Childhood Friend Edification Theory - CHAPTER 3.5

03.Sticky – Part 5

“Just a little longer. It’s been a while since I listened to your heartbeat while you were asleep and just after you woke up, so I want to listen more.”

He seemed to enjoy listening to her heartbeat. He had mentioned before that her heart sounded different depending on her condition. Once, curious about this, she had even begged her parents to buy her a stethoscope like Jaeha’s. Stethoscopes weren’t hard to find, so she quickly started imitating Jaeha.

The night before, she had listened to his heartbeat for the same reason.

Thump-thump. Thud-thud.

That was the only way Haea could describe the sound of a heartbeat. Under normal circumstances, it was a slow, steady thump-thump, and right after exercise, it became a fast, pounding thud-thud. Jaeha could tell a lot just by listening to heartbeats, but that was all Haea could understand.

So her interest didn’t last long. Soon she left the stethoscope behind and just followed Jaeha. While it’s common for boys and girls to grow apart after puberty, that wasn’t the case between the two.

Jaeha was considered to be more mature than other boys his age, and for Haea he was a kind and understanding older brother, so there wasn’t much for them to argue about. Even when Haea imitated and followed Jaeha around, he never complained. If she couldn’t keep up with his pace and stumbled, he would catch her and hold her hand.

That’s how he was. He was that kind of person and there was nothing Haea wouldn’t give to Jaeha.

“All right. Now go and wash up so we can eat.”

“How is it?”

“Since you took your medicine properly yesterday, what’s the point of asking? You’re fine.”

Haea took her warfarin at 10 p.m. Jaeha had recommended that time, saying it was when the concentration of the essential cofactor for blood clotting was highest during the day, so she followed his advice.

At 10 p.m., both of their phones went off with an alarm. It was the default ringtone from the same phone company. Even in the midst of their most intense moments, Jaeha would stop whatever he was doing as soon as he heard that sound. It was a strange feeling to watch him, his er*ction still throbbing, as he got the pills and water.

A warm, fluttering sensation welled up in her ch*st, as if the left atrium of her heart was bubbling with frothy excitement. It was ticklish, and her body tingled and twisted. It felt as if her lungs were so full of air they were about to burst like a balloon.

As Haea washed up, she kept reliving those feelings. When she came out, freshly cleaned, she saw Jaeha busy in the kitchen.

Haea had never seen him fail at anything. He was good at everything, which made him someone she admired. Lately, she was most jealous of the fact that the already impressive Ha Jaeha was also good at cooking.

Haea’s cooking skills, on the other hand, were terrible. Maybe it was because, as he said, her fingers just weren’t nimble enough.

“What are you making?”

“Omelet rice and salad.”

“Should I at least chop the vegetables?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to touch the knife…?”

He seemed about to raise his voice, but then he took a deep breath. He looked like an angry puffer fish, puffed up like that. A puffer fish with a poison strong enough to kill a human, but it still wasn’t very intimidating. After staring at her for a moment, he let out a sigh that sounded more like a hollow laugh.

“You’re really small.”

Haea was wearing one of Jaeha’s black t-shirts. Since sizes that fit him well were hard to find in Korea, he mostly bought clothes from abroad, and this T-shirt was one of them – very large. Even though it was short-sleeved, the sleeves came all the way up to her elbows, so she had to roll them up twice, and it was long enough to cover half of her thighs, so she didn’t need to wear anything else on the bottom. But that wasn’t Haea’s fault.

“You’re just ridiculously tall.”

Smooch.

Jaeha, who had put down the frying pan, leaned over and planted a kiss on Haea’s forehead. After 15 years of just holding hands, the sudden increase in physical affection made the feathers in her ch*st tickle again, as if dancing in the sunlight of a spring day.

‘See? That is why Jaeha was so easy to deal with.’

Haea smiled pleasantly.

“What’s with that expression?”

“What expression?”

“The one that makes me feel like I’ve already made the wrong choice in a situation I can’t undo.”

“What…?”

It really was an indescribable feeling.

As she stared at him uncertainly, Jaeha’s eyebrows shot up and twitched slightly. He grabbed a white spray bottle from beside the sink and handed it to Haea.

“Where did you learn to be so cheeky?”

“…Cheeky?”

It had been so long since she’d heard that word that she wasn’t even sure she remembered what it meant.

Annoyingly cheeky. Or something like that.

As she tried to remember its exact meaning, Jaeha took her hand and led her out into the corridor.

“Stop distracting me and go water the plants. I bought the lemon-lime plants you like so you won’t get bored.”

And with that, Haea was left alone in the hallway. In front of 16 large lemon-lime plants he had bought for her.

“Isn’t that a bit much?”

The ‘Lemony’ at Haea’s house was just a small potted plant, but here there were 16 huge lemon-lime plants.

And the spray bottle was the wrong size. How was she going to water all 16 plants with a bottle that could barely fit in her hand? It wasn’t even a real watering can.

Luckily, when she touched the soil, it felt as if it had been watered recently. As these plants only needed watering about once a week, Haea just went around spraying the leaves here and there. The leaves seemed to give off an even fresher scent after being moistened.

As she moved between the pots, she carefully and thoughtfully named each one.

Limey No. 1, Limey No. 2, Limey No. 3… Limey No. 16.

Her naming skills would probably make Jaeha laugh, but her gestures were cautious and her expression solemn. Just as she was considering buying some name tags to label them, he appeared.

“Stop fiddling around and come here. You have to eat breakfast.”

The same person who had urged her to water the plants was now shamelessly calling her back. It was absurd, but with her naturally easy-going personality, Haea just let it go and followed him. As he led the way, he suddenly stopped.

“Ouch!“

Haea, who had been walking absentmindedly, rammed her nose into his back. Jaeha turned to look at her.

“Stay over again tonight.”

It was a confident tone, as if stating something obvious that had been momentarily forgotten. There was a strange sense of authority when he spoke to her like that. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, her voice softened involuntarily.

“I told my mom I’d be home this morning…”

“Just go home and come back. Stay here.”

Not long ago, they had been in a relationship that was more than friends but not quite lovers, practically living together and knowing each other’s house codes. But this was too much. She couldn’t even imagine how she would explain it to her parents.

“What should I say when I leave the house? They’d be really shocked if I suddenly said I was going to live with you.”

“Then live next door.”

“Next door?”

It was a luxury apartment with only two doors visible when the elevator opened.

“If it’s the house next door, then the 1602 I saw earlier… Don’t tell me you bought that too?”

“You didn’t know?”

“You never told me! Of course I didn’t know!”

“Didn’t I?”

For someone who could recall conversations from over ten years ago word for word, his ability to feign ignorance was impressive. Anyone who didn’t know about his memory would be completely fooled.

“Ugh… Ha Jaeha, you’re so shameless.”

“Sit down first. It’s getting cold.”

He chuckled and pulled out a chair at the table for her. Instead of sitting across from her, he chose the seat right next to her.

“Eat up.”

His eyes curved in a way that was anything but ordinary. It was as if the meal he had carefully prepared was to be her last supper on earth. But soon the savory smell of rice fried in oil began to whet her appetite.