Life, Once Again!

e he saw, the stranger he felt.

‘It’s all just for one.’

Even the side dishes were organized into small containers for just one person.
This would make it incredibly easy to eat since all Sooil had to do was take out those containers every day, but….

As Maru didn’t have a habit of poking through others’ refrigerators, he did not look anymore and just took out a bottle of water.
He grabbed a cup that was above the kitchen sink.

‘Why is there only one of each?’

One spoon, one pair of chopsticks, one set of plates, and one cup.
This didn’t look like a family of three at all.
After looking around the extremely clean kitchen, he poured the water in the cup before bringing it over to Sooil.

“Do you perhaps, by chance, live alone?”

After drinking half of the water, Sooil made a loose grin before nodding.
He lived alone in this wide apartment that looked to be around 40-pyeong[1].
He looked around the desolate living room when he heard the electronic beeping sound from the door lock.
The door opened and a lady holding plastic bags entered the apartment.

“Oh, didn’t know there was a guest here.”

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

The lady who walked with quiet steps and a kind smile put down the bags on the table before starting to walk around busily.
She gathered what looked like clothes for laundry into a basket and went inside each room before coming back to the kitchen.

“Please don’t mind me,” the lady spoke with a smile.

For now, he understood that she wasn’t Sooil’s mother.
From the way she acted, she looked like a housekeeper.
She naturally prepared food and threw some out from the refrigerator as though she had done this for a long time.
The lady, who moved busily, finished cleaning the kitchen and left the house with the basket of laundry clothes.
When she left, she was walking backwards and closed the door very quietly.
She was acting like a maid at a royal palace that was leaving the royal chambers.

Maru looked at Sooil.
He had woken up a while ago.
He was watching TV on the sofa, but the TV was on mute.
The program on TV was a comedy program where the actors never failed to laugh.
Even though the people inside the screen were laughing, their laughs did not escape the screen at all.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Sooil was a bit more chatty than boys of his age, though, not as much as Jiseok, yet he only gave a short answer.
He was showing that he wasn’t in a state where he wanted to talk; whether through his expression or his posture.

“I’m going then.
Drink plenty of water, and don’t turn the temperature on too high when you take a shower.
I don’t want to see an article talking about the early death of an actor.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Sooil faintly smiled and waved his hand.

Maru put on his shoes before leaving.
Through the gaps of the door as it closed, the desolate scene of the living room entered his eyes once again.

‘I guess not everything is how it seems, huh.’

The house was a space that showed one side of a person without filtering.
That house, which went beyond minimalistic and looked even desolate, was a stark contrast to Sooil’s cheerful attitude.
Not to mention hiring a housekeeper for one, an apartment in Yeouido itself was too much for a high school actor, who had made a not-so-bad name for himself, to afford by himself.

The reason he didn’t ask anything about such a strange combination of elements was, one, because they weren’t that close enough to talk about such things, and two, because Sooil’s expression clearly told Maru to not ask anything.

As he went down, he got a text from Sooil.
It was a text filled with emojis.
There was a faint suggestion that he would be smiling like usual if they met tomorrow.
There was also the request that told Maru to just treat him normally – not in words, but subtly in context.

Maru glanced at the apartment before turning around.

“Well, he’s well-off, so I guess that’s that.”

It was better than seeing him dirt-poor with ‘seize’ stickers plastered all over the furniture, so perhaps this could be considered fortunate? Maru texted Sooil back with the words’ 50 thousand won’.
That was the taxi fare.
There was no reason to care about someone well off, so he had to get what he had to.
He did think about putting 70 thousand won instead to include labor fees, but he decided to be generous.
He decided to put it on Sooil’s tab for when he became successful later.

“Ah, my wallet.”

When he sent the text message about the taxi fee, he realized that he left his wallet on the sofa.
He returned to the apartment and pressed the button to call the elevator.

“Wait.”

Just as the elevator was about to close, a woman stopped him from the entrance.
Maru pressed the open button.
The woman slowly walked before getting on the elevator.
Maru could smell the faint scent of cigarettes.

He pressed on the 7th floor.
The woman glanced at him.
It seemed that she was going to the same floor.
The door opened, and Maru got off first before standing in front of Sooil’s apartment.
Just before his thumb was about to press the bell button, the woman interfered before sliding up the door lock lid and typing in the passcode.

“Are you a friend of Sooil’s?” The woman asked.

“Yes, perhaps.”

“What a strange answer.”

The woman opened the door before telling him to go in first.
Was she Sooil’s sister? He thought that Sooil was a single child, but it seemed that he was wrong.
Sooil wasn’t in the living room.
It seemed that he was taking a shower.
He grabbed his wallet from the sofa before leaving again.

“Hey.”

The woman, who was standing in front of the door, called out to him.
The woman opened her clutch bag before taking out a cheque.
It was a 100 thousand won cheque.

“Please get along with Sooil in the future.
Here, take it.
It’s pocket money.”

Maru stared at the cheque before lowered his head.

“He’s the type of guy who can have fun by himself so I don’t think there’s any need for me to do that.”

“Well, I guess that’s true.
But hey, aren’t you going to take this?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“Why? Is it not enough for you?”

She took out another cheque as she said so.

“No.”

“Then why aren’t you taking it? I told you it’s pocket money.”

“Someone I know told me that it’s not right to take money without reason.
Then I’ll take my leave now.”

He got in the elevator he came up on.
The woman snorted while throwing the cheques on the ground.
Maru lowered his head to greet her one last time before pressing the close button.
The moment the two cheques landed on the floor, the door closed as well.

[1] 130 square meters or 1400 square feet