GGAS 18

The situation got out of control on Monday morning two days later. On Saturday evening, only a few internet articles came out saying that the dating rumors about Eun Yeonho were groundless and that Seo Taerim had another partner, so it looked like things might quiet down. But on Sunday morning, an Eun Yeonho anti with homophobic tendencies suddenly posted a photo of Seo Taerim and Kim Abang kissing under the title, “Seo Taerim, who put up a clarification saying he’s Eun Yeonho’s bo×friend, has been going around kissing men, lol,” and set internet communities on fire.

As it spread across different social media, netizens from the LGBT side and the homophobic side started a mud-slinging fight. Comments ranged from positions defending them like, “So what if he kisses a man, what does it matter to anyone else? Are there still people who think like that these days?” to harsh insults like “dirty,” and even comments pretending not to understand the situation such as “Eh, then did Eun Yeonho sleep with a gay guy?” while siding with the homophobic crowd just to drag Eun Yeonho down.

On top of that, the timing was uncanny. On Sunday evening, during the presidential debate, two major candidates, Representative Park and Representative Choi, clashed over whether or not to support a same-sex marriage law. Because of that, by Monday morning, when the print newspapers came out, every newspaper in Korea had given its entire front page to the larger theme of “A Greater Republic of Korea,” covering both Seo Taerim’s dating rumors and the same-sex marriage law with heavy emphasis.

So then, in the middle of the situation worsening by the second, what were Kim Abang and Seo Taerim doing? First, Kim Abang spent all of Sunday learning knitting from Lee Jaein and knitting a scarf for Gonggong, so he didn’t look at the internet at all and had no idea about the chaos. Meanwhile, Seo Taerim said he was relieving stress from Kim Abang and, as soon as he got home, drew the blackout curtains and slept for 30 hours straight, so he didn’t have a chance to realize anything was happening.

In a complicated and turbulent modern society, ignorance leads to disaster. And Seo Taerim’s disaster began with a soft classical alarm tone that was completely at odds with what was happening outside.

“Mmm…”

Seo Taerim reached his hand out from under the blanket and turned off the alarm. If he wanted to, he could sleep longer, but it was almost time for work, so he pushed back the blanket, got out of bed, slid his feet into slippers, and headed to the kitchen.

‘As expected, 30 hours of sleep is the truth.’

His mother, Painter Hong, disliked the habit, saying it made him seem idle, but for Seo Taerim it was a way to relieve stress. Feeling refreshed, he looked for a cup in the cupboard and filled it with cold water from the purifier.

‘What should I eat for breakfast?’

He thought about it while drinking the cold water. There wasn’t much time left before work, but he was too hungry to just skip or make do.

‘Should I stop by the gimbap shop on the way and buy a roll…’

He ran through his commute in his head, adding in the stop at the gimbap shop, while he walked toward the front door. The house owner, Painter Hong, preferred analog over digital, so she subscribed to a daily paper and hadn’t canceled it even while abroad. Because of that, since moving in, it had become part of Seo Taerim’s morning routine to go out into the yard, pick up the paper, and read it in the sunlight. Reading the arts section peacefully while breathing in the cold air gave him the satisfaction of doing a kind of miracle morning, which felt nice.

‘Will there be a correction article about Eun Yeonho’s dating rumor today?’

Thinking he should also check the entertainment section, he opened the door and stepped outside. Following the stone path across the yard, as always, the newspaper was lying on the ground inside the gate. Seo Taerim bent down, picked it up, and was about to go further into the yard to find a place to sit, when he stopped and looked back.

‘Something feels strange…’

There seemed to be a lot of people beyond the gate.

‘This neighborhood isn’t usually this crowded, is it?’

Puzzled, Seo Taerim opened the gate slightly. The alley was packed with people. Most of them were holding cameras or microphones, and those and their other belongings had broadcasting station logos like sbc and tvs on them.

‘Is something going on…’

He looked around for a moment, then tapped the shoulder of a young woman who was crouched down with her back to the gate, scribbling something in a notebook.

“Excuse me, is something happening?”

“Just a moment, I’m busy right now…”

The woman didn’t even turn her head, mumbled back, then scratched her head hard with her pen and groaned.

“Ugh, why did my senior send me here? I don’t even know what Seo Taerim looks like…”

Hearing his own name come out of a stranger’s mouth, Seo Taerim blinked and pointed to his own face.

“……? This?”

“This?”

The woman echoed back, then turned around. Seeing Seo Taerim standing just inside the gate with one foot out, her mouth slowly opened. Then, with a trembling hand, she pointed back and forth between Seo Taerim and the gate.

“Y-you live in this house?”

At the woman’s suspicious reaction, Seo Taerim stepped back slightly.

“…And what if I do?”

Even though he put a question mark at the end, since it was an affirmative answer all the same, the woman opened her eyes wide and pushed up her glasses.

