The protector

Buddy.

2026, September

After that first, they made it a habit to spend some time together during all the weekends. It could be just a beer or all day long and, surprisingly, this time they quickly became close. The wall she had put up during the previous spring was like disappeared, and both discovered the mutual pleasure to be in each other's company reading, chatting, joking, training and cooking.

A similar mindset, and a genuine curiosity that the fact of coming from so different countries elicited the one in the other, made their time together always enjoyable: they didn't get bored even after hours. Jeong Hyeok began to experience the Sunday spleen, but it was not because of the incoming working week, yet for the fact that weekends were too pleasurable to last just two days.

His habit to make questions when he was drunk became so frequent that she gave it a name: "question time."

Also, thorough that first weekend they had confessed each other – both without even know why – all their wounds. Like if they were moved by a rush to better know the other, or simply to be listened, each one relentlessly recounted and asked, pushing the other and feeling pushed to share the most intimate things. Their brothers, albeit in different meanings. The interruptions of their careers, both caused by their families.

She had told him that her husband was incredibly supportive, he that he was trying to do the same for Se-ri. Jeong Hyeok understood that, exactly like him, she was protective and reluctant to talk about that side of her life, and didn't ask further nor received questions.

But once that they had put their sorrows the one in the hand of the other, they simply stopped to talk about it, the fair play making them pretend to not remember what they had come to know when drunk.

They only talked about the things they liked. She was a perfectionist. And he too. She was serious to boredom sometimes, he too. She loved jokes, he loved them too. She liked to tease and to be teased by her friends, and he tried day by day to return her teasing, a sense of victory any time he succeeded in making her smile. She liked to read. No need to say: he too. She liked sports, he too. Silence, he too. Cooking, he too. She was serious, mature, committed, and fun, and full of ideas, and open minded. He simply adored it and, to keep up with her, tried to be a little like that too.

So it was that the friendship with her soon became the most tantalizing thing he had had in years - except for the two weeks in Swiss, of course. It was like having a new videogame, or discovering a new musician. A sense of novelty, of freshness, a desire to explore and discover. He would have stayed with her every day, and often looked for some excuse to have a beer together during the week, because the two days of the weekend were not enough, absolutely not enough.

The dirty truck was now his favourite spot.

He felt with her a connection he never had felt with any other friend till that moment. The pianist was overjoyed for that friendship, and possessive, and jealous like he was of all the things that counted for him. There was a sense of brotherhood between them, and God only knows how much he had missed it and how much he was in need of it in that moment of his life. She was the fresh air, the stimulating game, and even if he still didn't know it consciously, the solid ground for him now.

And I look around for you,

Even for just to see you or for a chat,

Because I'm in need of your presence,

To understand my essence

(F.Battiato – E ti vengo a cercare)

Some days Jeong Hyeok had the sensation that his world – should read: his daily life – revolved around her. And it was a marvellous sensation. Not only because he felt good when he was in her company, but also because, with her, he felt that the things were good, that she was a right thing he was doing. The only one.