A sunny Saturday morning.
When I woke up late and came down to the living room, my parents were cleaning the house together. Dad was pushing the sofa to wipe the floor, and Mom was dusting the display cabinet, which she usually didn’t even pay attention to.
They were both neat and tidy, right down to their clothes that morning. Mom had even put on makeup, which she never did on weekends, and Dad looked like he’d done his hair too.
"Going somewhere?"
"Yeah, uh, Hamin’s coming over."
The hand opening the fridge froze.
"Hamin? Yu Hamin? Why is he coming here?"
"I guess he decided to move back to Korea for good this time. He came first because of school."
"So you’re cleaning the whole house for that?"
"If he’s going to live with us from now on, it should be clean."
I closed the fridge door right there and then.
"What!? Who’s living with who?"
Ah, so that’s what this was about. I’d been clueless, but when I heard what came next, I looked at Mom in shock, like I was about to have a fit.
Mom folded the cloth as if it was no big deal.
"Hamin’s parents have some things to sort out, so they’re coming back in two months. Until then, Hamin’s going to stay with us."
"Two months?"
"We’ve got a spare room, and we’ve known him since he was little, so what’s the big deal?"
"Why tell me only now?"
"Didn’t I tell you?"
As I looked at Mom’s calm face, it felt like arguing would just wear me out. With my mouth hanging open, Dad came over, lifted my chin, and closed my mouth for me.
Are you really my parents?! How could you not even tell your own daughter something like this!
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Mom beamed and headed for the front door. Dad set down the mop he’d been holding too. When I followed behind them, a huge suitcase came into view beyond the open door.
Yoo Hamin was standing next to it.
"Hello."
Hamin bowed first to my parents. In one hand he held the suitcase handle, and in the other he was carrying a shopping bag.
"My parents asked me to bring this to you."
"Oh my, you should’ve just come with yourself. You didn’t have to bring all this."
Come in, come in—I could hear Mom saying from the entryway. While she took the shopping bag, Dad carried Hamin’s suitcase inside. Only then did Hamin notice me standing off to one side.
"Long time no see."
His shorter hair and the much taller height were both unfamiliar. The face I remembered was still there, but it felt like only his body had changed.
"......Oh."
That was all I could say.
Hamin didn’t try to say anything more either. After neatly lining up his shoes, he bowed to my parents again.
"Please take care of me for the next two months."
"Take care of you? Nonsense. Just make yourself at home."
Dad patted Hamin on the shoulder. Mom was already bringing him into the living room, telling him to say if there was anything he wanted to eat.
In just a few minutes, everyone except me had already settled in.
"Yeoju, show Hamin his room."
Mom pointed toward the room next to mine. No, why does it have to be the one right next to mine again?!
Only then did I understand why they’d been tidying up the empty room for the past few days.
While I hesitated, Mom slapped me on the back with her palm. I made an "Ah!" sound and led the way.
Hamin followed behind me carrying his suitcase. Since I couldn’t hear the wheels hitting the floor, it looked like he was carrying it by hand.
"It’s here."
When I opened the left door of the two rooms inside from the living room, I saw freshly made bedding and an empty desk. Hamin set his suitcase down in the room and looked around once.
"Your room is still the same, noona."
He was talking about the door to my room beside it.
"How do you remember that?"
"Because I remember."
It was a nothing answer, but for some reason I couldn’t find words.
I stepped back from the door.
"You’re coming to our school starting Monday, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then don’t act like you know me at school. And don’t tell anyone we’re living together."
Hamin didn’t answer right away. Was that a bit too harsh?
Instead, he looked down the hallway through the open door. From the living room, I could hear Mom telling Dad to bring out some fruit.
Hamin tilted his head toward me.
"It’d be a shame if the person you like is this cold."
"You..."
His voice was so quiet only I could hear it.
Just as I was about to say something back, Dad came in from outside and called for Hamin.
"Yeoju, Hamin, have you moved all the luggage? Come downstairs and have some fruit."
Hamin shrugged and immediately turned around.
"Yes. I think I can take care of the rest myself."
His voice was completely different from a moment ago, all polite and friendly. The back of Hamin as he left the room right away looked very different from the person I knew.
So quite a lot of time really had passed. It had to be about three years now.
When Hamin was in middle school, he had once told me he liked me. We’d been very close when we were kids.
It was a day when we had walked home together as usual. Hamin said it without any warning.
'I like you, noona. Not as a little brother.'
And back then, I liked Yejoon. Well, it was all in the past now, anyway.
My rejection must have been the worst possible one. I did think, at some point, that there had probably been a nicer way to turn him down.
'Sorry. I like Yejoon.'
Hamin didn’t ask why, and he didn’t ask me to think about it again. He just stood there for a long time and said he understood.
A little while later, Hamin went abroad with his parents.
After that, we did run into each other a few times whenever he came back to Korea, but that day’s conversation never came up again. Hamin acted the same as before, too.
So I thought it was something that had ended a long time ago.
"Yeoju, you should come eat fruit too!"
"Okay, coming!"
For the next two months.
Yoo Hamin, whom I’d thought was over and done with, would be staying in the room right next door.
As I left the room, a thought suddenly came to me.
They say you shouldn’t take in a black-haired beast.
My parents had already given him a room.
