A bright Saturday morning.
After sleeping in and coming down to the living room, I found my parents cleaning the house together. Dad was pushing the sofa to mop the floor, and Mom was wiping down the top of the display cabinet that she usually didn't even pay attention to.
Both of them were neatly dressed, right down to their clothes that morning. Mom had even put on makeup, which she didn't usually do on weekends, and Dad looked like he'd done something to his hair too.
“Going somewhere?”
“Uh, yeah, Hamin's coming over.”
My hand, which was opening the fridge, froze.
“Hamin? Yuhamin? Why is he coming here?”
“Looks like he's decided to move back to Korea for good this time. He came first because of school.”
“So you're cleaning the house for that?”
“He's going to be living with us from now on, so it has to be clean.”
I closed the fridge door right away.
“What!? Who's living with who?”
Ah, so that's what was going on. I, who hadn't been thinking about it at all, stared at Mom in shock as if I were about to have a fit at the next words.
Mom folded the cloth like it was no big deal.
“Hamin's parents have some things to sort out, so they'll be moving back in two months from now. In the meantime, Hamin's going to stay at our house.”
“Two months?”
“We have an extra room, and we've known him since he was little, so what's the big deal?”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Didn't I tell you?”
Looking at Mom's calm face, I felt like arguing would only make me more tired. With my mouth hanging open, Dad came over, lifted my chin, and closed it for me.
Are you really our parents?! How can you not even tell your own daughter something like this!
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Mom brightened and headed for the front door. Dad set down the mop he was holding too. Following behind them, I saw a large suitcase beyond the open door.
Beside it was Yuhamin.
“Hello.”
Hamin bowed first to my parents. He was holding the suitcase handle in one hand and a shopping bag in the other.
“My parents asked me to give you this.”
“Oh my, you didn't have to bring all this just because you were coming yourself.”
I could hear, “Come in, come in,” from the entryway. While Mom took the shopping bag, Dad moved Hamin's suitcase inside. Only then did Hamin notice me standing off to the side of the entryway.
“Long time no see.”
His shorter hair and the much taller height than before felt awkward. The face I remembered was still there, but it felt like only the body had changed.
“……Yeah.”
That was all I could say.
Hamin didn't try to say anything else either. After neatly lining up his shoes, he bowed his head again toward my parents.
“Please take care of me for the next two months.”
“What do you mean, take care of you? Make yourself at home like it's your own place.”
Dad patted Hamin on the shoulder. Mom was already taking him to the living room, telling him to say if there was anything he wanted to eat.
In just a few minutes, everyone had settled in except me.
“Yeoju, show Hamin around his room.”
Mom pointed toward the room next to mine. Wait, why is it the room right next to mine, of all places?!
Only then did I understand why they'd been clearing out the empty room for the past few days.
As I dawdled, Mom whacked my back with her palm. I made an “Ow!” and led the way.
Behind me, Hamin followed while carrying his suitcase. Since I couldn't hear the wheels hitting the stairs, it looked like he'd lifted it entirely.
“Here.”
I opened the left door of the two rooms deeper in from the living room, and inside there was freshly made bedding and an empty desk. Hamin set the suitcase down in the room and glanced around once.
“Your room is still the same, Noona.”
He was talking about my door next to it.
“How do you remember that?”
“Because I remember.”
It was such a simple answer that I found myself at a loss for words.
I stepped back from the door.
“You're going 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 too much?
Instead, he looked down the hallway through the open doorway. In the living room, Mom was telling Dad to bring out some fruit.
Hamin leaned his head toward me.
“If the person you like is this cold, it's kind of hurtful.”
“You…….”
His voice was low enough that only I could hear it.
Just as I was about to say something back, Dad came out from outside and called Hamin.
“Yeoju, Hamin, did you move all the luggage? Come downstairs and have some fruit.”
Hamin shrugged and immediately turned around.
“Yes. I think I'll just organize the rest myself.”
His voice was completely different from a moment ago, all polite and pleasant. Hamin's back as he left the room right away was very different from the Hamin I knew.
It had really been quite a long time. About three years now, maybe.
When Hamin was in middle school, he once told me he liked me. We had been very close when we were little, after all.
It was a day when we had walked home together to right in front of the house as usual. Hamin said it without any warning.
'I like you, Noona. Not as a little sister.'
And at that time, I liked Yejun. Well, it's all in the past now.
My rejection must have been the worst. I did think, at some point, that there had probably been a better way to turn him down.
'Sorry. I like Yejun.'
Hamin didn't ask why, and he didn't tell me to think about it again. He just stood there for a long time, then said he understood.
A little while later, Hamin left for abroad with his parents.
Even after that, whenever he came back to Korea, we ran into each other a few times, 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, I'm coming!”
For the next two months.
Yuhamin, whom I thought was long over, was going to stay in the room next to mine.
As I left the room, a thought suddenly came to me for the first time.
They say you shouldn't take in a black-haired beast, you should drive it away.
But my parents had already given him a room.
