things like that.’ Seo Joong was probably the only person in the world who could have such an impact on Dong Gil. Soon, they arrived at a neighborhood. There were colorful murals in brown, blue, orange and gray. While following Dong Gil’s guidance, he was met by some elderly sitting on a low wooden bench. There was some construction work in one corner and a cat and a pigeon in the other. Then, another set of murals met his eyes.
There were windows on the wall. The murals painted throughout the neighborhood walls gave off a rather artistic atmosphere. At the end of the alleyway, there was a stairway. The stairs were painted like the walls with paint. That time, it was a painting of a person in a blue sweatshirt and pants, sitting on a giant flower. Juho caught on at once, ‘He must be Seo Joong Ahn.’
“Yo.”
A man waved as he stood up from the stairs. His untidy appearance resembled a neighborhood bum. The reason why Dong Gil was so annoyed about the way he dressed became clearer. His hair was spiking in all directions. With his eyes on that hair, Juho greeted him, “Hello.”
“Hey! Oh, wait! Is it OK to be informal? Nice to meet ya!”
His words were all over the place.
“Please, you don’t have to be so polite.”
“Awesome! Make yourself at home. You don’t have to worry about being polite either just because I’m older.”
Compared to his first encounter with Dong Gil, that was the completely opposite experience. At first, Dong Gil had addressed Juho with formality, and he had spoken respectfully. On the other hand, his friend Seo Joong was welcoming Juho, who was much younger, to not bother with formality.
“This is fine.”
Juho had considered Seo Joong’s offer, but he didn’t want to be disrespectful in their first encounter.
“Alright, then.”
Seo Joong didn’t push Juho. He turned around and led the way. His house was located further into the neighborhood. Compared to the alleyways Juho had walked through so far, the streets were a lot cleaner. Soon, he was met with a two-story house with a large front gate. Seo Joong stopped in front of it.
“My landlord lives on the first floor.”
“I see.”
“She might be rough around the edges, but her favorite color is pink,” he told Juho as he opened the gate. After walking past a small yard, he was met with an old , average looking house.
“Wow!” Juho exclaimed. The front yard of that not-so-special looking house was filled with flowers of all colors and shapes. Even the pots were of different colors. The mysterious flowers showed off their beauty, and a brown clay pot shone from the sunlight while the fresh, green leaves and flowers exhaled their fragrance. They glistened from tiny water droplets. The place was full of life.
He thought back to the scenery at the observatory. This was completely different. It was as though the plants were smiling at him.
“It’s a nice house, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Juho answered without hesitation.
“There’s something even better inside.”
Juho’s experience was quite different from Dong Gil’s description of his friend’s house. After looking around the yard for a little while, Juho followed Seo Joong up the floor. As Seo Joong opened the door, he moved aside to let Juho and Dong Gil through. When Juho walked inside, he was somewhat dumbfounded by the sight of the living room.
“Ta-da!”
“I swear… How do you keep something like this around? I don’t get it…” Dong Gil grumbled as Seo Joong proudly showed off his house.
Meanwhile, Juho thought, ‘Why is this here?’
“It’s a pool table.”
“Isn’t it great?”
Aside the pool table in the middle of the living room, there were no couches or TV. He had a full-size pool table in his house. ‘Who would have thought?’ The blue surface of the table matched Seo Joong’s clothes.
“So, how are your skills in pool?”
With a smile, Seo Joong answered, “About average.”
His house’s appearance gave him the impression of a professional pool player.
“I didn’t get to get better at pool.”
“Then?”
“It’s a hobby of mine. It’s a way for me to put my mind to rest. Black bean noodles taste even better on this table.”
(TL’s note: black bean noodles are a staple delivery food in pool halls in Korea.)
Black bean noodles. Juho couldn’t help but chuckle, and Seo Joong picked up a ball from the pool table.
“A lot of people think that an author’s house is filled with books. You know what, it’s not entirely wrong. This guy’s house is filled with nothing but books.”
Dong Gil sneered at Seo Joong, “I don’t play pool in my home, so I don’t have to worry about wasting space like this.”
“What do you mean waste? It’s utilization.”
“It’s taking up so much space that your guests don’t even have a place to sit. I don’t think I need to explain myself further.”
Like he said, a large pool table was at the center of the living room. With a shrug, Seo Joong took them to another room. It was a study, and there were three chairs surrounding a small table. There was nothing special about the room in the sense that there was a desk and bookshelves surrounding the space. Except…
“I don’t see too many books on your shelves.” There were hardly any books. The bookshelves that surrounded the room were nearly empty. It almost felt like the shelves were merely taking up space. “Is this also a way to utilize space?”
“You bet. See? He gets it,” he answered enthusiastically.
Dong Gil added, “Whenever he has time, he goes to any used book store he can find and sells all of his books.”
Though he didn’t entirely sound critical, he didn’t sound happy either.
“Hey, I’m selling my own books. I don’t see anything wrong there,” Seo Joong said as he stood in front of a shelf.
“I’m making room for the books that I’m going to be reading in the future. If you were the new book, wouldn’t you feel sad that you didn’t have your place on the shelf?”
In that case, how tragic would it be to be the books that he had sold? For some reason, his nearly empty bookshelves resembled his pool table. A pool table had holes in its corners too, much like the bookshelves in Seo Joong’s study.