“Y-you live alone?”

“…And what if I do?”

“Then you really are Seo Taerim!”

As the woman jumped to her feet and shouted, everyone in the alley turned their attention toward the gate.

“He’s Seo Taerim?”

“Huh? That’s Seo Taerim!”

“Seo Taerim came out!”

“Hey, get the camera on him!”

At the sudden rush of people charging in with madness in their eyes, Seo Taerim panicked, slammed the gate shut, and hurriedly threw the latch to lock it.

“What the…”

Just as Seo Taerim clutched his pounding heart, the phone in the pocket of his cardigan rang.

He leaned his back against the rattling iron gate and answered the call.

[Hey! Why aren’t you picking up your phone? You were cosplaying as Ungnyeo¹ again, weren’t you!]

As soon as he answered, a high-pitched voice pierced his ear as if to tear his eardrum apart. In his rush to pick up, Seo Taerim hadn’t checked the caller ID. He pulled the phone back, saw the words “Eun Yeonho,” then put it back to his ear.

“Eun Yeonho?”

[Yeah, it’s me!]

“Why are you calling in the morning?”

[Because it’s chaos right now!]

“Chaos? Does that have something to do with people trying to break down my gate?”

Still pushing his back against the violently rattling gate, Seo Taerim asked. Eun Yeonho clicked her tongue.

[What a frustrating thing to say. Of course it’s related, what else would it be? Ugh… You don’t even check the internet?]

“The internet? I’m in the yard right now so the Wi-Fi doesn’t reach.”

[God, you’re hopeless. Just hang up! You can’t even talk unless you know what’s going on. At least go buy a newspaper and read it!]

“What? Hey! You’re the one who called and…”

Seo Taerim tried to argue, but the call was already cut off.

“What…”

As Seo Taerim stared at his phone in disbelief, another call came in. This time it was from Kim Abang.

“Kim Abang-ssi? Why are you calling so early in the morning…”

[Taeim-ssi, something terrible happened!]

When Kim Abang shouted desperately, Seo Taerim’s heart dropped.

“W-what happened? Did you get hurt? Should I come over there?”

[No, I’m not hurt. Ppoppi ran away from home again!]

“What? Who is Ppoppi?”

[Oh come on, the youngest puppy at the Women’s Association President’s house! That dog won’t even eat properly if the president isn’t home, and yet he keeps running away so regularly, every Monday morning it’s like this! With Gonggong and Ppoppi both, I’d believe it if someone said running away was the trend in this neighborhood. Or maybe Gonggong learned it from Ppoppi? Huh, come to think of it, the two of them did seem kind of close…]

While Kim Abang kept rambling about the rumor of Gonggong and Ppoppi being friends, Seo Taerim concluded that the reason people were trying to break down his gate was not because of some runaway puppy, and he turned his eyes to the newspaper in his hand. He unfolded the paper, which was folded in half. Under the headline “A Greater Republic of Korea,” he saw a big photo of himself and Kim Abang kissing, along with the caption, “H Hotel CEO Seo Taerim, dating a handsome man.”

“What…”

Seeing the photo take up the front page far more prominently than he had expected, Seo Taerim’s expression stiffened. At worst, he had thought it might become noisy enough for a gossip video channel on YouTube to argue whether the photo was fake or not, reaching maybe 150,000 views, and that the newspapers would publish more formal articles clarifying that Eun Yeonho’s dating rumor had no basis…

“What…”

Seo Taerim, in a relationship with a handsome man? No, it wasn’t about whether he was dating. What mattered was that Eun Yeonho was not dating. Why were they paying attention to him at all? And not only that, but the front page of a newspaper? Publishing this cheap gossip-style caption with a photo?

Seo Taerim frowned and skimmed through the rest of the article, then quietly pressed his forehead when he reached the part about Representative Park and Representative Choi debating the same-sex marriage law. He had seen plenty of cases where something trivial ended up blown out of proportion and became gossip, but… he thought the timing couldn’t possibly be worse. This was like a shrimp getting its back broken in a whale fight.

‘This has gotten way too big. How am I supposed to handle this…’

Just as Seo Taerim was sinking into thought, he heard a sneeze from Kim Abang over the phone.

[Phu-Ahhhchoo~.]

Seo Taerim snapped to attention and adjusted his grip on the phone.

“Kim Abang-ssi, did you catch a cold?”

[It’s not quite a cold… it’s just a little chilly outside.]

“…Outside? Kim Abang-ssi, are you outside right now?”

[Yes. I’m walking around the neighborhood looking for Ppoppi.]

“W-walking around the neighborhood? Right now??” Seo Taerim shouted in surprise.

[Yes? Y-yeah… but why are you so surprised?]

“There are reporters swarming like bees in front of my house right now. What are you doing being outside!”

[What, really? Then I’ll come right back. I’m almost home.]

