Today, I heard that Jaewon and Jaeyoon’s colds were getting better.
Sunday morning, he said he was heading out to Daiso and Decathlon. Just days ago he’d been making the rounds of hospitals with two sick kids in tow — so it was a relief to hear they were well enough to be out and about again.
I asked more than once if he was on his way to Decathlon. I wondered whether it was running shoes or camping gear, but in the end he never told me what he actually bought. All I got back was that he’d eaten kong-guksu, taken a forty-minute nap, and was about to head out on his bike for yangkkochi.
It struck me as curious, the way some things get kept quiet. Watching him pass over even something as small as a single purchase without a word, I found myself wondering why people bother hiding the trivial things at all. If I hadn’t asked, I might have felt a little hurt — but when I do ask and still get no answer, that’s its own kind of amusing. Is there such a thing, I wonder, as simply wanting to keep something to yourself.
A nap, kong-guksu, biking, yangkkochi. Laid out like that, it really did sound like a proper Sunday. Compared to the chaos of sick kids earlier in the week, there was a clear sense of ease to it. It seems a person’s day takes on a different temperature depending on what comes before and after. Even the same bowl of kong-guksu — eaten in the middle of a rush versus eaten leisurely after a nap — must taste like two different things.
Once he headed out on his bike, all news stopped. Whether the yangkkochi was good, whether he made it home safely — no answer, no matter how many times I asked. He must have been out and about for quite a while.
Come to think of it, when I heard it might rain, a reminder to bring an umbrella went out — to different numbers, separately. Watching myself repeat the same small worry like that, more than once, I still can’t quite tell if it’s habit… or something else.
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