If You Want Me - Episode 61
<Episode 61>
Baaaaaang…!
With the sound of splashing water and a large ship’s horn, they arrived at the island. As soon as Seo-won reached land, he crouched down.
“Ugh, blegh…”
“Why is a young man so sickly? Want me to pat your back?”
An old woman with a hunched back who had taken the same boat clicked her tongue at the sight of Seo-won retching as if he had been waiting for it the moment he stepped on land.
“Oh, no… It’s okay, ugh…”
“What’s okay. You look like you’re about to keel over.”
Seo-won tried to refuse, saying he was alright, but he couldn’t finish speaking with the surging nausea. As he bent over mid-sentence, the old woman clicked her tongue and patted his back.
Amidst the tapping sound patting his back, a bird’s chirping cries could be heard. Although impossible, it sounded like it was mocking him, saying “You stupid bastard.”
The morning sickness aside, the boat rocked way too much, giving him terrible seasickness. Seo-won had ridden boats with Do-gyeom a few times, so he never considered he might get seasick. But the ones he rode before were like large cruise ships with no shaking. Taking the small boat called a “barrel boat,” he realized what he had ridden until now weren’t boats at all. The shaking was no joke.
He felt like he would collapse and die at any moment, but after getting off the boat and vomiting, he came to his senses a bit. Seo-won roughly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked around with a haggard face.
Even though this island was surrounded by sea on all sides, it was so small and unknown that there were only a few boats at the dock. Looking towards the inland, there were no high-rise buildings, only shabby houses with blue and red roofs scattered about.
“…The place I stayed before was too nice to even be called the countryside.”
Seo-won let out a small hollow laugh and mumbled to himself. Back then, it took quite a while to reach a downtown area at the level of a town, so he thought it was the countryside, but here it didn’t even reach that level.
He had been pushed further and further to the edge, all the way here. He had never even heard of this island before, what was it called again? Anyway, he came to stay here for the few months until the baby was born, but he already felt lost about what to do. It seemed the internet wouldn’t even work well…
He had impulsively decided and left in a day, so that was the extent of his plan. As he was taking in his surroundings with gloomy eyes, the old woman who had been patting his back stepped back and asked curiously.
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes… Thank you.”
“But why did a young bachelor like you come all the way here? Young people rarely come. Are you someone’s grandson?”
“It’s not like that, I’m just going to stay here for a bit…”
“Here? Why are you seeking hardship? There won’t be a single comfort.”
“Well… They say when you’re young, you seek hardship too.”
Seo-won thought for a moment, then awkwardly joked with a small laugh. It was hard to explain the whole story, and from his previous experience, he didn’t want to run his mouth and become the talk of the town.
He said it expecting a disdainful look that said what nonsense that was, but unexpectedly, the old woman’s reaction wasn’t like that.
“Right, these days kids do that thing… A month of living or something, my grandson said he did that in Jeju Island too.”
“Ah…”
“But hey, that’s Jeju Island. You won’t even have a place to stay here, will you? Should I ask around?”
“Oh no, I can do it…”
“Now that I see, you’re not alone either. Why are you going through such a hard time? We need to help each other out.”
Seo-won was about to refuse, saying he had received a lot of help already and she really didn’t need to worry, but he froze at her words that he wasn’t alone.
His belly wasn’t that big yet, so few people noticed he was a pregnant omega. Even Seo Do-gyeom, whom he saw every day, didn’t know.
But realizing a complete stranger had seen through his condition felt strange and surprising. Wasn’t he wearing loose clothes so nothing showed?
As Seo-won looked at the old woman with round eyes like a startled rabbit, she raised the corners of her mouth.
“I can tell just by looking at a kid like you.”
“……”
“It’ll be evening soon, and it’ll be hard to walk around then, so let’s find a place quickly.”
The old woman walked ahead first, chuckling.
Even as he watched the old woman’s back moving farther away, Seo-won couldn’t move a single step as if his feet were glued to the ground.
Saying she had seen someone like me… It could sound like an insult depending on how you heard it, but it wasn’t to Seo-won.