“No! You have to go the other way! I told you, they’re all crowded in the alley in front of the house!”

Just as Seo Taerim shouted urgently, the voices of reporters shouting things like “Hey, that’s Kim Abang!” and “Get the camera up!” and the sound of them rushing came from beyond the gate.

[Uh-oh. Taeim-ssi, I’ll hang up for a bit. I think I need to run.]

“Wait, don’t hang up.”

Seo Taerim tried to say he would come pick him up, but the call cut off before he could finish.

***

If you ran from Kim Abang’s house for about seven minutes, you would reach a road that only locals knew, hard to find for outsiders. It was a narrow, winding uphill road typical of an old neighborhood.

And about halfway up that hill, there was a ten-story commercial building. Unlike ordinary buildings open to anyone, you needed an entry card to get inside. Since the entrance was hidden in the alley behind a tteokbokki shop, getting into the building itself was quite tricky.

Although Kim Abang had a poor sense of direction, thanks to playing hide-and-seek every day with his friends as a child, he never lost his way in this alley. On top of that, because he often helped the owner of the online store “Ugly Vegetables” on the fifth floor when goods were being moved, he always carried an entry card with him.

In other words, as soon as Kim Abang, chased by reporters, turned into the uphill road, he ran like a flying squirrel, slipped into the commercial building, and rushed up the emergency stairs straight to the top floor. And because reporters still hadn’t found him even after thirty minutes, his escape was going quite smoothly.

The reason it was “going smoothly” instead of “finished smoothly” was because, when Kim Abang paused to catch his breath and looked down at the alley from the window to see if the reporters were following, at that very moment…

Because at that moment, an unfortunate event occurred.

Kim Abang pressed his face close against the glass window of the emergency staircase. He had been doing that for ten minutes, and now his nose and forehead pressed against the glass felt like the blood wasn’t circulating, but there was no other way to resolve his doubts.

“…What is he doing over there?”

If Kim Abang’s eyes weren’t mistaken, that person running back and forth through the alley, about to be caught by reporters, was Seo Taerim. The very same Seo Taerim who had told Kim Abang not to come out of the house.

“He told me not to come out…”

Kim Abang mumbled in confusion.

“He told me to stay home. Then shouldn’t Taerim-ssi also be at home?”

Faced with this hypocritical situation, Kim Abang felt cognitive dissonance and grew curious about what on earth Seo Taerim was thinking. But of course, just staring at him like this wouldn’t let him know Seo Taerim’s thoughts.

‘I don’t have supernatural powers either…’

Kim Abang regretted greatly that he wasn’t an esper, but blaming his birth wouldn’t solve the current problem. So after thinking for a moment, he decided to approach the issue with a scientific method.

“Alright… let’s try.”

He calmly spread his hands, curled all the fingers except his index and middle, then pressed those two fingers together and lightly placed them on his temples. Closing his eyes, he muttered the following words.

“Mmm~ Taerim-ssi, why are you over there~”

Yes. At that moment, he was attempting , the undisputed number one among pseudosciences.

“Mmmmm….”

Kim Abang strained for a moment, then suddenly let out an “Ah!” and opened his eyes.

“What did you say? That alley… is your new house, Taerim-ssi?”

Seo Taerim had never sent such telepathy, but Kim Abang’s reliance on pseudoscience was high, and he had no prejudice toward the ways of the world. He briefly considered the possibility that Seo Taerim might have become homeless in such a short time.

“Hm…”

Kim Abang narrowed his eyes, then shook his head.

“No, that doesn’t seem right… I guess Taerim-ssi’s telepathy must be broken.”

Even if he had no prejudice, wrong was still wrong. As far as Kim Abang knew, Seo Taerim was an extreme homebody who would never suddenly throw away his warm and comfortable house that had been perfectly fine just earlier.

“Then…”

Kim Abang’s face showed he didn’t understand. It didn’t make sense, but once he ruled out the most logical explanation, only pathetic options remained.

Hypothesis 1. That tall Taerim-ssi accidentally stepped outside and, without realizing how conspicuous he was, was pretending to run away.

Hypothesis 2. That tall Taerim-ssi accidentally stepped outside and, without considering his height and build, was daring to hide behind a tree.

As Kim Abang struggled to choose between one pathetic option and another, he unconsciously frowned.

“…A collaboration of 1 and 2?”

With those words, Kim Abang blinked once, twice, three times, then quickly pulled his body away from the window. Muttering that it made no sense, he began running down the stairs with a rapid thud thud sound. It didn’t make sense, but there was no other way to explain the situation.

1. In the Dangun foundation myth of Korea, Ungnyeo was a bear who endured a trial inside a cave for 100 days (eating only garlic and mugwort) and was transformed into a woman. She later became the mother of Dangun, the legendary founder of Gojoseon. ↩︎