Loveboat in 서울

𝟚𝟘

An hour and a half later, after bathing sticky slices of rice cakes and craving radish flowers with Aunty Yumi and Sohee (who craved ten to my three—how does she work so fast?), I search for Joohyuk, peeking between the reclining leather seats in the basement movie studio and moving steadily through silk rug-lined hallways and up curved stairways to the rooftop garden, blooming with sweet-scented gardenias and a lemon tree. The warm breeze blows my hair over my face as I look out over the city skyline, the Namsam Tower in the distance. My body aches to make something of this view—to dance—but I turn around and head back downstairs.

I knock on the oak panel of Joohyuk's bedroom a second time, but there's no answer. He must have gone outside. As I pass Kang's room, soft little moans and kissing sounds reach my  ears through his door.

"I did it for you," Sohee murmurs.

I can't hear Kang's reply, but Sohee's angry grunt follows, then the vehement scrape of a chair leg on wooden floor, as if they've pushed apart.

"What's wrong with you?" Her voice rises an octave. "You didn't hold back with Minnie from what I hear."

"I just don't think we should do this," Kang answers.

More furniture scrapes the floor. A thud, like a book thrown down. Pages snapping. My feet have frozen to the silk runner.

Then the door flies open. Sohee rushes out. Stops as her eyes fall on me. She tugs the strap of her orange dress back onto her shoulder as his door slams, blowing her skirt between her legs.

"You okay?" I ask, alarmed.

"He's a moron." She yanks his earring from her ear. "I was so stupid to get involved with him."

"You don't mean that," I protest.

"We're through." She hurls the earring at his door, which pings off and disappears under a grandfather clock. "I'm going to sit by the pool until dinner."

Kicking aside a pink bear, she pushes into her room and slams her own door—her carefully laid weekend plans chucked out the window. I raise my fist to her door as Kang's flies open.

He's shrugging a black shirt over his head. Track lighting glints off his chest. Through his doorway, the bed sheets of his four-poster bed are rumpled, covers turned back, backpacks on the floor.

As his eyes meet mine, he freezes. I wonder what picture of me he sees this time, standing frozen with embarrassment.

"Suzy. This isn't what you think." The absence of a smirk or mocking in his voice makes my stomach dip. Kang the Player is much easier to face than Serious Kang. "Sohee and I—"

"It's none of my business." Skipping over the bear, I bolt for the stairs and down two at a time.

"Suzy, wait," he calls, but then I'm out of earshot.

ʕु-̫͡-ʔुྉ*ᴸᵒᵛᵉᵇᵒᵃᵗ✲ﾟⁱⁿ*。⋆ 서울。⋆ *

Fifteen minutes later, I find Joohyuk running through a cherry blossoms-lined path in Dream Forest, a few blocks from Aunty Yumi's. Dusk is falling, the sky violet streaked with pink clouds. The scent of freshness floats in the air and a gathering of men and women move beneath them in a tai chi dance, like monks in a temple.

Joohyuk's gray shirt, soaked in a vase-shaped bar down his front, clings to his muscular chest. his body is locked as if he's bent his entire will on outrunning his demons, whatever they are. Sheer determination, that's how he became Wonder Boy.