Jaeyoung didnât respond for quite a while. Then he got stuck at a stop signal and made eye contact with Sangwoo while they were waiting.
âYou have to know that for great things to happen, small sacrifices must be made.â
âWhy is that phrase brought up in this situation?â
Jaeyoung just told him that he didnât need to know and kept driving. Sangwoo didnât disturb the guy who was already in an anxious state of mind.
Jaeyoung stopped the car at a remote paid parking lot, not the one belonging to the multiplex. He didnât properly respond when Sangwoo asked why. There were 11 minutes left until the movie started, so they half-ran, half-walked to the movie theater. Jaeyoung made Sangwoo angry as he dragged his feet in order to buy popcorn when they arrived.
He hadnât thought that the process of going to the movies with him would be greatly satisfying, but he hadnât expected it to be this hectic. He felt like he got a glimpse of how Jaeyoung usually went about his day, why he couldnât keep deadlines, and why he often was late to meetings.
âYou may enter salon five for The Revival of Superman.â
Sangwoo showed the digital tickets he had loaded on his phone in advance to an employee, so he was guided inside. Even as three minutes had passed since the movie began, Jaeyoung still walked slowly.
âWeâre late. Letâs hurry.â
âThey show ads for 10 minutes.â
âIt definitely says that it starts at 35 past, but itâs 38 past right now.â
Jaeyoung handed Sangwoo the popcorn bucket and then stuffed a handful of popcorn into his mouth. Sangwoo had a lot of complaints, but he didnât have any choice but to chew and swallow what had been put in his mouth. He was planning on expressing his thoughts once he finished eating it, but Jaeyoung covered his mouth in the same manner. Meanwhile, they appeared in front of the salon.
âItâs L13 and L14.â
âThese are good seats.â
Jaeyoung glanced at the seating chart and entered the dark theater. There werenât many people as it was the tail end of the movieâs screening period and quite late. Their row of seats were empty, with the exception of an elderly couple in the corner.
As Jaeyoung had said, ads were in full swing on the screen. After sitting down, Sangwoo turned off his cell phone, placed it in his pocket and leaned back, so he felt better. He slowly blinked his eyes as if to expel all the recent chaos from his mind.
He felt thirsty suddenly, and Jaeyoung offered him soda as if he had read his mind. He thought that he was going to drink it by himself, so he had only brought one straw. Sangwoo opened his mouth to complain, but then closed it again.
âWhy would you care about such things? Between two people whoâve even kissed.â
Thatâs because he already knew how he would respond.
Without a word, he slurped the tangy drink. When he handed Jaeyoung the cup back, the guy bit the straw. The dark drink was rapidly pulled up the transparent straw. As he did that, Sangwoo wondered why he stared at peopleâs faces that intensively.
The lighting that changed in the dark space lit up on the side of Jaeyoungâs face. Dark, then bright; his face changed accordingly. The shadow that his nose made on his cheek narrowed and widened repeatedly. Even though Sangwoo had just drunk, his mouth was dry. The surface of his eyes tinged because he hadnât blinked.
Who was the winner of this long staring contest? It was probably Jaeyoung. Thatâs because when the screen darkened and all the lights dimmed, Sangwoo closed his eyes and then kissed him.
Even if he got startled along with their surroundings
Letâs say that he had thought that he was asleep the first time, and that they had been drunk the second time, and that the other times had been gently agreed on. This time, however, he had acted with permission at a person who clearly was awake. Since he had covered his eyes with his hand, he had missed the beginning parts of the movie.
âIâm doomed.â
Sangwoo didnât like such things. He shot a glance at the man who had seduced him, but he was just looking at the screen with an indifferent expression. The hand was casually placed on the joint armrest as if it were natural, and wickedly bobbed up and down like a spider. Sangwoo forced himself to sit properly and look straight ahead.
Fortunately, the plot was so simple that it didnât prevent him from understanding it even if he had missed the beginning. An alien who can fly at lightning speed, has skin that can withstand any physical damage, and whose energy source is filled up by sunlight, has emerged. The plot was of a super-alien with x-ray vision, who can fight off the enemyâs plan to exploit his weakness.
