The protector

Kimchi sandwich (M)

2026, October

After five amazing weeks spent training and discussing together, hearing her stories about having faith in life because of the chocolate, about his bottom growing like a peach, and that Jane Fonda whose existence he wasn't even sure of, for the first time Jeong Hyeok would have been alone during the weekend. In-ah had to go to visit an orphanage in the countryside near the Russian border, and she would have stayed out of town for almost a week.

The pianist found himself disappointed, bored, nervous. His stomach began to give him problems again, the ghost of Her reached him again, staying at his side all day long, second by second.

The other friends invited him for dinner, they were his friends too now. But he wasn't in the mood to see anyone, and even skipped the weekly lunch with his parents, which, actually, wasn't "weekly" anymore for some year because... because he had his reasons to not show himself to his parents.

On the fifth day, Jeong Hyeok woke up early, feeling excited. She would have come back to the gym that day.

But the teacher wasn't there.

She'll come tomorrow, he said to himself with a hint of delusion.

She didn't.

Without even realizing it, instead of going home, after the training the man went to their usual beer truck, looking for he didn't even know what.

Coincidence, fortune, but at the truck there were the two Spanish girls, who welcomed him with their usual warmth. "Hi little racist! Are you here to take away something for Mac?" Mac was the name her friends used with her, often making jokes because it sounded like the name of a fast food, so that they often said things like Mac noodles, Mac wine and so on.

Jeong Hyeok, instead, was used to call her In-ah, a middle way between using and not using her title or her surname, because she had asked him to don't go whit honorifics -  "there's no need, we are friends, please use just my name" -, nor he could have called her comrade -"unless you don't feel uncomfortable" she had added, always respectful.

The two girls told him that she was at home, she had asked for some days to rest. The visit to the children's home had turned out to be harder than expected, "We've just tried to get her out from that house, but she's not in the mood."

His bike seemed to fly.

"Hi! So happy to see you, come in. Ooooh, is this beer? Good boy" his teacher was trying to act normally, but her eyes were red-rimmed, and her hair closed in a messy bun which seemed to have been done right at that moment. She probably was crying when he had rung the bell.

"I've heard that you were at home and that you have had bad days in the countryside, so I've thought to bring you some liquid comfort" Jeong Hyeok modestly smiled. Now that he was in front of her, the brave that had made him run to her house seemed like vanished. "If you want to stay alone, of course..." please ask me to stay.

"Nonsense! Come in, open the bottles while I wash my face, I was resting a little, you know where the kitchen is." He knew, he had spent more time there than in his own house during the last year. And he knew it wasn't true that she was resting, there were used tissues in her bin.

"Can I prepare you a sandwich?" The man asked. So used he was to her, that he knew exactly how her favourite sandwich was: salad, kimchi, mayonnaise, and nothing else. Frugal but tasty and refreshing. Also, he loved that side of her of being a kimchi addict.