He Is That Guy

I ran into that boy again on a night one week and a day later.
Just like the first time, the boy had a backpack on his shoulders and a convenience-store bag in hand. As he cut through the alley in front of the house and spotted Chae Yu-jeong, his eyes went slightly wide. He remembered Chae Yu-jeong too.
“Uh, hi.”
Unlike Chae Yu-jeong, who checked the window and the alley every day in case the boy might pass by, his reaction was very matter-of-fact.
Seeing the boy walk closer, Chae Yu-jeong secretly sniffed himself. Thankfully, today the stench was weaker.
“Do you live here?”
Just like last time, the boy very naturally spoke informally.
He seemed to think Chae Yu-jeong was much younger than him. Understandable: the boy was a full head taller than Chae Yu-jeong. He was far taller than kids his age, and Chae Yu-jeong was far smaller than kids his age—that’s how the difference happened.
The boy came nearer to the tongue-tied Chae Yu-jeong and, just like last time, pulled something from the convenience-store bag and held it out. This time it was a pale yellow sausage.
Careful not to touch his hand, Chae Yu-jeong plucked only the sausage out. The boy gave a faint smile, as if he found that cute, and asked:
“What’s your name?”
“……”
“How old are you?”
“……”
Chae Yu-jeong blinked his big eyes and kept his mouth clamped shut. Even with every word of his being ignored, the boy showed no real displeasure; he took out another sausage from the bag and sat on the alley steps.
Sneaking glances, gauging him, Chae Yu-jeong sat too, about three steps away. Side by side, the two ate their sausages without a word.
Following the boy’s example, Chae Yu-jeong peeled off the thin plastic casing and took a bite. After the triangle kimbap last time, this sausage—his first—was really delicious.
About ten minutes later, the boy stood up after finishing. Without giving Chae Yu-jeong any chance to try to stop him, he left without a second thought.
The meeting he had waited more than a week for ended that emptily. Long after the boy left, still sitting there in a daze, Chae Yu-jeong belatedly lamented:
‘I’m so stupid……’
After waiting all that time, once he actually met him he couldn’t even get a single proper word out—he felt unbelievably dumb. He’d wanted to at least say thank you.
‘And I just mooched again.’
Staring down at the sausage wrapper left in his hand, Chae Yu-jeong lifted his head and looked toward the alley across the way where the boy had disappeared.
 
****
After that second meeting with the boy whose name he still didn’t know, the person Chae Yu-jeong waited up late for changed—from a woman to that boy.
Hoping, like the first and second times, that the boy might come by at least once more, Chae Yu-jeong finally spotted him in the alley at the end of February, ten days later.
Rummaging through the house and finally finding a single small candy, Chae Yu-jeong hurried out. As the rusted metal gate clanked and he stepped out front, the boy—absently walking while looking at his phone—noticed him.
“Uh, hi.”

It was the exact same greeting as last time. Feeling his heart thud, Chae Yu-jeong forced his mouth to open.
“…Hi.”
His voice was as small as an ant. But even that short reply had him so nervous his dry throat clicked on its own.
The boy, who somehow caught that tiny hello, looked briefly surprised, then wore his characteristic gentle smile.
“So you do know how to say hi?”
“……”
Unsure how he was supposed to react to light teasing, Chae Yu-jeong flushed. Watching his cheeks turn pink with curious interest, the boy slid his phone into his coat pocket and said:
“I don’t have anything to eat today.”
He really didn’t have a convenience-store bag this time. Shaking his little head briskly, Chae Yu-jeong held out the hand clenching the candy.
When his white-knuckled fist opened, the small candy dropped with a tap. Its yellow wrapper flashed under the streetlamp.
“That for me?”
This time Chae Yu-jeong’s head bobbed up and down. Studying the candy with a curious look, turning it this way and that, the boy asked:
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
“What? Really?”
Unwary, he tore the wrapper and popped the candy straight into his mouth; then, hearing Chae Yu-jeong’s answer, he looked genuinely surprised.
“I figured twelve at most.”
At the boy knocking two whole years off his age, Chae Yu-jeong snapped back, prickly:
“I’m fourteen.”
“I’m fifteen.”
Crunching the candy, the boy tossed out the line lazily, then bent at the waist to meet Chae Yu-jeong’s eyes.
“If you’re fourteen, you’re starting middle school, right? Which school?”
“…Right next door.”
“Yuseong Middle School? I go there too. School starts next week. If we’re lucky, we might see each other there.”
At that, Chae Yu-jeong’s round eyes lit up.
Same school? Then instead of lurking by the window like now, he could see him whenever he wanted?
Chae Yu-jeong had never once found school to be enjoyable. But thinking that this boy would be at the middle school he’d be going to next week somehow made him a little happy.
“Um……”
He was hesitating, just managing to open his mouth to ask the boy’s name, when it happened. A vibration sounded from the boy’s coat pocket—someone was calling.
“Thanks for the candy.”
Pulling out his phone and checking the screen, the boy gave a last goodbye and turned away without hesitation.
Unlike Chae Yu-jeong, who still had a head full of questions, the other party didn’t seem particularly interested in him. Thinking about it, that attitude was normal. Who pays attention to a little kid you just happen to meet on the street and talk to for maybe ten minutes?
On top of that, Chae Yu-jeong wasn’t more sociable than other kids; he was extremely timid. And he smelled bad… and he wasn’t much fun to talk to……
Left alone where the boy had been, Chae Yu-jeong trudged off, blaming himself for being pathetic as usual. Still, he had given him a candy today, and he’d learned they went to the same school, so he hadn’t come away with nothing. That fact was the only comfort.
 