Sangwoo was tormented in two ways. One was due to there being many incomprehensible parts of the movie, and the other was that Jaeyoung kept moving his hands. His fingers, illuminated in the dark, didnât know how to remain still. He tapped the armrest with his fingertips, stretched them out as if he were playing, and even flipped his hand so his palm was facing upwards sometimes. Maybe it was because Sangwoo had deliberately not looked at Jaeyoungâs hand for the past two and a half hours, but it seemed like the latterâs facial expression hadnât changed. Â Jaeyoung seemed to be a mentally disturbed person.
After the movie, they walked out of the theater in silence. As they came out of the elevator, warm air hit their arm. The night sky was black and the streets were gray. It was already past one in the morning and the previously crowded main road in Jeoungryun-dong was empty.
âWhat did you think about the movie?â Jaeyoung, who had not said a word in nine minutes, asked.
He looked relaxed with his right hand in his pocket.
âShould Superman be classified as an animal or a plant?â
âWhat does that mean?â
âHe gets his energy from the air and the sunlight. Even if his body structure is as complex as a humanâs, wouldnât it be right to classify him as a plant rather than an animal if he lives in a similar way to things that survive via photosynthesis?â
âUhâŚ. I donât know.â
âAnd thereâs a line about shaving in the middle of the story. How did they cut off his body hair? Not a single strand was burnt off in the middle of the supernova explosion. A regular iron razor wouldnât work.â
âUhmâŚâ
âIt was sad that kryptonite was his weakness.â
That had been the only scene that Sangwoo had been immersed in. It was a scene where Superman, who was invincible, collapsed on a piece of stone brought from his home planet. It wasnât until the green stone was brought close to his skin, which hadnât been affected by radiation from uranium, that he became weak like a normal human. Sangwoo felt a sense of crisis as if he were the one being affected.
âThe Deus EX Machina, well.â
âWell what?â
âIn short, itâs a cheat key. It isnât interesting if itâs too powerful, so they always use kryptonite to corner Superman. But then it doesnât mean much since the crisis is easily resolved.â
âYeahâŚâ
âSuperheroes are usually like that. The important thing is that Superman is very handsome, strong, on our side, and that heâs wearing tights.â
Jaeyoungâs left hand moved in a complex orbit in the air. He clutched the hem of the chest area on his shirt and pulled at it a couple of times as if it were hot. Sangwoo stared blankly at his profile, which looked more scholarly today.
âSunbae. I didnât know, but youâre smart.â
âWhat the hell do you think of me?â
Human scum, thug, psycho, sadist, trash.
So much had changed since before that he really didnât know at this point. When he took his eyes off Jaeyoung and looked straight ahead, he saw tall trees planted in an orderly fashion on both sides of the street.
âWhere are we?â
âThis is Jyeongryun Park.â
âWhy did we walk this way?â
âItâs a shortcut.â
Sangwoo frowned. If it was a shortcut, why hadnât they walked this way earlier? Then they wouldnât have been late. He was pondering this when Jaeyoung tapped the brim of his cap. He looked to his side and made eye contact with him. The moon was shining brightly behind the dark-brown strands of his hair.
âSo was it interesting or not?â
âInteresting?â
âYeah. Shouldnât you say what you think of a movie if youâve seen one?â
âUhm⌠I donât know. It was a weird movie.â
Sangwoo was curious about what Jaeyoung thought about it, so he added, âWhat about you, sunbae?â
Jaeyoung, who was looking ahead while walking, turned his head and looked at him. He responded while making eye contact.
âI thought it was fun.â
âWhich part?â
âI donât know.â
âWhy donât you know?â
âI couldnât watch the movie because I was watching your face.â
Sangwoo was speechless. Also, for some reason, even his feet stopped moving. Jaeyoung kept walking and Sangwoo remained still in the same spot and stared at his back.
Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. While trying to calm his heart, where discomfort and pleasure were pouring out simultaneously, Jaeyoungâs back gradually receded into the distance. Sangwoo found a contradiction in his words, so he began to move again. He quickly walked and managed to stand next to him.
âThat doesnât make sense. I didnât watch the movie. It was fun. One of the two is a lie.â
âBoth are true.â
âIf you didnât watch the movie, then how can you say it was fun?â
âPlease use your imagination, old man.â
As soon as he heard the carefree answer, he came to a realization. Sangwoo had attacked him for no reason at all, but he hadnât been able to gain anything from that. Sangwoo didnât have any choice but to walk behind him with his head down after that.