During afternoon class, Miss Kim was wearing a mourning dress. One of her teachers at university had passed away, and apparently there was going to be a wake funeral. She explained this at the beginning of the class.
When I got home, I sat and imagined what kind of funeral I’d have when I died.
I had a clear picture in mind. It would be ideal if nobody came to my funeral. Because I hated funerals.
And then I remembered noona’s funeral. That was terrible, I thought.
It had been a sudden death, so everyone was confused. I was a close relative, so I attended, unable to skip out on it. Everyone was making their own speculations about my sister’s death. I didn’t want to hear them. Everyone was crying and just being noisy. I wanted them to shut up. I didn’t cry. I heard relatives, uncles, looking at me and whispering, “I have no idea what he’s thinking,” and, “What a cold person.” Maybe that’s true, I thought.
There was a lot of alcohol and food at the wake funeral.
I didn’t understand why people were drinking when Minah noona had died, but everyone drank. I even saw people who looked like they were having fun. Have they gone crazy? I wondered. Out of my relatives’ sight, I borrowed one of the beers. I shut myself in the toilet and drank it straight out of the bottle. It was my first time drinking alcohol. It was bitter and disgusting. Numerous people knocked on the door. I ignored all of them and continued drinking the beer in the toilet.
I’m sorry for being a cold person.
I silently apologized when I see Minah noona's photo.
Noona was now just a photograph, so she was always smiling.
In the end, I tried to imagine Beomgyu’s funeral. But I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like. When would Beomgyu die? Would I go to her funeral? I definitely won’t go, I thought.
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“Isn’t there something strange about you lately, Yeonjun?” Yeji said during a break at work.
I did have the feeling that I’d been making a lot of mistakes while working. I’d over-boiled spaghetti and turned it into mush, and accidentally turned grilled chicken on rice into burnt chicken on rice. Am I supposed to be a clumsy girl?
“Sorry, I’ll be more careful,” I said.
“No, I’m not talking about your mistakes. Well, your mistakes as well. It’s just that you’re kind of making a face that looks like the world is about to end.”
Was I making such a depressed-looking expression? I hadn’t been aware of it at all.
“Did something happen?” Yeji asked.
Feeling that trying to fool her would be too troublesome, I gave her an honest reply. “I was rejected not long ago.”
“Eh, so you had someone you liked,” Yeji said, as if that was the more surprising thing. This was kind of unexpected.
“I suppose…”
The café’s business ran on a never-ending routine. The service was generally standard, and there wasn’t much that needed changing. There weren’t that many repeat customers, either. Even so, as if bored of doing the same things every day, the maids frequently adapted and ad-libbed things.
“Yeonjun-ah, about the omelet rice dish, write ‘Happy birthday’ on it instead of a heart mark,” one of the maids said.
Although that was the instruction given to me, when I went to write the letters with ketchup, my hands stopped. In the end, I wrote ‘Happy birsday’ in English and got it over with.
YOU ARE READING
At Blue Hour, I Fall In Love [BEOMJUN] ✓
FanfictionChoi Yeonjun is a high school student. Choi Beomgyu suffers from the mysterious ailment "Blue Hour disease." People who have the disease show a faint sparkle under the blue hour and the sparkle gets brighter as their death gets closer. Beomgyu is no...