He thought it was okay to just be by Do-gyeom’s side even if he couldn’t win his heart. Then he suddenly got pregnant, and harboring a small hope that Do-gyeom might like him, he confessed only to get thoroughly rejected. On top of that, it seemed Do-gyeom would tell him to get rid of the baby, so he ran away, but…
He couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable relief at the fact that there were others similar to him. He had felt so gloomy as if he had become the unluckiest person in the world, but it felt like he was being told this much was no big deal.
“What are you blankly standing there for? Aren’t you coming?”
As he stood still like a rock, the old woman who had gone far ahead turned back and shouted.
Like he had been playing freeze tag, suddenly the tension left his body at her words. Only then did Seo-won come to his senses and hurriedly followed after the old woman.
“Co-coming…!”
He had no strength in his body, but he felt a little energized.
He never imagined he would receive comfort from a stranger in the place he had fled to. The first step on the island was better than he thought.
* * *
“Hmm… What should we do about this?”
The old woman muttered as if talking to herself.
As the old woman said, there were no tourists coming to the island, so there were no accommodations either. All he needed was a place to lay his body, nothing else, but there weren’t many who readily welcomed outsiders. It was only natural to be reluctant to let a complete stranger stay, no matter how much money he offered.
He had just picked any island, did he choose the wrong one? Did he have to endure that seasickness again and go somewhere else?
Putting aside going to another island, he was scared to ride that hellish boat again. As Seo-won turned pale and made a grave expression, the old woman clicked her tongue and opened her mouth.
“Then will you stay at our house?”
“Excuse me…? At your house…?”
Seo-won, who had been immersed in despair, turned his gaze to the old woman. Then she nodded.
“Just one. There is an empty room. It’s a room that was used as storage so it needs to be cleaned and it’s small but… There’s enough space to lay down.”
“Oh, I’d be grateful just to have a place to stay!”
At the old woman’s explanation, Seo-won’s face quickly brightened and his eyes shone. He really thought he might have to go back! Even a storage room was more than he could ask for.
As Seo-won’s eyes lit up, the old woman looked at him impassively and said “Follow me” as she led the way.
The old woman took Seo-won to a shabby house with a blue roof, opened the small sliding door next to the kitchen, and turned on the light. The light flickered a few times before coming on belatedly.
When the light came on, a room with a yellow linoleum floor could be seen. The room already looked small, but with bedding, a yellowed fan, books, clothes, antiques, etc… All sorts of junk made it look even smaller.
As Seo-won was darting his eyes around, the old woman spoke matter-of-factly.
“It’s quite small, right? It was originally a room used for storage, so move the things in here to the kitchen and yard and use it. You can use the bedding over there. It’s a thin blanket so it won’t be hot.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Rest.”
As if she was done explaining, the old woman went through the kitchen into the room next to it without looking back.
To say rest when he had to move the stuff in the room and clean… But he was grateful just to be given a room, so he moved the things inside without a word.
Fortunately, the things filling the room weren’t heavy, so he could move them quickly.
Seo-won found a mop and vacuum and cleaned every corner of the room. It seemed the room wasn’t completely neglected, so it didn’t take that long to clean.
“Phew… All done.”
Seo-won, who had scrubbed the floor spotless until it shone, straightened his waist with a groan and wiped his forehead. Perhaps because he hadn’t worked recently, a strange sense of satisfaction washed over him after meticulously cleaning.
But the satisfaction was short-lived and fatigue soon hit him. After getting terribly seasick riding the boat and retching, moving busily while pregnant made him a little tired and struggling.
With nothing much to do and feeling exhausted, he didn’t feel like doing anything more. As he lay down on the unfolded blanket, the sliding door opened with a clatter as soon as his back touched it.
“Did you clean up?”
“Oh, yes.”
At the old woman’s appearance, Seo-won got up from his spot as soon as he lay down. Then the old woman looked around the room as if inspecting it and opened her mouth.
“You looked sickly so I wondered if you cleaned well, but it’s clean. It’s small but there won’t be a problem eating and sleeping.”
“It felt quite spacious after cleaning.”
“Good. If you’re done, come out and eat.”
“Eat?”
Suddenly mentioning food?
Seo-won asked back, but the old woman left the room without answering.