****
February passed and March came, and Chae Yu-jeong put on a middle-school uniform.
For all his worrying about how he’d find someone whose name he didn’t know and who wasn’t even in the same grade, it only took a few days after the term began for news of the boy to reach him.
The boy’s name was Yu Ji-han, and his class was 2-5. He was fairly well known at school for solid grades and clean conduct. Maybe because of his looks, a lot of girls liked him.
If it reached even the ears of someone like Chae Yu-jeong—who had no friends and rarely left the classroom—that meant the popularity was enormous. Contrary to his hope that being at the same school meant he could meet him anytime, the two didn’t cross paths even once through the end of March.
They were in different grades, and most classes took place in their homerooms, so there wasn’t much reason to wander around school in the first place. Every night he waited, thinking Yu Ji-han might pass the alley in front of his house, but Yu Ji-han didn’t come.
In the end, unable to stand it any longer, Chae Yu-jeong decided to grab even a straw and stepped into the hallway alone. During every break and lunch, he would search all over the school to try to find Yu Ji-han wherever he might be.
Tense enough that his shoulders were stiff, Chae Yu-jeong was shorter and slighter than even the girls. Stumbling out of the classroom, he started down the hall, wandering wherever his feet took him.
‘Where is he?’
The hallway, with students of all kinds moving through it, was a lawless zone of a different sort from the classroom.
It was loud, rude, and full of careless people barreling around at random—it was truly awful. Suppressing the disgust rising from deep in his chest, Chae Yu-jeong kept walking the hallways whenever he could.
Three days went by like that. He’d tried just about everywhere he could think of, but he still hadn’t found Yu Ji-han. Even when he mustered his courage and went to check Class 2-5, Yu Ji-han wasn’t there.
Sighing, exhausted, Chae Yu-jeong started down the stairs to head back to his class. Just then, from the opposite side, a group of boys bigger than average came toward him, loud and rowdy.
“……!”
In the middle of the half-dozen crowd was the person Chae Yu-jeong had been looking for so desperately—Yu Ji-han. Holding a soccer ball as he walked, he grinned brightly at something a friend said.
Unlike Chae Yu-jeong, who had his tie pulled tight up to his neck, Yu Ji-han wore a short-sleeve T-shirt with his uniform shirt thrown over it, every button undone—comfortable. The way he came toward him, chatting animatedly with his friends, felt as bright as the midday sun.
Confronted head-on with someone so different from himself, Chae Yu-jeong’s heart thundered. He tightened his lightly trembling hand and opened his mouth to the Yu Ji-han who’d come right up to him.
“Yu—”
“Only a fucking idiot would take a shot from there!”
“Whatever, I scored off it. What’s your problem?”
“He’s pissed because you’re gonna make him buy drinks over it.”
Before Chae Yu-jeong could finish, someone slammed into his shoulder hard. Not hearing his call, Yu Ji-han and the group of boys kept talking among themselves and walked right past. The one who hit his shoulder was Yu Ji-han.
Outmuscled, Chae Yu-jeong was shoved clean off course by just that bump and his back hit the hallway wall. The face that had flushed with excitement at finally meeting Yu Ji-han went pale in an instant.
Yu Ji-han’s voice grew distant. In the place where his pleasant voice faded, a chorus of voices mocking him swelled.
“Look at that loser.”
“Must be humiliating.”
He lifted his gaze and looked around, but he couldn’t see who the voices belonged to. But even if he couldn’t see them, the snickering didn’t stop.
Was it hallucination? No, was it?
Nausea surged hard. Panicking, Chae Yu-jeong moved his feet and fled the spot.